1963 Wagonaire

[1oldtimer]

Ok, this is kind of another what's it worth question. Found a 1963 Wagonaire with some pretty good rust. It's a V8 with a 4bbl, a/t, runs good, drives ok and stops. Has disc brake rear which I believe is from a Chevy ? (not the whole rear just the disc setup, I was told). Interior needs cleaning but no rips, needs headliner, sliding roof works, it has Daytona trim (but is a regular Wagonaire), the vanity is there, everything works but the gas gauge is off, stock clock with quartz movement, the chrome is slightly pitted..... It just has rust issues.

The bad:

[1oldtimer]

The dash is good and the radio/speaker thing is in a homemade box under the dash.

The good:

[StudeRich]

Looks like Ronda's Coca a Cola Red & White Wagonaire, it's a Regal. Does it have the Daytona side mouldings added?
That Car used to get lots a Love and attention and from the looks of it now, LOTS of WASHING!

I knew Her, when I lived in Calif. she goes by "Red to You Babe".
She worked at the Calif. DMV Office, I think in Downey.

< Here is a '63 Daytona

[1oldtimer]

I believe so, it has some Coke a Cola stuff in the back and Daytona trim.

[1oldtimer]

I know it's a tough call, but does anyone have an idea of price.

[sals54]

I wouldn't pay more than a few hundred dollars for it. It's a donor car only at this point. Go find a decent rust free 63 or 64 Wagonaire and transplant all the good parts from this one to that. That car is a hot mess of rust. There are plenty of Wagonaires that turn up here in California Craigslist ads all the time. Some are pricey, but often times a rust free example can be had for reasonable money.
Now.... that being said.... that's only if.... and it's a BIG IF, you even like the interior of the red car enough to do all that work. You might be WAY better off to simply start with something much better than that rusty car, then build one to your liking.
You don't even know what it's going to look like once you get the windows out of it. Every window channel on that car is likely to have major rust through. Also, the drip rail is already rusting through the bondo. Every single rust area seems to have paint over bondo. That in itself should be a gigantic red flag, saying: "Stay away... stay far away! ! !"

[swvalcon]

Can sure tell that's not a real Ca car. Must have been a car someone drove out there from Mn when they moved to CA.

[abkco]

There is easy $500-750 worth of parts on it, maybe more. That 63 dash is hard to come by and it looks really nice. I like saving these old cars, but this looks bad from what we see, and what we can't see make's it is less desirable to restore. Sal is right, you can find something easier to work on here in Ca, that will be a lot less expensive to put back together. There is a 64 up in Portland Craigslist that looked pretty nice.

https://portland.craigslist.org/grg/cto/d/stevenson-very-rare-1964-studebaker/6866410103.html

[edpjr]

What a shame. Reminds me of 1973. I bought a very banged up, but not rusty, '63 Wagonaire sliding roof wagon from a buddy for $200. He had sunk money into it by swapping out the OHV 6 cyl for an old 232 CID V8. I should've passed on it. But I knew there was one just like in a local junkyard with good fenders, bumpers and the parts needed to fix it up. It was minus the tranny with no title, so I got it for $60. An old retired body shop guy replaced the fenders, bumpers and repainted it for $100 plus a new tractor tire. It was white, and I had the blue and white vinyl interior and carpet replaced. Man, it looked nice. But after I was in for about $500 the old motor starting smoking and then the 3-spd manual trans went out on me. It sat for about 10 years, stored both inside and outside over time. Then a guy offered me $350 cash and I sold it. He installed a small block Chevy 4-V with 4-spd and duals, jacked it up, drove it awhile and then sold it off to another fellow. I understand he made some bucks on the Chevybaker. That was in the early 1980s. I have no clue what happened to the car after that last transaction. Anyway, unless I was particularly wanting a sliding roof station wagon now-a-days, I'd pass on it. Or, I wouldn't put more than a few hundred bucks into it. The car looked cool, but just wasn't that much fun to drive. And I never toted a refrigerator in it.

[Bullet]

I would go for the one in Portland a whole lot less work and you get. Lot more car. On the other hand if you just to drive the tires off of it and not fix it up, that could be done also, just realize pieces will start falling off sooner than later.

Mark

[wittsend]

Even that Portland car has a lot of rust. Look where the floor mats meet the door frame at either end of the floor trim. The steering column shows significant rust as does the speedometer trim. You can see a rust drip line from the dash on the rubber floor mat. Similar in sections under the edges of the front seat. This car likely got a significant amount of water in side and I'd venture to guess that under the rubber floor mat is a lot of rust. Externally the doors and tailgate are showing rust at the bottom too. I'd think there is a lot better for less (than $5,900) out there.

[studeclunker]

they call it a bondo-beauty in classic cars and Lipstick-On-a-Pig in Vintage trailers. I suppose this was someone's Bondo Beauty in the eighties or nineties and is now Lipstick-On-A-Pig since the shoddy cover-up work is exposed as the rust has worked past the bondo. I agree, no more than seven hundred dollars, then find a non-runner that is more intact with little or no rust. Make two out of one and call it good.