Offered at no reserve in a three-day auction with current bidding at only $670, this 1972 Monte Carlo may be a bargain for some Barn Finds reader! It’s located in Temple City, California and is listed for sale here on eBay.
The clean lines of the original Monte Carlo design were given more dramatic flair in later models, but I prefer this early, more subdued model. The seller calls it a one owner car, but in reality the current flipper purchased it from the original owner. According to them, the car has been in sunny Southern California it’s entire life.
There’s certainly a lot of paint damage, and what looks like light surface corrosion in spots. I don’t find this particular weathering attractive with the discolored paint so patchy, so I would be repainting this one if it were mine, but some of you undoubtedly feel differently. I know I’d ditch the aftermarket Del-Met cheesy fake wire wheel covers before I drove it too far! Three of the originals come with it, but this happens to be one car I prefer with the factory Chevy rally wheels like these.
The interior looks pretty tired, and has a lot of staining, although the dash and door panels don’t look too bad. Seat upholstery and carpets seem readily available.
Again, as with a couple of other “low mileage” finds we’ve featured recently, I am trying to figure out how the seat got this much wear in the supposed 36,223 miles? Even if it’s possible to clean the seats, there’s enough damage here you are going to want to replace the cover anyway. And considering both the interior and exterior appearance, how well were the mechanical components of this car maintained? There are a lot of red flags here for me, at least if I were wanting to put it on the road quickly.
The seller does not mention running condition, so I would assume it’s a non-runner. And if this is the original 350 engine and automatic transmission drive train, why was the car taken off the road? It’s certainly apparent it was driven for a while without air conditioning, another hint that maintenance may have been deferred. That being said, the body does look relatively solid, and as long as you go into a project like this with your eyes open, it might work out just fine! Especially if that price doesn’t rise a lo!
Looks like those 36k miles were mighty rough ones.
Sure its 36k, just the last 36k out of the 200k on the car.
That’s not 36k – but the price isn’t demented either – people just don’t know or want to
Looks like it got washed inside & out with battery acid….
I owned several Montes back in the 1970s/1980s and 1972 was always my favorite because of the grill and rear light panel.
a coat of primer (black or gray) a set of 8 inch ralleys with some raised white letters, a cowboy blanket seat cover, drive it until you find out if it’s any good or until you decide what or witch way you want to restore it, have fun on a budget
Owned one of these too, again 136K, car shows wear that I don’t believe 36K could produce outside of massive neglect which I don’t think this car had. I think it was used for 45 years and 136K miles. Not sure where in CA this car was but that is a lot of surface rust especially under the hood. Maybe it was by the coast to explain it in the salt air but I have purchased a number of cars out of sunny CA and shipped them to Chicago and they never had rust like this, AND they were by in large, original cars that were used that I then restored. Look at the shift and signal levers on the column, lots of moisture. Not sure what is going on with the roof? is that painted or new vinyl??
With that said, looks like a nice car to restore if you can buy it for less than 5K max. Solid body is worth that.
?36.000 236.000
OK Either Way…