I drove a baby blue 1975 Nova in high school. It was a 4 door with a 262 V8 2 barrel engine. Oh how I wished it was a 2 door and was any other color. This car would have fit the bill. It is a 1972 two door Chevrolet Nova with a 350 cubic inch V8 with bucket seats. It is located in Orange, California and is listed for sale here on eBay. There are 3 days remaining in the auction and the car is bid to $6,900.
This car is being sold by a former new car dealer who took this car in on trade and put it in storage for the last 34 years. The car is equipped with its original 350 cubic inch V8 engine backed by an automatic transmission. The car has power steering, power brakes, air conditioning and new tires. The car is obviously unrestored and has some rust damage in several places (trunk, roof rail) and also has some body damage.
I am actually surprised this car is bringing so much with 3 days remaining int he auction. The car is running but will need restoration. It is not road worthy and will need to be gone through before it is reliable and safe. The actual miles are unknown but the odometer shows 24,205. The car retains its Code 63 Mohave Gold paint and rides on original Chevrolet Rally wheels. The glass is said to be good and the chrome does not appear to be pitted.
The matching saddle interior is discolored and worn. It appears the bottom seat cushion of the drivers seat has been repaired. The steering wheel looks brand new despite the fading of the other interior parts. From what can be seen of the dash, it looks pretty good. The car is missing its “bow type” headliner and the weatherstripping is missing around the doors. Hopefully, the rust holes can be repaired and this Nova can be made new again!
If it was a #1 car, it could be worth 22 to 25K. This one isn’t even close to that.
If this is in Orange CA now, it didn’t live most of its life there with that amount of rust. That was transplanted there from somewhere much more MOIST!
I was about to say that, I never saw one rust in the roof like that. Usually only surface rust from the hot sun in Cali.
No, that’s not a dry California car!! Looks like it was driven in the ocean and parked.
My first car was a 73 with buckets and the floor shift, mine however was a hatchback. I am surprised at how few HB models are out there. I paid $600 and had to have the front frame straightened, dude before me took it into a curb. Mine was in Oregon and had some rust in the hatchback but nothing like this. Still looking for another one.
E-Bay ad says it’s been in storage for 34 years. GOOD Thing because if it wasn’t it wouldn’t be here, This this is as bad as any. Not a body panel that won’t need work. The roof is even gone. Not a hard call on this one. PASS
Even without the rust, if this thing was actually taken in on trade 34 years ago, they probably only gave them scrap value with all of the body damage. The seller’s intention to restore it back then was so strong that he left it parked it out back next to a sprinkler.
This car was assembled at Willow Run and not Van Nuys. It’s highly unlikely this car was sold new in CA.
The interior is a puzzle to me. It looks as if someone sprayed gray paint on the upholstery. Between the rust and damage from various collisions the body is pretty ragged. The 165 hp L65 was a step up from the base 250 and the 307 but now it’s just another well worn engine. Hagerty pegs top dollar for this car at ~$33k. The only value I see is its factory A/C equipment.
This is a little off point but not many sellers use “please” and “thank you” in the ad, which is reminiscent of the old Tom Carvel radio and TV spots. It’s nice to see good manners instead of angry seller snark.
Boy, she’s a rough one. Wow. As others have said, if this old girl was taken in and stored for 34 years, they gave the seller pennies on the dollar. For being a Cali car, it’s got rust in places you’d only see in cars coming from the rust belt. I mean those roof rails alone, yikes! It’s going to take someone with a lot of skill or deep pockets to bring her back to where she needs to be. I mean there’s not a single panel on her that isn’t dented or sitting off from some other hit. As A.G. said, it’s a plus that this is an AC car, adding the factory looking vents into a non-AC car is a pain because you have to replace the whole dash frame just to get that one along the passenger side. The other two vent locations (center & driver’s) are easy adds even in non-AC cars.