What price should I expect?

[Johnny C]

I'm about to sell my '87 Carrera 3.2. It's black, got 195K on the clock.

Had a £5K rebuild at about 130K due to early London life, Club sport pistons/barrels fitted. Has never needed much doing mechanically apart from that as I've had it since 72K and done 95%+ motorway miles, no track days; always used Mobil 1 15/50 RS. It's had new door locks, clutch, regular oil pipe changes, new heater intake cups. Inside is mostly fine, small worn patch on drivers seat, tatty edging on roof material where it meets the sunroof.

Body work is currently a bit tatty but that will be sorted; no dents, but bonnet has a few rust patches (stone chips that weren't caught in time) but am getting it replaced. Front bumper looks like it's been in beirut, stones have taken most of the front-facing paint off, may get that sandblasted and repainted. Couple of minor bubbles on other paintwork, nothing bigger than 1 inch, not sure if the bodywork people will get them out but hopefully.

It has an RAC trackstar which I will leave in, not worth the cost of getting it changed over, will just get a new one on the new car.

HPI is clear, had a minor ding 3 years ago and needed a new rear wing & bumper, bill was about £3.5K

What sort of price should I ask for it?

 

[Guest]

What are Clubsport pistons and barrels? So far as I was aware they had the same as all other 3.2s.

Re your question, I think a few photos would help. Your car sounds mechanically sound but may present as a car with a hard life depending on what you get fixed. Even with the rebuild I think buyers may mark it down for high miles. Also, if you can see some rust there is usually a lot more that you cannot see - that would be my concern and it would/may be sufficient for me to walk away without even putting a price on it (if I was in the market). Any visible rust will/may cost you £000s if not make the potential buyer walk away entirely.

Just my $0.02.

 

[Johnny C]

Thanks

I believe CS have balanced pistons - they are standard but the weights are in a much finer tolerance than standard and weights matched between pairs of pistons


There's a recent photo at http://www.pbase.com/johnny_c/image/33353966 - you can see the rust which is all round the badge, also the line of aluminium on the bumper where the paint has chipped off. The minimum I will do is new bonnet and leadlamp rings, to make it 'concourse' the whole front end would need doing but I don't whether it's worth spending £3K or so on it (I was quoted 2½K for a total front end but no doubt that is conservative), there's the tiny odd stone chip (which hasn't taken the primer off).

It has the G50 gearbox, though I don't know how much odds that makes these days.
Other photos at http://www.pbase.com/johnny_c/car, taken a couple of years earlier

 

[oliver]

Club Sport engines were built to slightly tighter tolerances (blueprinting). Perhaps the barrels and pistons came from a Club Sport engine.

As Richard says, photos would help. Whilst there is a strong market for really nice, low(ish) mileage G50 3.2s, if it is mechanically sound, but cosmetically iffy, at the right price it would appeal to someone. It could be used and enjoyed everyday until it finally expires - then sold for parts.

 

[Johnny C]

The pistons/barrels came from a CS, the guy bought it and was having it bored out. I checked the barrels and pistons and they were fine, not a mark on them.

It is mechanically sound, I haven't scrimped on that side. I do 80 motorway miles a day, and rely on it as my everyday car. Only 2 breakdowns were a failed alternater and a failed starter motor 3-4 years ago. Never bothered too much about the front end paintwork though, I figured on getting it sorted when I came to sell. However the last winter wasn't kind to it, I suppose motorway salt must have got into a few chips.

Whoever gets it will get a sound car, I have no doubt of that. I'll be sorry to see it go - had some good damn times in it and it has a lot of memories for me. My only reason for selling is that I do need a car I can rely on, I do about 25K/year and I don't know how many more years it will be totally reliable with that sort of mileage.

 

[Guest]

Well, not trying to be negative, but second hand pistons/barrels from a CS would to me be worth much less than new regular Ps&Cs. The fact there are no marks on them is something (you should still be able to see the cross-hatching on the barrels actually otherwise they should not be reused without Nikasil replating) but how they measure up is the key - I assume you measured for ovality etc?

I also wonder whether using CS Ps&Cs without blueprinting the rest of the engine is really of any tangible benefit?

Again, playing devil's advocate, I would want all the details of the rebuild as soon as I heard it had second hand Ps&Cs in it. It makes me think that if money was saved there, where else might it have been saved? Who did the rebuild?

That said, the car looks tidy in your pictures and a dark coloured G50 with a rebuilt engine may be someone's ideal match. I still find it hard to come up with a price but then I am no market expert.

 

[Johnny C]

I didn't measure them (I'm not that technical) but Ninemeister did the work, they would be able to answer any questions. They checked everything in the engine over when they did it. Nikasil was fine on the barrels. I have all the bills.

It transformed the car, not surprising, the old rings weren't really rings any more and the nikasil was worn off the top of the old barrels. I have one of the old pistons (bead-cleaned) on my desk as a paperweight.