Should I sell or wait ?

[sundancer82]

Hello all! Its been a long time and life has gotten in the way of dreams of restoring my 82 Eagle Sundancer. ( it is the one that has been ROTM twice). After 20 years of rotting in my garage, I've come to the reality that I'm getting old and poor, and dreams of restoring her is dimming. I'm just asking for some input from members........."what would you do""? Sell? or keep holding on to the dream? As you can all imagine, I'm just as attached to my AMC as everyone of you out there are attached to yours!! Thanks for your input!!

[eaglefreek]

You're the only one that can make that decision. You have to figure out what is more important. Your piece of mind or keeping a car in the garage that you may never get a chance to finish. What condition is the car in? What exactly does it need? Any pics? I owned a 84 Mustang SVO for many years. I bought it in 86 and after spending a bunch of money on the engine, the turbo went out and I got frustrated and parked it in 89 or 90. It sat for several years and I decided to just sell it as is. However, in 2003 my fiance at the time, now ex wife, asked me what it would take to get it running? I told her not much and convinced me to do so. She regretted it. I had it running in a weekend, but over the next few years, I spent a lot of money on it. I wound up getting rid of it in '07 and honestly don't miss it. I'm attached to my vehicles, but when it's all said and done, they are just a piece of metal and your family and mental and financial well being is much more important.

[Nightpath]

Here's what you have to do :

Go out to the garage, start it up and move it around. Sit in it for a bit, pull it out into the light and take a look at it. Pop the hood, look at it, then crawl underneath and look at it. Check the interior, then take it for a spin if you can. Get an idea in your head about how much it would cost to fix up nicely, then figure out if you have the time to put into it, and the money.

Park the car, leave it for the night. Have a few drinks, whatever. Through the night you'll think about it, what has to be done will sink in a bit. The brain processes everything at night, things that you didn't notice consciously will pop out.

The next morning go back out and take a look at what is bugging you about the car. Look into it really deeply, see how much you need to do to rectify the problem(s). Think about it for the next day or 2, talk it over with a few friends.

Only then can you make a decision. That's what I do. I look, spend a bit of time to let things sink in, take a second look, let it sink it, then a 3rd. If it looks no better or my view hasn't changed then something else has to change.

Be realistic about your decision. If you don't make a lot of money and see the car being a huge investment you might be better off selling it and looking around for another in good condition. They do pop up randomly from people who only see it as old crap, its how I got my 1st one that was close to mint.

[captspillane]

The most efficient way of restoring an Eagle is to take it all apart once, seal and paint the underside, then put it back together cleaning up the parts and replacing all the gaskets and age related parts along the way. Doing it little bit at a time is overwhelming and expensive.

If you would like to keep the car and are just too overwhelmed by taking such a big project on I suggest sending it my way or to someone like me. There are a couple of us out there that have done our Eagles and have the equipment and garage space to do others. If your car has been in the garage most of its life it probably needs less time and money than you would expect. I typically charge about a third what a full time shop would charge.

I hope you decide to keep and enjoy it. It doesn't take much to get most of them solid for driving often to shows and get-togethers. It is a great community of enthusiasts and just getting the chance to take it to be appreciated should make it worth owning for a long time.

If you do decide to sell I know of a very good owner who has been looking for a Sundancer for some time. The last two they tried to buy and ship home were purchased within hours before their phone call to the seller. Their idea is to get the first one that comes available and to send it my way to get the underside and drivetrain restored slowly over about six months or so.