Questions regarding '82 Lebaron

[88 aries]

its been sitting for about two months now covered up, but on the last show it was about 32 degrees out (late september) it only does it for exactly (I timed it) a 1:40 before the smoke clears up. never used a drop of oil, nor does it smell like oil, more like a rich exhaust. I went and started it the other day, no problems at all

[82Lebaronconv]

Welcome to the club. Nice to hear from a fellow '82 Lebaron convertible owner. Mine, however, is a base model, with vinyl seats, crank windows and the 2.2 liter engine.

Unfortunately, it almost always costs more to fix up a car than it is worth. I paid $1,900 for my car, then immediately had to put over $1.500 into if for brakes, struts and front end work. The rear bumper had been pushed in on one side when the former owner backed into a pole and I decided to get that fixed. Between parts and labor, that cost over $800. It would have been more, but I found a local body man who takes side jobs out of his garage in his spare time. A professional body shop would have charged at least twice as much for that repair. I spent more money replacing the scuffed up wheel covers with NOS ones and upgraded a few other trim pieces. Exhaust work and a major tune-up cost a couple hundred more. So all together, I probably have close to $5,000 in the car and it's worth maybe half that. But I like and enjoy the car and that is the most important thing. It sounds like you have a really nice car and it is definitely worth doing some upgrades. Just don't go too crazy because the values on these cars just aren't that high. A decent convertible will probably bring no more than $3,000-$3,500, unless it is something really exceptional, like a T&C or a Dodge 600 ES Turbo with extremely low mileage. Then, you might be talking around $5,000, based on what I have seen for sale. The best T&C I think I ever saw, and this was a mint '85 equipped with the turbo, and less than 50,000 miles ended up getting marked down to $4,900 after it was for sale for months at $6,000+ with no takers. This was just a few months ago on Autotrader.com. I reallly wished I could have bought that one, but it was in South Dakota (I live in Connecticut) and the shipping alone would have been a dealbreaker.

So fix what needs to be fixed, get involved with the club, start going to shows and drive it and enjoy it. This is the real value of an antique car - getting out and meeting fellow enthusiasts and making new friendships. You can't put a price on that.