The value of a 1963 Fairlane 2dr Hardtop comes out to $10,500 in mint condition. Doesnt seem right considering my 56 Fairlane Town Sedan is worth $18,700 mint, excluding the optional 292 Tbird engine.
But in the end if you did the work yourself you could put less money in the car than if you replaced stuff. For my 56 I estimated total cost of replacing everything I could without refinishing it I would spend $12,000. I figure I could restore the 56 from the ground up all myself for under $10,000. My 63 that I started a thread on (which I currently stopped updating) I currently have $8,000 in it and that is including paint, engine/transmission/rear axle over haul, front and rear suspension,ect. Everything is new on it and should have the interior finished for around $10,000 total on a vehicle valued at $50,000. But that cant be used as an example because its a pain finding parts for the car cause the parts are all for impala's and some of the parts I really need isnt interchangeable between the Impala and the Belair.
Now fords I have always heard cost more to restore but I honestly dont belive that to be true. I belive it dependant on how readily avaliable the parts are. If parts are hard to find then you will end up paying more for parts that are in limited numbers or for parts that arent being reproduced. In example my 63 the dented and dinged side trim will have to be refinished because the Impala trim is the same but the side trim is stamped with a recess and the quarter panel trim has raised letters saying "IMPALA". The Belair just had plain triangular side trim and this 55-72 chevy junkyard said I could get a restoration company to stamp out impala side trim but stop it before recessing it. I already checked no go so my only option is to spend big bucks on having the side trim refinished.
Now you wouldnt run into that problem since this vehicle is coming with lots of parts but further more the Fairlane is one of those popular cars like the mustang and they make all the parts for it, only thing that will hurt the value of this car is the 302 sbf under the hood. Would be worth more even if it had the base line 221 cid V8 engine under the hood. The Challenger 260 V8 would be alittle better far as value wise goes but the ones that will bring in closer to advertised value if not more would be the High Performance Challenger 289 or the Hi Perf C289. Odds are though I bet this Fairlane orignally came with a 221 V8 from the factory otherwise the 302 SBF wouldnt have been swapped in.
As far as people being few on paying top dollar for these cars I would have to disagree. I had a friend in Australia that offered to buy my 56 in its worn non running condition thats been sitting since 1985 for $10,000 as is and even pay for the shipping fees. People here might be crazy over mustangs and camaros and corvettes but thats only due to hype. Hell if was closer and I had the room and money right now I would offer buying the car myself, but not to fix up and resell.
