So Nutting and I were minding our business, driving home from shooting some photos for an upcoming car review. (Undoubtedly you will hate the car and say mean things to me, but that’s how we roll). During a conversation about farting, boobs, or some other really mature topic we spotted this white whale of a Chevy sitting on the side of the road in a sort of vacant lot. The car had a sun bleached for sale sign in the window so we adhered to BangShift law and stopped to further inspect the situation. Being that the car was in Hull, Massachusetts and not the Mojave desert, that For Sale sign has been living in the window for a long ass time. We’ll lead with the asking price which is $6,995 because when you say $7,000 that scares people away! Clearly a grizzled veteran of the automotive sales wars, this guy has a program.
Nutting and I touched, prodded, and otherwise groped this car in ways that would have shown us any major rust issues and and we couldn’t seem to find any. There was a little spot at the base of the roof. There was a little spot on the front fender, and there’s God knows what lurking under the vinyl roof. The For Sale sign is interesting in the fact that it claims that the car was a COPO (special order) when new and that it has a four bolt main 400 engine in it….but it does have 350 fender call outs, so your guess is as good as ours there. We did not lift the hood because, well, it wasn’t ours and we felt like the guy probably had a scope trained on us. Ever have that feeling?
Anyway, the car has a 2.56 rear gear, a TH350 transmission, an interior that is “fair” meaning that it looks like George “The Animal” Steele had gotten hungry and chomped out a few good bites of driver’s side of the front bench. It was too dark to tell how solid the frame was but if the body was any indication it would have been scaly but not terminally rusted to death.
We certainly don’t run into Caprices at the same rate we see Impalas of the same era here in New England so there’s that little spot of differentiation on the positive side of this one. Now that we have laid out the situation, we’re leaving it up to you. Check out the photos below and tell us if you’d pay asking price and if not, what you’d throw this guy!
Scroll down to see all of the photos of this heavy Chevy. Would you pay the asking price? What would you offer?
IF it has a 400, and IF it has A/C then maybe I’d give $4K for it. Maybe.
COPO 9564 was the small block 400 with a 2bbl carb. It was a $68.50 option that was offerred in June 1969.and only in the Caprice. The 400/2V would make it’s real debut in the 1970 models
Cool car! My nephew bought a ’70 rust free Impala Custom coupe from Tennessee in January. It has the original lemon wood yellow paint (faded), factory air, white interior, and a original 454, that had been rebuilt. He paid $6000 delivered to W.Va. from Tennessee. He replaced the radiator, carb & intake, and 2 tires. That price on that car may be border line of the car’s worth.
Not on your life.
$7,000 is actually not too far off from a realistic price if the interior was in good order. The car would be much easier to move if it was priced around $5-6k.
That being said, I love Caprices and it would look fantastic sitting in the garage next to my 1966 Caprice.
First off, I love full size Chevrolets, especially the 65-70’s. Second, I have overpaid for every car I’ve ever owned, including one I got for free, and one I bought with my change jar. In this case, I would not be able to get to the ATM fast enough. The lesson here is if I’m willing to pay the asking price, it’s too much.
LMAO!!
Yes, on buying a 69 Caprice. No, on spending $7K on this rust bucket. Even though they say it is an AL car, any time it spent in the Northeast should cancel out any remaining rust free-ness it had when it left AL.
If it really has a 400, it was a very early one and this would make this one of the last ’69’s built. I am not sure if they even had 400 fender tags for the ’69. Not likely it’s a bbc 402, it would have 396 fender tags. Didn’t start boring them until ’70 anyways.
Not sure about the TH350 and 2.56 gears. TH350 cars got 2.73’s in the full size. TH400’s got the 2.56’s. Of course, you could order different ratios but these were standard.
I see it has one rare option, Lightwatch. Common on Caddies and Buicks, rare on Chevy’s. There would be a black button on the dash between column and radio for this. Only 9900 got them in 1970, out of 900,000 full sizes built.
If it has what it says, yes it’s rare. But, rare doesn’t mean valuable, or desirable. Just because it’s probably one of the first cars to get the sbc 400, doesn’t mean it’s in demand. It’s a low hp, 2 bbl engine and not special.
If it had the hideaway headlights, it would be worth closer to asking price.
Also, notice the Caprice emblems are missing off the C pillars as well as the rocker trim. Top replaced? Repainted? It would say Caprice on the dash if it was one and have wood trim on dash and door panels.
It has 350 badges on it. It’s most like a 350 car that a 400 has been swapped in. If it does have a 400 that is.
I have found those badges are the least accurate description of what originally came under the hood. They broke easily and were often replaced with junkyard ones. That and nearly always found on fenders for sale.
As stated above, this car was a very late production car. All of the COPO 9564 Caprices were built for company use then sold off to dealers a month or so later.
No – they didn’t have 400 engine callout emblems for the fender. Yes, it should have 350 engine callout emblems as it does. Yes, it is supposed to have both the TH350 and the 2.56 gears. They were part of the requirements for the COPO 9564 order.
The purpose of the new 400-2V small block was more torque than the 350-2V without having the weight or gas consumption of the 396 (402).
It should also have a 12 bolt rear end for the 2.56 gears. That was also part of COPO 9564.
All 1969 COPO 9564 Caprices were built at the Lordstown plant. Should have a 06C build date on the Cowl Tag (third week of June 1969)
This car is rare . . . but not valuable. Like a 3 speed manual Corvette. IMO, the asking price is high for the condition of the car. IMO, should be $3,995 or BO.
I would NEVER give asking price, when the price is followed by “OBO”.
…Unless I really really wanted it, and there was someone else offering the guy money already.
Moral of the story, never say never. 😉
For THAT car, no. It’s kinda neat, but I don’t care to own it.
If it really is that solid, I don’t think it’s that bad of a deal. Not sure where some of you are from, but in New England, a solid car is worth a premium. I’ve seen a lot worse go for more money. Nothing is cheap anymore.
If you guys decide to pass, let us know. I might just be interested.