Quick question. Someone asked me about buying their 68RS that has been sitting in a garage for 20 years. Other than obvious things like battery and tires (and the shirt list of things they know were not working) any thing to look out for besides "uh-oh sitting too long should need a complete tear down and rebuild"?

 

It should be considered that anything sitting that long would need to be completely gone through. That might not be the case (depending on storage circumstances), but it should not be a surprise, either. I recently cranked up an engine that had been sitting for about 10 years. Seemed to run as good as ever. YMMV.

 

Are you talking about just the engine or the whole car?
All the rubber parts are probably going to need replacement. So: fan belts, carb. rebuild, fuel pump (diaphragm is probably shot), hoses, Dist. may be rusty and the vac. advance diaphragm, ect.
As for the engine itself, you may be surprised. Pull the plugs and check for water in the cylinders, bore scope them if you can. At the very least squirt a little oil in each cylinder before you try and start it.
For the rest of the car, the main concern are the brakes. The master and wheel cylinder are probably rusted and/ or not working.

Never know, you might get lucky!

 

The first question I would ask myself; Do I have the time and money to invest into a project?? Then look at the project and see if its really worth it..

And to answer your last question, I would say yes....

 

send pics, i will buy it.

 

Last year me and a cousin fired up another cousin's 72 Nova that had been sitting for 17 years outside in a field. It had run out of gas and he never fooled with doing anything with it. Just parked it and left. After we had to bypass the ignition switch (tell me how that went out while sitting) She fired right up. You cant kill a good sbc.

 

My 67' sat for 8 years, fired right up and ran great. We decided to tear the entire engine apart to check the cylinder walls ( heard they may start to rust a little ) and everything looked better than we expected (no rust) ---

 

I would replace (not empty, replace) the gas tank. Bad fuel, rust, dirt, etc. I wouldn't want that getting into the carb if I was trying to run it.