Thinking about buying a 77 Monza and 78 Skyhawk

Hello everyone, I'm new here, and I was wondering if you could provide estimates on how much I should pay for this 77 Monza Spyder and 78 Skyhawk that I'm interested in buying. Right now, I am trying to get into contact with the owner. These cars have sat in our storage lot for as long as I can remember, and I feel like it would only be proper justice to restore them.  I highly doubt either of them run, they are very dirty, and have a fair amount of rust on them. The paint is very messed up on the Monza. The interior of both cars are in a fair condition, with spare parts in the back of both. The Skyhawk of course is a 231 V6, and a sunroof, the Monza has the Spyder package and a 305 V8. Your thoughts and estimates would be greatly appreciated. My hopeful thoughts are $300-$500 for both, but I don't have much experience with this yet.

Thanks,

Eric Johnson

P.S. If you were wondering, my username is the Xbox name I've had since I was a kid, it's just sort of stuck with me through life so far.

Scrap value plus $100 each?

I paid $900 canadian for a 1975 Astre in "restorable shape". Im mentioning this because both Astre/Vega's share much with the Monza's and Skyhawks mechanically underneath. The car I got has a solid floor pans, frame is rust free, body has been beaten up here and there. Had a non-running 2.3L Vega 4 cyl in it still. Only serious rust was located on the front right hand side where the battery tray was located as well as the driver side behind the rear tire. Big thing to check on these H-body's is if the doors close nicely, particularly on the v8 models as its common for the cars to twist. Door may close now but may not close later, also check for rust where the front subframe is spot welded to the body. Another heads up is that to my knowledge so far nobody makes reconditioned V8 monza radiators anymore, therefor they can be kinda expensive to buy a aftermarket aluminum one.

My Spider V8 was a 281 ci.  my StarFire was black w/Gold trim, Really Sharp.

Ok, so after reading through your comments, I'm looking at $650-$1000 for when I contact the owner. Thanks for your inputs!! More are always welcome to help me fine tune my thought process before i buy the cars. Rushcanuck, I think I read a story on here that was yours about the Astre, nice job on it. We've actually got a 72 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that we're working on, got it with minimal rust, almost perfect interior, its a nice ride.

Ok, so I'm still working on getting the money to buy the Monza and Skyhawk, but now I have stumbled upon something nearby. Today, I went and looked at a 74-77 Camaro at a farm. It seems to have a larger amount of rust, all of its tires are flat, and it has really large rear tires, and what seems to be aftermarket mudflaps. The car is clean, it is just loaded with rust. I feel that I could get this for the same price as what I was planning to get the Monza and Skyhawk for, and I absolutely love Camaros. Could I have your opinions on this? Thanks!

Lots of rust? 

Run away. Seriously.

If you love Camaros,  wait patiently until you find a worthy low rust or rust free example.  

I had a ‘77 Monza Spyder.  I got it with lawn mowing money in the fall of ‘85.  The badges said it was a 5.0 liter.  The small Rochester Dual Jet, lowish gears helped by very small diameter tires (hey it was 1985), meant it was devilishly quick in its day.  Too quick for me.  I totaled it chasing an early example of a “crotch rocket” in the spring of ‘86.  Sold off for parts (got $250), I remember seeing the engine hanging from a tree at the new owner’s.  He said it was weird because he’d never seen another small block with six freeze plugs.  Some folks say....

I’ve seen a Monza with a 455 Buick swapped in.  That would be interesting even in smog dog form.

For some reason, I thought this was another 0f Andy's kids and was like "don't you already have a monza and a skyhawks? " took me a second. 

forget the Camaro,  Get one or both H-body Cars Small and Light on the engine .  Check out H-Body.com

Everyone has a camaro. Get the H-body.

Cool, thanks for the input guys. You seem to have the same thoughts I've been having, the camaro is much more well known and it wouldn't be as unique, and the amount of rust on it is just plain ominous. I must say that these are the only H bodies I've really ever seen, so there probably isn't as much of them around anymore. I'm thinking I'm going to stick with my original plan to get both of the H bodies, build one for nice days, build the other for snow and mud.

If the Camaro is rusty, skip it. There are lots of Camaros you can find a solid one it'll cost more, but end up being cheaper...

The H-body is a really cool car. I ha a '78 Monza as my first "old" car.

Rode like a monster truck on 13 inch wheels!

Parts are going to be way easier to find for the Camaro but the monza is going to be way more unique.
You can do a 5 lug conversion using S-10 axles and spindles. If you use a later blazer you also get a dual piston caliper and larger brakes.

If the monza had a long enough wheelbase to qualify for CAM-T I would absolutely have one of those instead of my camaro.

 Dog gone I never considerd the Wheel base for those sort of classes .  Where would a V8 Maverick land ? I ask as I have one in he woods, and read someone around here runs a Comet in SCCA I think they are 99in. 

The Vega/Monza come in at an infuriating 97 inches, just shy of the 100 minimum for CAM-T. They would be classed with the Vipers, Corvettes and Cobras in CAM-S where the unfavourable PAX would ruin your every weekend.

The Mavrick is 103 or 109 inches depending on whether it's a coupe or a more-door. Fine for CAM-T.

Kinda ticks me off because the southwest regional CAM-T somehow managed to tech a 96 inch Mustang II.