Y'all's 2 cents on buying a 1978 crew cab W200
 

1978 crewcab W200 little to no rust - western and then southeastern truck - a little rough looking - dents, dings, no tailgate, no bumpers - Dana 60, automatic. I have a non IC '89 Cummins from a D250 to drop in.

What would be a good offer according to y'all?

Thanks!

78 Power Wagon will present you with a few more complications and mods than an 80s Ram. I am thinking about the dash and such. 4x4 crews are rare and cool though. What kind of shape is the interior in?I would offer about 15-20% over the local market value of a similar condition reg cab of those years. About $1500

I gave 800 for mine. I parted most of it out and gained money on the deal, then slid my mess into it. But the guy was hurting for money, he was asking 1500 for it. I was the first to call with money and not trades, he said his bottom line was 1000 I told him to call back when his bottom line dropped to 8. I got a call within a half hour and picked it up 4 hours later.
So I would find out what your market is. Down here market stinks becasue of the housing problems, people are hurting for money and you can get stuff cheap with cash.
Good Luck with the buy and even more luck with the swap, its fun to do and see your project come to life. My best feeling during the whole ordeal was cutting the bed for the stack. Wife said I was ear to ear grin.

$1500 is a good offer, but I never offer what it's worth. I'd rather offer
$800 and pay more if I had to. OK,
I'm a cheapskate.

Go with cash in hand and a trailer start low and go up. Tell him your not coming back the time is now. Rust free or very close is worth a buck more I think. You would pay $1000.00 to get one delivered to your door from out west. Some times being cheep gets you nothing but bird talk cheep cheep cheep......
Rust free is always good RESALE RESALE RESALE$$$$
I hope you get the truck.
Only one that needs to be happy is you.

Haggle like there is no tomorrow. I teach economics and the only way to get a true price is a compromise between buyer and seller. I don't understand why people are afraid to offer too low and "insult" the seller, assuming they are rational (at that moment-this has been big debate between me and a science teacher) they will still trade with you when you get to their bottom line.

You know the way these crews are becoming in high demand a fellow might start speculating, if you have the disposable income, and space. I bet you could almost double your money in a couple of years... or maybe not.

the dash should swap over I have seen it done and look's factory

Hay Simplysmn are you going to tell us what your building any picks the gray one was cool

I almost bought one just like your looking at now. It ended up selling for $850. It was rust free and had D60's front and rear. 360 auto if I am not mistaken. If you can get one rust free JUMP ON IT!!! Crews are cool and getting hard to find.

I don't have any pic's yet but as soon as my leg is healed I am building a 81crewcab body,dana 60 front n corp 14 bolt rear 85 longbed crew frame and 93 motor trans for a body lift I am going to raise the frame mount's instead of useing puck's most likly going to run a 37 baja ta 16.5 or if I deside to go crazy it will have 325-85R 16 michellin'shave everything but 4x trans but have that lined up also . pictures will be soon I hope I'm going nut's[duhhh][duhhh][duhhh]

I always go in and say, "So what kind of offer would insult you???" Then I offer him $1 more then that....:D

Yeah the Grey crew was my baby started life as a 2x with small block then went to 4x then 440 then through several tranny's then I got smart and went Diesel also did a body swap then we rolled it and then bought the grey body as a complete running truck brought it home pulled the body and did the swap right in my front yard but tucked the frame away for my next build cause not bad for having it for over 20 yr's [laugh][laugh]

I hate Shortbed truck's there for Sissy's

I want to see how you do this when you do. I had a couple of ideas on how to do it, but just ended up putting a stupid body lift on, I hate the body lift and I'm now planing on intalling a RC or like tank in the rear where the spare should be.
Sorry OP I'm a little off topic here[redface]

No problem I will post em when I get that far the buddy that is helping is 1 heck of a fab guy I will have to post up some of his work all I can say is WOW i also hate the body lift's that's why we are doing it different this time around As for a extra fuel tank I found a sweet set/up where the filler neck mount's on the inside of bed behind wheel and takes the space of spare tire I'll look n see if I can find a pic of the tank .Sorry for being off topic