My new 1968 Nova L79 project.

[tom406]

There's a limit with most insurance underwriters as to how much they're willing to "over insure" if your stated value significantly exceeds what could be argued as "market value". You want to try and make sure you can be made whole again, but the insurance company doesn't want to write a $50K policy to cover restoration costs on someone's $15K car. Sure they can charge higher premiums, but they don't want to make it attractive for you to have a friend "steal" it or set fire to it because you decided you wanted your cash back and there wasn't any way you were going to get it on the open market.

As for the appraisers, you're right that its difficult setting a value when properly restored '68 L79 Novas are so scarce. However, if it were me, I would find some comparable '68 Super Sport 350 and 396 cars, and possibly even reference any '68 L79 Malibus I found and then '69/70 SS 350 and 396 cars. You could argue for using the '66/'67 L79 cars for reference, but their very different body style and unusually high values as of late make them kind of an outlier.

We could go around and around about rarity, and how hard it is to restore a '68 with all of its specific, non reproduced parts, but at the end of the day the underwriters (and if a claim is disputed, the courts) are usually most comfortable with data supported conclusions, even if its somewhat tangential data like I've described above. If I can make a case that other high performance '68 Novas are bringing X dollars, and I find a couple of similar Malibus with the same L79 drivetrain that also brought X dollars, and then a couple of nice "69/'70 Hipo Novas (which most laypeople think look the same) that also bring X, then the underwriter is probably going to feel comfortable signing off on X dollars of coverage. Maybe even X plus 10%.

Good luck!

TOM BRESKE
VIntage Viewpoint LLC
Seattle, WA
Auto Appraisals since '96