A build thread in search of a project car. Jacks first daily.

John Welsh said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

I see you were properly "East Bound and Down".

Well, we ain't never not made it yet!

So the 1st thing has been very rewarding.

The dome light was not working. The map lights were not working.

10A fuse, lower left of kick panel block.

IMPOSSIBLE for my big old fat behind to see, but I could feel it!

Pulled it.

Blown!!!

Replaced it, no snap sound just glorious light.

Further inspection revealed that in addition to fixing the map and dome lights, it also turned on the security light, turned off the airbag light, turned on the clock, made the key chime work, and restored function to the power antenna, AND the power locks.

Damn.

Best fuse ever!

Then it happened. Jack came outside and chewed my butt. Seriously. 

This is his car and any work we do on it we do it together. HE WANTS TO LEARN. He was legit mad... took his key back from me.

Im grounded.

:(

a_florida_man said:

We are home!

 

I'm pretty sure I would have pushed that car home from the north pole for that picture.

tb we had a blast.

I had no idea how sincerely significant and outstanding this trip would be. Thanks for making it happen, my friend.

Words like "awesome" are frequently overused. In this case, it's spot on. 

I vote to keep this the build/maintenance thread!  what a deal on the car, and first right of refusal now makes all the sense in the world.  Props to you TB for likely sparking a teen's interest in performance autos... 

golfduke said:

I vote to keep this the build/maintenance thread!  what a deal on the car, and first right of refusal now makes all the sense in the world.  Props to you TB for likely sparking a teen's interest in performance autos... 

 

Im going to give tb a little more in the props dept... I've been striking the interest for years... had a small smoldering flicker going... and then tb dumped gas on the fire and it is raging out of control.

Seriously though... I've learned that Jack has quietly developed tastes and opinions all along, and having this car as a project is prompting him to share them. And that IS awesome. 

Thanks, guys! Throwing fuel on the fire is kinda what I have been known to do so can't deny some of that... 

Honestly, though, I didn't really do much at all. Everyone involved made it work in the end, we are just glad that he likes HIS old car.

I have found a lot of surprises in the past when digging into a project car.
 

Last night we were digging around and found old wires and pieces of old cellular phone installations, alarms, stereos etc...

This is the first time I've ever found a full underbody neon light system. It's coated with grime... probably hasn't been turned on in this millennium. 
 

Oh please revive the old school street glow! 

In reply to a_florida_man :

I forgot about that stuff! I really wanted to put a modern led setup on it but never got around to it...

FYI, not grime. Rust preventing wax oil all over the bottom. Def going to need to wash her clean, not required in the south

Ok.

Wax Oil. That's new to me. :)

What exactly is it?

What is the best way to remove it?

We are presently planning on doing a clutch hydraulic repair, and then going down to the touchless car wash for a good underbody wash before doing a detail cleaning of the bottom and all of the fluid changes and general inspections.

tb you will be happy to know we just placed our 1st Z1 order... one of many to come I am sure.

a_florida_man said:

Ok.

Wax Oil. That's new to me. :)

What exactly is it?

What is the best way to remove it?

We are presently planning on doing a clutch hydraulic repair, and then going down to the touchless car wash for a good underbody wash before doing a detail cleaning of the bottom and all of the fluid changes and general inspections.

tb you will be happy to know we just placed our 1st Z1 order... one of many to come I am sure.

It's very popular in new england because of the salt... A pressure washer and goo gone typically will take care of most/all of it.  Enough to work on things with less, um, mess at least... 

In reply to a_florida_man :

Yeah, it is an old school northern way to keep the metal protected and works really well for as simple as it is. Degreaser and rinse well; you don't need it and don't want it.

I hope the upkeep goes well!

Parts are on deck for the first repair.

It might be overkill but the new owner is anxious to get behind the wheel.

OEM clutch master and slave with an aftermarket replacement hose that replaces several tees lines and bleeders.

Tonight we broke the seal, and started wrenching.

We got the car up on 4 jack stands and started off with a good inspection from front to rear.

Very. Little. Rust.

Ive seen much much worse in Florida... the difference is with the northern road salt deal EVERYTHING has a slight patina. Not damaged, but also not at all shiny.

We are very happy with the 1st overall inspection.

Removing the clutch and slave cylinders told the story of our near misadventure.

The car came with a stack of service history, and the invoices showed a new clutch master on 10/27/2011 at 91,257 miles (about 16k miles ago), I also know Tim had the clutch replaced while he had it, and I think they may have replaced the slave cylinder... I don't know.

I pulled the slave cylinder and took a peek inside the bell housing.

Yep rear main seal... probably.

I'll check the transmission to be sure its not gear oil, but that's a long shot.

Its oil. 

Slave cylinder looked nice, no leak evidence, but man it took ZERO effort to move the piston. It's PROBABLY not the source of the air intrusion.

Next I pulled the clutch master... yep.

If fluid can get out, air can get in.

This is probably why the last mechanic (to be clear NOT tb lol) , mangled the factory tube and pipe 2 bleeder system.

No matter how they worked at it, it probably never truly bled out.

The master cylinder looked like new on the out side, but these things happen with low mileage / well kept cars. Since 2001 this car has averaged 1300 miles a year and has been garaged, and likely only used on sunny days. Those 16k miles on the clutch master cylinder had happened over 13 years. Contaminated brake fluid can do a lot to alluminum in 16 years.

We will finish the install tomorrow.

Next we will run it through the local car wash several times to see how clean we can get the bottom.

I do know it needs rack seals and bellows.

There is an oil leak in front of the engine, no Im assuming that's an oil cooler hose or seal.

There is PS fluid on the pump shaft seal...

We will start with a good cleaning, and take it from there.

I have suggested to Jack that this may lead to the 34 year service.

He thought that was a real thing, lol,,, I explained that it was my way of saying that it might just be time to pull the engine and transmission and do a full preventative overhaul.

But first we will clean it.

And let him drive it.

:)

Putting this here just because it is cool.

a_florida_man said:

So here is the biggest announcement.

Now that it is official. 
Unsolicited by us, Tim offered us an amazing deal to be good stewards of his car.

We have acquired this at a Challenge eligible  price.

With a hatchback full of recouop.

Tim had been trying to sell it since July on the forum and at the same time that I started this thread he had logged on intending to post in the 300zx for sale thread that he would take the best offer that included having the Car removed  from his garage by late September.

When he read our car for Jack thread he was inspired to see the car be Jack's first car, and he was also encouraged that we would give it a good home as well.

According to Tim that was more important than the money. So he emailed us and asked if $2000 would work!

I was floored. Did he miss a key? Who was 'tb'?
 

At the time I even thought it might be a scam. 

So I called Stafford1500 and asked "who is tb and what is his deal?" Steve said "oh, that's Tim. You probably need to do that."

So here we are.

Thanks Tim!!

I don't mean to be a dick, cause this is awesome, but I don't think you can call this a 2k$ car.

It was listed publicly for WAY higher.  I think your best bet would be FMV to not get protested.

This car is cool as E36 M3 as is the story!

Keep it coming!

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

You are not being a dick. I know it is an unusual circumstance. And the discussion should be had.

I did not know Tim.

I did not solicit a price from Tim.

Tim reached out to me and said that he cared what happened to the car next, and that he thought I could deal with it in a way that would preserve it and that it would be cool to see a kid get one for his first car. 

Initially I thought it was a scam because I didn't know who tb was. I had to have a conversation with Stafford1500 to know if i should even engage tb. Steve cleared that up in a phone call.

It is an exceptional deal, how ever it is not an insider deal.

Previous to reaching out to me, Tim had in weeks previous, dropped the price to 10k In his ad.

When I went to pick the car up Tim told me had had logged on the day that he read my post intending to sell the car to the best offer that could make the car go away by the end of September, My post looked like his easy button.

At first we didn't even think about the challenge,,, we were just happy about the car,

Now we have a car that was purchased for $2k. Period. That deal came from someone that I think has dealt out a few good deals in the past to folks at random, At least that is my impression.

I care about the challenge. I play by the spirit of the rules. I hope to never cause a rule to be developed.

I went onto the forum and asked for suggestions for types of cars and if anyone had a particular car project to sell. Tim answered that request with an amazing deal. We honestly believe that is a bona fide transaction, while amazing it is legitimate in that the offer came to us out of the blue.

When you negotiate a purchase price (which, agian to be clear, we did not), you don't have to ask the seller to go back and advertise the new low price. 

I think that this type of deal could be replicated on copart or on other selling platforms. 

With all of that being said, this is a fantastic community and I truly care about the collective opinion.

EDIT One last thing, I've only been on the forum since 2017. Has there ever been precedence on this subject of a car deal being too good?

I'm also no expert, but Lemons has dealt with this very specific circumstance (Too good to be true deals) pretty frequently.  Previously, they had a buyback clause in the entry paperwork, and would crush the car in question at the end of the event.  Now, they just dole out a million penalty laps... 

I honestly have no idea how GRM would handle this as a challenge participant, but I know that from following along on all of your posts, I'd have zero doubt that you would be okay with whatever outcome and are 10000% not out to game the system, so I think this is a non-issue regardless :) 

Son got an amazing car for an amazing price, Fly N Drive core memories were created, and hopefully a lot of miles are gonna be experienced through the windshield, challenge or not...

In reply to a_florida_man :

The 34 year service eh? That's funny. I've thought about doing the same for my slightly younger car. Not sure I'm there motivation or skill wise, but I can see having everything out being a big advantage. Maybe a little time intensive, but nothing like a shop would be money wise. 

No shenanigans on my part, but I'm kinda known for not actually reading the rules...

I did entertain much higher monetary offers but a variety of diverse factors made this the best deal for me. 

The real story is that ambitious teenager! I was gonna throw a bunch of band aids and neglect at that car...

In reply to golfduke :

Oooh. A buyback clause. I like that.. sort of. I see where it controls the high end, but it would also seem to dampen the labor invested in truly remarkable low budget recycled builds. 

I would like to hear from a lot of people about this, Whether we enter as in or out of budget, it honestly does not matter, especially with respect to valuing this event and the folks involved. 

We will be there, We will have a great time. 

BUT insomuch as I am a rules guy, I would like to know how this situation would be resolved.

I have gotten deals like this before in my world of car stuff. I have bought at 20% of FMV before off of  Facebook marketplace.

How would that be handled? 

EchoTreeSix said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

The 34 year service eh? That's funny. I've thought about doing the same for my slightly younger car. Not sure I'm there motivation or skill wise, but I can see having everything out being a big advantage. Maybe a little time intensive, but nothing like a shop would be money wise. 

Yeah... its a thing. This car is approaching the point of being prohibitively  expensive if you are a credit card mechanic. But as enthusiasts we see immaculate interior, fantastic paint and body, and say nope, lets overhaul this thing before it really has issues, and then enjoy it without small annoyances and worrying when its going to leave you.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

FMV not to get protested sure, but how much value added is getting a 16(?) year old into the Challenge in his own car?

In reply to preach :

Ok, so when you guys say FMV, you mean I should post in the challenge forum and get people to endorse the transaction as being legitimate, correct?

I might do that. Im on the fence on the subject myself, so I would like to see that discussion.

He will be at the challenge either way, in or out of budget. However I do like the idea of concours judging. I want him to have that experience solo....soon.

Lots of thoughts, because you know, "car-guy dad" stuff.