Going to the junkyard and getting more parts is easier than dealing with the huge pile you already have, right? Or have i hit hoarder status?
Going to the junkyard and getting more parts is easier than dealing with the huge pile you already have, right? Or have i hit hoarder status?
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
You haven't hit true hoarder status until your parts car is better than the project car ... oh wait.
In reply to Stampie :
Crap.
it's not hoarder status until someone comes around and tells you "you have a problem"
This weekend got a little nuts.
First: the ACR was $1000
the rest of the parts haul was $500
that brings the total trade value to $2500 for the package of ACR, RT, parts. The BMW I didn't even get a call on was listed at $2500. so, going from a Miata to a BMW to two broken neons and a bunch of parts lost me $1000 at the end of today. But, such is life and cars and money. I think im good with this.
My two best friends and I left yesterday morning at 7:30. we borrowed my dads truck, Dallas trailer with a winch, and a thermos for our coffee and were on the road. Headed to goldsboro for the ACR and the rest of the parts.
On the way down, it rained, and was cold. But truck ran good, trailer pulled good, and we found good roadside chicken biscuits. We kept seeing signs for the pork center. But had a timetable to keep. We had to get the ACR loaded, and get all the parts from Nate's buddy before he had to go to work. And it was Nate's weekend with his daughter.
So, at noon, we pulled in to where the ACR was stored. Definitely rougher than I was led to believe. I was kind of heartbroken to be honest. Trunk full of water, interior disassembled, trim missing, and paint is GARBAGE. Engine full of water, trans out, 1 flat tire, all bald, horribly done decals everywhere, missing parts, trans out.....
the list goes on. But, this is the one that got away, and at the end of all this, I want to OWN a restored ACR. After the initial inspection, and calming down, I saw that it being this far gone is actually a benefit. There's now no temptation to rush it. I was plotting how to rebuild an engine stuff it in, get it running and driving, and restoring it from there. That is not a viable option now. But a full bare shell rebuild now is. Like I did with my duster, but on a FAR lower budget.
So, damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!
Nate swapped the flat for one of the spare wheels and tires while Dallas Dustin and I started loading the piles of parts in the car. Then Nate showed us the rest. At that location.
We grabbed 3 transmissions, 2 radiators, a full other set of konis, a spare set of ACR sedan springs, clutches, mounts, brackets, euro mirrors and tails, turbo parts and intercooler, ecms, fuel pressure regulator, catch can, k&n air filters, solid bobbles, fender, spoiler, full stainless borla, numbers matching ACR engine and trans, long tube, under-drive pulley, adjustable cam gears, valve covers, intake manifolds, the list goes on. We had to pull the drivers seat in the acr to make more room for parts, and fill the trunk, and.....
we THEN went to his buddies house, who gave me a full set of 17s, depo turn signals, a built 2.4 with pt cruiser lash adjusters, 2.7 rockers, ARP head studs, SRT4 oiling system, more cam gears, injectors, intakes, ANOTHER trans, more valve covers, aluminum 3 core radiator, and on and on.....
really neat guys. This is in the driveway at the second stop. The BMW is pictured parked in front of BART (dad named it. Big Ass Red Truck.)
20190119_141402 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190119_141607 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190119_141612 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190119_141619 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190119_141629 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190119_141635 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
in the process of loading, we killed some HUGE black widows. I HATE spiders, and ran screaming like a little girl. Dallas squished them with a boot, Nate used brake cleaner. Dustin was running with me, and Nate's buddy was laughing his ass off at us. I hate spiders.
We headed down the road to a place called Pts, which Nate said had good burgers. He left us in the parking lot to get back to his daughter, and Dustin, Dallas and I ate. It was pretty good.
We loaded up in the truck after buying girl scout cookies and diet mountain dew, and headed up the road.
Kept seeing signs for the pork center, so we HAD to go. It was a moral imperative after that many billboards.
Unfortunately it was closed. Damn Commies.
20190119_155703 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
so, we got to my house at about 7:30, and pulled everything out of the bed. My wife helped us push the ACR off the trailer and under the carport, and we headed back to Dallas' place to drop the guys and the trailer. I dropped off dads truck, picked up mine, and came home. 11:00PM. Long day.
This morning, I assessed the situation and just what I've gotten myself into. Its gonna be a long haul. Apparently he blew it up in 2015, and its been parked and used for parts since then.
20190120_075258 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075313 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075320 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075331 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075400 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075406 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075526 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075730 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
it looks a lot like work to sort this all out, and get some semblance of organization going.
So I went to the junkyard instead for a crank bolt. The only two I have are in the blown up engines in the cars. 5 engines, 2 bolts. I now have 3!
and the correct ACR door panels, roof rail trim, some extra weatherstripping, the PT cruiser power steering brackets and water neck, and yet another K&N air filter
20190120_110738 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_115221 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
unfortunately, when I came home, the parts hadn't moved or sorted themselves. So I had to do SOMETHING about it.
Step one was picking up the parts that one of us had sat on top of the trashcan when we were unloading last night. Seemed like a good start. Unorthodox racing cam gears. I made one of the plastic tubs for ACR specific parts, one for R/T, and another for engine parts. Set up a temporary workbench, and started to get organized.
20190120_075739 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
the biggest plastic tub from nates buddy was next. It contained 2 chrime DOHC fuel rails, a 2.4 stratus intake, 2 more valve covers, another head without cam caps, 4 new injectors of unknown size, a downpipe with an open header option, aluminum stratus block bracket, the 2.4 inner timing belt plastic sheild, and other engine mounts/brackets/etc. A pair of calipers, brake rotors, and spindles as well.
20190120_134833 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_141033 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_142638 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
then, the plastic bin that was on the passengers seat in the ACR. It contained an alpine head unit, ACR embroidered headrests (he found them used. Neither of us have EVER seen another set. Its awesome). A slightly ported DOHC intake, a full poly bushing kit, underdrive crank pulley, leather first gen shift knob and boot, and misc other crap
20190120_075558 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075609 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_135628 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_135406 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_144140 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I went ahead and organized my cold storage to fit all this E36 M3 in some manner that makes sense. Cold storage is the crawlspace to my house, which is accessed via ladder and the door in the corner of the upper wall in some pictures. Its home to amazing amounts of useless crap, solutions to problems I've never had, parts for projects I never did, or completed and passed on years ago, dirt, funk, and my air compressor. And my sets of race slicks. And fabrication steel. And....
when I die, my wife is going to padlock that door and sell it all with the house. Easiest way to deal with it all. I pulled out an entire curbside trashcan and a half of crap today that wound up in the scrap metal and trash bins. I also threw all the used and unknown modular clutch assemblies in the scrap metal bin while I was at it.
Anyway, I put all the radiators together with my extra fans and AC condensers. 3 extra radiators...
all pictures that are in here are stuff that came with this deal. Not things I added to make it seem like im cool. It was all legitimate trade for the e39.
20190120_134429 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
then, found all the turbo parts and put them in a large bucket next to my other turbo parts. I've never had a turbo car, and never built one. But it seems like I may have enough parts to do so now....
(somewhere around here I already had a new tdo4e turbo, and APEXI SAFC, and a Hobbs switch activated meth injection setup.)
20190120_153957 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_144612 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_144617 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
moved all the exhaust stuff up next. Dynomax midpipe that I gave Nate when I sold him the ACR, the longtube (claimed TTI, but don't know. Anyone?), the borla exhaust that bolts to the header and goes to the bumper, the downpipe. I think that's it.
20190120_154049 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_154036 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_154027 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_140843 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190120_075730 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
started to run out of steam about here. So I mostly quit. After finding 2 more sets of stock turn signals, and the Depot clear ones.
20190120_152533 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
and a pair of solid bobbles
20190120_153407 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
and two more intakes in the trunk.
Gonna have to start a parts for sale thread. There's NO reason to keep all this crap.
Until next time, friends.
You set up a nice eBay sell for all the extras and I bet you end up with a free ACR. Is it wrong that I want to see it with massive amounts of boost?
The 2.4 rt may be boosted....
I am with Stampie on this.. eBay that stuff you don't need now, while you are still motivated to.
Dusterbd13-michael said:The 2.4 rt may be boosted....
I approve of this message.
Dusterbd13-michael said:
1. Make it run.
2. Make it reliable.
3. Make it fast.
And holy cow does Dallas look like he's having fun watching someone else spend money. 
LMK if there's extra turbo stuff that's not Neon specific. Intercooler, couplers, intercooler pipe etc
In reply to Justjim75 :
Ill keep you in mind, but doubtful. Im officially a hoarder now, according to stampie.
Seth: dallas had a blast. Hes in a good place these days .
Being a hoarder and owning a Neon goes hand and hand..... I got a 20x8 shed stuffed full of parts.....
Unsurprisingly, the engine from outside that was full of water is locked up TIGHT. but the head and cams appear good enough to pull, clean, and reuse on the 2.4!
I went ahead and dumped a little atf down the plugholes on the number matching acr engine and 2.4
Both turn freely by hand on the flywheel.
So, chances are good! Heres to hoping i have 2 salvageable engines out of 5.....
Finished stripping extra parts of the seuzed engine before work.
Threw all the lash adjusters and followers i had loose in a castrol superclean bath
Bolted an intake and header to the seized engine over lunch, and hit it with degreaser and a hose.
Hoping to take two engines, and various parts down to dads this weekend. Get ready to get ready to build out the 2.4 and have a daily driven parts car.
The longtube will put the collector near the shifter! Its stupid long.
Opened the Tupperware container of solvent, followers, and adjusters. They loom squeaky clean.
Need to finish the cleaning with compressed air and place them in another Tupperware container of oil. Hoping to get started on the engines next week. Forgot that i have a school greenhouse to build saturday, and my daughter's birthday party sunday.
She wants me to paint the r/t panther pink....
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I mean.... I drive a purple neon..... I parted out a Neon that was bubble gum pink.
Ill be honest, the panther pink idea is kind of appealing. Same with plum crazy purple. My lapis blue acr is an awesome color, and i really like strange colors. Only ever had a single white car, so for me, white is an odd color to see in my driveway....
Dusterbd13-michael said:She wants me to paint the r/t panther pink....
She wouldn't be the first one.
The seized engine and 2.4 are loaded into the truck to take to dads tomorrow. Time to get started on building my first engine. Its only a ring and bearing rebuild, but ive gotta start somewhere! Never had anything further apart than a short block.
Should the parts car get its own quick and dirty build thread, or should i take inspiration from professor brap and lump all the neons into one thread?
Your books should be arriving today per the tracking.
In reply to Professor_Brap :
Thanks again. Saves me a bit of money, and more importantly frustration .
The internet neon land is a strange place ....
Leave all the Neons here. They're all interconnected.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Will do. Kinda what i thought.
Im building a parts car to drive while i restore what is essentially a parts car before parting out the parts car.....
Yup. Interconnected at the molecular level .....
You'll need to log in to post.
