Breaking vehicular promises to yourself . . .

specifically, "No more rusty cars, ever!" Not surprisingly, this is a Honda thread. After my experience with the Miata, I had promised never to buy another rust bucket. I've held strong, up to this point . . .

The particular rust bucket in question would be a potential Kazoospec Jr. car in the future. It has Honda cancer, but actually a relatively minor amount. It has a fair amount of dents though. Owner seems a bit of a car hobbyist, seems to know he vehicle, does not appear to be a knuckle-dragger and has priced the car fairly aggressively. As a result, a purchase (even at his asking price) would leave a couple grand in our proposed budget to get the rust cut out, dents pulled and the car back ready for final bodywork/paint. I have a friend who can at least provide technical advice, if not direct help/supervision, so I'd like to tackle the "non-metal" bodywork/paint myself. Theoretically, the end result should leave us a decent car at a price point a grand or two under the "going rate" for a clean example.

Please help, I'm talking myself into this.

Find one in Texas instead and I'll drive it up to you.

mazdeuce wrote: Find one in Texas instead and I'll drive it up to you.

That would be awesome. I've actually given a fly and drive some thought also. I've also got a friend who does stage lighting all over the country who could scout for me and family in N. Carolina, so there are other options. The flip side of that is I'm not sure about handing a new driver a mint car he hasn't worked on.

you have a budget, and a couple grand for cutting rust out and welding in patches does not make up for the pain and suffering of working on a rustbucket. plus you know all the brake and fuel lines are probably not far from popping.

go south. my impala is from north carolina and has zero rust and the factory lines all look new 21 years later. my parts chaser is from texas, same thing.

After the car is home then you get to do a proper once over and then he's worked on it. After going up within an hour of where you are now and then moving to Texas and seeing what 20 year old economy cars look like, I'd fly down here for a $400 beater. Actually, I'd do what I did for my last fly and drive and get a one way car rental for a shade over $100 and convince a buddy to make the drive with me.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Step 1: Buy $400 beater, drive North, sell for $2000 Step 2: Repeat step 1 three more times Step 3: Buy NICE car. From southwest.

I'll volunteer to look at some in concord/Salisbury/Charlotte NC area if you want me to.

Dusterbd13 wrote: I'll volunteer to look at some in concord/Salisbury/Charlotte NC area if you want me to.

That would be awesome. I'm looking primarily for either an EG hatch or a Del Sol, Si/VTEC preferred but not essential. I'd also look at a decent coupe. Must be a manual. Mrs. Kazoo nixed anything earlier for lack of airbags.

BTW - the one that's tempting me is a decent 92 EG hatch (Si) for $1500.

I will not buy rusty cars. I will not buy rusty cars. I will not buy rusty cars. I will not buy rusty cars. I will not buy rusty cars. I will not buy rusty cars. I will not buy rusty cars. I will not buy rusty cars.

You know, the "big picture" lesson here is you southern folk may have a business opportunity here.

I'm hoping at least one of my kids ends up staying in the South. My grand plan is to do afly and drive pretty much every time I visit them after I move back north.
If you see anything on CL in the Houston area I'd be happy to peek at it. I'm seeing a lot of seventh generation coupes (2000-05) for less than $3k. I'm very close to shopping for one myself.

mazdeuce wrote: I'm hoping at least one of my kids ends up staying in the South. My grand plan is to do afly and drive pretty much every time I visit them after I move back north. If you see anything on CL in the Houston area I'd be happy to peek at it. I'm seeing a lot of seventh generation coupes (2000-05) for less than $3k. I'm very close to shopping for one myself.

Why would you move back north? Theres snow there!

Because there's snow there! Seasons and stuff. It's still early in the year for you my newly southern friend.
Brace yourself....summer is coming.

For reference, this is the the "worst side" of the one that's tempting me:

Keep in mind that proper rust buckets don't crash as well as a non rust bucket example.

mazdeuce wrote: I'm seeing a lot of seventh generation coupes (2000-05) for less than $3k. I'm very close to shopping for one myself.

Thats a good price. We paid 13,500 for ours. Of course that was 180,000 miles ago back in dickety-oh three. We had to say "dickety" because the Kaiser had stolen the word "twenty".

kazoospec wrote: For reference, this is the the "worst side" of the one that's tempting me:

Is this thing being sold by a younger kid? I have suspicions.

ive just learned to deal with rust!

Step 3: Buy NICE car. From southwest.

unless it was kept in a hermetically sealed bubble hidden from the sun everything non-metal will be trashed or well on it's way to being trash.

I don't think most people realize just how potent & destructive the sun & heat is down here. and the haboobs don't help either.

I broke my prime car related taboo. Bought a new car at a dealership. Apparently I need a reminder every 15 years of why I don't do that

For reference, I have had two cars trucked into Northern Ohio in the past year and shipping cost via real, professional, insured car carriers has been 50 cents per mile for on and 58 cents for the other.

I find it to be an incredible bargain that for $500 in shipping I can get a rust free example from 1,000 miles away delivered right to my front door.

Ironically, both were cheap cars but fully running.
1990 Infiniti Q45 w/ 68k miles bought for $900.
2000 Ford Focus w/ 69k miles bought for $2300.

The offer from The Deuce is a spectacular opportunity!

Knurled wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: Step 1: Buy $400 beater, drive North, sell for $2000 Step 2: Repeat step 1 three more times Step 3: Buy NICE car. From southwest.

I like this logic.

But I'm having trouble fathoming a beater with no rust on it

paranoid_android74 wrote:

Knurled wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: Step 1: Buy $400 beater, drive North, sell for $2000 Step 2: Repeat step 1 three more times Step 3: Buy NICE car. From southwest.

I like this logic. But I'm having trouble fathoming a beater with no rust on it

I see them at walmart. Sunbleached all to hell, but no rust. It regularly rubberneck the kind of E36 M3 thats still running here.

mazdeuce wrote: Because there's snow there! Seasons and stuff. It's still early in the year for you my newly southern friend. Brace yourself....summer is coming.

After spending a week in Orlando in July....I would say brace hard. Felt like I needed to chew the air before I breathed. It's bad when Austin in July is a relief. That being said, being down here for the past 9 years from VA, I've started to tolerate it and not enjoy the cold as much. Though seasons are missed. Also, I'm with deuce on this one, after seeing the rust for 20 years I would fly and drive in a heartbeat, Texas cars have usually taking a beating from a paint sense but that's what vinyl wraps and plasti dip are for

paranoid_android74 wrote:

Knurled wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: Step 1: Buy $400 beater, drive North, sell for $2000 Step 2: Repeat step 1 three more times Step 3: Buy NICE car. From southwest.

I like this logic. But I'm having trouble fathoming a beater with no rust on it

Shortly after I helped a friend invent some new floors for his GLH, a guy in the PNW told us that he just scrapped a bunch of Omni shells because they had dents and stuff in 'em, he didn't understand why anyone would fix a rusty one.

"Because this is, like, THE Omni GLH around here!"

It was a decent learning opportunity at any rate. Learned to hammerform sheetmetal in place. Worked well, surprisingly. I made a new wheelwell for my RX-7 with this method and three separate sheets of 22-gauge.

Need to do the right side well and the rocker panel boxes next. Finding a new shell would be nicer but there's a lot of shell-specific mods done and I think it'd be simpler to fix some rust than start all over again.

If you guys find the ad, and do the talking with the seller, I'll be boots on the ground. I know my way around cheap E36 M3 boxes pretty well.

For my recent Focus, purchased from FL I really notice a few things that I knew to expect but will share.

My focus has been repainted. I don't notice real body repairs, I just suspect repainted to cure sun burn paint over its 16 years and only 69k miles.

The leather is in great shape but ever black interior piece is grayed from sun fade. I needed a few small trim pieces so I went to my local UPull-it. The '00 Focus I found there had no accident damage but if I read the writings on the body right it had 160k miles. Could be there for engine damage, or trans damage but more likely or a combination of frame/body damage. You see, the whole lower rockers were nonexistent. The trim I needed and generally the whole interior was fantastic. Like new looking.

So, find a southern car with a good body and the source a great interior back in the north.