project car.....

[USSEnterprise]

Now that the volvo is up and running like new, got my new computer (and am not reselling it), the pinball machines are all working, and the soda machine fit up my basement stairs after I sold it, I want to pick up a car as a project. I found a few cars that I am interested in. I need some opinions in picking one. For this, I don't give a poop about safety, nor do my parents. All I care about is that the car is complete. Here are the cars I'm considering:

1950 Dodge Coronet ($500)
1963 Chevrolet Corvair Convertible ($450)
1981 Lincoln Mark VI ($500)
1988 Jaguar XJ6 ($375)

I'm leaning towards the coronet, just because of the age of the thing, but that will also make parts difficult to find. The Jaguar is a beautiful car, but parts will be expensive, and it doesn't have much market value. The Lincoln is also a nice car, but also has a low market value. The Corvair could be a nice car, but needs about $2000 in parts. I can't decide, so for some reason, I have once again come to you guys for your opinions. And no, I'm sure one of the above will not fit down my basement stairs.

[sidekick]

THe Corvair would be my choice.....

[quarterback]

THe Corvair would be my choice.....

Yeah baby, dangerous at any speed!

[USSEnterprise]

My final option is to modify the hell out of my volvo 850. Rims, body kit, spoiler (not one of those butt ugly wings), and maybe a stereo.

[AtomSmasher]

My final option is to modify the hell out of my volvo 850. Rims, body kit, spoiler (not one of those butt ugly wings), and maybe a stereo.

I can't stress enough how much I don't like that option.  Its possible you would pick out some very tasteful upgrades, but the vast majority of body kits and spoilers make cars look completely retarded, especially on cars that are obviously not very fast.

One thing to think about for a project car, check the smog laws in your area.  Getting a project car smog legal can be very difficult and can add a lot to the expense.  Most likely the two older cars you listed (Coronet and Corvair) are smog exempt, which means you can do whatever you like to them. 

The reason I brought this up is because in 1995 I rebuilt a '74 Ford truck and I had to get it smoged every two years until 2004 (when it finally became exempt) and it became quite difficult to get it to pass.  Luckily we knew a place that can get most any older car to pass.  He did things like say it was full time 4 wheel drive (it wasn't) so he couldn't do the dyno and then he'd tweak the engine so it was running so lean it was barely running.  hell, we had the egr valve held on with bailing wire so that it just looked smog legal at first glance, but obviously wasn't.  Good times

[USSEnterprise]

Another just popped up on craigslist, and I think its the best of both worlds. 1977 Ford Ranchero GT. Has the versatility of a pickup and the comfort of a sedan (as a commercial might say). Ford parts are nice and cheap, and once restored, it could be a really nice car. NADA says average retail is around $14,000. All it needs is brake and exterior work. Has a 351HP engine I believe, with an automatic transmission. $500 

[ChadTower]

Dude, he lives in New Jersey.  An old car is legal pretty much if it's not shooting HIV infected needles into the air.

I would totally go with the Ranchero.  That's a sweet looking car.

[USSEnterprise]

NJ only has a 25 year limit on cars for emissions. Currently, anything made 1981 or earlier is exempt.

[ChadTower]

Most states are 20 or 25.

[boykster]

Option Z:

Save for college?

[chopps]

Get the Ranchero... not quite an El Camino, but just about as sweet..

[USSEnterprise]

Option Z:

Save for college?

I'm not going to be able to save anything significant within the next year and a half for tuition. Even the county college is $10,000 a year here.

[sidekick]

My final option is to modify the hell out of my volvo 850. Rims, body kit, spoiler (not one of those butt ugly wings), and maybe a stereo.

worst option of the lot.... I would have gone with one of the restore projects rather than a I'm gonna pimp my vehicle option... a majority of the "pimped" cars I see look like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---....

but what I don't understand is if you are deciding to go this route why are you continuing to list the craigslist catalaog to us....

[AtomSmasher]

Most states are 20 or 25.

Heh, I live in california which probably has the strictest rules of any state.  For a while they had it as the car has to be 30 years old or more to be exempt, but last year they stopped it so now its every car made 1975 or earlier is exempt.  My dad was really pissed off that they stopped it because he has a 1976 truck that now will never be smog exempt.

[ImaTest]

My final option is to modify the hell out of my volvo 850. Rims, body kit, spoiler (not one of those butt ugly wings), and maybe a stereo.

please please PLEASE take this route.  It'll look fantastic.


And post a lot of pictures.

[danny_galaga]

is this what the dodge looks like?



if so, thatll be a sweet ride whatever genre (except ricer obviously  ) youre in to. lowrider, street rod, standard etc. corvair would be cool too, just keep an eye on them tyre pressures 

[sidekick]

no this is the Dodge:






and here's a Corvair:

[sidekick]

teh Lincoln:



The Jag:





and the Ranchero

[danny_galaga]

wasnt sure because he said 1950 coronet and the earliest i could find was 1953, turns out the pic i posted is a 1957. still whatever it is it will be a cool project (",)

[ChadTower]

Even if he gets any of those running, he'll never be able to drive it and be able to go to college.  $10,000 is nothing compared to the cost of gas for that Lincoln.

[USSEnterprise]

Heh, yeah. 8 miles to the gallon really isn't too bad, right? 

[ImaTest]

I'm not going to be able to save anything significant within the next year and a half for tuition. Even the county college is $10,000 a year here.

As someone who is currently in school in New Jersey, I'm calling total shens on this.  There are plenty of county schools in Jersey that are way less than $10k a year.   If your are even a halfway decent student you could go somewhere like NJIT for less than $10k/year.

The county college in my county is under $3k a semester if you take 21 credits.  An average semester of 12-16 will be closer to $2k than $3k.  You need to either do some more research or just make up a better excuse to blow money on a car.

[USSEnterprise]

More research, I suppose. I could have sworn I was $10,000 for Ocean County College. Currently looking into TCNJ, Rider, Rutgers, etc. Trying to stay in-state

[USSEnterprise]

 
DAMN IT!
The ignition ECU in my volvo is dead. Won't start, and the self diagnostic is giving a code indicating a faulty ECU.  $150 used. I really need to talk to the bastard who sold it to me. I've only put 50 miles on it

[AtomSmasher]

DAMN IT!
The ignition ECU in my volvo is dead. Won't start, and the self diagnostic is giving a code indicating a faulty ECU.  $150 used. I really need to talk to the bastard who sold it to me. I've only put 50 miles on it

[rockhopper]

$150 is nothing compared to the costs involved for a project car.

Save your money for college.

[shardian]

DAMN IT!
The ignition ECU in my volvo is dead. Won't start, and the self diagnostic is giving a code indicating a faulty ECU.  $150 used. I really need to talk to the bastard who sold it to me. I've only put 50 miles on it

Tough Break on that one...
BTW, an 850 already has a nice body kit on it. If yours doesn't have a spoiler, get an OEM one off ebay. Lower the car a bit with a spring kit, get it painted, and the the car will look great - and it won't cost an arm and a leg.

Side note - my 850 is running great even after putting almost 2000 miles on it now.

[CheffoJeffo]

$150 is nothing compared to the costs involved for a project car.

Save your money for college.

No kidding ...

USSE -- I apprecate that you want to have lots of toys, but it appears to me that you are completely lacking in monetary skills. If you own a car (or a pinball machine, for that matter), the one thing that is certain is that it will require maintenance and repairs. If you have to start selling things in order to fund those expenditures, then you aren't in a solid position to acquire more toys.

If you can't pay to take care of the stuff you've got, then you've got too much stuff already.

Cheers

[ChadTower]

It's a question of priorities, mostly.  College seems to be lower than the other stuff.

[ImaTest]

It's a question of priorities, mostly.  College seems to be lower than the other stuff.

and we've come to the root of the problem.


Save it for college... you can buy all the toys you want when you get a good job.

[ChadTower]

And when you're in college, all those toys will just anchor you in place.  You're far better off being able to move in a single carload. 

[boykster]

Yep, words of wisdom from Chad (gasp!).

When I was an undergrad, I could move every single thing I owned in a 1983 Mazda RX-7.  Now I can pay people to move all my shiet 

[ChadTower]

Yep, I used to move every couple of months (internships) in a small Ford convertible.  Made life pretty damn easy.  Quite a few times had to spend a couple of nights in that car while I waited for a job to start or a room to open up for me.  Gotta do what you gotta do to accomplish your goals.

[Dartful Dodger]

The Corvair.

Old Chevys, even the rear engine ones are easy to find parts for.





When it's running go on eBay and get a "Nader for president" bumper sticker for it.

[Havok]

Screw that. You NEED a LeCar!!!

[nostrebor]

Been building Corvairs for over 10 years. Based on your experience level, don't start with one of those. They are definitely off of the beaten path when it comes to restoration and tuning as compared to the typical RWD V8 domestic car. They are hella fun to play with if you know how to tune them and work on them. They are frustrating like no other thing if you don't know how to tune them and work on them. I also would not buy an early model (60-64). 66 or 67 was the sweet spot for Corvair production.

-If- I were in your position and had to have a project, it would be the Ranchero. Pretty straight forward in terms of learning to tinker with a car on that platform. Also should be plenty of typical parts available for those.

Of course if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't spend my 20s building cars with every spare dime. I would save my dough and buy a nice house and pay for my education. Then I wouldn't have to do those two things in my 30s

[Vigo]

I had a fun project car in HS, I loved it, but I had excellent resources to work with...I have to ask how much resources you have before recommending you get anything.

I personally had:

A relativly decent condition car that needed little maintence to get the car started.
A car that I knew the complete history of, so I knew it was treated well.
Experiance and skill with cars
A near full time job to foot the bill on all car related expences, and nothing else that I needed to spend money on.
Family and friends who helped and gave advice on restoring the car
A very large library of hand tools and power tools that I could be using 24/7
A large basement...I mean garage ( just teasing) to work on the car in all sorts of seasons/weather, and be able to leave the car ripped apart overnight for weeks
A summer devoted solely to working on my car
Lots of bondo...bondo is good


I'm not saying you need to meet these requirements, but I have to warn you how much work a project car can be. You will most likely be stepping into a big project, whether you like it or not.

[USSEnterprise]

I've decided to focus my energy on my car, the Volvo 850. First, to get it working, just bought an ECU on ebay for $50. Its used, but tested working and guaranteed for 30 days.
Next will come some modifications to the stereo. I'm not going to bother with subwoofers, or changing the receiver for that matter.The stock receiver has a multichannel amplifier out, so I'll buy a good quality amp and hook it up between the head unit and the car's new speakers, which I will install. The car came with a 10 disc CD changer in the trunk, so that won't be a problem.
Next, would probably come some performance upgrades. Its already really good at 222 horsepower, but I'd like to up that. New air intake, and maybe a more powerful turbo.
Lastly, cosmetic modifications will take place. Probably a wood grain dash kit, just to give it that luxury car look. A (stock, OEM) spoiler, and new, chrome rims. Still thinking about a body kit, but $800 is a lot to throw down for a few pieces of plastic. Will probably not bother with it. I really think I could make this car really nice, not that it isn't nice as is, but I want to truly make it unique. I want to make it mine.

[Havok]

You've got to put hydraulics in that baby!

[AtomSmasher]

One word.....Neon.   Neon lights look good on any car