Hi, I want to get a project car to work on and I was wondering if this car would be a good one.
It is a 1992 cavalier with a 2.2L motor and a 5 speed manual tranny. It looks really rusty, but the engine and tranny are in good shape, and the owner said the tires and brakes are decent, the only problem is the rust. It has 106,000 miles on it and a brand new clutch.
I won't be driving this car much until I work on it a lot, but would this be a good car to use as a learning project?
Oh ya, I forgot to put in the price. Its $200, which I figured was a pretty good deal. I just wanted to know from people that had experience with these vehicles if they are easy to work on or not.
RUN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rust is never a good project anything. You will only be dumping good money into something that is in the process of returning to the earth from whence it came.
Sure, older classic cars with rust are worth fixing, they have value to mine out through sweat equity, An old Cavalier?? Toss it away.
Be patient, go find a good body and start there, mechanical repairs are easy.
I recently purchased (after a year of patiently searching) a 95 Sunfire convertible for $300. Excellent body (white, not one of GM's bogus colors), great interior, good tires, top like new (fully funtional), tranny recently rebuilt but the engine was shot, poured out water from all over the place, ran though. Actually it just needs a new head, the block and other related parts are just fine. I'll dump $600 into it and I'm golden!! I found this Gem on Craig's list, there were other unit listed at the same time but this was the best of the lot.
People are, in general, afraid of broken cars. It also helps that the area in which I live is a tad upscale so used cars are not highly sought after or prized, particularly an old Sunfire so the competition is sparse. Other area's such as Pennsylvania are crawling with old J's and are much more sought after.
These car deals don't roll around every day but they are out there for those who are looking. A rusty car (J Car in particular) is quite simply TOO MUCH DARN WORK for what you end up with. Look for replacement rust panels, they are NOT out there, because the cars are not worth the effort to restore at this point in time.
Dave
I beg to differ. They make this stuff, it's called sheet steel, it comes in a sheet. You can make panels if you need to. What do you think some of the body shops do for sections that are rotted out? They cut up the sheet steel, weld it in, grind the welds, lightweight filler and paint.
correct sir ^^ this car is a little too far gone.
maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow....... but some day
Lanman31337 - Cavfire wrote:I beg to differ. They make this stuff, it's called sheet steel, it comes in a sheet. You can make panels if you need to. What do you think some of the body shops do for sections that are rotted out? They cut up the sheet steel, weld it in, grind the welds, lightweight filler and paint.
Very true, you can make anything you need for any auto body, been there, done that, but as I mentioned before, THIS car is not worth the time and effort to repair. There is no return on the investment and I'll put forth that once a panel rusts, it will continue to rust unless every last grain of rust is cut out and removed. This project would be a lifetime bottomless pit.
The average joe doesn't have the skills or the tools to make a body panel out of sheet metal.
Most professional auto body shops lack that same skill and are simply component replacing shops.
Only the true restoration shops with good equipment and a very high level of skill make their own panels anymore.
Years ago I had a friend who was a body man back in the 20's and 30's. He had an album of his repair work. Some of it would have been scrap in today's world and he fixed them. Not only the sheet metal but the exterior fabric and the wood framing of the body. He made doors and body panels from scratch. He was truly a craftsman the likes of which have mostly died away, as he has. Rare is the "body man" that could hold a candle to a man of his skills today.
