Back from the dead...
Back from the dead...
Not sure if this is the right section for this, been a while since I've been on here...
Some of you may remember me - not sure who has come and gone since I went AWOL...To try to keep a long story short, back in early 2015 I went through the suspension, steering, brakes and tires on this car, not much left untouched at the time. Car ran and drove awesome, had a new clutch and a freshly rebuilt 13b from TriPoint with about 25k on it at that point, was my daily driver for almost 4 years. About 4 months later, I blew out my knee at 22 (too much lacrosse and failed attempts at being a pro skater as a kid...) and I couldn't bend my leg enough to drive it for at least six months. Ended up picking up my dad's old Ram to replace it as my daily, small issues started piling up, and the ongoing struggle with the CA smog ***** led to it sitting for a couple years, from early 2016 to now.
Found out the hard way that the body wasn't as cherry as the old guy I bought it from made it out to be - the hood is slowly turning into swiss cheese (found a clean one in a junkyard) and the sunroof area is absolutely shot. Interior is toast from sitting in the California sun for 2 years Normally, it's buy a better shell and move all the good stuff - problem is, I'm too sentimental with this thing. I always felt like I saved it from an early trip to the junkyard, and it was a pretty cool first car for a gearhead 17 year old with $1k in his pocket. Problem is in the last two years I just haven't had the time, money, or motivation to really do anything with it.
That being said, with my pops finishing up his Rx4 project, I decided to see if I could get this thing fired back up. Needed a little elbow grease, a used battery, and some air in the tires, but I'll be damned if this thing didn't start up as easy as it did when I was dailying it. Think I might have found my motivation to get it back on the streets and make it as good looking as it should be. Sitting in it, I realized how much fun I used to have in it, really do miss driving it. Gonna be a long-going project and I'm going to dump way too much money into saving this shell but in the end I think it will be worth it. Just can't replace the memories as easy as the car.
She's a little worse for wear, and it's going to be a bit of a drawn out project, but I'm excited to make this beauty it always should have been:
Anyways, it's good to be back. Mods, if this is the wrong place for this please move
Some of you may remember me - not sure who has come and gone since I went AWOL...To try to keep a long story short, back in early 2015 I went through the suspension, steering, brakes and tires on this car, not much left untouched at the time. Car ran and drove awesome, had a new clutch and a freshly rebuilt 13b from TriPoint with about 25k on it at that point, was my daily driver for almost 4 years. About 4 months later, I blew out my knee at 22 (too much lacrosse and failed attempts at being a pro skater as a kid...) and I couldn't bend my leg enough to drive it for at least six months. Ended up picking up my dad's old Ram to replace it as my daily, small issues started piling up, and the ongoing struggle with the CA smog ***** led to it sitting for a couple years, from early 2016 to now.
Found out the hard way that the body wasn't as cherry as the old guy I bought it from made it out to be - the hood is slowly turning into swiss cheese (found a clean one in a junkyard) and the sunroof area is absolutely shot. Interior is toast from sitting in the California sun for 2 years Normally, it's buy a better shell and move all the good stuff - problem is, I'm too sentimental with this thing. I always felt like I saved it from an early trip to the junkyard, and it was a pretty cool first car for a gearhead 17 year old with $1k in his pocket. Problem is in the last two years I just haven't had the time, money, or motivation to really do anything with it.
That being said, with my pops finishing up his Rx4 project, I decided to see if I could get this thing fired back up. Needed a little elbow grease, a used battery, and some air in the tires, but I'll be damned if this thing didn't start up as easy as it did when I was dailying it. Think I might have found my motivation to get it back on the streets and make it as good looking as it should be. Sitting in it, I realized how much fun I used to have in it, really do miss driving it. Gonna be a long-going project and I'm going to dump way too much money into saving this shell but in the end I think it will be worth it. Just can't replace the memories as easy as the car.
She's a little worse for wear, and it's going to be a bit of a drawn out project, but I'm excited to make this beauty it always should have been:
Anyways, it's good to be back. Mods, if this is the wrong place for this please move
Welcome back! Another SA lover/savior back in the Fold.
Totally understand the attachment. Its LOVE of a sorts and who can be practical about THAT eh?
Obviously, either deep pockets or your own skill-set (now, or to be learned) is what will get the body back to where you want it. And don't fool yourself that, at least in the short term (10 yrs?+) that there will be anything remotely like an "investment". Other than in your own joy, of course. Sadly, if the rot has gotten up to the sunroof, then it bodes poorly for metal down below. So do your best to be honest with yourself and you won't be disappointed. Hopefully this was a SoCali car from the get-go, and most of it is dry. I see its an LS. Any plans to make it "original" again? What was the original color? How's the interior leather holding up?
Keep us up to date. Maybe start a Build Thread to follow with...
Stu Aull
80GS
(bought from SoCali in '03 via ebay...)
AZ
Totally understand the attachment. Its LOVE of a sorts and who can be practical about THAT eh?
Obviously, either deep pockets or your own skill-set (now, or to be learned) is what will get the body back to where you want it. And don't fool yourself that, at least in the short term (10 yrs?+) that there will be anything remotely like an "investment". Other than in your own joy, of course. Sadly, if the rot has gotten up to the sunroof, then it bodes poorly for metal down below. So do your best to be honest with yourself and you won't be disappointed. Hopefully this was a SoCali car from the get-go, and most of it is dry. I see its an LS. Any plans to make it "original" again? What was the original color? How's the interior leather holding up?
Keep us up to date. Maybe start a Build Thread to follow with...
Stu Aull
80GS
(bought from SoCali in '03 via ebay...)
AZ
Welcome back! Another SA lover/savior back in the Fold.
Totally understand the attachment. Its LOVE of a sorts and who can be practical about THAT eh?
Obviously, either deep pockets or your own skill-set (now, or to be learned) is what will get the body back to where you want it. And don't fool yourself that, at least in the short term (10 yrs?+) that there will be anything remotely like an "investment". Other than in your own joy, of course. Sadly, if the rot has gotten up to the sunroof, then it bodes poorly for metal down below. So do your best to be honest with yourself and you won't be disappointed. Hopefully this was a SoCali car from the get-go, and most of it is dry. I see its an LS. Any plans to make it "original" again? What was the original color? How's the interior leather holding up?
Keep us up to date. Maybe start a Build Thread to follow with...
Stu Aull
80GS
(bought from SoCali in '03 via ebay...)
AZ
Totally understand the attachment. Its LOVE of a sorts and who can be practical about THAT eh?
Obviously, either deep pockets or your own skill-set (now, or to be learned) is what will get the body back to where you want it. And don't fool yourself that, at least in the short term (10 yrs?+) that there will be anything remotely like an "investment". Other than in your own joy, of course. Sadly, if the rot has gotten up to the sunroof, then it bodes poorly for metal down below. So do your best to be honest with yourself and you won't be disappointed. Hopefully this was a SoCali car from the get-go, and most of it is dry. I see its an LS. Any plans to make it "original" again? What was the original color? How's the interior leather holding up?
Keep us up to date. Maybe start a Build Thread to follow with...
Stu Aull
80GS
(bought from SoCali in '03 via ebay...)
AZ
Unfortunately, was always an east coast car until about 2008-2009 when I picked it up, was originally sold out of New York - still have a copy of the window sticker somewhere. The sunroof area being in the shape it's in is definitely a heartbreaker, but I'm hoping there's someone with the skill set that's willing to take on that task if I throw enough money at them. The fact that it's a leather sport is part of the reason I haven't been able to let it go, being a fairly rare car I just couldn't send it off to the great scrap pile in the sky. Was originally Aurora White, was painted british racing green by the previous owner, he told me he was a Jag guy...as far as the state of the interior, dash is cracked and the seats are in desperate need of complete restoration, the rest is actually not too bad. All of the plastics are intact, carpet is a little faded, even the door cards are in pretty good shape, along with the headliner. Would like to take it back to the original white, keep the interior original-ish. Thought of having the dash covered in matching brown leather, seats I would like to keep the brown but with black insets. Carpet will definitely be going to black - was never really a fan of the brown carpet - just felt like a little too much 80's...lol.
Not going for a show car but I definitely want a clean little weekend cruiser. Definitely have no illusions of getting all the money I put into it, back out but I look at it like this - can't put a price on the sentimental value, the memories, y'know?
Will get a build thread going as things progress. To be honest, I just can't wait to drive it again regardless of the condition
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