Hello,
I'm new here. I currently drive a Ford Pinto (dont laugh too hard please its my first car). I fell in love with sevens when i rode in my step brothers 350hp dyno-tuned 2nd gen. I drove my friends N/A stock 2nd gen the other day and fell in love with the handling. Even though my experience has been with 2nd gens, I have visions of an FB dancing in my head. I plan to buy a first gen when I move out of my house- my parents are anti-japense cars without pistons. I was thinking about looking for one thats really cheap with no rust and maybe a blown engine and going all out on it, strip the interior and put in sparcos and build up the motor and everything. Maybe it would be wiser just to spend the money and get a nice one that doesnt need a lot of work done to it. I would like to stay with the carburated 12A but i dont have any aversions to fuel injection (unlike my parents). I have been reading this forum and searching the net for quite a while. Any suggestions as to which way i should go? Either way i go about it, ill eventually redo the suspension and all of that. I was thinking if i got a really cheap one as a project car, i would redo the interior with some nice racing seats and other things, do up the suspension with competition shocks etc, buy a set of ROH Snypers with Kumho tires, Get a front air dam and try to find a nice wing (I heard Denny mention something about that a couple posts back). Then when i get the money I would paint it Ferrari Medio Metallica Blu. Or i would just start with a decent car and do wheels and performance mods. Any suggestions? Hints, etc? I've got about half a year to find the right car.
Thanks,
Zac

 

Okay, I wrote quite a long reply to this which my browser stuffed up, so here's a shorter version:

Both approaches have downsides.

Buying a more expensive model can still require you to put extra money in. However well you check a car before buying, you can't guarantee that the engine won't blow, or something will break. The reality is that these cars are all quite old now.

I went with the cheap option. I bought the worst possible running car (but I knew this, and did so because it was so cheap). I've improved it quite a bit, and I'm getting the hang of most of the problems now.

Be careful not to underestimate the cost of doing a lot of upgrading. I budgetted $US400 for the car, and $US1000 for repairs. (I use NZ dollars, and the currency conversion doesn't really work. Still, that's a rough idea.) However, when I was replacing the ghetto lowered springs, I found that they had ruined the shocks. I thought I had anticipated the problems with the suspension, but I ended up having to change twice as much. It adds up quickly.

With the cheaper way that I have gone, I know that I have not invested a huge amount in a car that is not finished. I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched.

I've probably drifted away from what you were asking by now. My end answer is going to be something irritating like: "go with whichever option you want. Neither is wrong as such." Personally, I'm glad I went with a cheap one. There will be more satisfaction when I am done.

Bye,
ScruffyChimp