Whats up guys. I rarely post on here since i sold my FC back in 2006 but I have an opportunity to buy a 94 FD.

The car is in pretty bad condition. Basically the car is 2 blocks from the beach and has been sitting since 2007. The original owner had the shop its parked at work on it and do a full rebuild including new turbos and the owner couldn't pay so he handed over the title to the shop. The shop hasnt been able to sell it and say that the car runs and has only 30 miles on the rebuilt engine yet they literally havent moved in 3 years to the point some of the tires are flat and the trunk has straight up rust holes. The paint is in horrible condition and basically if i buy this thing its gonna be a 3-5 year project restoring her. An FD is my dream car and have been super sad since I sold my FC and there isnt any other buyers that even want the car. The shop was super excited that i even was interested in buying it.

I NEED YOUR ADVICE ON HOW MUCH I SHOULD PAY FOR THIS CAR?????? I dont think its even worth 2gs with the new rebuild but i could be totally nuts.

THANKS DUDES!

 

Come on guys! Im supposed to talk to the owner tomorrow and i want to go in there guns a blazin.

 

You have any pics of it? If they know what the car is they probably won't let it go for under $4000, even in bad condition..

 

I cant comment on how much you should pay, as i cant see any pics and being in NZ im sure our prices are much different.

Although - if the engine is in good condition it alone may be worth $2k..

if you can get the car to start you can do a few tests to get an idea of its health.

 

We're buying rolling rustless chassis' for under $1k. . .

I would look somewhere else for an FD. . .if it's your dream car why start with a shitbox? Get your moneys worth out of it. . .

 

I complete agree with this statement. + over 9,000

Why buy a poor condition FD that will require thousands in repairs/rework, etc....if you could just buy a roller FD in good condition instead?

If you want the FD you buy to be a good project car, would you rather spend all your money just REPAIRING the car, or do you wanna spend your money UPGRADING the car?

That's one other way to look at it..

 

If your poor this is perfect. Who cares what it looks like, it has a brand new engine and it's an FD. Sure you'll have to put some money into it getting it going again, but you'll appreciate the car more that way. At the worst you would have to buy a whole new chassis and move the engine into it. But the engine by itself is worth more than what they're asking.
The irony is that this is almost the exact plot from the first FnF movie... hehe.

 

if the engine has been sitting for that long without running,
even if it's a 30mile rebuild I would strongly suggest testing it 1st.
good luck

 

Don't do it. Even if the engine does run, its been sitting for so long there is a good chance that it will end in epic FAILURE. These are the cars that should go to allrotor or djseven or any of those types of guys.

 

Dang thanks guys for all the help! Yeah I completely agree with just buying a good condition one for 9-10k but the bummer part is my wife wont let me buy a new car. I was in a band for 10 years and my management company sued us so i'm basically stuck paying 20k to that. The only reason I AM considering it is because I wouldn't mind having a beater FD and just slowly putting work and money into it. I will get some pics up soon. then we can get this conversation really going. Im gonna talk to the dude today. You guys gave me a lot of great bargaining tools. Ill let you know how it goes!

 

This is a tough one man....

 

Okay...

Lets talk LOGIC here.

Clean FD roller + ~$2k for replacement motor (at most) + $? installation labor = car is DONE

VS.

POS FD w/ Unknown quality motor + potential $????? for interior/exterior repairs, paint, replacement/missing parts, etc. = Who KNOWS when it'll be done.

As others have stated...if the motor in that thing blows after a week for whatever reason, you're SOL X 1,000 too.

You're better off buying a motor yourself from a trusted source, over the word of the guy who obviously is trying to get rid of the FD.


In my opinion...

Your money is better spent on good clean roller, and then you can just buy a replacement motor.

I only spent $1,300 buying my last low-mileage JDM REW motor, and my brother swapped out


However...

IF the price is cheap enough though, you could obviously spend the same or LESS to simply repair this FD, AND have enough for a replacement motor, if the current one prematurely dies.


It all comes down to money.

Spend more now, spend less later..

Or spend less now, but spend more later.

You're the only one who knows which situaiton will work better for you.

 

And if you have money problems, an FD of any condition, is a bad idea... no matter how badly you want it... since everything is rare and expensive...
But I have no hope that you'll yield my advice, as these "Dreams" are something we as men must pursue no matter how crazy they may be... so best of Luck !

 

Update?

Well if I was the one buying the car:

I’d make sure that everything is running correctly and that the interior is in decent shape. Interior pieces are pricey and FD gremlins can cost thousands and there is no guarantee that the problem(s) be taken cared of. FD’s are expensive cars to own and it drinks $500 dollar bills when something goes wrong… So keep that in mind.

The exterior being in bad condition is no biggie to me. Well mainly because I know a shop in Tijuana that does decent work for minimal $$. For 1K they do a full exterior (no door jams) re-spray with 5 year dupont paint. Labor doesn’t cost much down there so most of that $$ is for material, so if there are dents it doesn’t jack up the price very much. And yeah I had my FD painted down there so if you are curious check out my photo album as I have pics of it in the process.

Good luck but if I were you I'd stay away from FD's until you get that debt off your hands.

 

I am with Yoshi on this one... i hope you decided against picking this one up. Really, if you are on that tight of a budget, the FD is just not your you. Especially one that needs work. This is not a civic that can be just beat to ****, uncared for, and still start up everyday... They are good DD's but you must keep up with maintenance regularly and have a little extra cash fund for small (but usually expensive) issues arise. It IS a 17 year old car...

Cars like this tend to be much larger projects than they seem. AND since this shop just let it sit for years (and its a 1994 chassis) they don't seem to have much of a clue about the car and I sure as hell would not be trusting any sort of engine build from them...

Oh, and your wife (no matter how little you pay for the car) is going to be PISSED if the car goes to hell quickly then requires thousands of dollars to repair, and this car sounds like a grenade waiting to go off...

 

That is the goal of alot of people on the forum. It doesn't often work this way, especially if you cheaped out on the FD when you bought it. Sometimes, you have to put in alot of money to get the car in running condition again (when I say that I mean everything is working well not limping on 1 rotor or fixing a leak by putting some crap in your coolant). Best case scenario you could do this over time but life isn't about the best case scenario. Buying this car would be a poor decision. You will want to sell it.

 

any pics? if there was one like the sounds of this one in my area I'd buy it for ***** and giggles..

 

I agree with yoshifc3s but then again its a chance to save an FD lol your choice men...