My wife and I developed a thing for black on black convertibles in 2012. The 1997 Toyota lacked power, but handled really well. The 2010 Miata has plenty of power to get into trouble, and handles well enough to get us out of it. We never babied either car, and the Toyota was sold last month.
I only paid $4,700 for the Celica, so I intended to drive it across a mostly frozen lake. My wife didn’t want to join me….🤣
Last edited by FrankB; 12-08-2021 at 04:15 PM.
Just to make it clear I'm not picking on @hufnagel to be mean, this also applies to MR2s, rotary-powered anythings, Miatas, BMWs, Porsches, Supras, Subarus, Hondas, S2000s (not like other Hondas), VWs, Audis, Sunbeams, Vespas, and all the stuff in my garage.Originally Posted by OlongJohnson
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Not another dime.
Why you gotta break balls?
I'm also not criticizing him. I don't understand his choice, but man, I dunno why anyone would drive a fullsize cargo van, a Nissan Z of any stripe, or a Subaru of any flavor. Everyone's got a flavor they savor and that's cool.
Just like...maybe keep your peanut butter away from my chocolate, dudes!
Wranglers are ridiculously expensive.For some reason, I needed to fact check myself on this and found it's a Liberty. That fits sooo much better with the Stratus and Neon. I must've just been assuming that something needing the work he's done to it was much older, but I don't live in salt. We can still talk about guns and LeMons if we ever hang out.
Cherokees are a bit too raw for what I wanted.
I wanted a Ram Tradesman, but they were tough to find.
And of course, I wanted a stick shift.
Speaking of the Liberty... figured out that the awful noise coming from the right front is indeed a bad wheel bearing. New one goes in tomorrow.
And, it's not a neon... it's an SRT-4.
And yes, the heart wants what the heart wants.
Wasn't there a diesel/manual version of the Liberty? That would be cool for the right kind of geek.Wranglers are ridiculously expensive.
Cherokees are a bit too raw for what I wanted.
I wanted a Ram Tradesman, but they were tough to find.
And of course, I wanted a stick shift.
Speaking of the Liberty... figured out that the awful noise coming from the right front is indeed a bad wheel bearing. New one goes in tomorrow.
And, it's not a neon... it's an SRT-4.
And yes, the heart wants what the heart wants.
And I get the SRT-4. Might have once had something indirectly to do with a SEMA build inspired by Dan Gurney's AAR Mopar paint schemes from back in the day. Still wish there was a good sportscar transmission (not a truck box) to put that engine in something RWD and light.
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Not another dime.
The van was $800 to buy and allowed me to get into motorcycles. It took 11 years of abuse and neglect and only let me down a couple times. The Subaru is because a leather-trimmed AWD turbo manual wagon is a great car, when it runs.
Srsly?
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Not another dime.
there was a diesel+manual variant in mexico and certain parts of europe. it was never brought to the u.s. frankly it's a good thing it wasn't. the diesel in them, while pretty stout for its size, is a such a maintenance pig.
About a month ago, I bought an old front-ended but still running 04 Acura TL. Until this past Saturday, I'd done nothing to it. At 1:00 p.m. I drove it into the shop and put it on the lift. By 8:00 I'd dropped the exhaust, pulled the rear sway bar for resale, pulled all 3 converters for scrap, unhooked what was necessary and dropped the complete subframe with engine, trans, front brakes and entire suspension except for upper control arms still mounted, removed the front sway bar for my autocross car, pulled the rest of the chassis outside with the forklift supporting the front, removed the rear wheels, removed all 4 doors and trunk lid for resale, and put the stripped chassis on my trailer. Then put all the tools away and cleaned up.
Pitifully slow compared to a scrapyard, but I was glad to do it all in part of a day. Today while I was in town between jobs, I sold the 3 converters off of it to a local yard; turns out they were worth $330. So not the payday I'd envisioned, but I only need another $270 to hit break-even on this car which shouldn't be a problem...I figure the trans alone is worth $500 to the right person. Then still have the doors, trunklid, rear swaybar, and the stripped chassis itself to sell.
I'm keeping the engine for a future project. I think I need to go back out to the chassis and pull the rest of the wiring loom though, because I'll need the ECU and probably the keyed ignition switch to get it to start with the immobilizer system. I'm keeping the 4 wheels because they're 17 x 8's, and they'll go on my 04 Accord that I'm autocrossing. Same with the front swaybar. (I have an aftermarket rear swaybar here for the Accord). If I get interested enough, I also happen to know I can drop 20 lbs off the Accord's front end by replacing it's steel subframe with this TL's aluminum subframe, which wasn't damaged during the accident and which will bolt up to the Accord without modification.
Anyway, since this is for fun I'm not counting my labor time in; otherwise I'd probably barely hit break-even on this car. But it had some interesting parts and kinda fell into my lap, and it's been a neat little side project to think about.
Black convertibles are beautiful when clean, but keeping them clean is a chore.My wife and I developed a thing for black on black convertibles in 2012. The 1997 Toyota lacked power, but handled really well. The 2010 Miata has plenty of power to get into trouble, and handles well enough to get us out of it. We never babied either car, and the Toyota was sold last month.
Also with enough power to get you into trouble.
I continue to see more and more C8s around town. And I LOVE the new model, but in an odd way it’s making me like the C7 even more. Prior to the C8 I thought the C7 was the coolest looking Corvette, after the ‘63 split window, and now I think that honor may go to the C8 in my mind. But somehow when I see a C7 now I love it even more.
Without being a Corvette aficionado, I wouldn’t know where to begin in terms of looking for one to buy. In initial searches it seems that prices are way up (like everything else now) beyond what I’d have thought so maybe this is the wrong time to buy anyway. But if one were looking, and looking for a “base” model and not a Z06, ZR1, GS, etc. is there a sweet spot for years to be looking at? Presumably avoiding 2014s as they were the first year, and maybe 2019s as they were the last?
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