Well, I haven't started one of these yet. But I guess this will end up being just two posts.
It was late 2012, and I had wanted an ST165 (or a 185, but I preferred the 165) for a few years when one popped up on craigslist for $700. It had some major issues, but at that price I couldn't pass it up. There were no pictures on the ad. So here is what I saw when I went to the shop of the guy I bought the car from. Sorry about the crappy picture (I had an old Blackberry at the time, and the lighting was bad), but you can see at least some of what is missing, including the engine:
So I bought the car, and took it to the house I lived in then, which had a crappy basement garage that I could use to work on the car.
The guy I bought the car from had an engine and trans for it that I could have. But, I discovered that the engine didn't turn over, and once I pulled the head, I discovered that the engine was seized with rust.
At this point I did the math, and figured that if I got a little lucky it would be about the same cost and lot less of a headache to buy an imported engine and trans. I have to say, having a semi show up at your house feels pretty cool.
Well, it took some work, but I got the engine in. It was super sketchy, the car was half on gravel, and I had to lift the radiator core support almost all the way to the low ceiling to get enough clearance to get it in.
Put the body panels I had on it, and it looked sort of like a car for the first time.
(Flat towed it with my dad's T100, love that truck)
After I got the engine in, I moved to a place that didn't have a garage, so I put it in a storage unit for a while, where the project completely stalled. It turns out that it is hard to motivate yourself when you have no heat, light, power, or space to work on a project car. I don't have any pictures from that period, which is probably a testament to how stalled I was on the project.
But then some friends and me started renting out a four bay shop out in the county, and I got moving again.
It slowly started coming together, and even started looking kind of good.
Started thinking about what kind of wheels I might want to get, decided this wasn't it. (My co-worker/shop-mate has these for his 510, they were in the shop, and I wanted to see how it looked).
Over the next year, I finally got it running and driving, and sometime around January it was ready to go.
https://youtu.be/Yb9eEYFOQqw
Over the last couple months I worked on getting some of the many little issues dealt with.
Well, this last Saturday there was a big event where I was going to get to see a bunch of friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, and who are also car nuts. So I drove it there to show it off to them.
Here comes the bad part. On my way home that night I got rear-ended by a drunk driver, and found myself in the hospital for a couple hours. Overall my injuries are amazingly minor given that fact that I got hit while stopped by a Mercedes that was doing 50-60. While I haven't actually seen the car yet, I am pretty confident that it is going to be a total loss.
I will post pictures once I get to the tow yard to get my stuff from the car. At that point I will evaluate if I can repair it, if it is worth getting it to part it out, or if I should just write it off.
It was late 2012, and I had wanted an ST165 (or a 185, but I preferred the 165) for a few years when one popped up on craigslist for $700. It had some major issues, but at that price I couldn't pass it up. There were no pictures on the ad. So here is what I saw when I went to the shop of the guy I bought the car from. Sorry about the crappy picture (I had an old Blackberry at the time, and the lighting was bad), but you can see at least some of what is missing, including the engine:
So I bought the car, and took it to the house I lived in then, which had a crappy basement garage that I could use to work on the car.
The guy I bought the car from had an engine and trans for it that I could have. But, I discovered that the engine didn't turn over, and once I pulled the head, I discovered that the engine was seized with rust.
At this point I did the math, and figured that if I got a little lucky it would be about the same cost and lot less of a headache to buy an imported engine and trans. I have to say, having a semi show up at your house feels pretty cool.
Well, it took some work, but I got the engine in. It was super sketchy, the car was half on gravel, and I had to lift the radiator core support almost all the way to the low ceiling to get enough clearance to get it in.
Put the body panels I had on it, and it looked sort of like a car for the first time.
(Flat towed it with my dad's T100, love that truck)
After I got the engine in, I moved to a place that didn't have a garage, so I put it in a storage unit for a while, where the project completely stalled. It turns out that it is hard to motivate yourself when you have no heat, light, power, or space to work on a project car. I don't have any pictures from that period, which is probably a testament to how stalled I was on the project.
But then some friends and me started renting out a four bay shop out in the county, and I got moving again.
It slowly started coming together, and even started looking kind of good.
Started thinking about what kind of wheels I might want to get, decided this wasn't it. (My co-worker/shop-mate has these for his 510, they were in the shop, and I wanted to see how it looked).
Over the next year, I finally got it running and driving, and sometime around January it was ready to go.
https://youtu.be/Yb9eEYFOQqw
Over the last couple months I worked on getting some of the many little issues dealt with.
Well, this last Saturday there was a big event where I was going to get to see a bunch of friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, and who are also car nuts. So I drove it there to show it off to them.
Here comes the bad part. On my way home that night I got rear-ended by a drunk driver, and found myself in the hospital for a couple hours. Overall my injuries are amazingly minor given that fact that I got hit while stopped by a Mercedes that was doing 50-60. While I haven't actually seen the car yet, I am pretty confident that it is going to be a total loss.
I will post pictures once I get to the tow yard to get my stuff from the car. At that point I will evaluate if I can repair it, if it is worth getting it to part it out, or if I should just write it off.