WL: my $400 beater....

[Hibs]

Purchased a 1995 Honda Civic DX Coupe from a co-worker. His description, "it is leaking antifreeze everywhere and overheating" so he just went out and bought a brand new Mazda 3. Sold me the Honda for $400. I put in a gallon of water, and drove it 4 miles home. The car is a 1.5L, automatic, with 243,000 miles. Has a pioneer CD player with disc changer in trunk, POLK speakers in rear window and doors.This is what i've done....

Brand new radiator, ebay special, $40/shipped
used but good passenger side CV shaft, ebay, $24.97/shipped
Inner tie rod end for passenger side $14.93
Rack and pinion bellows kit $20.81
Brand new 2year warranty battery from Wal-Mart, $58.80
performed tranny flush with 1gallon ATF and lucas trans additive, $19.59
NGK spark plugs, BWD cap/rotor, fuel/air/oil filter, 5qts Valvoline, 2 cans degreaser and 2 cans brake clean, $91.10
JDM honda Valve cover gasket, window handle, and a/c control knob, $37.40
Brand new speed sensor, ebay, $26.18


Grand total of $333.75, into a $400 car. I didn't take any pics of the work being performed, I work alone, and my hands were all ways dirty. Didn't want to smudge up my camera, so yall will just have to settle for the finished product....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/HibsLX/honda022.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/HibsLX/honda021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/HibsLX/honda012.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/HibsLX/honda018.jpg

[turbodaytona87]

nicely done, I wonder how long it'll last(miles wise)

[Hibs]

the thing runs like a champ, no smoke, no hesitation. i'm guessing the engine has a lot more life left in it. the tranny is meh, only problem with it i guess is that it hits kinda hard when it shifts into overdrive. but a 1.5L is so common, i'm sure if i really wanted to i could find a whole other drivetrain in a junkyard for cheap.

[millertime]

gotsta love ebay!

[swaggy853]

the thing runs like a champ, no smoke, no hesitation. i'm guessing the engine has a lot more life left in it. the tranny is meh, only problem with it i guess is that it hits kinda hard when it shifts into overdrive. but a 1.5L is so common, i'm sure if i really wanted to i could find a whole other drivetrain in a junkyard for cheap.

kept stock and maintained, the motor will last longer than the body, by far. There is nothing wrong with a honda auto shifting hard, its what they do.

[Hibs]

no, it shifts extremely hard into OD. like a damn J-MOD hard. shifts 1-3 fine, just when it hits OD is when it has a problem. I'm sure there is something inside the tranny broken, but I really dont' give a ****, still works. If it shells, i'll just buy a junkyard tranny for cheap.

[Bobby Light]

good find hibler

[Hillbilly]

Hibs, it is super funny how car guys find stuff there. My uncle worked at Bathesda(sp) and always had cars that guys were junking cause they wouldn't pass inspection. New muffler or what ever, detail and he would sell the car. You should start working on brakes and such on the side. My uncle did $500 pad slaps cause the dealerships would quote over $1500 for brake jobs.

[Hibs]

Hibs, it is super funny how car guys find stuff there. My uncle worked at Bathesda(sp) and always had cars that guys were junking cause they wouldn't pass inspection. New muffler or what ever, detail and he would sell the car. You should start working on brakes and such on the side. My uncle did $500 pad slaps cause the dealerships would quote over $1500 for brake jobs.

Ya **** here is crazy with having to pass vehicle inspections. I see vehicles being sold on craiglist alllll the time for like $500, all they need is brakes or some stupid ****. I'm not talking about junk vehicles either.... example, last week a 95 Jeep Grand cherokee with 70k miles was being sold for $500. I see stuff like that all day long.

I really want to get back into buying vehicles/fixing them up/reselling them, but right now we're so strapped for cash having to pay for all this wedding **** that we can't afford it. Hopefully after we have our big ceremony in January, I'll be able to start putting money towards cars again. Right now, any extra money we have goes towards the wedding fund.

I've been doing some work on the side for fellow service members. My friends wife just paid me $75 to replace the wheel bearing on her grand am. Took me an hour to do.... ended up needing the other side, but whatever, that will only take me another hour to do. I've got another kid here who wants me to do the front brakes on his VW. He offered to pay me $100 if i could just put on new pads/rotors. Guess he all ready has them bought. So nice not having to **** with turning the rotors. Also, my platoon sergeant made me the company vehicle inspection NCO, lol. I've heard him referring a few people my way to get work done. Most people are broke though, and are like "ya, i need to fix it, but gotta wait till next month when i get paid again"..

[turbodaytona87]

example, last week a 95 Jeep Grand cherokee with 70k miles was being sold for $500. I see stuff like that all day long.


Damn:eek:

[Burntz]

****in A, hook me up with some of these vehicles. When I buy a car in the spring I think i'm goin outta state haha

[Hibs]

**UPDATE**

The honda seemed to be running kinda rough. Pulled the plugs, #3 and #4 had a lot of red/carbon fouling. I was thinking maybe exhaust valve. Compression read 200-200-180-130... I didn't bother fixing it, just traded it off.

Ended up with this. 1990 Ford Ranger XLT, 2wd, 5speed. Expect to see it's own work log, rocking some 17" mustang GT tri-bar wheels and probably a 2.3turbo motor swap sometime in the near future....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/HibsLX/ranger004.jpg

[Coupelx]

**** yea now we talking. ive been looking around for a 2.3 4x4 ranger. turbo mud buggy!

[Hibs]

**** yea now we talking. ive been looking around for a 2.3 4x4 ranger. turbo mud buggy!

Ya i was looking for a 4x4 too, but this thing was too clean to pass up.