A few months back my sister wrecked her early 90s Saturn SC2. It's not to bad, core support was pushed back about 8 inches. Didn't even break the radiator. It looks like I could just pull the core support back out till it's straight enough and bolt some new bodywork on the front and drive it.
Aside from being wrecked the car is in mint shape. Only 40-some-k miles (some old lady had it before), mechanically perfect. It is crippled by the worlds most terrible automatic transmission, but I could live with that.
Do I bother fixing it? Where can you get collision parts for old saturns? Manual swap possible? Is it worth anything in parts?
You should take a look at the "Surprise from a Saturn" post. Pretty good info there, actually.
To sum it up: boring car, very good mileage, and the tranny swap is possible IIRC.
Worth fixing? Maybe. Actually, probably at that mileage.
Worth anything in parts? No more than any other '90s econobox. Someone might pay a few hundred for the engine, few hundred for the trans. You could probably clear a grand pretty easy by scrapping it. Be kind of a shame with something that low-mileage.
Where to find collision parts? Go to the junkyard...They built a ton of them, and the plastic stuff is pretty durable as long as it doesn't take a hard direct impact. Not only that, but the early cars didn't come in all that many colors, so you may even luck out and find stuff that matches your car. I did, and it turned a $900 quote at a bodyshop into $125 at the junkyard and an afternoon's work.
Boring? After a manual swap, no. Some naysayers don't like them, but I don't know that any have actually driven one. For the money you'll have in it, it could be a whole lot of cheap fun.
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Dork
10/6/08 3:40 p.m.
Pull out the core support, bolt on some junkyard body panels (snag a manual tranny, pedal assembly and a master cylinder while you're at it), get it aligned and motor down the road in something you don't have to worry about anybody messing with or stealing!
though if they DID want to steal it, that's one of the easier cars to take...
Those core supports are rock hard btw. You may be able to pull it back to the right dimensions, but count on replacing what's left of it after you do. They're fairly cheap and it's not a big deal. I'd do it, but I like old Saturns, which apparently you do or you don't.
Well, I found a 96 with a trashed motor locally for real cheap. Will the motor from this 92 go into a 96 without much trouble?
I should think so. and your 92 has a factory header and more desirable valves iirc.
Junkyard is your best bet for collision parts, although lots of cars in the junkyard are there because of front-end collisions...
A '92 motor in a '96 gives you some problems. The injectors are different impedances (and a different system altogether...MPFI to SPFI), the EGR valve is vacuum on the '92 and electric on the '96 (although there's an adapter plate available from Saturn that was used on 1995 California cars). So use the shell car's fuel rail, and it's electric EGR valve with the adapter, and you're 95% of the way there.
A manual swap is possible, and not terribly difficult, just time consuming, and is detailed here, including a list of needed parts: http://www.differentracing.com/tech_articles/tranny_swap.html
And FWIW, I would rock the E36 M3 out of a '92 SC with only 40K miles. Awesome.
Depends on location. I'm seeing a lot of Saturns in the boneyard because they're just plain rusted out.
