Keep the parts car the parts car?

After this post I started this post a while back,  https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/open-classifieds/help-me-dream-about-engine-swap-options-ae71-corolla/143369/page1/

i started  to look for either a LR4 or 1uz on Craigslist and Facebook. To swap in my 1983 AE71 wagon  

I ended up coming across a 93 sc400. It was not running but they guy said it was just a fuel pump issue he though.  It was only about 15mins from my parents house so I set it up. Offered him a little less money and went and picked it up. 

It was an Alabama car so I didn’t see much rust on it. (My AE71 is rather rusty) the paint is not great but mostly just chipped off in places an a lot of spider web cracks.  Breaks worked when I rolled it off the trailer. 

Interior is not very nice, dirty and beat up. 

So the question is, when does the parts car stay a parts car, and when does it become its own project?

My shop is now at maximum capacity ha ha

Also any known fuel issues on these would be helpful when I get a chance to dive in. 

I can't say much as my parts car is about to do it's third Challenge. If it's a good car it deserves to live on.

Only thing I can say, I hope you didn't pay more than scrap value for a non-running, not particularly desirable car. 

I had the same thing happen with an ls400. Bought it as an engine donor and got it running and everything worked. My wife loved it and drove it for 3-4 years as her car and I sold it to a fellow forum member. Sometimes it’s hard to start pulling them apart when they seem to want to live. 

@z31: A 1993 Camry is a “not particularly desirable” car. An sc400 has a market for the car and parts so will always be worth more than scrap value. Scrap value on a complete car right now is about $250. I could probably sell one part off that car for $250. 

Try to get it running first. There could be a multitude of problems with it. I almost turned my 5.9 Limited into a project car, and it would have been a fairly cheap project. Paid $400, and immediately had a good working transmission lined up for $100 

But I didn't need it. Sure, it would have been cool, and Stone White is my favorite color for Niners. But the parts helped me to complete other projects, and another 15 MpG vehicle is not what I need, especially since it won't carry much compared to the others. 

I would think once your wagon has the heart of this car in it, and you sell off other parts to zero it all out, you will see what I mean. 

I think you should try and get Patrick of wartburg fame to buy this after you pull the bullet and let him work his LS magic. 

The SC400 looks pretty good at first glance. I too would have a hard time cutting it up. Heck, it looks nicer than my daily driver.

I bet you could sell enough off the SC400 to make it free. Mind me asking what you have into it? Get it running, make sure the drivetrain is what you want in your wagon, and sell off the highest value items that you don't need on eBay.

If you can bring yourself to tear apart a good car, assuming it proves to be a good car. They're not especially rare, so don't feel too guilty.

759NRNG said:

I think you should try and get Patrick of wartburg fame to buy this after you pull the bullet and let him work his LS magic. 

I am missing the Patrick of wartburg reference?  Got a link?

In reply to dculberson :

I now have a grand total of $450 in the SC, I saw another one getting parted out on Facebook, and there was a lot of interest in a lot of the random parts, that’s why I wasn’t to worried about the above scrap value price .

it is the no rust that has me questioning parting it out eventually. Right now out of 5 cars the only one that doesn’t have rust is my Kia Sorento daily appliance .

Hey, I've been in you situation. I had a 5-speed manual (swapped) SC300 donor for my Rice Rod project. The chassis had 299k miles on it, the engine/trans had been swapped in from a lower mileage car, the doors didn't open from outside, but the windows also didn't roll down, clearcoat peal, etc. I drove it to work for a couple months and LOVED every bit of it. The Lexus SC300/400 is something special. Even at that high mileage, everything worked, it was comfortable, and it drove fantastically. It was difficult emotionally to dismantle. 

On the flip side, this car parts out AMAZINGLY. The newest SC is 18 years old. There is a huge following for these cars and they're starting to dry up at junkyards. I sold each head light for almost $200. Each tail light for over $100. Body panels, seats, interior stuff, I sold over $1,500 worth of parts off my 299k mile SC300 without even touching the drivetrain. It was like getting paid a few hundred bucks to accept a free 2JZ and trans. And it was easy to take apart, even with 20+ year old high mileage fasteners. The build quality of this car is unbelievable. 

Now I regularly search for clean SC's as a future daily driver. One of the best quality cars Toyota ever made, because in the early 90's they had something to prove when launching Lexus.

In reply to maschinenbau :

Good to hear. $1500 with out the drivetrain is amazing.