this won't fly, will it?

i'm beginning to realize there is no way in hell i'll ever finish a challenge car. the planned $2007 Z34 gpt scrapped because i found structural issues when i started pulling the blown tranny, the turbo grand prix got the engine blown the day i planned to register for $2008

$2009 brings me to a state that i don't want to buy another vehicle. I tried and tried to find clean buildable cars that catch my interest.

which brings me to the "this won't fly will it?" point of things. i have this 1991 corvette, my total investment if i put the original wheels and targa top back on is $1875 leaving $309 for sticky tires and an intake gasket. my dad was in the market for something needing good mileage that could cart himself back and forth to WV on a weekly basis to kayak and he told me find him something and i could trade for the vette, or find someone who wanted to trade for the vette. $1800 later i had a nice little 98 S10 with a new trans, same miles as the vette(115k), and we traded straight across.

$75 got me a new drivers door for the vette and hours of wetsanding and buffing have made it look halfway decent again, and i've got some scrap channel to replace 2 rusted out frame crossmembers.

i'm guessing all values stated are out the window because it was my dad, right?

i could get my 40 pickup done under $2009 if someone had a complete LS1/trans/harness/pcm they would sell me for $20 since my drivetrain breaks the budget by itself.

i keep my eye out for anything under $500 on craigslist every day but can't stomach another project since we're doing my dad's 48 chevy as soon as my 40 is done

Yea, that's a little sketchy. I think our readers would cry, "foul!" sounds cool though!

Per

1986 Vett with a salvage title is worth $1400 with spares, so I don't see why $1875 for a rusted though frame car would be to far off. Here is some documentation that could help:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/plan-attack/

I always wondered what would happen in the case of the classic case of man leaves wife, and calls to say sell his Porsche and send him the money; and she sells it for $1.00.

good points. just document it and see what you come up with. Come on down!

Per

Nice Vett. Is this the car?

patgizz wrote: i'm beginning to realize there is no way in hell i'll ever finish a challenge car. i have this 1991 corvette, my total investment if i put the original wheels and targa top back on is $1875 leaving $309 for sticky tires and an intake gasket. ..... and i've got some scrap channel to replace 2 rusted out frame crossmembers. i'm guessing all values stated are out the window because it was my dad, right?

Here's how we make it legit. you fix the frame on the corvette, then you trade it to me straight across for my V8 944. it includes a pair of rims with drag slicks, and another set of rims with hoosier A6 autocrossers. The V8 944 comes with the $2008 budget showing a mere $1900 (+/- a few) invested. it needs a clutch, but that's a $60 part. i also have a '99 vortec 5.7 with edelbrock intake and carb that could probably be separately negotiated, and actually cost me $175 less than the engine currently in the car, so that would help your challenge budget. could swap vortec for your juicy rolling stock.

i need more info on the 'vette before proceeding.

patgizz wrote: i have this 1991 corvette, my total investment if i put the original wheels and targa top back on is $1875 leaving $309 for sticky tires and an intake gasket.

your math is the suck.

2009 - 1875 =/= 309.

2009 - 1875 = 134!

yeah my math blew, i was working out in the cold all day.

thats the car above, photographed passenger side to not show the broken drivers door, there are eleventy billion stone chips on the front from being my dad's non winter daily driver from 1995-2002, and i did a decent spray bomb/blend job on the quarter behind the wheel to stave off the need to repaint the car where one of the rafters in the garage fell on it after tree fell on garage.

the factory sawblade wheels are rough but i could find 4 almost dead but still usable sticky tires on the vette forum for a song and some spraypaint would bring the rims back to life for a little while longer.

the car was wrecked hard front in 1993 according to carfax - and i know for sure the front bumper, some of the structure inside it, and hood are not originals. it leaks oil bad enough that when you park smoke comes out from under the hood. the crossmember up front that holds the hood supports is rusted through, and the crossmember in the back above the spare tire is rotted pretty bad, and this car spent no winters outside the garage.

lots of elbow grease type work to get done over winter from fixing the rust (hooray for buckets of used channels and tubes that one of my customers gave me to scrap), fix the oil leak with new intake gaskets and possibly oil pan gasket, delete the broken AIR system, etc...

ugh, sounds like a good challenge car to me! after that description, i'm going to retract my trade offer.