Trying to justify a project car

So I've got most of the boxes checked off with my current fleet.  Wife's DD is an SUV, my DD is a 6MT hot hatch, fun car is a 911.  What I could use the most is a truck, like a mini truck or first gen Tundra.

What do I want?  A 93-94 Corrado VR6.  Owned one in 2000, not a great car to own as your DD and active duty when rubbing two nickels together means couch diving for the other nickel. 

These seem to be coming up in value, but slowly.  Outliers (pristine, low mileage cars) are going for big money ($25-30k), but most clean examples with average mileage (150-175k) seem to sell for $7-9k.  Hagerty has identified these as up and comers for appreciation.

So besides my issue of what the heck am I going to do with one of these, my real issue is the value.  I've found  a good project car from a die hard corrado nut, who has a storage unit of parts.  The car will come to me mechanically solid but with bad paint and has a few accidents on the carfax.

The interior could use a little help too, it's the tan interior and that tends to not age well, which this one hasn't.  The front seats are showing the typical cracks in the leather.  That's gonna bug me and herein lies the issue.  He's got a set of black fabric recaro seats and lseat.com makes tan leather seat covers for them.  So I could buy those seats from him, get the covers and have a unique, nice interior, but for an additional cost obviously.

The car itself is being offered to me pretty cheaply, with the idea that it needs a full respray somewhat taken into account.  What I'm worried about it getting to far into the car $$ wise, where it would just make better sense to have passed on this one completely and bought a much nicer one to start with. 

Or I buy this one, do the recaro seats, put a flat black wrap on the roof to cover up the worst of the paint and just drive it as is.  If the market on them keeps going up, eventually I get it painted.  I do mechanical stuff, I don't do body/paint stuff.  I've got a patient who does old Porsche restorations, he quoted me a ball park of $6k to paint the car.  I need to go back and try to explain that this car just needs a decent paint job and not a windows out paint job and see if maybe that can be more like $4k.

I just don't want to get to far into it.  Or does the value in this car is that it IS a crusty car and just leave it like that? 

For the paint, Maaco is your friend.  Hard to beat their prices for a driver quality job.

docwyte said:

What I could use the most is a truck, like a mini truck 

Ready for the GRM answer with little to do with your original question? Later model Golf or Jetta with the VR6 swapped in, and a Smyth Ute body kit.

https://www.smythkitcars.com/jetta-golf-ute

You did not list a project car in your fleet. Do you have a project car? If you don't have a project car, that is your justification for getting a project car. Everybody needs a project car.

I love it. "What I could use the most is a minitruck". For what? To bring half sheets of plywood home for the kids' art projects? What you need to do is remember how big of a pain in the arse it is to sell E36 M3. Also remember how incredibly expensive EVERYTHING besides airline tickets has become due to this bullE36 M3 Covid stuff.

Get back to spending time and effort having fun in the 911 and wringing the crap out of the hot hatch. You have a perfect setup as is.

In reply to docwyte :

You don't need the Corrado at all.  In fact to remove the temptation from you just send me the contact info for the seller and I'll take care of the problem for you.

Don49 (Forum Supporter) said:

For the paint, Maaco is your friend.  Hard to beat their prices for a driver quality job.

as it's all in the prep,  Maaco can do better than Driver Quality too.  The one nearest me has won awards for their paint jobs on high end vehicles.

In reply to Olemiss540 :

Well, the snow blower doesn't fit into the Golf R or the Cayenne for instance.  So a mini truck would be useful taking it and the lawn mower in for service, or for when I need to carry something awkwardly sized.  I don't need a modern, huge F150, but an old VW rabbit pickup or '90's toyota truck would work out well.

Yeah, I get what you're saying, I guess mostly I need something to work on.  The shutdown put me idle for 2 months and I caught up on all my garage projects.  The corrado will give me endless projects.

Got a cost break down from the seller. 

$3600 for the car.

$400 for a set of euro "regular" 3 point seatbelts, which delete the troublesome "mouse" seatbelts

$900 for the recaro front seats, plus another $350 for the lseat covers

$5250 total

He'll include a set of techtonics 268 cams/valve springs/lifters installed.  Car comes with an external oil cooler, coilvers (mid range, not H&R/bilsteins) and rebuilt top end on the motor, rebuilt front suspension bushings etc.  I've had one of my friends who lives out there check out the car for me last weekend.  It's what the seller says it is and my friend reports the seller is OCD, so that's a good thing.

Add in shipping from Massachusetts to Colorado, so maybe $700 for an open trailer? 

All in, tax, title, etc $6400 probably.  A decent price for what it is but not a screaming deal considering it needs a full body respray.  Car is the rare burgundy pearl color.  Or just deal with the interior as is, don't get the recaro front seats, leatherique it and get the car for $4000, plus shipping, so into it for under $5k.

I passed on a really nicely built 94 corrado that basically needed nothing for $9k last January because it was green, which is my least favorite color for them.  Then I got shut down for 2 months due to Covid and was glad I passed up on it.  Now I'm thinking $9k for such a sorted car was a great deal and I should've gotten it even tho it was green.

People with a cool car don't need to be justified. 

In reply to docwyte :

I bought Jason Saini's old Corrado around '02-'03 and sold it back to him a couple years later. I think I paid $7k for it back then, which was a little high, but it was also a well-sorted & competitive autox car. Yeah, that $9k one doesn't sound too bad at all in comparison. 

Honestly though, as cool as they are I'd never own another one. They're just too temperamental, quirky, and prone to electrical troubles. Though you stated you want a project, and you can pretty much guarantee a Corrado will never not be one of those. 

docwyte said:

So I've got most of the boxes checked off with my current fleet.  Wife's DD is an SUV, my DD is a 6MT hot hatch, fun car is a 911.  What I could use the most is a truck, like a mini truck or first gen Tundra.

What do I want?  A 93-94 Corrado VR6.

I had a little trouble with that segway from almost the first sentience to the next... I had to look up Corrado (not being a VW guy) trying to figure out what kinda truck that was! I can tell an ol' air cooled bug from the others, but no help beyond that! I have had a bunch of trucks through the years, as small as a 84 rampage, to full size semi's! Depends on what you looking for a truck to do, but I think an older import truck would suit ya.

Seems like not a bad deal, even if it needs paint it's not a belly button color which is helpful in the long run. You know what you are getting into so if you are into it, do it.

I am not allowed to have both a Corrado and a 911 as per SWMBO you may want to double check yours.

mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:

Don49 (Forum Supporter) said:

For the paint, Maaco is your friend.  Hard to beat their prices for a driver quality job.

as it's all in the prep,  Maaco can do better than Driver Quality too.  The one nearest me has won awards for their paint jobs on high end vehicles.

 

My first Miata had Maaco paint. 

If you just want a fun toy to kill time on it sounds like a fun project. 
if you're buying it to try and not lose money on it.... I wouldn't. Good ones make money but those won't have accidents in their history. 

Dark horse in the running, an 89 944 Turbo just popped up locally.  Going to check it out this Friday...

I think a project truck would fit the bill nicely. You can justify it to Mrs. Docwyte as a utility vehicle but still have fun working on it. I have a first gen Tundra (DC 4WD) that I absolutely love and could never pay the extra ~$40k to step into a newer truck. 

I always think I'd love to have a unique older car to work on, but everytime I do I always regret it as it becomes too much of a time sink and parts availibity annoys me. For now I've settled with a Miata and S2000 that are both low miles and I much prefer to work on either of them for small modifications as they are clean, well documented, and parts are cheap and available!

Either way, good luck with the decision!