Hi everyone, I hail from the Brisbane western suburbs.
Until recently I've been messing about with mostly Holden Gemini's (Opel Kadett C if you will) but had to give up playing with cars while I was unwell and being treated for cancer.
However I've been in remission for a number of months now and decided to get back behind the wheel, so I set out with the tiniest of budgets to buy the most sorry piece of crap I could afford.
A few days of hunting netted a few choices, first car I went to look at was a combo van but it turned out to be rusted beyond repair.
On a whim I spotted a 1998 SB Swing 3 door advertised for $450 so I went to have a look. the clear coat was absolutely ruined, had various shopping trolley dents, the interior has so many stains that I suspect the car was used as a regular orgy venue, some of the interior plastics were missing, steering wheel was heavily weathered and the indicator stalk couldn't support it's own weight. The rear muffler was also only held on by the hangers stopping the body from sliding off of the muffler inlet.
Now even at this stage I wasn't really deterred, as these are all little things in reality, the motor (C14SE) was in good running order and felt strong with only an occasional misfire that I'm yet to rectify, gearbox felt solid and the clutch, brakes and handbrake all worked as they should. There was zero rust present, tires and suspension all felt and looked great.
I got to talking with the guy about what I needed the car for and mentioned that I needed a cheap reliable daily to get back on my feet after finishing treatment, so he basically came out with "Mate, $300 and she's yours"
SOLD.
I repaired the indicator stalk by replacing the internal spring with one from a ballpoint pen, and fitting a near new rear muffler from a wrecker, pulled out the seats and shampooed the hell out of them, removed 18 years worth of mud and vegetation from the roof gutters and panel jambs and sent it off for a roadworthy.
Came back first time all good, rego'd the next day.
So my running tally so far not including roadworthy and rego is $345.
I've nicknamed it "Scum" and plan to do a fair bit more work to it, starting with chassis strengthening and suspension, then working my way up to brakes and maybe a z18xe swap in the not too distant future.
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