joseph mitro

yea, sounds like you paid a fair price for it. if you rebuild the engine and get some of the other minor issues sorted out, you could have a decent car for $3000 or so (assuming you do the work yourself)

congrats and good luck

DHC8FO

Get that frame checked out if you do have a clean title. It may cost you alot more than you think to get a good car out of the deal. If you don't mind the educational experience (read expense), it could be fun.

inactiveuser92616

looks like the title is clean! just bit the bullet and bought a carfax. Now to check the head and frame closely. I have a body shop 1 mile down the road; maybe I will see if they can come over and check it out.

500

Congratulations on the purchase!

$1050 sounds very fair, especially with a clean Carfax. If you get some pictures of the "fitment" issues that lead you to believe that the car may have been in a minor accident, post them here. I'm no expert, but some here may be able to offer up some useful ideas as to what may have happened. If indeed you are looking at original paint (or at least mostly) than that is a big plus. Other than the chopped up bits in the interior, how is the rest of the inside? I would say this car sounds very save-able. As the engine is already out, I would just launch into a full re-build straight away.

However, if you do decide to part it out, I am another one of those "S" folk who will be interested...

All the best whichever route you go,

Allan

AndyK

Could be a PO put in the fender antenna after thinking the windshield antenna was lame, etc. Good news is, now that you have a fender antenna, you can get a cheaper non-antenna windshield to replace the cracked one.

A minor victory, but a victory!

hacker-pschorr

I hate pissing in people's cornflakes, but here goes:

CarFax is garbage - I could fill pages with cars I have first hand knowledge of. I'll tell about the most recent:
Body shop I was visiting had two very new (03-04) Grand Prix's in the shop. One hit a tree head on about 40mph, the other rear ended pretty hard. Both cars were demolished.
He was sawing the two cars apart to make one complete car. He said using the factory weld joints on the chassis - only an "expert" on these models would ever be able to tell anything was done.

Guess what - clear CarFax and a clear title. 100% legal to do since one of the "donor" cars has a clear title. The dealership he was doing the work for will not have to disclose anything to the buyer.

The DareDevil

inactiveuser92616

ya, I realize if insurance doesnt get involved the title isnt marked. This is why I am going to very closely examine the suspicious; yet explainable, weird spots on the car. I am probably going to yank out the carpet to get a good look at the floor pan to look for creases or welds. I do not want to reassemble the car only to find out it turns only left.

Big E

Sounds like a good adventure. My dad and I bought a "questionable" S 3 years ago. It had been sitting for 9 months, and would only run for 10 minutes or so before it died. The PO's mom was selling it cause the owner (~25ish) couldn't afford to keep it up any more. But, he had a pile of records an inch thick, including, on one bill, "head work, new cams." Yeah, that was a pricey one, $5.5k in '96.

Now, after sorting out the engine problem (bad crank sensor) and fixing the clutch and transmission (knew tranny needed rebuilding when we bought it, didn't know clutch did), and learning a hell of a lot, and of course doing the t-belt and tensioner pads this spring, it runs great and has survived 2 autocrosses and a track day with no problems.

Good luck!

inactiveuser92616

well, upon closer inspection today it has been resprayed; just not recently. I was hoping to find some cool stuff on the options sticker, but it just had the usual ones. Have found that some of the components are missing from being stripped for the V8, but most of the critical stuff is there. He pulled the wire harness and DME though.