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, Mon, 3 Dec 2001 05:48:32
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All the other life stories so far have been about resurrected 'sitters,' so thought I'd better chime in with mine, which had been a 'driver'...
Previous owner was a professional mechanic, did just enough maintenance to keep the car going since he knew he could fix whatever went wrong next. He'd drive the car on nice days during the summer, racking up a couple of thousand miles per year, and in the winter stored it behind his house under a tarp. However, his wife decided she wanted to put in a garden back there, so it had to go.
I knew I didn't have the skill/knowledge/money/patience to start with a rust-free original Sonett and restore it -- what I was looking for was a car I could tinker with occasionally but drive without worrying when the road turned to gravel. This one was cheap enough ($1500) that I could buy it without feeling overprotective, but ran well enough that I could drive it right away. It had been hit hard on the left front corner in its distant past, taking it out of the "concours restoration candidate" category, but in my view that was a plus as I didn't have to feel guilty about NOT restoring it!
Once I had it in custody, I started out by crawling all around it and prioritizing everything that needed to be done to it. Overheating on hot days was the first immediate problem -- I dinked around with flushes, 'water wetter,' etc., then got serious and had the radiator recored, which fixed the problem instantly. Previous owner also had disconnected the heater because it wouldn't shut off, which I fixed by cleaning the water control valve. I also had the clutch replaced and put on new front brake pads, rear shoes, and braided steel lines. The total was about $800, I think, with the clutch and radiator being the biggest chunks. This was all it really needed (other than the usual oil and filter changes etc.) for the first summer of driving, autocross, etc.
Over the following winter I added a Pertronix Ignitor to make it easier to tune and replaced the front shocks. Something it didn't really need but that I did for fun was install a 2bbl carb and manifold. I also finally got all the lights working and tried to do a little filling of bad spots in the fiberglass (which looked worse AFTER my efforts than before!) This added up to maybe $150 other than the carb/manifold, which I got for $110 from a scrap car.
During the ensuing summer the car developed an embarassing thirst for brake fluid, which I alleviated by replacing the seals in the left front caliper. When I did this I found that the piston was pretty badly pitted, so eventually I got a new one from MSS and put that in too. Meanwhile I did a few other non-essential projects such as adding an oil pressure gauge, getting the door panels reupholstered, etc. while continuing to drive the behonkus out of the car.
During the following off-season I decided I finally had to do something about the rusty areas in the floorpan and trunk. The prev. owner had patched these neatly with riveted-on sheetmetal and I had supplemented this a bit by spraying in some of that hardware-store expanding foam goop to absorb noise. All this had been crudely effective, but I was worried about snoopy SCCA tech inspectors looking under my car and objecting to the rusty hunks of trunk floor hanging down. Besides, I thought it would be fun to learn how to MIG weld. So I bought a Hobart Handler 135 welder at a farm store and a cheap bending brake at Harbor Freight, practiced a bit, and then spent several months working from the front of the car to the back, cutting out bits of brown metal and then snipping, bending and welding in bits of shiny metal. My welds were and still are pretty messy, but I'm pretty sure I got all the brown metal off! I also replaced the (saggy) rear springs and shocks.
My big cosmetic upgrade: the carpet had to come out anyway to patch the floors, so I hauled all the carpet bits down to the self-service car wash and spent a buck and a half worth of quarters blasting them with the high pressure hose, then hung them in my garage to dry for a couple of weeks. You'd be surprised how much this improved their appearance!
I've got several other projects in mind this winter, but basically it's still a car I drive when I feel like it and work on when I feel like it, rather than a car that NEEDS a lot of stuff. So, what have I spent? Well, what with the original price plus necessary and not-necessary add-ons, I figure I've spent $2,700... to wind up with a rough, crudely-welded, non-original old car that I probably couldn't sell for even the original $1,500 now.
On the other hand, it runs great, it's a ball to drive, it's fun to tinker with it, I have no qualms about driving it whenever and wherever I want, and people constantly come up wanting to know what it is and tell me how cool it looks. How much is THAT worth?
posted by 24.3.2...
, Mon, 3 Dec 2001 05:48:32
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