As others have said, rust can be a problem and some parts are hard to find, but they're out there. The drivetrain and suspension are based on the model 96, so it's mostly the Sonett-specific pieces such as trim bits and glass that take some hunting down. So it's not like restoring an old Mustang, where you can just sit down next to the phone with a Visa card and a pile of catalogs and order exact reproductions of everything you need. On the other hand, where's the fun in THAT?

The Sonett should be a good car for a full resto project because the body comes off pretty easily (just five pieces of fiberglass) and onced it's off you've still got a drivable 'rolling chassis' so it's easy to move it around. And since most of the chassis metal is just stamped flat sections, it's not too hard to get pieces fabricated if necessary. And if you do a slightly ugly job of welding here or there, odds are it'll be covered up once you put the body back on. Because it was a low-volume car (~2,000 units per year) a lot of the original construction was slightly 'handmade' anyway, so it'll be easier to replicate than something with thousands of unique factory-custom-molded little bits that have to be reproduced. (For one fun little example, look at the way the horn wire comes out of the steering column and is just wrapped a couple of turns around the base; that really was 'factory original!')

My main caveat would be to make sure you'll like driving the car once you've restored it -- in other words, find one and try it out first. There's not much headroom for really tall people, it's loud, steering and braking efforts are high by modern standards, and the ride quality is "assertive" if not actually downright hard. Some people get tired of this "fully caffeinated" flavor very quickly, while others of us like it a lot -- make sure you know which group you're in! (I probably shouldn't have said that, as having someone fully restore a Sonett and then deciding he hates driving it would put another nice car on the market for the rest of us!)

posted by 204.76.113...

• Thinking of buying a 1974 Sonnet, NukeFlash, Mon, 11 Aug 2003 21:39:20
  • Thinking of buying a 1969 Sonnet, JPaul, Wed, 24 Sep 2003 14:25:54
  • Re: Thinking of buying a 1974 Sonnet, Ray Kopczynski, Mon, 1 Sep 2003 10:06:26
  • Re: Thinking of buying a 1974 Sonnet, spiv, Tue, 12 Aug 2003 12:47:48 <-- Viewing This Message
  • Re: Thinking of buying a 1974 Sonnet, Mic, Tue, 12 Aug 2003 11:23:46
  • Re: Thinking of buying a 1974 Sonnet, ryan, Tue, 12 Aug 2003 11:12:13

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