Quote:
Originally Posted by Weather Spotter
time for an update....
things have been busy with house so car has been a daily driver and not worked on much. still getting 55-60 mpg mixed commute. The tail is starting to show its age, after 3.5 years it is getting close to time to take it off. Two rear end impacts have made both lower corners in need of repair (mostly fiber glassing, structure is ok) the sides have several spots where cargo has made holes in the side that have only been semi repaired. Where I made room for the exhaust has burned/ rusted out and I made a repair but an occasional smell tells me its not 100% sealed up.... In addition to that, where the tail connects at the top has always been a leak prone area and i am out of ideas on fixing it without taking it off and redesigning the interface. If I take it off likely i will not rebuild it as I need a trailer option or a truck at times and $$$ say having a hitch is the cheapest option. I figure the tail saves me $150-$200 a year but a second car's insurance is more then that a year.... not counting anything else.
Then there is the family pressure to improve my "image if i want to get a wife....." Since I am people skills lacking...... I tend to trust them in that area.... Since the "recommendation" is made weekly and i can see some rational in their position.... I am thinking of falling off the car with boat tail list 
I may take the car most of the way back to stock.... in looks department..... but a few things can stay, smooth wheel covers belly pan...... KILL SWITCH 
Not 100% sure yet as to my plan as the transmission stopped working this week so its in the shop with a likely $2-3000 bill to fix. This is making me think through the options as to getting rid of the car without fixing, parting it out, fixing and selling (Stock almost certainly required) or do i fix it and keep on using it as is, or do I fix it and cave to the rational of better looks and take it back to stock? I am also thinking of getting rid of this and getting a different car which opens a can of worms, Prius? leaf? old metro and mod it up?
Ideas from the wiser then me people of the cloud? |
What shop are you going to that's going to charge you 2-3k for a manual tranny repair!??!?! I know several people here in Cali that live within 30 miles that do automatic tranny rebuilds for 800 with no warranty and 1200 with a warranty, -$200 if you drop the tranny yourself. A manual rebuild is only $400+ parts. I would most definitely get a second opinion and shop around a little to see if you can get under 2k to rebuild the tranny.