mitsubishi Montero and Mercedes-benz 280

Hooniverse Asks: How did your “cheap” project car prove itself the opposite?

Jeff Glucker

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The initial cost is a money appetizer. You whet your wallet when you see that title signed over with your name on the bottom. A few thousand bucks and you’re rolling along in a clean, cool new machine. And then you hear a noise. Or you see a drip. Or you smell something in a fleeting moment. The noise/drip/smell go away, but then it happens again. And again, but this time it’s louder/bigger/stronger, and it’s not going to stop. Welcome to the world that is your new project car.

With my Montero, I’ve been sailing along swimmingly. I’ll have a proper update for you soon, but the gist of what’s going on can be explained quickly. The good news is that I’ve got a fresh set of BFGoodrich KO2 tires waiting to be installed. They’ll be wrapped around a set of Turbomac HD Classic wheels from Fifteen52, and I can’t wait to see the wheel-tire set bolted to the truck. My completely broken inclinometer has been swapped out for one that sort of works. It doesn’t have the mineral oil inside but the gauge itself functions through a series of manic bounce actions. I’ve installed a Clarion M508 headunit to replace the aged Blaupunkt unit that was installed prior.

On to the bad…

I’d recently had a shop balance the driveshafts, examine the transfer case, and check on the various fluids floating around inside this rig. While at the shop, the rear brakes were replaced as well. That shop didn’t notice any drip, even though I said for them to take a look for such a thing. I got the truck back when I returned from driving the Honda Talon SxS and was excited to hop behind the wheel. As I spent the next few days and weeks with the truck, I noticed spots of oil that seemed to grow in size. I thought I was going crazy, as I recently changed the oil myself. I double checked the drain plug and filter, but assumed I still managed to mess something up because… well, it’s me.

First Drive: Honda Talon 1000R and 1000X

It wasn’t me

Then I started crawling underneath the truck to pinpoint where the drips were coming from. Was it the transfer case? The oil pan? Wait… it looks like it’s coming from a spot between the engine and transmission. Shit. It’s the rear main seal. The amount spent on the recent work would’ve easily covered the rear main seal job, and I wish I’d have just spent the cash on that. But now I’m quickly turning my “cheap” project truck into something other than that.

Still, I am enjoying it. I love the way it looks with its two-tone 90’s paint job and square lines. It drive well and I look forward to getting it dirty once I’ve got those KO2 tires in place. But I’ve already spent far more than I intended this early in my time with the truck. And I’m sure we’re not done yet. The other day while driving my wife and daughter to dinner, my clutch went and stayed near the floor. I could still shift but I had to kick it up with my foot to get it to come back up. It had not done that prior and it hasn’t done that since… but I could feel my wallet tingling in fear.

What project cars have you experienced that started cheap, and then turned out to be anything but?

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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54 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: How did your “cheap” project car prove itself the opposite?”

  1. P161911 Avatar
    P161911

    My problem is not buying project cars, it is buying cars that turn into projects. I spent about twice the purchase price on repairs of my Z3/M Roadster clone in the less than two years that I had it.

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      My first car cost at least 3x the purchase price to fix things I mostly knew about when I bought it, within 4 months or so. At least it was cheap to start with, and I didn’t have to spend any significant money on it in the next 10 years I owned it, but it was a fair bit more than expected.

      On the other hand I could have bought a better car with that initial budget, but I don’t think I had all the money to start with either. I worked 2 jobs over that summer including most Friday and Saturday nights (which is an excellent way to save money!).

      TL/DR: with hindsight I would have done things differently, but I can’t say I regret it.

      Reply
  2. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    If somebody asks a rude question like that, I say “I dispose of them before the costs get out of hand”. Then I look at my spreadsheets*, turn off the lights, and cry a little for myself.

    *entirely legitimate approach to car ownership for a statistician/economist/sociologist

    Reply
    1. 0A5599 Avatar
      0A5599

      There’s a balance to be struck between making the project car better, and sinking too much into it. Sort of like remodeling and flipping houses, some improvements give you greater than 100% return on investment, but most give much less than that. Part of the trick is accurately making predictions of what those are at the purchase time, and not letting any surprises sneak in.

      Reply
      1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
        Jeff Glucker

        Hence why I’m not spending any more on the Benz

        Reply
        1. 0A5599 Avatar
          0A5599

          How did the numbers end up on the hoon truck?

          Reply
        2. 0A5599 Avatar
          0A5599

          How did the numbers end up on the hoon truck?

          Reply
          1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
            Jeff Glucker

            Broke about even after all said and done.
            Paid for some things, got some stuff for free (mostly for that Valvoline shoot; exhaust, cam, clutch).

            Bought the truck for around 3000, sold it for around 6000.

          2. Sjalabais Avatar
            Sjalabais

            6000 sounds like a very reasonable price considering all the work that has been done on it. Also, celebrity markup not found.

          3. Jeff Glucker Avatar
            Jeff Glucker

            Yes, there’s definitely no markups on my vehicles because there’s definitely no celebrity.

          4. 0A5599 Avatar
            0A5599

            I have an easy remedy for that.

            https://cdn04.carsforsale.com/3/1016126/26844875/1280636353.jpg

    2. mdharrell Avatar
      mdharrell

      The secret is never to collect or, worse, to record, or, worse yet, to examine, or, worst of all, to analyze any quantitative data*.

      *Entirely legitimate approach to pretty much everything for a geologist.

      Reply
      1. 0A5599 Avatar
        0A5599

        The secret is never to enroll in geography coursework.

        It might not keep costs from spiraling out of control, but most people–when given the choice between looking at spreadsheets or studying geology AND looking at spreadsheets—will choose the former.

        Reply
        1. Sjalabais Avatar
          Sjalabais

          In retrospect, those that studied geology and managed to leave campus after that have pretty good jobs. Hanging up and down mountain sites evaluating the danger of rockfall, ludicrously well paid oil jobs with three weeks on, two weeks off etc.

          Reply
          1. 0A5599 Avatar
            0A5599

            Hahaha. Funny you should mention leaving campus. I have a friend who is a geologist for an oil company. He has much disdain for academic geologists.

          2. 0A5599 Avatar
            0A5599

            Hahaha. Funny you should mention leaving campus. I have a friend who is a geologist for an oil company. He has much disdain for academic geologists.

          3. Sjalabais Avatar
            Sjalabais

            Just a little quip directed at mdharrell, tbh. I was en route to the ivory tower myself when something else entirely happened and opened up a life of part-time work and full-time pleasure. It also seems to be a standard rite of passage to distance oneself from academia when headed towards the private sector, no matter what profession.

    3. nanoop Avatar
      nanoop

      “out of hand” would mean that you can’t update the spreadsheet fast enough, right? From a statistician’s perspective you still have everything under control…

      Reply
  3. neight428 Avatar
    neight428

    I didn’t research what actual real life paint and body work cost on a Corvette, but relied on a sufficient volume internet anecdote before I fully absorbed the psychology involved in other people justifying their own bad decisions.

    The market never lies, and there is a reason late C3 Corvettes are cheaper than Novas.

    Reply
    1. neight428 Avatar
      neight428

      Replying to add after Lokki’s sad tale below, had vinyl wraps been an option at the time, I likely would have done the SMC (not fiberglass, exactly) work myself and covered the whole thing over. I walked away before that option to save the project was commercially available/popular enough for me to know about it.

      Reply
    2. neight428 Avatar
      neight428

      Replying to add after Lokki’s sad tale below, had vinyl wraps been an option at the time, I likely would have done the SMC (not fiberglass, exactly) work myself and covered the whole thing over. I walked away before that option to save the project was commercially available/popular enough for me to know about it.

      Reply
  4. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    The Internet Ruined My Project.

    I bought my 1961 Scout 2WD in the early 1990s, before the internet, cell phones or desktop laser printers. While it wasn’t exactly easy to find parts for, they mostly were available at NAPA Auto for pennies, and it was a fun challenge to hunt them down. Even as late as 2009, when I acquired my 1963 2WD and 1962 RHD Scouts they could be got for less than a couple grand because no one wanted the 4-cylinder Scout 80s, and particularly not the 2WD examples.
    The Internet did make finding parts easier, but it also increased awareness of these beasts. Soon parts prices went up, people were asking 5 figures for the Nissan diesel engine versions, and by the time I sold the last Scout, in 2016, I had Craigslist yahoos nagging me on the phone offering cash today if I would only undercut the first guy who responded to my ad.

    So thank you, internet, for databasing all the part numbers and sourcing them as far away as Australia. Also fuck you, internet, for ruining what used to be a cheap, quixotic and rewarding hobby. Now any idiot with ten grand can have a Scout.

    Reply
    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Gloriously written, but considering that any becoming classic is just a moving target, I don’t think the internet per se was the cause of the Scout’s rise in popularity.

      Reply
    2. I_Borgward Avatar
      I_Borgward

      Big money spoils the fun.

      Reply
    3. Maymar Avatar
      Maymar

      I suspect the internet has lifted all boats, so to speak, whether or not we wanted it to,

      Reply
      1. Batshitbox Avatar
        Batshitbox

        True. While the Scout hobby got too rich for my blood, the Laverda market* has inflated just when I’ve decided to sell, largely because internet.

        *which is also, oddly enough, huge in Australia like the Scout market.

        Reply
        1. outback_ute Avatar
          outback_ute

          Are Scouts huge in Australia? They used to feature in my grandfather’s I-H catalogues (he had I-H harvester and front-end loader), but I’ve only seen a handful of them around. Possibly more popular in Queensland, like Jeeps (which were based there).

          Reply
          1. Batshitbox Avatar
            Batshitbox

            As huge as IH Scouts get, I guess. Seeing a handful of them around over the past 30 years is actually quite a significant sample. Maybe my interest in RHD parts steered me towards Oz a bit more.

          2. Batshitbox Avatar
            Batshitbox

            As huge as IH Scouts get, I guess. Seeing a handful of them around over the past 30 years is actually quite a significant sample. Maybe my interest in RHD parts steered me towards Oz a bit more.

  5. Jakub Kdzirski Avatar
    Jakub Kdzirski

    I experienced quite the opposite, as I “overpaid” for my Lada 2107, beacause it had had a lot of work done to it before I bought it. And since I got the car there have been no issues whatsoever, and everything feels like new.

    Reply
  6. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    So far all of mine have turned out that way, but I’m sure the next one will be better.

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      Einstein’s definition of insanity?

      Reply
  7. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    I’ve never bothered, but old collectors sometimes park their new purchases on a big sheet of white paper (or newsprint) to make it easier to locate and identify leaks. Color & smell help.

    Jeff, remember that it took 25 years for things to wear out on your Montero, and that once fixed it’ll probably be another 25 years before they need it again. My friend’s Toyota pickup is at an age where a lot of expensive things are pooping out, and I have to convince her every time that she should keep the can of worms she has, rather than open a whole new one.

    Reply
    1. P161911 Avatar
      P161911

      “Color & smell help” Don’t forget taste! I had a friend that drove a 1965 Mustang with a bajillion miles on it up to the early 2000s. He would sometimes test leaking fluid by taste. Antifreeze is sweet.

      Reply
    2. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      Yeah the truck was already parked over a sheet of white paper, haha

      Reply
  8. Rover 1 Avatar
    Rover 1

    “What project cars have you experienced that started cheap, and then turned out to be anything but?”

    All of them.

    It seems to be some sort of requirement.

    Reply
  9. E34less Avatar
    E34less

    My last project car actually made me money. The current one… no comment.

    Reply
  10. discontinuuity Avatar
    discontinuuity

    My cheap Saabaru has required nearly $2k in repairs in the last year. Maybe I should’ve saved up my money and bought a nicer car.

    Reply
    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      But what could be nicer?

      Reply
    2. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      But what could be nicer?

      Reply
      1. discontinuuity Avatar
        discontinuuity

        I’d probably have bought a nicer Subaru with lower miles, maybe a Legacy GT wagon if I could find one with a manual.

        Reply
      2. discontinuuity Avatar
        discontinuuity

        I’d probably have bought a nicer Subaru with lower miles, maybe a Legacy GT wagon if I could find one with a manual.

        Reply
    3. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      That’s only about four months’ worth of the average car payment. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=average+car+payment Not bad! (Unless, of course, it is in addition to a car payment).

      Reply
  11. Lokki Avatar
    Lokki

    How did my project car cost me unexpected money?

    Hubris.

    – I really believed I could save her. All it would take would be time and money.

    Instead, I ended up writing her eulogy

    IN REQUIEM


    It is with deep regret that I announce the passing of my 1971 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce from complications developed during rust-removal surgery. That she was afflicted was known, but the extent to which the problem had spread was not recognized until she was fully stripped in preparation for extensive but routine cosmetic surgery, after which the painful decision to euthanize her had to be made.

    She had led an active life of some 45 years; she was a renowned beauty in her youth with her sleek lithe body attractively draped in French Blue paint and sporting a burgundy interior (which she preferred to call ‘Rosso Amaranto’) garnering her much attention.
We will gloss past her middle years, during which she took (as many top performers do) to drinking oil, suffered from small problems too numerous and sad to mention here, and earned an ugly scar on her face in a street fight, which she lost.

    Her comeback and second career on the car show beauty circuit began some six years ago when she was rediscovered after this writer responded -this is something I admit to with some embarrassment- to a Craigslist Ad in which she promised cheap thrills.

    Although her beauty was still apparent, she appeared for our first encounter in cheap red paint, dirty white Mexican-velour seats, and sporting greasy green shag carpeting. She was rather loud and swayed alarmingly. Yes, she was still drinking oil heavily, and on our drive back to my house it was apparent that there was no stopping her.
 Slow, patient and expensive work with her brought her back to her old charm. She stopped drinking, and was put on a strict beauty and physical rehabilitation regime.

    When she reemerged on the public scene, her classic beauty fascinated a younger generation who had never known anything like her. Where she had once roared angrily upon being awakened and rudely blew smoke at those who disturbed her, she now purred with a suggestively sexual contentment that made everyone who encountered her at such moments want to spend time alone on a dark country road with her.


    Before her diagnosis she had most recently appeared at an Italian Car show of some fame, garnering a second place in her class based on votes from an admiring public. It was this late-life success that led to the decision to try to replicate her early-years fashionista look of French Blue over Burgundy. As we have said, this decision led to her demise right when it seemed she was headed for public acclaim even larger than she had achieved in her youth. Without this attempt to ‘mingle with the Stars’ she would have likely been able to live a long life as a local celebrity, but regrettably she was lost because because of this over-reaching ambition for a comeback; something which has destroyed so many like her. 


Let us remember her fondly, if sadly, but without regret. She came a long way back from her lowest point in life, aimed for lasting glory, and she damn near made it.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/84a2c118f0142c76454d54b2a222d069b879c44b1f506e2beef4658ee67ccbdd.jpg
    *

    Reply
    1. neight428 Avatar
      neight428

      Well done.

      Reply
    2. neight428 Avatar
      neight428

      Well done.

      Reply
  12. Rover 1 Avatar
    Rover 1

    “What project cars have you experienced that started cheap, and then turned out to be anything but?”

    All of them.

    It seems to be some sort of requirement.

    Reply
    1. Fuhrman16 Avatar
      Fuhrman16

      About the same here. Thinking back on it, there’s only been two cars I’ve owned that didn’t try to drain my bank account. My ’86 Toyota 4runner, who’s only mechanical issues was a cracked distributor cap and a brake line (which was actually my fault). The other was my ’85 Renault Encore, with a new C/V joint being the most expensive repair during it’s stay.

      Reply
  13. fresnoautobody Avatar
    fresnoautobody

    Well written and to the point. I appreciate the detail in this article!

    Reply
  14. wunno sev Avatar
    wunno sev

    including purchase, maintenance, upgrades, etc, I’ve probably spent like 10-12k on my main car over the last six years, including a ~5k large-scale performance upgrade that I’m in the middle of right now, which was brought around by means of an engine replacement to fox some worn piston rings.

    but when I think about it, the car would probably still work if I hadn’t done most of what I’ve done over the years. it’d be rattle, handle worse, and be perpetually one leaky seal from self-destruction, but all my preventive maintenance has just served to keep it off the road for the same amount of time anyway.

    and “while I’m in there” scope creep has taken this from a simple $800 engine swap to a major overhaul and upgrade project that’ll probably end in tears anyway.

    I’ve owned the car 6 years and driven it 40,000 miles, for about $2000 per year. compare: in 2016 I paid about $19k out the door for a Fiesta ST. drove it 30,000 miles over the next two years, sold it for $14k. so about $2.5k a year, but zero fuss. sure, I got a super good deal on the car to begin with, but still – what am I getting out of these shitty old cars?!

    Reply
    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Difficult question. Was the Fiesta as fun to drive and as versatile in use as the Volvo?

      Reply
      1. wunno sev Avatar
        wunno sev

        considerably more fun, dramatically less versatile. but I use the capacity of the Volvo relatively infrequently.

        there’s more to it than that, of course – the Volvo somehow Lights My Fire where the Fiesta was mostly boring to me at any moment I wasn’t hooning it hard. but my rationalization of selling the Fiesta doesn’t seem to be panning out in the numbers.

        Reply
  15. Tiller188 Avatar
    Tiller188

    “It had not done that prior and it hasn’t done that since…”

    That’s where I start worrying. A consistent, reproducible problem is annoying, but probably fixable; failing that, it’s probably at least diagnosable; failing that, it might at least be work-around-able. A phantom flaw that self-heals only to reappear at the least opportune moment…that’s stress-inducing.

    Reply
  16. salguod Avatar
    salguod

    My $500 1996 318ti cost me $1,200 in parts over the next 2 years and 30K. I sold it for $1,450 so it cost me $125 a year. Pretty good.

    My $1,200 RSX cost me $1,700 in parts and I sold it for parts for $1,000 after 1.5 years. A bit more than $600 a year, still not bad. Imagine if I hadn’t wrecked it.

    My BMW was $3,600 and in the 3 months I’ve had it I’ve got almost $600 in parts in it. That’s a rate of $2,400 a year, hopefully it doesn’t keep up this pace.

    Reply