July 7, 2002 - On Rusty Cars...
Since I got everything working on BlueBird, I figured it would be a good time to take it for a spin...
I went over a bump a little too hard and something sounded like it broke, but I figured I just dropped some tool somewhere. NO THAT WOULD BE TOO EASY.
Well this sucks. It wasn't this bad when I bought it...
And this gaping hole in the driver's floor pan was NOT there when I bought it. DAMMIT! WHY CAN'T I GET A CAR THAT DOESN'T NEED A BILLION DOLLARS IN WORK!?!?!
2 hours later...
I'm calm. And feeling better now. Can't be that bad. Let's just take it up to Monty's and get an estimate on fixing it.
Monty laughs and points out the rust in the cowl coming from the hidden rust underneath the passenger t-top weather-stripping. You have got to be kidding me. The cowl is rusted out and so is the roof on the inside. I poked through it. Well, Bandit has good floors and roof... but that is awfully expensive, and then you get into the whole VIN debate and "is it really a Trans Am anymore" arguments. Before you tell me it isn't too rusty to fix ("ANYthing can be fixed" - Monty) I know it isn't too rusty to restore. It isn't like Burt or anything. But it is too expensive to repair on a car that a) has no sentimental value to me b) can be picked up anywhere (so I'm told). I could probably pick up a rust free shell for less than it would cost to repair the floor, roof, and cowl.
Anyone out there have a decent rust-free (not free rust) shell of a car (with title) that I can use? Cheap?
Didn't think so. So I am left with a variety of choices. Do I:
A. Pawn this beast off to some sucker and use the money to hunt for my dream (1977 Trans Am SE 400/4spd fully loaded)
B. Find yet another shell and use the parts (from either Bandit or BlueBird)
C. Repair it using patch panels or Bandit ($$$$$$$)
D. Go with WhiteBird (very trashed and rusty floors)?
Let me know what I should do. I'll conduct a survey. Once I tally the votes (for all two of you that read the site) I will make a decision.
Last updated July 7th, 2002 at 9:20PM