So while cruising craigslist looking at dsms in my area I found this little gem listed for $950, saying that it was in need of a tune-up and possibly a new transmission.

I didn't give it much thought but I did send it to myself to look at again later. I came back and checked it a few days later and the price had been dropped to $650





All of the interior has these hideous red accents.





I decided to go ahead and shoot the person a text and ask a few questions. I was told that the car ran but wouldn't go over 10mph. That seemed odd to me and led me to believe that it was ecu or tcu related and likely not the actual transmission. I was also told the battery doesn't hold a charge so the car had to be jumped.

So I asked for more pictures with a little more detail and was told none were available, just what was on CL. So I sent a message saying with what I knew and had seen in the available pictures the car was worth $500 and I could pick it up that day after work. Much to my surprise, my offer was accepted and I was asked what time I could pick it up as they just wanted gone at this point. SCORE!

Thinking the car would pull it's weight i didn't bring help to load the car and the winch was out of commission. I arrived there @ 8pm that night and it was already dark, The seller turned out to be a 20 something girl who was living at her mom's and mom was tired of seeing the car broke down.

The car started up on the first try but ran extremely rough and barely wanted to idle. A sound I was familiar with but I didnt want to jinx myself so I opted to try and push onto the trailer, luckily a neighbor came and lended a hand and we were able to get it loaded up with aide of a small hill on her street. While loading the car I was able to confirm my suspicion; there was indeed a blown intercooler hose.

I wasn't able to get the car home until 10:30 that night and had to work at 7am the next morning so I left the car on the trailer and spent a little time with the family before bed, unloading the car Saturday after work. Having to work all week the car sat untouched until this past weekend.

Being a DSMer I had plenty of things on the shelf to make the obvious repairs. A coupler replaced and a clamp later the car fired right up and after a minute or so ran smoothly @ 900 rpm. Surely I couldn't be this lucky... So I put the car in D and apply slight gas...car doesn't move. I begin to sadden thinking it actually does has trans issues. I tried reverse with the same result, it tried to rev but didn't want to budge. It was then I noticed that the emergency brake was set! Oops! My wife must have done that, so with the emergency brake released the car moved. So I called the wife and told her t come out side. As she came out the door, I sped away down the street as she watched with a confused look on her face. When I came back she was smiling and bouncing around like a little kid at Christmas. "I wanna drive!" So off she went on her maiden voyage.



Now it's parked again to get some neglected maintenance and to fix a leaking oil feed line.

The car came with a fmic and hard pipes, real mhi 16g turbo, hks bov and what looks like an ebay tubular manifold.

We'll be sanding off the rattle can paint job and taking her to Maaco for a little refreshing. Stay tuned for the progress!

Awesome find! Excited to see it take shape!!

You lucky son of a gun! What a score.

Nice find!!

Nice find! Keep this updated I love threads like this.

Why cant I find stuff like this. Nice find!

Wow, nice find!

Wonder how much the 'shop' told that girl it would cost to fix the 'transmission'.

Good luck with the car. Here's hoping it will give you many more miles of fun boosted driving.

im a jealous man on that find plus my fiance would love an eclipse

Damm... does the car have a full six bolt swap?

That was the other discovery. It's already 6 bolt swapped.

Nice find for a talon with a 6 bolt swap done as well.found one my self same year with auto that was done too picked it up for 1300.00 but has body damage so going to be doing a full body an paint job on mine an a freshening on the JDM engine that it has in it with some tweak's like doing a port job with new rings an bearings and maybe a G16 swap to give it a little more punch as a DD.

Great score dude!!!

Your story is kind of similar to mine.
I picked up a 99 gst for 800$ it was a great deal since car had black interior in perfect condition, apexi saft, hks turbo timer, mhi 16g , turbo xs bov, had a 1g head swap and head came with new oem valves, new 3g lifters, and a rebuilt throttle body.
Body was on great condition and a clean tittle/carfax ... but it had a rod knock . Not bad for 800 bucks though

Nice my car was the same story got it for 800$ the guy wanted 1200 body the door needed alil work other than that everything was mint my dad just pecked around it for a month it was a 91 Plymouth laser with 6bolt swap to nt it used to be turbos ,things running great even in -50degrees Celsius prrs like a kitten

Turboed auto correct

What, The, ####! You lucky bastard haha.

Looks better!

I looks way better! Did you plasti dip it or do a quick spray?

I sanded the whole car. 120 then 250 grit the washed it and let it dry the did a quick spray using rattle cans.

So this became my son's car and the wide is keeping her 3g for now.

Brand new front bumper for $41.

Gee thanks dad that's awesome. I had to buy my own first car, but it was an 84 Firebird. If my dad did buy me a car it probably would have been a corolla or a geo or something so I was better off

Good find, and awesome present

I bought my first car too! But you always more for your kids that you had... I have a 77 TA that he was supposed to help restore but he decided he wanted something more like my car. I almost bought him a Conquest but it sold a few days before I could go to Houston to pick it up. Either way this car is coming along nicely. It's still got a few bugs to work out but it's getting there.

Thats cool haha. Bought my car months ago when I was 16 and wasnt even allowed to drive it.

Quest4Boost said:

I bought my first car too! But you always more for your kids that you had... I have a 77 TA that he was supposed to help restore but he decided he wanted something more like my car. I almost bought him a Conquest but it sold a few days before I could go to Houston to pick it up. Either way this car is coming along nicely. It's still got a few bugs to work out but it's getting there.

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It's cool too because any car you were gonna get/give him is not "lame" my dad was just old fashioned back then.

Gotta love the f-bodies, I have two of those my first car, and a lt1 6 speed 95,

I think it's awesome that you and your son have the same car I bet his friends are jealous

keep up the good work! and don't leave the f-body out

I've owned a few f bodies in my day. 2nd-4th Gen. If I do build the TA I'll piss a lot of people off. I still want to build a 2jz car in a bad way...