yodannyc Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Well call me crazy or stupid. cause thats what most of my friends are callin me. but i dont care. This is the story of young stupid kid from vancouver, WA that loves subarus. I bought my lovely money pit about a year ago. Bought it for $800 it was a fairly nice subaru too. It is a 87' subaru wagon gl 5spd 4x4 duel range less then 200,000 miles. It had some nice calmaster rims that were nice and shiny. really made it look good. Well, i really wanted to make this subaru a nice one. since it would be my car for the next couple of years. So i went and got a whole new exhaust system for it. 2 1/2" turbo magnaflow exhaust. $600 ya i know ouch. but it was worth it considering i had over a dozen exhaust leaks. and got a new oil pump and water pump and t- belts. Then i saved some money up and got all the windows tinted. Yeah it looks really nice now. well not even a week goes by when my head gasket blows. oh great. well General Disorder and myself and a friend work on it and get it fixed and squared away in a week or so. ran great all the way home and to work the next day. then what happens. go to start it and it makes a really loud cranking noise and dosnt start. damn now what? intake valve got stuck open due to the machine shop that plained my heads not cleaning it properly. Basically that engine is fried, never to be started again. Call up general disorder, he hooks me up with a motor that supposedly works great. ran when the guy wrecked it. ok awesome so just do a motor swap. well when i got the motor it had a big gouge in the oil filter, from the fan supposdly hitting it from the wreck. But hey it ran when it got hit must be good. WRONG! spent 2 weeks trying to put the motor in(cause it was my first time doing something like this.) and what do i find out. The piston rings are toast. So motor is fried. mechanic says it was probally driven without oil for a couple of miles. when i started it up it sounded like someone with a sledgehammer pounding away. So now i am getting a imported motor from a shop and having then install it since i dont have time too for $1800. RRRRRRRR!!! fraustrating!@$*& Keep in mind that i am going to school and work at a minmum wage place. so i dont have money or time. and now in debt. So why do you ask am i spending this much effort and time and money in this car? that is still to be answered. So here is the estimated cost of everything: car: $800 maintanence(water pump, t belts, etc.) $270 exhaust: $600 tint: $175 head gasket set: $80 altenater: $65 labor (stuff i didnt know how to do): $250 new engine: $1800 Tires and misc parts: $150 ------------------------------------------------------------ total cost: $4190 upcoming purchases: lift lights tires and wheels a $5000 1987 subaru wagon ladies and gentelman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrap487 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 I went through the same thing with my jeep, except in that case jeeps are peices of crap. And I didnt try to make it look nice either well hopefully things work out, you invested a bit in aftermarket stuff, where as if you had sold that and bought another car, you'd be going through the same thing tinting the windows, dealing with the exhaust at some point or another and tires and all that other crap if you had bought another car, it might have been slightly cheaper but who knows what kind of engine troubles you would have had to deal with. In your case it was just a matter of bad luck, not a bad investment. You should go back to the machine shop and cry about it cause it was their fault you shouldnt have to pay for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 lets compare this to what it could have been: car: $800 maintanence(water pump, t belts, etc.) 50-75 bucks if you did the work yourself exhaust: 20 bucks for pipe lenghts, 20 bucks for a muffler, use of a welder tint: $50 bucks self-installed head gasket set: $80 altenater: $65 labor (stuff i didnt know how to do): didnt need the heads shaved new engine: still didnt need the heads shaved Tires and misc parts: $150 total:1270, still within the book value now lets compare this to one of my cars 88 sedan: free car less motor, already converted to dual range 4wd fro a 2wd AT motor: exchange for doing work on soobs, with seals also(had to put them on) another crank seal: 10 bucks (after filing the burr off the crank snout) exhaust: 20 dollar cherry bomb, a 5 dollar flange, and soe pipe laying around mass airflow sensor, ecu temp sensor, and 02 sensor: pocket items at junkyard-free tire after driving on rim-25 bucks mounted and valve stem another motor and transmission: 440 dollars, from a parts car, half the miles gaskets:150 dollars(head set, exhaust gaskets 2 oil pan gaskets), u-haul discount from napa, only because i ported the heads impound fees: 340 dollars (non-registered car abandoned in us after stuck) grand total: 850 bucks substitute the impound fees for title and registration total:610 dollars doing the head gaskets instead of swapping from a parts car total: 170 now if i couold find a way to spend 5000 dollars on my 800 dollar car.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yodannyc Posted April 3, 2006 Author Share Posted April 3, 2006 You should go back to the machine shop and cry about it cause it was their fault you shouldnt have to pay for that. How am i going to prove it was there fault. My friend went there and talked to them about it and the shop said they dont usually plain alluminum heads. they just did what they were told. and thats it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yodannyc Posted April 3, 2006 Author Share Posted April 3, 2006 lets compare this to what it could have been: car: $800 maintanence(water pump, t belts, etc.) 50-75 bucks if you did the work yourself exhaust: 20 bucks for pipe lenghts, 20 bucks for a muffler, use of a welder tint: $50 bucks self-installed head gasket set: $80 altenater: $65 labor (stuff i didnt know how to do): didnt need the heads shaved new engine: still didnt need the heads shaved Tires and misc parts: $150 total:1270, still within the book value now lets compare this to one of my cars 88 sedan: free car less motor, already converted to dual range 4wd fro a 2wd AT motor: exchange for doing work on soobs, with seals also(had to put them on) another crank seal: 10 bucks (after filing the burr off the crank snout) exhaust: 20 dollar cherry bomb, a 5 dollar flange, and soe pipe laying around mass airflow sensor, ecu temp sensor, and 02 sensor: pocket items at junkyard-free tire after driving on rim-25 bucks mounted and valve stem another motor and transmission: 440 dollars, from a parts car, half the miles gaskets:150 dollars(head set, exhaust gaskets 2 oil pan gaskets), u-haul discount from napa, only because i ported the heads impound fees: 340 dollars (non-registered car abandoned in us after stuck) grand total: 850 bucks substitute the impound fees for title and registration total:610 dollars doing the head gaskets instead of swapping from a parts car total: 170 now if i couold find a way to spend 5000 dollars on my 800 dollar car.......... heads were warped, it did need the heads shaved. exhaust i could have done but i had money and didnt have time. so i had someone else do it. now i dont have money or time! lol! ohh well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrap487 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 How am i going to prove it was there fault. My friend went there and talked to them about it and the shop said they dont usually plain alluminum heads. they just did what they were told. and thats it. oh well I dunno. Anyways, MilesFox having more experiance and knowledge with all this kind of stuff, of course he can do things cheaper. But it DOES seem like you had a fair amount of bad luck, dont feel bad about your car. as for tinting, its really hard to do it and make it look good when you do it yourself, especially with the cheap tint and probably not having some of the tools to do it right. Its also time consuming. I dont know how much waterpumps and timing belts and all that stuff costs for subarus, but considering waterpumps typically cost around 40$, I have a hard time imagining the parts costing less than 100$ depending on all that misc. stuff, such as plugs, wires, rotor/cap, filters etc... if you're buying new/reman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yodannyc Posted April 3, 2006 Author Share Posted April 3, 2006 yeah i dont feel to bad about my car. its just a bummer. but it will be awesome when i get done with everthing. i am thinkin i'lll lift it right after the new motor. by the way scrap487 i noticed you live portlando. how far are you from vancouver? perhaps we can go wheelin sometime when i am done with my rig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrap487 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 not that far, I live pretty close to i84/205 and I'm over in orchards all the time visiting my granma. My advice is wait a little while before you start tearing you car apart for a lift, enjoy it for a while before it gets some more down time. Are you going to build a lift yourself? I built mine and I could probably help you with most of yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 yeah i not trying to be rude or showing off, i have bad luck but it sees to be parallelled by equally good luck. i started out once with a 400 dollar car, soaked in it with parts fro all y other cars/junkers, have about 1500 spent on road trips out west, going to jail, and bringing it back a year later, just to wreck/part out/junk the dan thing. but hey, the costs were worth the experiencees, ,even though i no longer have this car. makes for a good movie, and the driveline exists in 2 cars, one of which is a replica using the same motor. fun ties, like i said. read the first sentence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75subie Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 i always try to keep in mind what the car would be worth if i had to get out of it (i hate loosing money:mad: ) usually a gl 4wd wagon will bring $1500 tops with 200k, BUT since you sound like you plan on keeping this car, and you are already into it for over 4k, then you might as well finish the project.just my 2 cents, Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carfreak85 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 I think of my car as $29,750 on a new STi, so that lets me throw as much money at it as is necessary to meet my goals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Totally depends - I've got at least that much into my lifted wagon. Originally a $400 auction car, I bought another car for 4WD conversion parts, lift, tires, blew the original engine due to lack of oil pressure (no guage on the digidash, and by the time the light was flickering the damage was done), more lift modifications, front/rear custom bumpers, etc, etc. I would have to say I could never get back out of it what it took to build. That's just a fact of life with old cars. Especially heavily modified stuff that is used for play. If you want something to just drive to work and back the best bet is to get a new junker each time you have a major malfunction. Sticking with the same brand and using the old car for parts is a winning combo. I can pick up vehicles for $100 or less and put anywhere from 10k to 100k miles on them for less than $500 if I'm lucky. Say I spend $100 on the car - now I have to fix whatever parked it - usually a couple hundred there - cost to register and get tags is $110 here, so about $500 when it's all said and done. My philisophy can be summed up (I've said this before): "If you drive old cars - own at least two - if possible three, and a AAA membership." GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caboobaroo Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 hahaha.... I was waiting for a thread like this to pop up. I got close to $4,000 into my RX right now and its not even done yet. Here's a basic look down on the price list I have '89 RX turbo with a bad motor and bad everything but tranny - $150 stage 2 clutch - $200 gen 2 turbo heads - $75 TD04 turbo - $120 AEM cold air intake - $60 extra plumbing for CAI, turbo and IC - $150 WRX TMIC and hoodscoop - $115 GReddy Profec 2 B-spec EBC and matching turbo timer - $213 full 5-lug conversion for front and rear - $775:eek: Megan Racing downpipe - $150 spyder intake plus other portions of spyder intakes - $190 brand new OEM clutch cable - $20 center console for auto -> manual conversion - $20 steering wheel, rear hatch, one side window, gas tank, misc parts - $80 shipping to trade for cams - $100 Autometer gauges - $200 3 gauge A-pillar pod - $21 fluids and filters - $40 gasket set from the dealer - $200 Mics parts for trying out new things - $200 Total - $3,079 I know I'm forgetting a whole mess of stuff that I've gotten for it but you get the idea. I stripped it down to almost nothing and rebuilt it with a few minor upgrades. Still got a couple thousand left to spend to get it to where I want it and where it will probably be reliable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okanagansubman Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 isnt vancouver in canada? Well call me crazy or stupid. cause thats what most of my friends are callin me. but i dont care. This is the story of young stupid kid from vancouver, WA that loves subarus. I bought my lovely money pit about a year ago. Bought it for $800 it was a fairly nice subaru too. It is a 87' subaru wagon gl 5spd 4x4 duel range less then 200,000 miles. It had some nice calmaster rims that were nice and shiny. really made it look good. Well, i really wanted to make this subaru a nice one. since it would be my car for the next couple of years. So i went and got a whole new exhaust system for it. 2 1/2" turbo magnaflow exhaust. $600 ya i know ouch. but it was worth it considering i had over a dozen exhaust leaks. and got a new oil pump and water pump and t- belts. Then i saved some money up and got all the windows tinted. Yeah it looks really nice now. well not even a week goes by when my head gasket blows. oh great. well General Disorder and myself and a friend work on it and get it fixed and squared away in a week or so. ran great all the way home and to work the next day. then what happens. go to start it and it makes a really loud cranking noise and dosnt start. damn now what? intake valve got stuck open due to the machine shop that plained my heads not cleaning it properly. Basically that engine is fried, never to be started again. Call up general disorder, he hooks me up with a motor that supposedly works great. ran when the guy wrecked it. ok awesome so just do a motor swap. well when i got the motor it had a big gouge in the oil filter, from the fan supposdly hitting it from the wreck. But hey it ran when it got hit must be good. WRONG! spent 2 weeks trying to put the motor in(cause it was my first time doing something like this.) and what do i find out. The piston rings are toast. So motor is fried. mechanic says it was probally driven without oil for a couple of miles. when i started it up it sounded like someone with a sledgehammer pounding away. So now i am getting a imported motor from a shop and having then install it since i dont have time too for $1800. RRRRRRRR!!! fraustrating!@$*& Keep in mind that i am going to school and work at a minmum wage place. so i dont have money or time. and now in debt. So why do you ask am i spending this much effort and time and money in this car? that is still to be answered. So here is the estimated cost of everything: car: $800 maintanence(water pump, t belts, etc.) $270 exhaust: $600 tint: $175 head gasket set: $80 altenater: $65 labor (stuff i didnt know how to do): $250 new engine: $1800 Tires and misc parts: $150 ------------------------------------------------------------ total cost: $4190 upcoming purchases: lift lights tires and wheels a $5000 1987 subaru wagon ladies and gentelman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yodannyc Posted April 3, 2006 Author Share Posted April 3, 2006 theres a vancouver, WA too. lol. so yeah i will finish my project. new motor goes in this week and i'll drive it for a bit, 6 months or so then lift it. but we will see. i still ove the thing too. even though it cost me soo much money. I've just had too many good times in it compared to the bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okanagansubman Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 learn something new every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumpy Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 I bought 7 subi at an average of $200 each. Got the first driver(Preacher) on the road with left over parts from a parts car I bought for (Pearl). Put 13K miles on it with no extra money except oil changes and 1 tune up. Dented both ends and sold it for almost 4 times what I paid for it. Running driver#2 (Cheesemobile) and have $165 invested so far, with about 2K miles on it. Needs some work but not demanding it yet! Have an 84GL that I put an AA 4" lift on and still need to pull stock trans to swap in 5speed d/r and upgrade to ej22. Plan on doing more custom work ie: bumpers, swing gate, skid plate, lights, cyclops gril, ect. Will have at least $1,500 in this one plus what ever hand control cost me to set up. Will have 3 drivers when I get this one on the road. So it depends on what you want. Some times it seems like their money pits but as you go through it you get to know the car intimately. You could buy another and end up worse off than you were if you fixed the existing one. It's your choice, do what feels right to you unless your friends are going to foot the bill! Stumpy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 bought my car over 4 yrs ago - first few items were just to get it on the road... purchased car - $150.00 Cheap set of 4 tires - $180.00 1st new/rebuilt alternator - $126.00 New Battery - $45.00 Clutch and both front axles installed - $628.00 (didnt have the time to try doing this one myself and had to get done asap) Tax, title, license fees - around $60.00 ok, so spent approx $1189.00 just to get her on the road. second set of cheap tires - $180.00 second new/rebuilt alt - $85.00 1st set of timing belts (ebay) - $20 2nd set of T-belts (also ebay) - $20 cam and crank seals (lesson learned) - $22 coil bracket (from a board member) $ 10 (dont recall the exact price, but that should be pretty close) 1st exhaust repair - bad section of pipe - $40 2nd exhaust repair - new flange gaskets - $50 1st cherry bomb muffler/misc pieces - $45 3rd set of not quite so cheap tires - $225 tierod ends - $65 wheels bearings (all 4 corners) $100 (approx) left front axle - $85 after core exchange new front brake pads - $25 NOS rear brakes (includes new backing plate, hardware and shoes, & new drums - ebay) - $125 Balljoints (both sides) - $40 2nd cherry bomb muffler/misc pieces - $35 3 yrs of license renewal @ $50 yr - $150 front end alignment - $65 ok - total so far - $2576.00 - and that doesnt include basic maintenance items such as oil changes, plugs, cap, rotor, etc that would be required on any vehicle. Nor does it include the time and effort that went into installing most of the stuff. My car has been into a shop exactly 4 times for work since i bought it- once for the clutch/axles, twice for exhaust repairs, once for the front end alignment. everything else I have done myself with the help of the great folks here at the USMB. oh yeah - that total doesnt include some other stuff like aftermarket stereos (2), new speakers & wiring, window tint, fog lights, and stuff like that. and this car has a bad case of salt cancer happening...front fenders are ragged out, rear wheel wells have rotted out, all the usual places...she is NOT pretty by any means - but i still love my Subaru!! Divide that total by 4.5 yrs of ownership = roughly $573 a year to keep her going - not bad in my book for a 17 yr old car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yodannyc Posted April 3, 2006 Author Share Posted April 3, 2006 yeah gotta love the subaru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soobmater Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 haha i've spent quite a bit in my roo. lets see.... 850 dollar car 13 inch tires-200 lift 450 all terrians-450 bucks super swampers-480 bucks spair with rim 30 bucks exhaust 120 alloys 65 steelies 80 stereo 356 CB stuff 80 camo stuff-140 roof rack 225 rear bumper 220 kyb struts i cant remember, i think like 300 with installation oil pump- 100 kc's 110 all other lights 110 horns, PA 45 floor mats 50 misc (gauge's switch ext.) 55 labor 150 4216 recovery gear- 75 4291$ im sure i've missed a few things also... wow thats a lot of money for someone without a job.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subarutex Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 My RX.... $1500 - Car $100 - First hoodscoop $120 - Second hoodscoop (04 STi) $300 - 5 lug setup $350 - 2.5rs Rims $60 - WRX turbo back exhaust, stock $150 - TD04 Turbo $100 - Exhaust (custom axle back) $50 - XT6 Flywheel $180 - XT6 clutch & PP $50 - 2 Spider intakes $800 - Brand new rebuilt block $150 - Motor from Mudrat for the heads (Gen 2) $200 - Craigslist motor ('86, currently in car) $140 - Delta Cams $200 - Copper Head gaskets $250 - Lots of sets of OE headgaskets $50 - Set of rings $80 - 2 turbo pistons to replace 2 in the brand new block I cracked $60 - Couple different sets of NGK spark plugs $100 - WRX intercooler $50 - Samco Y-pipe $400 - Custom stainless lines and fittings, and fuel rails $100 - Fuel Pressure Regulator $40 - Fuel pressure gauge $150 - SAFC $50 - Autometer boost gauge $80 - Apexi Turbo Timer $50 - For mutiple timing belts Ouch. Roughly $5600 :/ And it will be forsale soon. USMB price of $2700. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncoolperson Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 i refuse to add it all up, however the bank seems to think they get my first born (like that's ever happening) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrap487 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 hah... aftermarket and consumables(stuff that every car needs/goes through) dont count, now how much did ya REAALLY spend on making it go? I bought my car for $375, sat for 9 years before me, it ran and drove with 2 bad axles, a seriously fubar hitachi, no rear brakes and a leak. everything I did to it was optional cant beat 375 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zefy Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 heh i did this once... didn't get quite the same responce... but since its here i might as well tally it up... this is in canadian bucks... -1300 for car -50 for plugs/filter/blah -300 for clutch/seals/machined flywheel/fluids -70 for flywheel bolts(after somebody at school torqued them to 120 ft/lbs and had to get them airmailed from oregon while teacher getting some that he didn't tell me about... which i also got charged for...) -20 for axle(thanks jeff! it would have been 520 from the dealership) -70 for barings and throttle cable -20 for brake rotor(thanks Jeff! would have been 80 from dealer) -70 for other set of barings, cable, and hub from John that got lost in the mail(stupid canada post) -180 for day permits(6 of them i think) -50 for trailer to get it in Canada -750... paid for VI and a SHOP to fix the rest... ugh... -50 new rims -80 more barings, seals... -350 exhaust all nice and pretty, yet still only half done... -60 battery ~100ish for Jim which has been an AMAZING help for me and every penny i've given him has been 110% worth it... giving me a total of $3520... and still to come! (stuff i either have to get done or haven't paid for yet...) -80 new new rims -50 rebuild alt -70 recore rad -120 new fenders dreamy stuff -800 repair all rust and repaint it with somthin' fancy(i've planned it in my head...) -500 pugs with fancy street tires on em for all that racin' i do...:-p -500 reseal and make pretty ej22 -installing RX stuff and ej22 is still in the works... so ya with all the stuff i'm 'going' to do to it it goes well over 5000... but who actually does what they say they are 'going' to do...:-p so ya... all in all tallying up all your spendings is kinda fun... kinda depressing too... buuuut it makes me smile... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yodannyc Posted April 4, 2006 Author Share Posted April 4, 2006 thanks for all the responses i dont feel as bad now! lol nah i planned on spending this much anyways. on lift and tires and options. but this engine crap is delaying me from getting to that point not to mention costing me more. when i bought the car i had 5000 planned to spend on it. but by then it was to be a a super off road rig. but, 5000 invested and no where close to being off road yet. ohh well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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