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I've been looking for another Z to use as platform for my build. I was hoping for something newer than 90, with a great body and paint - hopefully in black, green, blue or maybe white and red. I don't really mind if its NA or TT, auto or manual because I'd swap it over. So I get on autotrader and start looking. I find about a dozen cars within my parameters. I call about a view perfect ones (to my criteria) and get some more info. So to make a long story short, one seller made me get that feeling in your stomach...So i dropped $25 on a month carfax membership and ran the VIN. Well it came back with a couple red flags. Accidents, airbags deployed, parts title, salvage title, rebuilt title - basically everything. But looking at the litterally 30 pictures the seller sent me (hes in FL im in OH) everything looked perfect. I mean PERFECT. It was a '94 5spd NA with the JDM front and 90-92 wing as well. Perfect interior, paint, clean engine. Then I decided to check some of the other Z's I was interested in. Another extremely clean 94 green Z, ran the VIN - same story! After 6 carfax's ONLY 2 came back clean! And all the cars were 94-96 that I ran. Some of my logic (may want to skim the back story):
The 90TT I have will need a good $5k worth of paint and body work. And after all that it will be silver (sorry, but im not the biggest fan). As well putting around another $2-3k worth of parts (OEM mainly) on the chasis. OR
Part out my 90 and find a 94-96 thats in need of no paint/body work. The range of prices probably being from $4k (bad title, bad engine, new paint) to $8k (clean title, high miles, decent interior) The question:
Is it a horrible idea to buy a Z with a rebuilt/salvage title? The thing being all the paint is redone and looks good, and the price of the chasis drops alot.
I know a bad title will most likely hurt my resale (whenever that may be) but I know I will never get the money out of it thats in it regardless. So should I spend less on a nice rebuilt, and enjoy the car while its mine with the lowest dollar into the project, or spend the money to restore my clean titled (although maybe some history) 90 TT. Some back story:
I have a 90TT with somewhere around 140k on the chasis, and like 50k on a rebuilt motor thats blown (I've never owned it running, picked it up over the summer). But I bought it from someone else's complete project build with just about every part I needed to build the Z - full performance engine parts (rods, pistons, valvetrain, cams, injectors, etc) as well as clutch, braking, suspension, wheels --basically everything as well as a load of OEM parts to really clean it up (trim, mouldings, windows, etc). The car came with the sale. (I was mainly interested in the preformance parts as well as the interior) The 90's body is really rough though, but nothing I didn't think too bad of when I bought it. But the more i looked at once i started pulling parts and being under it to work on it, the more skeptical I was getting. It looked like it had been in a front collision becuase the cup holding the headlight was bent, cracked and a little crooked, as well as the mounting points for the nose pannel. As well as the door is alittle out of alignment, the PS rocker panel is dented from the bottom up. And then theres the dents and dings on the body as well. So i got a carfax on it, and it came back completely clean. Thanks for the help/input, especially if you read this whole monster post. Ask if you ahve any questions. I would really like as many opinions as possible, with a little reasoning too.
Jared |
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