A build for the Average Joe living Paycheck to Paycheck

[martymcfly]

Hope Im not out of line and if I am, mods can delete this thread. Mainly Im starting up a build thread for the everyday person whos either in school or works full time who only has a few bucks to spend on their cars. Countless times I read build threads where folks have no jobs yet they are buying Work deep dish wheels, engine swaps, big ol honkin hair dryers, and body kits. Me on the other hand, I'm extremely content when I'm able to afford a new tire, or a new power steering belt. I always wonder to myself how you guys are able to purchase thousands of dollars worth of parts like its going to church on Sundays. To you guys, I gotta say Im extremely jealous!

So I saw this 240 sitting in a junkayrd a while back, and at the time I needed a reliable daily. Since it was about to be crushed the owner sold it to me for a few hundred. Mind you I knew absolutely nothing about 240's, didnt even know they were RWD. All I knew is it had a clean title, 105k miles, AC worked, ran great, and had no rust.





This past December I was laid off from my job, and with no one to turn too or to lend me a hand, I looked into going back to school. I moved to North Texas on a whim, and spent my remaining 1k in savings on gas and paying for tuition for school (im getting a degree in wind energy to work on wind turbines and hopefully start up my own renewable energy business).

I was broke as a joke, knew absolutely no one, and was struggling even for everyday necessities, primarily food my first week in Amarillo. I thankfully had enough coin to stay at a cheap motel for a few days. I thank God everyday I was fortunate enough to get a job at WalMart stocking shelves overnights from 10-7 my first week in town. Starting my new job, my 240 became my new home. My day included going to school in the early mornings, workout or run in the afternoons, then heading off to work late at night, catching some shut eye in the WalMart parking lot, then repeat. I cant tell you how many strange encounters I had with police and pedestrians walking by, seeing me nestled up in towels and sleeping bags, trying to stay warm in this butt cold weather!

I worked at WalMart for 3 months and was able to save up enough to pay off my tuition. In those 3 months I lost roughly 20lbs from not eating correctly and not being able to buy any frozen items since I had nowhere to store it. I knew I needed to get another job, not only to be able to afford getting an apartment, but also to afford common things like a cell phone, food, tuition, and clothes! I went out applying and got a job as a waiter at a fairly upscale restaurant. I gave Wally World my 2 weeks and started work as a waiter. WOW, I wasn't used to walking away from a job with wads of cash.

Needless to say my first purchase was an Apartment. After 163 days of being homeless and living out of my car, I slept in my very own bed for the first time! Talk about having a hard time falling asleep, I wasnt used to a bed. Since working full time making decent money, I thought about selling my trusty 240, and buying a scion toaster looking van thing, so my first plan of action was painting the ol boy to get him ready for a quick sell.

I bought a turbine compressor from a neighbor, and sprayed the car the color of my door jambs in a buddies garage. I had no previous experience with painting, nor any form of body work experience. The car had a fruit load of tiny dings and small dents, so I went to town with rage gold filler and a DA. It certainly isnt a perfect job but it looks a lot better.





After putting her up for sale, I felt horrible. I felt like I was abandoning an old friend. Yes I got issues, but who wouldn't after being couped up between 2 doors and a sunroof for 6 months. After the car didn't receive much interest, I just to decided to keep the sucker and start restoring her.

Now I still have a ton of bills (school, apartment, insurance, cell, food, utilities ect) so my build will be extremely limited. I think my first plan of attack is cleaning up the headlights and clearing them, to make them nice and shiny. Also my passenger side corner lights tab is broken, so I ordered a new set of corner lights off Ebay. Also I need to order new tails as my passenger taillight has a large cracked hole in it. Then I plan on addressing the issues with the body as far as rust and dents go.

I need suggestions and advice on how to fix these dents near the gas tank door. You can see how the dent makes the tank door pop out. Theres also a large crease near the bottom of the rear quarter panel body line where the bumper meets up. How would I go about repairing these issues?





Also heres some rust that needs to be repaired as well as the corner of my trunks edge thats bent like poo.





Anyway, my goals is to run a SOHC turbo setup, clean up the body, slam the car with a nice set of coils with a set of deep dishers. Also Im going to paint the car white. Ahh I know, how plain jane can you get? But I don't think life gets any better then a slammed white coupe!

Till Monday.

[S13Joe]

Hangovers pwn me, edited.
Modified by S13Joe at 12:14 PM 8/30/2009

[martymcfly]

It looks more silver than white, how much did you pay for the car?

brother, you should read the thread

[noobdrftr]

damn you had a crazy life to get where you are going now...good luck with the build

he got it for a few hundred...it came with the silvia front end? thats crazy

[mattblancarte]

Props for springing back from rock bottom. I've been there (no job, no income) before, particularly the first 4 months or so of trying to start my business. Best of luck in the future to you.

My sincere advice is to allocate your income elsewhere, and not bother modding out that car.

I can understand your sentimental connection, but... The body is pretty well beat, and will require more money and time than it's worth.

[E7-S14]

My sincere advice is to allocate your income elsewhere, and not bother modding out that car.

I can understand your sentimental connection, but... The body is pretty well beat, and will require more money and time than it's worth.

aww boo!i say mod it.like you said moneys tight so mod it slowlythe car isn't going anywhere. and neither are the parts.

it seems you have your priority's down so i know you wont pour tons of money into the car.

the hardest part of a slow build is patients and a willingness to stay in it.

good luck man. hope to hear a success story with your car sometime down the line

[ectomorph]

you should really shouldnt spend money on your car. we all love 240's here but if your life is that crazy i say buy little things to make you happy, like shoes, shirts, pants, a warm yummy meal, new TV for your new home, etc. dont work yourself to death. you're already working overnight and during the day. use the time in between to relax.

[martymcfly]

Dang guys, thanks so much for the support. I just feel like I need to drive around in something I enjoy rather then an auto SOHC.

My first priority is graduating next summer, second priority is a few hundred into the car every month or so.

Does the body really look that beat up to the point of no return? I figure I can find dent free doors for rather cheap, get the rear quarter panel dent free for about 150$ or so, fix the hood on my own, replace the side skirts with silvia skirts to get rid of the rust problem, paint the car on my own, and ill have a pretty dent free vehicle for under 500$ ?

And thanks again for the encouragement guys, sometimes you got to hit rock bottom to find a way to pull yourself back up. Im thankful I was where I was and I wouldnt change it for the world.Modified by martymcfly at 11:27 AM 8/30/2009
Modified by martymcfly at 9:38 PM 11/6/2009

[StricNyne]

this is crazy man, reminds me of thugnificant from rags to b****es, glad to see your doing better, but edumacation is important

[94_240sx]

Pursuit of Happyness!!!

[mattblancarte]

and ill have a pretty dent free vehicle for under 500$ ?

I wouldn't sweat little dents in the car.

In all honesty, keep that few hundred bucks per month and save it towards the start-up costs associated with the business you are planning down the road.

I don't know how you plan on funding your renewable energy start-up, but if you are planning on receiving Angel money, you better have your personal balance sheet in order. They will probably want to see it.

To investors, you spending the extra money every month means that you will spend their money faster, hence raising their risk of involvement with you. If you show that you are frugal, and only spending money where it can show return...

You get the idea.

[mattblancarte]

aww boo!

lol I'm sorry. I can't feel morally straight by telling a recently homeless guy to spend the extra money he makes on modding his car.

[mRodiek]

Matt is right on this one, its fun to toy with your car and all but you have bigger and better plans here. Its inspiring to see you go through what you have and come as far as you have as well, great job!!

Im also surprised no one has commented you got a sil40 coupe RUNNING for a few hundred bucks, and usually thats what tthe headlightts costt

[martymcfly]

noted for truth Mattblancarte and others!

I dont plan on spending more then 3g's on this car total, and school is my definite # 1 priority. Im also working on repairing my credit for future use in starting up a company. Ive gotten my credit score up to 703, not good but not bad either.

Well guys, I got a mini update and another question. I got my Silvia corner lights in, unfortunately they both have cracked brackets (pics). Is there a recommended way to repair plastic or make my own bracket? I have no way to screw these in, any advice?

[Canadianfreerider]

Respect, nice find for 200.

[tEknoS13]

For real, I can trully respect someone like that. I too live between paycheck after paycheck. Working as a mechanic at Pepboys isn't all that great. Bills, bills, bills, and 240. Your car isn't trully beat up, so who ever said its not worth it........ hell mine has a load of rust on the frame but I managed to buy me a welder and Im doing it on my own.

Keep it up man, don't give it up.

About the corner lights, one of mine is also broken so I'm thinking to screw a little strip of metal on the remaining piece of plastic from the braket. Twist it into shape and screw it that way. Im sure it can work.

[ectomorph]

Pursuit of Happyness!!!

happiness has an -->i<-- in it, not a y.

[offroadbob]

Wow grammar nazi...

Who cares?

[s13redtaz]

happiness has an -->i<-- in it, not a y.

umm...he was quoting the movie

[240tunerguy]

Wow grammar nazi...

Who cares?

not to be mr right or anything but i believe its from a movie with will smith, the story line kinda goes along with what the op has gone through.

amazing find for how cheap you got it, sil front and all, ive been in your shoes and i finally got ahead, keep your head up! you will get where you want to be

[martymcfly]

dang guys, thanks so much! you are all very encouraging!

Ok got the Silvia corner light in. Its just a temporary fix as I attached a spring to the light and hooked it to part of the chasis, but its on there solid. Not to mention it looks a whole lot better then driving around without a light.

Before:

After:

And heres the spring method I used to connect the light:

Next Im going to clean up and polish the headlights, that includes getting all the bug guts and juice off of them. Im also going to clean up the headlight wiring. I definitely want to get the yellow fogs working as well.

[OM3GA]

COOL your title just explained pretty much every 240 owner on this site

Intense story btw!

[5ixfifty180]

wow.. i just recently purchased my 240 and have been lurking the threads and your post made me register. i read your whole posting and i gotta say congrats on overcoming such an obstacle in life, as for the 240 it looks nice bro. you have no idea how many trashed 240s are out there so IMO yours isn't even all that bad, looks clean keep ur head up

[martymcfly]

Sorry its been a while guys, I lost my camera and just went out and bought a new one. 12.2MP camera in fact

Anyway not much has changed since my last posting. I did go ahead and buy some white single stage paint and an astro spray gun and tried my hand at spraying. I suck! I cant get the gun tuned and the paint comes out all "splattery".

I decided on painting the car white. Heres a few pics from when I primered and wet sanded the car. Im going to go ahead and try to lay down one more layer of paint, then clear coat, then Ill post updated pics.If I cant get a nice smooth layer of paint to lay down, I may just bring it to an auto body shop.

Note: I bought a dent free driver side door and installed it last week. I also purchased new rear tail lights, and installed a new rear window.




Modified by martymcfly at 10:06 PM 11/6/2009

[mRodiek]

Looks good! Keep working your a** off man, it will be worth it.

[rsagen]

Im happy to hear that your life is workin out now. Car looks pretty good! Im like you (paycheck to paycheck) and my rule is I dont spend money on my car unless I got money in the bank to pay all my bills and food and stuff for three months. (This totals around $1,100) This gives me a safety net I guess.

ps i like the spring idea!! I did the same thing but with chicken wire lol. used pilers to twist and tighten.

any more updates?

[jeff420]

Note: I bought a dent free driver side door and installed it last week. I also purchased new rear tail lights, and installed a new rear window.

[

Modified by martymcfly at 10:06 PM 11/6/2009

hmm, your not the guy i met in mesquite that i sold the rear window and driver side door are you? caz that guy said he lived in amarillo.

great find on the car. nice to see your saving it and im glad things have worked out for you.
Modified by jeff420 at 12:42 AM 11/7/2009

[nismobenzo]

wow..if you became a pro drifter or something..i would totally pay to see this movie either way..you have an amazing car with a life of its ownmaybe if you keep it long enough to have a family and suchitll be the car your kids friends all drool over either way..inspiring story..and keep up the good work!

[Jerid]

I'm extremely impressed with your determination.

I can't imagine trying to do a build in your situation. I'm 19, live with the parents still, and bring home anywhere between $1300-$2000 every two weeks. I've had my car for around 3 months now, and doing preventative maintenance/ fixing what the previous owner neglected has pushed all performance endeavors further back.

Great find on the car, glad things are turning up for you, and I'm excited to see where this ends up. Good luck.

[rico05]

Are you from Bryan? I went to Jane Long then Bryan High (then A&M for that matter). You a local?

Awesome story and I love the coupe. Makes me miss mine!