Should it be saved?

[Ebbtide]

Decisions, decisions.....

I really love my 97' J, one of my favorite cars I ever owned. It has some issues such two ping-pong sized rust holes on the rocker panels, and surface rust on one of the quarters. She runs like a top and is as mechanically sound as the day it rode off the line despite 137,000 on the odo. Though I do have to replace the cats since on of them has sprung a leak.

Sadly, the car is no longer my daily driver. Even more sadly, my daily driver is a Saturn LW300 (wagon).

So here is my quandary, do I get the rust repaired and keep this beauty in the garage to use around town and on weekends? Is it a car worthy of "collector" status, something I can pull out for special occasions.

Certainly today the car is not there, but what about five years from when the design is 20 years old? Is this going to be one of those cars I say "I wish I held on to that" as I have done with so many i the past?

What do you think, is it worth it...or should I just sell it?

[Jakw]

Resale value is so low on these cars... I've pretty much given up on getting anything reasonable for mine.How much would it cost to repair the rust? If anything, I would guess any future regrets would be based on your personal attachment to the car, and not so much on its status within the car world.

[driverdriver]

I use mine mainly as a spring-summer-fall car. If you like it get it fixed and do the same. A few years back Hemmings did a piece on collectible Asian cars and the only J they mentioned was the "t" models with HICAS as a possible collectible down the road.

[misfit6794]

I doubt it will ever be a collector car. I would stop the rust from spreading with rust bullet, work wonders on my bronco. That way it stays managable, it really shouldn't be that expensive to fix, but you won't know how bad it is until you have the paint stripped off. I would keep the j as long as it is running great,especially since those saturns go through trannies faster than tires.

[brandonjustice93J30]

I have the same rust problem...I love my car but it's quickly approaching 212000 miles and the resale value is less than what i could get out of it for scrap metal at the yard.

I'm letting mine rust gracefully until the engine or transmission dies...or two years if that comes first...when I can buy a new car for myself since the next car is for my wife (minivan *shudders*) and I have to wait.

[Jakw]

Lol...'rust gracefully'. That's such a nice way of putting it. I'm getting the same kind of thing, mostly on the rocker area right under the doors. I might do a crappy fix on it this spring. I was thinking of just sanding it until all the rust is gone, filling it, and putting a rubberized coating on it. It would look like crap, but it would stop the rust I suppose. And cost all of $20. And probably not be visable with the doors shut.

[gr8scott72]

I'm so glad we don't have rust here.

[brandonjustice93J30]

yeah, yeah ,yeah...but the rust adds character to my car...or something like that...

or wait...I can call it natural weight reduction

another year and I can shave 2-3 10ths off my 1/4

[gr8scott72]

yeah, yeah ,yeah...but the rust adds character to my car...or something like that...

or wait...I can call it natural weight reduction

another year and I can shave 2-3 10ths off my 1/4

Only if it's nothing important that falls off. lol

[brandonjustice93J30]

the paint and outside of the body are only cosmetic....

[naladude911]

I have a total of (if u put the rus together) the length of an AVG middle finger of rust lol. Like none. Im gonna get a new paint job (o ya, car is getting licensed in May for my Bday), should be at least 800, for OEM paint (same colour)

[SilverJ30t93]

I think that well-preserved examples of the J30 will in fact, become collectible someday. These were expensive and unique cars and their lines are classic. I believe they've reached the bottom of their value now. As those J30s in marginal shape need transmission and engine rebuilds (repairs that may exceed the value of the car) these cars will become much less common. The questions you have to ask yourself are if you'll be happy once it's gone and was it really worth whatever you could get for it now. If you really like the car, consider it a hobby and do a quality repair job when you have the time to.

It sounds like you'll have regrets or you wouldn't have asked the question.

[IMG][/IMG]
Modified by SilverJ30t93 at 3:51 PM 4/13/2008

[brandonjustice93J30]

there's some of my current rusting....

[2brokey]

This topic hits close to home, and was the reason I *finally* decided to stop being lazy and join the nicoclub forums...

I bought this 97 J30t for my mom a few years back with under 80K on it. When I took it home, the sleezy scumbag dealer stole some emissions crap so the SES light was on. (yay). Also, the previous owner apparently wasn't very good on oil changes, and the crap that came out the car was TAR, prompting me to do about 7 oil changes in the matter of a 2 week period. Anyway, after that the car went problem free for a while, and I told her to keep track of her maintenance (big mistake!). The car ended up in the same position again with a lack of oil changes, and eventually it developed this wonderful noise in the valve train! (YAY!). Anyway, I did the timing belt job not long after, and the noise remained. The car worked alright for about another year, and now whatever was making that noise went, and the engine is out. Trying to figure out if I want to do the swap, as it's now my car, or part it out...