Hey everyone, I've been doing some thinking and I was wondering what ya'll thought about my situation. Right now my wife and I are full time school (no job, no nothin, just school full time) and we live off of the extra money we get from school loans. Usually it's about $700 a month for each of us to spend as we wish. Right after coming back to school my wife and I figured it was time for me to get something better than a sports car for my everyday driver. I sold my 93 Z28 to a friend (with the intentions of buying it back in a few semesters), which was the only way for my parents to front me the money for a new vehicle (they didn't like me in the Z28 anymore when I had a kid, they thought it was too dangerous). Well, within 48 hours of my buddy owning it, he was rearended in traffic and the car is now in a junk yard. I've had an 81 Trans Am (real nice car, T-Tops, 4 wheel disks, power locks/windows, ect.) and a 455 Buick that I want to graft into it. It's in sad shape and will take a while to get back on the road and I'm really wanting to drive an F-Body again. For a while I figured I'd just stay the course and get the T/A going and drive that since there aren't many of those around anymore and they are pretty cars when they are shined up. But every time I see a 4th gen Z or T/A my mouth starts to salivate and my wife has to mop up the floor of the truck when I'm done saying how stupid I was for selling my old Z off. I'll have about $5,000 to spend in May and my question is this; Should I put all that in the Trans Am (and still not be even close to getting back on the road yet) or should I get another LT1 F-Body and make that my project car? Most of you would say to just spend the $5k on the LT1 F-Body and keep the old T/A to fix up later, but if I get the LT1 its going to be a true project car and I'm going to start sinking cash into it and it will be off and on the road every once and a while. The T/A will have to go if I get the LT1 and I'm scared it will just go and be scrapped (which is a real shame since it's got so many rare options and is in restorable condition). What do ya'll think I should do? I'd love to get a classic back on the road, but my true love is the newer F-Bodies.... Anyone?

 

Do what I'm doing. Get your wrecked 4th gen back, and put all the late model stuff in the old TA. That way you have the best of both worlds. I have even seen a guy put the 4th gen dash into a 70 camaro. It fit so well that I decided to go the same route.

Keep the outside basically stock, and you'll have grins for miles.

 

See, I'd do that but then I'd be where I am now. Trying to put a car together with parts it never came with and I'd have to fabricate stuff. If I keep the 81, I'll throw in a SBC and be done with it. If I get the LT1, I'd just buy parts and put them on as I go.

 

Don't put a sbc in the 81- how much work does it need? What about buying a POS and driving it for a few months and putting the 81 together? Personally I would buy a running and driving old bonneville or catalina and swap the drivetrain into the T/A. Everything bolts right in, don't even need to swap the mounts. There was a 72 grandville in Houston for a while that had 50,000 miles on it and the guy wanted 2K for it. You could swap the running gear into the T/A and sell the rest of the grandville for parts; then you just have to worry about the interior and paint. If you have any questions about finding a Pontiac mill for the car e-mail me.


Oh yea, if it has a shaker, it won't line up with any other motor.If you put a sbc you'll need a shaker that came off a car that origianally came with a sbc (there were a few). If you decide to get rid of the T/A let me know and send pics.

 

It needs a good amount of work done, it's definantly a 'project' car. The body only has three dents, a small one in left rear quarter between the rear of the front door and wheel well, a small one in the roof between the T-Tops, and a medium sized one in the rear right quarter by the rear side marker light that can be pushed out from the inside and only a few dimples are there. It's also completely decked out in rattlecan black primer. The interior is completely gutted, almost 90% of the stuff in there was damaged by sun and weather and I had to throw almost all of it away. I still have all the deluxe seats, but they need to be recovered. The front fenders were messed up when I got it and two firebird fenders came w/ it along with two rusty T/A fenders. I was going to have the firebird fenders scavanged for the good metal and have them welded on the t/a fenders for patches (also, all the fender flares are gone). The front nose piece looks horrible, but I have another one waiting to go on. The engine wiring is sliced and diced to nothingness. I have two hoods for it, the Turbo hood and the Shaker hood (minus the actual shaker). Sounds rough, right? But there are some cool options that make it worth keeping. Besides the T-Tops, Power door locks/windows, 4 wheel disk brakes, it has the rear defroster option, power antenna, and 3 out of 4 snowflake rims (one was bent). All in all it's a very high optioned car that would be a shame to send to the junk yard, but at the same time I think I'm over my head in the resto on it and might want to start with something a little easier (on me and my wallet ).

 

Remember ... you asked ...


Translated: you are living off of borrowed money, racking up a mountain of debt ... you can probably already guess where this is headed ...


Could be a smart move if you had the car financed. Maybe not so smart if the car was paid for. Maybe a smart move if you were prone to "bending" traffic laws ...


As in new and you in debt? You paying or the parents paying? Gift? Married and still relying on the parents?


Look up obssesive/compulsive behavior and how to get treatment


Can you say debt reduction? You are paying rent, buying groceries and paying for school on borrowed money ... money that you WILL have to pay back ... with interest. And you are willing to plunk down $5K on a project car? Brother, your priorities are all out of whack ....


Do you really have the time and money for a project? Remember, you are living off of student loans and mom/dad ... And whatever you THINK it will cost to finish your "project", double it and that will be closer to actual costs ...


Exercise patience ...

Digging yourself a financial hole this early in your life and marraige will haunt you for years ... even decades. There will always be a project car out there. reset your priorities, get your JOB done and then play ...

 

We only have to pay back less than 1/4 of the loans that we get. Not only that I'm going into education (you only have to pay back 50% of school loans if you work in a low income school district for 5 years) and my wife is going into pediatrics. My parents gave me my fathers pickup for $4,000 (which is what I sold my Z28 for), but I had no buyer at the time, hence them forewarding me the money. My priorities are quite straight, all bills are paid and this is extra money.

 

Mitchntx has some REALLY good points. It may not be these best tiime to get into a project like this. Common sense says take the 5K and buy a civic until your out of school- that being said, if your on this forum chances are that's not gonna work. I would suggest buying a 3rd gen, or 88-98 GM truck (just my preferences) and drive it for a few years. I can tell you first hand that student loans don't go away, I've been out of school for about 5 years now and just now got mine taken care of. Starting your career out 50K in the hole is scary. I have always dumped all my cash into cars, so I may not be the best person to ask. If I was in your situation I would get somethign reliable that I could work on with that 5K. If you are in love with this car, then keep it and collect parts over the next year and see where you are financially. If your not too attached to it sell it and move on.

 

I would argue that point.

If you are paying your bills with borrowed money, then there is no such thing as extra money. It's all borrowed and subject to interest payments.

The arguement about the "extra" money coming from parents or the sale of a car or whatever is irrelevent. It's called robbing Peter to pay Paul. It's no different than getting a cash advance on a VISA card in order to pay a Mastercard bill. You are just shuffling debt and someday it will hurt.

And while YOU might only be responsible for 1/2 of 1/4 of your loans, somebody out there is having to make up the difference. It might be in higher school or state taxes, but somebody IS paying those notes ...

A couple years is not an eternity ...

 

My parents didn't give me any cash. My father had a truck, he traded me vehicles. My car for his truck, then he sold the Z28 and kept what he made off it. As for the loans, we only get back $2800 a semester to live off of (gas/food/ect.) Out of that maybe, maybe a few hundred dollars will make it to my savings towards my project car. Most of the money I've got saved is from Tax returns, old jobs before we came back to school, ect. And I know about someone picking up the bill, I worked for years right out of high school and had a pretty penney taken out of my checks in taxes. It's not like I'm some spoiled kid here, I've given my fair share plenty of times and when I've graduated I'll continue to do the same thing. Like you said though, it's not an eternity (even though it can feel like one). Can I wait? Probably. Do I want to wait? Not really. If I have the money saved and a good deal comes along, why can't I look into it? My main question was this, should I start with a complete car that I can toy with in the spare time and still drive when it's not being worked on, or should I keep saving and fix up a classic? I do understand where you are coming from with your arguments though, don't think I'm just disregarding what you're saying as I really do appreciate the advice. I know it wouldn't be the wisest thing to do and I probably won't end up doing it. More than likely the T/A will just sit and look like an overgrown lawn ornament in the back yard until I get my first job out of school. I'm just bouncing ideas off ya'll.

P.S. - Besides the few school loans we have (the ones to pay back that is) I'm not in debt at all. No car payments or anything. I'm not shuffling debt around.

 

Trust me ... I'm not trying to bring you down or ridicule you.

But you do keep alluding to the fact that you live on borrowed money (student loans), yet proclaim you have no debt. Do you not see the point?

What you and your wife are doing for your future is admirable and very smart. You are building yourself a solid foundation for a great and trouble-free future.

I hate to see your future being dictated so heavily by such a desire today.

Good luck ...