What's the right price?
02-01-2018, 06:32 PM
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What's the right price?
So.. I've been waiting for the weather to get a little nicer before I repair my 88 hatch with a broken timing belt. I love the car, but it's really a beater and nothing more than a simple A to B car or something someone would use as a shell to start a project. It has a D15b1 and a 4 speed.
I browse my local buy sell trade groups on FB and I saw a 90 hatch pop up that's about 10 miles from me. It's had an engine swap (B18a1) with multi port injection and I'm assuming a 5 speed, but not sure since it doesn't list the tranny. It has some other items listed like coil overs and track bars and a battery relocate that I noticed from pics. The interior is, imo, garbage, but that doesn't bother me. The exterior looks good (in pics) though I prefer the white of my 88 over the red of this one. The guy had it originally listed for what I consider a pie in the sky price of 3k. I've been watching it for the last week and he's obviously desperate to sell it or he's realized it's not worth what he wishes it was since the price dropped to 2300, then 2k, then 1500. I wouldn't pay 1500 for it, but I like the idea of having a B18a1 with multi port injection and a 5 speed vs what my little beater has and not having to do all that work myself. I would consider getting that and then unloading my 88 hatch in its current non-running condition for dirt cheap just to move on and be happy. What do you think would be a good price to get it for if I made an offer to him? 1k? Insult him with like $500 and work my way up? lol Obviously I'd go check it out in person and drive it first. My biggest, and really only concern, is the quality of the swap and the condition of the drive train. I've never done or seen one in person, so I'm not sure what I'd look for.
I browse my local buy sell trade groups on FB and I saw a 90 hatch pop up that's about 10 miles from me. It's had an engine swap (B18a1) with multi port injection and I'm assuming a 5 speed, but not sure since it doesn't list the tranny. It has some other items listed like coil overs and track bars and a battery relocate that I noticed from pics. The interior is, imo, garbage, but that doesn't bother me. The exterior looks good (in pics) though I prefer the white of my 88 over the red of this one. The guy had it originally listed for what I consider a pie in the sky price of 3k. I've been watching it for the last week and he's obviously desperate to sell it or he's realized it's not worth what he wishes it was since the price dropped to 2300, then 2k, then 1500. I wouldn't pay 1500 for it, but I like the idea of having a B18a1 with multi port injection and a 5 speed vs what my little beater has and not having to do all that work myself. I would consider getting that and then unloading my 88 hatch in its current non-running condition for dirt cheap just to move on and be happy. What do you think would be a good price to get it for if I made an offer to him? 1k? Insult him with like $500 and work my way up? lol Obviously I'd go check it out in person and drive it first. My biggest, and really only concern, is the quality of the swap and the condition of the drive train. I've never done or seen one in person, so I'm not sure what I'd look for.
02-02-2018, 06:50 AM
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Re: What's the right price?
Can’t really say what a good price is, but for a while I was in the same boat as you. My 91 has the same engine and tranny as yours, and i’m waiting to get my timing belt replaced as well. For a while I thought about selling mine, and picking up a swapped hatch or CRX, even had mine listed for sale and was looking at others.
Ultimately I decided to just keep mine. I guess with the age of these cars, combined with the fact that you dont really swap in a B series to baby it around, led me to decide to keep my hatch and put the money I would have spent on a new car into mine. That way I have some form of reassurance that I know what and how all of the work was done. I was using mine as a DD for a while, and probably will still drive it often once its back on the road, so i would hate to be concerned about the condition of a swap that i know nothing about. I dont know what kind of magic the guy who sold me my hatch pulled, but when i got it, everything ran like a top, it was only after a month or so i noticed that it was burning oil and how many suspension components needed replaced. I would personally hate to get into another car only to find out that i have to do all of that work again
Ultimately I decided to just keep mine. I guess with the age of these cars, combined with the fact that you dont really swap in a B series to baby it around, led me to decide to keep my hatch and put the money I would have spent on a new car into mine. That way I have some form of reassurance that I know what and how all of the work was done. I was using mine as a DD for a while, and probably will still drive it often once its back on the road, so i would hate to be concerned about the condition of a swap that i know nothing about. I dont know what kind of magic the guy who sold me my hatch pulled, but when i got it, everything ran like a top, it was only after a month or so i noticed that it was burning oil and how many suspension components needed replaced. I would personally hate to get into another car only to find out that i have to do all of that work again
02-02-2018, 07:18 AM
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Re: What's the right price?
If you offered me 500 for that car I would tell you to take a walk. I bought my 89 with the same swap, stripped interior, and two broken windows in 2005 for 800 and thought it was a steal. Unless he still has the d-series trans in it (there is a kit for it), which is unlikely, it is a 5 speed. You might take a close look at the axles, supposedly swapped cars blow out axles a lot. I personally haven't had much of a problem and I time trial mine. I would also pay close attention to the wiring, specifically around the ECU and the injectors. You wan't to make sure they didn't half *** this when doing the swap.
02-02-2018, 07:31 AM
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Re: What's the right price?
Check the wiring- both the engine harness and at the ECU. Look for butt splices, nasty looking solder (if they bothered to solder), poor routing, crimps, etc. Also look at the cable routing on the battery relocate, see how cleanly that was done.
Check the mounts. A badly done swap will usually involve crooked or twisted mounts, sometimes missing bolts if things didn't line up. If any of that is the case then the bushing material is probably on the way out.
Coilovers are probably garbage - find out what they are and where they came from. EBay = "You made the car worse and you think it's worth more now?!?"
Personally I have paid 2K for a B18 swapped turbo EF (that turned out to be even worse than it looked, shame on me). I, however, am an idiot who prefers to save a 4G Civic from a painful life at the hands of a cruel and stupid owner instead of saving my money. Unless it's really well done with quality parts I wouldn't offer a dime over 1.5K.
Check the mounts. A badly done swap will usually involve crooked or twisted mounts, sometimes missing bolts if things didn't line up. If any of that is the case then the bushing material is probably on the way out.
Coilovers are probably garbage - find out what they are and where they came from. EBay = "You made the car worse and you think it's worth more now?!?"
Personally I have paid 2K for a B18 swapped turbo EF (that turned out to be even worse than it looked, shame on me). I, however, am an idiot who prefers to save a 4G Civic from a painful life at the hands of a cruel and stupid owner instead of saving my money. Unless it's really well done with quality parts I wouldn't offer a dime over 1.5K.
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