So, I'm in a predicament here. Right now I have one car, my 1991 CRX base. I've only had it about a month -- just bought it a month ago for $500 as something to get around with until I could afford something else or to "restore" it.

It has a d15b7 and auto tranny. Engine runs great and tranny has no problems.

The problems are as follows:

- Needs new tires immediately
- 4 lug bolts are stripped
- A lot of the suspension components have been welded together, the pieces that aren't are stripped.
- Needs main relay soldered or replaced
- Pretty sure the suspension is just completely and utterly fucked, if the way this thing drives is any indication
- Lots of rust and awful bondo jobs
- Missing headlight because previous owner thought it'd be cooler to have the intake poking out of the front of the car. The headlight support beam was cut, bent down, and welded stuck.
- Interior is gutted. Seats are torn to bits. No center console. Lots of rust due to badly leaking hatch. Passenger side door panel is warped, half-detached, and bent to the point that you can't open the passenger door.
- Exterior is rattle-canned what I can only describe as "puke green". There is no weather stripping anywhere.
- Doors don't lock.
- Driver's side fender is bent inward for some strange reason. There's no gas cap door, and a piece of black sheet metal screwed in to the car.
- Lots of dents, cracks, rust spots elsewhere on the body.
- Crack in the windshield

I'm sure there's more missing. You get the idea. It's in terrible shape. Unforgivable shape. It breaks my heart to see a CRX in this condition, but oh well. The interior being gutted doesn't bother me too much. But not having a center console sucks. I also hate the auto tranny, and I hate not having two headlights (not to mention it's illegal at night).

The main question I have:

I've been saving up, and right now I have about $4000 to play with. Do I put it into the CRX? Swap the engine, replace lots of suspension stuff, do some body work, etc.? Or do I spend the 4 grand on something else? Either way I can't keep driving this thing. I'm in my 20s and healthy and the suspension is STILL killing my neck.

There's a clean turbo'd CRX si with a built B16a I've been looking at for $3500. There's also a 2001 integra GSR with bolt ons for $4000. These seem pretty enticing, but I hate not knowing if the previous owner messed with stuff or did things the wrong way. I'd like to start with a stock car and do it right the first time, but that's out of my budget for now.

What to do? Advice is tremendously appreciated!

 

lol you should probably sell it for parts. to someone that needs a crx shell to make racecar and buy a stock unmodified car

for 4000 bucks you can get a somewhat clean gsr integra or del sol or civic hatch

theres some cars that are just not worth the money or time. I had a del sol like that.

it cost me about 2500 bucks to fix and in the end the car still looks like **** and was worth maybe 1800 bucks tops. from your description there are better condition cars at local junkyards.

 

did you buy it at night?

**** happends I bought some sht at night that I wasn't to proud of( no not hookers)

 

lol I didn't buy it at night. I was in desperate need of anything with a motor after my cherokee blew up on me, I saw "stripped crx, 600 bucks" on craigslist, and jumped on it.

I know I should either just keep the CRX for now and keep saving, or buy something safe, boring and reliable and keep saving, but I want to go fast NOW.

By the way, does anyone have any experience buying modified cars from used car dealerships? It seems super sketchy to me but I've seen a couple DSMs and Civics with FMICs peaking out from behind the grill that have me curious...

 

a lot of dealerships are sketchy especially with modified cars

just drive it till it dies and save as much as you can. if you feel adventurous build yourself an engine but its not as simple as it sounds(from my own experience at least)

a good start would be to buy a good engine like type-r and start with boltons and slowly progress as you learn more.

 

Save your money, drive the crx until the wheels fall off.

 

Thanks for the input folks. I'm pretty set on being impatient though. Here are the two I'm the most set on:

Built turbo B16A CRX Si, 16k miles on motor http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/4021259176.html

and

Built turbo D16Z6 20k miles on motor http://lexington.craigslist.org/cto/3979264214.html

The CRX is cleaner looking, but the dude who's selling it didn't do the build himself and he's only had it for a month. He couldn't tell me whether or not the harness for the stereo was still in the car or not (there's a 3 gauge system where the head unit is supposed to go).

The Civic owner seems like a really nice guy and he really doesn't want to let it go, I've finally convinced him to consider it after taking with him for a month.

Which would you choose? What are some important questions I should ask / things I should look at? I've never bought a seriously modified car before, I've always bought stock and modded myself.

I'd like to bring a compression tester, the civic dude's down with that, but I doubt the CRX dude will let me bother because he seems in a huge rush to sell.

 

Save another 1000 and buy a clean *** gsr much better start when you dont know alot about cars.

Because when any of those built cars break you will be in a bunch of cash to fix them.

 

Do not buy either one of those hoopties, you'll be back posting another "what should I do" thread

 

Part it out. Pics?

 

As has been mentioned, do not buy either of the ones your looking at, your just buying someone problems.

For the 4-5 grand you have, you can find a clean, [no rust/no mods] GS-R and an even better shape RS/LS with low miles, then part out the CRX and put that money into the "new" car.

Buying someone else's modded car is never a good idea, you have to wonder why they are selling the car in the first place, better to find that "old" guys midlife crisis sports car, that he only drove on weekends, and his wife wants him to sell so they can get a "real" car. 94