So I've been looking for a donor car to put together in my kit car. (Looking to build a Ariel atom tube chassis take off).

My buddy who works for a salvage yard told me they just got a S2000 AP2 in thats totaled. It has front and rear damage. Looks like it was read ended and pushed into another car or street sign.

I basically just need the guys of this thing so any body/frame damage is of no bother to me. Parts and drive train is.

I'm going to try and check it out Friday night. What should I look for and test for this thing to know its its crap or worth gutting? I was going to ask this on s2k forum but it won't let me sign up cause I can't get the email activation.

Lets just say my buddy said I could get this for around $5k.

Again it has front and rear collision damage, air bags deployed, report he sent me said it runs and drives (not far from the pics), and has around I think 87xxx miles on the odo.

Report says quoted repair costs is $12k - $19k. I know easily $8k of that is paint and front and rear bumpers and paint (I use to work in a body shop) and another grand or more for air bag/dash reset. So to me it sounds like hopefully the motor and parts are still in tact.

For $5k for this AP2 do you guys think it's worth it? And what should I test check out when I look at it? I know the basics but I want to know the main problems or red flags for S2ks.

Thanks!

 

You should be able to get more than $5k of stuff out of it. I bought a wrecked '04 for $8k and still came out ahead. You should be able to use/sell stuff like seats, trim panels, instrument cluster, console, engine, trans, rear diff, etc.

 

It looks like most of the stuff you actually need are the only parts that are good, so that's a good thing. However, that's really overpriced for a wrecked car IMO, but if it has what you need and you can't source those parts individually for less, I'd say go for it.

 

Unless if you want to deal with selling parts and optimizing for every dollar, you'd be better served just buying the parts you needed for your project. There's plenty of cheaper cars available at auction if you're so inclined as well.