I have taken this approach to Sprite ownership and may be able offer some
advice.
In response to your questions:
1. The owner was desperate to sell, so I got a great price.
2. The shell had been stripped so there were no suprises. The body overall
was in decent condition (being from Illinois I am no stranger to rust repair.)
Since it was already stripped to metal I was spared the "joy" of grinding the
bondo out of poorly done rust repair. I did all of the bodywork myself.
3. A long time. How is that for a nebulous answer. Actually, it took me
less time than my other Sprite projects. Being spared the stripping/dissasembly
portion of the project saved me tons of time. 500 hours would be a conservative
estimate.
4. I worked in a 1 car garage which proved to be sufficient. Initially you
need to store a lot of parts, but this doesn't have to be in the garage. For
example if your daily driver is a '68 Chevy Caprice, you could probably store 2
Sprites worth of parts in the trunk. Just don't tell anyone. I think an air
compressor is probably the most valuable tool when doing a restoration.
5. Most importantly is to have as much of the car as possible. If you're
trying to put together a car where half of the hardware is missing, you will be
hating life. If you have a car where many of the pieces are missing, it will be
very expensive to buy all of the missing parts to make a complete car. I was
able to get an overall feel for the basket case I bought just by looking at the
pile of parts. The PO had kept the major assemblies loosely assembled and piled
into corners of the garage. There were no coffee cans full of nuts and bolts
with no indication of where they would go. Obviously, it will be impossible to
inventory all of the parts the seller is offering and compare that to some
master list of needed parts. But, if it appears there is some sort of
organization to the dismantled parts chances are good you have a mostly complete
car.
6. I would do it again. Lots of 30+ year old cars are full of suprises,
running or not.. Brake bleeder screws that are held in with epoxy, and other
DPO frustrations.
In hindsight, I think the car I bought was a good deal. All of the parts were
there and I didn't have the suprises I have found when buying a car that is
assembled. I was also fortunate to have a same marque car in the driveway I
could use as a reference to put it together. This list is probably the second
best thing though. A basket case is hard to unload by its owner. Most buyers
aren't interested in a car they can't drive. Also, it seems to me most people
selling these have some motivating factor; they are moving and can't justify
dragging the car along, or something similar. That said I wouldn't pay very
much money for one.
Shawn
Hal Faulkner wrote:
> Spridgeteers,
>
> I am beginning to think that the only way to get the car I want is to get
> into a project. There have been a few posted on PDLJMPR, "disassembled,
> ready for paint, etc." Would anyone who has bought a car in the partially
> disassembled car have anything to say to some poor fool that is thinking of
> this insanity?
>
> I would be particularly interested in:
> 1. What you paid. Was it too much?
> 2. General condition of the car. How much body work was necessary? Did you
> do it yourself or hire someone to do it?
> 3. How long did it take you to finish the project?
> 4. How much space did you need/have for the project was it enough? Were
> there any tools that you would not do the job without?
> 5. If you were doing it again, what would you look for in a car in boxes?
> 6. Would you do it again?
>
> Anything you can tell someone about this kind of a project to bring me to my
> senses (I know that doesn't go with LBC syndrome) would be greatly
> appreciated, even if I do decide to ignore all rational advice and do it
> anyway.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Hal
> mailto:faulkner@redshift.com
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