Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"

stickguy

2 car garage is my minimum requirement. If it does not have one, better have space to build one and money saved out of the purchase budget.

1 car, if it was a perfect in town location (so walk to lots of stuff) I can live with. As long as off street parking that is not blocking another car!

she would not want a house without an attached garage either. No way would she put up with having to go out to a car in bad weather, and I know she has no intent of cleaning off snow or ice.

fintail

No garage was a dealbreaker for me, a house would have to be amazing in some way (location or price) to compensate, as I have to imagine full cost of building a detached 2 car garage is maybe 30-50K. I am not too concerned about being attached, the new garage is detached, but just to have the space is something to be happy about. As this area has snowy winters, garages are common, but a lot of them are single car, especially on houses from the 50s and prior, as I call the smaller ones, "Model T garages".

In western WA, garages are less common due to the mild weather, and people seem more likely to use them for storage.

tjc78 said:

@fintail said:

Thanks all.

2 car garage was a firm request when looking for a place. Hard floors can be added easily enough, modern central HVAC is often not a problem, but a new garage would be a major expense. I had looked at a couple other places with garage space for 3-4 cars - would have been dangerous, as I was thinking "I'd need another car"

When I bought my first home it didn’t have a garage. I always planned on adding one but that never panned out. When we moved in 2020 I told my wife a 2 car attached was my only requirement (different than hers) and was completely non-negotiable. She didn’t show me a single home that didn’t have it!

xwesx

Sounds like you'll have your hands full for a while, @fintail! It is just about time for us to leave Ohio, and we have all sorts of crazy going on here.

I spent the last couple of weeks breaking up and hauling out concrete, which has sort of piled up around the house over decades of people making half-hearted attempts to remedy what I can only imagine is persistent water issues in the basement.

My wife is very thorough about these things, so we're starting from ground zero on this one. We're not finished yet (not even close), but, so far, the work seems to be putting us in the right direction because, even after a couple of fairly heavy rainfalls, we have had only a tiny amount of water seeping in. At the same time, my son is reworking the entire electrical system, which is about 80 years of hodge-podge nonsense garbage, and he's also installing a heat pump system for managing the heating and cooling needs, with the plan that we will retire the equally happenstance "central air" system in the house now.

Prior to the work around the outside foundation, I spent a week or so cleaning out the "basement" (glorified crawl space). Ugh, what a mess that was. The neat part, though, is that we had a real-life ice chest down there... probably harkening back to what.... maybe the 1920s or earlier? Sadly, the latches were heavily corroded due to the persistent damp conditions, and the steel legs of the cabinet were nearly entirely rusted away (they looked like a twenty-year-old Michigan pickup truck!), so it was not a keeper. But, still cool to see a small piece of history like that. That basement is shiny-clean now, though. There was stuff down there that had not seen the light of day in a century, for sure. Just a lot of laziness in past owners that took the stance of "I don't want to deal with it."

I replaced the man door (and frame, etc.) on the garage, we had several trees removed, the list goes on. And, the "what's left?" list is still a lot longer than the part with check marks next to them....

I keep hoping I'll find a $50,000 penny tucked away in a wall cavity some where, but I just don't have that sort of luck. I did get to smash the last part of a chimney that the prior owners were too lazy to completely remove, though. That was fun. Sometimes it just feels good to smash things, and a brick chimney is a very obliging subject.

fintail

I hope that house was cheap! Might be kind of fun to root through the old junk, just have someone else haul it away.

A few houses I looked at were real time capsules - one 1947 build I remember in particular had all original fixtures and other detailing, even a pair of 1940s (or older) fridges in the basement. Cool house, but even as a bungalow, probably more work than I would risk, I have seen The Money Pit too many times. Another one was a small art deco bungalow in a good area, but it needed a lot - probably 100K worth of work to be nice (not counting garage expansion), and it was a sub-1000 sq ft house. It sold for full ask, which was just under what I paid for my virtually turn-key place. I need to learn from the experiences of my parents when I was a kid, and not be lured in by old world charm.

xwesx said:

Sounds like you'll have your hands full for a while, @fintail! It is just about time for us to leave Ohio, and we have all sorts of crazy going on here.

I spent the last couple of weeks breaking up and hauling out concrete, which has sort of piled up around the house over decades of people making half-hearted attempts to remedy what I can only imagine is persistent water issues in the basement.

My wife is very thorough about these things, so we're starting from ground zero on this one. We're not finished yet (not even close), but, so far, the work seems to be putting us in the right direction because, even after a couple of fairly heavy rainfalls, we have had only a tiny amount of water seeping in. At the same time, my son is reworking the entire electrical system, which is about 80 years of hodge-podge nonsense garbage, and he's also installing a heat pump system for managing the heating and cooling needs, with the plan that we will retire the equally happenstance "central air" system in the house now.

Prior to the work around the outside foundation, I spent a week or so cleaning out the "basement" (glorified crawl space). Ugh, what a mess that was. The neat part, though, is that we had a real-life ice chest down there... probably harkening back to what.... maybe the 1920s or earlier? Sadly, the latches were heavily corroded due to the persistent damp conditions, and the steel legs of the cabinet were nearly entirely rusted away (they looked like a twenty-year-old Michigan pickup truck!), so it was not a keeper. But, still cool to see a small piece of history like that. That basement is shiny-clean now, though. There was stuff down there that had not seen the light of day in a century, for sure. Just a lot of laziness in past owners that took the stance of "I don't want to deal with it."

I replaced the man door (and frame, etc.) on the garage, we had several trees removed, the list goes on. And, the "what's left?" list is still a lot longer than the part with check marks next to them....

I keep hoping I'll find a $50,000 penny tucked away in a wall cavity some where, but I just don't have that sort of luck. I did get to smash the last part of a chimney that the prior owners were too lazy to completely remove, though. That was fun. Sometimes it just feels good to smash things, and a brick chimney is a very obliging subject.

fintail

Saw this on reddit - another driver ran a stop sign and unfortunately made this into a project car:





Sad

bhill2

fintail said:

No garage was a dealbreaker for me, a house would have to be amazing in some way (location or price) to compensate, as I have to imagine full cost of building a detached 2 car garage is maybe 30-50K. I am not too concerned about being attached, the new garage is detached, but just to have the space is something to be happy about. As this area has snowy winters, garages are common, but a lot of them are single car, especially on houses from the 50s and prior, as I call the smaller ones, "Model T garages".

In western WA, garages are less common due to the mild weather, and people seem more likely to use them for storage.

tjc78 said:

@fintail said:

Thanks all.

2 car garage was a firm request when looking for a place. Hard floors can be added easily enough, modern central HVAC is often not a problem, but a new garage would be a major expense. I had looked at a couple other places with garage space for 3-4 cars - would have been dangerous, as I was thinking "I'd need another car"

When I bought my first home it didn’t have a garage. I always planned on adding one but that never panned out. When we moved in 2020 I told my wife a 2 car attached was my only requirement (different than hers) and was completely non-negotiable. She didn’t show me a single home that didn’t have it!

Wow, memories flood back. The house I grew up in near Seattle only had a car port, and a lot of the houses around us didn't even have that.

qbrozen

@fintail said:
Saw this on reddit - another driver ran a stop sign and unfortunately made this into a project car:

Sad

Holy hell! I wanna see the other car that could do that!

xwesx

fintail said:

I hope that house was cheap! Might be kind of fun to root through the old junk, just have someone else haul it away.

A few houses I looked at were real time capsules - one 1947 build I remember in particular had all original fixtures and other detailing, even a pair of 1940s (or older) fridges in the basement. Cool house, but even as a bungalow, probably more work than I would risk, I have seen The Money Pit too many times. Another one was a small art deco bungalow in a good area, but it needed a lot - probably 100K worth of work to be nice (not counting garage expansion), and it was a sub-1000 sq ft house. It sold for full ask, which was just under what I paid for my virtually turn-key place. I need to learn from the experiences of my parents when I was a kid, and not be lured in by old world charm.

Comparatively, it was likely somewhat cheap, but still on the upper end of five figures. And, it wouldn't surprise me at all if we end up putting the same amount into setting it more toward right. I mean, it's an old house, and nothing is going to make it younger, so the goal is simply to do things that will minimize the further deterioration of time.

Unfortunately, people seem to be big fans of quick fixes, even the contractors we've managed to contact, so we need to find people that are on our wavelength about the work we want done. When we bring somebody out and say, "this is what we want," and they come back with "oh, that would be a lot of work, and probably unnecessary. Have you considered pouring more concrete?," we know it's time to move on to another contractor. Hahah

While do most of our work ourselves, there are some projects that make sense to hire someone to do... if that someone exists out there!

explorerx4

That was a nice Nomad done up in Bel Air trim.

stickguy

Sad looking nomad. But at least the airbags didn’t go off!

fintail

Out towards the coast where my mom lives, garages are not universal either - they seem to be a function of temperature rather than precipitation. It's a common thing around Seattle for a house to have a 2-3 car garage, with no cars in the garage, instead, $200 worth of yard sale fodder.

I looked at listings for a couple places with 4 car garages, which probably wouldn't be a good idea.

bhill2 said:

fintail said:

No garage was a dealbreaker for me, a house would have to be amazing in some way (location or price) to compensate, as I have to imagine full cost of building a detached 2 car garage is maybe 30-50K. I am not too concerned about being attached, the new garage is detached, but just to have the space is something to be happy about. As this area has snowy winters, garages are common, but a lot of them are single car, especially on houses from the 50s and prior, as I call the smaller ones, "Model T garages".

In western WA, garages are less common due to the mild weather, and people seem more likely to use them for storage.

tjc78 said:

@fintail said:

Thanks all.

2 car garage was a firm request when looking for a place. Hard floors can be added easily enough, modern central HVAC is often not a problem, but a new garage would be a major expense. I had looked at a couple other places with garage space for 3-4 cars - would have been dangerous, as I was thinking "I'd need another car"

When I bought my first home it didn’t have a garage. I always planned on adding one but that never panned out. When we moved in 2020 I told my wife a 2 car attached was my only requirement (different than hers) and was completely non-negotiable. She didn’t show me a single home that didn’t have it!

Wow, memories flood back. The house I grew up in near Seattle only had a car port, and a lot of the houses around us didn't even have that.

fintail

Couldn't find any mention of the other car, but the author estimated the hit to be at around 40 mph. Driver was sore and shaken up, but no serious injury - might have had upgraded seatbelts to go with the rest of the resto-mod.

qbrozen said:

@fintail said:

Saw this on reddit - another driver ran a stop sign and unfortunately made this into a project car:

Sad

Holy hell! I wanna see the other car that could do that!

fintail

5 figures doesn't exist here even for a scary fixer in a demilitarized zone - maybe 10 years ago you could find something like that here, but not since the area became popular. And in Seattle, forget it, go back 30++ years. You must like something about the house to be putting work and money into it.

My mom was house shopping a couple months ago, and one flip in particular was so poorly done that my brother effectively laughed and walked away. A couple other places had inspection reports the size of a NYC phone book. My prospective place is being inspected today, fingers crossed the cosmetic work I am planning is all it really needs. I am not the handiest, and wouldn't be thrilled with anything more than a basic repair. Replace a faucet, sure - rewire something, no thanks, replace a roof, nope.

xwesx said:

fintail said:

I hope that house was cheap! Might be kind of fun to root through the old junk, just have someone else haul it away.

A few houses I looked at were real time capsules - one 1947 build I remember in particular had all original fixtures and other detailing, even a pair of 1940s (or older) fridges in the basement. Cool house, but even as a bungalow, probably more work than I would risk, I have seen The Money Pit too many times. Another one was a small art deco bungalow in a good area, but it needed a lot - probably 100K worth of work to be nice (not counting garage expansion), and it was a sub-1000 sq ft house. It sold for full ask, which was just under what I paid for my virtually turn-key place. I need to learn from the experiences of my parents when I was a kid, and not be lured in by old world charm.

Comparatively, it was likely somewhat cheap, but still on the upper end of five figures. And, it wouldn't surprise me at all if we end up putting the same amount into setting it more toward right. I mean, it's an old house, and nothing is going to make it younger, so the goal is simply to do things that will minimize the further deterioration of time.

Unfortunately, people seem to be big fans of quick fixes, even the contractors we've managed to contact, so we need to find people that are on our wavelength about the work we want done. When we bring somebody out and say, "this is what we want," and they come back with "oh, that would be a lot of work, and probably unnecessary. Have you considered pouring more concrete?," we know it's time to move on to another contractor. Hahah

While do most of our work ourselves, there are some projects that make sense to hire someone to do... if that someone exists out there!

tjc78

When we were shopping at the Shore we looked at one flip. Wow, just so bad. They literally just painted everything grey, threw down $1 sq ft laminate and painted the kitchen cabinetry. The workmanship was so bad, I had never seen anything like it.

ab348

Those flip shows on HGTV are driving a lot of that. I can't stand any of them but occasionally will watch one if there is nothing else interesting to do at that moment. "Good Bones" seems very popular though the cast of characters is annoying at best and the scripted nature is all too apparent. I was looking at their FB page of photos and every kitchen/dining/family room is pretty much the same with shades of white and gray. Gray is the new beige.

gsemike

ab348 said:

Those flip shows on HGTV are driving a lot of that. I can't stand any of them but occasionally will watch one if there is nothing else interesting to do at that moment. "Good Bones" seems very popular though the cast of characters is annoying at best and the scripted nature is all too apparent. I was looking at their FB page of photos and every kitchen/dining/family room is pretty much the same with shades of white and gray. Gray is the new beige.

I do think that these shows are fueling it somewhat. The shows make it look like you can drive up any block and find a house that you can make a hundred grand on within a few months

gsemike

Long Island Grandma's Cars I saw a tip to search for 'grandma's car' to find affordable transportation. Here are some of the returns

Passat with only 70k for not much money Let's wetsand those headlights

20 yo Sonata with 40k miles Maaco paint job and I guess you have a decent local car

Turbo PT Cruiser Limited.... Sport.... Platinum

96 Outback with 74k miles

Lexus LS400

Could do worse for $2,500

stickguy

Passat seems ok, but not all that cheap. I’m sure it has needs too.

stickguy

Elantra seemed interesting. Not far from me (not that I want to go explore Camden). And way too cheap. Neil I got to the parts car/no title. Yeah, pass on that.

stickguy

Outback seems like pick of the litter. I’d buy that if it’s as nice as he says and it was local.

xwesx

stickguy said:

Outback seems like pick of the litter. I’d buy that if it’s as nice as he says and it was local.

Yeah, overall it looks really nice for an Outback of that year. Looks very similar to the one I owned for six years.

sda

stickguy said:

Elantra seemed interesting. Not far from me (not that I want to go explore Camden). And way too cheap. Neil I got to the parts car/no title. Yeah, pass on that.

Is the moisture on the windshield inside the car? Flood car?

xwesx

sda said:

stickguy said:

Elantra seemed interesting. Not far from me (not that I want to go explore Camden). And way too cheap. Neil I got to the parts car/no title. Yeah, pass on that.

Is the moisture on the windshield inside the car? Flood car?

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, too. It takes a lot of moisture inside to bead up like that. Seems a likely scenario given the claim of parts only and the timing.

texases

That LS400 seems like a good price if it checks out. Crazy low miles, but that could indicate some lack of maintenance.

qbrozen

Grandma likes a turbo PT and a stickshift subaru? yeah, ok. lol.

I like the Lexus, but not for 5 figures.

tjc78

@texases said:
That LS400 seems like a good price if it checks out. Crazy low miles, but that could indicate some lack of maintenance.

Probably due for some stuff but those are really good cars. That one was loved by someone.

gsemike

stickguy said:

Elantra seemed interesting. Not far from me (not that I want to go explore Camden). And way too cheap. Neil I got to the parts car/no title. Yeah, pass on that.

I've got to read the ads closer. What type of shady crap is that? No title so parting out a perfectly good car

explorerx4

How crazy is this?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/tracked-down-dillingers-1934-ford-v-8-getaway-cop-car/ar-AAOgIhL?ocid=hplocalnews&li=BBnbfcL

fintail

CL goodies:

Good deal if it checks out

Don't see these every day

Trucky truck

Really an All-Trac? Not sure about that

Adam would probably approve

Uplanderguy might approve

Adam might approve here too

Still the dumbest ad title, good way to not sell your car

Unique I guess

My old man is a television repairman etc

Neat

Green

Brit

Flash for little cash

Not many of these around anymore

Gold package

The Lime Scooter of cars

texases

They managed to make that Dodge Daytona Charger as odd/overdone as possible. I liked the basic design, not that one.

stickguy

I actually like the citation. Nice clean design.

tjc78

@stickguy said:
I actually like the citation. Nice clean design.

You say that now … but wait ‘til you drive it.

tjc78

@texases said:
They managed to make that Dodge Daytona Charger as odd/overdone as possible. I liked the basic design, not that one.

What I find funny on the car is how overly large the shift indicator is. Literally twice the size it has to be.

tjc78

Could that 88 Eldo be any worse color/trim combo. They can be nice looking in the right colors.

boomchek

Ladies dream car lol. I don't think my wife would care for it. My 65 year old mom, maybe, but still not a dream.

I've warmed up to the C4 Vettes lately as they can be a fun summer cruising car for not much money. Not sure about reliability on them.

gsemike

First car shopping - what's out there for 5 grand or less

Trans Am convertible looks OK but ran out of gas last year and now won't start?? Run

T top firebird. Looks OK and cheap but many needs Points for honesty about the t-top leak

Acura TL for 3 grand Looks a little beat but price is attractive

The forgotten Saturn Sky. Liked these more than Solstices, but has salvage title

Decent looking eClass but scary new electrical issues

Decent looking 328xi Need to inspect to see how tough that city living has been

qbrozen

Didn't those E320s have dissolving wiring harnesses?

Bimmer is a little cheap. I smell scam.

texases

I wonder about that TL, that's a crazy low price for a car that looks to be in decent shape.

stickguy

I like the sky. But is that a cut seatbelt hanging down?

TL looks to be the pick of the litter.

qbrozen

Y'all think that "Acur" is in decent shape? Yikes!

gsemike

qbrozen said:

Y'all think that "Acur" is in decent shape? Yikes!

Yeah, it looks a little beat to me. Look at those lugnuts

tjc78

Ripped passenger seat on the TL too.

I gotta say that’s a rough bunch of cars. The red secretary Firebird would probably break your wallet the least.

texases

Yeah, that TL is a bit rough, but the price is much lower than any available for sale around here. At least I figured out why the tires look wrong - they're 215/45x17, they should be 235/45x17.

sda

gsemike said:

First car shopping - what's out there for 5 grand or less

Trans Am convertible looks OK but ran out of gas last year and now won't start?? Run

T top firebird. Looks OK and cheap but many needs Points for honesty about the t-top leak

Acura TL for 3 grand Looks a little beat but price is attractive

The forgotten Saturn Sky. Liked these more than Solstices, but has salvage title

Decent looking eClass but scary new electrical issues

Decent looking 328xi Need to inspect to see how tough that city living has been

The perforated leather seats in the 04-08 TL are prone to drying out and cracking leading to tears. It is also common for the dashboard in that series to crack in multiple places.

qbrozen

All seats are torn/cracked. All corners of bumpers scuffed. Wheels badly curbed. Center console broken. Whole passenger rocker panel is … gravitationally affected? It is just a mess.

sda

qbrozen said:

All seats are torn/cracked. All corners of bumpers scuffed. Wheels badly curbed. Center console broken. Whole passenger rocker panel is … gravitationally affected? It is just a mess.

I didn’t look at it that close. Drove hard and put up wet. Nope.

The 06 TL that we have was dealer maintained, was washed and waxed regularly by my SIL. If it needed the slightest repair it was done. It still looks and drives really nice at 165k. Yet the dash has multiple cracks and the seats show wear and potential tearing. I have installed a model specific dash cover which hides the cracked dash. I frequently use leather conditioner to prolong the life of the upholstery. I thoroughly enjoy driving the TL. The V6 is smooth and has a muscular refined growl when spurred. Of course I don’t let my daughter know that as it is her car now.

andres3

gsemike said:

First car shopping - what's out there for 5 grand or less

Trans Am convertible looks OK but ran out of gas last year and now won't start?? Run

T top firebird. Looks OK and cheap but many needs Points for honesty about the t-top leak

Acura TL for 3 grand Looks a little beat but price is attractive

The forgotten Saturn Sky. Liked these more than Solstices, but has salvage title

Decent looking eClass but scary new electrical issues

Decent looking 328xi Need to inspect to see how tough that city living has been

$5K or less? You could get about one wheel/tire assembly on a new Bugatti.

fintail

MB wiring harness era was in the mid 90s, 92-96 I think. That car is a first year W211, which is also not known to be MBs finest hour.

qbrozen said:

Didn't those E320s have dissolving wiring harnesses?

Bimmer is a little cheap. I smell scam.

fintail

CL pile:

Ranger didn't always mean small

End of this era

"Classic collector's car", remarkable preservation if mileage is true

They painted it

"now the bad news"

Mom or grandma's baby

Early AWD

Start your own scrapyard

Not a good ROI

These guys are worse than house flippers

something something it seats about 20

Duster

stickguy

I kinda like the Duster. just needs to be cheaper to be a throwaway toy!