[FooFighter]

Hey all. As you might already know I am desperately trying to buy a CRX. I need one before the end of the summer or else I will have to just give in and buy something else!

I just found a good looking car on Craigslist but I am not sure if I should even consider it. This is why:

Despite my excellent care, however, there is *nothing* that I can do about rust. The car FAILED Alberta's Out-of-Province Inspection due to an irreparable rusted floor and unibody (partial inspection report provided). The body is too rusted to be considered road safe, but it would be a great engine and parts car for the right person, especially considering how well it runs and the new parts and work that I've recently put into it.

The car looks really nice and the interior has been well looked after. Do you think there is a easy way to fix this problem or should I just keep looking?

Here is a link to the listing:
http://calgary.craigslist.org/car/191786619.html

 

[Tiersin]

nothing is impossable. It may take quite a bit of metal replacement to fix it though. I am no expert on it, but body work can be hell. And rust makes it even worse.

 

[FooFighter]

K well I know nothing about body work so how much do you think this kind of thing would cost me?

 

[baker_jeff]

Too much, trust me. Wierd that a BC car would be that rusted though... but it seriously won't be worth your time.

 

[Dodo]

Rust is no easy thing to fix and not cheap. But after looking at the pics, i see no real rust on the body. If its close, go look at it, take it to a shop and have them put it in the air so you can look under it. The bottom of these cars dont rust very muchdo to the underlining honda put on them. Its something to think about.

 

[FooFighter]

Yea unfortunatly it's about a 3 hour drive from me. So untill I at least get some pics of the underbody I am not jumping on it.

What i was thinking is that the pictures might be like a year old and in that year the owner left it in a pool or something lol.

 

[stick]

I wish he would show pictures of the rusted areas. It's probably not "irrepairable" as the inspector probably told him. However, without some competency with a MIG welder, this would probably be an expensive undertaking. Even with solid MIG welding and sheet metal experience, count on it taking quite a while to get the repairs done. You wouldn't be driving this car any time soon. Great for a project car...but not so great if you need a car to drive right now.

 

[FooFighter]

LOL and btw it's a girl who's selling the car not a guy. She wrote me back and said that it is drivable. I just don't know what to do. It's such a gamble to drive all the way there for nothing. SO...
I was thinking that I could go on a car hunt. I have like 2 offers from Edmonton and this one is in Calgary. So I could drive to Edmonton. Check out the cars there. If I like one I will take it and go home. Then that will leave the el rusto as my final desperation.

 

[stick]

Another thing... since you can't register the car in province in it's current condition, I wouldn't pay more than $1000 for it. In fact, I'd be inclined to offer her $800 for it and see if she goes for it.

 

[FooFighter]

Well what she said is that legally she can only sell it as a parts car. There for she can only ask like $1500 for it, which is what she is asking. She said this because a 88 CRX Si in good condition is worth like $5000 which may be true but this is not in good condition. So I don't know I would have to get there and my uncle could like bargain with her. The good thing is my uncle is a mechanical engineer and that's why I bring him along when ever I look at a car. Plus he's a car fanatic, so it helps!

 

[Dodo]

5000 grand :shock: You could get a good shape crx for 2. It seems like she doesnt know much about these cars.

 

[rex2nr]

Or that she's too much of an enthusiast, lol.

$1500... it almost has 200K miles on it. You can't legally drive/register/inspect it. The heater is broken. I think the price is way too high.

I got my rex 4 yrs ago for $500 US. It only needed an exhaust and a good cleaning. It did have some minor body damage, (pass. fender) too. It also only had 148K miles.

 

[FooFighter]

So in otherwords I whould try to bargain down the price to like $800...
Just so happends that there is a 88 HF without a engine with only like 50k on the body on Ebay. What if I got her engine and put it into the HF?

Here is the engineless HF:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1989-Hon ... dZViewItem

And the rusted out car has a link near the top of the page...

 

[xxpaulcpxx]

Isn't that the 1st gen you were asking about earlier? If so - PAAAAASSS!

You can't swap 1g and 2g engines (unless you are a freaking mechanical AND electrical engineer AND are stupid... hard to be all three at the same time :wink: ).

I have repaired some bad 1g rust. It is a major undertaking, and not worthwile on a car that is not an Si. 2g rust is just topical - 1g rust is structural. Unfortunatly the cancer takes out the reinforcements INSIDE the steel beam channels. I've even yanked out a driver side seat belt bolt because the mount had rusted through the floor.