Buying a broken car for first car

Hello folks, a bit of help would be appreciated,

thanks.!

the body looks fucked.
you'd need to spend at least $5-10k to make it look like a decent car.
You may be able to get it to a running condition for $1200 but it will look like a junkie mobile

>>17878172
As a project car? Sure.
As a first car you'll need to get up an running in order to use? Fuck no, are you stupid?

Unless you're a master mechanic that has already rebuilt several cars, use your money to buy one that actually runs.

>>17878210
thanks man, is body work the most expensive part of buying an old car, is a clean body what I should look for?

>>17878222
i dont *need* a car, but I take your point

>>17878224
yes it usually is. i can't tell from the pic but it looks rusty as fuck. welding jobs are not cheap and a decent respray costs at least $5k.

File: 00i0i_f8Xhfo6WBis_600x450.jpg (38KB, 600x450px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 600x450px

>>17878250
another pic

>>17878172
bi-turbo maserati for 3k

>>17878265
If it has rust don't bother. fixing rust on the inside of a rear fender will eat up your budget and worse if it's gotten under carpet inside the car.

>>17878238
How are you going to feel having sunk 5k into the rust repair and the car still not running when you could have bought a nice, working car for less?

Especially when your friends will have working cars that they might have gotten for less than 2000 dollars?

>>17878439
Pretty much this

Nope. Unless you're actually gonna pay 15k to get it competely restored I say hell no. For that just get a 350z and be done with it. Hell the ZX line was shit, if anything do it for a 240

>>17878172
No. Absolutely not. There are so many reasons to not do this. I'm a 57 year old man and I love cars, and I have extra resources to get fun cars and fix them up and would run from this one. No. Do not buy it.

>>17879284
Shit, I forgot to take off that stupid trip from the other night.

>>17878172
A sold an '82 280zx about a month ago for $450. It was running, but the body had major rust issues on the roof and spare tire well. You can find better ones out there than that one.

And all Z cars have rust!

>>17878172
How's the interior?

>>17879323
>And all Z cars have rust!

Main reason why there's so few in good condition

>>17878172
It will end up cheaper for you to just buy a decent one. Once a car gets to that state and hasn't ran in years, you won't get it back up and running with a proper rebuild. All the seals and shit in the engine will be cracked and fucked.

>>17878172
>$600
You Americans are lucky motherfuckers with your car prices, you don't even want to know what that would sell for here in Australia

>>17880836
You guys have way better deals on 86s though, ours are like $8000 for a molested one.

>>17880430
this

>>17878172

A restored one goes in Europe for over 15k euros.
Buy for 600$
Drop a few grand for restoration
Sell for 15 grand.

>>17880864
15 grand will require it to be mint. This will never be mint. Or at least not if a newbie tried to restore it with 2 grand.

what is it with all these idiots trying to get some beat up classic as a first car.

short answer: No.

its going to cost more money and time than you think, and is going to have thousands and thousands of dollars worth of costs you didnt think about. do yourself a favor and get some early 2000s jap shitbox

Why in the hell would you spend $600 on some piece of shit 280ZX (Not the 280ZX, this particular example is the piece of shit).

I understand the idea of wanting to take something in really bad condition and making it something incredible, but I don't get why people go crazy cheap? And you sure as hell shouldn't get some shitty project car if it's your only car.

These aren't expensive cars and there are plenty of them around in much better condition.

>>17879291
Must have been a big night indeed

>>17878172
Think of it this way man: People are saying a nice one of these will go for $15k, do you honestly think you can put ~$14,400 of work into it with $1,200?

>>17880990
Cheap RWD is a waning commodity

"No"

My bro literally tried to do exactly this with that exact model car and it never ended up being a driver. Now it's 20 years older than his was then so... no.

>>17878265
Depends on what engine it has... N/A or turbo? And what trans... You could have a fucking rocket if that has a turbo engine and you are willing to tune it up.

>>17878172
As the owner of a 74 dats ill tell you straight up that for $600 this car is cancer

>>17881943
>no hood scoop
>81 so prob auto
>def not the close ratio 5

>>17878172
>Should I buy this 1981 Datsun $600 that won't start?
Can you do rudimentary diagnosis before buying it? There's a lot of very simple issues that could prevent it from starting. I'm gonna assume you tried with gas in the tank and a new battery. Does it turn over?

>If I just buy the repair manual will I be good to go?
You also need tools and parts, potentially quite rare and expensive parts.

>How unreasonable is it to expect the engine to be in an even repairable condition?
Let's say I wouldn't bet 600 bucks on it.

Somewhat related because datson

https://nh.craigslist.org/cto/d/280z-1977/6305394496.html

thots?

Do it, whats the worst that can happen? you'll lose time and money and the car will never run. in that case find some other moron and sell it to recoup some loses and move on.

>>17878439
It'll make me wonder why I care so much about my friend's cars

>>17881943
>>17882256
All '81 Turbos were Autos. Nissan didn't think their manual was strong enough for it.