luke46
Respected
Hello everyone, its Luke. Warning beforehand, I write a long long post, turn away now before I begin if you want to fall asleep 
I will direct to where the real stuff begins
I am on the edge of 18 now (turn 18 in October on Friday the 13th, ohh scary) I've been a lurker for a long time, just now really getting into cars. I did a post back in December about my brothers car, a 1998 Honda Civic LX that had been passed down in my family for a long time. My Aunt bought it in 2006 and was passed down through my three cousins. They gave it to my Grandpa gave it to us once my cousin got a new car. I was supposed to get from him. Well, that possiblity came to a rather "rear" end in February. He was getting off the highway and stopped at the light when Some stupid guy in a truck decided it would be fun to not stop and he "rammed" into him at a speed of 45 MPH.
Needless to say, the car was totalled. Frame was bent up and although he actually drove the car home, it was a safety hazard, and unfit to drive. He got a 2008 Nissan Altima about a month later on March 19th as a dying gift from my Grandpa, who died three weeks after on April 11th after a long battle with leukemia.
I had ambitions for a long time to get a car for myself, fix it up, and have pride in the work I did. Mainly because I have a lot of home situations and circumstances that are needless to say toxic and complicated enough that I need to be independent. My goal is to move out after I graduate. That is all I will say about that, not a time to discuss my personal life on public forum.
On of my best friends is a car guru, he rebuilt his '87 GMC from the ground up. He knows just about everything there is to know about cars. Also knows about my circumstances, which Is why he agreed when I told him I wanted to buy a car we can fix up together. I also needed a project to keep my mind busy, because I am still grieving over the loss of my Grandpa, and other personal circumstances.
In June, I started saving up for a car in secret. That is also when I started working a lot. I saved up about 500 dollars in two months, which took lots and lots of self control (considering my other hobby vinyl collecting is basically another money pit )
I looked on craigslist, got many many close but no cigar kind of deals. My best friend helped me a lot in making sure if a car was worth pursuing or not, leading to many hilarious arguments and eventual agreement on his viewpoint.
In late August, I was surfing and saw this 1993 Honda Civic for 500 bucks. 200k, stickshift, runs and drives the ad description said. The ad was posted about a month beforehand, so I was sure it had already been sold. To my luck, not only was it still avaliable, he dropped the price to 300 dollars (not everday you can say a car is under your budget)
I purchased the car on August 27th. It was in a trailer park, which is as redneck as you can get. We test drove it, my best friend basically did a close inspection, made sure everything was intact before purchasing with cash, title in hand.
The owner was blunt about the car. The main issue with the car is :
a. It burns oil
b. on Cylinder 4, it has a burnt exhaust valve that does not open and shut correctly. Because of said burnt exhaust valve, it causes the engine a loss of power, and misfires. On cylinder 4 there is about 30 HP of compression, the rest are 102. It sounds like a lawnmower. It fires right when at 3k RPMs.
c. The previous owner deleted the Ac, all the hookups are there, just not the compressor
d. Needs a new windshield
e. To sum it up, I want to keep it running, so it will be my first rebuild project.
Since I have steady income, I have been investing about half of my paycheck into the fund for parts.
We both assembled a group of mechanic friends to help out with it, and have been working on fixing it up ever since. Its been such an adventure, have been learning a lot, and its so fun.
Will post when I make more progress, we have been taking care of the little stuff until his schedule is freed up and we have a weekend or two to really make progress.
Here are some nice pictures:
I will direct to where the real stuff beginsI am on the edge of 18 now (turn 18 in October on Friday the 13th, ohh scary) I've been a lurker for a long time, just now really getting into cars. I did a post back in December about my brothers car, a 1998 Honda Civic LX that had been passed down in my family for a long time. My Aunt bought it in 2006 and was passed down through my three cousins. They gave it to my Grandpa gave it to us once my cousin got a new car. I was supposed to get from him. Well, that possiblity came to a rather "rear" end in February. He was getting off the highway and stopped at the light when Some stupid guy in a truck decided it would be fun to not stop and he "rammed" into him at a speed of 45 MPH.
Needless to say, the car was totalled. Frame was bent up and although he actually drove the car home, it was a safety hazard, and unfit to drive. He got a 2008 Nissan Altima about a month later on March 19th as a dying gift from my Grandpa, who died three weeks after on April 11th after a long battle with leukemia.
I had ambitions for a long time to get a car for myself, fix it up, and have pride in the work I did. Mainly because I have a lot of home situations and circumstances that are needless to say toxic and complicated enough that I need to be independent. My goal is to move out after I graduate. That is all I will say about that, not a time to discuss my personal life on public forum.
On of my best friends is a car guru, he rebuilt his '87 GMC from the ground up. He knows just about everything there is to know about cars. Also knows about my circumstances, which Is why he agreed when I told him I wanted to buy a car we can fix up together. I also needed a project to keep my mind busy, because I am still grieving over the loss of my Grandpa, and other personal circumstances.
In June, I started saving up for a car in secret. That is also when I started working a lot. I saved up about 500 dollars in two months, which took lots and lots of self control (considering my other hobby vinyl collecting is basically another money pit )
I looked on craigslist, got many many close but no cigar kind of deals. My best friend helped me a lot in making sure if a car was worth pursuing or not, leading to many hilarious arguments and eventual agreement on his viewpoint.
In late August, I was surfing and saw this 1993 Honda Civic for 500 bucks. 200k, stickshift, runs and drives the ad description said. The ad was posted about a month beforehand, so I was sure it had already been sold. To my luck, not only was it still avaliable, he dropped the price to 300 dollars (not everday you can say a car is under your budget)
I purchased the car on August 27th. It was in a trailer park, which is as redneck as you can get. We test drove it, my best friend basically did a close inspection, made sure everything was intact before purchasing with cash, title in hand.
The owner was blunt about the car. The main issue with the car is :
a. It burns oil
b. on Cylinder 4, it has a burnt exhaust valve that does not open and shut correctly. Because of said burnt exhaust valve, it causes the engine a loss of power, and misfires. On cylinder 4 there is about 30 HP of compression, the rest are 102. It sounds like a lawnmower. It fires right when at 3k RPMs.
c. The previous owner deleted the Ac, all the hookups are there, just not the compressor
d. Needs a new windshield
e. To sum it up, I want to keep it running, so it will be my first rebuild project.
Since I have steady income, I have been investing about half of my paycheck into the fund for parts.
We both assembled a group of mechanic friends to help out with it, and have been working on fixing it up ever since. Its been such an adventure, have been learning a lot, and its so fun.
Will post when I make more progress, we have been taking care of the little stuff until his schedule is freed up and we have a weekend or two to really make progress.
Here are some nice pictures:
