How hard would this be to fix?

[McHensley12]

Hello everyone!

First of all, i miss it here. I bought a mk4 and now go on vwvortex, everyone is an a*****e...

anyways, the person i sold my first car to crashed it in a snow storm a few days ago. the body shop she took it to said it would cost her 1700 to repair. Now, i have the chance to buy it back and fix it myself. I don't have a ton of mechanical knowledge, this would be more or less a learning experience for me, but i've been wanting to buy a cheap car just to learn on, something i wouldn't have to worry too much about messing up.

its a 98 lx. 172k. automatic (reason i sold it originally) that occasionally slips going into 3rd gear. with some rust as pictured and an exhaust leak. I figured i would offer whatever they could get scrapping it (around $350?)

So, how hard would it be to fix? worst case scenario i could end up scrapping it and getting my money back. If anyone has any advice, suggestions, tips, thinks its a bad idea, let me know! (ps, sorry for the random pictures, the body shop the car is at was closed but some people were looking at me like i was gonna rob the place!)

Also, both cars together, for good measure (:

 

[JohnS.]

You have to cut the old radiator support out and weld a new one in. It's nothing a good ole fashioned bolt will fix.

If you don't have much mechanical knowledge or skills, I highly recommend you do not tackle this yourself.

 

[McHensley12]

You have to cut the old radiator support out and weld a new one in. It's nothing a good ole fashioned bolt will fix.

If you don't have much mechanical knowledge or skills, I highly recommend you do not tackle this yourself.

that was my first concern when i looked at it. thats the one thing id wanna have someone else do. luckly, a family friend owns a body shop and could help me out with that! I do have a few friends who are fairly good at this sort of stuff that im sure could help out a bit. i just wanna get the hands on experience with it!

 

[Blayze2010]

As long as there isn't any frame damage the core support isn't that bad of a job. Just make sure your measurements are right and you have good welding skills


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JohnS.]

that was my first concern when i looked at it. thats the one thing id wanna have someone else do. luckly, a family friend owns a body shop and could help me out with that! I do have a few friends who are fairly good at this sort of stuff that im sure could help out a bit. i just wanna get the hands on experience with it!

If you have connections that can save you money, I'd say go for it. Especially if you're buying it back for a steal. I'd imagine this kind of work can't come cheap to the average customer with no connections.

Like blayze said, just make sure you everything goes on straight and right.

 

[McHensley12]

i posted the same thing on vwvortex, a lot of people mentioned the rust might make it not worth it. any experience with rust work? I guess it depends exactly what i can buy it back for. especially because the rust isn't that bad for a car from maine.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5995151-how-hard-would-this-be-to-fix-(warning-civic-and-mk4-content)

 

[Blayze2010]

Well being from the south I haven't really had to deal with much rust. But it's just basically cutting out the rotten spots and getting replacement panels or making patches out of sheet metal if you can't get a certain panel you need. Just weld in the new metal, grind the welds and do bodywork from there


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[civexspeedy]

Part out every piece worth anything... Not worth fixing at all. You'll probably spend as much as what the car is worth trying to fix it, probably more.

 

[xxBLOOD88SHOTxx]

Im on the parting it out side, not worth it

 

[R3dline]

its nots worth it, too much rotten s**t on it, just part what you can, or just pass it all together.

 

[jameswanser]

that IS a tough decision. I've seen writeups of having the core support changed, and as long as nothing else on the frame jacked, appears not TOO difficult, as long as you have decent cutting and welding skills. But, it's gonna be a lot of work to clear everything away before you even start cutting,and then the expense of basically buying a new front end. gonna need to by the radiator support, all the parts related to the bumper (cover, support, etc) new hood, fenders, possibly radiator and a/c condensor, headlights.... Unless extremely low miles and wonderful shape aside from the front end, agree you'll likely spend more trying to fix it up than if you got another already in great shape
I'm all for learning experiences and reviving/upgrading cars with problems, but this is a LOT to commit to