A little about me: I'm 20 years old, and I've been working on cars since I started high school. I have no formal auto shop education as I was home schooled and there was no option for me to attend shop class. I have successfully owned/repaired a number of cars including an 01 Focus, 02 Durango, 76 Firebird Formula, '84 Supra P-type, '94 Camaro Z28, '93 Z71 Pickup, and I currently drive a '94 3000GT SL. All of these cars had mechanical/cosmetic issues when I bought them, and all were fixed up and sold for a profit. This is how I pay for my ongoing college education.
So here's my new SAAB. 1993 9k Aero with 187k, A/T :th_thumbsdownsmiley, black Recaro interior :th_MySaab900Like:, etc etc. I found it listed on Craigslist near me for $1200. The man selling it had bought it in Atlanta and had it shipped all the way to northern California. The pictures he showed me of when he bought it were from 2004 at a concours show I think, and the car was in immaculate condition. He had all the service records up until about 140k, had a receipt for the transmission being replaced at 128k, all fluid changes and maintenance had been done at SAAB dealers since new. It has 17x8 "ATP" brand wheels. When I went to see the car on his property, it was sitting in a horse pasture, had rotted tires, rusted brakes, and was covered in dirt. Some time during his ownership, the car had been backed into in a parking lot, resulting in a large dent in the passenger rear door. He had it pulled out, but it's missing the trim now (I'm looking for some). Also, the turbo was making a loud hooting noise whenever it spooled and sounded like it was grinding itself away (it was), the transmission had sprung a leak at the torque converter/main seal and was dripping fluid once every ~3 sec (when warm/running), the headliner had fallen down (replaced), had a faulty APC (removed), the taillights weren't working (fixed), the dash lights/high beams weren't working (fixed), and the e-brake was stuck on (fixed). I talked him down to $1000 and managed to drive it home (~10mi of back-roads). I am now the proud owner of a scarabe green basket case! Once cleaned up, the car turned out to be very clean, inside and out, and I have since put brand new tires and brakes on it. I also replaced the turbocharger with a used t25 I found on eBay, blasted/repainted the valve cover, steam cleaned the engine bay, installed new plugs (NGK), and replaced the faulty APC with a cheap manual boost controller made by XSboost.
More pictures can be seen at http://photobucket.com/93aero if interested.
So here's my new SAAB. 1993 9k Aero with 187k, A/T :th_thumbsdownsmiley, black Recaro interior :th_MySaab900Like:, etc etc. I found it listed on Craigslist near me for $1200. The man selling it had bought it in Atlanta and had it shipped all the way to northern California. The pictures he showed me of when he bought it were from 2004 at a concours show I think, and the car was in immaculate condition. He had all the service records up until about 140k, had a receipt for the transmission being replaced at 128k, all fluid changes and maintenance had been done at SAAB dealers since new. It has 17x8 "ATP" brand wheels. When I went to see the car on his property, it was sitting in a horse pasture, had rotted tires, rusted brakes, and was covered in dirt. Some time during his ownership, the car had been backed into in a parking lot, resulting in a large dent in the passenger rear door. He had it pulled out, but it's missing the trim now (I'm looking for some). Also, the turbo was making a loud hooting noise whenever it spooled and sounded like it was grinding itself away (it was), the transmission had sprung a leak at the torque converter/main seal and was dripping fluid once every ~3 sec (when warm/running), the headliner had fallen down (replaced), had a faulty APC (removed), the taillights weren't working (fixed), the dash lights/high beams weren't working (fixed), and the e-brake was stuck on (fixed). I talked him down to $1000 and managed to drive it home (~10mi of back-roads). I am now the proud owner of a scarabe green basket case! Once cleaned up, the car turned out to be very clean, inside and out, and I have since put brand new tires and brakes on it. I also replaced the turbocharger with a used t25 I found on eBay, blasted/repainted the valve cover, steam cleaned the engine bay, installed new plugs (NGK), and replaced the faulty APC with a cheap manual boost controller made by XSboost.
More pictures can be seen at http://photobucket.com/93aero if interested.