There are few experiences I have found more satisfying than getting an old car and fixing it up to be, well, maybe not just like new but definitely closer to new or newish than it was when I acquired it. I've done this twice. The first time, I was in high school back in the early '80s and got a 1968 VW Beetle that was mechanically sound and needed, well, just about everything else. It was the second Bug I had owned. The first one was a '72 model that looked great and had some serious mechanical problems. As part of the transition between these two, I picked up a wrecked '71 Super Beetle that offered just about everything I needed to fix both of the other cars with a bunch of parts left over. The engine went into the '72, which I sold for enough to just about break even on all three cars. Most of the interior and some of the body panels went into the '68, although the front fenders and trunk lid had to be sourced from elsewhere. I took the best of the available parts and made the most of what I had, and when I had it finished and painted, the end result wasn't half bad. It was lots of fun and I took great satisfaction in knowing I had made the car what it had become.
Flash forward some 30 years and it's become deja vu all over again. Last fall, I needed a car and was short on funds. My previous car had developed some serious mechanical issues that were beyond my financial means to repair, so it was more cost effective to buy another car, albeit a cheap one, and sell off the old one.
The solution I found was a '95 Pontiac Bonneville that was nicely equipped and in reasonably good mechanical condition, but had a few minor issues, not the least of which was that the paint was peeling off most the trunk and rear quarter panels. Still, it was reliable, affordable transportation. It kept me on the road and I knew I could fix most of the little issues it had.
In looking at another car, the seller told me of a junk yard in a neighboring town called Pull-A-Part (www.pullapart.com) that had terrific prices on used parts, but with one little catch--you have to bring your own tools and harvest the parts yourself. Whle this means extra work for the customer, sometimes in less than pleasant weather, it also has some distinct advantages. The first is you can pick and choose from the available vehicles to find the best available part for your need. The second is that in removing the part, you can educate yourself on the procedure before you do it to your own car. Better to do this on a car you can afford to mess up. Plus, it's okay to be a little brutal to these donor vehicles; they don't feel any pain.
I've had incredible luck at my local Pull-A-Part. I've found lots of things I needed form a turn signal lamp to a power antenna, as well as little upgrades like a better radio and a center console cup holder that wasn't originally included on my car.
I mentioned the paint on my Bonneville earlier because one of my summer projects has been to sand and spot paint the areas where the paint was peeling. It's not perfect, but it's definitely better than it was before I started. The worst of these areas was the trunk lid, which was missing about half its paint. I wasn't looking forward to doing all that sanding in the summer heat and I knew the end result wouldn't be all that great when I got finished.
Fortunately, on a recent trip to Pull-A-Part I harvested a power antenna from a white Bonneville with much better paint than mine. How ironic, I thought, that this car, the same color as mine, should be sitting here at the end of its useful life with such good paint. Then I took a closer look at the trunk lid and realized the swap would be pretty easy. Just take out four bolts and run some wires for the tail lights and automatic trunk release. The only catch (no pun intended) was the lock cylinder since there was no trunk key with the donor car.
After a little online research at www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com, I learned that a lock cylinder swap really isn't that difficult—just remove a retaining clip and it falls out—so I found someone with a pickup truck and some time on his hands (this was actually the most difficult part of the entire project) and made a return trip to Pull-A-Part. It was a hellishly hot July day, but with a little blood from scraped knuckles and a whole lot of sweat, we got the new trunk lid off the donor car and swapped it over onto mine. The car now looks great with a whole lot less effort than to sand and paint it myself and a whole lot less expense than to have it painted professionally.
Having an old car and fixing it up is a singularly gratifying experience I would recommend to anyone who knows his or her way around a wrench or socket set. There is simply no better way to become one with your vehicle. And having a resource like Pull-A-Part makes it all the more cost effective.
