Looking at a Celica

[uncleray]

Hello,

I am interested in buying a 99 GT convertible, which I found for what seems to be a really low price. However, I'm trying to do my research and want to know how much trouble I might be getting myself into. It's a manual, 110K, no rust. However, it very obviously needs some exterior work. The ad mentions that the owner bought a new soft top (not installed), which probably means the top needs to be replaced. Several body panels are damaged and the coffee can exhaust makes me think it has other "mods" that may need to be taken care of.

With all this, is this a reasonable price? KBB says otherwise, so is this too good to be true? Or, somehow, too high to be worthwhile? Clearly there's some work to be done.. How easy is it (from members here or otherwise) to get stock body panels? If I go to look at it, I'll be bringing it to a mechanic, but any tips on what to look for (and tell the mechanic to look for) would be appreciated - I couldn't find a list of things to look for in the faq, so if it exists a link to a list would be fine.

Thanks for any advice!

[Jasonhughes2009]

you never listed a price, just "really low price" ... so if it runs and you can drive it away instead of towing it, then "really low price" seems pretty reasonable to me

[uncleray]

Sorry, it's up for $2k. Supposedly drives excellent. However, it'll be less of a deal if fixing the body will cost me another $3k.

[Jasonhughes2009]

do a tub swap. can probably go pick one up for a hundred bucks

[jstange1]

Tub swap? do you mean swap out the whole body? just curious

[uncleray]

Jason, I'd also like a little more info.. I'm looking at the car today and if it runs well, I'll be buying it. I haven't seen too much in that price range.. Ebay has $500 "full body kits" which don't include fenders and buying the parts from different cars here also won't get me much lower than that. Is it just a partout waiting game or is there a better way to find a cheap bunch of stock body panels?

[Jasonhughes2009]

Originally Posted by jstange1

Tub swap? do you mean swap out the whole body? just curious

yeah, but just remembered these are unibody aren't they, so tub swap probably wouldn't be happening

Originally Posted by uncleray

Jason, I'd also like a little more info.. I'm looking at the car today and if it runs well, I'll be buying it. I haven't seen too much in that price range.. Ebay has $500 "full body kits" which don't include fenders and buying the parts from different cars here also won't get me much lower than that. Is it just a partout waiting game or is there a better way to find a cheap bunch of stock body panels?

junkyards are your best friends.... but when it comes to unibody stuff id put down the money just to have it be new, if you go out and buy new body panels that "look good" because they are shinny and have no dents, but are rusted to crap on the inside, it takes away from the strength of the steel/plastic depending on the body part in question

the body kit you are seeing on ebay probably doesn't include fenders because they are some of the most important safety components in your vehicle when it gets in a crash, therefore they are specifically designed and have millions of dollars put into research for them, hence theyd mot likely be expensive as **** to buy new. hoods are pretty much universal, its got to crumple upwards like all hoods do, so no new research there, celica bumpers are plastic so they can be had for cheap and so on

just my .02, if it runs well and you dont see the engine side needing a lot of work then who cares how it looks as long as it does its job should you get into an accident

i'd go the part out route though, find good body panels on here or visit your local junkyards every so often and just keep searching for undamaged panels, then once youve got everything you need as well as the money and time to put your car down take it into a body shop and have them do a professional job thats on paperwork to install the new body panels and get it painted if you want, that way if you get in a wreck and the panels dont act like they should, you know where the fault was

i say get a professional shop to do it because... well i redneck rig a lot of crap on my bronco, it works, but is by no means the "correct and safe" way to do it

[uncleray]

Thanks for the feedback.. I took a look at the car and it was clearly in some sort of collision.. It pulls to the right pretty severely and the front right wheel is about 1/4 inch farther back than the left one. Given that and the motor for the top being broken, looks like I'm taking it home for $1k, which gives me a decent budget to make it run. I figure if I dump another $1000 into making it run properly (and get rid of what looks like a 5" exhaust tip), I really won't care too much about how it looks. My mechanic, who owns a body shop, said a worthwhile paint job on this thing would probably end up being close to $2000 and I don't think I'm going to bother. The only thing I may do is look for a junkyard car with all of its panels still intact.

I mainly want this car to get some hands-on time to fix it up and not care too much if something goes wrong. If the purchase works out, I might start a thread on it just for fun.

[Jasonhughes2009]

sounds good. take your time with everything and if you start on a project and have no clue what your doing just send me a message and ill see what I can do to help. done a lot of suspension work on smaller cars when I was an r&r Guy for a trans shop