VIN 1470 finally arrives!

The car is finally here, after taking much longer than anticipated to get picked up. I did an initial assessment on the car, and the guy who was selling this car WAY undersold it. The seller said the interior was terrible, it is definitely not terrible. The seat skins will need to be replaced due to the fact that they are cracking, but I've seen much worse in other cars in use! The carpets look like new, with the exception of the carpet in the compartment behind the drivers side seat where a mouse made a nice nest. The binnacle is compeltely intact, and there is only one small crack in the dash near the glove box. The headliners are drooping and will need replacing, but other that than, the interior is in amazing shape!

The exterior is going to need a little TLC, but overall its not as bad as the seller made that out to be either. The drivers side rear quarter is a total loss and will need to be replaced. Other than that there are a couple of small dings along the wheel well on the passengers side rear quarter and some damage on the drivers side front quarter panel towards the top near ther fascia. All with the exception of the drivers side rear quarter panel, everything else should be easily repairable -- I'll send the car down to DMC Midwest for that work. I already have a line on a nice used rear quarter panel, so I should have that squared away and installed soon.

Mechanically this car looks near mint, when I popped the engine cover I was pleasantly surprised, everything was complete and looked almost like new. Due to the fact that the car has been sitting since 1984 I figured the fuel system would need work, and it will. However I was shocked to find a box of brand new parts from DMC Houston in the passengers side seat that contained almost everything I will need: A fuel pump, a fuel pump boot, fuel pump support bracket, new fuel lines, all the necessary hose clamps and a new accumulator! The only thing that seems to be missing that I will have to order is the metal fuel return line and a fuel tank sending unit. I seriously may only need to order less than $200 in additional parts to get the car started!

It looks like someone started to do the work on the fuel system because the old pump was already pulled out and the tank was cleaned. It will need to be cleaned up a bit more due some additional junk, including a dead mouse, getting in there since the project was abandon. It also looks like the fuel distributor is new and was replaced and that the plugs and wires may have also been replaced!

I'll be curious to see the condition of the hydraulics, but so far this car is turning out to be the bargain of the century, and I should easly come in under the $25K rule.

So on Monday I'll be ordering a strut kit for the doors, trunk, etc, the metal fuel return line, and and the fuel tank sending unit to get started. My other project will be on hold for a little bit because I'd really like to get the car running quickly if possible so I can at least move it around a bit more easily.