Fixer upper... coming along nicely.

[JBMayhem]

So about a year ago, my son wrecked my Dodge 1500 that I was letting him use to drive to work... he was 18 and had just graduated HS, so I was letting him drive it and pay as he went to buy it from me. Since he wrecked it, and had no way to get to work, we were in a bind and needed to get him something dependable, quickly.

I found a little 2005 Chevy Aveo SV sedan... with 105k miles. The car looked like crap, but ran like a dream. So, I put $1,500 in it and drove away. It needed new tires and an alignment. All in, we wound up with a little less than $2k in the car.

Fast forward, he never paid me back for either the truck he wrecked, or the little car... quit his job, and joined the Navy. So, I started driving the car to save on gas. I once again fell in love with how sweet this little thing drives... 5 speed transmission... really shifts smooth, and drives like a dream.

So, I decided to fix it up. I bought some junk parts... the bumper was busted, the passenger bumper blinker was pushed into the bumper, the passenger side front fender was badly dented, and the passenger front door was also badly dented. I bought a complete bumper, fender, grill, door (complete with glass and mirror), and went to work. Luckily the junk car was the same color as mine... so the parts bolted in and looked great.

However, the car door wound up being an electric window model... and mine is manual windows. My window is tinted pretty dark, and this one was clear. So, I took the two doors and combined them... pulled the window and manual crank guts out of the dented original door, along with the door handle and locking mechanism. I switched these into the new door, removing the power window parts, glass, and lock/handle. I was afraid that I would mess it up, but it came out PERFECT! I was careful to take a lot of pics/video while removing the parts from the manual crank door, so that I could re-install them correctly on the replacement door.

I bought new 15" rims for the car... and some 195/50/r15's tires to put on them (Rims: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BYQU1A Tires: https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-New-Cross...5/263395756015). I just got the tires in so I haven't put them on the rims yet. Both look awesome, so I know that this is going to look great on the car.

I bought a new stereo/amp and installed them, along with a kicker 10" subwoofer... now this thing sounds great! I bought the amp/speaker set on ebay... but the speakers turned out to be crap, so I just kept the amp and bought some pioneer rear deck speakers and a sub from Best Buy.

Lastly, the clear coat is shot on the top of the car... hood, trunk, and roof. The sides look fine. So, I wet sanded down the worn out clear coat, bought some new sports blue metallic base coat (Spray Paint | AutomotiveTouchup) and 2k primer (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0082LJMC6). I am still waiting on the base coat to arrive and then I'm going to repaint/clear coat the hood, trunk, and top.

After I put on the tires/rims, and finish the paint... I'll be all set. Overall, this project has been fun... and I'll just drive the car and enjoy the gas mileage... probably never gonna see that money!

[northguest47]

Thanks for your input, JBweldMayhem

its the motor that lasts, everything else will degrade, such as cars do. mine is twelve years old for example. decent mileage, overall it does save me money like you said i love pickup trucks but they suck gas like tomorrow, a decent flat deck tower is this car, and it gets 30mpg or say 25 in the winter months