Originally Posted by
g0ast
I don't know how much money you were perhaps planning on putting into it but consider that it might be a lost cause... It might be depending on what you plan on doing with it...
1: Eventual show car - give up now, it's old, too many miles, soooooo much work needed to get done, you might as well get a new car
2: Drag/track car - assuming the engine, transmission, suspension, electronics and plumbing were updated, replaced, de-rusted, fixed or a combination of those, you could probably get it done, if you had the money for it... In which case again you might have a better chance just getting a car in better condition. Don't forget the frame is so rusty it's actually starting to disintegrate. There's a little tip I know when looking into a used car: if there's rust on the car you can see, chances are theres much more rust in places you can't see. If I was a tech inspector at a racetrack I'd DQ you in a heartbeat... Again get a new car.
3: Daily driver - if it got to 233k miles or whatever and still drives with no big issues, it should last a bit longer, but don't expect it to go peacefully, my mom's Subaru went on for about 200k miles and during a hot day on a freeway, the transmission started leaking and siezed up, it destroyed the transmission's guts, the crankshaft, some cylinder heads and most of the valves... It was quoted $6k for a new engine and tranny - she traded it for $1500 and got a nice used car.
Anyway, you still have alot of work to do, like body work and de-rusting some stuff, but you could drive it for a bit more. The bottom line though again is, get a better car, you got $1300 worth of not much to drive...