Mustachian Mini Muscle car build (yes oxymoron) (moved)

[Matte]

The Hobby thread here got me thinking about my own hobby and its tight budget (formerly wife enforced but now self enforced)

I have had this car since high-school, I bought it in 2006, imported it from Portland and paid a grand total of $1800 for it.  I was under the assumption that because it weighed only 2200lbs and had a 4cyl it would be good on gas.  Poor stupid Me!! it got 20mpg if i was lucky running premium, between that and failing emissions tests limiting my insurance to 3 months at a time i did not use it much in college as i did not have time for it.  Even though i have been working for a few years i have not had the time or money for it between buying a house, renovations, getting married and other priorities the car has sat.  Now i am in the process of rebuilding the car, i have an allowance of $100/month for the car, if im out of money the work does not get done.  I am hoping to save as much money on everything else by doing it myself and getting parts off Craigslist and reselling parts.  Here is what i have done so far.

The Car is a 1977 Toyota Celica, the plan is to get the weight down very low, fiberglass bumpers ect.  And i will be running the engine and electronics from a 2010 cobalt XFE (160hp, 40mpg) i have always liked the ecotec engine because of there power, lightweight (aluminum) easy electronics and cheapness, i bought the first one for $100 with transmission, and then realized i would be spending lots on electronics so i ended up buying a whole car with 6500 miles on it for $500.  The engine runs RWD through a solstice transmission



So far here is my timeline and budget

2006, purchase car                     -$1800
2006, sell racing seats and replace with stock seats that came with car        +150   $1650
2007Purchase seat covers for old seats                               -$90   $1740
2008Buy black interior from junkyard                                   -$200    $1940
2008 Vandalized insurance (crappy)paint job                        -$300   $2240
2011 Bought Fiberglass bumpers                                          -$225   $2465
2011 Sold original Modified Racing Engine/took stock engine in trade +cash     +650 $1815
2011 Sold stock engine i took in trade                                   +350   $1465
2012 Sold stock transmission                                                 +$80  $1385
2012 Bought 2006 ecotec engine+fwdtrans                                -$100  $1485
2012 sold 2006 fwd ecotec trans                                                  +$60   $1425
2012 Bought 6spd tacoma/camaro trans                                -$200   $1625
2012 Bought 2010 cobalt wrecked                                          -$500 $2125
2012 Paid to get cobalt towed home                                      -$80  $2205
2012 sold interior from cobalt                                                  +$100  $2105
2012 sold head/tail lights on cobalt                                         +$80  $2025
2012 Sold 6speed trans                                                           +$480  $1545
2012 sold stripped cobalt shell                                                 +$50  $1495
2012 sold 1st ecotec engine                                                     +250   $1295
2012 sold racing carberator from 1st engine                            +$100  $1195
2012 Bought solstice engine +rwd trans+mounts+header                                  -$600   $1795
2012 sold old extra ignition parts                                              +$60   $1735
2012 sold original header/exhaust                                            +$200  $1535
2012 bought harbor freight welder                                            -$100  $1635
2012 bought supra disc brakes                                                 -$100   $1735
2012 bought tercel rack/column for powersteering swap          -$60     $1795 CURRENT

Future expenses what my budget is, i estimate on the high side

Paint $1000 (cheaper when you bring the car in all stripped and prepped, MAACO gave me the quote a bit under, bringing the car in as a shell means they cant screw up the overspray or do a bad job masking, i just get the paint, the one part i dont have the equiptment or knowhow to do)

Tuning $450  this is the price i was quoted to unlock my ecm and delete all the anti theft stuff, they would also do a dyno tune on it since i will run headers and a different intake, no need for emissions systems on this car

Shop supplies $500 filler, primer, brake lines, rust repair stuff, welding cable, fluids, tools, they add up very fast

New front seats $300  i have set that as my budget, waiting for some porsche or bmw seats to come up on CL for a firesale

Window/door seals and hinges $300  mine are pretty shot and and all glass will be removed anyways

Custom driveshaft $200 needs to be gm on one end and toyota on the other

Looks like another $2800 or so till this car will be on the road, i still have a few aces up my sleeve that i can sell to get this bill down, i have a performance intake from the solstice $150, either engine $600 approx, more cobalt parts (susp, steering ect) and lots of other stuff to try offset this bill.  so if i can get it all done for under $2000 from here on in i should be able to finish the car on my allowance of $100/month in approx 20 months starting from august when we started the allowance.  I really hope none of the guys i sold stuff to on craigslist frequent this forum... i dont think they would like to see what i bought and sold stuff for, i was not exactly forthcoming with the fact that i bought stuff for alot more before parting it out. 






thats the car i scrapped out, front end, frame was broken, airbags set off, girl crashed it drunk so no insurance coverage and could not be written off. Bought it off her dad for $500, still ran good, repair bill would be about 7k, he owed 10k on it still... poor guy



All in all when i am done i am hoping to have a car show worthy car that is cool, gets 40+mpg (40mpg in 3000lb cobalt 4 door, better in 2000lb celica) and it should haul really well, the 2.2 VVT litre engine has been known to put about 190hp with headers and a tune, getting better mpg then stock, if i go with the 2.4l solstice engine that is the same just slightly bigger i would get 210hp tuned, not sure what the mpg would be.  I will decide wich engine i will go with when i decide gear ratios/tire sizes ect.  If i run very steep highway gears the larger engine would be natural as it would be more at home at low rpm  if i keep the factory 3.91 rear end the smaller engine would be better at those moderate-high rpms (similar to stock cobalt rear drive ratio) If i ever get sick of this car i should be able to sell for a hefty profit, i was offerered $6k for it after the crappy insurance paint job (wich is now rusting and needs re-doing)

[strider3700]

Very cool build. 

[The_Dude]

It's hard to be mustachian with cool cara. I wish you success. Awesome project and I look forward to updates.

[thurston howell iv]

Sweeet!  I always like to see a cool project! No it's not mustachian but, heck we just got here right? LOL

I have had my share of projects. I'm neck deep in a money pit project right now but, it's too late in the game to turn back now.  I was going to do an LS swap a while back but it got pricey quick and I went down a different path. Still always cool to see what people come up with...

Please keep up the good work and keep posting the progress!

[Bakari]

Hey, since you are doing major work to it anyway, and MPG is one of your considerations, are you on Ecomodder.com?
There are lots of tips there for ways you can maximize your mpgs if you are willing to do some mechanical work (which obviously you are) and the forum there is just as active as this one.

[Matte]

I have been on the ecomodder site before, some Pretty interesting stuff.  In my case the tuning on the dyno should bring up mpgs.  It will run headers and no cat, gain some mpg there, and the intake, it's going to be way lighter then stock too.  The overdrive on the trans I'm using is .72 instead of .85 on the stock one so highway rpm will be better.  The biggest variable on mpg will be the rear end ratio, If I can get away with a steeper rear end like a 3.23 or 3.42 instead of the 3.91 it has in it currently. 

Here is the weight loss so far, original motor 350 lbs, new one 200 (aluminum block) cast iron trans is ditched for another loss, I took off the huge bumpers too at a savings of 120 lbs (fiberglass ones 7lbs a piece). The car only weighed 2200 lbs to begin with, so now should be like 1900 lbs.  I have removed miles of wiring from the car, the new harness will be much simpler.  The old system had a primitive computer that checked every circuit in the car against a ground and would show all faults on a screen.  Not only did it show about a dozen faults lol but it doubles the bulk and complexity of the wiring harness.

[Matte]

As for mustachian ness I know that cars typically are frowned upon.  But I think this kind of fits the lifestyle, I like working on it, it's being done very cheaply, it's a small car, the car already has 400000 miles on it do it's kind of recycling, and it will be unique, dirt cheap to drive and insure.  I really am ambitious on the Craigslist selling of stuff as I would love to get this whole car done for less then I originally paid for it.   

[Bakari]

As for mustachian ness I know that cars typically are frowned upon.  But I think this kind of fits the lifestyle, I like working on it, it's being done very cheaply, it's a small car, the car already has 400000 miles on it do it's kind of recycling, and it will be unique, dirt cheap to drive and insure.  I really am ambitious on the Craigslist selling of stuff as I would love to get this whole car done for less then I originally paid for it.   

My biggest expense is modding my vehicle (though to be fair, they are all fuel efficiency mods, which will eventually pay for themselves) and I'm pretty darn frugal

I noticed your balance was $5 less than original purchase price so far, very very impressive.

[Matte]

It's below the original balance, I was actually shocked when it almost evenly balanced.  I keep a log In case of a tax audit, this hobby is only one of a few large amounts of cash going in and out of my account.  I still have easily another 1k of stuff I can sell, one of the two engines and a fwd transmission, ect it's all just a matter of patients.  I still have a bunch of old truck stuff listed too wich I keep out of the equation on this.