You won't find any good older cars in MA. Or anywhere in New England for that matter. Trust me on this.

Anything good has long since rusted away to nothing.

They have heat, but just not very good heat. And I bet the car you are looking at has rusted out heater ducts.

Modified GEO Metro's are hot -

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1221578670.jpg

Or look for a GEO Rura"L" suv -

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1221578974.jpg

A2 VW GTI. Their time is coming!

1st gen GTi, 1st gen MR2, 240Z, 260Z, 924, 944, RX7, BMW E30, Saab 900. All can be had for under $5k easily, many for much less.

My neighbor has a Saab 900 turbo. Great car generally and solid, but one thing to watch out for is the main wiring harness. Apparently his went bad and the part is (you guessed it) "NLA" from Saab. He had to have a new one created at a cost of almost $2,000. Other than that though, he swears it's an awesome car and pretty quick with the turbo.

Actually.... have you ever driven a Suzuki Swift GTi with the g13b DOHC 16 valve? 1.liters, ~100hp, 8000rpm redline.

They are really fun, light cars. I'll don my flame suit and admit that I find them more fun to drive that a VW GTI

http://www.modifiedstreetcars.com/ca...20gti-1192.jpg

No-one will accuse them of being pretty, but they are cheap, reliable, go like stink and are wonderful rorty little beasts

good thoughts all around, thanks.

let me add that it must be "classic" meaning 1973 is the last year, much prefer 60s. I'll be dating with the car, so in the obvious absence of money, it must say "quirky" and maybe, cute. And that's the kind of woman I want to date anyway, rare that they may be. I could probably sell something and get a nice car, but I don't care much for nice cars, though I did put some new 325is heated leather seats in the 4Runner. No reason not to at least drive in comfort. :) Finally, it just has to get me through the winter, the E will be done this spring.

As to rust driving through the winter, one of the first things I'll do is break out a quart of POR15 and the HPLV and have at it. I redid the entire front suspension and frame rails of the 4Runner last January, drove through 4 months of salt, never washed it, and still looks brand new, so the stuff works.

[HIJACK] I just bought a 1990 4runner for an upcoming diesel swap. Frame & suspension are solid but has surface rust over everything. What did you do to prep? I take it you didn't have the frame off?[/HIJACK]

This may stimulate some ideas; it's an eBay Motors search for cars and trucks from 1950 to 1973 priced from $500 to $2000:
http://motors.shop.ebay.com/items/Cars-Trucks___W0QQModelYearf0c65f14Z1973172304Q7c197217 2303Q7c1971172302Q7c1970172301Q7c19691722ebQ7c1968 1722eaQ7c19671722e9Q7c19661722e8Q7c19651722e7Q7c19 641722e6Q7c19631722e5Q7c19621722e4Q7c19611722e3Q7c 19601722e2Q7c19591722ccQ7c19581722cbQ7c19571722caQ 7c19561722c9Q7c19551722c8Q7c19541722c7Q7c19531722c 6Q7c19521722c5Q7c19511722c4Q7c19501722c3QQ_catZ600 1QQ_flnZ1QQ_gcsZ13QQ_ipgZ50QQ_pcatsZ6000QQ_sopZ2QQ _verZ4QQ_madZ1?_mPrRngCbx=1&_udlo=2000&_udhi=500&_ fcsfc=0

Hopefully this link will work!

Jake, same technique as here: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/152355-project-73-911-r-rs-week-3-a.html

Grinder, wire brushes, and then lots of POR15 prep, a lot more than the directions say. After it was washed off, let dry, then went at it with the gun.

the entire front end of my truck was virtually gone, the A-arms were missing probably a full 25% of their metal. One was so bad that I'm sure a pothole at speed would have collapsed it and sent the truck tumbling.

Any pics of your 4Runner? great trucks! just dog slow and bad on gas.

Ha! I admire your hard work, but I assure you that is more work than I'll be going through on my '90 4runner!

Pics of my 4runner, replaced my Samurai:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/428901-its-better-burn-out-than-fade-away-3.html
Needs brakes & and suspension bushings. Have a VW 1.9turbodiesel going in, unless I can get a swap kit for a MB 5cyl diesel.

As for a classic, I'd be looking at MGBs, but hard to imagine what you'll find for <2k.

AMC Eagle wagon. It's platform dates to 1970. Plus it makes a super cool snow car.

Bonus points for finding a clean non-wood paneled-look 1988 model. You can't kill the AMC 6.

Demerits for the iron duke 4, tho.

My '86 944 gets 30mpg, and you can get one needing a new head or tranny for not so much at all. If it must be older maybe a 924? How about a Chevy LUV?

I tried to return to days of yore and recall the cars I thought were cool and might now still be cool and affordable. The list is short:

Ford Cortina. Friend of mine had one with, I think, an Abarth exhaust on it. Great sound.

VW Beetle. I love seeing them on the road.

1970's Celica's were great.

2002...if you're looking to drive the car in the winter in Mass, you can find beater 2002's.

Some of the old Datsun's were very cool.

the ladies will love it!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1221589385.jpg

Jake, how much is a turbo diesel and swap kit? My truck still runs strong with 190K on it, maybe I just need better mileage.

On your brakes, they're probably the same as my 95, if not, see if you can get 95 brakes. they are bigger than 993TT and stop the truck faster than any Porsche I've ever owned. I sometimes worry someone will rear-end me.

So far I've gutted the interior, painted the dash facia "stainless steel", dyed the dash and all vinyl black, put in a new instrument cluster window and various controls and made all the instrumentation lights red instead of the sickly green. Also put in an Irmscher (Momo) thick rimmed steering wheel which was probably the single greatest mod I've done so far. I drive this thing like my old 84 Targa!

hoping to bond on new rear quarters I got on eBay before winter, lay down some fatmat and then put the new carpet set in. Should be a brand new truck.

Some process pics.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1221589081.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1221589111.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1221589151.jpg

Here's your ride. :cool:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/lgi/cto/839937208.html

Anything with a dodge slant 6 in it.

I want whatever he was smoking to think that car is worth 3k.