Realigning the Ghia and my thinking
Just got back from Mr. Tire where they charged me $70 for an imperfect alignment job. They were good an honest about it: the car is aligned now as straight as it's going to get and the tires won't wear wrong. It's always pulled to the right and now it doesn't pull to the right quite so much.
The real fix is to install a new front axle beam. The one on there now has been welded in a few spots to fix rust. Yeah, you read that right! Kind of scary, but they say it's solid enough, it's just never going to allow the car to be aligned right unless I replace it.
A quick search of mamotorworks.com's catalog showed that a new font axle beam with ball joints and linkages for the wheels is about $300. Not too bad, considering. From the looks of it, installation should be quite simple for the boys at the shop. I briefly tossed around the idea in my head of installing a new one myself some day, but I would need to take it to an alignment shop after that anyway. So, I'm guessing the real way to go is make an appointmen to have a new one installed and have the front end aligned all in one shot and one bill.
Reese was giving me a hard time about how much money this car was costing. She loves the car, and has no problem with spending the money on it we need to keep it alive. I struggle myself, though, with spending money on it. But, that struggle is just a reaction to typical automotive economic thinking.
Usually, a car is a money-losing item. You can buy a brand new one for $20,000 and sell it two years later for $13,000. And, in those two years you've made payments, so you really end up losing money in the end.
With a 33-year-old classic car like a Ghia, the economics are different. The MSRP for the 1972 Ghia when brand new was $3,099. I bought mine for $3,100. The car stands to only appreciate in price if I keep in in the condition I received it. If I spend money on it, and especially if I spend money on body repairs, the value of the car will appreciate. Just put "had an off-body restoration done" in your classified ad and you can up the price a couple grand.
In that respect, the car is more like my house. Sure, it costs money to fix, but it's actually money invested not money wasted. I've never owned a car like that, so I'm having to realign my thinking. Well, I should say I've never owned a car like that to my knowledge.
I once owned a '93 Honda Civic 3-Door (hatchback). I bought it for $5K and sold it three years later for $2,500. Two years after that I sold my money-hogging 2002 Subaru and thought "Hey, maybe I could get another '93 Civic hatch?" To save my life I could not find one for less than $5,000. That's The Fast and the Furious selling small, Japanese cars for ya.
The real fix is to install a new front axle beam. The one on there now has been welded in a few spots to fix rust. Yeah, you read that right! Kind of scary, but they say it's solid enough, it's just never going to allow the car to be aligned right unless I replace it.
A quick search of mamotorworks.com's catalog showed that a new font axle beam with ball joints and linkages for the wheels is about $300. Not too bad, considering. From the looks of it, installation should be quite simple for the boys at the shop. I briefly tossed around the idea in my head of installing a new one myself some day, but I would need to take it to an alignment shop after that anyway. So, I'm guessing the real way to go is make an appointmen to have a new one installed and have the front end aligned all in one shot and one bill.
Reese was giving me a hard time about how much money this car was costing. She loves the car, and has no problem with spending the money on it we need to keep it alive. I struggle myself, though, with spending money on it. But, that struggle is just a reaction to typical automotive economic thinking.
Usually, a car is a money-losing item. You can buy a brand new one for $20,000 and sell it two years later for $13,000. And, in those two years you've made payments, so you really end up losing money in the end.
With a 33-year-old classic car like a Ghia, the economics are different. The MSRP for the 1972 Ghia when brand new was $3,099. I bought mine for $3,100. The car stands to only appreciate in price if I keep in in the condition I received it. If I spend money on it, and especially if I spend money on body repairs, the value of the car will appreciate. Just put "had an off-body restoration done" in your classified ad and you can up the price a couple grand.
In that respect, the car is more like my house. Sure, it costs money to fix, but it's actually money invested not money wasted. I've never owned a car like that, so I'm having to realign my thinking. Well, I should say I've never owned a car like that to my knowledge.
I once owned a '93 Honda Civic 3-Door (hatchback). I bought it for $5K and sold it three years later for $2,500. Two years after that I sold my money-hogging 2002 Subaru and thought "Hey, maybe I could get another '93 Civic hatch?" To save my life I could not find one for less than $5,000. That's The Fast and the Furious selling small, Japanese cars for ya.
posted by Chris Druckenmiller at 9:44 AM
2 Comments:
$300!!! That doesn't seem so bad. How long can you drive it with the current axel? Is it dangerous? I figured I'd have to invest some money into my ghia when I bought it. So far I've spent around $300 for all the repairs. There are still another $100 - $150 needed for completion. After that some serious money will need to spent down the road in an off-body restoration, but that can wait for some time. It is an investment, but funds are somewhat tight now so one can only "invest" so much. It is also an investment in time. Actually this can be more costly. I've got a number of other projects that need investment and the ghia is starting to move toward the bottom of the priority list.
The current axle beam is solid, it's just not straight. The car doesn't pull too bad at all unless you're stopping hard, then it pulls to the right similar to how front-wheel drive cars pull when you accelerate hard.
Yeah, ours both are in dire need of that off body restoration. In talking with Jamie last night he was saying I could probably put mine off for a few years yet as the rust problems are only in the sheet metal and not the frame. The frame is essentially an X with the drive shaft in the middle, the two crowns on each end and the axles that hold the wheels off.
Theoretically, the thin body parts will rust to the point where the body would separate from the frame before the frame breaks from rust. So, safety-wise we're fine, it's just a matter of how much worse will the cosmetic rust get over the next few years and how that will affect the off body restoration bill. :)
That kind of makes me happy, as mine looks A-OK unless you get underneath it. She shines up real nice with a wax job and drives, so for now that's good enough for me!
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