n00b with a beat 89 DX

[Leviathant]

Hey hey, just signed up here as I just picked up an 89 DX for my wife-to-be for the nice price of $500. Seeing as it's a five hundred dollar car, I'm probably going to be making a lot of visits to the "How To" forum in the next few months, heehee. This is a really amazing resource, and at a quick glance through a few threads, it seems things are pretty cool here.

I'll probably just be lurking, my girl considers the car a shitbox, but something makes me want to clean it up and make it nice n' new again, so perhaps as I sneak more and more fixes on, I'll post more. *shrug* Normally I spend my time tweaking computers, but more and more that's becoming just as bad as playing with cars, so why not? ;)

Anyway, figured I'd post in the newbie thread and say Hi.

[MrBen]

Welcome!

I know what you mean about cleaning it up like new... I have done that to mine for the past year and I get comments all the time about how clean and nice looking it is. It pays off!

Welcome again... and hope to see ya around

[zero.counter]

Welcome aboard! Good price on the old car I must say.

[SiR]

You'll have fun fixing her up and making her look clean after those nice words your girl said to it!

[Vinny]

welcome aboard and enjoy your time here. Lotsa good info if you search for it

[Leviathant]

Thanks for the warm reception I'm going to have to be stealthy about the stuff I do to her car... I told her lastnight that I signed up here, and she's like, "Oh no, you're not going to become a rev head are you?" Heehee. She just has a different concept of maintaining cars than I have... although she even made mention of fixing up the paint today.

I joked that I should give her my 2001 Elantra, and that I could take care of the Accord

[87accordlxi]

Welcome aboard! Your fiance is just like mine, she just wants a car that runs

[jb2wheels]

Give her the Elantra to drive - you'll like the Accord better. Especially after the Huyandai strands you a few times and you watch Accords drive on by :-)

[Leviathant]

Actually, I've already put nearly 60k miles on the Elantra over two years, and it's been nothing but a dream. I think they actually bought a bunch of old Honda tech for their 2001 and up model Elantras.

Main reason for buying it was that I managed to get that car at 1% over dealer cost (something like $11k), it had a 5-year/50k bumper to bumper, and a 10-year/100k powertrain warrantee, plus five year roadside assistance (Which I've not yet needed) ... they are obviously aware of their reputation

Just to bolster my new-car-self-esteem, Edmunds.com did a study of pretty much the same exact car as me, right down to the month purchased, and they were thrilled with it, and made it their suggested buy in that class. *shrug* Being in south-central PA, I've driven to New Orleans, New York several times, Cleveland, to and from Baltimore, Harrisburg, and Philadalphia too many times to count, and I've never had to take it in for anything more than an oil change, and the occasional flat tire. (Pennsylvania, land of road construction)

Of course, that being said, back when I bought my first car in '98, I really wanted to get an 89 Accord. I feel more comfortable in the Accord - though the Elantra has a six way adjustable drivers seat + front and side airbags, the Accord makes me feel 'at home.'

And paying insurance on an '89 Accord without collision beats the pants off the insurance on an '01 Elantra. :P

[Stanger]

Congrats on that deal!!!!!!

Hope its faithful to ya

BTW, glad you could join us

[SteveDX89]

Leviathant, you're right in my neighborhood. Maybe we can meet up and give each other ideas.

[Leviathant]

Originally posted by SteveDX89
Leviathant, you're right in my neighborhood. Maybe we can meet up and give each other ideas.

Ha, yeah, I see you took your pics at Lake Redman :) And if those snow/crash pics are from where you live, I used to live in the same apartment complex a couple of years ago. Crazy!

I don't have a lot of ideas to pass around at the moment, all I'm doing now is looking around at junk yards to see if I can find a few parts for the car. I'd like to replace the banged-up right-rear fender on the car, but it looks like that's part of a much larger sheet of metal, so I'm not terribly concerned about it at the moment. My girl would swat at me if I put that much work into the car [right after picking it up ;)]

[SteveDX89]

I took some pics at Lake Redman and the crash ones are from in front of my apartment building at T&C. The first page pics were taken at York Township park.

I think you should fix up the car no matter what your chick says. They turn out nice when they're taken care of.

[Leviathant]

Growing off topic... that Nurse Ratchet bitch who runs Town & Country can get fucked. They tried to screw me out of $1200 when I moved out, after hassling me for nearly two years when I lived there, possibly in the shittiest apartment they had. I lived in 333 Sherwood Dr at the time, heh.

Back on topic: That's my point -- an Accord is a really nice, reliable machine. No sense in mistreating it, really. The main thing is replacing that panel without spending too much... but hey, a friend of mine is checking junkyards as we speak, so we'll see what transpires

[SteveDX89]

If someone tried to screw me out of 1200 bones, I'd tell them to eat a dick. Someone else must be in there or something because I'm getting 1100 back and I'm not even moving out.

[98serwtricks]

Originally posted by Leviathant
...but something makes me want to clean it up and make it nice n' new again...

Yeah, I just picked one up for my wife for $1500 (an 89 LX) and I kinda want to fix it up real nice too! We just put in a new Pioneer Head Unit, we're going to tint the windows, and probably shampoo the upholstry. She has already cleaned the interior plastic/vinyl parts and it almost looks like new. These cars seem to hold up well. I'm glad the person who owned it before took great care of it...

[Leviathant]

Ha, I took this car to one of those vacuum/shampoo brush places and shampooed the carpets. Wish I hadn't! That just made whatever had been embedded in the carpet wet, and god did it stink. Keep in mind, we took more than a half-dozen half-drank six packs of beer out of the trunk when we got it, heh.

After much Febreeze and some driving with the windows down, it doesn't smell so bad. The carpeting looks better, but I did not want to unearth what that was in that carpet.

I like how much room is on the dash for just putting stuff ... kind of makes up for the lack of cupholders

re: Town & Country -- I'm glad you're getting money from them, I really, really didn't like them. I was paying out the nose for a single BR jr apartment. Just before I moved out, they told me they were going to charge for water. They tried to charge me for a lot of crap, and I almost had to take it to court, but we settled things in the end. A friend of mine had a similar problem when they tried to move out of a Town & Country in Lancaster. I'm never living in a complex again :b