I found this 2005 GXP on craigslist as a guy wanting to sell parts off it. Luckily I got a hold of him before he sold anything off it. I told him I was interested in the whole car and asked how much he wanted. He said $1200 or best offer. I went to go take a look. The car was in Albert Lea, MN, so a pretty good drive for me. The car has a whole list of problems, including: front end damage (bumper cracked, fender paint damage, crappy aftermarket hood, non-GXP headlight), the PS rack failing as the steering gets tight at random times, the oil cooler lines leak pretty bad, the interior is filthy. In fact, the whole car was filthy. The whole car was literally covered in grime. I offered him $800 expecting a counter offer, but he accepted! $800 takes a running and driving GXP. Now I know you are thinking, well aren't the head gaskets blown? Nope. The car has 198k, and he has done a lot of maintenance on it, but never touched the head gaskets because they weren't a problem. Some of the things that were recently replaced: timing chains, water pump, both CV axles and wheel bearings, brakes, tie rods, TPS sensor, IAC sensor, fuel pressure regulator, valve cover gaskets, front coils, catalytic converter, PS pump and the blower motor. To me, it seems like the guy liked to keep his cars maintained, he just didn't care about keeping them looking good.
Anyways, onto the pics. These are before I washed it.
Bumper cracked at the top
And on the side of the grill
Fogged headlight
Non-GXP headlight
Fender paint damage
Road tar
Nasty wheels
Nasty grime on the bottom of the doors
New tires on the rear
No rust under the fuel door!
GXP tails in good shape!
Dirtiest exhaust tips I’ve ever seen
Horrible fender gap
Eh, still got the floormats
Engine bay is gross
Hack job on the body repair
Filthy interior
Even worse in the back seat
Headliner is decent, considering
198k miles!
Now, after a quick wash. Ok, not quick at all. I spent most of the afternoon/evening scrubbing this thing.
The wheels turned out so nice
Exhaust tips back to their shiny glory
Then I threw in some refinished headlights for a quick restore
And finally hanging out with its twin.
Now, I'm not sure what to do with this car. With 198k on the Northstar, who knows what's going to happen. I could just drive it as-is until anything happens, and then do another L67 swap, but we don't need another car sitting around. I could do an L67 swap just to sell it to an enthusiast, but with the body damage it would be a hard sell. My best bet would probably be just to restore it as much as I can without dumping too much into it, and just flip it. Any suggestions?
Well, mainly because I'm exceptionally lazy and don't go actively searching is another part of the issue.
