Buying a GTE swapped SC300 remotely? Chicago shop rec?
05-22-15, 12:35 AM
#16
It'll pass Texas inspection.
Rules for Motor swaps here are pretty lax.
Kind of hilarious how many times this car changes hands. I'm kind of wondering if something happened to the dash. In the i-drive thread you can see all of the wood panels and center console panel are CF wrapped. Except the passenger side dash wood panel is bare... I can't imagine it was originally installed like that, so I'm wondering what happened.
Did the passenger airbag deploy? Would that have necessitated replacing the wood dash panel?
I also checked out the craigslist ad for the car now.
Seems the guy downgraded from 97+ tails to 95-96 tails, and swapped the wingless trunk for one with a spoiler, wonder why he did that? Have you run a VIN report to see if the car was involved in an accident? He also seems to have mixed in some pictures from the idrive FS thread with his own FS thread so there are no new pictures showing a certain section of the front bumper. It's possible he may be hiding some front end damage or a cracked/discolored high beam, or maybe it's nothing. He also seems to have stripped the CF wrap and repainted it black, which is fine.
Still has the same CA plates on it that the guy who bought it in 2011 put on the car when he had it for sale in 2014, Only 30 days to register the vehicle in IL, so either he bought it very recently, or he's floating the title to you... which means in TX if the previous owner signed and dated the title you may be subject to late fees and back taxes as the Ca owner would be on the title as the last previous owner and it would date the transaction as whenever it was sold to the guy in Chicago. Also the dude who bought it in 2011 seems to have done all of the recent major work just from checking his posts on CL. At least he did the front main seal in 2011, and probably was the one who did the rest of the engine seals and coolant lines and fluids. I doubt the current owner has touched any of that stuff. Seems like all he's done is bought it and had it singled by sound performance and now it's for sale.
But what has me thinking accident are NEW front upper control arms. Those almost NEVER need to be replaced on this car, so that makes me even more suspicious that it may have been in an accident. Especially since there's no mention of going aftermarket.
I'm not saying its bad, there's just a lot of warning signs on this ad. Like why didn't he get it titled in IL yet? Is he trying to flip it? It was for sale for $5k less 1 year ago, did he buy it much cheaper thinking he could turn a profit? Why swap the trunk and tail-lights? Why use old pictures of the front, and have no new pictures of the driver side high beam and bumper around the high beam? Why replace the upper control arms? Why sell it so fast after buying it from CA? Seller needs to be able to offer very satisfying answers for all of those questions before I'd consider it. as much as I love that color, I imagine the paint isn't in great shape. CA owner mentioned oxidation on roof and trunk (maybe that's why new trunk), and scratches on front bumper along with rock chips, I'm sure the exterior hasn't gotten much better, aside from a possible improvement to trunk.
Also strange he''s got video's of it running, but not of it driving, or of the dash while the motors on. Are there CEL codes, Air bag codes, ABS codes, is the oil pressure light stuck on, etc etc?
Rules for Motor swaps here are pretty lax.
Kind of hilarious how many times this car changes hands. I'm kind of wondering if something happened to the dash. In the i-drive thread you can see all of the wood panels and center console panel are CF wrapped. Except the passenger side dash wood panel is bare... I can't imagine it was originally installed like that, so I'm wondering what happened.
Did the passenger airbag deploy? Would that have necessitated replacing the wood dash panel?
I also checked out the craigslist ad for the car now.
Seems the guy downgraded from 97+ tails to 95-96 tails, and swapped the wingless trunk for one with a spoiler, wonder why he did that? Have you run a VIN report to see if the car was involved in an accident? He also seems to have mixed in some pictures from the idrive FS thread with his own FS thread so there are no new pictures showing a certain section of the front bumper. It's possible he may be hiding some front end damage or a cracked/discolored high beam, or maybe it's nothing. He also seems to have stripped the CF wrap and repainted it black, which is fine.
Still has the same CA plates on it that the guy who bought it in 2011 put on the car when he had it for sale in 2014, Only 30 days to register the vehicle in IL, so either he bought it very recently, or he's floating the title to you... which means in TX if the previous owner signed and dated the title you may be subject to late fees and back taxes as the Ca owner would be on the title as the last previous owner and it would date the transaction as whenever it was sold to the guy in Chicago. Also the dude who bought it in 2011 seems to have done all of the recent major work just from checking his posts on CL. At least he did the front main seal in 2011, and probably was the one who did the rest of the engine seals and coolant lines and fluids. I doubt the current owner has touched any of that stuff. Seems like all he's done is bought it and had it singled by sound performance and now it's for sale.
But what has me thinking accident are NEW front upper control arms. Those almost NEVER need to be replaced on this car, so that makes me even more suspicious that it may have been in an accident. Especially since there's no mention of going aftermarket.
I'm not saying its bad, there's just a lot of warning signs on this ad. Like why didn't he get it titled in IL yet? Is he trying to flip it? It was for sale for $5k less 1 year ago, did he buy it much cheaper thinking he could turn a profit? Why swap the trunk and tail-lights? Why use old pictures of the front, and have no new pictures of the driver side high beam and bumper around the high beam? Why replace the upper control arms? Why sell it so fast after buying it from CA? Seller needs to be able to offer very satisfying answers for all of those questions before I'd consider it. as much as I love that color, I imagine the paint isn't in great shape. CA owner mentioned oxidation on roof and trunk (maybe that's why new trunk), and scratches on front bumper along with rock chips, I'm sure the exterior hasn't gotten much better, aside from a possible improvement to trunk.
Also strange he''s got video's of it running, but not of it driving, or of the dash while the motors on. Are there CEL codes, Air bag codes, ABS codes, is the oil pressure light stuck on, etc etc?
05-22-15, 06:32 AM
#17
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Thank you all very much for your input. I am currently in the process of running the VIN and having a local forum member take a look at the car in person.
To respond to a few of those questions, the owner swapped out the tail lights and the trunk himself because he liked the look better. He did say he has the original parts around. He also said he did some body work with the car like respraying the roof which was starting to show some oxidation. Additionally, one of the pictures in the CL ad shows the dash with the car running and there's no warning lights on or anything funky like that.
Not sure what the deal is with the pictures being mixed in, a recent clear front shot of the car is definitely absent. The titling/licensing questions are also very good ones.
I talked to sound performance who were immediately familiar with the owner. They had installed a VPC tuning device but that's it. They said the owner is very handy and did most of the work on the car himself. They also said that the car was really clean and seemed to run very well.
To respond to a few of those questions, the owner swapped out the tail lights and the trunk himself because he liked the look better. He did say he has the original parts around. He also said he did some body work with the car like respraying the roof which was starting to show some oxidation. Additionally, one of the pictures in the CL ad shows the dash with the car running and there's no warning lights on or anything funky like that.
Not sure what the deal is with the pictures being mixed in, a recent clear front shot of the car is definitely absent. The titling/licensing questions are also very good ones.
I talked to sound performance who were immediately familiar with the owner. They had installed a VPC tuning device but that's it. They said the owner is very handy and did most of the work on the car himself. They also said that the car was really clean and seemed to run very well.
Last edited by enderx475; 05-22-15 at 06:45 AM.
05-22-15, 11:27 AM
#18
Good luck. If you do buy it, put up a thread to document what you are changing, and what other mods your going to do. Find this thread and post it in here. Would love to see how it looks and what is currently done to it after all these years.
05-30-15, 02:02 PM
#19
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The car is soon to be mine! It'll be shipping out early next week, I will post up a new thread with pics and all the details.
Thanks again for your help everyone
Thanks again for your help everyone
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