Always wanted a little roadster, and discovered my new wife did as well . We picked up a 1980 Fiat 124 which we brought back to factory new over a few years...only to be totaled by a drunk pulling out of a bar. Replaced with my avatar, a 2002 Audi TT roadster with 35,000 miles on her. More importantly, anti-lock brakes.
Well, the car hasn't met it's end yet. The front passenger quarter and hood took most of the damage. Insurance totalled it because of the 17k estimate, but 80% of it was labor for hammer and dolly work. It still ran like a top, I bought it back from insurance for 1k and sold the totalled car for 4k. The guy who bought it drove it 2 hours home and had been driving it with the hood zip tied down the last year lol. He has the skills to fix it, but enjoys driving it so much he hasn't fixed it yet!
that's awesome..those cars didn't survive well here up north with the rust issues..glad it's not in a parts yard or crushed..
Very cool. My first car was a 1971 124 1600. We bought 2 cars for $400 and had a 2 year project with my dad to get it on the road. It had dual down draft Webers into a 3" free flow exhaust. Fun little car for a bit, but it had rust issues and didn't want to pass safety inspection. I went from an orange convertible to a utility tan Mazda GLC hatchback.
Mine was the 2L fuel injected (Bosch EFI), but there's a lot of guys to argue dual webers is where it's at. This was my first "toy" and first car I ever worked on. Did the timing belt, heater core, suspension, and quite a few other large projects on her...If I get another, i'm going carbureted next time as I know there's more to learn there.
