how the heck?

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » May 7th, 2005, 4:05 pm

Just spent 4 hours polishing and buffing my mx-3 but to no avail. The fact of the matter is that I own a 12 year old car that has been badly abused by its original owner. It probably has never been waxed since 1993. There are numerous dings and scratches covering the entire car. It was in a minor accident and the original owner had his"buddy the mechanic" fix the dent and repaint the quarterpanel with unmatching color and no clearcoat. No matter how much elbo grease is involved, it's never gonna look good without a repaint and a bit of body work. Now that the rant is over, heres the ? I have seen tons of posts in the past month or so with all these people getting thier cars repainted. With the exception of Gro, everyone has "had thier car painted" by someone else. Where the heck do you all get the money for stuff like this? Every major purchase I make(over $300) I had to either save for 6 months or spend my entire tax refund on. But then I come here and see "I think its time for a repaint, cars goin' in the shop next week" and "I think its time for a color change for my ride" and so forth. How the heck can you all afford this stuff. I have a full time job and live on my own, so its not like I work part time at McDonalds and have no $$. I just cant figure out how so many people have like $1500 to $3000 bucks to drop on paintjobs? I really need a respray bad, so if anyone can give me directions to the "Secret Money Tree" i'd appreciate it, LOL

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » May 7th, 2005, 4:51 pm

Not being in debt, and not having a life...my car's all I have. My paint job I've been saving since cause it was suppose to get done last year.

To give you an example, this is my breakdown

I gross about $2200/month (Canadian Funds) ($18/hr @ ~40hrs/wk)
I spend monthly

-$499 :Rent (which includes everything but phone and Internet)
- $60 :Cell Phone
-$153 :Car Loan (Done Next Month)
-$148 :Car Insurance
-$166 :Personal Loan (KLZE Loan

)
-$240 :Gas
-$100 :Food
-$120 :RRSP

Which leaves me about $714/month in spending money, $867 starting in July after the car is paid off.

Now, everything I've done so far isn't 100% cash, I have $1100 on a credit card ($900 of that which is my struts I bought last week, but I ended up spending an extra $400 for an upgrade so I have the car ready for May 21/22 weekend, after waiting 5 weeks for a backorder that won't be fulfilled for another 2-3) and $1200 on the line of credit, $800 of which was on the 626 a few weeks ago so I have a car while mine in the shop (new rims/tires, lower control arm, balljoint and new pads/rotors). Stuff like to snowball like that on me, but after it's all done, I'm good for the rest of the year.

freyguy_412 · Post by **freyguy_412** » May 7th, 2005, 5:46 pm

Don't worry 93SOHC... My car's suffering right now cause I can't get money together to finish some of the stuff I started:

No rear interior: removed to start an amp rack and speaker install but haven't been able to get the money to finish it all up the way I want.

Cat heat shield rattles around 2200-3000rpm: Waiting on the probe header purchase and install to have a shop just weld everything up new.

Blown struts: Got suckered into dropzone springs ("They're good but no one uses them," says my buddy... shut up stupid!) and didn't know they were blown until halfway through the install when the strut wouldn't stay... "erect" while mounting the new spring. Haven't had the money to buy some good tokico's and don't wanna spend it on stock replacements.

I still roll on stock rims, messed up paint and no body kit. Yeah I'm loving life right now. lol

mitmaks · Post by **mitmaks** » May 7th, 2005, 5:58 pm

well some members on here arent high school kids anymore and have full time job that pays enough so you can save and have your car painted

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » May 7th, 2005, 6:00 pm

I guess it's just all a matter of $$$ as usual. I only take home about $1200USD per month, which is quite sucky for someone who is almost 28 years old. maybe by the time i'm 40 i'll have enough to get my motor and a decent paint job, lol. I have no college so i'm stuck woring in a crappy factory for $8.75 per hour! I have 4 years as a mechanic, but barely any tools as I had to sell them off because of a family emergency. With no tools its impossible to get work as a mechanic, and if I had $5000 to spend on tools again we wouldn't be having this conversation, LOL. I'd prolly have an extra $200 a month at least if I wasn't still paying off my creditcard from my last adventure of modding cars(90 Legacy AWD 2.2 jspec motor, t3/t4 hybrid, haletec, Nos dry kit, fully rallitech race coilovers, etc). Only $4800 left to go

freyguy_412 · Post by **freyguy_412** » May 7th, 2005, 6:07 pm

My new sucky factory job pays 12.55hr... I still can't find money. Plus I'm paying a lot of her bills right now while she's between jobs.

My question to you is where is this fully built subi?!?!

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » May 7th, 2005, 6:16 pm

My subi died horribly at Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove WI, 2 summers ago. I was making a 1/4 mile run and pushed a bit to hard exploding the 3rd transmission and clutch. The driveline ripped out and everything! I was going about 95mph at the time and loosing power to the rear wheels(I think one front wheel started working) at that speed caused me to go out of control and "nudge" the wall a bit... Needless to say it was badly damaged and I was so fed up I sold it to a buddy for 1000bucks as it was. I havent seen the guy in about a year, but I heard he parted it out on ebay and sent it to the bone yard. All in all it was a sad waste of about $8000.

tw1st3d_cl0wn · Post by **tw1st3d_cl0wn** » May 9th, 2005, 9:38 am

Sometimes it baffles me too, like how people can buy so much for their cars, but everyone's at different stages in their lives as far as job status and money is concerned. I would love to fix up my car, especially the paint, and to fix the scratches and dings. It's a beautiful car, and would like to have it looking nice and new, but for me, it isn't possible right now. But I figure if I just take care of it the best I can, then maybe in the future I can afford to fix it up.

But, you know, I am always willing to accept donations....
The "Help Pimp Out Michelle's Ride" Fund.

Nallboy · Post by **Nallboy** » May 9th, 2005, 3:40 pm

heh, I need a fund like that. I live in my own little place, and it takes me forever to save up for stuff. I work part time at a real-estate law firm and got to class full-time, so the little bit of $$ left over after the weekends goes into my baby.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » May 9th, 2005, 6:20 pm

For the first 10 years of owning my MX I restricted my mods to a K&N filter and window shades. Now I'm in a position to do some of the things I've waited 10 years to do. Like Twisted said, we're all at different stages and points in our lives.

neutral · Post by **neutral** » May 9th, 2005, 7:08 pm

yup, agreed. Everyone's at a different stage of living and priorities for all kinds of reasons. Only been the past 2-3 years I've been able to afford doing some things I want to do, instead of just doing the things that have to be done to maintain a car. It's not necessarily making more income. More like some other kinds of priority expenses have ended in my situation.

lucky13 · Post by **lucky13** » May 9th, 2005, 7:18 pm

I get 9.18 per h. so it's like 1400 per month. My bills might come out to 1000. But my wife and I like going out a lot. So we spend a lot of money going out to eat, movies, and stuff. If I was a lot more dedicated I might have the MX the way I would like.

fry_81 · Post by **fry_81** » May 9th, 2005, 9:52 pm

my car went in for paint today and im finishing up highschool

relisys_3200 · Post by **relisys_3200** » May 9th, 2005, 10:39 pm

fry_81 wrote:my car went in for paint today and im finishing up highschool

finishing up highschool and your 100??.....do the other kids make fun of you?

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 9th, 2005, 11:05 pm

finishing up highschool and your 100??.....do the other kids make fun of you?

LMAO