Thanks for the kudos everyone.
Those are great cars! They do have persistent coolant leaking problems. I believe the reservoir and the thermostat/thermostat housing are notorious for leaking.
You got a steal though. Kudos!
Right on, the coolant reservoir is plastic and cracks at the joint where it's melded into one piece. Mine is fine so far....
I've spent about $500 more on this car since purchase, total is $700 now. A few needed things and a few frilly/fun things...I'm in the process of installing all of this in the next few weeks as it arrives in the mail...oh the joy of seeing the UPS truck coming down the hill to my house...
FRONT END BRA - to cover dent/rust
CAR COVER - to keep the rain out since it leaks
EMBLEMS/OVERLAYS - to freshen it up
WHEEL HUBS/BUSHINGS - to fix the horrible scraping suspension issues
K&N INTAKE - I had to hear more of that supercharger, $99 splurge here...
ARMREST - to rest my arm, these cars should have come with one
FLOOR MATS - nothing freshens up an interior like brand new all-weather mats
So some of that is bling and unneeded but I wanted to get a few bits that will spruce it up a bit. Can't polish a turd, I know...but these will help. I'm reminded that working on older cars like this is rewarding since parts tend to be cheap. I got all the above and a few other things I didn't mention for $500. Crazy.
All that said, the more I drive this car the more I want to keep it rather than sell it. The linear pull of the supercharger is addicting. The first/best mod for these is a reduced supercharger pulley which costs about $200 for pulley/belt/removal tool and nets +20 hp safely without a tune. In fact I've learned that the JCW editions get their hp bump by simply changing the pulley from the factory. Tempted to do this...that's $10 per hp. Outrageous....