Jeff's new beater project, pt. 5

[jeff]

Still driving the Fiesta a 1-2 times a week, and loving it. But another project fell in my lap and I thought I'd share it. Some dude on the coast about 3 hours away heard about me and contacted me about his dead Honda Insight, and offered to sell it to me. I offered him about what it would cost to buy an intercooler for one of our cars and he took it. Trailered it home last week and went to work, I put about 80 hours of labor and $200 into this car and it's running super smooth. Gonna sell sometime soon after I put a few more miles on it. Just thought I'd share.

These are peculiar cars which is why, if you look carefully, you can get good ones for a few hundred dollars. People are scared to work on them and even mechanics have a hard time diagnosing. I've restored 3 of them now and it's quite fun. This particular car got some serious cleaning and polishing, a full tune up, all filters, fluids, EGR cleaning, grounds, vacuum hoses, I repaired 3 CELs and an SRS light, charged both batteries, and repaired a host of other little things.

Anyhow here she is in her glory, just hit it with the polisher, gonna drive a bit more just for fun and probably sell in a few weeks. For those who've seen my YouTube channel there are a few vids on this car. 2003 Insight 5-speed. This car sat outside for a year without being driven, looked gross and did not run, this is a testament to what hard work and some good luck can accomplish, with old gas in the tank it's still getting 65mpgs in the city after 100 miles with me at work and behind the wheel!!!

Enjoy:

Towing home with the bumper in the back! Poor fellow doesn't run!

A very thorough cleaning!

So much broken on this car! Tranny drain bolt snapped in half on the way out!

Tune up and repairs complete, engine bay clean!

Interior cleaned up very nicely!

Hybrid battery charged...

65mpgs around town over 83 miles...

Cherry Bomb Rocket polished up nice!

Thanks for reading guys!!!

 

[LiLfieSTa]

im thoroughly impressed, Jeff

 

[Poofies]

Nice polish! You motivate me to buy one of these! Was always interested in hyper miling!

 

[M-Sport fan]

You really could make this a side business, not just by flipping them, but by restoring them for owners who love them, and want to hold onto them (or are there just not that many of those people around?) .

 

[Poofies]

I just scanned Facebook marketplace and sent so lowballs you locals. See if I can get any bites. I was a boutique detailer for a while so I can definitely clean them up. Handy with a wrench but don’t know much about the hybrid side but have the time to learn. If I can get in a running first gen under 1500 I’ll take the dive.

 

[jeff]

Thanks guys! Once I sell this I'll have about $10k profit from my Prelude + blue Insight + Cooper S + this car. Saving toward my goal of buying my attainable dream car which I'll keep. Maybe.

I just scanned Facebook marketplace and sent so lowballs you locals. See if I can get any bites. I was a boutique detailer for a while so I can definitely clean them up. Handy with a wrench but don’t know much about the hybrid side but have the time to learn. If I can get in a running first gen under 1500 I’ll take the dive.

Beware! I look at about 100 before I buy one. So I've skimmed through 297 cars. Most are crap and these cars are so quirky you sort of have to figure a lot out. Some repairs are easy and cheap, others are hard and expensive. There's a reason so many are rotting right now. Be very careful or you'll have a $1500 decoration in your driveway that can't be fixed without big money! Then the next issue is finding a buyer crazy enough to purchase one...but they are out there. Anyone with any common sense would say a few state lines away from these.

 

[jeff]

Thought I'd update this thread since I'm posting another....finished this car (98%) and decided to make it my daily driver. I put it up for sale for a short time and had 8 offers around $4k but the more I drove it I just couldn't sell it so I ended up selling my grey one for $7k last week. Grey was darn near showroom condition but this red car provided 90% of the fun of the grey one and it cost me way less. It gets better mpg than the grey one too - 74 around town.

That said here's a pic. This project turned out to be quite nice. I have about $1000 total in this car including purchase price and it's rock solid.

Note Fiesta still gets the garage.

 

[akiraproject24]

Any tips on finding a G1? Did a little bit of searching around and appears you gotta know a neighbor or family friend getting rid of one.

 

[jeff]

Any tips on finding a G1? Did a little bit of searching around and appears you gotta know a neighbor or family friend getting rid of one.

Hey thanks for the love here. Man it's crazy. Been trying to find another to rebuild/sell. I had one in my hands about 4 months ago and someone snatched it away. I was closing on two running for $3500 last night but someone across the country sent the seller a deposit before I could seal the deal. Ever since the inflation and gas price increase these things are unobtainium. I have about a dozen folks asking me regularly if I have one to sell, they find me via my youtube videos on Insights.

So yeah you're right they're extremely hard to find. You pretty much have to either know someone or search the ads 8 times a day, call first and show up with money as soon as one comes up for sale.

I ended up doing a ton of stuff to get this red one as nice as possible. It's getting in the low 70s mpg now around town after a thorough overhaul of the EGR/intake/fuel system. Battery is hanging in there, haven't replaced it yet, some folks are experimenting with lithium which I might get before long. I have the PCB and upgraded fuse for the "current hack" for this car on my shelf, can't install till I get a strong battery though. That makes the car a good bit faster, had it on my previous grey G1. Also did a ton of little things including a clay bar and polish, check out the video at the bottom...

View: https://youtu.be/xUZOxSbZSQ0

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Hey thanks for the love here. Man it's crazy. Been trying to find another to rebuild/sell. I had one in my hands about 4 months ago and someone snatched it away. I was closing on two running for $3500 last night but someone across the country sent the seller a deposit before I could seal the deal. Ever since the inflation and gas price increase these things are unobtainium. I have about a dozen folks asking me regularly if I have one to sell, they find me via my youtube videos on Insights.

So yeah you're right they're extremely hard to find. You pretty much have to either know someone or search the ads 8 times a day, call first and show up with money as soon as one comes up for sale.

I ended up doing a ton of stuff to get this red one as nice as possible. It's getting in the low 70s mpg now around town after a thorough overhaul of the EGR/intake/fuel system. Battery is hanging in there, haven't replaced it yet, some folks are experimenting with lithium which I might get before long. I have the PCB and upgraded fuse for the "current hack" for this car on my shelf, can't install till I get a strong battery though. That makes the car a good bit faster, had it on my previous grey G1. Also did a ton of little things including a clay bar and polish, check out the video at the bottom...

View: https://youtu.be/xUZOxSbZSQ0 View attachment 48443

Insight + 15k=Typhoon...Just throwing it out there!

 

[jeff]

Insight + 15k=Typhoon...Just throwing it out there!

Man......

Man........

Aaron I love you. If all the driving wasn't involved I might actually consider this offer.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Man......

Man........

Aaron I love you. If all the driving wasn't involved I might actually consider this offer.

Kidding! NEVER!

Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk

 

[jeff]

New record in beater 5...77.5mpgs over 723 miles. Amazing!

View: https://youtu.be/G6kgwScb_g4