Okay, here's my story...
QUOTE]
Hi, my name is Scott, and I'm a Supraholic........
I'm older than Johnathon, so it may go longer. When I was 15 1/2 I bought my first car (with my own money). It was a primer grey 67 mustang w/a cammin 289. Car was junk, but very fast. That car lasted about a year and a half. Sorry no pics.
After it died, I had a brief period of no car, until I bought another 67 Mustang. It was a neighbors car who had the car since it was new (15 years). It was still all original, and looked terrible. I totally restored that car, and entered it in a couple shows, as an all original 289 car. Here's the best pic i could find (doesn't do it justice):
I had an older brother, who had the liking for Toyota's. I tagged along as he tried to buy an 82 Supra when they came out. He couldn't afford the payment, so he ended up with a corrola. I secretely thought the Supra was a cool looking car, but no match for my stock Stang, so I laughed at him for even looking at it.
Right then, I formed a liking for those cars. Not long after that, I got married and sold the Mustang. I did 6 years in that miserable marriage with various family cars. We had bad financial problems, and when we split, I let her have the car. That left me needing a car, with very bad credit. But, I knew where one of those cool old Supras was on a lot that would finance me. Here's my first Supra:
I loved that car, but soon found out why it was on that lot. The crank bolt had been stripped, and rigged to hold long enough to get it sold. The crank was bad, and the motor was rebuilt soon. I drove that car for 7 years, until ::bhg:: . I had a mechanic freind of my brother in law repair it for cheap, but I had to help. This was my first of any mechanicing i had done other than a water pump or oil pump on a Ford. That gasket lasted a whopping 3 months. I decided, since I watched the last time, I would do it myself. I got it done, but it didn't seal (probably cause I knew nothing about lapping a block.......no idea it even needed to be done). This is why it only lasted 3 months the first time. Only lasted a week when I did it. So it was old, rusted, and broke again, and I was re-married by then, so it was just parked.
Six months later the wife told me it had to go, so I called the local classifieds and put in a part out ad. I hoped I could get $500 out of a few parts before it got hauled off. I was listing stuff on ebay when i stopped to place the ad. Went back to ebay, and a light bulb tapped me on the shoulder.......tap....tap......."hey, why don't you put an ad on ebay parting it out." I thought they would cancel it. It ran the whole 7 days, and got me 500 e-mails. I made $3500 on that car!!!!!!
So, I knew where one that looked just like it was sitting. I called the tire store it was at and talked to the guy. He said $200, and I could come by after work and drink a beer with them and look at it. I said hell if we drink a couple maybe I'd get it for $100. He said yes!, and I had my 2nd parts car. Made only $2500 on that one. Then, I had to hunt one to part. I found an 88 turbo, which had already been robbed of a lot of parts. I didn't know much about the MKIII, but I knew ebay. I looked and saw an ecu sell for $135. I e-mailed the second highest bidder and told him I was gonna buy a car, and would give him the ecu for $125. Turned out he was local. I bought the car for $300 and made back $125 within the hour. I made $3500 on that car too. I parted 1 more mkiii, before finding my current car, and have now parted 7 total MKIII's. Prices have dropped to almost give away , and only certain parts will even sell. So, my job as parts guy is dwindling to almost nothing.
The story on my current car is a great one.
I was running newpapers in the middle of the night for extra cash. One night, while making my way to the route, I passed a car lot in the dark. Cars were out front, then I passed the building (side view). There was only a one car driveway between that building and another building. But for some reason I looked that way, and the clear part of the passenger tail light is all I saw. "OH Shit.....That's a Supra". I quickly whipped it around, and checked it out. I called the place the next morning at 8. They wanted $2800 for it, and it was near perfect. It was a 2 owner lot, and the silent partner owned the Supra. I tried for 2 weeks to test drive it, because of key issues. The car disappeared, and the guy at the lot didn't know where it was. Finally it was located at the Toyota dealer. The head gasket was gone, and the car all the sudden got cheap. I got it for $800.
I bought it a motor off ebay, and paid to have it put in. Well, you guessed it, the ebay motor was Crap. No big deal, it came with enough extra parts to get my money back. But, it was back to the drawing board. I had an internet friend who had a JDM block, with internals, and new head gasket already installed with head. I made the 700 mile drive to get it. At this point, I had torn down several 7m's, and I knew where everything went. I just didn't think I could do it. With the help of Supramania I got it together, installed, and it cranked on the first try.
