Every one talks about buying a car or fixing a car but no one talks about refurbishing an old car. Since car repair and car reconditioning is dirt cheap in this country, so why not buy an old car and make it reasonably new again? This could be used as a cheap alternative to buying a nicer expensive car. For those of you folks who are tight with cash, maybe you should look into this thread to gain ideas into how to convert an old beaten up car into a decent car.
My story begins with my old concho type Toyota tercel 90. This car was old and ugly, not to mention parts falling off and endless series of dents from parking on the street. The seats were ripped, color of fabric turned grey from dirt and carpet changed color, not to mention huge holes in it. The bumper was falling off and lights were all bent and twisted out of alignment. The car was a total shame and embarrassment. I was simply going to give it away to a friend when I bought my camry. Then one day I crashed my new Toyota camry and got the bumper all broken up. I was directed to see a guy near my neighborhood who had opened up a new paint shop. He looked into my car and gave me a good estimate. Then the same day he gave my car back with bumper totally repaired and painted. As if I never had an accident. When I went to see him in the afternoon in my old car, he offered to renew my car for only 12k pesos. He told me he would take out the dents, repaint the whole car and repack everything into nice alignment. He would fix bumper and repair everything. Then the guy next to him offered to rip out old seat covers, repack them with more foam and sew on new fabric like new seats. He even offered to change my carpet and steam clean the roof. Total cost 8500 pesos. It seemed like a lot of work for such little money so I left the car to them on the spot. No money was given in advance, only when the work is finished to my liking. When I came back to take before / after picture of the work, I was shocked to see they had totally stripped off my car in just 3 hours. I mean everything, carpet, seats, molding from everywhere, bumpers and even panels from inside out. There was nothing left but a metal skeleton. Here are the pictures below.
Notice: lights, grill removed and the lower metal protector is all twisted.
Everything ripped out, even door panels.
Old ripped out carpet
Old seat, all worn out and damaged from sides.
My story begins with my old concho type Toyota tercel 90. This car was old and ugly, not to mention parts falling off and endless series of dents from parking on the street. The seats were ripped, color of fabric turned grey from dirt and carpet changed color, not to mention huge holes in it. The bumper was falling off and lights were all bent and twisted out of alignment. The car was a total shame and embarrassment. I was simply going to give it away to a friend when I bought my camry. Then one day I crashed my new Toyota camry and got the bumper all broken up. I was directed to see a guy near my neighborhood who had opened up a new paint shop. He looked into my car and gave me a good estimate. Then the same day he gave my car back with bumper totally repaired and painted. As if I never had an accident. When I went to see him in the afternoon in my old car, he offered to renew my car for only 12k pesos. He told me he would take out the dents, repaint the whole car and repack everything into nice alignment. He would fix bumper and repair everything. Then the guy next to him offered to rip out old seat covers, repack them with more foam and sew on new fabric like new seats. He even offered to change my carpet and steam clean the roof. Total cost 8500 pesos. It seemed like a lot of work for such little money so I left the car to them on the spot. No money was given in advance, only when the work is finished to my liking. When I came back to take before / after picture of the work, I was shocked to see they had totally stripped off my car in just 3 hours. I mean everything, carpet, seats, molding from everywhere, bumpers and even panels from inside out. There was nothing left but a metal skeleton. Here are the pictures below.
Notice: lights, grill removed and the lower metal protector is all twisted.
Everything ripped out, even door panels.
Old ripped out carpet
Old seat, all worn out and damaged from sides.