How to Buy a Budget Friendly Project Car

Hey guys, Chris fixes this and today I'm going to show you how to buy a

project

car on an affordable

budget

, like a real affordable

budget

. I work on tons of

project

cars now, probably because a project car is never finished, but you guys always ask. Yo, Chris, how do I get started? What project car should I buy? And the answer is actually very easy. It is a car that you are passionate about. It's a car you want to drive. You want to fix something you won't worry about. what other people think you really like and really want to work on, that's the project car you should buy and buy affordable, what does that mean?

Well, if you can afford a new cell phone, you could afford any of these project cars, including the new one. one I have under this cover, for example, my first project car in drift history. I bought this car for about a thousand dollars and my goal from the beginning was to turn this car into a drift car and learn how to drift and she went. from a non-running car that was about to go to the junkyard to a track car that has been super reliable and fun to learn to drift with and don't worry about those of you who followed the drift and stayed there , they already know.

There are two important things left to do on this car, one of them is installing a supercharger. I have a used Celine Root style supercharger that is not made to work with that engine, it just doesn't fit, but I think I have a couple of ideas for how to do it. it works and if so we will double the power output with a reliable budget for this car and then the second thing is to install a roll cage that way hopefully I could go from group b to group a and learn to ride in tandem now everything The point is that this car has been the perfect project car, it was affordable and I didn't invest a lot of money in it and I did it over time and it's been great, it's been reliable, it's been fun, I've learned a lot and that's what The cars of the project have to do with another example: the 300 del sol that had a leak in the head gasket and a worn suspension, so I unbolted and removed the head, replaced the head gasket and rebuilt the entire front suspension and finally cut a rust hole under the passenger seat and I welded a new piece of sheet metal to make it safe to drive and now I have a perfect running and driving sol for under a thousand dollars and the next step for this car is a cheap turbo kit installed with a common hand tools at home in your driveway, it will be a blast, it is supposed to double the power of this car, so it is already a light car, very fun to drive and now we are doubling the power, so These two cars give you very good examples of what A cheap project car can be and I have a lot going on, so you're probably wondering, Chris, why did you get another project car?

Because eBay Motors challenged me to participate in the 24 hour lemon race. Yes. Lemons, not Le Mans, if you've never heard of the 24 Hours of Lemons, it's a cheap endurance race that anyone can join. You only have 500 to buy your piece of junk car, so you'll have to fix it up and race everything. of that for 500 dollars and they have judges to inspect your car and listen to your story to make sure the car is really 500 look at this so what are you saying you paid for the car 300 and uh wilson motorsports wilson what is wilson motorsports my brother your brother we made the cage so your brother gave you a car what you're saying is no I bought it for 300 dollars yeah that's like giving you a car except you pretended to give them 300 and as you can see no they deceive but the idea is to keep it affordable so anyone can race instead of buying parts to make your car go faster and then whoever has the biggest wallet will have the fastest car.

You are buying a piece of garbage and you need. to maintain it you need to keep it as reliable as possible so you can finish the race and not get towed off the track, so keeping old, unreliable cars running is my specialty, so this race is my thing, the most part It's hard to find a car in this expensive condition that costs less than 500 half decent and somewhat fast, so while searching for engines on eBay I found something that is local to me and under my budget, so I jumped on it. immediately and it was a Mercedes Clk 430 v8 that did not work and I paid 300, the problem is that this car is a hopeless case, really very bad, the worst car I have ever bought.

The story goes that the battery cables were crossed and that's why it doesn't work, but I'm pretty sure this thing was flooded. The entire interior, the seats, the door panels, everything was covered in mold, which wasn't a big deal because it was going to be destroyed. The problem was that after diagnosing the problem, the car needed a couple of computer modules and unfortunately you have to go to Mercedes to code them and there was no way I could do all that for two hundred dollars, so I realized that this It wasn't the car. I sold it for four hundred dollars to a junkyard, made a hundred dollar profit, and had to find a new cheap race car.

So since shipping the car doesn't count towards the $500, I found this car in Maine and it's a 2004 bmw 330 xi. You guys wanted a European car in the canal. Well, here it is and I am very excited about this car. It's only a good car for drag racing, but it's a really good car for the channel because they're dropping a lot in price and the platform is great for autocross drifting and it's becoming more and more affordable, so this one has three. It has a liter m54 engine and unfortunately it has all wheel drive but the good thing is if we look inside we have a six speed manual transmission which is perfect so real quick let me show you the list and how much I bought this car.

So here is the eBay motor listing. You can see it's asking for two thousand dollars and it has a make and offer button which I love to see if we scroll down the history check comes out pretty good. He has an accident here. I talked to him. About that, it was a slight bump on the fender, nothing bad and we have a low score on the auto check, but you did a great job showing the pros and cons in your description. He also did a good job with the pictures so he lists the pros as it is a solid running car, he says it runs and shifts very well, apparently it has a zhp camshaft installed but he said he doesn't have any proof of that , that's what the previous owner said.

He also said they've lowered it, but it doesn't really look that low. It's a six-speed, it has all-wheel drive, but I personally see that as a negative I prefer to have rear-wheel drive, and it has an aerodynamic package. Now the cons that you can see is that it has tons of dents, scratches and dings and he said it has been changed there is no power steering and he said it definitely needs to be replaced because you can't turn it without it there is a clunking noise on the part rear there are some tears in the seats the oil light comes on the sunroof is stuck opening oil is dripping but that's all BMW and one thing I want to include is that it has 230,000 miles on it which is a lot so this car It seemed like the perfect car to fit the bill and turn it into a lemon car.

I made him an offer, it was a little low, a thousand dollars and I knew he would come back, so he came back at 5:50 p.m. I said, "You need a lot of things." I am a real buyer. Tomorrow I will get a tow truck to pick it up. I'll send you all the money via PayPal tonight and we met. Halfway there at 11:00 and I'm super excited about this challenge. I want to thank eBay Motors for supporting the video and challenging me to do this because it's going to be a lot of fun and that's how you became the owner of a BMW E46 for eleven hundred dollars and there's a reason they sold it to me for eleven hundred dollars this is a tough sell because the exterior of this car is an absolute disaster it has dents it has cracks it is scratched it has key all over the side look at the The size of that dent is stuck along the entire side all the way to the back, not just on this one side but also on the other side and we also have some rust problems, but that's okay because we are not looking for a car that is perfect on the outside. we want a car that is perfect on the inside or at least as perfect as we can get we need something that is reliable it is a racing car we don't care about looks we care about reliability being able to start every time the suspension being good, the engine and the transmission are good and this car fits the bill pretty well with all that except maybe reliability we'll find out but that brings me to my next point and this is a very important thing that anyone buying a project car should absolutely do.

Understand this is called the project car triangle, pick two if you want something cheap and reliable it won't be fast, if you want something cheap and fast it won't be reliable and finally if you want something reliable and fast it won't be reliable. be cheap now the interesting thing about the lemon race is that they choose the first one for you, it has to be cheap, that means you only have one left, do you want it to be reliable or do you want to be fast and the reason? The reason I chose a BMW is because we're going to try to walk that fine line between reliable and fast, especially for such a cheap car, so it's a very important thing to understand if you're interested in getting a project car. and talk about it. reliability there is a major reliability issue that we need to solve right now and that is when the car starts she wants to stall or idle bad let me show you and you can see how that idle just dropped almost stopped but now it's kind of I want to.

I mean, the car vibrates a lot, it shakes, it's almost like it's failing, the idol doesn't stay stable, so that's not good, that's not what a racing car should do, so let's find out, so here we go What to do is We are going to scan the computer using a bluetooth obd2 scanner and this will give us any check engine light codes we may have to tell us where the problem is. Normally the obd2 port is under the drivers side of the dash in this case on the bmw turn this off and the scanner connects here like this just like that now take your phone open the app let's press read codes it connects automatically .

Okay, now this scanner will make an advanced code so you can check the abs. airbags, you could check the transmission codes, all those system modules, we'll just do a check engine light, it will check it will scan the computer and pull up any codes, it's perfect, we have two codes now, the two codes that we is giving are a system to bow us down. and a coolant thermostat. I'm more worried about the system tilting. Let's start with apparently this code is very common for this car and gives you a list of possible causes, but what I want to see are the frequently reported fixes, it says replace. mass air flow sensor, so that is the most frequently reported solution, let's start there and check the mass air flow sensor.

I'll show you how to test it, let's open the hood and now your mass air flow sensor will be behind your air. so our air box is here and you can see that there is the mass air flow sensor and we're going to want to disconnect it and leave it unplugged, so now we're going to start the car with the mass air flow sensor. disconnected and what that will do is cause the computer to go off the built-in air fuel ratio tables and not use the mass air flow sensor, so we're basically removing the mass air flow sensor from the equation if it works on that moment.

We know that the mass air flow sensor is bad. Let's check it perfect. Just what we wanted to see. You can see that the idle has leveled out. It started perfectly. We now know that the mass air flow sensor is bad. Let's replace it. We start by loosening it. this hose clamp with a flat head screwdriver like this and then take out the retaining clip on this side and the other side and then this could come out with the old and come in with the new, well, like new, we're doing this. You are on a budget so this sensor is from the junkyard and you want to make sure you have the airflow arrow pointing in the right direction which is very important - put the clips on and make sure you seat the inlet tube completely in the sensor and tighten it. down so it's tight, finally reconnect the harness to the sensor like this, very good, moment of truth, let's turn it on and see if we solve the problem, okay, it's good that our idol is not going down where it is trying to stop looking.

Like the idol is leveling out, it's nice and consistent, so it looks like we fixed our first problem by making this car more reliable by the second. Now let's go around and let me show you our second major problem. Okay, Coop and I are going for a test drive here and the next big problem, a big problem is this steering, so no, no.I can't even turn the steering wheel, oh man this is so hard to turn, there's no way we can use this for an endurance test. Running without this power steering pump, well fixed, so now let's go for a spin and do my favorite thing, test this car on an entrance ramp to see how much power it has, apparently this thing goes from zero to 60 in seven seconds and this could work. the quarter mile in about 15 seconds so it's not fast but it's actually not that slow and it's got some pep to hit the road and if we can keep it reliable I think we've got a competitive car now you can probably hear some wind noise and that's it. not because of an open window it's because the sunroof won't close it's stuck so let's go home and I'll show you how to fix that chicken coop.

Okay, we're back at the house, let me show you what's going on with the sunroof and how we're going to fix it, so if we try to close the sunroof for any reason, it gets stuck and rolls back and this is definitely not good because If it starts to rain we have a problem, so how do we solve it? That's right, it's actually pretty easy to get started with a BMW. Carefully slide a screwdriver behind the panel to lower the panel that way and right there is the sunroof motor, so grab a Torx T25 with a ratchet and we could turn the motor until the sunroof is completely closed.

Now we can push the panel. It goes back into place making sure it fits and that's it. Now we don't have to worry about water getting inside the car because it was stuck open and all the wind noise and stuff I think I'm going to eliminate. This for the race and putting a piece of carbon fiber or fiberglass is for the safety of the driver, so it is a free modification. It will take weight off the roof and also make it safer so we have glass over our heads in case you roll. It's over or something, so now it's fine, that doesn't close, maybe that's what stuck it.

Well I'll leave it for now but this is how you fix your sunroof if it gets stuck open like this, beautiful, that's how it's sealed, I hope it helps some people because if your sunroof is open, water gets in there, it just makes a mess inside. and that's never a good thing, so the sunroof is fixed, the mass air flow sensor is fixed, so the car runs and drives perfectly right now, except for that power steering pump, don't worry , we will have a full video on how to replace the power steering pump and fix everything, which will apply to many different makes and models, but the next thing I want to do is introduce you to. guys to the race team yes, I said race team because this is an endurance race, it could be 14 hours, it could be 18.

It could be 24 hours, you can't run and do all this alone, you need a team and this is another one. The reason I really wanted to do this race is because I can invite my friends, bring them and have a great time together, and that's what it's all about, so there's no better way to introduce my racing team than here, I hope you guys , enjoy it, choose your race driver chris, hey guys chris, fix it here america gary, if I'm not flying I'm fishing so I bought a BMW, don't worry guys I've got it on video okay let's hit it with soapy water. let's compete with common hand tools and some thread locker, that's all we need to win and if you can't tell, we're already having a great time, I hope you enjoyed it, we're having a lot of fun, but really fast, I should tell you that.

Guys, a little more about the other drivers. My friend Ari, he's great with cars. He swapped a 600-horsepower supercharged engine with a manual transmission in his Crown Vic, so he has plenty of DIY experience. My friend Gary also has a lot of DIY experience. In this case, he has worked a lot on his Raptor's suspension and takes it to jumping events, sometimes sending it too hard. My friend Aaron, the same thing works on cars. In fact, he drifts a BMW and has a BMW car buying problem for basically everyone. When I talk to him, he has a new BMW project and finally my friend Pierce, his first car is a BMW, he's just learning, he's tearing everything up and he's still learning how to drive stick shift, but he'll be very valuable in the pits for when the things go well. he makes mistakes and breaks down, he's also great at filming, so that will be helpful, so that's our racing team, those are my friends, we actually have really good chemistry together, which is great, win or lose, we'll find out.

We are going to have a great time doing this race, I can't wait now. These are my good friends and I want to make sure everyone on the race team is very safe, so we have the best safety equipment. I showed you some of the safety equipment real quick, but I want to show it to you in a moment. More details because this is very, very important, so we have fireproof socks. We have a one-piece multi-layer flame retardant racing suit. This is a really good racing suit. We have our head and neck restraint system. We have our helmet, fireproof gloves and fireproof balaclava.

Think of this like a ski mask, except it's fire retardant and made for racing, so it will protect us in case of a fire. Now, if there is a fire, we don't want to rely on just the suits, so we're going to be installing a 10-pound fire suppression system that's going to go into the engine compartment and into the cabin to keep the driver nice and safe. this is a real race, this is serious, it's multiple cars, full roll cage and full racing, I mean we're going 120 miles an hour on the streets so it can be very dangerous.

It's not something to waste time on. I'm curious. Are you interested in watching a video on how to install the fire suppression system or how to install the battery? isolator, so if there is an accident, you could cut off the battery and all electrical systems quickly and turn off the engine quickly or how to install it. I don't even have to ask this. I know you guys want to see this, how to install a quick release steering. wheel, that's going to happen, so we've got all that, we've got our front and rear tow hooks, we've got a full six-point racing harness and a full restraint seat with the side pieces here so your head doesn't get whiplash if there's an accident now you're going to be bolted you're going to be strapped you're not going to be able to see behind you very easily so I ended up buying one of these mirrors that way you could see around you and That's all the safety stuff.

Now Konig hooked us up because we want our pit stops to be as quick as possible and in an endurance race the tires will wear out. I don't know how many tires we're going to go through, but I'm guessing one or two sets, so we'll have wheels ready to go with tires almost like, uh, think of it like Nascar or Formula One, except it probably won't be as fast, but we'll have new wheels. Look at these babies, these are counters. The Gram wheels are so pretty they will look so good there and this is where I need your help.

So what tires do you recommend for this type of endurance racing? If you have any experience that would be greatly appreciated, we need to use it. Tread wear of 190 or more and we are trying to look for something that has good tread life but more importantly good grip and will handle the heat well. We want to make sure we stay nice and grippy so we have good grip through all the corners. thank you koenig for hooking us up with three sets of wheels which is just some of the wheels we have three complete sets which is crazy now safety equipment gets expensive quickly all this equipment here is about two thousand dollars per person, that's a lot of money. race team person i think you could do the math it's a 500 car we put 10 grand on the safety equipment so that's where it gets expensive the safety equipment doesn't count towards the 500 budget but we want to be safer so we have everything the top of the line stuff now you're probably thinking it's not very affordable but the only good thing is go to your local speed shop eg stable energies that's my local speed shop they're amazing they hooked us up big time .

He said, hey, let's put your decal on the side of the car, let's do some really cool livery, we'll have engines from eBay, we'll have stable powers, we'll have Konig wheels from all these brands that helped with the build on the side of the car. the car with a livery like a real racing car and that's why they gave us a good discount to save us some money, don't be afraid to ask, even if you are a first time racer, even if you are not a big youtuber. They don't have to be stable energy patrons, most of the club are loose folk and are grassroots bums, so don't be afraid to ask if they have some sort of arrangement where you can help promote their store and local shops.

They are the best, those are the small businesses you want to help, so thank you very much, stable energies. I'll be sure to include a link in my description to these guys, they have a lot of great equipment, they have the best prices and they will do it. help you, that's the only good thing. I know I'm going to pass the technology and we'll have the top of the line and I want to keep my race team safe, so that's what we did there now. asking yourself Chris, you said it's a 500 card but you paid 1100, how are you going to achieve that?

Well let me show you now, for every ten dollars you go over the 500 limit you will get one penalty lap and at 600 over our limit we have 60 penalty laps and that makes us uncompetitive but the rules allow you to sell items that are not safety items, so they are considered safety items. Well, we're going to have to get a quick release steering wheel, so that's a safety item. We can't sell our steering wheel, we have to have a racing seat that is a safety feature, so we can't sell our old seat, anything that doesn't have to do with safety, well that's fair play so we need to get 600 from our race car, let me show you how I try to do this first.

We are going to sell this ashtray and the radio bezel. I found a bunch of listings on eBay, they cost around 60 70 and ours is in good condition, the springs work and could use a good cleaning so we won't have any problems getting 50 bucks right on top of where we have our radio. These go for around one hundred and fifty thousand and sixty dollars on eBay. I figured ours is in pretty good shape and we can make a quick sale. at a hundred and thirty dollars along with the radio, this car comes with the upgraded harman kardon system on ebay, they cost over 270 dollars, so I thought our system sounds great, we could probably get around 250 no problem, next we could sell the whole thing timber. trim on our car and we have a four door so we have a lot of good wood trim and these are in excellent condition.

You could wet sand and polish them and make it look literally new. There are no cracks or anything at this time on eBay. They're going for 150 so I thought for our set we could charge 130 and that brings us to 540, 40 over budget or four laps penalty and I could live with that, there might be other things we could sell here if you could. think of anything let me know that's all I can think of and I'm going to look for those things on the eBay listing and finally if you want to create a livery for this car here's a side profile take a screenshot of screen, you can send it by private message.

Send me an email or email me. Every Lemons team has a theme, so we need a cool theme for this car. Let me know what you have. That's the new project car. I'm super excited. I hope you are excited too. European e46 budget car for the channel if you enjoyed the video please like it if you are not a subscriber consider hitting the subscribe button and as always all the tools and products I used in this video are linked in the description including all the equipment from security so you can easily find it