Out of curiosity, what's the asking price?
Regardless, my simple recommendation is: walk away.
Even if this car is $1,000., you describe an awful lot of work and expense
necessary to get this car in reasonable condition.
A quick look at some catalogues show these prices:
Rebuilt Transmission $975.00
5-speed conversion ?????
Speedo rebuild $125.00 (?) but could just be the cable
Glass you could get used, but you also have to find out the problem that is
causing the scratches.
Dash Pad $48.75
Interior Panel Kit $280.00
Carpet Kit $175.00
Clarici Carpet Kit $7.50
Seat Kits (set) $225.00
4" Heater Ducting $10.00 (?)
Repaint $1,000 on up depending upon quality & generally you get what you pay
for.
Sure, you could keep costs down by doing work yourself and/or using used parts,
but you can buy a really good car for around $5,000. and I mean a really good
car. In the last year I have seen 4 absolutely excellent RWA (round wheel arch)
Midgets for sale in that range. I'm talking about low mileage, original, or
fairly original cars not needing much, if any work.
To repeat my self, if you are going to restrict your search to cars for sale
locally and/or if you restrict your time period for shopping for a car to the
next few months, you're doing yourself a disservice. The closest car I bought in
the last 10 years was 6 hours away and the furthest 3,000 miles away.
To answer your question about the noise in 1st, neither my Sprite nor my Midget
make noise in 1st gear. The Midget has 38,000 miles on the tranny. A friend has
an original 59 Bugeye with the original smoothcase tranny still in it and that
car doesn't make noise in 1st either. Yeah, most of them make noise in first,
but
not all of them.
Good luck in your search.
jay fishbein
wallingford, ct
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