JessN16

To expand on my earlier post, and to add to what ATCLen said, If you start with a car that is in good shape as it is, keeping it on the road is pretty easy. I tell people to look at it this way: Over the course of the year, I can count on one major and two minor repairs for my Starion. If that comes out to $1,000 in repairs a year, that's still less than $90 a month. Compare $90/month repairs with $400/month new car payment and you've got a savings at the end of the year of more than $3,600. The problem is, my Conquest had pitiful prior owners. It goes down 2-3 times a year and when it does, has the innate talent to do so when I'm far from home. The reason it goes down is that its previous owner never did any kind of preventative maintenance. I bought my Starion for $2,100 in 2000. I tell people I saved it from a junkyard because that's where its PO was going to send it had he not sold it before it was time for him to move (he'd been transferred). The car did not run. Between repairs and restoration (including full paint and body from a guy who does show cars as his primary living), I've probably put $12,000 - $14,000 in it in nine years. This includes around $2,000 in stereo work so it's not all mechanical. Mechanical repairs probably total no more than $6,000 or $7,000. For 9 years ownership, that's not bad. Comes out to $777.77/year in "car payments." I bought my Conquest for $627 in 2002. I found it abandoned on the side of a highway and paid the towing, storage and condemnation fees to get it titled in my name. But I immediately had to find a new engine before it would run. Then it sat for about eight months before I could get it roadworthy because the radiator and half its other systems were dead meat. So in about five years, I've spent almost $5,000 in repairs. That's $1,000/year. Still not bad but not as good as the Starion, because I started with a worse car. If you're going to DD a StarQuest, you WILL have it in for repairs and you WILL get stranded sometimes, but it's a 20-year-old car. It's going to happen. Jess

...I'm not through making bad decisions yet. Within the month, I may be adding a second Jaguar (my fourth overall). I've found an 88 XJ6 (or correctly, an XJ40) for just a few hundred dollars, and it runs. Has some rust, and a whine in the rear diff, and some kind of mystery battery drain that the owner has "fixed" by putting a kill switch on the battery. The late-80s/early-90s XJ40 series of cars get great mileage (like 23/30) and have some cool features (along with some anachronisms like a factory stereo with BUILT-IN CB RADIO) and the engine itself is typically good to 300k or more (this one has 175k). The electrical is still Lucas, though. But something's got to be done, or the Quests are going to expire from overuse. The Starion goes in for clutch replacement next week and the Conquest's electronics are acting up. The Conquest's previous owner really did this car no favors. Melena is already cringing at the thought of another Jag in the yard, though. I'll post pics if I get it. Jess

Do what I did -- buy two of them, split the load. I've DD'ed a pair of Quests for 5 years now. I'm getting ready to add a third car to the mix in the next month, possibly. Jess

My first one, my long-dead 88, was like that. If the light came on, you'd better be looking at the gas station. My 87, you have 50-70 miles. Melena's 88, you have about 20-30. The light had literally come on less than 2 miles before this happened. The thing is, our cars hold somewhere around 19-20 gallons, correct? I put in 1.6 gallons from the plastic jug tank I bought, then put 15.6 in once we got it to the gas station for a total of 17.2 and I got it completely full. Allegedly, I should have had at least 2 gallons in the tank. Jess

Last year, Melena and I went to Knoxville on Father's Day weekend and had a fuel pump die in her Jaguar, stranding us for a day. This year, the Jag was in the shop again (albeit for the first time in a calendar year), so Melena and I had to take the Conquest up to Athens to see her dad. I pulled off I-65 in Birmingham, pulled down to the bottom of the exit ramp, and turned left to go get some gas, as I was getting close to empty. As soon as I pulled out on the road, the Conquest started to not want to run. Hiccup, buck, hiccup, won't idle, won't rev, splat. I re-fire it -- hiccup, buck, hiccup, won't idle, won't rev, splat. Surely, I can't be out of gas. The low-fuel light had just come on. But I walk a half-mile to the gas station anyway, get gas and come back. That process took me about 30 minutes. I pour the gas in and it fires off without a second thought, and didn't give us any trouble the rest of the day. Inspection of the fusable links suggests my ECI link needs replacement. Otherwise, it's the fuel pump (a used Bosch pump I just installed not two months ago -- #^$%!) or maybe the primary injector, or something I can't immediately discern. Refilling the car only took 17 gallons, so the car was not empty when it first died. I must add throughout this episode, the car never gave me trouble at high RPMs, as bad fuel pumps are wont to do. Fuel filters are new, too. And people ask why I'm considering selling out. Jess

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_cont...wNibXctZ2luYQ-- Jess

One of John's most memorable quotes, spoken while discussing someone at PF one year who tore up something or other on the Dragon and was b*tching about it afterwards: "When you play around, stuff breaks." Indeed. Jess

This is hard to believe, but I can pick up a good 164 for less than I can sell the Starion and it would probably be more reliable. The 164 model is a completely different animal than the Spyder, which is what everyone else thinks of when they think Alfa. As long as you do timing belts every three years on those cars they'll run forever. Plenty of guys in the Alfa owners' group with 200k and 300k miles on daily drivers. Jess

That's not a bad idea but there's really nothing between where we are and the Georgia line other than Opelika and Auburn. If you want to play golf, you've got some things to do over there but otherwise it would just be a meal. That's the flattest, least curvy part of Alabama and doesn't lend itself well to a lot of vehicular acrobatics. If you're going to get the Huntsville guys in on the deal the best central point is probably Birmingham. As for selling out, I'm at peace with it. It'll probably be the Starion that goes. It needs to end up with someone who can work on it more often than I can and can do a better job with it. I'll actually have to decide on it by the end of the month because I'm getting the clutch replaced then. If I'm going to keep it, I've got an 88 flywheel to put in it and will go with an upgraded clutch. If I'm selling it, I'll probably just stick a stock-spec clutch on the 87 flywheel that's in it and that'll be that. Jess

Hello all, Haven't been around for awhile so I figured I'd stop in and give a report. Melena and I are still alive and kicking in central Alabama. I'm still running the newspaper here and she's still trying to find work. Last time I posted here, I think it was about my backyard bowling ball shop. That's still running, and I'm now drilling balls for a couple of friends as well as myself and the wife. Not much of a moneymaker so far and if I ever get good enough where I feel comfortable doing it as a side job, I've got some investment decisions to make (i.e., training classes and a more heavy-duty drill press). This has not been a good year to us financially. As for the cars, well, I'm thinking about getting out of the StarQuest game, at least halfway. I'm going to figure out what I want to do by the end of the summer and decide whether I want to sell one or both of the cars, or keep chasing the rabbit down the hole. The Conquest has actually never run better but the Starion has been dead most of the spring. The clutch finally puked and it'll run about 5-10 miles now before the clutch loses what little gripping ability it's got left. It made it to 206k on the factory clutch. Melena's Jag will hit 100k miles sometime early fall. And they said we'd never last, baby. (g) Actually, to be honest, her car is down right now with a water leak somewhere at the back of the intake. We're pretty sure it's a hose. The last breakdown this car had was almost a year ago to the day, just after Chris (helrazr70) and Becky got married and while we were in Tennessee for the wedding. All I remember is having to rearrange Father's Day with my in-laws because we didn't have a vehicle. Hopefully this latest problem will be an easy fix. I'm seriously looking at getting an old Alfa Romeo 164 sedan (my fat butt needs more room) in place of one of the SQs. I doubt I'll ever buy anything remotely "new" again until those Carver three-wheeled hybrids come stateside and I can get 100 mpg. We're not going to be making Pigeon Forge this year. When the Jag broke down last year, it cost us our Pigeon Forge trip. This year, other stars in the galaxy have aligned against us. We were set to take a trip up the Carolina coast in late July and end up going to Winston-Salem, N.C., for a bowling tournament, but that's on hold and probably will be scrapped. I don't think we'll be able to make any meets this year, either. Gas prices and a problem with our home mortgage (we're not in danger of losing the house -- long story short, our mortgage lender intentionally misrepresented what our house payments would be when we bought the house and we ended up getting ballooned at the end of 2007) have cut our discretionary spending to basically zip. But hey, we've still got a big yard and a swimming pool down here, so if anyone is coming through central Alabama, give me a shout. I'll try to check in from time to time. Jess

Thanks, that's what I was hoping to hear. I'm leaning to the SPEC II right now. Jess

Shelby, It's currently got the 225 but I have a 240 flywheel to go in it. It's an 87. This car must be streetable first and foremost so I'm not looking to put a monster in it. As you can tell by the factory clutch lasting me 21 years, I don't do a lot of jackrabbit starts. (g) Jess

Factory clutch only lasted 21 years; what good are some of these parts these days? ;-) Anyway, I'm thinking about Spec and Clutchnet as replacement options. Anyone have any feedback on these? I doubt I'll need more than a Spec 2 or Spec 2+; I have no idea what I'd need from Clutchnet as I've only recently heard about them. Jess

Saw the car today...wow. It has 70k miles on it. It's as close to a stock StarQuest as I've ever seen aside from Jimmy Ainsworth's black car. The only things not stock were the steering wheel (he has the original) and the seats. The driver's seat physically broke, so the owner pulled something out of a GM product that has power seats and installed them. He plans to make the power options functional before sale. The car is Mexican Red and could use a freshening. It's typical 20-year-old paint. There are an average number of door dings up and down the sides of the car. Right rear taillight is clear, but the plastic is cracked. The top of the dashboard has sun damage. Everything under the hood is bone, from-the-factory stock. A/C is still hooked up. Car has a sunroof. Front airdam is about 95-98% complete. Driver's mouse belt has a broken track. The owner suspects his turbo needs a rebuild. The car does emit blue smoke when running but sounds and runs just fine. He's looking for $3K FIRM and if he doesn't get it, will keep the car and continue to fix it up. I kind of hope he doesn't sell it because he'd make a great StarQuester. Jess

No, it's not mine. One of the guys who lives in Prattville (Montgomery area) has an '89 red SHP car he wants to sell. I have NOT seen the car. He's asking around $3k for it. Says it runs and drives, has new struts, ball joints, good interior. I believe it's a R04 car. Turbo needs work, he says. His name is Willie J. Miles III. Phone numbers are (334) 300-1311 (cell) and (334) 361-1066 (home). I'm supposed to get a look at this car soon to evaluate it for pricing, but I'm not in the market for a car and have other things on my plate, so anyone else who wants to jump in, please do. Jess

Did it give the owner's name from Russellville? That's my wife's hometown. Jess

I need the blower fan motor for the A/C system on an '87. Having prices for the fan itself vs. the fan and the entire blower assembly would be nice. Jess

Anyone got one for sale? Jess

I sent your payment on the downpipe, one accordion boot and one of the 1G MAS units. Confirmation number is in your PMs. Thanks again! Jess

PMed you on several items. Jess

whatever do you mean, starquest never brake down :? LOL thats ture on any note, 500hp out of any 4 cyl is not going to be streetable 365 days a year. The more you wanta play the more you gota $PAY$ Yeah, and my problem is one of my cars is a daily driver and the other is the backup car for both me and my wife. I can't afford to do anything to either right now that's going to put reliability in jeopardy. But as to whether the g54b can put up major numbers (like 500 and above), I just wanted to say it's possible. Jess

There are some people who've put up really big numbers with the g54b. The question is whether you can do it and have a streetable car. I'd like to get 300+ hp out of mine but I also want it to run more often than it sits. Jess

Once someone figures out how much this costs, I would like to know. My long-range plans include adding two StarQuests to the two I already have. One will be a 3000GT twin turbo swap. The other, I intend (gulp) to try to shoehorn a 5.3-liter V12 from a Jaguar XJ12 in. I figure that's the goofiest engine swap I can think of, and a lot of Jag V12 owners will just about give you one of those motors. The V12 swap is a long-term dream; the 6g72 tt swap is something I want to do in the next five years. I would like a ballpark on what it would cost. Jess

Thanks! I just emailed the guy. He's asking way too much for the package but if he'll separate the truck we might do business. If you find any others, give me a shout. The one in that ad is an auto and I'd prefer a stick if I can find one. Jess

I'm looking for one of the little Dodge Rampage or Plymouth Scamp trucks with the 2.2. They're kind of rare. I want one with the two-headlight nose, not the four-headlight nose. Prefer 5-speed. I don't want one in restored condition; too expensive. You can usually find a decent one for $1,000 or less and that's my price range. We need a small truck around the house and a Rampage/Scamp would fit that as well as being something you don't see often. Note: Don't confuse the Scamp with the early 70s coupe. Those things go for $18k and are definitely not what I'm looking for. Jess