A few years in, I wanted to look at cost of actual repairs - stuff that broke - vs the cost of things I chose to renew/restore. How is this old car doing?
Issues as delivered:
Broken drivers side mirror (did this break in transit? no one mentioned it prior to delivery)
Broken rear sway bar mounts
Old tires
Old battery
Dry rotted spark plug wires
Seller called out probable top end rebuild being needed.
Things the PPI called out:
Some sub-optimal re-paint work (but only from minor impacts. A-pillar fit is perfect, door fit is perfect, car is straight.)
Top end rebuild needed - noisy valves/worn valve guides (dealer called this out as well)
Oil leaks - from top end of engine/timing chain housing etc. Nothing big, but it needed keeping an eye on.
Old tires
Crushed oil lines from poor jacking - not an emergency but be aware. Very common.
Crushed rocker covers from poor jacking - easy part to replace (screws on) and inexpensive.
Car drove well, steered and stopped well
Interior in great shape, very clean
Actual component failures over 14,000 mi - "Repairs"
DME relay (I diagnosed and repaired. Parts <$100)
Throttle bellcrank bushings - sticky throttle when engine temp is high for a long period of time (HPD events basically)
Clutch hydraulics (led to 1 flatbed ride)
While the brakes, steering & suspension were all worn "as delivered", they all functioned. I could have just driven the car as-is and so I don't consider their replacements to be 'failures'. Same goes for the windshield. If I was a 'sunny Sunday driver' I could have kept the old one and been fine probably. A lot of my work is preventative maintenance, restoration and race prep. Run hard, maintain harder. But that is all elective.
As Delivered Issues: (required repairs to drive the car)
Mirror - I sourced parts and tools. Probably about $300 all in.
Rear Sway Bar Mounts - Replaced professionally (welded). Around $1,200.
Tires - Thanks to the relatively small size of the stock tires, I was able to purchase a new set of tires fairly inexpensively. They did not fail on me but they were 10 years old so I am calling it a repair. About $600
Battery - The battery was 7 years old; I replaced it out of caution but due to its age we'll call it a repair. About $240 for a battery. I installed it.
Spark Plug Wires - Same thing. They had not failed but they were falling apart so it was more of a repair than a restoration thing I think. About $400 for a set.
Steering Bush - repaired with the rear sway bar mounts at my friend's shop. A common wear item. The bush is very inexpensive, <$40, and it takes about 30-45 min to install.
Actual Failures:
DME Relay - a new aftermarket relay is around $20 on Amazon (!). I did the troubleshooting and replacement. I went with a more expensive option, a solid state replacement at $199.
Throttle Bell Crank Bushes - I sourced the parts and my friend's shop did the work. Figure $300 all in.
Clutch Hydraulics - they were probably not in great shape when I got the car, I had several issues with them off and on in the past couple of years. Not sure which part was bad, we just replaced both cylinders to save money on labor. The parts are inexpensive. Work done at Butzigear. Around $1,000, mostly labor.
Sunroof - stuck open, fuse blew. I did the labor of manually closing it, making sure the mechanism was ok and replacing the fuse. It worked ok for a while but now the rear does not raise properly so there is another round of repairs in the near future. (TBD)
Driver's Side footwell blower - Not sure when this went. Fuse blew so blower didn't work. I did the work. <$2 for the fuse.
Oil Leaks
We replaced a number of oil lines as part of regular "old car maintenance"; rubber plasticizes (hardens) and fittings can deteriorate, leading to potential issues. A weekend driver might not care but I am putting on a solid 5,000 mi or more a year. I replaced the S-line at the bottom of the oil tank; Butzigear replaced an oil line on the engine and the two hard lines + flex lines up to the oil cooler. The car is still leaking from the timing chain cover, it appears to be from the cam journal. This is an engine-out operation that will happen with the top end rebuild. The leak is bad enough at high RPM that I get flagged at high performance events because the car is visibly smoking. It only takes a tiny bit of oil to make a lot of smoke.
If I had a shop take care of all of the actual 'break-fix" issues, we would still be under $5,000 at this point, spread over 3 years that's about $139 a month.
The top end rebuild will be the first really expensive adventure with the engine out. I don't consider it a "break", I knew about it before I purchased the car and the only reason I really need to get on it is I am driving at high speed on a track. If I was just going for a Sunday drive or out to dinner, I could live with it, possibly for several more years.
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