Owning a classic car that isn't quite a classic yet will test you if you want to make it nice
One of the toughest battles the Mighty Car Mods dynamic duo faced in their EK Honda Civic abandoned project build has been the finishing touches. It's easy to forget some of our favourite nuggets are more than 25 years old (a quarter of a Century!) and this comes with some unintended issues.
Our 1990s heroes are at a funny age where many of us consider them classic cars, and they have a lot of aftermarket support for speed parts... but they don't have any support for restoration-type parts. Spare glass, weather seals, reproduction trim panels and fabrics, and body parts are all needed for when people like Marty buy these neglected nuggets and want to turn them into sweet street cars.
When you paint a car of this age many of the weather seals and clips need to be replaced, so the car doesn't leak water or have annoying wind noise at speed. But, if your classic car isn't old enough to have aftermarket support where do you get parts for them?
While you could go deep-diving at wreckers this is a very time-consuming and expensive way to put your car back together. Even finding a wrecker who has examples of these 90s icons can be difficult as many have simply been crushed and destroyed by now.
Depending on what car you have, some manufacturers still have parts on the shelf but there can be big gaps in their inventory, and you can quickly spend thousands just chasing seals and clips. While these will be the best-fitting, highest-quality parts, and classic cars do go up in value, you won't ever recoup the cost of these parts if you spend the money on OE bits.
Most of the time, it's easiest to buy a whole spare parts car with the parts you need in good condition, and then restore them and replace the whole lot in one go. Buying an unregistered or unroadworhy example you can pick clean also nets you bulk spares plus random bolts, nuts, brackets and more - all handy stuff to have in the shed when you start mad modding!
You just need the space to put said parts car. Sometimes it can be a good idea to go in buying a parts car with friends who own a similar model car, if you can all agree to what parts you want from it!
