Cars I Had Before Oppo

"Jay Lauer" (thefaultinourcars) 10/08/2014 at 22:31 • Filed to: None

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Going through some old photos, I thought I'd share with you guys all the cars I had before I discovered Oppo. It's a long list and I found myself getting surprisingly emotional finding these old photos. I've probably mentioned some of them before, but here are all the photos for everyone. Enjoy.

Pictured above was my 2nd car, a 99 GT. It's a rather ridiculous story of how I got into it, but I consider myself lucky.

Later that was added.

Later came this, 05 Mazda 3. I kept this one for quite a while actually; I moved to Des Moines in this car did a lot of growing in it. Definitely miss this one.

Definitely had the manual. Ironically, I actually wanting the automatic when I was looking for these. I was young.

After moving back to Wichita, I started wrenching a flipping with my dad again. I kept the Mazda and delivering pizzas in it, but bought some more cars. Above is a 75 Camaro with a 350 and 3-speed stick. 53k miles. Bought it out of an estate sale. That was an unbelievable good cruiser.

This here is a 91 Dodge Stealth RT Twin Turbo. Both this an the Camaro were co-bought deals with my dad, split down the middle. The Stealth is a seriously quick car for 91, but an unbelievable pain in the ass to maintain. Hands down, worst reliability next to old Jags.

The natural resting place for the Stealth. The shop.

Eventually, I sold the Mazda and bought this 04 Subaru WRX wagon. I spent a couple months undoing all of the owner's horrible mods and making it tasteful again.

I was doing really well until I plasti-dipped the front to look like an Audi. What the fuck was I thinking?

This is the iconic one I took mudding.

While still delivering pizzas in the Subaru, I kept going.

This was another deal with my dad. 04 maybe Ford Ranger. Only 58k miles

89 I think Nissan pickup. I can't even remember what they call them.

Another Mustang, unsurprisingly. Bought this in Lawrence before seeing a KU basketball game. Allen Fieldhouse is just unreal. Better than WSU's basketball arena.

I had this actually for about 3 weeks. I bought it from my dad's friend then sell for him. At highway speeds, it's terrifying.

After the WRX, I was on a quest to buy something German. After driving to Arkansas to look at a hopeless B5 S4, wasting 12 hours of my driving time and $200 worth of gas, I ended up buying this.

a 2001 BMW 330xi.

After Plasti Dip. Also don't buy black cars in the winter. Ever.

Next was this multi-colored 89 Ford Ranger, with the stick. It wasn't pretty, but it was such a damn good little truck.

While owning the BMW, I found a deal that I just possibly couldn't let go.

This is a 2005 Subaru Legacy GT, with da stick. When I bought it, it had a blown out piston. After enough evenings and weekends, (mostly) my dad and I put it back together.

This was the day I bought it. It had been sitting for three years and was super dirty.

I was very fortunate to later trade the Legacy GT to a kid for this S2000, that despite my best efforts, I still have. The only thing I've had to do to it is change the oil, pay my PDR friend to take some dents out, and buy new back tires.

Along the time, I bought a couple more.

This GTO was a mess when I got it. Among things, the bushings and sleeves in the front control arms were missing so the whole steering system could move around instead of actually turning the car.

Below is 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe. It's boring, that's all you need to know.

Finally for those of you who actually read all the way to the bottom, good for you. Surely this was a boring read. But there's a treat for your determination.

EDIT: Completely forgot about these. They're Saturn SL2's The green one's sold and the white one I keep as my "Insurance Purposes Vehicle." I actually daily the white one now. I think the little Saturn's are a blast to drive.

This car below, is my unicorn, my Eleanor, my 'one that got away.' This is my first car ever. A 95 Teal Mustang. It was a V6 with no power window or locks. It even had an auto. But, I would easily trade my S2000 in on it hands down; That's how much this car meant to me. Sadly, I don't have any photos from when I owned it 5 years ago, but I managed to actually find it again about 2 years ago in Augusta, a small town on the edge of Wichita about 3o miles from me. So, I took bad photos and even snapped a photo and wrote the VIN with the full intention of buying it back someday.

Bought for $1500, this is the car that started it all. This was my first flip. A lot of times I come off very cold about car sentimentality, but this is my one.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:37

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Out of all the cars here, naturally this is the only one I care about. ;)

 V8 Rustler > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:38

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So much car. Wow.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:38

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Mulvane?

Spaceball-Two > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:39

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This was awesome. It inspires me to track down pics of my old cars.

desertdog5051 > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:40

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Nice stuff. Even nicer is the shop you and your dad have. Total jealous.

Jay Lauer > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 10/08/2014 at 22:41

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Nah, it's over at 151st and Kellogg, in between Goddard and Wichita, close to where I live. The buildings that were there were demolished. And last summer during all the rain they turned into mudpits.

I actually wrote about it here .

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:41

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dog.

Zohaibman72 > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:41

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I feel so insignificant compared to you. All I've had is a '08 Hybrid Camry, which i got after joining Oppo, and I still have it.

My favourite is probably the WRX out of all of them, Make me want to go mudding in a Subaru.

I hope to own as many cars as possible in my life, I have a goal to drive as many cars as I can (I actually remember every make and model I've driven to this point actually, but I've only had my licence since Dec 2013).

Nice cars overall!

quarterlifecrisis > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:42

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I dig the Camaro with the 3-spd.

And the S2K. In a big way. (I'm on an S2K kick right now...it's not good. I've never so much as sat in one.)

Jay Lauer > K-Roll-PorscheTamer 10/08/2014 at 22:42

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Lulz, it's never boring. I'll give it that. But you do lose like 80% steering control going 60. It's unnerving.

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:43

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Quite a lot of awesome cars! So how much power did that 99 GT put down? Must have been fun with the supercharger. I love that blue on your 95 V6. To bad it's to dark to really see the color....

Also, thanks. I was talking about fox bodies earlier and now I really really want one. I'll be surfing Craigslist for awhile.

Jay Lauer > quarterlifecrisis 10/08/2014 at 22:44

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Just imagine a Miata that you actually have room in. That's basically what it's like. You fall in, but it's decently comfy. It'd a really hard ride though. I really really like the car, but the whole reason I got it was to flip, so I've had it up for sale.

Jay Lauer > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST 10/08/2014 at 22:46

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The book said it would be about 480 at the crank I think, so maybe 440-450 at the wheel. It wasn't really set up as any track monster, it had 3.27 gears in the back. But, it was unbelievably too fast considering I was 16-17 at the time.

But both the car and the supercharged came through in amazing chance happening deals, and it boosted the value pretty well.

quarterlifecrisis > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:49

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Ooooo.

If I had money and space....The C6 is fun, but, I want a V car, yet I also want something with a roof that isn't permanently affixed. May need to acquire a few cars at the same time in a few years.

Jay Lauer > Zohaibman72 10/08/2014 at 22:51

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It's really a matter of circumstances. My father owns a mechanic/restoration shop, has been a mechanic for 40 years and was flipping cars before I ever had a license, which was only 5 years ago really, but beside the point.

I consider myself very lucky to have been born into cars, so I realize I have an unfair advantage in this sort of thing. If I didn't have that, none of this would be possible.

But, the resource is there, so I'll use it. Don't be ashamed of a Camry Hybrid, it's a compliment that they're boring, everything just works well on them.

Jay Lauer > quarterlifecrisis 10/08/2014 at 22:53

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I've actually looked at a few V's. And the next sports car I'm wanting to get is a C5. I'm completely sold on Corvettes.

I do think, after owning a convertible, they're a bit overrated. It's awesome in the brief moments that it can be used, but I've had problems with my top. Most S2000s that aren't garage queens do. Honda didn't use quite high enough quality top material.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:53

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Eeeewww why?

Jay Lauer > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 10/08/2014 at 22:58

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Lol I thought it was cool last year.

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 22:59

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Now imagine that with 4.10 gears... 440HP, Crazy. When I was searching for my car the dealer where I got my Mach from had an 02 procharged GT. It was 4 grand less with 40K more miles on it. It seemed like such a horrible and amazing idea all at the same time. I can't imagine how that must have drove. And how unreliable it probably would have been...

Jay Lauer > desertdog5051 10/08/2014 at 23:01

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Oh, none of this would be possible without that resource. I'm very thankful to have been born into cars like that, especially with someone as unbelievably knowledgeable as my dad.

He did an engine swap in a 98 GT he bought today during his 'down time.' The fuck does that?

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 23:02

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It's not cool, I hope you fixed that.

Zohaibman72 > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 23:08

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My family appreciates cars to a point. They know cars and have owned many many cars in their history, but they never did any mechanical work and are more "consumer" about cars. They don't see any appeal in buying used cars and fixing them up, sadly, despite knowing about cars decently.

My uncle got me into cars because he loves cars, but I don't know how to 'work' on them, because I never really had anyone who knew to teach me. My Uncle has only ever had a '95 Cutlass Supreme and a '08 Corolla S (hes only 30) so there is nothing to work on there. My Father drives manual only and has owned quite a few cars but doesn't work on them himself. Overall, my family has always saw ease of ownership and reliability over cool or interesting.

All I know about cars has come from recent years on the internet, googling every possible car I see on Wikipedia, learning engine sizes, trims, models, etc. of every possible vehicle. I could probably tell you the make and model of any car manufactured past 1980, but I don't know about exhaust, mufflers, how to take apart an engine, what does what in an engine, where something is in an engine, etc.

I've been using Oppo as a learning experience, figuring out slowly what does what. In Highschool Grade 10 I took an Automotive course, but the teacher was a lazy asshole, he didn't teach us anything other than how to change the tires and just gave me a 93 passing mark so he wouldn't have to see me again.

I could go on forever, but I'll spare your time lol. I'll probably go more in detail and make a Q/A thread about car origins tomarrow.

Tl;dr Everything I know about cars is from wikipedia/oppo/jalopnik because family doesn't really care about self-maintaining and all, so i never learned physically.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 23:12

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Wait wait wait hold on... that stealth, did you list it as needing new turbos with around 140k miles about 2-3 years ago?

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 23:14

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That's awesome.

Jay Lauer > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST 10/08/2014 at 23:31

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The procharger systems are really good, actually. They're based out of Kansas City about 2.5 hours from me. Most superchargers, when installed correctly, should be reliable. I never had a single problem with the Kenne Bell unit.

Fun fact though, instead of buying their expensive intercooler, just use the heater core from an Econoline van. Same thing.

Jay Lauer > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/08/2014 at 23:33

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Nah. When we sold it, everything was working great. I think it had 160k, but who knows. We had just replaced the computer because it kept misfiring at 1500-2500 rpm.

The guy who had it after us may have blown the turbos, but we don't sell anything that isn't in working order.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 23:36

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Huh, well there was a Stealth TT that looked EXACTLY like that one on Craigslist with 140K miles for 6500 that needed new turbos... LOL I wanted that one too!

Jay Lauer > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 10/08/2014 at 23:36

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It's plasti-dip, you can just peel it off.

That's how I sold it, so who knows how it looks now. The whole car is crumpled up in a ball as far as I know.

Jay Lauer > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 10/08/2014 at 23:38

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Lol that's my dog Benny; They greatest damn dog in the whole world.

Jay Lauer > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 10/08/2014 at 23:40

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Hmm... That's around what we sold it for in full-working order. In all honesty, that's probably the same car, just the owner after us. It's an unbelievably fragile car, full of overly-ambitious 90s electronics.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 23:41

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Yep... well now I'm looking at MR2s.... damn you Midengineer!!!!!

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Jay Lauer 10/08/2014 at 23:43

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IF installed correctly! Key word there. A friend of mine learned his lesson when he got a used 13 base 5.0 with a Kenne Bell supercharger on it. Didn't know anything about it, saw the supercharger and bought it. He actually thought the car had IRS! I won't go over the whole story, but the whole deal seemed very... Off. Eventually he had quite a few problems with it, overheating being the major issue. Whoever installed it really didn't know what they were doing. Just traded it in this past week.

Interesting thing about the heater core though. Must have been a lot cheaper.

Jay Lauer > Zohaibman72 10/08/2014 at 23:45

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Honestly, I can do simple things (Oil changes, plugs, coils, etc.) But anything bigger than that, I always have my dad with me. I don't have the mechanic gene, but also don't plan on being one, so no harm there.

It's kind of interesting, growing up as his child, I could probably tell you how many things and probably step by step the remedies, causes, diagnoses, etc. of major problems, but I can't actually do it .

I know the textbook, per se, but I'm not good with field or lab work.

Jay Lauer > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST 10/08/2014 at 23:53

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Ouch, that's always sad to see shoddy work on such expensive items. My dad's been a mechanic and shop owner of 35+ years, and is literally THE Mustang person in Kansas, hence why my first two cars were Mustangs. He does a lot of old 64-73 restorations and Shelbys. So I clearly have complete faith in his work.

That all being said, Kenne Bell supplies a big ass book with step by step instruction and pictures FOR EVERY STEP on the instillation process. It's almost idiot-proof. I'm almost surprised by what happened to your friend.

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 00:03

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Ya, it was funny when he went to trade it in. The sales guys were checking it out because of the supercharger. He just watched the temperature gauge quickly rise. He got lucky and they shut it off before it overheated! They gave him 3K more then he paid...

And so that's why I saw so many classic muscle cars in the background. Very cool!

Jay Lauer > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST 10/09/2014 at 00:14

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Lol lucky.

Yup, those are all restorations. The white Mach 1 next to my old Subaru is one of dad's. So far now, there's a Boss 302 being restored and a 39 Cadillac V16 too.

A couple summers ago we completed the disputed lost Shelby of Jim Morrison.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 00:16

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Fair enough, it's really really awkward looking though.

Jay Lauer > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 10/09/2014 at 00:19

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Like a mouse, right? That's what I thought.

DEAL WITH IT.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 00:22

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Ok, sure....

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 00:23

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Lucky! That GT500 looks amazing. Love the color! You must have seen/worked on some really interesting cars.

bob and john > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 00:40

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holy....HOW do you americans have such big houses!?!?

Jay Lauer > bob and john 10/09/2014 at 01:04

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We need it to fit our big American bodies. The one in the GTO pictures is actually the big one.

Where are you from?

Hahayoustupidludditeshutupandgohandcrankyourmodeltalready > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 07:19

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These were sold as the Nissan Hardbody Truck. D21 platform.

thebigbossyboss > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 07:20

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I haven't seen one of these in a while!

bob and john > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 08:16

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canada about 5 min north of toronto, and where I live, a house like that is WELL into the 3-4 million price range

Hey Julie > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 08:39

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SN-95!!!! Whooooooo

quarterlifecrisis > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 11:50

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That's the problem with Corvettes...it's hard to walk away from one. I more or less daily mine, although I've been trying to be better about not driving it to work. The area under the hatch is huge, it's comfortable, I see 30ish on the highway, the top comes off relatively easily, the list of benefits is great. I do take the top off as frequently as I can though.

That's the problem with wanting to go to a V, is the mileage will suffer....although, I'll have 4 or 5 doors.

Jay Lauer > quarterlifecrisis 10/09/2014 at 12:00

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I can't imagine the mileage suffers much. But you are so right, that's every reason why I want a C5. I'm going to wait til about December or January to buy a C5 manual when they're dirt cheap.

Jay Lauer > bob and john 10/09/2014 at 12:02

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Hey good for you. I'm in Kansas, where houses are dirt cheap. The driveway where most all of the photos are taken is my parents, which about $300-$350k here.

However, the place with the GTO picture is just unreal. It's about a 15 car garage mated to a 4,000 sq ft. house.

quarterlifecrisis > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 12:13

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From what I've seen/read, the 2nd gen V cars are lucky to clear 20 on the highway. So, better than what my TBSS got, but...

They're definitely a great bargain. (C5s that is.)

Jay Lauer > quarterlifecrisis 10/09/2014 at 12:16

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2nd gen meaning the 560hp one?

I'm looking at 05-06s. At least those were all manuals. It's all C6 stuff, just more aerodynamic drag and weight than a Vette.

quarterlifecrisis > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 12:19

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Indeed, the 560hp one.

Ah, yeah, LS2 and T-56 in all of those, LS6 in the 04, or something like that. I'd wager you'd see high 20s.

Jay Lauer > quarterlifecrisis 10/09/2014 at 12:24

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They still hold their values really well actually. You could easily pay $20k for one with 60-100k miles.

The new one would be cool to have, but I'd have to sell all the cars to afford one, and it wouldn't be a wise choice for a 21 year-old. Maybe when I have a professional job making real salary, or I could amazingly find one that needs fixing.

quarterlifecrisis > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 12:28

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I meant MPGs when I said high 20s...

Yeah. I can't justify it now - and I have a professional job making a real salary. Granted, that whole, rent and student loans, and any number of other things kind of cause an issue...

Jay Lauer > quarterlifecrisis 10/09/2014 at 12:38

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Oh I know. Values are just something I have to consider when buying cars.

I feel you there, I'm definitely very fortunate to have been able to use flipping cars to keep me from needing loans. Also, WSU is quite cheap. Clearly, many people are still paying off loans.

quarterlifecrisis > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 13:15

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Yeah, all part of the game for you.

If I had the time and space I could probably get by doing some of the flipping, but, I've got neither it seems. Oh well.

bob and john > Jay Lauer 10/09/2014 at 13:54

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...I need to get out of toronto