Background:
This car was purchased out of desperation in 2007, after my 91 Civic hatch showcar was totalled. I had only liability insurance and the insurance company gave me stock value for the car... 900$
With the help of a friends family member, we tracked down this Paseo that was no longer being used, dumped at the edge of the woods in someones backyard, about 2 hours from my home. The car had been beat to death. It sat there for 6+ months with a failed inspection sticker, windows down, front window smashed, 2 donuts, car filled with trash, leaves matted into the seats, shoddy wiring strewn everywhere to speakers that were screwed into the side panels and the door mechanisms were all rusted closed. It was missing the underside of the steering panel and the wiring had been compromised at some point. The engine itself seemed well intact, though the date on the oil filter was marked "2004".
We let the battery charge up for about an hour and the car turned right over. I drove it up and down the street a few times and settled up, paying a whopping $100 for this vehicle. I drove it home in that condition...hours on the highway and side roads without once being pulled over. As soon as I got it back, I didn't even take it home first, I dropped it off right to the garage where my totalled Civic sat and we began swapping parts on to the Paseo. I don't have pictures from that first day....but God, I wish I did.
Here are some of the pictures and steps it took along the way to becoming something more than a pile of steaming dump.
2007:
This is not my exact car, but the closest image of another Paseo that closely dipicts how mine looked. This one is actually much better condition, since I couldn't find one that looked like it rolled down a mountain.
From that point, till I got the car to a point where I didn't hate looking at it a year later, I literally took no pictures. In retrospect, I wish I had. This is the only one I can find right now. Family members might have more.
This was gross. Pictured here, you can see a scorpion spoiler, which gives the car that high performace look of a shopping cart. Also note the crappy garden gutter DIY rear lip. At this point it had the DC Sports exhaust, Konig Rated-R 17" rims, tinted tail lights, Honda Accord side skirts refiberglassed to fit.
This is after I drove it under the rear end of a Saturn Ion. Again, crap DIY garden gutter lip. Some light engine mods. Grounding system, NGK 10mm wires and plugs, cold air intake. Wrecked the rebar, bumper reinforcement, headlight bracket, radiator mount...radiator was unaffected somehow.
