As they say, you can lead a horse to water....

Well, I won the auction today. Prius #10. How can I pass up deals like this? I tell y'all how to do it, and other friends, and still, no one wants them. I'm buying these beautiful cars at scrap value. Which means, that if I didn't, the scrap metal buyers would be crushing them. Y'all be paying more to repair your cars than you can buy better ones for. SMH

Here's today's buy: '02, 102k miles. The interior is beautiful, the exterior is shiny bright, it's seen a lot of garage time over the last 20 years. And then, they had that little fender bender, needs a new hood and both fenders. I won't bother you with the under-hood pics - it looks OK, and it doesn't matter because...

https://freeimage.host/i/JRGCQrx

I have any possible part I need from the car I bought in Denver last week (below). It's actually a great running car - it's a shame it has to be parted out, but that's better than being crushed.

https://freeimage.host/i/JRGBacl

Swapping the bumper, hood, and fenders is easy-peasy, a few hours of easy work. Paint already matches. I'll have another beautiful cherry for way cheap. I can't keep buying these cars, people, even when they're almost free. I'm out of room to park them. Someone step up and save these - it only makes your own cars retain their value/become collector items.

 

Yeah, you gotta cherry-pick. That dirty one from Denver actually has a very nice interior - it just got covered in dust from the back window being broke and the auction leaving a small opening in the plastic wrap.

IMHO, the interiors are very durable. Not to say that they can't be trashed, but for an interior that's in average shape, one can still scrub them up to look great. And, because they're all identical, you can swap in used parts. Actually not too hard to swap in the entire interior - carpet, seat, panels.

I do have a new one on this blue car - the air bags were deployed. I'm sure my parts car has replacements, but I've never swapped those before. Have to break out the service manual, see what it says.

I think I have better luck than some might because I'm willing to travel far to get them. Hard for most people who still have to work.

 

I don't think the Gen1s have but two, one in the steering wheel and one in the passenger dash. I figured I'd need to disco the batteries. Hopefully it goes well.

Someone shoot be if I try to buy another one of these cars before I sell some.

 

Wow, of all these cars I've had and never one with side bags, but maybe I just didn't notice. How can you spot them in the car? Are they in the door or the seats?

 

So they're part of the seats? both front seats or all four?

 

Update: This project was a little more work than I'd hoped. The core support and apron took some work to get everything lined up and the hood latch to work right, but it all looks straight now. The windshield was busted - couldn't see that in the auction pics - and I got the new one installed. Once again, the bottom bolt on this car's fenders, the ones under the car on the rocker panel, both broke off when I tried to take them out. This happened on a couple of other cars as well. They get rusty and seize up. It'll be a PITA to fix, however I do it.

Turns out that the hood off the parts car had a small dent too - also couldn't see that in the pics - on the bottom lip right by the Toyota emblem, about the size of a handball. Just enough that the hood won't go down all the way - grrrrrrr. I have another hood that's perfect, but it's a different color. Have to decide whether it's easier/cheaper to fix the dent or paint the hood.

Otherwise, swapped in some airbags and am going to try to pull a dash bezel off the parts car tomorrow to replace this one. Then I need to detail the interior and it'll be done. Might end up swapping in the carpet from my part's car too. This car's interior is all beautiful, except the driver's floorboard. Not sure it'll scrub clean, it's pretty dirty.

Also, this is the first car I've had (that I'm aware of) with the navigation system. I haven't played with it, and can't imagine using it, but nice for a collector car.