I've mentioned my Maxima on here a few times since I starting messing with it a few months back. I picked up this car in what appeared to be totally used and abused condition for $800. '95 Maxima SE with 180k. The owner was going to give it to charity because he didn't want to put another penny into its many noises and problems that he had been ignoring. But before doing that he put a note up on a local bulletin board offering it for $1000 OBO and 'needs work'. I drove it and saw LOTS of potential. My wife drove it and told me to forget it and MOVE ON. I sulked around the house until she said to go and buy the damn car.

I've always been a routine car repair work kind of guy and this seemed way over my head. But I just saw way too much potential with it and I thought of it an a great way to learn at my own pace since it would not need to be driven (and wasn't) the entire time I was fixing it.
I finished it today so now its done and it drives absolutely like new!! Our '93 Honda Civic is now for sale.

I did everything myself with plenty of advice from everyone here. The only exceptions are that my brother in law who is a mechanic pressed the wheel bearings out of the hub for me and compressed the springs for me to do the strut bearings. These are all fairly routine things that come up on the forums, but keep in mind that they all were on this car from the start and needed to be figured out.

Here's the final list with costs:

'95 Maxima SE Auto $800
Engine Temp Sensor $28 (CEL & fan kicking on for no reason)
Clean Throttle Body $3 for cleaner (unstable idle)
Front Driver Side Axle $100 (CV shot)
Both Strut Bearings $28ea, One Strut Boot $15
Timing Chain Tensioner $50
Both Front Wheel Bearings $50ea (did wrong side first, one needed)
Exhaust Rattles (tightened down)
Tuneup $50 approx
Steam Cleaner Rental $25
Tax (on $800!) Registration and Plates $160
I could be forgetting something but think thats it!

Grand Total: $1387

Here's a Pic:
http://www.mywirelessdeals.com/maxima1

 

is that guy on crack? **** im bout to go down there and buy his house and sell him some trees

 

good deal, you the man

 

Awesome work dude. Car looks awesome! How long did it take you in all?

 

What???

Anyways, yeah good deal man... Wish I woulda done that

 

Beautiful car dude, definitly his loss. Congratulations on a job well done!

 

Freakin awesome!

 

You paid a total of $1300 for that same car in the pic. I am jeallous. . . if its a 5speed I'd want to kill you . . . . is it a 5speed?

 

Wow, sweet deal. Yours is probably running better than mine at your overwhelming cost of $1387.

 

thats damn dirt cheap. the body seems in excellent condition to me. nice job dude. definetly his loss

 

Definitely a nice max. Good find.

 

yeah the funny thing is that this car is going to last freaken long as hell since this dude defently is not afraid to fix something that looks horrible. $hit you can get used vq30de in good condition for $200-400 if it goes one of these days.

BTW from the outside the car looks flawless, awesome

 

Nice find. I'd love to find a low dollar Maxima. The cheapest I have seen advertised in the paper (not wrecked) was a 900 dollar 1990 Maxima. So that 95 SE is a great deal. And not risking alot of money, if you hadn't been able to fix it. Post some more pictures? Is the body in great shape? It sounds like I need to find a high mileage Maxima-they are probably tough to sell to a dealer or to a private party, but will likely last a long time.

 

Thanks guys! Glad you share my excitement over it.

It's an automatic. If I could have changed one thing it would have been that, but I'm not complaining. It shifts perfectly. I should change the tranny fluid and filter though as soon as I can get to it.

The outside I would say is 'good'. Some small scratches. The wheels have some build up I can't get off but I've only tried one cleaner I picked up cheap somewhere. If anyone can recommend something bionic that is a killer wheel cleaner I can just do them once to get them back to normal with I'd try it.

The interior was a hell of a tranformation. Absolutley filthy..floors, door panels, everything. Amazing what a steam cleaner, some oxiclean, and a lot of elbow grease will do. The steering wheel leather is peeling. That could use some sort of fix. I may just put some brown shoe polish on it to make it less noticeable and forget about it. I'm not a big fan of most of the wheel covers out there unless there is something I dont know about.

Probably the biggest challenge and there were plenty was getting the hubs off to do the wheel bearings. I ended up smashing my finger with a sledge hammer trying to pop the ball joint on one of them. I took a month off from working on it after that. All in all it took me 3-4 months, doing it mostly on weekends. Could have never done it if it I had to use it while working on it. Some things took me a week that it would take a mechanic a couple hours.

The funny thing is a I almost wrecked it yesterday on its maiden voyage. Totally NOT my fault, just bad luck. I was taking a friend for a ride doing 30-40mph down a sidestreet when a kid pulled out directly in front of us from the right. The Max has no antilock and I'm used to it on both our cars now. I locked them up and started sliding sideways and there was no way I wasn't going to T-bone him. At the last second I totally let off the brakes, cocked the wheel to the right, the wheels caught and I turned right into the street he pulled out from and just missed him. There was a cloud of smoke from the slide and he sped off like the stupid punk he was. I hope he crapped his pants. After our own shock wore off, my friend was like "DAMN, NICE DRIVING!" I gotta admit, it was

I'll try to post some more pics. It's snowing now here but maybe later. Here's another one back from October after we cleaned it up a bit...
http://www.mywirelessdeals.com/maxima2

Chris

 

Well done, and nice driving. Best of luck with it, and they always mean more to you when you do the work yourself.

I have those punk kids all over my neighborhhod, we have alot of cross streets and short block, plus we are right by a park so they tend hang out there..

 

what does the guy who sold it to you have to say after you told him the work you put in and how it's doing now? good find and work bringin it back to better shape! best of luck with it!

 

the max saved you from wrecking, to let you know how much she appreciates all the things you have done.

its the beginning of a beautiful relationship ! the car looks great !

with your luck, you could probably make 4 thousand dollars on this car, and end up writing a book on how you worked your way up to a 02-03 5th gen max on 800 dollars ! LOL !

but with all you have been through in such a short time, just keep the 4th ! lol

 

to get nasty **** off the wheels try using some degreaser (usually purple stuff), and some of the wheel cleaner at the same time (white creamy stuff). At the dealership we use eagle one gets the **** off like it was never there, just scrub it with a brush for little bit.

 

What a dumb POS seller. No offence, but he could part out the car for much more. I've seen complete write-off Maximas go for more than that. Not only that, but all it needed mechanically was basic maintainence. Good find

LEMAR

 

all im going to say is wow that is VERY VERY cheap man lol GREAT deal congrats!

 

great story about the build up of the maxima. You da man!!!

 

Snapped a quick shot of it this morning. Pretty cool pic considering I just backed it out of the garage and snapped it!

http://www.mywirelessdeals.com/maximasnow.jpg

Chris

 

Congradulation on the Max.
Fine ob tuning it up, I wish it only cost me that much to tune up my car.

she looks good. Nice pic with the snow.

Amazing

 

This is one of the coolest threads I have read on the boards. Great job ChrisA!

I'm curious what your wife has to say about the car now, since at first (like most women) she was not into the car at all.

 

If you sold that car, you'd make money on it. Not many people can do that.

 

Wow. That is a good looking car. I wish I could ahve found one like that in high shool when all I had to spend was $1500. I would of thought I had died and gone to heaven.

 

exactly, heck, at the quality of the body, you could have parted the car out and came out with some good money. I'm mad. If i saved that type of money on a car, i would put low mileage engine and tranny and turbo that bisch.