I’m pretty sure I can speak for everyone when I say getting your first car is the most exciting thing. 

Most people prefer newer cars because they like the modern look and want a car that won’t give them problems in the long run. 

I decided to go for an old car because I love how the cars were designed and because I wanted to learn how to do repairs myself, so I would not have to pay for a mechanic to fix my car.

I had worked weeks at Yosemite doing flooring with my dad just to be able to get my first car at just 15 years old. The car I decided to buy was a 1993 Toyota Celica convertible, which I purchased from Facebook Marketplace in 2024 for $3200. 

The car had some notable issues when we had a look at it, such as rust due to age and a broken driver’s side lock. 

But this car was special to me because I had always wanted a Japanese sports car with pop-up headlights and being able to find a car so cheap was very hard, so finding the right car was like finding a diamond in the rough.

Although the car had some issues – a broken trunk hinge, rough idling – I ended up talking my dad into it, since he had worked as a mechanic. My dad knew that this car was a “mechanic special”, which is when a car is sold for a cheap price because it needs work or is in bad condition.

We knew we could fix the car and have it ready for me by the time I was ready to graduate high school.

Once we started working on it, the issues started to flood in. The main issue was that the rough idling got worse, causing the car to completely turn off when stopped at a light. Which did end up happening to me and I was left stranded in the middle of the road trying to turn the car back on during the green light while cars were passing me on the sides. In the end I was able to turn the car on but this left me not wanting to drive the car since I thought it would keep happening.

I also struggled to find original manufactured replacement parts for the trunk and the driver’s side lock which was broken because someone tried to break into the car. The local pick and pulls were my saviors because they were my only hope in being able to find parts because the car was so old. 

I soon realized that I had bought a car with no aftermarket support, making repairs very difficult and pricey due to the vehicle’s age.

A serious problem that I encountered was that no mechanic wanted to work on my car because it was too old and because they were not able to scan the car to see what was wrong with it because it had the non-standard OBD-1 port. That port, which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, allows you to read trouble codes that align with issues such as the check engine light, and failing sensors, unlike newer cars with the universal OBD-2 port. 

After a while, my dad was able to find a mechanic who was his close friend, who offered to fix the car for us for a good price. 

We immediately took the deal to fix the car because it was just collecting dust. We left the car with him for 2 months and when we got the car back we were told that the battery was changed twice, a new alternator was installed, as well as a new fuel pump. 

You would think that all these new parts would help the car run perfectly again, but what ended up happening is that none of the parts that were changed needed a replacement, so they were swapped for no reason, practically wasting money and ruining the car since sensors & parts were removed and replaced without necessity.

This caused bigger issues, like preventing the car from turning on. At first I thought it was going to be an easy fix, such as faulty spark plugs or even a bad battery, so I decided to check both with some of my dad’s help. 

We ended up replacing both the spark plugs and the battery, but the car did not want to turn on. At this point, my dad did not want to put any more money into the car, so we decided to let the car sit while we decided what to do with it. 

The car ended up sitting in my driveway for 3 months and I was losing hope of ever being able to drive it. I started to think of selling it due to the fact that it was just taking up space. 

I thought to myself that selling the car was my only chance to start over and try again with a different car, so I posted the car on Facebook Marketplace.

Although I did not want to sell the car, I was forced to because I had no money to continue restoring it. 

After 3 months of being posted online, I had no luck with selling it, so I decided to tell my friends that I was selling it to see if they were interested. 

One of them told me that they would buy the car for $3000, which I thought about, but declined his offer because I had already put more money into the car than that.

I started getting back into fixing the car at the beginning of this year, when me and my dad went to the Pick and Pull in Moss Landing to look for a battery for a truck he was fixing and we ended up seeing a similar model car to mine, so we ended up taking the hood, sensors, and the driver’s side lock. 

These pieces were supposed to be spare parts, but my dad decided to put them on to see if the car would work with newer sensors which ended up being the case. I was very excited because I never wanted to sell the car in the first place, I was just doing so because I didn’t want to keep a car that did not work. 

Now that the car was actually working, I decided to get some rims because the original ones were very ugly and made the car look old. 

Originally, I wanted to get some chrome wheels, but I did not want to spend too much money, so I went for some silver ones that were on the cheaper side. These were worth it because I was able to find a complete wheel set on Facebook Marketplace for $1000, which was a very good price for the specific set.

Engine wise, the car was perfect, besides the fact that it had 230k miles, so we didn’t have to fix anything else. 

The only other thing we had to do was paint the car and buy some coilovers to lower the appearance of the car. Adding the coilovers was relatively easy since we were able to do that at home and all we had to do was remove the old suspension and add the new one which only took us about an hour because I took care of the front wheels while my dad took care of the back ones. 

Before we sent the car to be painted, my dad and I were able to put on the coilovers ourselves in a day by just removing the original wheel and putting the new rims. 

Before the car was complete, I spent a while looking for a good set of paint that would perfectly compliment the car so I went for a black amethyst. 

The color really pops because it is color changing, meaning the paint changes color based on perspective which will really make people look into it deeper at car meets. 

So far, the car has been working perfectly and has not given me any problems, which allowed me to keep putting money into it since now I know that it is working and is driveable. 

After all of the struggles that this car has given me, it all worked out because I was able to get more into building cars and learn more about car repairs. 

Overall, my experience building an old car was pretty rough and it took me 2 years to completely have the car ready, but I would say that loving and restoring an old car does come with a lot of issues, but it all pays off in the end when you’re able to get in and drive it.