Scrapheap Shuffle

 Down The Rabbit Hole

I haven't logged into this thing in awhile, for..."reasons".

"So Where You Been Numbnuts?"

Finally moved out of my apartment and bought a house in 2019 or so. I've been getting used to being a homeowner and all the assorted BS that goes with it.  

A nice big yard with plenty of trees seemed like a nice idea at the time, but then I discovered the mowing it and keeping it up was a giant PITA.  Luckily it's outside the city limits, no HOA or covenants to deal with.  As long as I don't get too crazy, I can keep a few extra automotive projects on hand.

After getting the Stealth, a lot of cars have darkened my garage and driveway.  To Include:

95 Eagle Summit Wagon 

94 Plymouth Colt Wagon (Clown Car)

87 Mitsubishi Mighty Max 2WD 

08 Volvo C30 Hatch 

92 Dodge Stealth R/T TT (Parts Car, Dog Chew Toy)

87 Dodge Ram 50 4x4 ("Just" had a Blown Headgasket.  Lies)

13 VW Passat TDI* (Sonata Replacement)

04 BMW 325CI Convertible (Never Again..BMW Hot Garbage)

05 VW Beetle TDI 5 Speed (Leaky POS, Got Screwed)

87 Chrysler Conquest TSi (Silver, Rusty Parts Car For The Ram 50)

89 Chrysler Conquest TSi ( Wanted a Conquest Project. Got This Rusty POS)

88 Chrysler Conquest TSi (Maroon Project Car)*  

89 Chrysler Conquest TSi (Blurple Parts Car)

The ones in bold and asterisked are all former Daily Drivers, Flip Cars, Failed Flips or Parts Cars.

Oh, and I also got a dog.  Or rather, the dog got me.  She's a amazing dog and I'm glad she found me and my GF.

So yeah, a lot of things going on since 2018.

"What About COVID?"

Oh yeah.  I got screwed by that too.

Just like a lot of people all over the world.  Got laid off for a few months, got called back and started working again.  Worried about money the whole time, especially after buying my first house.  Business hasn't returned to Pre-"Pandemic" levels, and it's still a source of worry.  Decisions were made by the powers that be and I'm not sure if they were the right ones or not.  Moving on now...

"New Lineup, Then?"

Yeah..  Sold my 93 Talon TSi/AWD (Trogdor) off because I just wanted to concentrate on the Stealth.

Of course I had bought a few interesting shitboxes to play with the (Colt/Summit Wagons), the Mighty Max and a 4x4 Ram 50 that "just needs a new head". 

Bought a rebuilt head for the Ram 50, and discovered it had no compression and needed a new bottom end.  Figures.

My buddy in Houston had a complete 87 Conquest that he was selling as a parts car.  Went down, picked it up and after pulling the motor out of the Conquest for the Ram 50, I decided I really wanted a good StarQuest as a project car.

So this led to me falling down the Starion/Conquest "Rabbit Hole" big time.  Bought a 89 running and driving Conquest from a buddy in Texas that turned out to be a giant, rolling Tetanus Shot.

Further inspection revealed it was far too rusty to save, so I started parting it out to recoup some money after my buddy refunded me some money for the car.

Asked around and another buddy let me know about one his boss had been holding onto for the last 10 years or so behind his garage.

It had been stored on a concrete pad the whole time and was supposed to be a rust free Texas car.  

Sure.  Just like the Gold one rotting in my backyard now.

88 Chrysler Conquest TSi 5 Speed in Durban Maroon.   Durban Maroon was a one year only color available only on the Chrysler Conquest in the U.S. Market.  So, kind of a rare car. 

It actually wound up being a fairly decent car that had just been sitting for awhile. "Ran When Parked".

 Interior was kind of blasted from the sun, but no big deal.  The gold car had a decent interior to swap into the one.

Picked it up, brought it home and proceeded to spend the next few months cleaning it up, sorting it out and finally getting it started for the first time in over 10 years.  Interior was swapped out for a black dash and other parts cars and it now runs and drives.

So that's where it's at now.   It runs and drives and now, I'm just trying to get it to look better.

Between this and the Stealth, I think I've got plenty to work on and document in this blog.

Infor mation on the Starion/Conquest cars is very hard to find and a lot of past information resources have either been lost or deleted.

I plan to restore this car as best as I can and will probably wind up swapping a 4G6X motor into it, as the G54B just doesn't have the aftermarket support that the 4G6X series does.

So, hopefully this means there will be more posts and information on this and future cars.

Alpha, Mike, Foxtrot.....