Wanted: Dead Audi

[Mike Arman]

I see by the list traffic that the type 44 atuo to manual conversion is
back in the news.

I also see people looking to buy the tranny, and then all the individual
bits to make this work.

Guess what - that's the wrong approach! You want a PARTS CAR - it has
everything you need, and you won't get nickeled and dimed to death at the
junkyard every time you need another bolt.

Where do you find a parts car? How about an ad in the local shopper papers:
"Wanted, Dead Audi, will tow away free!" Be patient, and don't be too
specific about model and year, and you'll be amazed at what people have
laying around in their back yards. I just passed on FIVE type 44s in
someone's yard - within two miles of my office (all mid eighties
automatics, so I don't want them), asking $1,000 or so for all five, drag
them away! This has also worked for me on motorcycles, by the way: I got a
Triumph 500 twin for $50 some years back.

Where else do you find cheap cars? My Audi came from the very back row of a
sleazy used car dealership. Asking price was $1,100, and the engine block
was holed! Wound up paying $400, delivered, found a parts car for another
$400, also delivered. Less than $1,000 put me in a very nice standard shift
non-turbo 1986 5000, and it looks like a much newer car, and I'm not
ashamed to take it ANYWHERE - it also (after quite a bit of other
"hobbyist" work) runs and drives really well . . . 

I've bought a three year old VW Golf, again, from the very back row at a
Pontiac dealership this time, for $400, drive it away. $300 later including
a cheap paint job, it yielded $2,000. I've bought a three year old Ford
Econoline (remember them?) with a holed piston for $50, another $50 in
parts and a few hours getting dirty, and I drove it for EIGHT years! I had
to pass on another one, window van this time, same $50 price tag, bad
standard shift tranny (two hours work plus $50 for a used furd 3 speed
tranny) simply because at the time, I had no place to put it to work on it!

I bought a Munch Mammoth motorcycle, one of about a dozen in the States,
out of a storage warehouse for $2,000 - shows 493 miles on the odometer,
hadn't been ridden in 20 years. Hadda take a Vespa with it or no deal -
sold the Vespa for a grand later.

Do you know how many cans of hand cleaner you can buy for five years of
$450 a month car payments? How hard do YOU have to work for $27,000? ($450
X 12 X 5). I'd rather get my hands a little dirty once in a while, and then
wash up.

Remember - Retail is for *other* people!!!!!

Best Regards,

Mike Arman