Hi all. Thought I would give a little background info on myself. I have been daily driving my 1988 Olds Cutlass for about 2 years, until I had an accident in mid October. The repairs took a little longer than expected so I decided to look for a second car. The Cutlass was reliable, but the not the most econmical (has a built 400hp small block) and no AC. Also since I will be leaving for college soon I decided it'd be good to have an economical car for college. I had no idea really what kind of car I wanted, but I wasn't looking to spend a lot. Not sure if any of you have noticed, but Euro clip cutlass part prices are skyrocketing. My mom found this '02 Cavalier on Facebook. It was red: ok.
Has the z24 package: nice.
5-Speed: sweeeeeet
Lowered 2": perfect.

Still a boring car compared to the cutlass, but just cool enough to not be average. Anyway, it was advertised for $1150. So my dad and I went to look at it. My dad ran the VIN on GM Dealerworld, it was originally a CT car, then sold to the owner in NY who brought it to NC. It had a blown rear brake line. And some body rot the PO took the liberty of attempting to repair with lots of bondo. All the fluids looked good, interior was decent, wasn't hacked up with untasteful mods. Just had a home made cold air intake which I could have done without. Had brand new tires, lowered with 2" eBay lowering springs. The factory chrome wheels were plasti dipped which was fine since you can see the chrome was peeling and flaking. It had 152,000 miles when I bought it. The guy just needed the money, so we were able to talk him down to $600.
Perfect.
I've been enjoying the car ever since. Really was the steal of the century. The car rides and drives perfect. So far I've just done front brakes and hub bearings. God rid of all the bondo. Some of the paint didn't come out so great underneath, but it looks better than bondo slathered everywhere. The paint isn't perfect, but then again, it's a 13 year old car. It actually just turned 160,000 miles today. Still running perfect. I couldn't be more pleased. I've been using the Cutlass as a sunny day car. I don't have too big of plans for it. In the near future I think I will add a garage door molding lip to the front bumper. It looks like it had the LS sport lip on it, but it was ripped off (still has all the mounting holes on the edge of the bumper). Also I would like to open up the headlights and paint the surrounds black. I haven't really changed much. The PO debadged the car, so I added a different bow tie from a '93 car on the rear (painted black/chrome). I also added GM mark of excellence badges they used on cars for a few years (I believe '04-'09) to each fender. I'll have to snap a few pictures of the car all cleaned up in its current state. So far so good with this car, I will be perusing build threads for more ideas!
Now for some pictures!