Stonewerks
Member
Stumbled across the Goblin from someone’s tweet and that sent me down a rabbit hole of spending weeks reading everything I could in the forums and watching the build videos and anything else that Google could get for me. Started talking to my wife about this project, because, while I am dumb I am not stupid, and getting the wife on board for something like this is only good sense. During the Superbowl, started showing my Dad this stuff and he got all fired up for it. Once I convinced myself that we were going to pull the trigger on this, I brought my 13 year old son into it and he was stoked and my 14 year old daughter tentatively saying she wants to help build.
I had some emails with Adam asking about the skill set needed to build a car like this (since mine are limited) and include a link of a car in a lot near us that was coming up for auction. Adam was great in getting me information and knowledge on how to pull off the auction and what would be an acceptable price for the car. So while I would love to have a SC/TC car, I also realize that having two teenagers who are going to want some wheel time after we complete the build, the SC/TC path is probably not the greatest idea. So we are going with a 2.2L build and have already purchased our donor, a 2009 LT with manual transmission and 93800 miles, based on Adam’s recommendations.
The end goal is to have this as a street legal car and that is where it will spend it’s time. There is a road course near me, Grattan Raceway, that has had track days in the past so might look to try that some time. The even bigger goal, is to learn some skills and hopefully pass some memories and experiences onto my kids. My son is a mechanical kids and loves to be doing and working with his hands and he has stated he wants to be a mechanic when he grows up so maybe this can help launch that for him.
We have not ordered our kit yet, want to get going on the tear down of the Cobalt first and stay focused on that task before we introduce the next part. Definitely going with the track build for the extra protection. Undecided at this point for standard or extended frame. Red Oak Texas is about 17 hours from my house and actually considering making a road trip with the Outback and a utility trailer to go and pick it up when we do order, all part of the adventure right? We will see if I still feel the same when the time arrives to order it.
Auction Experience (aka I screwed up)
The purchasing of the car has been educational and I have paid quite a bit in stupid tax so far on this auction so let me tell the story in the hopes that is saves someone some extra money.
I found a car on Copart.com that met my specs. Since the car was not a scrape title, I could not bid on it and had to go through a broker. Got all setup with a broker and the car came up for auction that was going to end at 10AM on Friday. Thinking this like an eBay auction, I was going to wait until the last 15-20 minutes to put in a bid hoping not to drive the price of the car up a huge amount in advance and hoping to get other competition napping at the end of the auction. Logged in with 20 minutes before the end of the auction, and was no longer able to place a bid because it had moved into different category of bidding with that much time remaining.
What I have noticed is that 2.2L standard transmissions are more challenging to find than the automatic and I really wanted the manual and it was looking like I was going to lose the car without even placing a bid. The broker website told me that if I purchased and upgrade on my account (basic to advanced) for a $199 charge, I could get into the Live Bidding which would allow me to actually bid on this car. While reading this I was also calling the broker to see if there is anything else that can be done to bid on this car but there was 4 other callers in queue and the clock was clicking down. With about 5 minutes before the end of the auction I click the upgrade button and paid the $199 up-charge just as I got the broker on the phone. She was nice and told me that I didn’t need to buy that as she could put in a bid for me right now. Told her that I just clicked it to purchase the upgrade and she told me that is too bad, it is non-refundable. ($199 stupid tax).
So talking with her as she explained how the live bid works is that for 30-60 seconds you can bid on a car and the car I wanted was lot 20 so I would have to watch as they went through the cars ahead of me. I could also have her just lock in a bit and it would auto bid up from there. Since I was at work and wasn’t sure if I would be able to stay on the screen while the bidding was happening, had her lock in a bid of $625 as the car was at $275 at that moment.
I did see the auction happen and our bid of $625 was the high bid! A little while later I got a notice on the broker portal dashboard that my bid had been countered by State Farm who owned the car. Called the broker again to understand this part and she was surprised that State Farm even countered as she said if they don’t get the price they like, the normally just pull it down and run it through the auction again. Apparently the insurance companies play by a different set of auction rules then everyone else. State Farm wanted $800 for the car, so I countered with $700 (winning bid was $625) because I didn’t want to loose this car. Yes I have gotten emotionally involved at this point and probably not making the best decisions. State Farm accepted this counter and so the car was sold for $700.
The broker sent over the invoice. The invoice has to be paid in just a few days time otherwise there are penalties and loss of the car so I quick look at the total line and head out to the bank to do wire transfer to the broker as we are heading out of town and won’t be back in time to get this done otherwise. Now that I have had time, I actually look through the invoice and find a line item that they have listed in there that is another account upgrade level that at the end says optional but is in the grand total of the invoice, the total I looked at to pay. ($99 stupid tax). I will try to get this refunded but I am gathering these are not the type of businesses that give refunds.
The car will be delivered on 2/19/2019 and we will see how far we can get when the Step 1 video has you spraying down the engine and we are still in the grasps of winter here in Michigan!
So at this point my costs are this:
$700 – Car
$298 – account upgrades (unneeded stupid tax!)
$313 – Copart auction fees
$215 – Broker transaction fee
$80 – Documentation fee
$25 – wire transfer
$148 – Delivery charge
So $700 car and $1079 in fees. Ugh
Pictures from Copart, I will see the car for the first time tomorrow.
I had some emails with Adam asking about the skill set needed to build a car like this (since mine are limited) and include a link of a car in a lot near us that was coming up for auction. Adam was great in getting me information and knowledge on how to pull off the auction and what would be an acceptable price for the car. So while I would love to have a SC/TC car, I also realize that having two teenagers who are going to want some wheel time after we complete the build, the SC/TC path is probably not the greatest idea. So we are going with a 2.2L build and have already purchased our donor, a 2009 LT with manual transmission and 93800 miles, based on Adam’s recommendations.
The end goal is to have this as a street legal car and that is where it will spend it’s time. There is a road course near me, Grattan Raceway, that has had track days in the past so might look to try that some time. The even bigger goal, is to learn some skills and hopefully pass some memories and experiences onto my kids. My son is a mechanical kids and loves to be doing and working with his hands and he has stated he wants to be a mechanic when he grows up so maybe this can help launch that for him.
We have not ordered our kit yet, want to get going on the tear down of the Cobalt first and stay focused on that task before we introduce the next part. Definitely going with the track build for the extra protection. Undecided at this point for standard or extended frame. Red Oak Texas is about 17 hours from my house and actually considering making a road trip with the Outback and a utility trailer to go and pick it up when we do order, all part of the adventure right? We will see if I still feel the same when the time arrives to order it.
Auction Experience (aka I screwed up)
The purchasing of the car has been educational and I have paid quite a bit in stupid tax so far on this auction so let me tell the story in the hopes that is saves someone some extra money.
I found a car on Copart.com that met my specs. Since the car was not a scrape title, I could not bid on it and had to go through a broker. Got all setup with a broker and the car came up for auction that was going to end at 10AM on Friday. Thinking this like an eBay auction, I was going to wait until the last 15-20 minutes to put in a bid hoping not to drive the price of the car up a huge amount in advance and hoping to get other competition napping at the end of the auction. Logged in with 20 minutes before the end of the auction, and was no longer able to place a bid because it had moved into different category of bidding with that much time remaining.
What I have noticed is that 2.2L standard transmissions are more challenging to find than the automatic and I really wanted the manual and it was looking like I was going to lose the car without even placing a bid. The broker website told me that if I purchased and upgrade on my account (basic to advanced) for a $199 charge, I could get into the Live Bidding which would allow me to actually bid on this car. While reading this I was also calling the broker to see if there is anything else that can be done to bid on this car but there was 4 other callers in queue and the clock was clicking down. With about 5 minutes before the end of the auction I click the upgrade button and paid the $199 up-charge just as I got the broker on the phone. She was nice and told me that I didn’t need to buy that as she could put in a bid for me right now. Told her that I just clicked it to purchase the upgrade and she told me that is too bad, it is non-refundable. ($199 stupid tax).
So talking with her as she explained how the live bid works is that for 30-60 seconds you can bid on a car and the car I wanted was lot 20 so I would have to watch as they went through the cars ahead of me. I could also have her just lock in a bit and it would auto bid up from there. Since I was at work and wasn’t sure if I would be able to stay on the screen while the bidding was happening, had her lock in a bid of $625 as the car was at $275 at that moment.
I did see the auction happen and our bid of $625 was the high bid! A little while later I got a notice on the broker portal dashboard that my bid had been countered by State Farm who owned the car. Called the broker again to understand this part and she was surprised that State Farm even countered as she said if they don’t get the price they like, the normally just pull it down and run it through the auction again. Apparently the insurance companies play by a different set of auction rules then everyone else. State Farm wanted $800 for the car, so I countered with $700 (winning bid was $625) because I didn’t want to loose this car. Yes I have gotten emotionally involved at this point and probably not making the best decisions. State Farm accepted this counter and so the car was sold for $700.
The broker sent over the invoice. The invoice has to be paid in just a few days time otherwise there are penalties and loss of the car so I quick look at the total line and head out to the bank to do wire transfer to the broker as we are heading out of town and won’t be back in time to get this done otherwise. Now that I have had time, I actually look through the invoice and find a line item that they have listed in there that is another account upgrade level that at the end says optional but is in the grand total of the invoice, the total I looked at to pay. ($99 stupid tax). I will try to get this refunded but I am gathering these are not the type of businesses that give refunds.
The car will be delivered on 2/19/2019 and we will see how far we can get when the Step 1 video has you spraying down the engine and we are still in the grasps of winter here in Michigan!
So at this point my costs are this:
$700 – Car
$298 – account upgrades (unneeded stupid tax!)
$313 – Copart auction fees
$215 – Broker transaction fee
$80 – Documentation fee
$25 – wire transfer
$148 – Delivery charge
So $700 car and $1079 in fees. Ugh
Pictures from Copart, I will see the car for the first time tomorrow.
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