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Hey, i wanted a little insight on this beat up civic i saw on CL... its dirt cheap, at about 1k, and everything mechanically is in good condition, but its pretty beat up... https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/5217548529.html

Im thinking of buying it, putting on better rims and perhaps fixing it up and making it look clean as hell... is it worth it? timing belt/pump have been done recently so... what do you guys think? it'll be my first stick shift car.

 
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Looks alright. Take it for a test drive, or if you're not confident in your stick shift skills, go for a ride along. Listen closely for funny noises or anything out of the ordinary.

Also, take a good look under the hood. Look for anything that looks.. off.. I went with a friend to go check out civics, guy boasted he had a mostly stock 1997 civic, so we went to look at it. I looked under the hood and found wires that were cut and tucked away and the engine stamp revealed that the guy swapped the engine from the D16Y7 to an older D15B2. Wouldn't have been an issue if he told us about it, but he insisted it was the stock engine, despite me pointing it out. I used that as a "lets gtfo of here" cue. The engine he swapped in came out of an 88-91 dx/lx and made 92 bhp from a stock 106bhp.

If nothing screams "this is wrong. I don't know what it is, but it's wrong," I'd probably take the gamble. Seller has the car right at KBB for fair/good condition, and he says it's mechanically sound. If I still lived up in WA, I'd be happy to come along with you.

 
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My first car was a '94 Accord LX with over 200k miles on it. All I can tell you is, expect to work on the car often. Big ticket items like timing belt may have been changed, but it's all the little things that add up.

To give you an idea, here's the list of repairs I had to do within the first year of owning my Accord:

- axle
- lower ball joint
- both upper control arms
- brake pads and calipers
- muffler
- sway bar links
- complete engine tune up
- some electrical work


Cost of buying an old car isn't much. Cost of maintaining it is what you should consider seriously.

 
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An ideal project car would have little or no rust, and no bends in the frame or permanent body panels (the ones that don't bolt on). A decent interior is a must too, nothing is more frustrating than trying to find discontinued dealer only interior plastic. Everything else is kind of the project part I guess.

 
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Interesting thread.... Did the OP find a car yet?