1996 St Possible Project Options

[derek_w]

Hello All,

Looking to start my first project car. Found a 1996 Celica ST for about $500 dollars.
It has a salvage title from a previous incident that the current owners know nothing about but their son drove it for 5 years after that before somebody slid into him at a stop sign.
They are now getting rid of the car, he is an auto/diesel mechanic who didn't have the time to fix it, but told me that the accident broke the front strut in addition to denting the driver's door, drivers side fender and knocking out the headlight.
He replaced the strut and says it just needs an alignment before it's roadworthy with the exception of all of the bodywork and the headlight.
He had just put a new clutch in it and test driving it and looking through it today everything seemed fine other than the alignment was way off.

I have a lot of experience with 3rd gen 4Runners but this would be my first Celica, I just wanted some more experienced opinions on the car.

The car has been sitting for about 9 months, has the 1.8 L motor, 5 speed manual, hatchback, about 150,000 miles on it.

Any input would be awesome.

[derek_w]

Thank you all for your input.

I ended up passing on it. The seller wouldn't come down from the 500 price.
With everything you all mentioned didn't seem like it was worth that.

I just wanted a little project car to turn into a fun second car.

Definitely going to keep looking.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.