Reinstated my canceled trip to look at the derelict $400 Chevy Metro when weather radar showed the rain had ceased. It was exactly 40 miles, to my diamond in the rough, however the seller had thrown me a curve. Instead of the "nearly 100,000 miles" as he'd claimed, the odometer read nearly 286,000 miles! A big burly biker type, he was kind of put off when I mentioned this, insisting his ~100K was correct & began to argue. I invited him to look for himself, including looking at old paperwork in the glove box that confirmed the high mileage. I'm not responsible for his faulty memory. It also has a mangled left front fender he was unaware of that must've occurred in his yard. He was annoyed & said he'd just scrap it!
I told him I planned on getting a parts car anyway & had regularly made 1 good car out of 2 or more dead boys all my life. He reluctantly decided to lower his price to $300 & mused over not selling it again. Then started adding up the value of parts as scrap.
This 2000 Metro still interests me b/c the chassis looks excellent & is amazingly rust free. The interior, though dirty, looks like it would clean up extremely well. The worst thing is a fallen head liner, very common in FL. I was impressed that even sitting out for nearly a year it was bone dry inside. The only rust was a couple of tiny spots in the paint & the rear muffler. Looks like a rust free FL car & has AC. Overall the chassis deserves to be restored in light of all the photos I've seen of Rust Belt Metros that have their control arms dangling from graham crackers!
I can't reject it out of hand & may very well find a low mileage parts car. Now I'm beginning to think it might be cool to have a very high mileage Metro. For $300 it might be a parts car. So I'm wondering what Metro veterans think of restoring 1 w/nearly 300,000 miles?
Unless the engine actually explodes into tiny pieces, you can get many more miles from it. If it runs and drives now, then I would fix it up until it begins to smoke or missfire. Then you can rebuild the car pretty cheaply and easily all by yourself without removing the engine. These cars are so easy to work on!
I have always driven large, V8 powered cars and trucks and was always into power, but since I got this Metro, I have become addicted to this "Street Legal Go-Cart" and have done lots of work to it to save it from the scrapyard. One weeks worth of fuel in my 1995 Chevy Truck will go 2 months in the Metro and that is why I continue to save this car.
I've always been pretty much the opposite. Started driving a Willys flat 4, then had a couple of unreliable & miserable in winter Sunbeam Alpines, before getting deeply into SAAB 3 Bangers & evolving thru V4s eventually to 900 Turbos. I also had several SAAB Sonetts & 2 Citroen GS models. Even when I needed heavy haulers I only wanted FORD I6 motors. I gave up looking for a Club Wagon w/6 cyl when a deal that was to good to refuse came up on a 302 V8. Recently my Dad gave me his '98 F150 4X4 w/V8 & only 7500 miles! At 14-16 MPG that Gas Guzzler just sits & I can't give the Cream Puff away! My V8 ownership was basically under protest.
My interest in Metro 3 Bangers is returning to my roots. Hope I'm not disappointed, since I haven't had a chance to drive 1 for ~20 years. I like your "Street Legal Go-Cart" it reminds me of how I described Sonetts-Jack rabbits on methedrine!
No. It does not drive now, the seller says it only needs a timing belt, however I'm not sure I can believe anything if he had so much trouble w/the miles. The motor was also stuck, but not so bad that I couldn't rock it free by hand in high gear. IMO the nearly 300,000 miles translates into virtually everything being worn out. However the impressive absence of rust on a car that's never seen salt means a lot to me since I grew up in the Rust Belt. Also noticed somebody butchered the distributor, 1 of the flanges was snapped off & a junk distributor is on the rear floor. Under the hood things look completely unmolested, AC holding charge, radiator holding fluid, brakes feel good & no wires butchered. Still taken aback by the 40,000+ miles per year put on it. Finding a low mileage wreck or rust out donor makes a lot of sense.
Wonder what the highest mileage Metros have on them? Thanks for encouraging me to overlook the excess miles. For $300 I can hardly go wrong? Will try to pull the trigger tomorrow, want a new toy & this little snowball might just be it.
Now I'll need to scan for used parts, tips & specific literature. Just found a 2000 sales brochure, shop manual & timing belt kit on fleabay-no owner manual. Want suggestions on what to use to clean the seats & carpet, if the hazy headlights can be polished & what to do about the fallen head liner? When the guy started talking about cutting it up for scrap it sounded like blasphemy!
Kind of odd, wanting to dispose of a mint F150 4X4 w/12,000 miles AND be so eager to tear up my knuckles on a derelict Metro that's gone further than the Moon!
For that price, the rust-free shell alone is worth that. I used to fix saggy headliners with those "twist-in" thumbtacks found at craft stores to hold them up. It gives them that "Quilted" look and keeps it off your head.
I bet if you just bite the bullet and rebuild that engine with a new head gasket, exhaust valves, timing belt, water pump, etc, and fix all the other issues, you will still have less than a thousand bucks invested in a car that will save you double that in fuel over the next year.
Foggy headlamps suck! I hate composite lamps and I must have good visibility! I actually replaced my headlights with the older sealed beam style...............
You could always click my signature image and you will find some detailed repairs and descriptions on my Metro there.
I will definitely evaluate & try to breath life back into the nearly 300K 3 cylinder motor. Will probably buy a timing belt on the way home. Its entirely premature to write it off. Considering the VG condition of the interior, I'm finding it difficult to believe the miles. The seats & carpet are dirty & neglected, but not worn or torn, nor is the steering wheel. The previous owner only had it since '06 & drove it less than 20K before the current owner adopted it nonrunning & let it sit since last fall. I could almost believe somebody stuck a used speedometer in it showing excess miles. The only bits that hint of 300K are the shift knob & garish aftermarket pedal pads. Does OBDII hold mileage data?
Was thinking of using SS staples to hold the headliner up. Hadn't thought of the "twist-in" upholstery tacks.
Been reading the MetroMPG website & am intrigued by the 1.3 tranny swap article. This Metro's shifter is nice & snappy, already feels better than SAAB shifters which always drew the ire of the auto media.
Have you still got the "composite lamps" you "hate"? Those lenses look a lot brighter & easier to try to polish than the ones I'm talking about. These seem yellowed by sun & car washing, not so much sand blasted from ~300K as I'd expect. I like the 2000 headlights & dislike the sealed beams. Perhaps if you thought of them as aerodynamic headlights? They sit in a critical, high pressure, location. I'd already asked here if the new lights would've fit on the '94 that got sold out from under me. Need to ask about mirrors, somebody scarfed both, along w/the covers inside. Might need a front left fender if I can find a faded white one to throw on & have no idea if the rumpled rear bumper can be salvaged. What's behind there? The cover can probably be made to look decent. It pranged the right tail light, looks an easy fix & the hatch gap is 100%. Also curious about parking lot protection 'side strips' there are indents for them, but no sign of them.
I didn't realize 2000 was the last of the 3 door hatchbacks. Weather permitting (70% chance of rain) I'm going to try to buy it tomorrow. Got to admit white isn't my favorite color, but it fits FL sun. I'll also be quite happy to keep right on searching for a donor Metro. Part of my motivation is survivalist/self sufficiency. Hope the seller cooperates.
My '69 SAAB Sonett V4's only achieved mid 30's, best was 37 MPG & were Nader Nightmare's. This Metro has FI, AC, cat converter, dual air bags, passenger safety cage, side impact protection, NHSTA bumpers & common parts. I expect a similar Fun Factor. Often lost in technical discussions is what a blast it is to drive a small nimble car.
The "derelict Metro" is now MY "derelict Metro" & is sitting out in the backyard on my trailer. I stayed one step ahead of the thunderstorms & ended up waltzing around, missing them.
Now I need to either find a partzer to use as a donor or find somebody who already has some. I want to recycle good used parts to restore this 2000 Chevy Metro.
Some of the "Joys of buying derelict Metro" included the rude surprise, found only after I got home, that the seller had scarfed the spare tire! I have no idea why, guess he needed it more than I?
So who's got a Metro graveyard? Please see my WANT list over on TEAMSWIFT.
More "Joys" today. After 'letting my fingers do the walking' I went to pick up the Goodyear timing belt only to find out that what they said they had in stock was not in stock, so I decided to order it & make the return trip. However rain delays prevented me from pulling the timing belt cover off 1st & when I did later I found the belt looks fine. Another of the "Joys" provided by the seller who said "the timing belt is bad, all it probably needs is a new belt to run again"!
I was able to make 1 good distributor out of the 2 broken ones, so if rain cooperates I may have a chance to install it & a battery so I can try to give it a whirl tomorrow. Wonder if all it needed to run was a distributor? Needless to say I'm eager to hear it turn over & check out all the electrical bits. Its still on my trailer!
I walked every lane at the You-Pull yard & there wasn't a single Metro there. Anybody got partzers out there for some of the small bits needed? Please contact me.
Joys of buying derelict Metro
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