Man, that must have been rough. Please make sure you cherish and take very good care of this S. It meant a lot to his wife, and I'm sure it means even more to you because of that. Great story!

 

July of 2003 I walk into Staten Island Honda and sitting in the middle of the showroom floor was a AP1 03' Grand Prix White/tan.

I walked around the car, opened the door, sat in the car, and a dealer comes up to me. Asks me if I'm interested, I said, "very". 3 hours later I drove it home. It was love at first sight.

 

[quote name='ramblin_wreck08' timestamp='1368223254' post='22534288']
Great thread idea Jeff! And great choice of year and color too.
Here's where the story gets interesting.
The owner had bought the car for his wife after she was diagnosed with cancer and given 6 months to live. She had always wanted a 2-seater convertible, so he surprised her with it one day after her diagnosis. She had passed about a year before I bought the car, and he was selling it because it was never being driven. Both his and her name were on the title. I had to jump through quite a few hoops, but ultimately found out that I would need a copy of her death certificate to switch the title over. Asking him for his recently departed wife's death certificate was tough.

1. A person simply can't make up a story like that! Unbeliebable!
2. I have forged my wife's and my Mom's signature before with title issues, for convenience sake, but just b/c I didn't want to drive home to get their signatures.

 

I definitely do. The story behind the car makes it all the more special, and I treat it as such. She's getting nothing but the best maintenance and constant care. I have been doing a top to bottom "cleansing" for the car by getting rid of aged fluids and items and replacing with new, top quality stuff - Amsoil engine, trans, and diff fluid, Motul RBF brake fluid (clutch bleed too), OEM air and cabin filters, am planning on doing a coolant flush soon, and she's gonna get new Bridgestone Potenza RE-11A's on Tuesday. She will see some auto x time, as the car was designed to be on the track, but outside of competition she's being babied inside and out.

 

Two months ago i started looking at salvage vehicles online, got a couple of my mechanic friends on board, and a month later finally settled on my first flip.

It was an 03 sebring silver s with ap2 tails and several bumps and bruises from what had to be a spin out. The site claimed no frame, suspension, or engine damage...and thankfully they were telling the absolute truth. I spent an entire day (left my house at 4am, got back at midnight) driving with a buddy up to the lot to bring her home. As soon as the attendant drove her out of the lot, covered in dirt and tape, with a smashed windshield and two messed up fenders and a half missing front lip, i thought, damn, that is a sexy looking car I said wow, that looks good, my buddy was with me and kinda stared at me like id lost my marbles. But then his inner ricer took over and he started checking out the mods, and drooling on the rims...

I got it home and one room mate decided i had gone crazy, while the others were jealous that i had managed to buy a car that had always been one of my dream cars. (he wasnt jealous of the car, just that it was a dream car of mine and he hasnt been able to afford any of his) The first roommate kept ragging on the fact that its a salvage title (yea, with $2500 worth of damage) that its a Honda rather than a porsche, or BMW, or Merc (um, see the $2500 worth of damage...) And that i have over paid (8700 for 58k, great interior, everything works, and many very nice mods) and would never be able to get back what ive put in it (based off a salvage title with 150k miles, a ripped top, and messed up seats he found on craigslist for 9k) I do not really give his opinions much thought since he is currently driving around in 15 feet of car he picked up at a BMW dealership.

This last month has been spent picking up the various replacement parts i need (drivers side door, both side windows, a passenger tail light, a drivers side fender, a windshield) and then installing them, mostly by myself. Doing the work was a lot of fun, so much so that ive decided to actually sell the car and find another bruised S to bring back to life.

This is the S in the midst of its repair, in this pic i have already replaced the drivers side door and windows.



Here it is after the new fender...



And i will post more as soon as i get the finished product back from the body shop and yes, i have washed it used up nearly a whole bottle of bug and tar remover getting the stickum off from where the insurance company taped the doors, hood and trunk closed.

I already have a buddy who has offered $12k for the car once i bring it to stock, which is exactly what ive put into the car to get it fixed...

The way i look at it is i have gotten the joy of bringing a beautiful car back to health, and earned a bit of money doing it (still have to sell the mods) and can now turn around and do it again. I have loved driving the S, on the few illegal trips i have done so far, and once ive saved up enough money that owning one actually make sense, ill be back

 

Hey thanks man, I love the rio, and reading your post honestly made me very proud to share the same passion in a car as you do.

Great find (and not just the color either) and congrats on your graduation!

 

Great write-up. I don't have the racing experience you do, just some autocross in my '03. But the feeling of settling in to that cockpit and pressing the start button is what makes me feel glad and privileged to drive one of the finest production sports cars ever made.

 

It was late july 2007 and I was 21 years old. my story is too long but involved going to our dealer and looking at a used 03 NFR and it sold from under us and I saw my mom light a cig on the sales floor and proceed to tell everyone in the building dealing with us to "F@ck off" and we left. the next day the GM called us and appologized and they had gotten a lower mileage nicer 02 Suzuka in on trade and sold it to us for $3k less than the red one was going to be. I still couldn't believe I actually had one while I was driving home that day..

 

So classy mom.

 

Great read!!

Back in late 1999, a college of mine whom was a bit of an ego maniac, drove into the parking lot of work in his brand new BB MY00 proceeded to brag it up big time, even left it top down in the sun everyday. About a week later, went out to investigate what all his BS was all about. I remember walking around it very slowly and admiring the lines, top was down as per usual. At the time I was clueless to what our beloved S 2000's was all about. Remember thinking to myself hhhmmm not bad! Didn't think much more about the Honda S2000 and all it's glory for maybe 3 years, just got on with home renovations and loving life in general.
By 2003, my DD Grand Cherrokee Jeep was paid off and house prices were climbing, so had by now come into a fair wack of equity. Started thinking, what I could buy next in the way of another car. ( for some reason every 2-3 years I automatically start thinking this). I was content on keeping the DD so thought a fun weekender would be the go and having recently become single my mind started ticking over on that day and my colleges S 2000 in the work carpark.
Went online a did some research, looking for a used one ( as would be much cheaper than new and coming out of lease), all I knew, I wanted a blue one. In no time a Monte Carlo Blue MY00 was found, in Melbourne Victoria Australia, (way way down south from where I live), luckily I could have a very good friend bring it to the dealership where she worked, to have it checked out. All clear I bought it with a credit card over the phone and had my friend dealership it to me.
I had some fun times with that MCB, got to learn a lot from those early S2ki days. By 2005, I was more into 4w driving so the S didn't get much use (my new partner was more a country girl than sports car minded). My sister bought my MCB over a phone call.
So close to 3 years went by a beautiful daughter is born and second house was bought. Life was very different living on acreage, ducks and turtles in the pond. Until I, separated from my daughters mother, and had to sell up everything .... luckily this all settled a month prior to the GFC.
So there I was a single dad, sharing custody of a toddler and living at my family house, trying to rebuild my mental health... LoL but luckily cashed up and debt free.
I hooked up with a local enthusiast, some of you may remember Muz, and he told me about a meet coming up, said to ride along with him, and that my S2k community, was the beginning of my return into the wonderful world of the S2000...
Not long after found my 06 SSM had 8,800 kms and was mint, it was listed on a wednesday night and by friday night, I had done the deal over the phone, drove an hour traded the Kia DD, financed it to minimise tax and was back in 4 hrs.
I remember one specific moment heading down the freeway, feeling like my life was turning around and that everything was going to be ok.
Many, many hours tinkering and buying and selling, I can honestly say that the S has been my mental health healing ....
Thank you Honda!!! plan on keeping my S and giving it to my daughter when she's 17