1979 Dodge Omni O24 project car?

[Johnny Apple]

Hey everyone, this is my first post a important one depending on where I put my money lol but since this school year is almost at an end in a few weeks for University Im looking for a new project car to work on for those boring days. So I found a 1979 Dodge Omni O24, it has a strong 1.7L Volkswagen motor with 114,000 km's on it and a strong 4 spd tranny with it, but it still needs some help body wise, which will be easy for me to fix, and a lot of minor problems. I feel like this is a good investment at $500 lol but I wanted a better opinnion before I start paying cuz I am a University student very low on money. So let me know what you think and big thanks

[Isaiah]

Hey man lol I think you should buy the omni lol cause not lots of people have one and you can be different and lol $500 isn't a lot of money lol.

That's just my opinnion lol.

[Johnny Apple]

Hey alright thanks for the input And thats true there arent many around and I like it a lot. No $500 isnt too much lol which is true but it is for me lol I know pathetic right :P

[Isaiah]

lol

[psycoticclown]

lol

[Mixalot27]

Go for it man, you only live once and what else are you going to get for $500?

[RC-Cola]

The only warning is that since the car is a "classic" you might rake up big bills trying to keep it on the road. I would suggest getting a good shop manual and some tools and learn how to fix it yourself. You might also run into issues like it will be hard to find parts for it.

[funkedelic2]

The omni is one of the ugliest cars ever. If its this style:



If its one of these though.. then that would be a cool little project:



For those kms and price its not a bad deal i guess. I would just spend $500 more and get a better car. Just my opinion.

[canuckcarguy]

If it runs and the mileage is accurate, and if it will pass an insurance safety inspection, I'd say go for it, you can't go too wrong for $500. But you indicate the body is in rough shape - if it's rust, take a look underneath and make sure it's not rotted out. Frame integrity is something that will show up on an insurance inspection.

[Graham_A_M]

I'd recommend saving your money, and putting it towards that 1950 Chevy Coupe you have in that other thread. You will NEVER get your money back if you blow it on this (essentially worthless) Omni. At least with that 50's coupe, there will be a decent return on investment since it has such a heritage with you. If worse comes to worse, you can sell it and make money on it, with the Omni? forget it. You may as well be lighting a match to quite a percentage of every dollar or minute you sink into that thing.

If you were to put the $500 and your time towards restoring that coupe, I think you'd be quite a bit happier in the end (as well as on behalf of your parents) then neglecting that car and tossing your valuable money trying to make a worthless car, worth something.
Dont get me wrong, I'm sure it would be fun in the end.... but its just not practical or financially smart.

[sillysod]

the best part about those cars is that the door handles always break and the shift linkage seems to fall apart quite a bit.

If you plan on it for a project car actually they can be quite fast and cheap for under $1000.00 you can make it fast. Go to pick your part and get a Chrysler 2.2 Turbo from a van or something and it will drop right in. Then + boost and you can start breaking parts drag racing by the Giant Tiger.

Kid in my highschoold did it and it was a pick your part special with not a matching panel on the car, complete piece of crap, but it hauled ass. If you plan on using this "toy" as a way of picking up girls I would suggest staying around the Town and Country for the best selection of hot womans.


Edit: Nevermind the 024 is the old school one, not much you can do with that one. Parts are going to be hard to find and your cost on a new vinyl racing stripe kit is going to be exorbitant.

[turbo minivan]

the old 024s like that would need allot of work to make it fast. the parts are easy to find but your looking at having to swap the harness with an 89+ and an 89 2.2/2.5 turbo (for the best strength). also the early VW motor mounts are totally different than the turbo dodge mounts.
cool cars though and there getting rare. i drive an 89 horizon that i swapped over to a 2.5T and i looked for over a year to find a good body to work with.