My original flathood (the blue dragon) was given to me by my mother who bought it from a guy in Florida in 91? for something in the low $6000 range. I received it in Dec. 1996 and spent a few months finalizing my license and doing some body work, new tires, a few odds and ends to make it road worthy for my first time driving "legally" for a 8 hour trip from DC metro to eastern CT. It served as my "to school and work" car for just about a year before it was backed into by a delivery truck at Chantilly highschool. Was still drivable, took my $4100 from the insurance claim and proceeded to slam into the corner of a school bus in the same damn parking lot. At that point the car was trashed and luck was on my side once again. My father, happened to get some info from a vcoa club member who had called him about some technical stuff that he was selling his silver flathood, had 340,000 miles on it, all highway, no rust, and new paintjob. I couldn't refuse, flew to Dallas TX, paid $3500 and drove it back to northern Va. The new silver car lasted roughly a year before the transmission started to go (both of my flathoods have been automatics), and just like the last one it sprung a mass oil leak. Figured it was time to look at setting it aside to do some major repairs all around.
Heres where it gets crazy: Now being one of those folks who has a car up on blocks for years I look back on all that I tried to conquer and how i should have done it. Let this be a lesson learned to all, that you should plan your work before you start (that includes budget)
It started with the idea that why in the world should I spend the cash on another AW71 auto trans, when I could by my fathers rusty 242 GT w/ tons of aftermarket and performance add-ons as a parts car for the whole thing for the same price. So... I decided to go ahead and do an auto to manual trans. swap. As we all know when you take the tranny off, you might as well change the rear main seal, heck if you're gonna change the rear main seal you should go ahead and run synthetic oil... and thats how the story goes... lots of "well since we're doing this... we might as well do this at the same time"

The project lasted from 8/99 till 1/03 and now is registered and on the road full time again. total cost was roughly $3800
This is what has been done so far since 1/2003

Engine: Turbo city Garret T3 with .55 trim compressor New Injectors Distributor cap and rotor Splitfire plugs Magnecore spark plugs wires 80 amp alternator coolant reservoir cap Ams Oil 0w-30 synthetic Oil filter relocation w/ 1/4 cycle race micro filter P/S pressure hose Steel braided fuel line Steel braided oil supply line to turbo Transmission: B230FT clutch and fly wheel O/D unit mod with heavier springs o/d relay o/d cut out switch speedometer cable Suspension: Jamex sport springs KYB Gas adjustable front struts KYB rear IPD sway bars Poly bushings: sway bar ends, rear stress bars front lower control arm bushings GT strut braces, upper and lower Brakes: Steel braided brake lines (front and rear) Drilled and slotted Brembo Rotors in front Master brake cylinder and reservoir Full synthetic DOT 5 fluids Cosmetic: Momo Fighter steering wheel and hub Oil temp gauge and pan plug Euro spec Cibie headlights GT front turn signals (all yellow) Door/Window trim 20% tint all around Full carbon fiber Group-A wing from DBS motorsports

Some random project pictures: