Thread: Paint or auto/manual swap?

Asking for some advice here....

I have a shot at two nice P10's. Both are 1993, one is white (my fave!) and the other is gold. The white is a one owner, automatic with low/avg (152K)miles and seems pretty clean. The gold is 5 spd but has really crappy paint even though the body is in very good shape. Both interiors are brown and the white car is much nicer inside.

So my question is, repaint the gold car or swap the trans on the white car? I think the gold car will be cheaper initial purchase wise, but I can't paint. I have all the 5spd stuff from my SER so all of that is taken care of.

Thoughts or suggestions? What is different between P10 and B13 as far as the manual trans goes? I know the hub side of the axles is different, but if anyone else has swapped auto to manual, please chime in. If you know a good/cheapish body shop near Atlanta, please chime in.

Thanks for sharing your opinions!

go for the white one if it's your favorite,

repainting is a bitch. get the white one!

Hold out for a white manual.

If you're gonna buy one you may as well get the clean one. Auto to manual swap is an intermediate job. The only main thing different from P10 to B13 ser/nx is the base G20 is open diff, and the G20t is LSD. The gearing has minute differences I think. So, if you have a LSD from your ser then it'll bolt right up. The tranny mount is different for the P10, and you'll need some G20t manual axles. Everything else should be good to go, besides getting all of the donor hardware from another manual G. Like clutch pedal, and all that stuff.

you've got the stuff for a tranny swap but if you price out a really professional paint job, you'll find out how expensive that can be.

I would like to hold out for a white manual, but I haven't found one in the 2 years I've been looking!

I pulled the engine/trans from the rally car and with it sitting in the garage, going to waste, I figured I would put the whole thing into a P10. Finding a non-runner in useable shape has proven near impossible, so I figured I would start looking at close compromises since my white, manual, 91-93 (needs to be OBD I) non-sunroof car has not been found.

Are the pedals different from B13 models? I figured I would be able to use all my B13 mounts and axles, just changing out the hub end for the larger splined P10 hubs. I guess it would be better to start with a manual car then because I know the engine and trans are not different. At least with a manual P10 I would have all the correct chassis mounts and things as I have not found any manual models in any of the local yards either!

^You're in the Atl area right? There's a junk yard called Pick A part on Roosevelt Hwy off I-85. They have 1 or 2 manual P's out there last I checked. There are a very limited number of parts that are swappable from P to B, and the clutch pedal, and mounts aren't on the list. The driver side mount is diff for sure. Not certain about the rear mount though. I do know cross members are different, so it probably is. If you are going to swap CV ends, you may as well buy some reman G20t axles. Reason is you will have to buy a banding tool(if you don't have one), and 2 new quality boot kits, and they run around $45. If you buy the cheap ones they will last about 500 miles. I learned the hard way.

Its very expensive!!!!!!!!!!

I also vote for the nice body/paint

Took my NX for a estimate at a nice shop and was quoted 2500$. I have some dings and one dent to fix also. I still leaning on doing it even tho I paid 2500$ total for the whole car. I hope it will be worth it when its done cause I didn't wait it out and find a cleaner NX.