Hello everyone, Since some of us older members seem to fall in to the wood work I thought I would post up to show I am not dead, yet. Anyways, some of you may remember my old 2002 MBP WRX that was sold last winter. Boy do I miss that car. It was my first Subaru and by far has been my favorite. So, the WRX was sold to put some money towards a house in the upcoming future. This left me in a car-less postion. But just two days after the sale of my car it was like a gift from the heavens when I got a call from a fellow member on here that an RS has shown up at their shop and it looked like the motor had gone. After getting some more background information on the vehicle, we determined that it was actually an old High School buddy of mines older sisters car. Yay, I knew the background of the car and know it was "well" taken care of. Sight unseen, I told him I wanted it and let me know what it was going to cost. The first sighting! So, after two days of negotiating and polotics, the RS was mine I turned the car over and on the first crank it started! Then we gave it some revs and it sounded like there was a whole mess of nuts of and bolts somewhere in the engine. After a min of idle, there was enough smoke in the air to concern the EPA. So, we killed the car and loaded it on the truck to be brought back to my house for a new heart. Once the car was unloaded it was parked for a couple days and then the real fun started. We popped the hood and, well, I'll let the pictures explain the next bit.... YIKES!!! Okay, well, not to worry. We pulled the motor and the race was on... So, this would have been the best time to do a fun ej something turbo swap, but I had to keep telling myself that the purpose of this car was to just be practical and money conscious. The hunt was on to find a replacement motor. Sure enough, I had one sourced out... in Chicago... But, I couldn't pass up a descent deal and that was the best bet on the market at that time. 800 miles later I was back in Duluth and ready to get this thing squared away. (video for the lulz) All right, first try and she was ready to go. There was a period of about 25 min that she just burnt all of the old oil out of the exhaust pipe.
Next day, time to take care of that rear quarter panel rust, install new front bumper, and get it misc things painted. As the body work was taking place during the day, I decided that since one of the struts was blown it was time for a suspension upgrade Alight, back to the body work... Tada, she is done! (for now)
Okay, that was quick.. As you can see, I picked up some summer wheels, painted the side skirts and still had to install my front lip. Well, I did all of that and here is the progress and where the car sits today (9-5-11) Thats all for now...
That body work came out great! Cool car, any more upgrades in the works, or strictly functional from now on?
Thanks for the nice words all. Eventually we will swap it. As for immediate plans, sway bars, endlinks, and HID's
Looking great Chris! Glad things worked out and you were able to stay in a Subaru. Keep them pictures coming.
Ted, you're not dead! Thanks for the kind words. We have been missing you around these parts lately Thank you! I shoot with a Nikon D7000 and most of these were taken with the stock lens. Haha, Paul, you know that this car is just to hold me over until the wagon is ready to be moved along
Current set up... Roof rack, 6 spokes with winter rubber, and I raised it a good inch for all the "snow" we have been having...
How could we ever forget the rex, it was a beaut! Congrats on the new car, looks awesome and you guys did a steller job! Welcome back
Well, a couple months later.. Here we are.. I will start with my most recent update and work my way backwards.. 12/24/12 So, I bought another set of rs 6 spokes from a local member, but the green was just too common for my liking.. So, we had to try something a little more obnoxious. At first I thought I should be masking off the wheels, well, a little digging on DipYourCar.com and I noticed that you can get by without any masking.. I removed the tape and gave it two coats of the white base.. After I let the first two coats of white dry, I applied my first of the blaze yeller. All said and done, I applied 2 coats of the plastidip white and three of the plastidip blaze yellow... All said and done, I am pretty happy with the end results. I have a half of can of white left and almost two cans of the yellow.. I will keep them for next year or any touch up work that may need to happen.
At some point in this adventure I bought some Brembos off of an 04 sti.. But I sold them and went with the ever popular (and able to fit under 6spokes) 06/07 4/2 pot brakes.. Oh, and I had bought some 04 bbs wheels.. Had them powder coated, and then sold them.. Somewhere in here I spent way more money than I had ever spent before and did the "House' Mod"
Okay, so now the next most logical step would be to start paying off debt and going the smart route.. Well, the Subaru gods shined down on me with a deal I COULD NOT pass up (although, maybe I should have) I saw this hit craigslist and it was love at first sight.. I needed to have this thing. (Some of you may know this car as "baby cakes" in a previous life..) You had me at accordion shift boot... Anyways, I picked up this trust 96 obs with under 200k miles on it for a really decent price. (about the cost of real GC8 tail lights which the car had/hass on it) Only real issue was, well, "she just stopped running one day" and they PO didnt want to fix it.. How bad could it be, right? Fast forward from August to November and this thing had been sitting in my driveway just bringing my property value down.. It was decided that it is time to get this gal up and running. I knew going into this that the car was involved in an accident a few years prior. Fondune on here smoked a deer and gave the car up.. Upon it's transfer of ownership(s)? it has seen some extremely custom work to the engine.. Including the one of a kind License Plate Timing Cover... Looking past some of these "minor" details, we pulled er into the garage to being the disablement of the motor. Once everything was pretty much free (minus the trans and motor mounts) I commissioned a friend with a trailer and a winch to help me haul it down to his shop. Got it up on a lift and began to pull the motor out..
Now that the motor was free, we decided to do some digging into exactly what caused it to stop running... Dropped the oil pan and removed the heads.. I will let the pictures speak for themselves... As you can see, total carnage had occurred... Long story short, replaced the clutch since she had nothing left to give and we put a new-er-ish slightly used 2.2 back in and she ran like a top.. (minus the missing ground wire that allowed the car to stay running when I pulled the key out) We fixed that, put the new exhaust headers on it (for the price of one 24pk THANKS IZZY) and away she went. One happy family Now to get the beater registered and start tearing down the rs More to follow! Cheers, Chris
The pictures with the blaze yellow wheels are what finally made me decide I want to plastidip my winter 5-spokes. Nice little chronicling here, I'll have to keep an eye out for your 96 wagon when I get back up to Duluth.
Not going to give away too much info.. But the wagon may be changing ownership here soon I promise it is for the best
im loving this thread! nice work chris. still wanna get a meet together up here in duluth to put some faces to all the scooby owners up here!
I certainly think that could be arranged. Seeing as how 1/20th of the areas members live at my house haha. There maybe some new show and tell to take place coming up here too.. You'll have to wait and see.
I'll be watching too! sidenote, was that your 2.5 at a house off of East Calvary St. last Saturday night?
very nice car and story...i was just wondering how long did you waited for the fix on the rust and painting..?
that great i have rust on both side and was planning of taking in a shop to fix but didnt know how it was going take so yea i was j/w thanks...
Once you get it fixed POR15 or even truck bed coating on the inside will help prevent it from coming back.. Make sure you protect your investment.
These are rota torques correct? Do you know specific sizing? Also, what suspension was under this car?
Wheels: 17x9 Rota Torque -Full Royal Sports Bronze (5x100/e30/56.1) Tires: Nexen N3000 (cant remember specificly.. but maybe 235/45/17?) Coils: K-Sport Kontrol Front Spring Rate:9/504 Rear Spring Rate:5/280 36 way adjustable
How did they fit, that is an aggressive offset and width. I was going to test fit my 17x9 +42 grids but I don't think they will even come close. How much camber and fender work did you have to do?
Lots of trial and error in the rear. Rolled the fenders/adjusted coils to FIRMEST/camber bolts to correct the last bit. Fronts were pretty straight forward and didnt have any rubbing..
I like how you liked my post from over a year ago, I just think you did that to get me to check this thread again...so glad to see she is up and running!
