Race car resurrection | There is always more work than you think!

[PenguinScotty]

Tommy and team did a fantastic job, per usual, with all the fab work and was kind enough to pull all the extra bits that needed to come off before paint as well.



The eagle eyed viewer may be able to spot an additional neat bit :P


So off it went to Vic at Rebuild Rex for a fresh coat (On the inside at least :P )

In the meantime, it was time to get the engine stripped and cleaned.


It was a mess, with the damn oil leak, everything on the passenger side was just coated. But, once cleaned up, it was time to just throw the cerakoated headers on there to see. Sheeeee.


Ignore the billion different exhaust studs, those are getting changed :P

Once it was all cleaned up, i packed my bags and ran up to North Carolina, to bring the engine to a friend of mine, who has built a few of these, for a once over!


It just keeps going

[PenguinScotty]

While up there, it is mandatory to stop by my buddies place and check out some cool cars.

[PenguinScotty]

Sadly, i didn't do a great job of documenting the paint process, which was a TON of hand sanding everything on Vics part. Also didn't do a particularly good job of taking pics when i got the car back sadly, however one or two good ones i did manage :P




Car went up on jack stands right away to get cracking. Couldn't help myself and least had to go and test fit the PDM and my test print for the Emtron mount (Stroms setup is for the MoTeC, so had to make my own mount).


More parts came in still. Decided to try the Garagistic diff mounts, since the car had the stock ones still in it!


Also went and snagged the pedal bushings upgrade from them as well. Gotta say, the clutch pedal one is great. Guess it's because it's plastic, but the brake pedal... man that was way too tight. Had to drill it out with a 14mm bit and now it works, still not super excited about that though.


At this point, what else is there left to take apart?

Of course, the subframes and gas tank. Why not...

[PenguinScotty]

Since i have trust issues with old cars, i definitely wanted to inspect the rear subframe, RTAB pockets and so forth while everything is apart. While the car has plates and a cage tied in, you just never know.

To my surprised (And somewhat annoyance), it seems like the subframe is held in by 4x 1/2" bolts...

No matter, they came out well enough and i'll just get some fresh ones.

The RTABs are GC and definitely felt loosey goosey, ready for a refresh.


Not sure about those welds, but somebody did do something to the RTAB pocket at least. Still, going to clean this up and add some more stitch welding at the very least.


And out came the subframe! Neat, some fancy turner aluminum mounts too.


But something was not quite right...

[PenguinScotty]

To get the subframe down, it definitely too a bit of wiggling, especially on the front. Figured it's because they used 1/2" bolts instead of the M12 stuff there buuuuuut...

Driver side front mount looks nice and straight. No complaints here!


But then you see passenger side... Ignore the lip being bent down, that's not so much the issue. The whole bushing mount though, is bent down on the left side.


Well, that could explain why the camber arms are wildly different in length, adjustment wise. More than i've ever seen. Well that's super, guess i'm getting a new subframe

On to the RTAs we go!

Great... the GC Bushings definitely made contact with the RTAB bracket and, whoever installed the bushings, completely crushed the aluminum cap.


One chisel session later, they are off. Time to order some Syncro Design bushings


And last, but not quite least, of course the friggin RTAB bracket on the driver side is bent, and holes wallowed out


While that one doesn't look too bad, the arm/bushing definitely made contact internally as well, so replaced it will be!

Although i wanted to start the reassembly process soon, seeing all these issues, as well as the dirt and grime, it's time to also drop the front subframe and go through that. And since i wanted to add a Holley Hydramat to the fuel tank, that'll come off too xD.

Not much left to take off the car now at least!

[George Hill]

Knowing what you know now about the car, would you still have bought it and gone through this? Or would you have just built something from scratch?

[PenguinScotty]

Knowing what you know now about the car, would you still have bought it and gone through this? Or would you have just built something from scratch?

Having gone through this twice now, i'd say it really depends on the person.

While the car was "running and driving" and would've continued to do so (probably, lol) for a while longer, having bought it at fairly bottom market value, because that's what i can realistically afford, i knew it would need some work. Perhaps cars higher up-market won't suffer from these issues to the same degree, however depending on the kinda person you are, you will still have to make some modifications here and there (Seat fitment, harnesses, controls, etc.) to make it work for you.
That said, had i known the extent of everything, i probably would've pushed the price down some more, lol. While it has good bones and has(had) good parts, it's all 10 years old and worn out, so everything needs a refresh regardless. The most annoying stuff is all the hidden body stuff i wasn't aware of.

I'm fairly pedantic on things, especially when we're talking about safety stuff because i have other people drive my cars, i'd like to make damn sure that it's as good as i can make it, from a safety and mechanical safety perspective, so everything gets gone through. So while that little bend on the RTAB mount isn't the end of the world, it's a red flag for me.

Now, if i were to build another car, i'd probably start from a bare, good, shell to then build everything up from scratch. While i love doing a lot of the work, some stuff i need to outsource, like the cage and paint, however i'm confident that even then, price wise, we'll end up in the same spot as i will be after this thing is back together, haha.
If you were to just go and drop the car off at a shop though, that'll be more expensive, of course.

But yeah, just depends on how hands on you want to get!

Am i disappointed about buying this? Not really, because it actually came with a great story/history and it'll be just another adventure figuring this whole thing out and making it right. Having a cool story to tell about something is all part of it for me, since i'm not so much a "Driver driver" as others