roadtrip1098
New member
I recently picked up a 2000 2.5 RS Sedan. It's got 206k on it and shows every bit of it. I paid more than I should have, but I have high hopes that I can bring this car back to life. The car was bought for $2400. It was missing the side skirts on one side, and the rockers underneath the existing side skirt may as well have not been there. The passenger rear fender was rusted out pretty good, and the engine didn't like anything over 4k RPM. The throw out bearing is pretty well toast. The rear drivers side brake was locked up to the point where the inner pad had worn to the metal and recessed itself into the rotor. At this point, you may be asking, "why the f**** did you buy it then?" The short answer is that I'm bored and I wanted a Winter beater to keep the miles off the STi. Oh yeah, it also needed a piece of frame patched, struts, a headlight, and a blinker. Forgot, the heat shield also rattles like a SOB. I think that's it.
Day 1. Doing the brakes
Okay, here goes. The priority was getting that rear brake unlocked so I could finally take the car for a real test drive. I purchased rear rotors because you may as well do both sides. I also bought pads and a caliper for the locked up side. Total cost was about $125 after the core was returned and I got a $25 rebate. There was a glimmer of hope when installing them, everything came apart nice, and went back together easily. All in all I would say it was a success.
Test drive. The car went down the road straight, no check engine lights since after purchasing the car I had cleared them. Even with no DTC's on there was something wrong with the car above 4k RPM, it would fall on it's face and almost stall. It's pretty obvious from the condition of this car that the previous owner didn't do anything for maintenance, and with the brakes having been locked up, I assume it hadn't been driven regularly. Fuel quality was a concern. Luckily the tank was empty, so I filled it up...
Time to add fuel filler neck to the list, and probably fuel filter, and pump. I'm probably going to have to blow out the lines. I had to be very careful filling up to no knock any more rust down the filler neck. It was bad enough so I checked 2 or 3 times throughout the fill up to make sure it wasn't pumping onto the ground.
Good news. Fresh gas made the car run much nicer. It was still uneasy at higher revs, but it wasn't dying.
Day 2. Picked up some sheet metal in various thickness and some rivets and seam sealer to do the frame, fenders, and rockers. Spent about $50 there. First things first, attack the fender, I cut away all of the rusted area, sand blasted what was left, and patched the hole with the sheet metal. During this process I noticed that I needed a better tool to cut the sheet metal. If I kept using the sawzall and angle grinder I was going to lose a hand.
Day 3. I didn't have much time to work on the car, but I bought a table saw and metal blade for it. I got that put together. One thing I noticed, the RS is a lot smaller than the STi. There's plenty of room in the work bay for the car and the new saw.
Day 4. Passenger side first, this was a learning experience. I had cut the metal into strips wide enough to go from the door sill to the pinch wels and wrap around it. As it turns out, it would have been a lot easier to crease the metal for the pinch weld area before riveting it up. It was a PITA for that first piece. The second piece when on easy though.
Day 5. Driver side. I thought I'd be smart and do the pinch weld first this time. Bad idea. To those reading, here's the fastest and easiest way to do it. Cut your metal to the right width. Make a 90 degree bend where the pinch weld is supposed to start and another 90 in the opposite direction that will eventually be bent around the pinch. lay the metal up in the door sill, rivet it in, then bend the metal down to the pinch welds. Once it's there, bend the 90 around the pinch weld and rivet through the metal, pinch weld and the other side of the metal. Make a pinch weld sandwich.
Day 6. Time to register this beast. Guvnuh got his money out of me. On the plus side it's inspected until July, not sure how. Someone must have known someone.
Day 7. On the way to the gym, I noticed something. It was my drivers side rear wheel. Passing me. the inside of the lugs had stripped off and the wheel came off while going down the road! Luckily it didn't hit anyone and I was able to get a scissor jack under it and borrow lug nuts off the other wheels to limp it down to Advance Auto. I bought some new lugs $35, and went about putting them on where they were missing. I noticed that I'm going to have to replace at least 3 studs, all on different wheels.
Day 8. It's supposed to rain soon, I don't want all my hard work getting rid of rust to go to waste, so I found some black spray paint kicking around the garage and gave the rockers and the fender patch a healthy coat.
Day 9. Patching the frame. I took some of the thicker stock metal that I bought and used some cardboard to get the exact shape. Then I cut and bent the metal. I ground some of the undercoating off and got the frame all shiny. Using a small MIG welder I encased the bad portion of the frame in new and thicker metal. She's looking better already.
Day 10. I have a set of rims up stairs in the garage off an 07 WRX, and a set of tires off my 06 STi, I think they'd make a perfect match for the RS. It's okay if it rubs, not like the fenders are perfect anyways. Time for an operational pause. Hopefully I can get them all mounted this week.
Day 11. I bought some really cheap coilovers off eBay. I'm not tracking the car, but it desperately needs new suspension. The backs are leaking profusely and the fronts are rusted through so badly that I'm not really sure what color they ever may have been. I know eBay coilovers are a horrible option, but they were cheap and I need them to get an inspection. Eventually it'll get a nice set. If for nothing else this will help me see what the car will look like when it's done.
Day 1. Doing the brakes
Okay, here goes. The priority was getting that rear brake unlocked so I could finally take the car for a real test drive. I purchased rear rotors because you may as well do both sides. I also bought pads and a caliper for the locked up side. Total cost was about $125 after the core was returned and I got a $25 rebate. There was a glimmer of hope when installing them, everything came apart nice, and went back together easily. All in all I would say it was a success.
Test drive. The car went down the road straight, no check engine lights since after purchasing the car I had cleared them. Even with no DTC's on there was something wrong with the car above 4k RPM, it would fall on it's face and almost stall. It's pretty obvious from the condition of this car that the previous owner didn't do anything for maintenance, and with the brakes having been locked up, I assume it hadn't been driven regularly. Fuel quality was a concern. Luckily the tank was empty, so I filled it up...
Time to add fuel filler neck to the list, and probably fuel filter, and pump. I'm probably going to have to blow out the lines. I had to be very careful filling up to no knock any more rust down the filler neck. It was bad enough so I checked 2 or 3 times throughout the fill up to make sure it wasn't pumping onto the ground.
Good news. Fresh gas made the car run much nicer. It was still uneasy at higher revs, but it wasn't dying.
Day 2. Picked up some sheet metal in various thickness and some rivets and seam sealer to do the frame, fenders, and rockers. Spent about $50 there. First things first, attack the fender, I cut away all of the rusted area, sand blasted what was left, and patched the hole with the sheet metal. During this process I noticed that I needed a better tool to cut the sheet metal. If I kept using the sawzall and angle grinder I was going to lose a hand.
Day 3. I didn't have much time to work on the car, but I bought a table saw and metal blade for it. I got that put together. One thing I noticed, the RS is a lot smaller than the STi. There's plenty of room in the work bay for the car and the new saw.
Day 4. Passenger side first, this was a learning experience. I had cut the metal into strips wide enough to go from the door sill to the pinch wels and wrap around it. As it turns out, it would have been a lot easier to crease the metal for the pinch weld area before riveting it up. It was a PITA for that first piece. The second piece when on easy though.
Day 5. Driver side. I thought I'd be smart and do the pinch weld first this time. Bad idea. To those reading, here's the fastest and easiest way to do it. Cut your metal to the right width. Make a 90 degree bend where the pinch weld is supposed to start and another 90 in the opposite direction that will eventually be bent around the pinch. lay the metal up in the door sill, rivet it in, then bend the metal down to the pinch welds. Once it's there, bend the 90 around the pinch weld and rivet through the metal, pinch weld and the other side of the metal. Make a pinch weld sandwich.
Day 6. Time to register this beast. Guvnuh got his money out of me. On the plus side it's inspected until July, not sure how. Someone must have known someone.
Day 7. On the way to the gym, I noticed something. It was my drivers side rear wheel. Passing me. the inside of the lugs had stripped off and the wheel came off while going down the road! Luckily it didn't hit anyone and I was able to get a scissor jack under it and borrow lug nuts off the other wheels to limp it down to Advance Auto. I bought some new lugs $35, and went about putting them on where they were missing. I noticed that I'm going to have to replace at least 3 studs, all on different wheels.
Day 8. It's supposed to rain soon, I don't want all my hard work getting rid of rust to go to waste, so I found some black spray paint kicking around the garage and gave the rockers and the fender patch a healthy coat.
Day 9. Patching the frame. I took some of the thicker stock metal that I bought and used some cardboard to get the exact shape. Then I cut and bent the metal. I ground some of the undercoating off and got the frame all shiny. Using a small MIG welder I encased the bad portion of the frame in new and thicker metal. She's looking better already.
Day 10. I have a set of rims up stairs in the garage off an 07 WRX, and a set of tires off my 06 STi, I think they'd make a perfect match for the RS. It's okay if it rubs, not like the fenders are perfect anyways. Time for an operational pause. Hopefully I can get them all mounted this week.
Day 11. I bought some really cheap coilovers off eBay. I'm not tracking the car, but it desperately needs new suspension. The backs are leaking profusely and the fronts are rusted through so badly that I'm not really sure what color they ever may have been. I know eBay coilovers are a horrible option, but they were cheap and I need them to get an inspection. Eventually it'll get a nice set. If for nothing else this will help me see what the car will look like when it's done.
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