meethraps money pit!!!!!!!

hello all, bare with me on this as i tend to go off on a tangent and get giddy with the camera:|, will get as much info in as possible, and reason behind the pics taken, might just help some of you out one day :shock:eek:r you may just help me out by pointing out the mistakes i make:oops:. everything that i post is basically what im learning as i go as i have never worked on or been inside a subaru in my life until i bought this one. so illl do the best i can.:???:, ill get the pics up in between working, doing a bit on the car( with the little daylight i have left each day after work), researching modification options:mrgreen: and being dad to my kids:shock:.
 
didnt think to use the camera whilst putting new windows in as there was 3 of them i needed to replace( managed to buy a full set of door windows of fleabay for £25 out of a RA model apparently they are slightly thinner to add to the weight reduction in that model) but im sure ill do some of how i did it later on, but heres a couple of the car before i started to perform surgery on it.

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as you can see the big hoofing drainpipe hanging out the back, but it gives it that lovely bubbling sound so it may just stay.

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bit of kerb munching been going on here me thinks

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nice bit of scotch tape retaining going on, and the grille sits lovely!!!

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them headlamp washers have got to go, they look like an after thought on subaru's behalf.

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bumper obviously met the wall before the driver did, and the sidelight doesnt look any better either.

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looks like the roof trim as gone ten rounds with mike tyson.

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i think that clamp is meant to keep the spare wheel from lifting. i hope that aint the new clutch.

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how many audio devices did this car have?????, and im sure they have fitted that dump valve in the wrong place.
 
I think you are right about that dump valve being in the wrong place. Looks like you are going to have your work cut out. Has this car been rolled?

I look forward to seeing how the project takes shape. Will you be finished next week? :lol:
 
i like the older shaped scoobies, needs quite a bit of work, would be cool when its all finished, what mods you thinking of doing to it?
 
my approach to anything in life is there is no such thing as cant do that, only, how do we go about this then, plus i got all the time in the world cos i believe the older it gets the fewer that will be left with all the feekin idiots out there, and yes massive i agree, i have looked at all of them and this model just does it for me.
 
What kind of monster would wreck such a beautiful car?! I look forward to seeing the project finished.
 
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anyways, back to the project at hand, my first job on the car was the windows as 3 of them had been smashed(car was advertised as vandel damaged when i bought it), so as you all know already i removed the door cards and vacuumed all the glass out and cleaned all the rubbers out.
pull up gently on the front of the electric window switch housing to reveal securing screw.

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then another screw is hidden behind a small plastic cap.

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once you have give the door card a bit of a tugging to get it off i also removed the mounting bracket so that i could put some polythene back on the doors later as there wasnt any on.

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there are 2 adjusters that act like dampers for side movement in the glass and also hanging brackets for the top of the door card(almost identical to the ones in mr2 turbo my missus used to own), i remove these all together to give more access. as shown.

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i also removed the end rubber which is part of the door rubber to give me a little more freedom as the edge of the door top is open to access.

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slacken the window upstops enough to let them drop and hang down without actually taking them off. its the silver one below the 2 gold bolts it has a locating slot on it for adjustment on were you want the window to stop, this is the one to the backside of the door.

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and this is to the front edge of the door, lower left of the 2 gold bolts recessed into the door.

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as you have probably noticed i got pics of different doors, this is due to the fact that i have already done this job before i started to use camera so i have just been outside taking the pics( and its p*****g down as you can see). if you want a laugh scroll to the next picture as this is what i found stuck to the back of the passenger side door card.

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obviously had a professional install done in its time, pmsfl.
 
as far as modifications go i dont really wanna be too greedy with the bhp as this car will be used as a daily motor to and from work, picking kids up etc, etc, so i like the idea of leaving the little turd in his mgzf stood at the lights but too much bhp is just a waste because when will you actually ever require the need for something like 5 to 600bhp in everyday life(words which will probably turn me into a hipocryt later), so for the moment im hopeing to acheive approx 350bhp but hopefully using engine components that will allow scope for more if i decide i want it later, as i mentioned earlier or perhaps in another post the engine is in need of a total rebuild so im still in the process of researching my options on that one depending on what suits my pocket the best(i was a motor mechanic for about 12yrs after leaving school), rebuilding the engine myself is an option depending on wether or not the cylinder liners have ovaled out slightly due to the piston slap its got, if they aint or this engine never has that problem, then i will do the full rebuild myself, if this engine has been known to have this problem then i may either get it rebored( hopefully a 2.2 if its possible) and continue the rebuild myself or buy the bottom end already built with crank pistons and rings in it, i dont know all the options yet so i cant truly say what course i will take but which ever way it goes i will be rebuilding the rest.
 
getting the windows in was quite fiddly in my opinion, so alot of patience and caution is adviseable, and rebuild doors in reverse order making sure you adjust the window up-stops before fitting door card, i just did a bit of trying and testing till i got window sitting nicely when door was shut.
 
Thanks for the updates. They say power corrupts and with a car you can never really have too much power. Have a look at stroker kits - you might get this upto 2.5 litres which would be interesting!
 
btw, all the doors are the same principal when it comes to taking them apart and the adjustments.
 
the next problem i hit which ended up opening a can of worms was the fact that the central locking wasnt working. this confused me a bit because at the time i didnt understand why there was a aftermarket central locking actuator in the drivers door which i later figured out after a bit of research, on this particular model the central locking seems to operate from the drivers door lock so what looked like a actuator that was part of the drivers door lock turned out to be merely a switch( unless mine is knackered) so this explained the need for a aftermarket actuator for the alarm remote locking, basically the aftermarket actuator is connected to the drivers door locking rods and then connected to the alarm so when the actuator responded it locked the drivers door and the subaru's own system then locked the rest of the car( took a bit of head scratching and a search for the clifford g5 installation manual to finally understand it), when i had finally got it sorted the rest of the car didnt lock so i decided to remove all the dashboards lower panels to check on the wiring, I WISHED I HADNT, clockspring came to mind when i did because this is what i was facing.

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what has happened here is that instead of removing an old alarm wiring loom they have just installed the new one straight over the top of it and there was live wires dangling everywhere and some i have no idea what was for so i started to remove everything that wasnt subaru's own loom and repair it. whilst doing this i found the problem to the rest of the central locking which is the white wire you can see which is located in the driverside kick panel on the plug connector for the door wiring loom.

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this was caused by prolonged water damage which corroded and broke the terminal, i cleaned and repaired it and the complete locking system came to life. the cause of the water getting in was a split door to body wiring boot.

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after 10minutes, some pvc sleeving and a shed load of electrical tape it was fixed.

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i have also had to do the same repair on the passenger side aswell. after fixing and restoring it back to original wiring i then re-installed the alarm system making it a bit more awkward to get at, thinking about buying boot release for the clifford G5 system so i can de-lock the boot, the wife as also bought me the intellistart system for it( great for cold mornings), im also thinking of buying the cliffnet wizard software so i can adjust the alarm system to my likeing. i have got the driverside electrics finished and lower panels back on.

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lmfao@waynne, wife was laughing her head, apparently the look on my face when i pulled the panel off was priceless.
 
hello all, been busy at work lately so not had chance to do anything, plus weather is absolutely s***e, but on the good side, i got the intellistart 4 module for the alarm so shall be ripping the lower panels off again to fit it in somewere(should be interesting), but theres more wires on the module than there is on the alarm itself, and im still searching all my options as regards to the engine, so i havent given up on it. by the way, i bought one of these front lips for the bottom of the bumper so ive handed that to my brother who in my opinion is a f*****g genius with fibreglass and a stickler for detail, along with my bumper for him to work his magic on and heres what it looks like at the moment.

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just a bit of an update on how the car is looking at the mo, lmao.

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certainly makes it easier working on the front end, i think from the photos you can see i need to replace the drivers headlamp panel and front crossmember, which im just in the process of ordering.
 
evening all, another update on my front bumper, brother has finished working his magic and left it ready for painting for me, so heres a couple of shots.

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sorry its been a while, but i been busier than a longtailed bobcat in a room full of rocking chairs, small update on the bumper, looks crap on the car, bottom lip that was fitted is sat at wrong angle, and slightly lower than the side skirts, so a bit of a nip tuck is necessary, will post pic when finished doing it.:)
 
wow looks like your having fun! Pity you wernt on camera when the the wires fell out :D
 
hello all, just letting you know im still alive, and still own the money pit, its sat on my drive looking no different as this has been a seriously hectic year for me, hopefully get back on with it next year but im in no rush to be honest, as some parts are an ass to get hold of so ill just bide my time till i come across them at reasonable prices or reasonable locations.
 
hello all, glad to see my thread is still intact, just started work on it again in the past couple of weeks, first chance we got at some nice weather and the missus had me finishing garden, so i got that all done which keeps her quiet while i got started on the money pit again, bought a few bits for it while its been sat there, plus hit a few problems with it aswell, tried to get all the lines and gaps nice on the front end only to realise the headlamp panel had been put on wrong so i been hacking that off and re-aligning the front end again, had to modify the front bumper which i think i mentioned in an earlier thread but thats looking good now, all nice and square and inline with the side skirts. bought some quad headlights as the old ones were goosed and while i was at it i bought some new side repeaters, front corner lights, bumper indicators, some quad backlights, original steering wheel with airbag and the clock spring(ebay, hommmmm), anyways ill just get my latest photo of front end up on photobucket and ill post it up, but nice to be back.

cheers M
 
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as you can see from the grey painted areas on the corners this is where i had to cut into the front lip and do a bit of nip tucking to make it look right.:D
 
welcome back mate, no thread is really closed on here.
looks like youve made some headway on the car then.
bumper looks good now its on, and has been smoothed in well
 
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as you can see from the grey painted areas on the corners this is where i had to cut into the front lip and do a bit of nip tucking to make it look right.:D


the car is looking like a beast like this ;] also im liking those head lights
 
thanks dotdot it does look a hell of a lot better,, i spent 3days just getting the gaps right around the lights and grill, yeah its good to be back to pgarner, the lights are a fake carbon fibre and i would ideally like to colour code them to rest of the car(thats the green colour on the bonnet lmao), i have seen a pic of a scoob thats had the lot colour coded, even the corner lights and that looks the dogz danglies, the headlights do have the halo's on them but the inners are blue and the outers are a piss poor white, if i can get into the lights i will replace all with some superbright leds so i can do away with the front corner sidelights and colour code them and use the halo's as the sidelights, but thats for a later date, something i can look into while im on the road with it, btw, its gotta be on the road for july as the mot runs out on the mgf im usin for work in august and that needs some repair work doing to it as some thieving little b*****ds ripped the roof to rob the headunit i had in and some #!#!#!#!#!#!witt ran into the drivers wing when it wa parked up and #!#!#!#!#!#!ed off, so that'll be gettin repaired and sold hopefully.

cheers M
 
hello all, just spent the batter part of 4 days trying to get the headlights to power up the way i want them to, the standard wiring on them wont allow all 4 lights to be on at same time when on high beam, first hurdle i hit was actually figuring out the fact that they are switched negatives and not switched lives, second hurdle was down to a lot of head scratching trying to figure out why the cars factory fitted relays where staying latched after i tried to wire the high beam neg to the low beam neg through a relay, they worked fine until you turned the high beam off and they where all staying on, i put that down to surgeing back on the system and holding them latched, i eventually got them work perfectly with 3 relays on each side, when considering im no sparky was a bit of an achievement, but knowing my luck there is probably a module you can buy to do just the job for about 10quid, but anyway its all good and looks good too.

cheers M
 
omg meethrap !!!!
I would love to of seen your face when you dropped the panel off lol
Your a brave man but I guess with a little time and a internet cnnection anything is poss. Going right back to the very first pics, leave the headlight washers on, just colour code them cause as they are in black yes they look like a after thought
 
hello all, sorry to say 7ony but the headlamp washers are none existent, i removed all switches pipe works and modules for them, ive been spending a bit of time sorting out the lighting on it to get it all how i want it to work and ive finally got the boot looking half decent, will stick a couple of pics up shortly to show, ive decided to spray the repaired sections matt black for now till i get it fully finished which should then have given me time to get some cash together for a re-spray, which at the mo im in 2 minds what to do with it, wether to re-spray it to its original green or get it done in black as i have taken a likeing to the bits ive blown in for now, i aint yet seen a black one.


cheers M
 
finally got the interior looking something like with the original steering wheel back on( fleebay £35),and a clock spring for about 30 i think, much nicer in my opinion than the previous owners taste:lol:

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here's the little chuffers i had to make to get the front lights working how i wanted them, 3 x 5 pin relays(if anybody wants to know how i wired them just let me know ill post something up), and before you ask, a diode wired backwards will not do the job.
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after a bit of nice weather and an aerosol can of matt black (at least its not as in your face as the white filler primer was), as you can see the wheel is off as i need to get some new discs and pads( on order), ive also got the fog light covers to fit which i will be doing without fogs for now till i can get hold of a another drivers one or a replacement glass.

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the boot after a few hours of cleaning, wirebrushing, welding, brushable seam sealer and a whole heap of schultz( at least the spare wheel can be secured down now)
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and finally the back lights, which i had to modify the wiring cos they didnt have any fog lights in them, so i wired the top one of the 2 smaller ones on each side into the fog light, just need to put some higher wattage bulbs in them. if i decide to keep it green i will have these colour coded.
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after a nice long weekend and a lot of wirebrushing and more schultz:blink1:, the underbody of the car has been re-coated, the parts i ordered for the front end arrived and all the work has been completed, plus a full overhaul on the rear brakes, and quite a lot of head whacking in the arches went on aswell:mad::mad:, this is how the car is looking upto now.:bigsmile:


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