Welp, I'm having a blast with this thing...I'll be honest it's been a bit of knuckle busting rustyness but I'm taking it in small doses and it's actually been fun. After the track event, I drove it once and then got out the murlostands to start on my little laundry list:
Spent the first week leading up to the cruise doing 30-60 minute intervals of fixing leaks, misc problems, etc. Turbo oil drain was leaking after swap swap swapping it too many times, still tweaking the front brake ducting so it doesn't rub, and oh...wait for it...
A good good guy on mnaudi.com offered me up a very lightly used set of Hawk HP Plus pads from his '08 STi...the car has the exact same brembos front and rear. I made a generous (I hope it was enough!) beer donation in exchange and now am the lucky owner of some track pads! Thanks again @supercoolptw!!!
Brakes on an evo/brembo setup are super duper easy once the wheels are off, just knock out the two pins and pull out the pads right? Weeeeeeellllll one of the pins was SO STUCK I pounded on it for probably 45 minutes to get it out and bent a bunch of shit....I don't have an actual hole punch so it was basically typical scheides awesomenesss...comedy of errors....finally got the fronts done, put the wheels back on, and spun the car around to get started on the next project...
New license plates!
LOL seriously though I did finally get the car registered and rosey wants the old plates so I ponied up the $6 for new ones...I very strongly considered getting 'VALENT9' plates but honestly it was another $100....I'm nickle and dimed to death right now, so I just skipped it. Gotta draw a line somewhere.
Eibach stepped up and replaced the broken spring! When I showed htem pics of the rest of the rusty springs, they just sent me a whole new set! Freaking sweet! I am selling them and keeping the Swifts though, better setup for this car and the eibachs can live on in a car that will be on the street more...
Once the rear end was up in the air I started on the brakes...freaking goddamn all of the pins are siezed...fuck it, tapped the one I got half out back in and moved on...30 mins later, lil buddy Turbo and I are staring at this and high-fiving (never done one of these before):
Picked up a set of torque solution bushings for the side mounts and new seals all around since.....another surprise! Both of the existing ones were leaking. Not much, but enough to warrant the $8/side to replace them
Here's something fun, the exhaust sits so close to the diff mount that it actually slowly has been wearing away one of the bolts. Fits like a GLOVE
Few days later, spazzy stopped by and in about idk, an hour? 90 mins? We tore the diff all apart (sorry no pics of the fun gears and such, they are SO COOL!) and 'fixed' the plate arrangement situation:
USDM Stock (note plate plate clutch clutch arrangement on both sides):
JDM Stock and USDM 'rear diff mod' (clutch plate clutch plate clutch plate etc):
Random shot of gearzzzz:
This is supposed to improve lockup and overall help the car rotate out of a corner. Also, the fresh fluid I put in might help a bit too
All buttoned up:
Looks good ok hurry up and put it back in:
Commence scheides fail! After an hour of wrestling (ok STFU it was like two), I figured out what I did wrong:
PS Thanks to Shawn C (@simulatedwoodgrain) for letting me buy you lunch/borrow your press!
Got it back in, bolted all together, good to go! Borrowed a punch tool from @Matt D. and Marky TKR Mark helped me pound the living fuck out of the rear brake pad pins...cleaned them up and voila we have race car brakes all around now! Yaaay!
Today, a trip to Jeff The Alignment Guy. A few quick anecdotes:
"Leave women wanting your approval, they don't like it when you seek theirs."
"what women say and what they mean....to be honest with you, my girlfriend is impressed by me eating a hot pepper even though she pretends she isn't"
"your words say one thing but your damp underpants say something else"
"your inner tie rod end is worn out on driver's side"
"I fucking hate this shit" yes valent9 is a rusty rusty hooker, but I brought along freshy fresh starbucks and a 12-pack of cold Mt Dew and just kept throwing them at him until the job was done...for such a stock setup, i'm happy!
So yea....focusing on budget budget budget for this so I can keep it and keep having fun with it! With the deal on brake pads, a stock turbo back on the car, and a selling other parts...I'm starting to work my way back towards a number I'm happy with invested in this car, still have a set of wheels (well two actually) that I should sell and I'll be in a good spot.
LICP blew off once, my fault, t-bolted that fucker on...boost is up to 28psi now and the car just rips! Next DCTC event is Friday...shakedown time the next few days and then back to the track to test out the new setup