Well its been 7 years of owning an Evo, loved every minute of owning it and loved every minute of the 50 mile drive back from the importers :crackup:
Quick introduction, I've been in to Evo's since 98 when I laid my eyes on a Red 5, I had previously had a 3 door blue Impreza Sti from Japan, I imported it brand new at the time on an S reg, proper proper car. I still love them now, but I always had the hankering for the 5, lack of info and a baby on the way I never got to have one. That want never went away, I knew one day I would get one, lucky for me I sorted some money and started to look. I did as much research as possible, even back then they obviously had their rust issues etc, so I wanted a fresh import. I found myself looking at SVA's site all the time, they had a lot of nice examples in, I was aware of their lets say "colourful" reviews. However one particular car took my interest. I was never that fussed about mileage or even buying an RS, but it had to be a 5. Anyway, a 10,000 mile 5rs came up. Too good to be true, its been clocked, no way, were some of the comments. However, I went to take a look. In all honesty the mileage was a bonus, my feeling was it would be fresh underneath and easy to take to pieces :mhihi:
I had a BIMTA mileage check done for piece of mind, it came back pukka. It was probably 3 grand more than the average Evo back then, nowadays its nothing! But it was a fair chunk more than an equivalent 5rs there which had 80k, but I liked it, nice original base car.
So the deal was done, picked up the car and drove back to my house. Front end in to the garage and turned off the engine. Little did I know that would be the last time I would drive it :blush::lol::lol:
My original plan was just to own it, thats it. Sit it in the garage and drive it now and again, the problems started when I decided to have a look properly underneath. Now SVA were great, I had it on the ramps and all was great. They had used black waxy (not ****ty underseal) all over the bottom of it on import. Well before I had a look at it. So I decided to wet a rag with some petrol, you know, just to see what's underneath. Curiosity killed the cat, and all that :wallbang:
The problem was, the more I uncovered the more I just wanted to get it all off. So below is going to be a thread on what I have done, hindsight is a wonderful thing. There is a huge amount of things I should and shouldn't of done thats for sure. However, I think the most obvious was I should of reversed in the garage :blush:
Feel free to comment, take the ****, be a dick head or whatever. Its really not my thing doing a thread, I'm pretty private. However its hopefully good reading plus it may be an inspiration to some to do theirs or even for people to think **** that!! Its a massive amount of work and money what's to follow, and this is no big build. As the title suggests this is a rest mod, I'm not in to polishing or staring at a car, I want this to be better than factory and useable . Each to their own of course, but the last thing I would want is to make a car so clean I wouldn't want to use it, lets be honest 50 miles in 7 years is good to keep it low miles, but a bit of a shame :handsup:
. I'm no master mechanic, and I have done most this work with second hand tools and random purchases. I love doing the work myself, thats how you learn.
I didn't even take pics of the car out in the open before I took it apart so apologies :lol: but we all know what a 5rs looks like.
So first question, I'm uploaded to Flikr. Do I need to resize pics?
Quick introduction, I've been in to Evo's since 98 when I laid my eyes on a Red 5, I had previously had a 3 door blue Impreza Sti from Japan, I imported it brand new at the time on an S reg, proper proper car. I still love them now, but I always had the hankering for the 5, lack of info and a baby on the way I never got to have one. That want never went away, I knew one day I would get one, lucky for me I sorted some money and started to look. I did as much research as possible, even back then they obviously had their rust issues etc, so I wanted a fresh import. I found myself looking at SVA's site all the time, they had a lot of nice examples in, I was aware of their lets say "colourful" reviews. However one particular car took my interest. I was never that fussed about mileage or even buying an RS, but it had to be a 5. Anyway, a 10,000 mile 5rs came up. Too good to be true, its been clocked, no way, were some of the comments. However, I went to take a look. In all honesty the mileage was a bonus, my feeling was it would be fresh underneath and easy to take to pieces :mhihi:
I had a BIMTA mileage check done for piece of mind, it came back pukka. It was probably 3 grand more than the average Evo back then, nowadays its nothing! But it was a fair chunk more than an equivalent 5rs there which had 80k, but I liked it, nice original base car.
So the deal was done, picked up the car and drove back to my house. Front end in to the garage and turned off the engine. Little did I know that would be the last time I would drive it :blush::lol::lol:
My original plan was just to own it, thats it. Sit it in the garage and drive it now and again, the problems started when I decided to have a look properly underneath. Now SVA were great, I had it on the ramps and all was great. They had used black waxy (not ****ty underseal) all over the bottom of it on import. Well before I had a look at it. So I decided to wet a rag with some petrol, you know, just to see what's underneath. Curiosity killed the cat, and all that :wallbang:
The problem was, the more I uncovered the more I just wanted to get it all off. So below is going to be a thread on what I have done, hindsight is a wonderful thing. There is a huge amount of things I should and shouldn't of done thats for sure. However, I think the most obvious was I should of reversed in the garage :blush:
Feel free to comment, take the ****, be a dick head or whatever. Its really not my thing doing a thread, I'm pretty private. However its hopefully good reading plus it may be an inspiration to some to do theirs or even for people to think **** that!! Its a massive amount of work and money what's to follow, and this is no big build. As the title suggests this is a rest mod, I'm not in to polishing or staring at a car, I want this to be better than factory and useable . Each to their own of course, but the last thing I would want is to make a car so clean I wouldn't want to use it, lets be honest 50 miles in 7 years is good to keep it low miles, but a bit of a shame :handsup:
. I'm no master mechanic, and I have done most this work with second hand tools and random purchases. I love doing the work myself, thats how you learn.
I didn't even take pics of the car out in the open before I took it apart so apologies :lol: but we all know what a 5rs looks like.
So first question, I'm uploaded to Flikr. Do I need to resize pics?