Lacking Motivation...

With any project, especially a large one, there is always a feeling in the beginning of, "RAWR, THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!"  Unfortunately, that feeling eventually wears off, and sometimes before you are finished, leaving a bunch of stuff to be done that you really don't want to do.  That's where I am, I guess.  I need to finish this transmission swap and the brakes.  I need to fix the A/C leak and get a new belt on it.  I just can't get motivated.

Subaru Time Lapse Rally Car Assembly

An old time lapse video that I found on YouTube of the crew at Vermont Sports Car stripping a brand new 2008 Subaru WRX STi and turning it into a race car for Subaru Rally Team USA.  This would be fun.

This little guy gets it...

This guy gives the little one a ride in his rally car.  The kid gets it, obviously.  He will be hooked for life, now.  Welcome, little man.

Fighting every step of the way...

Sometimes, I think this car is cursed.  It has fought me every step of the way.  Seized bolts, an engine failure, transmission problems, and the rest.  I finally got the driver's side brakes done, including new rotors, Powerstop Evolution Plus Pads, and regreased pins with new boots.  I also painted everything with some Duplicolor black caliper paint I had laying around (it needs touched up).  The passenger's side upper pin is completely seized though.  It doesn't matter how much heat and WD-40 I lay on it, or how much I beat it, it will not come out.  So, I'll be ordering a new bracket and set of pins, leaving the car in the garage until I can get some spare time after my work week to get that side finished.

Tomorrow, I am going to start taking out the old transmission.  Since I recently had them apart, I'm not so worried about separating them, but I am worried about the transmission mount/crossmember bolts.  That should be fun.

What a rookie!

I actually got to wrench on the car today, although, it wasn't as much as I would have liked.  I only go the plugs, plug wires, and coil done.  The old plugs were pretty worn/widely gapped, coming in a .060 or wider.  I also found the boot on the number four plug wire ripped.  Either way, I shouldn't have anymore trouble with my misfire while it's wet.  I did make a rookie mistake and forgot to gap the new plugs on the driver's side, so I had to pull them all over again.  Anyone who has a DOHC Subaru knows how much of a pain this can be.

Working in my engine bay reminded me just how dirty it really is after my last motor blew up and spewed oil all over the place...I need to take some degreaser and a hose to it when I'm done with all this work.

I also found out what the little rattle was under my car when I hit bumps...left a swaybar endlink bolt loose when I did the front end rebuild.  That's fixed now, too.  Finally, some progress...feels good.

Lets do work.

I was fortunate enough to get the weekend off, so I took some time to clean up the garage and try to do a little organizing (I really need to build some shelves).  This makes room for my next week's worth of work: front rotors, Powerstop pads, freeing and regreasing the front slide pins, new Goodridge G-Stop brakes lines, plugs, plug wires, ignition coil, exhaust gaskets, fog lights, and replacing the transmission, as well as the shift linkage, clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel.  Hopefully, I can work on getting some summer tires and springs after all this is done.

New paint

I have been up in the air as to how I want to paint the car.  It's going to be a cheap job, as the Subie is more of a beater than anything.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy driving it, but it's pretty beat up and I don't really care enough to put all the effort into fixing every little ding that the car has.  I had planned on painting the car with Rustoleum, either by spray can or by the infamous roller paint job, and my choices are between black or charcoal gray.

I was messing around in the garage, yesterday, kind of aimlessly.  I found a couple cans of semi-gloss black, some sandpaper, mineral spirits, and my replacement fender I got from another SLi member.  Behold my awesome rattle-can skills.

I'm really liking the semi-gloss black.  The fender has a couple of very small dings, which are easily hidden.  I'm pretty sure the whole car will get treated with semi-gloss black and probably do bronze for my summer wheels.  I always wanted a black car.