The Black Bus
 

Well another introduction thread for Spektre and kamimages...

Whilst browsing gumtree for parts for the blue GC8, I came across a add for a front impact 2000 RX impreza. For the price, I couldn't say no. So a road trip evolved and Kelly, MJ (my daughter) and Dave all travelled down to Mandurah to pick the car up.

Car on trailer and ready for the trip home. Thanks to Quexy for lending me the trailer!

[IMG]http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o662/Craig_Maloney/fronttrailer_zpsa0439f50.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o662/Craig_Maloney/backtrailer_zps6597cb8a.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o662/Craig_Maloney/sidetrailer_zps1b74a9ce.jpg[/IMG]

So get it home, have a look at it and realise that obviously its alot of work to make it a fully fledge WRX racecar, but the year is long and the project will come along nicely.

First up was new years day and sporting hang overs Dave, Bob and myself started pulling everything out that was broken or non-essential for a racecar. Headlights, front bumper and bumper support, bonnet and battery all gone. Seats, carpets, boot lining and dash mat are all salvageable and will be in a for sale thread soon. Airbags had gone off but doesnt matter as I have to take it out for CAMS regs anyway.

before removal of stuff
[IMG]http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o662/Craig_Maloney/PhotoGrid_1357041731813_zps0b89527d.jpg[/IMG]

after removal of stuff
[IMG]http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o662/Craig_Maloney/PhotoGrid_1357041878982_zps85ac9e53.jpg[/IMG]

the boys hard at work, found $2.75 in the car so its cheaper than i thought!
[IMG]http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o662/Craig_Maloney/PhotoGrid_1357041966262_zps5283c71e.jpg[/IMG]


Engine and gearbox are from a RX impreza so a EJ201 and the gearbox is a RX 5 speed aswell so that will all have to come out and get sold on.

Needs/wants list at the moment:

Rear hubs for 2 pot conversion - sourced
2 pot rear and 4 pot front brakes
rear end linkages and sway bar
dba5000 fronts and 4000 rears with project mu pads

obviously gearbo, engine, engine loom etc etc but am getting th ecage and interior up to spec before engine process...

wish us luck and thanks to Dave, Bob, Quexy and kel for all the help so far!

I have 2 pot rear brakes off my bug if you are keen sold the fronts ages ago and will not be going back to them and they been sitting around for 4 years now

WTF this will never be a fully fledged WRX race car......oh wait, this is not the "Cat has a dak" thread (too soon?)

Good luck mate. Hope all goes well.

ive got a cheap 2.5ltr short block requires set of bearings, been told its got cp pistons in there too

I saw this one as well Daz... def good price! Gonna watch this thread like a hawk.

How much for the block AJ?

So much potential in this. Keen to lend a hand when possible.

Maybe I missed it.... but you already have the Blue GC8 which is caged etc, so why are you doing this one? Why not improve the Blue GC8?

the cage in the blue one needs addition side impact bars and some other mods to be made to the cage to get it to IPRA levels.
the car would also requires sound deadning removed and a bunch of other things that need fixing/replacing to be remotely competitive.

think of it as the blue one is a learning curve before the black one gets the super serious treatment.

Munya - keen as mustard, PM me

Safe - fucking lol

Ajay - thanks mate, i'll keep it in mind

Alex - major loop is only 37mm and cage loop has to be 42mm... so a whole new cage is required.

Kel and I have said we would rather be able to drive the entire year whilst doing this and knowing everything about the car rather than keep fixing parts.

Will keep this updated, im sure it will become a very communal car...

[QUOTE=ALEX.;729899]Maybe I missed it.... but you already have the Blue GC8 which is caged etc, so why are you doing this one? Why not improve the Blue GC8?[/QUOTE]

I get bored easily? It's like changing my hair colour...not that you boys would notice.

Nah seriously gives us the blue gc8 to play with and no huge hurry to get this together...we like a project...

pm sent

Nice. I thought that may have been the reason.
But admit it: you guys only bought this car as an excuse to invite friends over constantly to 'work' on the car (read: consume beer and make fart jokes)!
Touché.

What events do you plan on entering where they would scrutinise the car and cage that much?

Improved production or street cars at barbs...

Awesome! Same as Ash.

ooo saw this on fb earlier, looks like a good base for a track car :cool:

Because 2 racecar.

Like it a lot!

PS: Will have to come down and say thankyou in person at the next No Limits for some of the photos you guys took of the piggy, they look great!

Day 2 of Car deconstruction
 

Day 2 of car deconstruction....

With my little one in daycare and my wifey off doing girly things for once, it was a great day to get a heap of stuff done on the black bus.

I started taking more of the dash apart to egt to the sound deadening that jester told me to get out behind the dash. That was a fucking mission and involved new tools (tamper proof stuff for the airbags) and alot of sweat. Dave came over again because we are lazy and not back at work yet, alot of swearing, tar sticking and hulk mimiking the dash got released, sound deadening out and the aircon radiator element in the dash taken out. We also took out the heating element but as Im writing this i realised i need this to demist the windows... :(

The result:

[IMG]http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o662/Craig_Maloney/IMAG0118_zps5529d6aa.jpg[/IMG]

13kg of sound deadening and blown airbag...

[IMG]http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o662/Craig_Maloney/IMAG0117_zps13a52209.jpg[/IMG]

So next up is dry ice to take out the rest of the sound deadening, save for roll cage whilst putting in bitz and pieces that i am slowly aquiring.

The wrx loom shall be picked up on sat and munya is selling the 2 pots for me aswell....

seems to be going well at the moment!

How are you going to fix/repair the front end damage?

new bonnet, new top radiator support and thats about it, it looked alot worse thank it was...

[ATTACH]9912[/ATTACH]

Lmao...because no front end...

Massive update time.

Was originally just going to gradually get all the driveline gear needed to convert the rx to a wrx driveline. Was scouring the gumtree ads to find the parts need, found a cross member that I was going to get to change over so it didn't foul the dump pipe from the wrx motor.

Came across one add for a wrecking wrx and enquirer to the guy. Ex project that engine was gone and the guy couldn't afford to do the spray painting. Went and had a look, took some photos of gearbox numbers etc and went away. A bit of bargaining later and we had come to a deal...*

So organized a time frame and borrowed Bob from the forums and we took a drive yesterday morning and started. Sated with the exhaust off and then got down and dirty... Btw it was fucking hot yesterday, not the greatest day to be rolling under cars. Car up on stands and got to take out the tailshaft, that dropped out easy, heap of oil residue under the car. Jacked up the front support beam and gearbox, dropped all the bolts, gently dropped it all down. Pretty easy actually.

Moved to the back end, unbolted the k frame whilst supporting the diff and I t all dropped out.

*2 hours from start to finish, pretty happy with that!

Went back to bobs, had lunch and drove back to mine where he helped me take it all out of my car. Degreaser it all and high pressure cleaned it, came p the goods. Under all the grease and oil found white line front end links. Win!

Gearbox is a 4.44 5 speed, should be great! Sated on the diff, drained all the oil out of it, was redline shockproof in there, all the teeth looked good and clean!

Grabbed some wire brush cleaners for my drill, and started on the diff this morning. Coming up. The goods! Gonna wire brush, prime and paint the underside as there is a bit of surface rust in some parts etc...

Wish us luck! Will keep you updated.

Was stinking hot yesterday!! Bet it was awful under a car!

Good work!

Bob and I were leaking bad...

Never had so much water to drink in my life. Top days effort all round and some nice running gear boot. Surprised you are back into it again today. Needs pics. :D

sweet pickup, got some moar piccies?

Yeah comjng, have to upload them...

[IMG]https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/734378_10151260740502218_1656630538_n.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/295411_10151260740722218_270461346_n.jpg[/IMG]

Top is all the parts cleaned and degreased. Second pick is me wire brushing the diff. Looking at colour coding the main bits to make it all uniform. Bit ocd but it'll look good

this is awesome keep up the good work :)

How long did it take you? Did the plan work..............was waiting for pics and updates.

Good stuff guys. How long before its gonna be running?

timeframe is:

Spending a romantic evening on Valentines Day night to dry ice the sound deadening with the mrs...

After that, pull all the RX running gear out incl engine, sell off

clean, spray etc all the parts we got and bolt together then get it rolling again.

order roll cage and wait for it to arrive

whilst waiting, keep buying things to put on it to get it a 'rolling shell' so it can get welded up

after that put it all back together then research engines and ecu's

in short, november this year

[QUOTE=Spektre;736326]in short, november this year[/QUOTE]
bwahahahahahahahahaha quoted.

Very good. Where are you getting the cage from? I'm currently looking myself at the moment for one.

[QUOTE=PIGSTi;736307]How long did it take you? Did the plan work..............was waiting for pics and updates.[/QUOTE]


2 hours in the heat, was gonna send ya some updates but I was assuming it was hotter in your house than in direct sun!

[QUOTE=RoughStilin;736329]Very good. Where are you getting the cage from? I'm currently looking myself at the moment for one.[/QUOTE]


customcages from the uk... group n version

Massive day yesterday in scorching heat in WA.

Got a buyer for all the RX running gear so it had to come out... This was great timing as we were just about ready to start preping the shell for cage works etc!

Engine, gearbox, front brace, rear brace, diff etc all still in the car. So i put on cold drinks and beers for the boys and wwe had 4 of us go at it for most of the day... 10am till 3pm was not a bad effort... thanks to the doctor, bob and jester for the help!

Have sourced the 4 pots and 2 pots from a member on Rexnet and they are on their way, dogbones have been sourced from a local guys in WA for the rears...

List to do;

strip and clean running gear again. kept most of it together the intial degrease but will seperate all of it to get a thorough clean.
replace all bushes, looking at powerflex kit for gc8 then get whiteline alk and rear sway bar links
degrease and prep engine bay (cv boot were split in rx so grease everywhere)
strip sound deadening out (valentines day romantic dinner with the mrs!)
source rollcage
source dba 500 rotors for front, 4000 for rear (new) HEL braided brake line all round, project mu H16-03 pads
source tarmac coilovers (std brand - 10kg front, 8kg rear)

pics of the weekends job below!

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/28923_10151273865262218_762067439_n.jpg[/img]
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/534995_10151273865517218_874445082_n.jpg[/img]
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/307438_10151273865672218_2131899609_n.jpg[/img]