Getting low

Yint joined the lowered club yesterday, November 16th, 2010. He was inducted in by none other then me, Squarebush who joined the club the end of last month. Its now all about cornering, scraping, and of course morelow. 

Yint's bumper tilts up a bit in a rally inspired positive ground clearance way, please expect a fix for this "problem" among other creative finishing touches. Right now both cars are sitting in a higher more compliant stance... Something you shouldn't expect to last long. Low is an addiction.

Click to the break for more pictures from last night

Chassis Rigidity is God

Tired of a soft, uncommunicative, and unresponsive rear end, I finally caved and bought the rear strut brace I wanted for my '98 Legacy wagon.  I could have gone with a sedan brace from eBay intended for the rear of a second generation Impreza since the bolt pattern is the same and the price is right, but opted for the pricier Whiteline unit for its rigid bracket design and quick-release option (also intended for the Impreza since it was easier to find cheaper than the Legacy version; can't imagine what's different).

Clean install, took about an hour.

I had forgotten the reduction and body roll and improvement in steering precision I felt when I installed my front strut brace a while ago.  The difference the rear brace made was astonishing--to think chassis flex alone was causing all my problems blew my mind.  The rear no longer lurches to the outside of the corner slowly telling me nothing about traction; I now have an idea where the rear wheels are to a few inches, rather than guessing in terms of feet.  For must-have mods, Chassis Rigidity is God.

Discrete, and all my junk still fits.

Caswell at SEMA

I noticed that none of my trusty blogs caught any of the Bill Caswell saga. Anyway, I wish I had been there to witness the glory that is ultra cheap motor sport, and super rushed construction.

More on the build and some kick ass fabrication pictures found here.

I am dying to see how this all turns out. From a build stand point I think he has done something truly amazing, but knowing Caswell he is totally gonna finish this epic race. A race he started the super hard way.

Additions

This week I stared putting money into beefing up sound in my car.

I have two major (for me) components on the way. This will be my first adventure is performance sound. I am already addicted to buying one more part--thinking, "Hey is there room for one more speaker?"

I've created a monster now, I am totally hooked on all this after-market car junk. It used to be just about making a tad more power or grip, now it is a bit of dress up, a little bit of flash. I like it so far but I think I am going to be broke really really fast.

Anyway, Polk PA 330 2channel Amp

Polk db series 6.5" component system

Now I am up to my neck is wires trying to figure out how I am going to do this all. All in all it is going to be fun, hopefully rewarding, and I'll take a bunch of pictures.

Ideas Flowing

So I know that no one here knows my car yet, but you all will soon. I drive a '97 Impreza RSL, which is a '97 Impreza L with a Phase II 2.5L Impreza engine in it. It has a Forester "anti-lift kit" and a Whiteline 19mm front sway bar. And a few other small things. Its not done yet, and I have some ideas kicking it around to get it "done" for now.

 

Follow the break for more!

Cool Stuff from Today.

Started some accent work. Can't wait to get my hands on a matching steering wheel... You know, the WRX Momo unit.




So I went to the store for this...




And like a total sucker ended up with this...




Oh yeah, Craftsman 302 piece set. Box fell off a pallet so I got 25% off!

I guess I should do some wrenching to make back some money. Let me know if you got some jobs you want done!

I Was on Nasioc and I Found This...

Yeah pure gold, bet you will read my site now...

Find her here on Facebook and show your support.  Also if you click the break, you will be rewarded!

Yint's Weekly Update 11/02/2010

Okay, since last I posted I replaced the exhaust headers on my cousin's Phase II 2.5L N/A Subaru.

The sound these headers make is quite nice.

I also did a large job on a 2004 Legacy. Timming belt, clutch, and head gaskets. The owner of the car was quoted $3800 at the shop for this service, I managed to do it for him for $700.

Then I picked up my next job. A Hyundai Accent that has a blown engine. Rented a trailer from U-Haul for $55; I would have used a two-wheel tow dolly, but the U-Haul in town didn't have any. Got the car home, and tore the engine down this morning. Tomorrow, I will be pulling the blown engine the rest of the way out, and if I have time, I will be going to get the donor engine from a junkyard about 60 miles away.

Pictures... Pictures, Pictures.

Lets get some before and afters going...

Yint's before...

After. We will get some serious actions shots, right after a good solid tune.

Two more after the break...

Slammed - Pt.2

Here you go... The moment you may not even know you were waiting for.

Nii trimming the strut for new collars, the rest after... the... break... :-P

Yint's Weekly Update 10/23/2010

Okay, so--Squarebush asked me to do a log of what I am up to, so here is my first installment detailing what I have done (of interest) over the course of the last week. 

So, I started of the week by cleaning my garage. Seeing as it is now primarily my work space, I went about re-organizing everything, and in general making it a much nicer place to work. I couple of key features of my renovated work space are a newly installed car radio(on my work bench) that is powered by an ATX power supply, and a new tool box made using an old dresser, some plywood, and drawer sliders bought at Home Depot for about $7 each set.

My first car work of the week was replacing the brake pads and rotors on a 2002 Ford Expedition. Brakes are generally pretty easy, but I have to say Ford really must have given these brakes about 5 minutes of total design time. The brake is entirely put together in a grooved track design, and in order to put it back together a mechanic need about twelve hands. Mostly my complaint about them is that you can't simply put the pads in. You have to assemble the brake in a specific order. Starting with the caliper, you add the outside brake pad, slide on the brake bracket PART of the way, insert the inner brake pad and then finish sliding the bracket into place. Not a terribly great design.

Just now, I went to AutoZone to meet up with my next client who owns a 2004 Legacy. He came to me expressing that he needs new head gaskets. After Some discussion, leading to me finding out his car is about to hit 100k, I recommended replacing the trimming belt while we were at it, and then also the clutch. We bought the necessary parts and set a date for next weekend. In the process of ordering parts we talked quite a bit about his car history and I was shocked. He has near literately been raped on ever minor difficulty he has had with his cars. The best example of this was when he told my about the CV boot that was torn on his car. He took it to a local dealership and ended up paying over $500 to have all 4 CV joints on his front axles replaced. I just spent 2 minutes on Google and found NEW whole axles for less than $60 each. Factor in 1.5 hours of labor, and I am still not coming up with $500; and all they did was rebuild the existing axles. Why do people pay so much for such un-necessary work?

Yint - Part.1

I too will be contributing to this Blog. I'm Mike Carlstrom, also know as: Yint. I got my start in driving with a 1995 Dodge Neon. Not my first choice of cars, but it was the "kids car" for my family. It took me about 2 years to blow that up, and I was rewarded with my second car, a... 2000 Dodge Neon, but at least this one had power steering. I drove that for another 2 years, before finally I entered the world of proper cars and got my 2002 Subaru Impreza TS. (only slightly photoshoped)

Having reached a point in my life where I could actually make enough money to do anything considerable to the car, I decided the best place to start modifying it would be to put a WRX engine in it. So I did. I will likely do a full right up on the swap, but that is a job for another day. In short, I bought a 1997 impreza base model that had already been swapped to a WRX engine and a Legacy GT drive train, all the guts from that car and put it into my TS, and took the TS engine and drive train and put it into the 97.

 
Now I am working as a backyard mechanic while finishing up my BS in mechanical engineering. I have done quite a few jobs now, ranging from a brake light switch on a 1988 Volvo 244, to a top end rebuild on a Ford Windstar. My next big job I already have lined up will be buying a junkyard engine, rebuilding it, and swapping it into a 1997 Hyundai Accent. I will be starting that job in the next week (I hope.) The customer hasn't responded to my last email where I detailed out all of what I would be doing, and how much it would cost.

Squarebush - Part.1

So I will be contributing a lot of content to this blog/project. I'm Paige "Squarebush" Rowntree.

I like to mold a variety of automotive styles and ideas into my work. I'm a fan of anything different no matter how not different it really is. I've grown up with a variety of different types of cars in the family. We started off with Volvos, moved onto a Landrover, had a Mazda hatchback, a couple of Mercedes, a couple of Jetta diesels, and recently a couple of Subaru Legacy wagons.

I got my start working on my vintage Mercedes projects. The main work was on a fantastic 1972.

Here is a little background for you.

1972 Mercedes 280se 4.5

Dirty engine from years of use

Getting cleaner

Final product of months of work resulting in basically abandonment of the project due to electrical complications

Join us later for Part.2 of my introduction, I will be discussing my more recent and sucessful mods and projects, or at least stuff I can still find pictures of.