I bought terracar's old trac a few months back and have been slowly bringing it back to life. Finally decided to make a project thread for it.
Some background: The car had been running quite well and was in great shape until it was in a front end accident back in December 2011. The accident among other damage bent both frame rails in front of the strut towers totaling the car and resulting in a salvage title. The previous owner wasn't able to find the time to make the repairs so the car mostly sat until this summer when I purchased it. I had it shipped to me from Washington state and a week later it was sitting in a local walmart parking lot fresh off the trailer and filthy from the years of sitting
I fortunately had a spare widebody fender and a local junk yard provided a facelift gt bumper (actually my second favorite to the RC), some new turn signals and corner lights, and a 100% intact carbon fiber trim piece. With those parts loaded up in the hatch the car was dropped off at a local body shop to have the frame straightened and the replacement parts mounted up to ensure fitment.
A much needed bath before driving over to the shop.
After a $1300 bill that was all labor she came home and is looking pretty good. Everything lines up nicely and the shop was able to get everything back to matching factory specs. Astute viewers will notice the hood is a bit wonky. Its bent causing a small gap on the passenger side. Its slated to be replaced with an RC hood I picked up recently so I told the shop not to worry about trying to fix it.
With the hardest hurdle cleared I set to work fixing all the issues that would prevent the car from passing the enhanced inspection it's required to go through to receive a rebuilt title. The windshield was cracked and the tires had dry rotted from sitting so both were replaced. I found a good number of vacuum lines that had become cracked and brittle so those got replaced too.
The alternator had failed so I replaced it with a spare unit from my parts bin.
The car came with a trackforged midpipe and KO downpipe but they weren't installed. I got a great deal on an HKS catback exhaust so I installed all 3 with fresh MLS gaskets and while I was in there I replaced the exhaust manifold gasket and all the turbo gaskets too.
The car now runs much better although I'm still trying to hunt down a rubber throttle body inlet as mine is cracked pretty bad.
The brakes did not appreciate sitting for 4 years and the caliper guide pins were not moving freely and the front passenger side caliper was almost completely locked up. I installed new front rotors and pads. Wire wheeled the guide pins, replaced the hardware, and broke the seized caliper loose then lubed everything up. Brakes feel 1000 times better. Tomorrow I'll be tackling the rear.
Some background: The car had been running quite well and was in great shape until it was in a front end accident back in December 2011. The accident among other damage bent both frame rails in front of the strut towers totaling the car and resulting in a salvage title. The previous owner wasn't able to find the time to make the repairs so the car mostly sat until this summer when I purchased it. I had it shipped to me from Washington state and a week later it was sitting in a local walmart parking lot fresh off the trailer and filthy from the years of sitting
I fortunately had a spare widebody fender and a local junk yard provided a facelift gt bumper (actually my second favorite to the RC), some new turn signals and corner lights, and a 100% intact carbon fiber trim piece. With those parts loaded up in the hatch the car was dropped off at a local body shop to have the frame straightened and the replacement parts mounted up to ensure fitment.
A much needed bath before driving over to the shop.
After a $1300 bill that was all labor she came home and is looking pretty good. Everything lines up nicely and the shop was able to get everything back to matching factory specs. Astute viewers will notice the hood is a bit wonky. Its bent causing a small gap on the passenger side. Its slated to be replaced with an RC hood I picked up recently so I told the shop not to worry about trying to fix it.
With the hardest hurdle cleared I set to work fixing all the issues that would prevent the car from passing the enhanced inspection it's required to go through to receive a rebuilt title. The windshield was cracked and the tires had dry rotted from sitting so both were replaced. I found a good number of vacuum lines that had become cracked and brittle so those got replaced too.
The alternator had failed so I replaced it with a spare unit from my parts bin.
The car came with a trackforged midpipe and KO downpipe but they weren't installed. I got a great deal on an HKS catback exhaust so I installed all 3 with fresh MLS gaskets and while I was in there I replaced the exhaust manifold gasket and all the turbo gaskets too.
The car now runs much better although I'm still trying to hunt down a rubber throttle body inlet as mine is cracked pretty bad.
The brakes did not appreciate sitting for 4 years and the caliper guide pins were not moving freely and the front passenger side caliper was almost completely locked up. I installed new front rotors and pads. Wire wheeled the guide pins, replaced the hardware, and broke the seized caliper loose then lubed everything up. Brakes feel 1000 times better. Tomorrow I'll be tackling the rear.