xmaster's PW 04 RA
 

Thought I would finally do this, as some kind of journal of the progression of the car.

When I first got the car (only "mod" was painted white rims) :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Lancer001.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Lancer003.jpg

Then the ugly fin shark grills had to go.

Before :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...psff470448.jpg

After :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps03555233.jpg

Then had to repaint the wheels, as I used some acid cleaner on my painted rims (what a fail...) :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...psaf7b7b1a.jpg

Decided to go white/red for the outside :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps0f359764.jpg

Assembled :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps89adea9a.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...psabf36519.jpg

Then I got in an accident, some tooth-less crack wh*re on her phone rear ended the car behind me which read-ended me (she was going about 70 kph on an exit ramp, right before it merges with a very busy boulevard. If no car was in front of her, she would have rammed into the side of ongoing heavy morning traffic)

Results were a cracked bumper cover, a broken tail light, and a really messed up driver's seat, the wiring all came out the back, like a hedgehog...

Had it fixed, and it was horrible. They ordered a regular Lancer bumper, which you couldn't put the lip on. They told me it would take 2-3 days, it took 3 weeks. Also, nothing was done 20 days after I left the car, and they pretty much rushed the job. Keep in mind the lip was perfectly fine, only a crack in the bumper cover and a broken tail light fixture.

Those are AFTER REPAIR pics :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps6f1575cc.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps9fca910f.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps3109a663.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...psd0342701.jpg

When they took the lip off the broken bumper, they broke all the tabs holding it on the car, so they had to glue the lip to the bumper. The fitment was truly horrible. They didn't do anything to the tail light, they just told me it was normal I could do that ^^ to the light, it was only "unclipped". Truth is they suck at what they do. Only thing they did right was to fix the seat. Anyways I brought the car back, had them buy another lip and tail light then repaint the whole bumper. The lip itself was 900$, I guess that's why they tried glueing it on, to save money. Now the car looks pretty neat.

Then to continue with the white/red theme, before :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...psc5feb7c4.jpg

After :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps8394ba84.jpg

Then the stupid painted rims starting looking like crap again, so I found a crazy deal, 400$ for slightly used Toyo Extenza's HP mounted on stockers, and brand new RA mats.

So I went back to stock look :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps69648d3f.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps70484bb1.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps6051b318.jpg

Aaaaaand this is where the car sits at now. Money was tight last year so I couldn't do much to it, except repairs/maintenance.

Plans this summer, if money can be found, are simple :

Powdercoat the rims white again, with the same red accents to the emblems.
Probably drop it on Megan coilovers as the suspension is shot.
Home Depot front lip (I was actually surprised how nice and tidy this looked on a friend's newer RA).
ES tails (because Raikiri :P).
Paint the lower part of the rear lip black.
Sidepipe exhaust (I don't care about the performance and sound of the aftermarket exhaust, but damn this is something I always thought looked good..)
Find a way to make my headlights stay unfoggy for more than 2 months.
Yellow fogs.
Hella horns (any of you guys had you stock horns completely fail?)

That would pretty much complete my idea of what the car should look like, unless I change my mind. Maybe down the road I'll throw rims in there, when the tires are due.

On the performance side, I bought the car with an unknown aftermarket clutch. This led to CMC and slave failure, so I swapped the CMC for an Evo 8 unit, and rebuilt the slave using an FS-DE MX6 piston. I got an incredible deal from a member here on an AEM CAI, so I had to do it. ******* this thing sounds awesome, especially when it litterally screams at you to shift when you go past 6000 rpms. Puts a smile on my face everytime!

My mounts are all going bad, so I bought a Blox roller stopper, will end up changing the others, or do the DIY urethane mounts this summer. Have done the front brakes right before christmas, went with Professional Raybestos ceramic. I had a seized rear caliper since I got the car, and it recently began working again, so I'll do the rears this week-end (parts are on order right now, Professional Raybestos ceramic again).

Bought the cheapest short throw shifter I could find that included the bushings. SS is in, but it had 2 settings, and the lowest one required cutting the shifter craddle. I decided not to and ended up with an almost stock shifting feel. Will fix that as well this summer. Bought gauges to monitor engine health, still need a few things to install them, probably this spring.

Still have tons of maintenance to do, timing belt (I'm approaching 200 000kms), belt/belt tensionner, ball joints, have a good look at all bushings and suspension components to clear this up before the coilovers go in. Purge valve solenoid.

Well there is more to it, but my hands hurt from typing all this. Comments are welcome!

Very nice post, it had everything it should. Keep it up and keep the pictures of your progress coming. :mitsu:

Nice to be featured lol. I'd just say stay away from painting the lip black. Otherwise seems like a solid plan

I had my stock horn fail last year. It rusted through the center. I replaced it with a spare stock horn I had knocking around. Cant believe I had to take off the bumper just for that.

Looks good man. Sucks how that body shop treated your car. Ive gotten to the point where I dont trust anyone to work on my car except myself, and my grandfather. I had my car in the body shop a while back when a drunk driver scrapped my driver door. They had to replace the door shell and blend the paint they broke clips on my side skirt and then after breaking it I guess they just decided to leave it on because it had paint where the gap should be...

Anyway its good to see another PW RA. Keep her clean and classy and she'll always be nice! :)

I love white on white. You should go back when you can properly powder coat the stockers. Looks nice.

I'd plastidip before powdercoating. At most, you're out $20 and a few hours if you don't like the results.

He already did white wheels before and he liked it. Now he wants to do it again.

Thanks, exactly. In person, after the recoat of last year, the car looked ****ing amazing. There's no other way to put it, I litterally had people screaming at me while at red lights that I had awesome rims. I want it back, I don't care for the stock silver look at all.

I'm not totally sure I'm reading this right... Anyways, white on white is awesome, but it is ALWAYS dirty. In the first year, it stayed ok but I needed to use Mr Clean Magic Eraser at least once a week to keep em white. Which was time consuming, think 15 mins per wheel.

Last year, I spent like 20 hours sanding, prepping and painting the wheels. I always try to do it right once, not badly 20 times. I respected every notices on the paint cans, used Dupli Color wheel paint, then their glossy clear coat. Looked awesome for the first month or so, then they started turning yellow, even if it was acrylic paint. I ended up swapping them for the other wheels I bought. Now I'm looking for the toughest finish I can use, Plasti-dip or powder coat. Anyways, it has to be white and glossy as **** :P

I haven't been trusting anyone with my car, had bad experiences on previous cars and decided I wouldn't let that happen on this one, but the insurance paid for everything, and I truly suck at bodywork. I thought leaving it in the hands of the pros would bring peace of mind. It didn't (quite the opposite).

Also, I will keep HIM clean. I kinda named my car Pacman, When I first got it I was surprised how effortlessly the car would eat away the miles, and this name came in mind, and sticked. I often like to see my car as a young puppy, always wants to play, and has to much energy for it's own good.

Only painting the lower middle part of the rear lip. Kinda gives a mild RRM bumper look, without the fins. I've seen it on someone else's PW RA here, IIRC he lived in PR and had the JDM fogs on, just cant seem to find his thread.

It's pretty and look like it came from factory, which is what I'm going for. Plasti-dip is the way to go.

Found it!!

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/04...erto-rico.html

This guy gave me most of my ideas, I like the look of his car. It's kinda hard to see, but he painted part of his rear lip black. This is what I want to do with mine also.

Wow. Way to hang in :beer:

It'll all be worth it. Great post.

I had my release bearing fail catastrophically on me wednesday on my lunch break. I heard it explode inside the tranny, then this awful sound that oddly resembled throwing a slinky down the stairs with all your strenght. Had to have the car towed, even if I was only 2 corners from home.

850$ later, my car is back on the road. That was expensive as **** but it had to be done. While taking the tranny off, my mechanic found that my cross member was rotten and broken in 2 places. I'll upload the pic later, but the cracks were almost from side to side. This would explain the "spring" feeling I had for a while, I could feel the shifter move in my hand when I stepped on the gas and everything felt loose in the car.


I also learned that my steering box is on it's way out, estimate is around 400$ for a rebuilt, about 150 for labor, and an alignment. So it's another 600$ to fork on that car.

I got an Exedy MBK1007, I must way it's awesome. The bearing was exploded in many many parts, but the clutch was in relative good shape. I highly doubt I had an aftermarket clutch, only thing I know is it was dark blue. The harder clutch feel I was getting must have been coming from bad release bearing and tranny shaft lubrication. I now feels soooo light, it's frightening. Anyways, after all that plus rear brakes, the car is running strong. I'm proud not to be a pedestrian anymore..

I should add that the roller stopper can now be felt again, the wear on my crossmember made it unnoticable in the last few months.

The difference is outstanding. I feel it's running stronger than when I first had it.

my release bearing is shot too..my tranny needs a lot of work done..it's just that money is so damn tight right now..school is killing me..osap isn't helping me at all..my courses are so expensive..but i'm really trying to put away funds for a rebuild..little-by-little i should get there soon..

:mitsu:

The car is looking excellent dude! Any other engine/performance mods for the future?