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I know there is a lot typed here but i am trying to be thorough with this build. I will post all prices for everything i have installed on this vehicle right up until i finish the project. The price for me to do what i have planned may be different than what it would cost someone else as i already have a Lancer and i acquired some things as gifts or cheap from friends/family. I will make a full list at the end of this first post and keep it updated on all prices. That said, lets get into this project of mine...
I recently purchased a 2002 Lancer ES. Red paint, straight body. Only damage was to the drivers side fender and the rear bumper cover is not attached properly. Besides that the only damage is bad paint. Saw the car on craigslist a while ago for $900 posted as needing a clutch. Sent my buddy the link but he declined it. Few weeks later price dropped to $500. Now he got my attention so i messaged him. Arranged to meet and he told me $200 if i take it next day. And i did.
i took this picture the day after i brought it home. It was late at night when i got it in the driveway and still had to take the truck i borrowed back and bring my car, the silver Lancer, back to my house. The silver Lancer is an 03 OZ Rally edition with a beat up body. If you want to see how i started on that car and the progress i made go ahead and click the link below.
Unfortunately, i only have room for one of these cars. I chose the red Lancer for the straighter body. Craigslist ad said it needed a clutch but after seeing it myself i believe the clutch is fine but the slave or master cylinder is bad. Probably slave cylinder. Now unfortunately for the Lancer transmission on these body styles. You have to drop the transmission to replace the slave cylinder anyway so i may as well do the clutch at the same time. Evo has it easy and the Slave cylinder is bolted outside the transmission. Regardless, im gonna fix it.
So, the car had been sitting for a few months. 5-6 according to the seller and it had its fair share of moss and such growing on the car. But it also had mildew on every piece inside the car as well. Parked it on the lawn, opened the doors and stripped all the interior short of the dash and headliner to power wash and clean everything off and kill the mildew. This was a full days worth of work and even 4 days later i am waiting on the seats to dry, storing them inside during rainy days. In a shed, not back in the car lol.
i did not take much for "before" pictures of how gross the interior was but you can see some of it in the top 2 photos.
Because i eventually want to paint the car a matte or satin black, and also because i want to keep the cruise control and gauge cluster. I am going to completely swap interiors to the black interior that is in the silver Lancer. Dash harness as well as motor harness, and ecu. Only thing i will not be swapping is the deck lid because of the third brake light being behind the window on the ES compared to in the spoiler on the OZ. I will keep this thread updated as i make progress on the car, i have an idea for the front end that i have not seen before so i want to try it. Its going to confuse a lot of people that understand the visual difference between Lancer and Evo front clips as long as it works out how id like but i think it will look good. Im not going to ruin that surprise though...
F.P.C. - From Parts Car
Prices on everything so far: $1080
02 Lancer ES - $200+$400 at DMV
03 Lancer OZ - gift (parts car)
BLOX vortex generator - $40
LED light bars - $180 total
MTX Sledgehammers - $200
subwoofer/amplifier wiring - $60
Custom cold air - built/gift
TEIN springs - F.P.C.
aftermarker speakers - F.P.C.
carbon fiber hood - F.P.C.
Alpine deck - F.P.C.
OZ rims - F.P.C.
Gold rims - gift
Last edited by 03 RALLY LANCER; Apr 18, 2017 at 01:15 AM.
So i got around to swapping the carpet and seats yesterday. Didnt finish until it was already dark so i was pretty tired and called it a day. That was my one day off so i was glad i got that much done. It did take a little bit of custom fabrication to make the ES interior fit properly into the OZ body. But its going to take more work to make the OZ back seats fit the ES body. And heres why...
Top picture.. you can see the latches that the folding seats grab on to and the middle does NOT have a hook to hold the solid back seat in the top center.. Bottom picture.. no hooks for the folding seats. And no threads for them either although the mounting holes are still there. Also you can kind of see the middle hook i was referring to that the top picture doesnt have.
Besides that hook the plastics from the OZ will pop into place on the ES just fine. All those holes are the same. I drilled that hook out of the red one and welded it into the silver lancer. But now i will show you why the folding seats from the OZ will take a bit more work to install into the ES. First two pictures are outlined to show the bolts mounting location and the lack of it in the red ES. Bottom pictures should be obvious enough lol.
These were the initial issues we ran into when trying to swap everything over. Not too bad to fix bit it does take some fabricating to make it all work. Only other difference we found first day was a single bolt.This is just to mount the bottom middle of the solid seat into place, as you can see the OZ still has the spot marked for it. I personally didnt bother with this bolt. I figured the bottom seat will hold the back in good enough with the outside 2 bolts as well.So, after i called it a night i parked both cars and went to sleep. Got up for work the next morning and as i was about to leave i find out the seat belt latches from the OZ to the ES arent compatible eith each other. My seat belt wont latch and i dont have time to fix it. So i drove around today basically without a seat belt. I ran it across my body like normal but i had to sit on it instead of buckling it so i wouldnt get pulled over. So once i got home i went to swap out the seat belts and have the black clips in the red lancer with the black interior. The plugs are different as well so i have to swap the latches over from the black and grey seats. Simple fix for now since it was late..
I just swapped the whole damn seat for now.. i will get around to changing the buckles nezt time i dont have work. This is my fix for now. Passenger seat still wont buckle but i dont need to drive anybody around anyway. In an emergency i will tell them to get in the back. But so far these are the issues i have come across trying to swap interiors between OZ and ES models. If anybody else is interested in trying this now you know what you have to do to make it work. Any other issues i come across i will add in a later update. Hope this helps.
heres the pictures from when we finished moving the carpet and seats over. You can see the deck lid, door panels, and dash are all still black for now. Will be swapping those at a later time as well.
You should pick up 03-05 Evo cloth seats it would make a great addition
are the mounting brackets the same as the lancers? As well as the seat belt plug? I have looked into doing that before but didnt find too much info on it so i didnt commit to it yet. If its a simple swap then i will go that route. My other route is aftermarket race seats. I appreciate the input though.
Apr 18, 2017, 12:52 AM
