rice4life

Hey guys, I'm new to lancers, but not new to cars. Just picked this car up yesterday, and so far so good! I've worked on RX7's, integras, civics, imprezas, elantras(with a 4g63 derived engine) but never a mitsubishi. I wanted this car because it was 5x114.3, evo VII GTA interior(I'll elaborate later why this was important), upgrade path is pretty straight forward(but complicated), 4g69(vs the 2.0 in the ES) and it was cheaper than most higher mileage base models. It's no evo, so I don't expect it to be many people's cup of tea, but I plan on transforming it into something fun and quirky.



In my free time I'm an automotive photographer(who isn't these days ), detailer, and working on cars(just never my own until this thing )

Paid $2500 and it has just under 73000 miles.



Bad:
Driver door window regulator is ****ed
AC knob is ****ed
Dirty *** engine bay(but it's also good)
Faded paint
Tires are mismatched

Good:
Nearly Unused interior
72,xxx miles
4g69
faded paint will buff out because the metal is a single stage
Wheels aren't too ugly
Damn good sound system
Handles pretty decently
It's Phoenix Red(really pink where faded)
Dirty engine bay, it shows that the PO didn't try and hide any leaks(which there are none) and the timing belt and water pump are extremely clean
Was a kindergarten teacher's car, so no abuse since she bought it in 2006





I learned automotive detailing through trial and error, and feel I'm good enough at it that I could turn the ***** pink back to Phoenix Red.
Before

After



Well, that cleaned up nicely! Only took about 30 minutes for the whole rear quarter panel. Yesterday I did the front bumper, hood, front fenders, door handles, trunk, spoiler, and license plate surround. That just leaves the the doors and roof to finish.


Next, onto the engine bay!
Before:

After:


Not done yet, I removed the intake snorkel and coil pack cover, washed them with dawn and used a plastic conditioner on them to bring them back to black. I also cleaned up where I put my hands and some caps around the bay. I'm going to spend the next week cleaning the crap out of this thing when I'm off work. I'm going to be removing the valve cover to clean it better soon, and maybe paint it, probably going to replace the radiator hoses too while I'm at it.






I have some pretty ambitious plans(like everybody does on here), and am looking forward to doing a few key tasteful mods first(after I fix the window and get new tires).

I've read the **** out of most well known lancer threads to determine the best path for modification, but some mods seem to baffle me.
This is:
Because I'm 5x114.3, I assume the evo 7-9 front brembo rotor could bolt up with little modification besides trimming the dust shield, does the caliper bolt up to the stock bracket, do I need the evo 7-9 knuckle? If so I'll just pick up the whole caliper, rotor, hub/knuckle, control arm assembly. I just want to know before hand, and I doubt MarkOJ1011 would spill the beans on how he did it. I live in a place where a good canyon or mountain road is just a few minutes away, and don't want to cook the stockers, for the type of driving I do I'd need the extra heat dissipation so I don't burn through pads every 6 months.

Stay tuned, I plan on updating this regularly.

I also start a new job 2 miles from where I live tomorrow! So that means more $$ and less miles for the car.

See you in the next post


Edit: Holy NO PIC RESIZING! BRB gonna make them smaller.

electron bom

iTrader: (17)

Looks good! Post some pics of the Evo VII GTA interior, I'm curious to see that

rice4life

Thanks!

All USDM CS lancer Ralliarts came with the GTA interior. It's pretty neat, it has a beautiful red/blue over black center part of the seat with black ish blue ish pseudo suede bolstering. They hold me well, and it's pretty hard to find it in good condition. Luckily mine are immaculate. I'll get pics up in the next update. I've been conditioning the dash, and really scrubbing the interior to get it to like new status.

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Not much has been going on, just cleaning out the fuel system, did the last two fill ups with 91 and added fuel injector cleaner to the tank. Also finished cleaning the engine bay, but I won't post pics of it until I do some work. While I was in there I replaced the air filter.


Remove the License plate frames, and painted the license plate holder gloss black.


Also painted the license plate surround gloss black as well and finished buffing the rest of the car. Still need to get the rear bumper re painted.



The "exhaust" lol. Going to do a proper exhaust down the road. Something much less raspy is in the works. Thinking of going full stainless steel with an oem evo 8 muffler.



Good news: Job pays more than I was hoping.
Got a hook up to use a tactrix cable and a tune for when "things happen"

Bad news: Still haven't fixed the window or AC

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For those of you not familiar with the CS lancers, they are still fairly popular overseas to modify and race. Even when they came out here in the states they competed with the RSX(integra), EP3 Civic Si, GTi, SVT focus, Sentra seR, and a few other FWD "sporty" econoboxes. All of these cars used the tried and true "light weight, rev happy engine" formula to create some fun, relatively quick cars and were all of the fart-canned rage of the early fast and furious days. Even today some of these cars still put down respectable lap times at the track and are constantly pushing the envelope of what an aging FWD economy car is. Unfortunately for the rest of us, as Honda's offerings were better looking and had much larger aftermarket support you don't see as many of these niche cars around or being modded any more in the states.


Gonna post this here to keep my lazy *** inspired lol. Not my car.

rice4life

Started off by buying some Sumitomo HTR ZII's in 215/45/17 up from 205/45/17. So far they provide good lateral grip but when cold they cause a bit of understeer. They are also pretty quiet at the limit, so driving by ear isn't all that possible, you have to feel when it's going to slip instead of listening for them to howl.


Got some **** from Amazon in the mail.


Mesh grille, Ralliart badge, window visors, and a shorty antenna


Got a new head unit with bluetooth and a new subwoofer in the stock box.




Threw on my old Y plate and a plate relocator for ****s and giggles. Also decided to test its offroad capabilities. So far so good, back rotates nicely with a bit of work from the handbrake and it's very well balanced for a 13 year old "sporty" econobox off road.

Also upgraded the alarm system to an avital 3100 as the car only came with one key fob and a someone at work had their alarm on the same channel and they would unlock my car.


So I decided brembos would be a no go for me, and am probably going to go with 2g DSM GSX calipers with outlander rotors and caliper brackets. Going to be searching for an auto AWD outlander in my free time as well.

bakuro117

iTrader: (5)

Car looks good! You got a great deal on it for sure.

I miss my RA everyday. Its good to see people still cleaning up and enjoying these cars. And since your looking for an AWD outlander I assume you are looking to awd swap this thing?

rice4life

Looking to.

Gonna pick up some manuals to get some wiring diagrams to compare the 4 speed AWD INVECS-II and the FWD INVECS-II in the ralliart.

Considering that automatic AWD outlanders are dirt cheap and have the same 4g69 that the ralliart has it shouldn't be nearly as expensive or complicated as something like doncarbone's or anyone elses. All I need is one parts car with a good transmission, wiring harness, PCM, rear diff, and floorpan.


When I said my new job paid more than I was expecting I meant it lol. I could go out and buy an evo but I'd much rather build something more unique.


It won't be for a while though, still hoarding parts to get the car where I want it before I touch the drivetrain. I just want to be prepared, hopefully I can get an outlander for sub $1500 in acceptable condition.

rice4life

Got a mad tyte jdm broadway mirror

about a week later I was bored and had a bunch of extra $$$ sitting around so I bought coils

These are not the Basis Z's. These are rebuildable and made in japan(unlike the Basis Z). For JDM points I decided to go with Tein.

Tomorrow I'm installing the coils.

MasterShake19

Nice! suspension upgrades FTW !!

rice4life

Thanks!

Got them installed last tuesday!



Here's a pic of the car during the install. I'll post up some pics once I get the height adjusted.

The stock springs/shocks were so tired on all four corners that when the top nut that holds the shock and spring together to the top hat came off it literally did nothing. For those of you who haven't done suspension work, the springs should rapidly decompress and shoot off, which is why it's recommended to use a spring compressor.

The car now sits higher at Tein's recommended start height than I was on all four blown shocks.


I'll post more up when it happens. Big things in the works, just have to find time to do them.

bakuro117

iTrader: (5)

Car is looking good man!

Just as a note on this portion. I have done 3 or 4 Ralliarts, and my Evo. None of them had much compression on the springs. They're just built that way for some reason. The Evo had some but not as much as some Hondas I've done before.

rice4life

Never seen such limp suspension lol





Adjusted the coils a couple of days ago.

On top of that my sunroof motor came undone

Going to pull the headliner and get that fixed soon.


Looking at getting the trunk shaved and thinking of getting the "evo X" style rear bumper to move the license plate down a bit. I have a body work guy and I would really love to paint this car Rotor Glow Orange. Once I score some evo headlights I'll be working on the front of the car.

I'd love to get the exterior done before turbo and "other things" lol.

Thinking of doing:
Evo 8 front w/ ralliart CF lip and power CF mirrors

or

Evo 9 front w/ CF lip

hmmmmmmmmmmm. The price difference between the headlights are really off putting. I'm going to retain the CS7a radiator support and fab some brackets probably. Not going to do the rear because I don't want an evo clone.

rallia

Great looking car! I've been working on a silver 04 ra. Owned since I was 18. Was looking into a bigger brake kit for my car the outlander deal sounds decent! Do you have any more info on it or is it posted on a thread already!?

rice4life

So the outlander's rotors fit perfectly onto the hub, you just need the outlander caliper bracket so the caliper sits further out to accommodate the larger rotor. The 2g DSM Eclipse caliper works with the outlander bracket as well, or you could just use the stock 2 piston outlander caliper.

I have a friend with a 1g tsi with the outlander setup and he likes it.


So last saturday I picked up some evo 8 enkei wheels that were painted black. I sanded down the curb rash and painted them matte bronze metallic, but it's more gold lol.



Turns out one of the old wheels had a bend in it. No bueno

My car is actually getting to where I'm actually happy with the way it's coming along. Lowering it didn't make me all that happy, but proper fitting wheels with the lows makes me really see the future of this car.

I also bought a vented hood I have sitting in my room. Can't wait to get it installed. Also going to be installing a ducktail spoiler next weekend.

beelee

Looks great! Hope to see more pics soon with new hood!

rice4life

Thanks, I've been contemplating selling it and buying an evo 8 or an STi, but this damn thing is growing on me.

Threw on a windshield banner and the ducktail a while back. Hood has been sitting in my room for a couple of weeks.