"the struggle bus" autocross/trackday build
signal34
Band Wagon
So let me introduce myself. My name is Justin, I live near Buffalo, NY. I work in a small collision shop. I'm a disabled vet and college student with a wife and a 2 yr old. Cars are life I even have car tattoos that most people wouldn't believe are real. It's been a long time dream of mine to build a race car. I had an RT4wd a few years ago, but I was to broke to really do anything with it. The path my life has taken since those days has allowed me to pursue this top thing on my bucket list. My brother and I had been looking for a track day project car recently and stumbled across a FWD wagon and scooped it up for $900. We are both gear heads ever since we can remember and are teaming up to build a weekend warrior, and build it well. We will switch off who dailies the car every week in the summer, and split seat time at local events.
To start with the body of the car is rough. Very rough. We decided that, even though I work in a body shop, we aren't going to bother fixing it up. The car is in a friends shop right now getting a high idle issue fixed. Another issue we found with the car is the shifter is extremely sloppy. It's to the point that it always feels like the shifter is in neutral even though the car stays in gear. The more research we did the more we had to realize that our hopes of rear disc brakes are a little to far out of reach. We figured it would be an easy swap but it looks like it's too involved.
The short list of things to do include: completely rebuild rear brakes, EBC disc brakes and pads are on order for the front, basic engine tune up and Royal Purple oil change, strip the remaining interior, Solid shifter bushings are on order, B&M short shifter on order, Still need to pick out what springs we want to run, Corbeau Forzas need installed, wheels and tires need installed, Koni yellows need installed, and I have to contact a local guy about a basic cage for the car.
In the winter we will be building an engine to swap in, but for now we're sticking with the stock motor. The SCCA Autox season starts at the end of april and we don't want to miss seat time.
Parts are flowing in, but spending money is the easy part. Stay tuned for installs, struggles, mishaps, and hopefully an awesome payoff.
3/25/16 Picked up this little guy. The only pic I have as the car sat at my shop, then just today I dropped it off at the mechanics. Body doesnt look bad, but trust me it's beat.
Came home from dropping the car off to find a fresh load of goodies from the brown santa
Wheels we chose are TRMotorsport C1s 15x7 with Hankook Ventus V3 195 50 15
That's where we're at right now. Check back for updates. We got a lot of money to throw at this car it should be interesting. I'm also toying with the idea of starting a video series about this project on youtube. Maybe an MCM/Haggard Garage/Cars and Cameras inspired deal. Focused mainly on this car, but also some of my other adventures and small projects. If I do i'll post up links.
To start with the body of the car is rough. Very rough. We decided that, even though I work in a body shop, we aren't going to bother fixing it up. The car is in a friends shop right now getting a high idle issue fixed. Another issue we found with the car is the shifter is extremely sloppy. It's to the point that it always feels like the shifter is in neutral even though the car stays in gear. The more research we did the more we had to realize that our hopes of rear disc brakes are a little to far out of reach. We figured it would be an easy swap but it looks like it's too involved.
The short list of things to do include: completely rebuild rear brakes, EBC disc brakes and pads are on order for the front, basic engine tune up and Royal Purple oil change, strip the remaining interior, Solid shifter bushings are on order, B&M short shifter on order, Still need to pick out what springs we want to run, Corbeau Forzas need installed, wheels and tires need installed, Koni yellows need installed, and I have to contact a local guy about a basic cage for the car.
In the winter we will be building an engine to swap in, but for now we're sticking with the stock motor. The SCCA Autox season starts at the end of april and we don't want to miss seat time.
Parts are flowing in, but spending money is the easy part. Stay tuned for installs, struggles, mishaps, and hopefully an awesome payoff.
3/25/16 Picked up this little guy. The only pic I have as the car sat at my shop, then just today I dropped it off at the mechanics. Body doesnt look bad, but trust me it's beat.
Came home from dropping the car off to find a fresh load of goodies from the brown santa
Wheels we chose are TRMotorsport C1s 15x7 with Hankook Ventus V3 195 50 15
That's where we're at right now. Check back for updates. We got a lot of money to throw at this car it should be interesting. I'm also toying with the idea of starting a video series about this project on youtube. Maybe an MCM/Haggard Garage/Cars and Cameras inspired deal. Focused mainly on this car, but also some of my other adventures and small projects. If I do i'll post up links.
Comments
Looking forward to the build!