12/30/2010

@ Home 4 New Year

Yeah its been a busy week at the garage.. I got everything ripped off I needed to, I figured how to do the tricky welding bit.. Next week I can start doing proper work, welding, grinding & painting :) However now its time to celebrate new year ! :)

So yeah, these two show most of the stuff I've ripped off the car. Gonna sand and grind the axle bits and brakes and paint them nice.. I wish I could take them for sandblasting & powdercoating, but I havent got the monneyhh. :( So this'll have to do. Also I'd like to change the bushings but can't find aftermarket ones, and I reckon they cost a fortune in the dealer.. Have to find out.



The filler pipes are still on, fuck they're corroded, and I don't know where to find new ones.. Maybe the MX-6 part will fit, will have to find out, cos' fixing those is gonna be hell.

And I also got this baby as an xmas present from my friend.. very nice ! ;)



So I'll be back hopefully after a week or two hopefully with pics that show some real progress. I wanna get this baby done and runnin' before the summer.. oh yeah can't wait. :)))


As for now, happy New Year 2011 ! :)

12/28/2010

Merry XMas!

Christmas is time for meeting your friends, having a laugh, ripping your Probe apart.

Yeah, theres just too many rust spots out there. Spot painting 'em makes no sense, so I'm gonna take fuel tank and the rear axle and the exhaust off, grind the whole rear area from rust, sand it down and paint it. It's a pretty big project but I hope my vacation will be enough. Also I got the gas bottle for the weld as xmas gift so I can finally start working with that too. Then after that comes the new brake and fuel lines...

No pics until I get home. :(

And happy New Year!

11/21/2010

Yepp

So I got the garage, it's fine, 1,5m deep pit easy to work under the car (fell in there already by accident, nice depth ;D). The landlord is a bit strange but I'll live with it.

Anyway, as I prolly told before I'm totally broke right now so I can't afford to start with the engine stuff, even though I'd rather. As an unpleasant surprise I found a few things that are gonna keep me busy and won't cost that much, so not having money isn't a problem.. All I need is time and a lot of beer for now, the rest I have already.

So the pics will the story.


So this is the garage, its nice for what I can afford.:)






 And htis is the stuff thats gonna keep me busy for a while.. To weld those places I need to take the gas tank away, maybe the rear axle.. The brake lines are also corroded to a point where they gonna break at any day. I also found some heavy rust there in other places, maybe grinding will be enough, maybe not. The filling pipes for the tank are also goner, and while I'm at it was thinking of getting the rear axle sand blasted and powder painted.

So THANK YOU previous owner for not protecting the underbody & driving in the Finnish winter (salt covered streets)

Reporting back when progressing, need to give some love to my Mazda in between though so nothings gonna happen for a few weeks.

11/03/2010

Howdy!

After a bit, it's finally starting to happen!

I found a garage to put my Probe in for the winter and where to start working. Sunday evening I'm going to get my Probe (priviliged to drive it for a few days !), get it proper washed & waxed for storing and to see what the paint will look like after cleaner wax (do I need to start thinking about a repaint or not?), get the underbody and wheel arches hella well washed (cos' theres gonna be rust preventative coming soon) and then finally drive it to its new home :)

Sadly though life takes it tolls and I've wasted most of the savings I had for Probe.. Just need to find that money somewhere, start with the cheap stuff I guess. But it's beginning now!

Hopefully next summer I'll be cruising down the street, BOV whistling, and my bone hanging out the window of my sexy Probe.. ;)

And yeah just to clarify it is driveable now and any goof could just take it and drive it but I want to make 100% sure it's on tick. The joy of driving comes from the sweat of reparing and fixing, for me.

No pics this time, sorry, but will post with pics from garage when I'm back next week thu!

9/28/2010

Yarr

Well, the Red Lady is waiting for a garage. I'm a lil short on dough also, but the garages essential as its getting cold here in Finland and my next priorities are to fix the rust spots, reprotect the underbody and perform a major tune up, so when I find a garage I can easily get started, doing the cheaper things first until my economys fixed.

In the meantime, I did a new badge for the engine with a manual milling machine. It was my second milling ever so the result isn't perfect but I like it anyway. :)

9/26/2010

Install Succesful!

So the BOV went in with a bit of a struggle. Wasn't too happy with the install, had to cut the original tubes a lot and and the bends came too sharp for the hoses.. Will have to redo the piping with silicone+aluminium bits once I get some dough and the garage.

In any case, here's a video of testing out the BOV.. sounds very nice if you ask me ! :)

And yes, I'm aware the final adjustments to the BOV must be made with driving.

Anyhow, here's the vid ! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_dzKeddhLo

9/22/2010

Dump valve

Finally I've gathered everything ready for installation of the dump valve, and going to see my Probe this Friday.
Here's a pic of the whole set.. Let's hope the diameters are right, (thanks ProbeTalk.com community), cos' if they are, this blogs gonna get a BOV vid. ;) Oh yeah can't wait.. :)

9/15/2010

A lil pics eh?

So not all is well with this car. There is no bypass or dump valve; there is an alarm but its horribly installed (not even all the way through) and in where I live its pretty much a must-have. There was no info on any maintenances, a lil bit of rust here and there, and the paint is bad at some places, and overall it hasn't been looked after for a year or two on an estimation.

So it's gonna need a lot of work. A heavy tune up is in order for beginners, installing a new alarm, trying to get the red shine with different waxes and maybe a stop to a professional polisher, overall cleaning and sorry folks who appreciate originality over all, but I really wanna do something with the interior pretty quick.


Nothing too flashy cos' I'm all for style with a good taste, but unfortunately for those people who swear for original, us young (and a lot of 'em older) hobbyists here in Finland like to shape our cars a little to our very own special taste. Nothing too flashy, no crazy decals or 20 inch rims nor crazy big bumpers and wings, but maybe a bit leather and black to the interior, new seats maybe, don't know the details yet but time will show..

So if I can find myself a garage so I can start working (as winter is on the door its pointless to tear it apart outside for now) any soon, I can start working on the car and letting you know about it. :)

And now, the pics.



From day 1 at a local store parking spot. Red is beautiful in a car like this, and I like the 15" rims it has on right now. Certainly not too flashy to our standard, but they'll stand out for good out there. :)

A view from the back. I hate the fact the license plates gotta be bent like that, but what can you do.. Unless you shape the body to fit it but when you think about that, the license plates not so bad ;>

 A shot from the engine bay. Gonna spend a lot of time here...

Basicly the only rust place I've found in outer body. Gonna get rid of it and the rest I can find (some on the underbody) ASAP.. Cos' I'm most likely able to get rid of these without welding, which'd be a bliss, if I do it right away.

And the solution for the straight pipe in the place wheres theres supposed to be bypass, or now this. :) A popular dump valve called Pate Racing dump-valve here in Finland... AND I am well aware that it's going to get the mixture rich at outburst in the stock system but I've decided to try and live with that, as have a lot of my friends who have the same type air meter..  without any real problems whatsoever.

Even before knowing anything about anything turbo cars or cars in general, I fell in love with that sound, and I just need to have it, even for a while. If it turns out too bad I'll go buy that damn bypass with a gloomy face. ;S Heh.

Will shoot a pic when its installed, now I need to find some aluminium piping (got the TIG welder already, not on my own this time !)

Ptshhh.... :)

The beginning



I've been thinking about it for two years now, spending a lot of time for an entire year trying to find every invidual out there, getting to know all the details about the car, until one day about a week ago, I found it online in NettiAuto (A finnish car sales web site).

1980€, 130 000 km (80k miles), 1992, Red, Ford Probe, 2.2 liter turbo. There it was. I made all the arrangements and with a little help from my folks we found ourselves 5AM next morning heading to almost the other side of Finland.

With a bit of luck, the vehicle was still there. It wasn't as polished and well as it was advertised, far from it actually; the original bypass had been replaced with a straight pipe and driven for god knows how long like that, the original filter kit was replaced with a shabby quality free flow filter, a bad installation even. The paint wasn't half that good as I'd expect for the pictures, a lot of areas being a little pink and some scratches here and there and the interior told the reality about the kilometres the car had been driven, which couldn't be accurate.

However, when I started the engine and took the test drive, there was no turning back. All in all, everything worked, the engine was sound and the power was there.

And the turbo... There are no words to describe the feeling to someone who hasn't driven one. For the money, I don't believe there is anything better out there, for me at least. And besides this cars a half Ford, half Mazda, my two favourite car makers. I've never been too keen on RWD so FWD wasn't a shock for me.. etc. I know it from the beginning that this was most definately my car.

It was gonna be a small project, but I was expecting that from the beginning. I love fixing cars, even more than driving them I guess. And I got a pretty good bargain on it in the end. :)

So thats why I drove it back home and started taking it apart. :)




And also, I'd like to add a picture from my other car, which was also once in a not so good condition but with a fair amount of love has been a reliable and fun ride for years, and will be so and mine as long as its feeling like going. 
Mazda 323F 1.8 DOCH GT -93. :)