I've taken on a car project...

[Mephistopheles Janx]

and if it turns out that people find it interesting I'll keep updating as things happen and if not I'll let the thread die.

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The car I own right now is my favorite car that I have ever owned. It is a 2009 Pontiac Solstice GXP which means it is a dead platform on a dead brand that was only made for 4 years. I have decided that I am going to do everything possible to make this the last car I ever buy yet still use it as my daily driver and my race car. To that end... I bought a membership at Copart to find a donor car that I could harvest key components from.

Copart is a site that lets people buy salvaged vehicles in an auction. I can look all over the US, see what is available, and if the state allows individuals to do so... I can bid on cars that are busted up. After a few months of bidding and losing I came across an auction in Arizona that sparked interest. It didn't have mileage listed because they didn't have keys so I did a carfax and found that 3 months before the wreck it was reported as 27k miles.

I bid $400 and won the damn thing. There were $432 in fees but then I needed to get it to Missouri. After much struggle I secured transportation for $921. All in all... I am into this car for $1,853.90 if you include the membership to Copart. The car should be delivered tomorrow.

My intention is to keep:

* Engine
* Transmission
* Limited Slip Differential
* Wheels / Tires (Nice Yokohama tires with about 12k miles on them)
* Several Interior Panels
* Harvest Modifications To The Engine, Intake, and Exhaust (more on that in a bit)
* Every last gasket and seal related to the convertible top (no longer produced)
* Undamaged Body Panels which happen to be the same color as my car
* Both Cupholders (which are ludicrously expensive on eBay and no longer made)

Sell:

* Convertible Top (expect to recover around $700)
* Seats (expect to recover around $500)
* ECU (expect to recover around $200)
* Tail Lights (expect to recover around $300)
* Steering Wheel Control Switches (expect to recover $50)
* After Market Radio (expect to recover $50-100)
* Catalytic Converter (expect to recover $100-200)
* Fold Down Visors (expect to recover $75-100)
* Passenger Side Airbag (expect to recover $100)
* Interior and Trunk Carpeting (expect to recover $100-$150)
* Speedo Cluster (expect to recover $75-100)
* Whatever else I need to sell to ensure I break even so long as it doesn't appear on the keep list such as body panels, door cards, and trim

Each of the above items has sold on eBay within the past month and the expected recovery amount includes fees and shipping. From there I would sell bits and bobs as I saw fit but everything on the keep list is untouchable.

So about those engine mods...



There are 4 things that are instantly visible to me other than the outright damage. Those 3 pipes that are the same color as the car are, by themselves, $1k in modifications. The two pipes on the outside are charge pipes for the intercooler with an external BOV. The one in the center is a dual cone CAI.

Outside of that... if you look down below you will see a slightly beat up intercooler that I am hoping has survived because that is a $700 upgrade from an aftermarket manufacturer. The same one that made the pipes. The question is... did it all survive (or at least repairable)?

I asked Copart to take a few photos from inside the engine bay from different angles and it gave me good news and bad news. First... the bad.

The dual shot air intake definitely took damage. It split at one of the seams as you can see in the photo... but the good thing about it is that this is steel thus re-welding that sucker, rewelding the brace, and slapping a sticker on it before installing it in my car is not out of the question. Oh... and new cones.



The good news (and it is pretty dang good) is that, at first glance, it looks like the other two tubes survived (again... will know more when the car is delivered) AND... not only does this have an oil catch can system installed. It also has color matched powder coated valve covers.

But wait... there is more! There is a blanket on the turbo (which is nice) but the fact that this has the aftermarket intercooler, pipes, catch can, and it is all from the same place tells me this may very well be part of the kit that includes the upgraded turbo that, when matched with that intercooler, can safely push up to 32PSI of pressure in that car. The turbo, depending on which one it was upgraded to, could be a $700-$2700 come up.



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In the end:

* Will have spent time but zero money
* I keep all the most vital parts to keep my car, courtesy of this donor, running for as long as I'm around and they only have around 30K miles on them
* Bonus Go-Fast Parts

What is left of the car will be put on a car dolly and basically act as storage for the remaining components and tires. I'll build a shelf I can place the car under and have storage space above it. Then I will be able to simply slide the car out any time I want/need to do anything with it.

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Originally Posted by ToxSocks

Yeah having your daily driver be your project car is tough.

You wanna pick up a beater or something you can drive around town in. And the more love and money you throw at it, the more you're gonna wanna garage the car and save it for date nights and weekends etc.

Also, project cars that are DD's usually end up rushed. Something that can take a few days to do right, all of a sudden you're trying to get it done in an afternoon so you can get to work in the morning. That never ends well.

This isn't a project car though in the sense that I'm gonna put it back together. This is a parts car and the project is to take it apart and sell as many parts off it as possible while stashing the important bits for if/when the stuff on my car grenades itself.. My DD/Race car is complete and track ready as of right now. It just ran last week. This is just some added bonuses that I can throw on during the winter and then have it tuned for the new equipment.

I have a subscription for tuning services through Trifecta. I send them logs and then send me the appropriate tune. Easy peasy and no rush.

[Warpaint69]

Great find, being able to sell off the parts to end up no money out of pocket is as good as it gets.

[Mephistopheles Janx]

The car arrived yesterday and I wanted to post an update but it was raining pretty hard so today is the day. First... a few photos of the car on the trailer which allowed me to get some nice underneath shots. Right off the bat I saw that Copart flat lied to me. They said they do a "crash wrap" to protect vehicles from water intrusion. This was not protected from the elements in any way shape or form during its ride to my home. While at Copart it was stored inside so it never got wet there... but they didn't latch the roof and while the driver did his best to mitigate water intrusion... there was still some. Also... notice how the red on the door doesn't really match the rest of it.



Another thing that immediately caught my eye is that someone painted the oil pan red. I don't know why someone would have done that but they did and there it is.


That image also shows the exhaust which looks to be completely straight piped. The remaining two is showing the undercarriage and the remainder of the exhaust.


It all looks recently done and pretty dang clean.


First walkthrough



Hood is off

[Mephistopheles Janx]

A very neat update on this thing.

After busting out the wheel grinder and finally getting the hood off I was looking around the engine bay when I noticed that the turbo looked different on this than mine. I did some digging on the internet and found that I got WAY more than expected out of this auction.

https://rpm-motorsports.com/store-2/...2-0-turbo-kit/

There is a $4k turbo kit installed in this car and *ALL OF IT* survived.

I did some more digging around and found that the exhaust pictured in the previous post is a $1k set up from the same company.

https://rpm-motorsports.com/store-2/...e-exhaust-kit/

I also suspect this may have this dual core radiator as well.

https://rpm-motorsports.com/store-2/...core-radiator/

HOLY SHIT. I ****ING SCORED.

[TrebMaxx]

Great get man! You should start a Youtube channel showing all this and make a few more bucks.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx

HOLY SHIT. I ****ING SCORED.

Awesome. Now you just have to not break all the exhaust bolts .

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx

A very neat update on this thing.

After busting out the wheel grinder and finally getting the hood off I was looking around the engine bay when I noticed that the turbo looked different on this than mine. I did some digging on the internet and found that I got WAY more than expected out of this auction.

https://rpm-motorsports.com/store-2/...2-0-turbo-kit/

There is a $4k turbo kit installed in this car and *ALL OF IT* survived.

I did some more digging around and found that the exhaust pictured in the previous post is a $1k set up from the same company.

https://rpm-motorsports.com/store-2/...e-exhaust-kit/

I also suspect this may have this dual core radiator as well.

https://rpm-motorsports.com/store-2/...core-radiator/

HOLY SHIT. I ****ING SCORED.

Congrats man!

[Eureka]

Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx

I just don't believe in Garage Queens. I've never seen the point of having a car like this, or spending the money for a car like this, just to let it sit or reserved for Sunday/Parade duty.

I have a Sunday car. I just drive it occasionally and it looks brand new.

It's an 06 GTO with manual transmission and it's fun to cruise once in awhile. I'm so busy with other stuff that I don't have time for a project car so I kind of fell into this scenario of a clean Sunday car.

[Eureka]

Originally Posted by TrebMaxx

Great get man! You should start a Youtube channel showing all this and make a few more bucks.

Maybe, something similar to this guys channel. Dude took a Junker and turned it into a sweet ride over years. Def a great watch and entertaining enough if you like cars.