Insert clever tagline here

We made the most progress on the car this past weekend. The engine, transmission, turbo, and exhaust have been removed. The engine is up on a stand so that I’m able to start installing the new parts.

Just wanted to quickly share some pictures I received today from Juan @ Snail Motorsports of my freshly ceramic coated turbo kit.

Things are starting to come together!

Haven’t made alot of progress lately. I’ve had other things going on that have been taking up my time. I also manage to break my floor jack, so I’m in the process of fixing/replacing it as well.

In the mean time, I’ve started pulling various parts of the interior out to prepare for installing my gauges and my stereo. Nothing too exciting. I’m also going to use this time to really clean out the interior and start fresh when the car is back on the road.

I’ve got enough interior parts to damn near build 2 SRT-4s

Did a little bit of re-arranging in the garage also, makes for more room to work on the car.

The obligatory AGP shelf…

Also, a sneak peak of my exhaust/turbo stuff…

Thats all for now.

Some friends and I got started on disassembling my car in preparation for installing all my new parts. The plan is to pull the engine and transmission so that I can work on it off the car, and then put everything back together again. Here’s a few pics from the day.

Picked up my rims from Juan @ Snail Motorsports yesterday. For those who aren’t familiar, they are my old 5zigen FN01R-C in 17×8 with Nitto NT05 235/40/17

I went and got a basic alignment, so i dont ruin the tires. I am still messing with the ride height, I have the very official two-finger gap all around right now. The bigger tires tuck into the fenders nicely.

Last night I just planned on installing some accessories for the stereo but I figured since I had the center console out I would also install my Mopar STS while I was in there.

A while back a friend of mine gave me a set of Energy Suspension shifter base bushings that he never got around to installing, so I figured I’d throw them in. You basically pull out the OEM bushings, install these and reuse the metal center section to bolt things down.

I also relocated the aftermarket FM antenna I had tucked behind the head unit to under the dash top. The signal is MUCH stronger there, as now I get damn near every FM station in the area. Before this my radio would seek through most all frequencies. I also stuck the Sirius antenna in the defroster vent to clean things up a bit. On the column is the microphone for the Bluetooth hands free feature on the radio. Works great! The Sirius hardware is neatly tucked under the driver’s seat.

Thanks to my friend Sean and his neighbor, we were able to get rid of the wrecker shell last weekend. He also picked up the long block too.

Thanks again to Sean, Dustin, Gabe, Juan, Jamar, Erik, Jesus, and everyone else from the LVSRT family that came and helped me get my parts off that old car and ready to install on the new car.

Finally, I am able to park both mine and my fiancee’s cars in my garage and now I have room to get started on installing the fun stuff on the new SRT.

Now the fun begins

Damnit.

I noticed a chunk of metal in one of the stock wheels I’ve been rolling around on while my 5zigen fn01r-c’s are getting ready for powder. Luckily, Juan’s loaner wheels were available at the shop, Snail Motorsports so I ran over there and picked them up. Unfortunately, they’re painted black. So I got a great idea…

I thought it was kinda funny

I also realised that there has been quite a bit of car and tech talk on my blog lately, but no mention of beers. So I wanted to mention my beverage of choice while swapping my wheels around…

New Belgium Ranger IPA. At 70 IBUs its more bitter than most, but not overwhelming. ABV is on par for an IPA at around 6.5%. I first discovered it at Lee’s discount liquor, but then I noticed that my local Walmart sells it for about $7 a 6-pack.

Just a quick update. Since my last one, I’ve sold the fold out Jensen deck to a friend and ordered a new deck from a friend that does car audio professionally. Should be in soon.

Finally had the tint done. 13% all around. Thanks to RobDGAF@LVSRT

The other day I played around with the idea of removing the factory antenna. Since the connector behind the dash was broken by one of the previous owners, I’m going to install an aftermarket powered antenna. I dont have the budget right now to have the hole in the fender properly shaved so I thought plugging it would be the next best thing. I found these plugs at autozone that looked to be large enough to cover the entire hole, and some paint damage that was there from the base of the antenna rubbing against the fender. I used some touch up paint first to prevent further chipping/pealing of the paint.

Those plugs are great for both the antenna hole, and the spoiler hole. There is one large plug, approx 1 1/4″ dia, and 8 smaller ones.

Right now it is held in with some double stick tape, as it is just a proof of concept. I bought a second plug that I will paint with Mopar rattle can touch up paint so it blends better with the fender. Eventually, the hole will be properly filled and the entire fender painted.

Did a couple of little things this weekend. I packed the 5zigens up and took them to Juan’s shop, Snail Motorsports to be dismounted and get ready to prep for powder. The color should arrive soon, and I’ll be over there helping him do the prep work.

A while back a friend gave me a broken Jensen in dash DVD player. I spoke to Jensen and paid to have it repaired out of warranty. It arrived Friday afternoon from service. I took out the Sony deck that the car came with and installed the Jensen.

I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, I dont like how it covers the HVAC controls when its open. It came with the cables to hook up my iPod, but I can’t get it working. I emailed their tech support for answers, I was going to buy the Satellite radio for it but I’m waiting until I get an answer on the iPod. But it isn’t a bad deck for the less than $200 I have invested in it.

The wrecker shell is ready to go, I threw away some junk that was in it. All that is left is the body harness, most of the rear suspension, and a dented trunk lid.

My garage looks like a neon exploded in it.

Things are starting to come together for the new car, all I need to do is order a clutch and I can start transferring everything over.