1998 Subaru Forester S - DOWN BY THE RIVER!

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I'm saying your recent experience may have emboldened your decision making process, or something. 

Maybe if we all hate on this one it will press on just to spite us? 

Trade you a battery for a co-drive  It's brand new...haha

Long successful day of car buying. Woke up at 5:00 and Deucekid#2 and I headed out at 5:30 to pick up slammo who was just getting off work. From there we headed further south and west of Houston and rolled onto a nice quiet residential street at about 9:00. The car owner popped out with a big smile and a handshake and up went the hood. We hose clamped the battery terminal back on, jumped it with the jump pack and headed around the block. All five gears (and reverse) work, brakes work, clutch feels fine. There is a significant squeal from the AC compressor clutch that will need to be dealt with, but everything looked great. I headed down there with every intention of using cookies and the shirt I made him to talk him down, but it was an honest $500 car and I didn't even try. Loaded up, took a picture of the kid, me and the now previous owner and headed back north. 

We didn't even make it back to the freeway when I saw this. A real actual One Lap car in the wild. Slammo asks "are you really going to turn around" as I was already turning around, it's not every day you get a chance like this. 

The shop that the CLS63 was in front of was closed so we popped into the shop next door. They said he wasn't there. Poop. But wait, I'm in a key shop, and I only have one key for the Subaru..........

And this was a PROPER old school key shop. Manual German made key cutting machines and racks of 1000's of blanks. He cut me a key and walked out to the Forester to see if it worked. Almost. He went back inside, inspected the worn out key and made a few adjustments. He tried again and decided that how the key felt meant that he went to wrong way, so he grabbed anther blank off the rack and cut a second key. This one felt better, but still not there. He grabbed an uncut blank and cycled it in and out of the lock a couple dozen times and tried his key again, and it worked! He handed me the cut key and the uncut blank and said to use it to get the rest of the door locks working. $2.54 lighter and we were back on the road. I should have had him cut me a dozen. 
We dropped off slammo on the way home, it was way past his bedtime. Incredibly valuable to have someone along who has looked over these cars a time of two. He was clearly jealous that I was getting a rust free, if somewhat dented, shell and a great sounding motor for $500. There's a chance I could have made $100 by dropping the car at his house, but we turned north again and headed home. 
Quick unload to the very disapproving look of Mrs. Deuce and I brought the trailer back to u-haul. I know people complain about u-haul car haulers, but when you tow maybe once a year, it's $60 well spent. They tow nicely behind my truck and tie down cars securely. They're not great for low cars, but the Forester isn't low, so we're cool. 
Back home we put the dead battery on the charger (I'm optimistic that it's taking a charge) and got to poking around. One issue the PO pointed out was that the glove box was locked and wouldn't open. That's basically like a treasure chest to me, so out came the screwdrivers. It took a little prying to get at all the screws, but I eventually got the whole unit out. Right about then Deucekid#2 wandered out, picked up a screwdriver and offered to help.

We pulled everything apart down to removing the lock cylinder. As we suspected, the key was too worn to align the pins. The kid swore me to secrecy about our modifications, but he's pretty clever and we now have a glove box that locks and unlocks just like it was meant to. Reassembly is the reverse, and everything went back together nicely. 
And the treasure? A handful of registration papers, and this, the origional owners manual. Proper car treasure. 

Deucekid#2 has been saving a keychain from Mrs. Deuce for years. He always said he wanted to use it on his first car. 

So that's where we sit on day 1. The car is home, we fixed a thing, Deucekid#2 is pretty excited about "his" new car, and Mrs. Deuce hasn't killed me. Smashing success. 

Kick Ass! 

Huzzah!

Thats a hell of a good day right there.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

We didn't even make it back to the freeway when I saw this. A real actual One Lap car in the wild. Slammo asks "are you really going to turn around" as I was already turning around, it's not every day you get a chance like this. 

The shop that the 2010 C63 was in front of was closed so we popped into the shop next door. They said he wasn't there. Poop. But wait, I'm in a key shop, and I only have one key for the Subaru..........

 

Reference

edit: wonder if he's related to Doug Wilks of TopSpeed?

Glad y'alls trip back was good. I've seen that car for years but never knew it was a OLOA car. Should've called me, the coin shop is sort've a front. Behind it lies a shop that only works on V8s, and he would've most likely been there. Lots of nice noises heard from there! Bosarts is a great place! Always use them due to their honest and low cost work. And supporting local owned shops has always been big thing to me. As always I as tad bit sad letting a car go for some reason. My wife says I'm crazy. Try to explain to her "who" the car is going to, and how I'm happy its going to someone who will take good care of her. It's just a car she says... For some people "it's just a car". For others a car means more, there's a certain passion that is unexplainable. I saw that today with Seth. I could tell he's excited to give this car a new life, though unsure in the Subaru world , knows it's just nuts and bolts like all the previous projects. After showing my wife the previous post about working on it with your son put smile to her face. And then told me I should've asked for more. Maybe, but I know I passed on what I hope is a good car, and I hope it's great car for duecekid! Anyway I'll stop the rambling. Not to be fan boy but never thought I would meet the mazaduece. Great honor and pleasure meeting you, hope the car brings great memories for you and family!

BTW thanks for the shirt, truly awesome. And as far as the cookies

Might need to make road trip north here soon....

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Awesome day!

I bet if you brought a home brewed cup of coffee with the cookies you would have walked away with a free car ;-)

Ah, here's the thread I was looking for.  I will contribute this poorly-lit photo of a stained glass piece in the neato locksmith shop:

Glad to see the deuceling is getting involved with turning wrenches; this Forester should be a great tool for learning as they're simple to work on and parts are cheap.  You're right about me being jealous :)  As for Ms. Deuce, just remind her that the amount of money on the line here is pitifully small compared to the other vehicles in your stable, and that it's good practice to give teenagers something that won't be critically devalued by typical high schooler shenanigans.

Slammo said:

As for Ms. Deuce, just remind her that the amount of money on the line here is pitifully small compared to the other vehicles in your stable, and that it's good practice to give teenagers something that won't be critically devalued by typical high schooler shenanigans.

In reality, this is just the next step along the path of "I built my first computer"

In reply to Papabishop :

We actually parked to the side of those shops and saw the collection of HP in the back. That was one of the things that emboldened me to walk around front and start asking. Anyone who appreciates American muscle AND European muscle is a guy worth talking to. 

Thanks for the car and thanks for being an honest seller. I have no delusions that the kid wants to do all the wrenching on this, it's just not his thing, but before we went to bed last night he says "we should pull the seats tomorrow and start cleaning, I think it will be much nicer inside after we do that." For some reason he's become attached to this. The last I saw before I went to bed he was looking up prices for a new fender and showing Mrs. Deuce pictures of lowered Foresters to convince her that it could be cool. Why exactly did he latch on to this? I'm not sure. Maybe because of all those years being involved in rallycross shenanigans with me? It's probably my fault. 

To add to the story, when I saw the pictures in the ad I had to ask Papabishop if I knew him already because of a certain rallycross sticker on the car. It turns out that we ran rallycross together at least a couple of times and that I knew his cousin quite well. In fact he had bought this car from his cousin, and I have been driving that same cousin's jeep around on the stage roads at Rally Ready just a couple of weeks before during the Gambler 500. 

I'd probably have to do one of those CSI bulletin boards with string to have this make sense, but let me try with words. Slammo invites me to drive his Subaru in the Gambler 500. At the Gambler I hang out with an old rallycross friend and drive his Jeep in the woods. A couple weeks later I see an ad on GRM for a Subaru and decide I totally want it despite the fact that my wife is NOT happy about this level of impulsive purchase. It turns out that the guy I'm buying the car from is the cousin of the Jeep guy from a few weeks before and the Jeep guy actually owned the car back when I knew him, AND I brought Slammo with me to pick up the car which I think competes the circle. 

In reply to Slammo :

Mrs. Deuce has a VERY strong opinion that shenanigans should exist at a level asymptotic to zero anywhere other than closed course stuff. I think this car is modern enough and safe enough to be an appropriate car for the kid to learn to drive. We have the Accord for grippy things so he'll get experience with that as well in a car better suited to it. Mostly he's right on the cusp of being able to drive, and he's able to walk outside and say "that's mine" and that's a pretty damn good feeling. 

It's light out and I have a new car. 

I left the charger on the battery overnight but it still wouldn't start this morning. Non starting cars are useless. Voltmeter said 12v and change. Hooked up the jump pack paying close attention to keeping it hooked to the very crustiest parts of the battery connectors. No start. Moved the jump pack. Start. 

45 minutes with a couple wrenches, the dremel tool and some electiclal grease along with my morning coffee, and we're in business. Starts right up. Fixed another thing. 

I'm sitting with Mrs. Deuce gloating over my victory and I said I was going to order some new terminals. She looks at me and says "is it a Challenge car or not?"

How many cookies do you want for the Mercedes?

So not to play devil's advocate, and shipping costs could be a bit steep, but the Aussie foresters of that era had a 2 speed transfer case setup that's a direct swap. 

It could have a low range, in other words. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

45 minutes with a couple wrenches, the dremel tool and some electiclal grease along with my morning coffee, and we're in business. Starts right up. Fixed another thing. 

I'm sitting with Mrs. Deuce gloating over my victory and I said I was going to order some new terminals. She looks at me and says "is it a Challenge car or not?"

if so, and along the same lines... did you weigh the grease tube before/after to pro-rate that cost? 

Grease is on the exempted list with lubricants.  

mazdeuce - Seth said:

It's light out and I have a new car. 

I left the charger on the battery overnight but it still wouldn't start this morning. Non starting cars are useless. Voltmeter said 12v and change. Hooked up the jump pack paying close attention to keeping it hooked to the very crustiest parts of the battery connectors. No start. Moved the jump pack. Start. 

45 minutes with a couple wrenches, the dremel tool and some electiclal grease along with my morning coffee, and we're in business. Starts right up. Fixed another thing. 

I'm sitting with Mrs. Deuce gloating over my victory and I said I was going to order some new terminals. She looks at me and says "is it a Challenge car or not?"

Regardless of what you do with this car, it will be the 2018 CHALLENGE CAR.

Hose clamps and bare wires work.

However, you should be able to get a pair of terminals for 2 bucks with free shipping on ebay.

Crazy how small of world it is! Glad you didn't have to spend first night of ownership finding out to comfy it is. Have you determined the bearing noise yet? Or is that on back burner until cleaning the interior out? Curious what jump pack that is, never seen one like before. And 100 internet points if you find this grille to put on it

Patrick said:

Grease is on the exempted list with lubricants.  

woops.  good to know.  guess I need to go through and re-memorize those rules again.  thanks!

following along as usual, Seth. Love your write ups and obscure info you dig up on stuff. As an aside, I picked this up Friday, so I will be following along closer than usual. 

In reply to RevRico :

I want that. Even Mrs. Deuce said that the Aussies are right about their cars. It'll have to wait until after the Challenge at least. 

In reply to Billy_Bottle_Caps :

I can't say for sure, but I suspect yours is nicer than mine. Keep following and you'll see.......

Deucekid#2 wants the inside clean. He decided that means pulling the carpet. That means pulling the seat. That means learning the fine art of automotive yoga. 

He did get them all out. We need a proper trim removal tool if we want to pull the plugs that are holding the carpet down without either ripping the carpet or breaking them. Challenge math says buying tools is cheaper than buying parts. 

Much cleaning was done. This is the general haul from what's inside. Some good stuff. Probably nothing of tradeable value unless one of you needs that valve spring compressor. 

And now I'm fully into tinkering mode. I played with the shifter for a bit. Still sloppy but the upper bushing is new, so I need to track down the rest of them in the system and see what's up. Cleaning in the engine bay which should take me about a month judging on the progress I made. I loosened the bolts holding the passenger fender on and pulled it forward so it's not hitting the door. Not sure if I'm going to try body work or just wait for one to show up in the junkyard. They're getting thin on the ground here in Houston. 

Not too long ago you could have earned good $$$$ even for just the few .22's in there.

Actually, a surprisingly useful haul there.   Not that I need any of if, but we are the right crowd to find a suitable end user.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Ahh!  Youthful exuberance.  Nice that one can stand and bend inside a vehicle that size.  If it was me, EMS would have to be called.  While your son has enthusiasm, strike while the iron is hot.  The interior doesn't look so bad.  Keep the valve spring tool, to start your collection.