2002 - (RSX-S)/2 = Rally

I'm sitting here drinking coffee, waiting to wake up Deucekid#2, and I realize I haven't started a thread for the new car we're going to pick up this morning. That just won't do, not proper story telling.
This is all I've seen of thr car so far. It was purchased by my partner in this particular crime a week ago and moved to the grounds of Rally Ready driving school outside Austin. The brakes were almost rusted solid.The car will crank but not start. There are some significant questions about what pieces are really on the car from it's stage rally days, the title is somewhere at least a couple of owners back, the NASA logbook it raced under is lost, and it's very very dirty.
Anyone with eyes (and my wife has eyes) can tell that this is probably a terrible idea, so follow along and see if I can make the transition from 40 year old stay at home dad to race car driver.

That looks like a lot of fun, you can handle it!

Are you planning to Rally it?

Following anyway since I have a 2000 Civic Rally car and this will be interesting.

The goal it two stage rallies (at least) one with each of us driving. Unless I'm insanely lucky this is going to need WAY more work than I thought. Lots of updates after I get home.

In reply to mazdeuce:

All used rally cars need way more work than you think.

Really, a rally car is basically a demo-derby car that's required to remain street legal & wasn't built by rednecks.

Is there much of stage rally in the area? Let me know if you need some crew.

petegossett wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: All used rally cars need way more work than you think. Really, a rally car is basically a demo-derby car that's required to remain street legal & wasn't built by rednecks.

In other words. Nothing like a demo derby car? LOL

In reply to Crackers:

Pretty much.

The closest stage rally is something like 13 hours away. Owning a rally car in Texas is idiotic.
The only way to move the car is with the hand winch. This includes off the trailer. Gravity isn't enough to overcome rolling resistance. Yump mode! Needed to pull the wheels because the brakes are rusted up. I think this the the cleanest one. Trick two piece rotors and temperature strips. Someone cared once. Super dope JVL Bilsteins in there. Probably need to be rebuilt, but that should be relatively simple.

Cage looks good so far. Hoping for minimal updates to get a new log book. Good strut tower reinforcement. An open fuel pump access cover is never a good sign. Standing water in the spare well. And the tool box. I think the first aid kit is out of date.

Wiring is a mess. Things like this. These wires go into the passenger side headlight. They might be important. Much less airboxey than one would expect. But it does have a rally computer. Does it work? Who knows! I grabbed the battery out of the Insight and tried to hook it up in the fading light of day, but I couldn't find a negative terminal anywhere in the engine bay. What fun.

That really looks like the RSX that Mark Tabor used to run out west.

However RRN shows results with him in 2005 and up running an RSX - it shows in some as 04 and others as 02.

Many people don't use Rally Computers anymore. With Pace Notes or Jemba the need for them has almost disappeared.

You're right, it does look like somebody "once upon a time" spared little expense on the car. But those glory days are long gone.

In my estimation the wiring is going to be your hardest thing to deal with, judging by all that's been clipped and/or left hanging (Like the main fuse box). You may just want to rip it all out and get a Painless harness, start fresh with all new copper for all the generic chassis wiring. God only knows how far up the insulation the corrosion goes, and butt splices are not a termination with much longevity in a car.

-Hans

Wow, you really are a glutton for punishment!

Oh my

Looks like the kind of messes I usually dive into. lol

Try to find a shop with a steam cleaner/pressure washer to clean as much of that as possible. That will take care of 95% of the cleaning work without having to do any hand work. It has to be a steam cleaner though.

Skilled hand at wiring. Do we need all of the suspension bits or just most of them? All of the brakes disassembled, one back together, waiting on the three rotors the parts store had to order. At least it will roll soon.

Wow lots of wiring will be in your future...

I'd say it's time to pick a good connector series, you're gonna need a LOT of them. I'd recommend Delphi Metripack 150's and 280's. Kinda like GM Weatherpack but the 150's are more compact when you need smaller sizes. Lots of good fuse boxings in that size too.

I'm not going to start rewiring until I figure out what's what. Right now it looks like somebody decided the fuse box should be in the middle of the car instead of on the driver's side and snaked everything over the column. That's a big part of the mess right now. All of the "extra" wiring came out in one big piece and isn't needed. Anything it was attached to is gone already.
I have ignition power, tail lights, brakes lights, wipers, no headlights or turn signals, no fuel pump and no crank. Going to check all the fuses and relays and grounds next. Hoping I don't have an immobilizer issue.

So what is the plan on attack with this? Replace everything that's berkeleyed up with stock parts and just run it, or go all out. what's the time frame for this?

One advantage of a relatively young chassis is junk yard expeditions should be fruitful. It's not like you're hunting for XR4Ti or FC Rx7 bits. Will you send the suspenders up to Sleazattle or try and DIY?

hhaase wrote: I'd say it's time to pick a good connector series, you're gonna need a LOT of them. I'd recommend Delphi Metripack 150's and 280's. Kinda like GM Weatherpack but the 150's are more compact when you need smaller sizes. Lots of good fuse boxings in that size too.

I just looked these up. Quite awesome, thanks for the reccomendation. Even if it wasn't meant for me. Lol

We're going step by step. First make it run. Then make it street legal and registered. Then prep it for stages. I have a friend in Dallas who rebuilds Bilsteins, but I'm not sure if he can (or wants to) do the big rally stuff. I think whatever good stuff was on the rear of the car is missing so we may need a way to balance out the front and rear. We may put stockish struts back on the front, run it on track to shake it down and send the good shocks to Washington for a rebuild. Lots of options.

I am fully in favor of everything that's happening here. Doesn't look that bad to me!

The cage looks fairly legit, if that tubing is the right size and the junctions/feet are to spec you may be only a few gussets away from a logbook.

mazdeuce wrote: I'm not going to start rewiring until I figure out what's what. Right now it looks like somebody decided the fuse box should be in the middle of the car instead of on the driver's side and snaked everything over the column. That's a big part of the mess right now. All of the "extra" wiring came out in one big piece and isn't needed. Anything it was attached to is gone already. I have ignition power, tail lights, brakes lights, wipers, no headlights or turn signals, no fuel pump and no crank. Going to check all the fuses and relays and grounds next. Hoping I don't have an immobilizer issue.

I have contemplated trying to move the fusebox in my car, because I can't actually reach the fuses with the driver's seat in place, so if anyone has any good ideas on how to rectify this, I would love to here them.

I was honestly just going to trim the dash so I can get to them, but I see many with circuit breakers in the dash and wonder how much work that would be.

I also think I need to install one of those battery kill switches on the car. My car will still crank but not fire with the ignition off (starter is on a button and car does not use the factory key for power).

I wouldn't worry about the water in the spare tire well. My car has all the trunk seals pulled and I get water back there every time it rains. Yours may be similar?