The Ballade of Bumblebee, the budget beater build (Rallycross content)

-Bumblebee the Lancer

The intent of this thread will be to document my progress fixing an unloved econobox nugget to finally participate in Rallycross.  Additionally, I will document how I as a shadetree mechanic hack learn new things from the Web and from YouTube.  I hope that if someone else stumbles on this thread while trying to do the same, they will find some of the links helpful.  

I am something of a Mitsubishi fanboy dating back to the 90’s — the Eclipse GSX in red was the object of my teenage affection.  I had the printed brochure from the dealership posted up on my wall.  This was prior to the F&F era that ruined most of the local DSM’s, so I never got my chance with the GSX of my dreams. 

Fast forward two decades, and I am at a point in life where I can afford a toy.  Daily is a 2015 Evo X, that still has a warranty, and factory pearl white paint is still in showroom condition.  I want to Rallycross but can’t bring myself to do that to my baby (yet).  

-Bumblebee’s big sister

I don’t know anything about performance driving.  I have been playing Dirt Rally with the FWD selection to try and convince myself that FWD would be fun too on a loose surface.  Plus, being without a tow vehicle, I thought that if I were to break it at a rallycross, I had hopes of getting it home by borrowing the family F150 + a U-Haul tow dolly.

My daily Craigslist search (+manual trans, 45 miles of my zip) revealed this unloved yellow Lancer, in turn of the century OZ Rally trim, at a title pawn place for $1000 a few towns over.  It actually sold prior to me getting a chance to see it on a weekend.  Fast forward 6 months, and it shows up again, looking even sadder in terms of condition.  

I went to see it, and found a mostly solid car with working A/C.  There was a transmission rattle that I (mis)diagnosed as as bad throwout bearing.  I offered the guy a handful of Benjamin Franklins and I’m on my way.

Turns out that the rattling in question is actually the input shaft of the transmission (whoops!).  I decided to drop the trans and see if I could fix the problem.  Thankfully this is a common enough failure point that it seems to be well documented on the web.  I was enabled by a few good YouTube videos:

-watching an amateur wrench drop an auto transmission

-Lancer nerd taking the case apart

- watching an experienced transmission tech replace input shaft bearing

Additionally, the transmission service manual is easily available through teh Googles:

http://mitsubishi-motors.kiev.ua/Manuals/Transmission/PWEE9508/22B.pdf

So I got that sucker out, and got a new bearing in there.  There is a Mitsubishi dealership in my small town (how many people can say that?) and it’s easy to get the OEM part.  The input shaft bearing (bellhousing side) felt rough, and was audibly bad when spinning by hand.  

I got the case sealed back up and got the trans back in.  In retrospect, I wish I had replaced the bearing on the other side of the input shaft — my transmission is not making any obvious sounds, but I still feel like I hear a difference between clutch in and clutch out in neutral.  If I knew what I was doing, synchros would have been a good idea, but nothing grinds or pops out right now so we’re good to go.

There it is back in.  Fresh silver paint on the case for extra hp.

What is the spirit animal for this beater?  Is it Pikachu, the tiny lightning bolt that one day will evolve into a more powerful form, just as this car dreams of being an Evo?

Or is it Bumblebee, the small but mighty Autobot?

Having gotten it working well, I started driving it to work.  I wanted to prove that it was reliable before considering driving 2 hrs to rallyx event, thrashing it, and driving it home, with a reasonable expectation of coming back.  It is actually a pretty endearing, simple little car.  90’s Japanese cars give me high school nostalgia.  (a 2003 here included because MMNA has been a decade behind for awhile).  

It is about 2600 lbs, and 4g94 makes 120 hp / 130 lb-ft.  A prior owner put a cone filter and a big muffler on it.  I totally missed out on the F&F import scene days, so it is funny and ironic to me to be a middle aged dad and bomb around town in a ricey teenage pizza delivery car.  I watched the Ford videos about the design phase of the Focus RS, and how the exhaust pops and burbles on deceleration were are carefully selected design choice in a $40k car.  Hey!  my beater does that!

I put a set of Recaros in my Evo, and this entire car + parts mentioned in this thread has cost less than those seats.  Per $ spent this car is hilarious fun.  

So awesome.

I spent a whole weekend cleaning the thing, which to me is almost therapeutic.  The poor car, especially the trunk, was just disgusting.  I took the seats out, center console trim, etc. and steam cleaned them.  I spent hours removing crappy tint with a Walmart clothes steamer and some razor blades.  I took off crappy old stickers.  One of the prior owners thought that stick-on port holes on the front quarter panels would be a nice aesthetic touch.  I got these things off, but the adhesive was something else — it took paint with it.  

Time to unpimp ze auto?

I would one day really like to have a project Evo for motorsports, etc.  I love the X, but I would like to experience one of the older Evos as well, of the smaller, 4g63 era.  This car is illustrative of some of the common faults shared between the Evo platform — stuck sunroofs, stuck or broken HVAC controls, poor quality paint, ingnition cylinders that rotate in the steering column, etc.

I started working through these issues.  The sunroof was a twofer in the sense that the headliner had to come out, so I got to clean that as well.  Got it with carpet detergent and a wire brush, simple green + a garden hose, and a long stay out on the porch to air out.  The sunroof issue itself is pretty easily fixed, as usually the screws holding the motor in place against the wormgear-driven sunroof mechnism back out and stop making contact.  The HVAC  issue is also thankfully a common, easily fixed issue related to the plastic gearing controlling the blend door:

  Here you can see my old gears (caked on crusty lubricant likely the cause of failure) and wire coming from the HVAC control knob.  In my case, the steel cable was broken as well.:

 I got my HVAC blender door gears (7801A110) and cable (MR979515) easily off of Amazon.

My car had a cetain weird funk even after cleaning the headliner.  This wasn’t a cigarette type thing.  If your car has a funky smell, I found that a bag of activated charcoal in the rear deck/parcel shelf fixes that:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BOH6BM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Additionally, I replaced the tired suspension components.  I got a Moog front end set and did control arms with new ball joints, swaybar links, as well as tie rod ends.  I replaced the struts, front strut bearings, and bump stops with new KYB compoenents.  I did new front rotors and pads.  

I added this $20 Walmart Bluetooth stereo:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dual-Electronics-XDM16BT-High-Resolution-LCD-Single-DIN-Car-Stereo-with-Built-In-Bluetooth-USB-MP3-Player/54596679

With the adapter harness plug (Walmart as well) and Harbor Freight crimping tool I was all-in at about $35, and the result was absolutely transformative to the beater experience.  I don’t have to ride in silence!

I went out to my first Rallycross two weekends ago.  This was the Middle GA SCCA (now merged with the Atlanta region SCCA) rallycross site, which is ~100 miles away.  Car crusied down without a fuss.  The event was a blast - as a self-described gearhead — holy crap, I can’t believe I haven’t done this yet.  The cars were an interesting mix of well sorted WRX’s and STI’s, complete with rally tires and driver name decals, to cheap beaters that were towed to the event.  

The only other FWD cars in attendance were in the Mod class.  I am in Prepared FWD, since my stock airbox is nowhere to be found (someone previously stuck a cheap cone filter on it).  I am trying to decide if I should get a stock airbox on hand, so that if someone shows up in stock class, I will have a competitor vs. enjoying building a car to Prepared rules (this site has had some fast drivers in PF previously).  

Things I learned:

I would like to get faster.  I improved in terms of time on each run, but was still near the absolute bottom of the pile.  I hope to have lots of seat time in this car.  

All season tires from Walmart are not the tool for the job.

I am glad for functional A/C.  It was an 85 degree day in February (thanks Al Gore), and I am too much of a wuss to sit in the run group holding line without working A/C in the car.  I have an E30 as well, but the converted R134a doesn’t work very well unless you are moving and forcing air through the condenser, so it is likely out for Rallycross duty.  

I can’t wait for the next one.  Unfortunately my work schedule has me missing the next two scheduled ones, but that gives me some time to fix the car before the next one I can attend.  

I have been rallycrossing this car all year, and I can’t get enough of it.  If there was another site running somewhere remotely close I would cosider trying to make those events as well.  

I got a spare set of junkyard rims that I painted white with Rustoleum out of the can, and a set of snow tires (General Altimax Arctic, after trying to find all posts on the subject of snow tires).  Car has been running well.  We did have a super rainy day with a lot of mud, and the 2wd classes were at walking speed at certain points.  On the last outing though, 2wd seemed fast, with the FWD cars turning in faster times than some of the bigger/heavier AWD machines.   

I am super thankful for working A/C in the grid as it has been really hot the last few outings.  

So I am trying to decide what avenue to work on next to keep improving my budget Rallycross car.  It’s a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer in that 2000’s bright yellow, that is currently running in Prepared Front (mostly because the prior owner threw away the stock airbox).  I refurbished the suspension, fixed the transmission, and have been happily rallycrossing it all year.  It is an endearing little nugget and I daily drive it when the kids are going to be wearing muddy soccer cleats, etc.  The paint is poor however - ok from 10 feet but on closer inspection, has peeling clear coat and is faded. 

Our rallycross site might be lost for the next few months, and I am itching to do something with the car in the meantime.  I am considering a DIY garage rally livery. 

I saw this car in a rallycross video, and it’s so awesome I can’t stand it - AW11 with TRD scheme inspiration:

The owner probably is a member here.

I have been exploring the Rustoleum “$50” paint job on teh interwebs.  In this case, it’s not so much money that holds me back from true automotive paint as it is safety concern.  I would like to paint it in my garage, and don’t want to expose my family to any sort of isocyanate containing product.  I think that means I have to choose between alkyled enamel and acrylic lacquer.  As this car is going to get beaten with gravel and mud, I like the thought of having touch up material available at any Walmart or Home Depot.  

As a proof of concept, I did do the front bumper of the car in Rustoleum to see how the finished product would hold up.  I used the Rustoleum branded primer, “safety yellow” enamel out of the can, and matching enamel clear coat.  This was all done straight out of the spray can, outside, and so far the result holds up pretty good over the past 6 months.  The “safety yellow” color is actually a pretty good match color wise.  

 I build R/C cars, and would like to make a WRC inspired livery with vinyl, possibly changing the base color with a DIY home garage safe paint.  

R/C Lancer for inspiration:

Another rally livery - Evo IV - white with contrasting Ralliart colors:

Anyone have any experience with vinyl cutters?  I am considering a big Chinese Amazon special vinyl cutter/plotter designed for sign making, to cut number plates and rally livery.  My number plates are stenciled paint on top of craft store magnet sheeting.  Additionally I have some simple decals that are put on HVAC magnetic covers (these are really cheap at Home Depot).  I would like to do the basic livery as vinyl applied over car paint, and do the decals/number plates on big sheets of magnet from McMaster-Carr.  

So what do you all think?  Stay with yellow base and maybe do contrasting white/blue, or Rustoleum red or white with an approximation of the above livery?  I think a white paint job would potentially be the easiest/most forgiving.  I worry about fading with the red rustoleum long term.  This is just for kicks and something to do to keep me occupied in the evenings --  not expecting a spectacular result.

Stick with yellow base. Add angular blocks of red and blue. White blocks on doors and hood for numbers. Make imaginary sponsor stickers. Prominently display GRM stickers.