As the close followers of Oppo goings-on may recall, @Eury recently bought and decided to sell a rusty but otherwise pretty-good 2002 WRX. I finally took my own advice, and bought it.

Friday afternoon, I worked a half-day, then went to the local u-haul and picked up a trailer. Came home, had lunch, packed up, and headed to a friend's place in Erie, PA for the night. The first leg of a long trip.

Saturday morning, I pick up a different friend in the area at 7am and set the GPS... 600 miles, estimated 9 hours. It's rainy, but otherwise not too bad of a drive - pretty much I90 for 500 miles, then a jaunt north from almost-Boston up to NH. It was snowing in Buffalo because it always is. There were some significant storms in central MA, but then it finally cleared up as we made it into town around 6pm.

Side note: what is it with people in the eastern half of NY and in MA that will pass you, then even though the next half mile of road in front of you is clear, merge over approximately six inches from your front bumper? This happened literally at least a hundred times on this trip. I'm pulling a heavy-ass trailer, I'm not going 10 over the speed limit.

Finally, Sunday morning. We check out of the hotel (which had very chunky milk with their breakfast offerings but was otherwise nice) and meet up with @Eury himself. The car is, frankly, better than he lets on. There's rust in the rockers and rear quarters (and a couple badish spots underneath) but it is completely stock, starts on the first turn, and the interior is near mint.

The drive back to Erie was overall better than the drive out, since it wasn't raining the whole time. The truck did well pulling 3000lb of car on 2200lb of trailer, got a good workout but never missed a beat or so much as budged the engine or transmission temperature needles past normal. Then about 50 miles east of Buffalo... it started snowing again. This would continue until about 50 miles south of Buffalo, where it switched back to rain/snow mix. Other than periods of lousy visibility and the snow/ice caking over the headlights (because it was dark by now, of course...) it wasn't too-too bad. Could have been a lot worse.

This morning I left my Erie friends at, once again... 7am. After driving 100 miles on Friday, 600 Saturday, and 600 Sunday, the 100 miles home flew by. The weather was very nearly clear. I was home around 9:30, unloaded the car, and returned the trailer. I then grabbed lunch... and headed into work for a half-day because the world is crazy. Final trip odometer-of-towing (reset when I picked it up) reading: 1498mi. Not too bad for about 100 gallons of gas and half a quart of oil.

It's home, filthy, but good. I'm working on a shortlist of what it needs. There's a spot or two of rust that needs addressed before they become structural issues, mainly. I'll be keeping an eye on the coolant/oil/etc. to determine what's going on with the suspected headgasket leak as well.

With the Oppo Heritage of this car, you all will be the first to hear as things develop/progress (it'll get a sticker once I've washed it beyond a quick clean-the-windshield-so-I-can-see-to-get-it-inside).

Yesterday after work, I finished putting the rx7 back together (just had to put in the radiator/fan/shroud/etc. so not a lot), filled the fluids, turned the key... and it started. Checked the timing (close enough), monitored things as it got up to temperature and burped the cooling system, and shut it off. After a thorough investigation, it was determined there were no major leaks. By this point it was a significant storm outside, so a hoodless test drive was out of the question.

Fortunately, today at lunchtime I managed to con a coworker-friend into swinging by to help put the hood back on.

Today after work, I re-checked fluids and tightened one weepy hose clamp. Hopped in, turned the key... and it started. After warming up, I adjusted the timing (it was really close but now it's dead on), closed the hood, and backed out of the garage.

Went for a short drive around the neighborhood, getting back as the rain started (noticing a trend here? This has been all summer - it's hot and sunny until about 5:30 then storms, except for the weekends when it just rains all day). No major issues, seems to run about the same as before. The new clutch feels much better than the old one, which wasn't worn too badly when I took it out, but felt like it was on its last legs.

I've parked over a sheet of clean cardboard (a rarity!) so I can identify any leakages. I expect a little from the coolant hoses, as those usually take a set after a cycle or two and need snugged up. I'm also still very strongly suspecting that the oil pressure sender is leaking from the seam in the body, but haven't had any clean oil come out of it yet, so it could just be the old goop trapped in there getting hot and running out.

In any case, it's currently a whole lot better than it was (previously this exercise would have resulted in 3-4 dollar-bill sized oil spots on the floor by the time it even warmed up).

Trying to do the blasted wheel bearing on the WRX, and step 1 isn't going so well. The axle nut is unsurprisingly very stuck (it's been re-used too so extra rust-seized). None of my impacts did anything, nor did the big electric one I borrowed from a coworker. Time for some

My 24" breaker bar was starting to bend at the head (dumb design, the handle narrows to go inside the head rather than get wider to go around), so I got out my shorter but much better made favorite breaker bar. That didn't go so well either.

Now, this nut has been soaked in various penetrants for days. As a function of safety, I don't have acetylene in my garage. The currently-available-excuse-for-mapp-"map-pro" doesn't do much.

Time for the big guns. A good opportunity to buy a 3/4" drive, 36" breaker bar. I have doubts I'll break this one.

I'll be picking up a 3/4" drive 32mm socket at lunchtime tomorrow. Let's see what lets go first.

Alright then. Last time, most of the drivetrain was in the new (technically older) shell. Since then, much has happened and some gambles have not paid off.

How about some odds and ends in preparation for an engine? Things like new battery terminals (the old replacement ones were pretty beat), new fuel hoses, and putting the comically large stock intake resonator thing inside the fender.

Anyways, with all these odds and ends prepared (there's more but not all completely documented), it's time for the fun part - actually putting the engine in.

This went fairly smoothly, all things considered. The "I did this less than a year ago" factor is helpful.

Many more odds and ends followed, including a new clutch slave cylinder (the other shell had the wrong part in it, worked but required hard line connection, which is... no) and braided flex line.

This led to a mostly installed engine.

It was at this point I attempted to bleed the clutch and found out that there were many things wrong. To make it short, not only were the seals in the clutch master probably bad, but the linkage had been butchered, including a delightful home-made clevis on the pushrod which had ovalled out and destroyed the pin for the pivot.

After much heavy sighing, the clutch master cylinder and basically the whole linkage from the other car was moved into this shell, restoring proper clutch operation. I am not sure how this could have been working before this car was parked, but it sure wasn't working well.

I then moved on to Very Important things like painting the upper radiator support (the pictured washer fluid is not the summer stuff, it's the mostly-winter-mix that I drained out of this car a month ago, it was re-added shortly thereafter).

I then... evacuated the a/c lines since the air (and subsequent moisture) in there isn't doing anything any favors. I'll pull it again before charging later but for now it's a lot better than just airy. I also changed the oil in the transmission since 1/3 of it had already leaked out on me when moving it between shells.

After that, the rest of the engine bay could be assembled!

Exciting stuff. What's after this, you wonder? Well much like the coolant being in the battery tray above, the entire suspension is inside the car.

Borrowed the springs from the rear for the new struts; had new ones for the front (same as what was on it, but not rusty - came with the car )

Then assembled the everything.

But what about the brakes? Well those were installed, too (including new flex lines not pictured, they went on last).

That's all well and good, but where does that leave things? Well this is when another gamble did not pay off... at all.

I was able to bleed all four corners without issue, starting with a gravity bleed while doing other things, then moving to the power bleeder. Steady flow from all four corners without any bubbles - great! Except when I got in the car to see how the pedal felt... it was rock hard. Not in a "firm brakes" way - in a "this is stuck" way. I pushed harder... and harder. With a metallic screech, it pushed down an inch. The pedal now moved freely to this position. More stomping, more screeching, until the pedal was able to limply flop full travel, while applying zero pressure to the brakes. The master cylinder is completely seized up internally.

Now, I hadn't swapped over the brake master - the one on the old car always felt a little spongy (though that could be other things) so I figured I'd leave this one on. As a professional idiot, I never even poked at the pedal until now. This means that instead of swapping out the MC in a basically-empty engine bay, I now will be doing it with nearly zero access. A new one has been ordered, stay tuned.

But it's not all disappointing news. With the fluids filled and the battery installed, there was only a tiny bit of prep work before starting it - mostly flushing out the fuel line since it was full of who-knows-what. I stuck the end of the feed in a jar and turned the key to prime the pump. I turned it and... nothing. At all. No pump. Kept going, no crank.

Dash lights looked reasonable, so I went under the dash. Eventually I found, on the far passenger side, a plug just kind of hanging out. After comparing under the dash of the old shell (this is a huge convenience) I confirmed it needed to be plugged into A Thing. I did so, and tried turning the key again - and the fuel pump primed! Still no crank, though.

It acted like the clutch wasn't down, but it was. After hanging out under the dash for a little while, I found the clutch safety switch (cousin of Seat Safety Switch) and unplugged it. A small wire acted as a jumper to simulate the switch being closed (as in, the pedal depressed).

Time to turn the key again. Now, I had conned a coworker into coming over to hold the brakes while I tightened the front axle nuts (didn't happen because no brakes, but he stuck around to chat and try to help troubleshoot) who I instead had take this video:

So there's still a lot to do, but this is a big milestone. It's loud (exhaust ends after the cats) but running well. I burped the cooling system, bled the power steering, checked for leaks, and made sure I can run it through the gears.

Big open item is making the brakes work so I can finish torquing up the front axle nuts, and there's a couple other smaller odds and ends mechanically to address before it can move under its own power (the real excitement!).

Once that happens, I'll be changing gear a bit to address the needed bodywork on this thing, all while racing the clock/calendar for "this needs to be done before it gets too cold to do so" - wish me luck. This will probably be a slow week since I'm waiting on parts, and physically need to dial it back for a little while after spending the last several days straight wrenching.

@nermal I dunno, I seem to still be encountering my fair share of ass wipes every time I leave home?

As planned, some friends and I went on a mini-vacation to the greater Nashville area (more on that later) and combined the trip with some truck shopping. Both parts of the plan were a success.

Having prioritized my saved links, we went to check out the first truck on the list (which was the most appealing option). It was everything the listing claimed, spotless underneath (those of us who live in the salted lands understand), and a fair-for-the-asinine-used-truck-market price, so I bought it.

It is everything I was looking for: single cab, short bed, 4x4, zero rust, maintained (single owner, dealer maintained, was a company truck of some sort, has corner strobes), has a/c and cruise control, and I could afford it. It has some miles (179k) but for a work truck of such age is in good shape. The steering wheel is a bit sun damaged but the interior is otherwise pretty good (and basic! crank windows!), there's a spray-in bedliner and toolbox in the back as well.

The only missing nicety is that it is the 3.7 and not the 5.0, but at least it isn't an early ecoboost (concerning) or a 3-valve 5.4 (even more concerning). Having driven 500 miles home, the V6 is definitely adequate (and gets decent mileage), so I am very satisfied. No signs of issues with the waterpump that these can develop. The six-speed automatic is a six speed automatic and always wants to be in one-too-high of a gear, but that's how anything is. It kicks down if you ask it to; foot on the floor it revs to seven thousand RPM. In a truck.

The chrome hubcaps, smoker vents on the windows, and questionably-legal-here tint are on the short list to address (aka remove). Otherwise, it doesn't really need anything beyond a normal new-to-me round of fluids and filters and a couple stone chips touched up before they rust.

The trip overall was also excellent, I'll post more about the two main Oppo-interesting places visited later.

A couple (apparently masochistic) friends came by again today to continue work on the WRX. After much parts cleaning, hanging out, and wrench turning we were able to go from this:

To this:

The used engine of unknown providence is installed with the stock intake-and-everything-else, a fresh timing belt, clutch, valve cover gaskets, and a bunch of other odds and ends. All that's left is everything else.

As planned, after work I killed a little time to let traffic decrease, hooked up the battery, and fired up the Chevelle for the first time since late November-ish when I turned it around in the garage to do the bodywork on the rear. After various checkout and warmup, I went for a very short drive - all is well. The new steering wheel is very good.

When I got back, I checked everything over again, then changed the oil. A fresh 7ish quarts (why does my made-in-USA oil come in liters?) and filter and it should be good to go. Since the engine is still pretty young, I'm going to see how the plugs look and check the valves (and adjust if needed) tomorrow, then it should be ready to go for some real driving... and get washed. It's filthy.

In the previous installment, I'd just begun to start the actual swapping part of the shell swap, rather than just prepping and refurbishing parts.

This means we start off strong, with removing a whole bunch of stuff:

This is definitely in the "not first" category of rodeo, as I got the whole thing ready to pull the engine in under 3 hours. The caveat is that, unlike last time, I left the PS and A/C pump and compressor on the engine, since there's no way to do all this without opening the systems anyways.

Aaaand out we go. Turns out I didn't pick very good spots to lift from, as even with the leveler cranked all around it was very cockeyed. Before this goes back in the other shell, I'm going to at least pull the alternator so I can get better spread on lift points to make it a little less woobly.

Safely tucked into the corner, it's time to move on to pulling the front suspension. Why? Because it'll make it easier to get the transmission out, and it has to come off anyways.

Continuing the theme of "middling but consistent" maintenance history on the rusty shell, these brake rotors were way, way overdue to change but nobody did. Was this the shop being lazy or the owner being stingy? I think the former, but yeah as a PSA this is not what a good rotors looks like. Check out the huge groove and lips. Both fronts were like this (I noticed it early in ownership) and the brakes were not-great accordingly, since half the inside braking surface wasn't making good contact.

Anyways, the everything was removed from both sides. No big surprises here. You may be able to tell here how this will aid in transmission removal.

Finally transmission time... starting with the shift linkage and stay. The bushing was replaced recently-ish, but it was still a bit of a huge pain to get up in there and disconnected.

I supported the transmission and removed the front two of the 6 bolts holding its crossmember(s) to the chassis, and... it fell off. Well then.

That's good. For reference that's meant to be one piece. I'll have more pictures of this shortly.

Anyways, after much finagling and finding out that trans+jack was too tall to get out from under the car:

I then went inside to remove the shifter, and installed it on the other car:

Before I could put the transmission in, I had to sort out the crossmember. Fortunately, the shell came with 2/3 of the required members, and the 1/3 it didn't have was in good shape on mine.

Used-good-not-rusty parts cleaned up, a new mount, and assembled

Time to go in! This was extremely difficult mostly because I had to roll it under the car on the dolly to have clearance, then figure out how to lift both ends (with the extremely wobbly crossmember attached via the mount) enough to get it on the trans jack.

Success! Fully bolted in, the shifter reconnected, and so on. I then took some time to move various odds and ends between engine bays, which leaves us here.

I do still need to clean up and paint the upper radiator support, but that's not critical path right now.

What's next? I need to double check a couple odds and ends, put on a couple pieces of new fuel line, and do a little prep on the engine (including installing new OEM mounts that came with the car because why not). After that, it's time to plop the engine in. hook everything up, then all that's left is everything else.

If you're like me and wondering "how is this taking so long?" - just remember I'm a single guy who lives (and thus wrenches) alone, owns a house to maintain (+lawn etc), and works 8-5ish M-F and my only chance to visit friends/family are on the weekends

@MUSASHI66 I recently painted a set of caliper brackets with the rustoleum brand caliper paint, and the calipers themselves with VHT caliper paint. Why? Because those are the two partial cans I had on the shelf. I found the VHT to lay out a lot nicer and was much less prone to fisheye from my questionable prep. Neither have seen heat or weather yet so I'll have to get back to you on how they hold up over time.

The fact that I have both on hand tells me I've used them both in the past, but I couldn't tell you what on. I've painted quite a few calipers (and drums) and have no idea which was used on what.

@farscythe said in The Best of OPPO @ the Hyphen, Round 12:

@davesaddiction can we has a worst of oppo too?

We already do, it's right here.

@PowderHound I am not a differential expert! Setting up a diff is on the short list (adjacent to "transmission rebuild") of thing I've not done... but I've seen it done. I think you need to paint more than just a few teeth and then run it around a few times. From what I can make out of your pattern it actually looks pretty good, but I'd want to double check.

@facw said in What even is wayfair?:

@Poor_sh They are supposed to be a furniture store. I bought my TV stand from them (no children were included).

I'm pretty sure they do do third-party dropship sales, which presumably is where all this is coming from?

Reminds me of when car parts show up in search results listed at... Newegg. CPUs, SSDs, and wheel bearings.

The 1975 release date does put this in a unique time that, of the cars listed at the end, we can reasonably compare a Mazda, MG, and Montego (had to somehow relate this to Oppo right?).

@RallyDarkstrike I've found that, at a component level, it can be difficult since it's made so modular. That said, at the subassembly level that modularity comes into play and it's pretty straightforward. I suppose the "oh they're like legos!" comes from people never going beyond removing assemblies.

@HillRat I use pennzoil platinum in anything that gets synthetic, their conventional in the RX7, and Torco in the chevelle because rowdy smallblock with clearances set for syrup.

@100percentjake I might know someone who could be convinced to get a high mileage but not rusty e46 to use as a track car... so let me know if you decide to sell it. Hopefully not too too soon.

(Edit: this post isn't very clear because I hit reply not quote... this is in regards to

my previous daily is a 260,000 mile 2003 330i ZHP that was severely neglected. I'm uhhhhhhh $8000 into catching it up on maintenance.

)

@Taylor-Martin It's really for anywhere in the brakes that there is metal-metal contact, so for the cables... maybe? Do they slide on something? As long as it isn't in a position to get on the shoes/drum (or get hot and then get on them) it probably won't hurt.

@Throwaway said in Silver is a bad color?:

@MM54 My buddy has a big ass Chevy diesel dick extender and it looks like he's here to add chemicals to the pool.

Not with those wheels and a crew cab, it doesn't