Hello all! Here's another p5 build thread for you guys to check out. (nana) 'Lil backround 1st...
I had a regular cab Chevy Colorado for almost 7 years. Bought it new when they 1st came out in '04, and put over 124K on it. It was the best freaking vehicle I've ever owned! All those miles, and not 1 single major issue!! I even traded it in on the original brakes, never felt any indications that they needed replaced? But alas, with my long time girlfriend and I getting married this past September, 2 Boxers that we are VERY active with, and plans for babies in the near future, a regular cab truck wasn't in the cards anymore.
So we traded the truck in on an '07 4WD Trailblazer LT with all the bells and whistles. I let the wife drive it because I felt safer with her having the 4WD in the winter. I'm a collision tech as well, and I didn't want to crap up our nice new vehicle at work. lol So I've been rocking her rusting, looking like a golf ball from hail damage, '97 Cavalier with 190,000mi since. Thing's a tank and reliable as hell, but I've had it with this "it just gets me from point A to point B" crap...I need something sweet to drive!!!
I want a 4WD truck for the winter, and the wife says it has to be Crew Cab for a family, but we can't afford one right now. So, my next choice was a wagon! Good MPG, fold the seats down and haul some stuff, and just let the dogs jump on in when we go places! GOOD wagons were few and far between in my price range, and the mp5's caught my eye the most, so I settled on them. Joined the forums about 2 weeks ago to research my new obsession! I've seen some awesome rides, learning alot as time goes on, and I've talked to and met some GREAT people already!
After a few weeks of looking at rusted out jalopies for $4000 or more, I finally found mine! Bought dave45090's turbo p5 yesterday. SUPER awesome guy, the car is in great condition, has pretty much ALL of the mods I would've done to a stock one, and 100% RUST FREE, and he even towed the car 3 hours to meet us! The deal is, something's up with the motor, it's got a miss and loud tick to it. I know squat about motorwork and turbo systems though, short of being able to name components, and my main concern is having a reliable DD that I don't have to tinker with every weekend, so I'm going to sell off all the turbo stuff to pay for a new (used) motor.
Here we go!
It was wierd looking at this thing in my mirrors for 6 hours. I kept thinking "who the hell is on my ass!? Oh...wait." hahaha
I'm ordering a motor tomorrow. Found one of those companies that ships low mileage motors in from overseas, runs all kinds of tests on them, and has a 6mo warranty. BUT....first thing's first, needed to clean the garage out so I can have room to work on this bad boy!! Crap got piled up over the winter, and the floors were a mess from all the road crap. lol
Damn near the whole body from my Dad's '69 Firebird Convertible that I'm restoring for him. Going in the basement until I get this project done. Then I can bring the shell home and get back on it...
For reference. haha This is all the farther I got on it before the cold weather hit. He bought it like this, then we had it blasted and I sprayed some PPG DP90 on it to keep it from rusting. It's up at my work right now, I wasn't parking outside all damn winter!
Before....
After...
The car! No fancy photoshoot yet though, just some pics during the cleaning process...
All the stock parts it came with...(I was trying to bend the lip back into shape)
Apollo says..."get this thing going dad and take me for a RIDE!!!"
Like it was MADE for that spot!
I can't freaking WAIT to get this thing on the road! It'll take a few weeks though. Getting all the parts together, and I can't even start on it until next Sunday. I need to install some efans on my brother's Trailblazer SS, and do some other odds and ends for him, so we invited a bunch of other Trailblazer/Envoy friends over and we're going to have a mod meet here this Saturday. I didn't want a bunch of parts everywhere while this was going on, and the car sitting outside with the front end off if it rained.
I had a regular cab Chevy Colorado for almost 7 years. Bought it new when they 1st came out in '04, and put over 124K on it. It was the best freaking vehicle I've ever owned! All those miles, and not 1 single major issue!! I even traded it in on the original brakes, never felt any indications that they needed replaced? But alas, with my long time girlfriend and I getting married this past September, 2 Boxers that we are VERY active with, and plans for babies in the near future, a regular cab truck wasn't in the cards anymore.
So we traded the truck in on an '07 4WD Trailblazer LT with all the bells and whistles. I let the wife drive it because I felt safer with her having the 4WD in the winter. I'm a collision tech as well, and I didn't want to crap up our nice new vehicle at work. lol So I've been rocking her rusting, looking like a golf ball from hail damage, '97 Cavalier with 190,000mi since. Thing's a tank and reliable as hell, but I've had it with this "it just gets me from point A to point B" crap...I need something sweet to drive!!!
I want a 4WD truck for the winter, and the wife says it has to be Crew Cab for a family, but we can't afford one right now. So, my next choice was a wagon! Good MPG, fold the seats down and haul some stuff, and just let the dogs jump on in when we go places! GOOD wagons were few and far between in my price range, and the mp5's caught my eye the most, so I settled on them. Joined the forums about 2 weeks ago to research my new obsession! I've seen some awesome rides, learning alot as time goes on, and I've talked to and met some GREAT people already!
After a few weeks of looking at rusted out jalopies for $4000 or more, I finally found mine! Bought dave45090's turbo p5 yesterday. SUPER awesome guy, the car is in great condition, has pretty much ALL of the mods I would've done to a stock one, and 100% RUST FREE, and he even towed the car 3 hours to meet us! The deal is, something's up with the motor, it's got a miss and loud tick to it. I know squat about motorwork and turbo systems though, short of being able to name components, and my main concern is having a reliable DD that I don't have to tinker with every weekend, so I'm going to sell off all the turbo stuff to pay for a new (used) motor.
Here we go!
It was wierd looking at this thing in my mirrors for 6 hours. I kept thinking "who the hell is on my ass!? Oh...wait." hahaha
I'm ordering a motor tomorrow. Found one of those companies that ships low mileage motors in from overseas, runs all kinds of tests on them, and has a 6mo warranty. BUT....first thing's first, needed to clean the garage out so I can have room to work on this bad boy!! Crap got piled up over the winter, and the floors were a mess from all the road crap. lol
Damn near the whole body from my Dad's '69 Firebird Convertible that I'm restoring for him. Going in the basement until I get this project done. Then I can bring the shell home and get back on it...
For reference. haha This is all the farther I got on it before the cold weather hit. He bought it like this, then we had it blasted and I sprayed some PPG DP90 on it to keep it from rusting. It's up at my work right now, I wasn't parking outside all damn winter!
Before....
After...
The car! No fancy photoshoot yet though, just some pics during the cleaning process...
All the stock parts it came with...(I was trying to bend the lip back into shape)
Apollo says..."get this thing going dad and take me for a RIDE!!!"
Like it was MADE for that spot!
I can't freaking WAIT to get this thing on the road! It'll take a few weeks though. Getting all the parts together, and I can't even start on it until next Sunday. I need to install some efans on my brother's Trailblazer SS, and do some other odds and ends for him, so we invited a bunch of other Trailblazer/Envoy friends over and we're going to have a mod meet here this Saturday. I didn't want a bunch of parts everywhere while this was going on, and the car sitting outside with the front end off if it rained.