Hello all, As my girlfriend said, "Your car yield this year is going well"... as we all are, I'm a car farmer. If they made it, I want to own it, fix it, drive it, and 'sometimes' break even. I'm already in the midst of re-rebuilding 1 of the 2 Mazda GTX's, have a Chrysler Conquest track project with my best friend, and literally just developed a external cylinder head leak on my daily driver Subaru GC8...
WHAT BETTER TIME TO SEARCH FOR A NEW STEED!?!
... you know the story: you are sitting on the couch with your lady(man)-friend who puts up with your auto obsession, they are watching TV and you're (I) par oozing Craiglist for fun, nothing serious... you just want to see if that Mazdaspeed LSD has sold... then you find it... the car that is remarkably cheap, closish, and you caught the ad 'just' in time.
The story of my new daily commuter: the 200,000 mile WRX wagon 5-speed
'Twas scrolling though CL and stumbled upon this beauty, thankfully the owner was cool and I went up to SF (about 60 miles way) the next day, test drive revealed no CEL or dangerous issues. Asking price $2500, bought for $2050 (woot woot):
Issues known to purchase:
1) Front end is ugly due to crash,
2) No A/C (no condensor and line to cabin sheared) - from crash,
3) NY registration (live in CA),
4) Clock doesn't work,
5) HVAC only works on setting 4 - high,
6) Alternator housing broken - no diag required, just ordered a used one from eBay,
7) MIrror compass inverted direction - calibrated and done, 
,
+ they had and loved a VERY hairy dog - after 2 go throughs it still there!!!
Now it being the cheapest WRX in the hemisphere, I knew something would happen, and it did. Lets give the diag some time.
Found the source of the engine matter was a loose gas cap, yes it was my fault... but the ABS code has proven to be more of an issue. ABS code 25 - RR wheel speed sensor, swapped with the other side, same issue, ohm'd the wiring and V-drops = nothing... which only leaves the ABS unit itself to blame. On order... $65 ABS unit
Next came the clock, which has been done many,many times. A little resistor for the clock lighting breaks, so just pop it out, touch with the Weller and job done. $Free
While I was into the electrics, I suspected the HVAC was dead from a blown "resistor" in the system... its usually the culprit. So ohm'd it out and wouldn't you know, the only on with a realistic resistance was on speed 4, weirdo right haha. Ordered a new "blower motor resistor" - $36
Now, I've gotten lazy in my almost-30 (GF says I have an old soul) and the idea of taking out and putting in a new CD each time is now ridiculous...I'd be losing seconds each day 
, and I am far too cheap to put in cash where it is not needed, so a little home AUX-IN cable time. RadioShack has the cable for $10, cut the end off, find L & R channels, Aux ground, solder and done. $10
As the car was more and more drivable, easy to deal with, the front just started mocking me...Not to be out done I called 3 of my usual sources and found ZIP, ZERO, NADA from any importer had a 2002-2003 "bugeye" front end... what to do? Upgrade my friends
...a couple days later and by complete chance I found a 2007 STi front end within the 100 mile radius for a good deal ($1180). Grabbed the dog, and we were off:
Next came the chop shop antics, as follows:
All in all, this has been about a week since we got the car until just getting done with the car about 30 minutes ago. The next stage of all of this is to throw a t-belt and clutch at it, evac and fill the A/C, and literally see how long it lasts... until then, cheers!
-Richard
