So we are officially leaving Germany next week! FINALLY! Despite a fast paced overhaul last summer when I was back to visit while my husband was deployed, my car has been seriously neglected over the last 3 years. In fact, over the 9+ years I've owned it, it has spent a lot of time idle at my dad's house. Can't complain too bad though, my 11 year old car, JUST broke 70k...

I do miss one of my favorite hobbies, which I gave up coming out here, so I am excited to be headed back. My husband's Evo just doesn't do it for me, lol.

Have a few goals for the car over the next year or so... Fresh Eco swap needs some TLC... My motor was pretty oxidized from exposure, mostly intend to do some deep cleaning that I didn't have time for during the engine swap. I need to put AC back in the car as well and I'd like to color coordinate a few things under there too. I have a few exterior changes in mind, tho minor. As for performance, I doubt that will get hit over the next year... if so, Im thinking LSJ exhaust mani for a slight upgrade and either an LE5 intake mani or an S/C setup if I decide to drop a good chunk of change into it... but I don't forsee that happening, we'll see.

We have a bunch of traveling to do once we get back as we make our way down to our newly purchased house... so we are looking for a way to gain storage. The best idea we came up with was a roof rack to add cargo space.. My car is LOW and the LSS rear probably wouldn't be friendly with a rear tow hitch for a utility trailer or a cargo rack mounted via hitch. I think the roof rack is the best option. I don't hate how they look with a fairing either.

This is my shopping cart right now... haven't made any purchases, still doing research, but this seems to be a good combo.. a little hit to the wallet, but less then renting a car & paying for gas for two cars for the duration of our trip. Besides, it could come in useful in the future, unlike renting a car or something similar.



As for the car, here are a few recent photos my dad took with his cell.





And a couple more from before I abandoned it, yet again, last year.





Side note.... Hooray for NC not requiring front plates too! Can't wait to yank that off.

As much as I want to upgrade to a better family car (we're thinking a new Focus ST), I really can't wait to see my J again, lol.

Looking forward to the progress!

the cav rear and fire front in silver, thats a smooth looking car. i like it a lot!

but keep in mind, 70k and 11 years with little activity is probably worse than 170k with lots of driving and maintenance. cars that sit can go south fast, especially depending on the climate you live in.
I would spend the money at this point on an upper motor rebuild....gaskets, seals, fuel system cleaning, coolant system flush, etc. save up and just get her back to tip top shape. Worry about performance later when you decide what you wanna invest in. Boost requires tuning, tuning requires patience, money, and a good tune option. But i really like your car...its simple but silver has been growing on me lately quite a bit


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.

woah jazer, don't pull the trigger on yakima gear. craigslist.org is going to be your friend. i bought all my yakima parts for 100 bucks. a little elbow grease and back to black they look new. for about a week. but then again. its a roof rack and it will not look pretty. save the info. so you can track all the parts down for the rack. you will thank me.

ebay too. i put an offer on my qclips and got both sets from a yakima dealer for 18 bucks.

Sub'ed for updates! So you're no longer in NE?



"In Oldskool we trust"

Welcome to the Carolinas!

Hey, were you able to find a house?

If so, what city did you choose to live in? If you are near Fayetteville, every 2nd Saturday of the month, Cars And Coffee car club meets at the Millstone Theater in Hope Mills. I'm the only cav there so it would be nice if you could make a couple of the car meets.

Zs Z wrote:Looking forward to the progress!

Thank you!

blu04DD wrote:the cav rear and fire front in silver, thats a smooth looking car. i like it a lot!

but keep in mind, 70k and 11 years with little activity is probably worse than 170k with lots of driving and maintenance. cars that sit can go south fast, especially depending on the climate you live in.
I would spend the money at this point on an upper motor rebuild....gaskets, seals, fuel system cleaning, coolant system flush, etc. save up and just get her back to tip top shape. Worry about performance later when you decide what you wanna invest in. Boost requires tuning, tuning requires patience, money, and a good tune option. But i really like your car...its simple but silver has been growing on me lately quite a bit

Thanks! Trust me, I am aware of all this. I built and turboed my LN2 once upon a time... I am fully aware of what boosting a car requires. The Eco swap was just done last year, it was my LN2 that sat around all those years.. I also drove it (in total) on a nearly 20 hour road trip last year despite all this and it never missed a beat. My dad runs my car and drives it around here and there as well. He doesn't put miles on it, he just lets the engine run, takes it for very short trips, did an oil change, helps keep the car from being a paper weight, etc..

American Henchman wrote:woah jazer, don't pull the trigger on yakima gear. craigslist.org is going to be your friend. i bought all my yakima parts for 100 bucks. a little elbow grease and back to black they look new. for about a week. but then again. its a roof rack and it will not look pretty. save the info. so you can track all the parts down for the rack. you will thank me.

American Henchman wrote:ebay too. i put an offer on my qclips and got both sets from a yakima dealer for 18 bucks.

Typically, these are the routes I would try first... and will still check out ebay, etc... but I will need the gear in about a week and a half or so and can't risk receiving the wrong part or not having them ship it fast enough.. I also can't wait around to find good deals pop up, etc... I pieced together the setup I want on there so I can use it as a reference as well. Do you have any input on the stretch kit? How necessary it is? Either way my husband would rather drop 480$ for insurance that it's going to be there on time and be the right parts. Ill be looking around today for any potential used replacements to knock off that list. . Maybe Ill look for the fairing/basket/poles online since they aren't so vehicle specific.

Josh Meyers wrote:Welcome to the Carolinas!

Thanks!

RicoCav wrote:Hey, were you able to find a house?

If so, what city did you choose to live in? If you are near Fayetteville, every 2nd Saturday of the month, Cars And Coffee car club meets at the Millstone Theater in Hope Mills. I'm the only cav there so it would be nice if you could make a couple of the car meets.

Yes! We just closed on Tuesday! The home is in Linden. My husband and i will definitely come out to some C&C meets! I'm sure there are plenty of Evo guys for him to meet up with, lol.

Just looked at eBay.... the prices w/shipping can't compete with the prices w/free shipping on etrailer.com. We could save 20$ on bars and that's it. Not even worth it, lol. Etrailer has lower prices than retail which helps a bit.

where in germany are you...?





GOT ECOTEC?

Schweinfurt. For one more week! Lol.

i have never used the stretch kits, but look for basket, poles and qtowers. the only part that is vehicle specific is the clips. thats it. as far as the fairing is they are prove to be a little more a hassle that any thing. yes it reduced wind noise, a bit. but it reduced MPG by about 4 miles and eventually the rubber feet wear off and scratch the @!#$ out of your roof. trust me i now i have a 2011 focus that i had the fairing on for 6 months and now get to take it to a body shop to get the 4 patches fixed on the roof. honestly if you listen to music in the car you can live without it.

Damn.., well, honestly my new paint job didnt come out as good as Id have hoped, so im not too concerned about the paint. It's beater status. Thanks for the input. i feel a lil better not having ordered the stretch kit, lol. I did look for all the pieces, but like I said, the cost + shipping added up to be quite a bit more than from etrailer where the order shipped free. I just ordered everything. I couldn't find any good deals and unfortunately can't wait around til they pop up. If I had thought of it sooner, I would have, but we didn't decide on a rack until now.

did you get a lock set for the qtowers, those are not included and are a god send. if you have not order atleast a six or eight set so you can use the same keys for your accessories. bike mounts, etc

Good to hear you're coming back!

Honestly, I had the same idea for hauling some stuff around in my cav (and get some use out of it! ) and I like that idea myself..


I always worried about putting a roof rack on because he messed up his roof pretty bad having one on there...then again, I'm pretty sure he did not put it on right either....didn't want dents and and stuff on over mine......


http://www.autotalk.com/pictures/data/1536/medium/2005_Chevrolet_Cavalier_Xtreme_002_autotalk_com_.jpg

Thanks Dave!

I didn't get a lock set, I mean, I have a garage so the car will never be outside over night but it probably is still a good idea huh...

it is a good idea or you can easily flip the q tower covers and use the thumb screws to loosen them. then they are gone. if mine are unlocked i can take them off in a matter of 2 minutes. and you do not want to over tighten because you can dent your roof. when you flip the cover closed it pulls the q tower tighter to the roof

Okay, good to know. Thanks.

Well here is how the rack looks... Man, has it come in useful!!! Ill have to get a picture with all our stuff loaded up on it, pretty crazy, lol.

As for an update, It has made it halfway through our trip, put probably 750-1000 miles on it with all the driving... Without a hitch. Haven't broken 67k on it (i guess my memory was a little off before). It's running great.

ALMOST had a terrible thing happen halfway from Boston to Buffalo though.... We got caught in a horrible rain storm, highway was almost flooding and I later heard there were tornado warnings relatively close by... Well I have a CAI and a missing splash guard. Car started hesitating, I just KNEW it was from that. Stupid on my part, leaving it like that. I was always cautious in the rain because of that, but the filter always remained relatively dry... this storm was too much. Pulled over right away, disconnected the AEM intake where the plastic turns to metal up in the engine bay, and water POURED out of the upper intake tubing. Realistically I'd guess two full cups of water. Well I left it separated but put a sock on the end of the upper plastic tubing to act as a filter... And it started without even a minor hesitation... And has been driving perfect since. Well that was a bullet dodged. Car is a @!#$ champ.

Lesson learned for me.

And Ill just leave this here too...

Lets see a pic of the rack loaded down and a pic of the Evo

You might want to patent that Sock Filter before K&N catches on and you run them out of business.

Mrs Jazer wrote:As for an update, It has made it halfway through our trip, put probably 750-1000 miles on it with all the driving... Without a hitch. Haven't broken 67k on it (i guess my memory was a little off before). It's running great.

ALMOST had a terrible thing happen halfway from Boston to Buffalo though.... We got caught in a horrible rain storm, highway was almost flooding and I later heard there were tornado warnings relatively close by... Well I have a CAI and a missing splash guard. Car started hesitating, I just KNEW it was from that. Stupid on my part, leaving it like that. I was always cautious in the rain because of that, but the filter always remained relatively dry... this storm was too much. Pulled over right away, disconnected the AEM intake where the plastic turns to metal up in the engine bay, and water POURED out of the upper intake tubing. Realistically I'd guess two full cups of water. Well I left it separated but put a sock on the end of the upper plastic tubing to act as a filter... And it started without even a minor hesitation... And has been driving perfect since. Well that was a bullet dodged. Car is a @!#$ champ.

Lesson learned for me.

And Ill just leave this here too...

That storm was crazy, didn't realize it was the one you hit. Should have hit me up while you were in Boston, could have taken some cool pictures with the cars.



"In Oldskool we trust"

Ah, didnt realize you were in Boston. Yeah we hit the storm in western Mass/eastern NY area. Before Albany. It was horrible. About 10-15 minutes of near zero visibility, but you can't stop and pull over or anything. It was scary for a few there... That's what did my intake in for sure...

Yeah, I'll patent it all right. Car actually seems to like it, lol.

My husband and I took care of the problem at least and we got out of the way of that bullet.