Road Race Build (Sold but not forgotten) Solomon's 2GNT Build ('98 RS)

[BLACK'98DSM]

I'm sure the new owner is quite pleased and you are happy in the end as well. Thanks for all the help here and glad to see you'll still be sticking around. It was a pleasure picking your brain for knowledge when my tranny went down and I appreciate it greatly.

You're very welcome for the help. I'm glad I was able to help you, and even more glad to see that someone is still out there with an interest in keeping these cars on the road. While our build paths were different, our passion was the same. If you need any more help in the future, don't hesitate to send me another PM. I'll be there to help out if I can.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Saw a '96 Talon ESI at the local Walmart. I didn't bother asking if he wanted to sell it, though I wanted to.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

It's February 15th, 2019. 7 days before I started this build thread, and a seemingly rushed 6 years ago that feels like yesterday. It's a chilly 40 degrees and raining heavily, but I decide to ride to the junkyard anyway because they notified me of having a 2G DSM on the yard. When I arrive, the first thing I do is open the trunk because my spare tire area is completely rusted away. Knowing that the hatch seals are a major problem with the 2G, I look anyway because there's a tick in my mind telling me to fix the problem and "there must be a good one in existence". Sure enough when I open the trunk, the carpet is already missing and I see a beautiful spare tire well without a hole in it. So I run back for tools. It's not like you can haul a plasma cutter or even wheel in an air compressor with cutoff wheel in this junkyard, so I had to work with what I could bring. My little green battery powered Ryobi sawzall. Let me tell you, cutting out this part in those conditions and with that tool is miserable. Even carrying the heavy hunk of metal over my head to the counter to pay for it was stressful. I received a funny facial expression from the counter clerk. They obviously don't sell many parts that need cutting. Especially not spare tire wells cut with a sawzall. Rust is rare down South anyway, so it takes years of neglect to reach the condition of my original.


On to the next day. Weather is a bit more on sunny side but still cool. So I park the car in the garage and get the welding machine set up for sheet metal. I was getting far ahead of myself though. As you can imagine, it's hard to replicate the cut of a sawzall at the junkyard, but I made it work since I had a pneumatic cutoff wheel to work with at home. I was able to get the removed area pretty damn close to the replacement. There were some 1/8" and even 1/4" overlaps in some spots, but I welded the thing in anyway. If anything, those overlaps were adding the necessary integrity to hold the weight of my spare tire and scissor jack. Once welding was complete I slightly ground away the beads and chased it with Bondo, primer and semi gloss black paint.

I'd imagine there aren't many people out there who can say that they have replaced this part of a 2G. Perhaps some high end body shops have taken on the task, but there I was doing it in poor conditions and with home owned tools. If anything, it was from my PASSION for that car.

Of course at the time it was a daily driver so I wanted to keep my spare tire in place. But eventually, 3 years later, I cut it back out and installed the Archer Fabrications spare delete panel. It felt very strange cutting my work out again, but that's life. Constantly changing.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

It's been roughly 14 months since I sold the car. And I just had a phone call with the "new" owner. We exchanged questions (why did this take so long?). He had questions about the specifics of modifications. My only two questions were about how it was running, and if he would sell it back to me. Yes, I asked if I could buy it back. And I made it clear that money was no object, and asked what his price would be. He said that it's not for sale and that he really enjoys driving it.
Dammit. I became soft-hearted and wanted it back. Just to be hit with the fact that I couldn't have it back.

Don't get me wrong. I quickly learned to live without it and have moved on. However, if the opportunity to have it back were today, I'd have it again today. I told him that those 7 years of hard work were irreplaceable. He thanked me for the hard work, and said that he enjoys it too. Maybe in another life I can have it again. Although part of me is happy for him to have the experiences that I had in that car. There isn't another like it around.

Just thought I'd update on what happened shortly ago. The build is not continuing on my end obviously. At least I was able to hear about it though.

 

[jesse12345]

Man I know that feeling of asking to buy back and you get hit with the no. At least he's enjoying the car and all the hard work you put into it. Maybe one day he'll tell you it's just been sitting and he's ready to sell. We have to stay positive.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

8 years ago on this day. I had just finished up the first of 4 or 5? timing jobs and airbox delete. It was running decent for the first time in my ownership. The gratification from this day lead into an almost 7 year money pit