• Welcome to Jetboaters.net!

    We are delighted you have found your way to the best Jet Boaters Forum on the internet! Please consider Signing Up so that you can enjoy all the features and offers on the forum. We have members with boats from all the major manufacturers including Yamaha, Seadoo, Scarab and Chaparral. We don't email you SPAM, and the site is totally non-commercial. So what's to lose? IT IS FREE!

    Membership allows you to ask questions (no matter how mundane), meet up with other jet boaters, see full images (not just thumbnails), browse the member map and qualifies you for members only discounts offered by vendors who run specials for our members only! (It also gets rid of this banner!)

    free hit counter

My latest non-boat related project v. 2

Ronnie

Jetboaters Fleet Admiral
Messages
8,468
Reaction score
11,232
Points
637
Location
SF Bay Area
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2010
Boat Model
Limited S
Boat Length
24
My wife and I got and refurbished a 2005 Acura TSX for our son and gave it to him when he graduated high school last June (he was supposed to use the car through college 500 miles away). Before this I got him a 2003 Toyota Matrix to teach him how to drive a stick in (it was a real beater / POS). Originally I traded in my Chevy truck and bought a ridge line for us to share. Fast forward to early January when he showed me a used Subaru hatchback with a 5 speed for sale in SCal (500 miles away).

Long story short, he had saved the bulk of its cost already (I “spotted” him the difference), we called the seller in the morning, were on our way there by noon, test drove it at 9 that night and drove it home the next day.

It is a 2010 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport with Momo rims, Pirelli tires and 195k miles. Turns out we are the second owners and the original owner had all Maintnence done by the his dealership. According to the car fax the engine was replaced in the last two years (the original owner only told me he had the head gaskets replaced). Anyway, there are no leaks, the engine looks clean enough to eat off of and my mechanic looked it over a few days after we got it and said the car is in great mechanical condition for its age and miles.

After haven’t a screw removed from one of the tires, I discovered it’s needs new struts all the way around, I was not surprised. The cost for my mechanic to replace the struts is about $1,200 ($400 for parts $800 for labor). My son and I are planning to do it ourselves before he leaves for college next fall.

So far we have peeled the rear window tint, replaced both head lights (I tried restoring one for over 3 hours, what a waste of time), installed a rear view / dash cam with a touch screen built into the mirror, cleaned up /hid the routing of the the Aux and USB cables to the stock stereo, replaced the shift knob and fuel door and painted all the brack calipers, both bumpers and spoiler/rear window visor. Yesterday we put the car back together after a week being out of commission.

I just ordered a CD player mounted wireless charging cell phone holder and a rear window defrost repair kit for the car and will have a spare/duplicate key made as soon as ace hardware gets more blanks in stock (ace charges $100, the dealer $300 both include the key’s cutting and programming). I will put the tsx up for sale oncethe pink slip for this car is sent to us.

Although I think the TSX is a better car and was hoping to keep it around and use it for the next five years (whenever my son wasn’t using it) I’m happy that we were able to help my son get the car he wanted. Finally I note that he was happy with it “as is” when we got it but is ecstatic now that we have fixed her up a bit (even though he only drove it around the neighborhood since because we are on a road trip now in the SUV).

Here are some pics:
A3E809D0-6CB1-4DA4-B565-CBBEA6B36BB3.jpeg
FB57CB33-6374-42F2-8B78-F781CD72C538.jpeg
Edit: I forgot to mention he named the car “Suke” after a character in the last air bender animation series which seemed appropriate given the character and car are of Japanese origin. I note this car was manufactured in Japan not Mexico, I didn’t think it mattered until I bought the wrong key fob for it.
 

Attachments

Last edited:

PeterB

Jet Boat Junkie
Messages
240
Reaction score
326
Points
147
Location
Caledonia, IL
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2016
Boat Model
Limited S
Boat Length
24
Wow manual shift are getting hard to find in the US - good for you teaching your son to drive with a clutch. I loved working on cars with my dad when I was your sons age ( a very very long time ago) some of my best memories! I’m sure you’ll miss him when he is at college- just need to schedule some good boating time together!
 

F.M.

Jetboaters Admiral
Messages
1,262
Reaction score
2,001
Points
277
Location
Decatur, AL
Boat Make
Other
Year
NA
Boat Model
Other
Boat Length
Other
Cool car, congrats. That'll be a fun project, those are so much fun to drive.

And I agree completely, I'm glad to see more people teaching their kids to drive manual shifts. We taught our daughter to drive one just so she never gets stuck of anywhere without a car with her friends. Now she won't drive anything else but a manual. Just bought her first car on her own, 08 Mazda Miata GT with PRHT.

It's good your teaching him skills he can use like proper vehicle maintenance too. They don't teach that in school anymore. He'll get value from that for years to come.

Great parenting!
 

Ronnie

Jetboaters Fleet Admiral
Messages
8,468
Reaction score
11,232
Points
637
Location
SF Bay Area
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2010
Boat Model
Limited S
Boat Length
24
Well the transmission went out on the subaru a few months ago. My son no longer wanted the car after the transmission and clutch were replaced so he sold it and used the money to buy a 2011 Mazda Speed 3 all of which are front wheel drives with manual transmissions and a turbo. He got it in mid July and left for college in late august so we didn’t have much time to work on it. With the time we had he raised the car up (adjustable shocks) about an inch. Actually he raised the rear over a three hour period and I paid my mechanic to raise the front. I also got and installed two rooftop bike racks on it along with new air and cabin filters, wiper blades and license plate frames.

On the way home from picking it up we had a little speed run, I was driving my wife’s Lexus 350 is convertible with the top up, and the Mazda did a great job of keeping up with the Lexus. He couldn’t be happier with the Mazda but I’m wondering if allowing / helping him to buy a sports car to take to college was a good or bad idea.

625980D1-8CDB-4DD5-AA19-90F30A4FEA71.jpeg51693C7E-3B31-4C96-9773-A132D99E45A4.jpeg
 
Top