club.liberty.asn.au

So as some of you know I'm a bit anal about the STi so there's no chance I'm leaving it in a car park outside all day every day while I'm at work or uni. Instead I buy cheap runabouts to use, fix them up and sell them, making enough to pay for running costs and some new car parts

The latest one is an automatic 97 Liberty Heritage, which has a lot of room for improvement. Mechanically it's pretty good, although highish km. Interior is in great condition, just looks like it hasn't been cleaned in a while. The paintwork however needs a lot of attention... Both bumpers will be repainted, possibly the bonnet depending on how nicely I can get it to come up, and the rest of the paint is covered in light scratches and swirl marks...

I'm sure I'll have lots of questions about it so figured I'll post them all here. I'll also put up lots of photos of how she's progressing.

Here's a few of what I'm starting with.

And this is what I've done so far.

Engine bay detailed, a few minor things fixed up while I was at it.





Also gave it a good going over with a clay bar. Huge improvement, low light iPhone photo fail.

Nice work. It's amazing how much a relatively simple clean can improve the overall look of a car, and presumably resale value.

engine bay is shmick mate nice

Would of been better if it was a wagon.

Love your work though. Holler if you have a question. Theres nothing I havent pulled off on one of these.

Good work so far want any help let me know. Also parts, I got a spare momo steering wheel if you're interested and brake pads!

Thanks guys A wagon would've been nice, but as long as the rear seats fold down it'll do the job.

Get to have some fun rewiring this car... Someone replaced the keyless entry with an aftermarket one which no longer works. So going to have to return it to stock and possibly fit another aftermarket one.

May need the brake pads Karl! I'll have a better look when I take the wheels off to clean the wheel wells

Nice work Daniel! And I do like that blue.

Pretty impressive engine bay clean-up! Out of interest, where do you get panelwork done?

Also yell out if you are after any bits and pieces for this. I've still got plenty of parts/panels etc left over from a rx I parted out recently - boot/spoiler may be of interest. As you know I'm just around the corner...

sbv wrote:Nice work Daniel! And I do like that blue.

Pretty impressive engine bay clean-up! Out of interest, where do you get panelwork done?

Also yell out if you are after any bits and pieces for this. I've still got plenty of parts/panels etc left over from a rx I parted out recently - boot/spoiler may be of interest. As you know I'm just around the corner...

Awesome, thanks. I'm making a list of what needs to be replaced so I'll definitely check with you to see what you've got Was it the same blue by any chance? And do you have much of the interior?

On my old SP20 we've had the bars repainted by 4 different places (Some so bad I paid another shop to redo it). Golden Grove Crash Repairs and Ridgehaven Crash Repairs both did a beautiful job, with the finish and colour match so I'd recommend either, although Golden Grove Crash Repairs is always rather busy (for good reason) so you need to book a few months ahead. For paintless dent removals I also know a guy who does it on the side, did an incredible job on my STi (perfect dent removals and he didn't brake or damage a single bit of interior trim), I can PM you his number if you want it.

mynameisdaniel wrote:Awesome, thanks. I'm making a list of what needs to be replaced so I'll definitely check with you to see what you've got Was it the same blue by any chance? And do you have much of the interior?

On my old SP20 we've had the bars repainted by 4 different places (Some so bad I paid another shop to redo it). Golden Grove Crash Repairs and Ridgehaven Crash Repairs both did a beautiful job, with the finish and colour match so I'd recommend either, although Golden Grove Crash Repairs is always rather busy (for good reason) so you need to book a few months ahead. For paintless dent removals I also know a guy who does it on the side, did an incredible job on my STi (perfect dent removals and he didn't brake or damage a single bit of interior trim), I can PM you his number if you want it.

Thanks quite handy to know. Ill be needing a good paint shop shortly for the outback. Contact number for the PDR guy would be great too if possible.

Unfortunately I haven't got heaps for the interior of the gen 2. Just a dash mat and a few switches and bits and pieces I think but I'd have to have a look. Also the car was white.

Subscribed .... I like how clean the engine came up !

Full time uni + full time work hasn't left me with much time for the car. But I did polish the bonnet up a little. Here's a 50/50, it's come a long way since the first photo. I did it all by hand as I didn't want to cut any more than was absolutely necessary. Should be able to get away with just painting the front and rear bars now

Don't know whether anyone's pointed this out, but I noticed it while browsing on Gumtree and thought something might be of use
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/aldgate/ ... 1015083763
Super neat engine bay too, nice choice of car

matt96 wrote:Don't know whether anyone's pointed this out, but I noticed it while browsing on Gumtree and thought something might be of use
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/aldgate/ ... 1015083763
Super neat engine bay too, nice choice of car

Thanks Matt

I finally found some time to spare for this car. Polished the passenger side of the car and the boot lid. The car was covered in swirls and light scratches. I have no way of telling how thick the paint is so I didn't cut too deep. Just enough to remove most the scratches. Remembering this is just my runabout so it doesn't need to be perfect. An incredible difference though, the colour looks really nice now and really deep reflections even without any wax. As always, plenty of photos.

Before and after






After

Major improvement!