quicksilvr's 2001 R/T

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Fri May 06, 2011 10:22 am

I purchased this 2001 R/T from 2gn.org user SC62391 on April 6th. The car was located in Phoenix, AZ....which was over 1200 miles from where I live. However, conveniently, my brother Josh ("turbodudey") had just moved to Phoenix and was able to look at the car for me, as well as take care of the transaction of buying it. And thanks to my dad Dan ("TurboVanDan"), the car made the trip back to MO earlier this week and is currently residing in my garage. Dan volunteered to go get the car, since my wife and I had just had our second child on April 12th, and it was a little hectic around home.

Here is the car in AZ.

I drove the car yesterday for the first time, just a quick spin around the town. Initial impressions are that the car is in great shape, really a lot fewer squeaks and rattles than I anticipated. The motor runs quiet with no piston slap, which is as rare as a Sumatran tiger. The brakes need attention, and the front end vibrates pretty bad at highway speed.

I bought this car for gas mileage, as daily driver for work and highway trips with the family. Mechanically, the car is just going to get tuned up, and a couple little bolt-ons. And cosmetically, my goal is for it to look like it just rolled off the Chrysler/Dodge dealership lot in 2001.

In my (messy) garage for the first time

I noticed right away that the car has this silver stuff that kind of seems like thick paint (actually reminds me of dried anti-sieze) all over every tack weld, bolt, seam, etc. Never seen anything quite like it. Factory rustproofing? Or something else? The car has never been wrecked, and everything looks nice and straight.

Strut tower

Hood seam

Last night I started in on it....

Think these needed changed? lol

Here is the summary of what's happening:

Exterior
-Replace broken foglights with used OEM ones
-Install Silverstone alloy wheels
-Polish headlights
-Clay, polish and wax with XMT products and PC7424
-Shave some emblems, replace some with new

Interior

-Remove seats and center console to deep clean
-Extract seats
-Install OEM CD changer
-Install Polk db650 door speakers
-Install new shift knob

Mechanical Stuff

-Oil change
-Coolant flush
-IceMan intake with new K&N
-Booger bushings
-JM bushings
-Thermal R/D stainless muffler
-Granetelli plug wires
-NGK Iridiums
-New OEM battery cable
-Prothane upper motor mount insert
-New PCV
-Remove and clean intake manifold
-Seafoam treatment
-Check bushings in front end (replace if needed with Prothane's)
-Alignment
-Fix A/C system

Down the road a bit...

-All new rotors and pads
-Paint the calipers
-New headlights
-Tint the windows
-Powder coat the VC

acr · Post by **acr** » Fri May 06, 2011 11:52 am

nice find, car looks decent.

r/tguy02 · Post by **r/tguy02** » Fri May 06, 2011 12:40 pm

yeah i remember this one on the fs board, def seemed nice. Hope it treats you well. Sounds like all it needs is a balance, alignment, and maybe some bushings.

stairmaster3001 · Post by **stairmaster3001** » Fri May 06, 2011 2:18 pm

nice!

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Fri May 06, 2011 6:07 pm

4 of these waiting for tires. Tires will be here monday....

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Sat May 07, 2011 1:55 pm

You going to sell this one?
Looks nice!

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Sat May 07, 2011 8:23 pm

MyNeonSaysHi wrote:You going to sell this one?
Looks nice!

Maybe down the road a ways, depending on what gas prices do. I love daily driving my 4Runner...when gas is $2.25.

r/tguy02 · Post by **r/tguy02** » Sat May 07, 2011 8:35 pm

Are those silverstones brand New?

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Sat May 07, 2011 10:15 pm

They're refurbished. And done very well I might add, I'm impressed with the quality. H&H something or another is the name of the company they came from.

OB · Post by OB » Sat May 07, 2011 11:15 pm

^Price and link on the aftermarket Stones? I know people are going to ask

Awesome project Dave, I love your plans. Should be a nice clean DD, and I wouldn't expect anything less.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Sun May 08, 2011 9:51 am

Here's the link to the Silverstone page at Hubcap Haven.....

http://www.hubcaphaven.com/mm5/merchant ... y_Code=365

They're $135 each including shipping. So about $110/wheel based on normal shipping charges. The come packaged nicely, almost as nicely as a brand new aftermarket wheel would.

OB · Post by OB » Mon May 09, 2011 1:11 pm

Hard to beat for essentially a brand new set of wheels that are no longer in production! Are you keeping them the standard color?

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Mon May 09, 2011 3:40 pm

Yes, the finish is really nice, and exactly like the factory metallic flake silver. If I would have ended up buying a set of used wheels, I probably would have had them powdercoated a gunmetal color. If I ever lower the car with coilovers, I'll probably powdercoat the wheels white with a colored "time attack" stripe. Maybe a blue stripe or a purple stripe. But that would look pretty bad without being lowered.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Tue May 10, 2011 10:44 pm

Today I took the headlights out, and wrestled the stock airbox out of the fender well. I almost forgot how ridiculous those things are. I also popped the VC off and was pleasantly surprised to find a very clean top end. I'm about 99.9% sure I am the first person to remove ANY of this stuff on the car since the day it left the factory. Shoot, those spark plugs might be originals.

Here's some cell phone pics.

Headlight out, and airbox removed.

Manifold unbolted, and VC off.

Clean valvetrain!

Also, I'm a tard and bought the wrong foglights from the F/S board. I got them today, opened them up, and realized they are the 00-01 standard style. Like what I had on my old 2000 ES. They're really nice though. Anyone need some foglights?

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Fri May 13, 2011 12:30 pm

My valve cover is on it's way to LowNSlow for powdercoating. Can't wait to see it, it should look awesome. I'm going to polish my intake manifold myself, and then probably have it coated locally, since it'll just be a simple one coat job.

I pushed the car outside last night and gave it the good vacuuming that it needed while I still had some daylight. The carpet is actually in great shape, it was just dirty. I found a whopping 82 cents, several french fries, a piece of Trident, 3 ball point pens, and a makeup brush. I was hoping for something interesting....

Before and after

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Fri May 13, 2011 4:21 pm

Love getting a new car and cleaning it up! Can't wait to see it with the silverstones! Very clean top end indeed, wow!
New headlights on too?

NEON PARABOLA · Post by **NEON PARABOLA** » Fri May 13, 2011 4:37 pm

if you ever wanna sell this car....seriously keep me in mind.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Fri May 13, 2011 10:49 pm

MyNeonSaysHi wrote:Love getting a new car and cleaning it up! Can't wait to see it with the silverstones! Very clean top end indeed, wow!
New headlights on too?

Yeah, I love cleaning up a new car. My wife think's I'm weird...but it's a good de-stresser for me to go clean a car up. lol

No new headlights just yet. I'm going to polish the factory ones, and then if they fade again quickly, I'll buy some new raccoons.

NEON PARABOLA wrote:if you ever wanna sell this car....seriously keep me in mind.

I will! You're fairly local as well. I have a feeling I'll have a hard time letting it go, but who knows. There's a chance I might sell it next spring.

The tires are mounted and balanced on the Silverstones. I grabbed some used 205/55R16 Goodyear Eagle RS-A's off eBay for super cheap. I don't like RS-A's at all, but I couldn't beat the price since I needed to save money. I'm going to throw the wheels on tomorrow, as well as the exhaust. Then I've got some work to do on the intake, and a little waiting time to get my VC back from powdercoating. I hope to have the car 100% by the time I get my valve cover back, so I can slap it on and start driving the thing. I'm getting antsy.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Mon May 16, 2011 11:03 am

'Stones are on the car, and interior is back together. I realized I'm going to have a couple things for sale in a bit (momo wheels/tires, magnaflow muffler) so that'll be nice to sell a couple things instead of buying buying buying.

Got my new foglights too. Here's two random pics.

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Tue May 17, 2011 12:14 am

No pictures of wheels on car = FAIL!!!

They look really good though...: Not sure what kind of project you are doing there with the foglamp, gun and bullets.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Tue May 17, 2011 10:02 am

MyNeonSaysHi wrote:No pictures of wheels on car = FAIL!!!
They look really good though...: Not sure what kind of project you are doing there with the foglamp, gun and bullets.

Well, the car is still on jackstands, so if normal Neon stance is "4x4" status, then dangling the suspension is "monster truck" status.

I didn't feel like taking a picture of it like that.

I had my .45 and 9mm apart on the work bench cleaning them. Hopefully my new foglights have ZERO run-ins with bullets in the future. That could be hard on them.

Back on topic: I saw my left rear strut is leaking really badly. Now the question is: replace just the struts and keep a nice comfy ride with the stock springs, or replace the struts and get some lowering springs at the same time? Oh, decisions. I would love the car to look low, but practically speaking.....well, it's not.

04 Mo Neon · Post by **04 Mo Neon** » Tue May 17, 2011 11:00 am

Just because its a DD doesn't mean it can't be stylin'

Go for some lowering springs xD.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Thu May 19, 2011 10:41 pm

My dad reminded me that we have a full set of nearly new stock struts in storage...the ones that came off the yellow car. So I'm just going to throw a stock strut on the rear to replace my bad one for now.

I have a new problem: the intake manifold actuator motor doesn't appear to work. I need to take it apart somehow? and clean it I guess. It's very stiff to turn by hand. The intake manifold is off the car, and the actuator is off the manifold.

Has anyone ever done this successfully?

speed127 · Post by **speed127** » Thu May 19, 2011 11:37 pm

Nice to see your back. This current car is looking good. So sad you sold the BEE but it lives on, on the back of the shirts I made last year ( and of course with the new owner )

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Fri May 20, 2011 12:45 pm

speed127 wrote:Nice to see your back. This current car is looking good. So sad you sold the BEE but it lives on, on the back of the shirts I made last year ( and of course with the new owner )

Yes, the BEE lives on.....in my dad's garage. Matter of fact, I worked on it last week.

It's never leaving the family. It was simply sold from my brother to my dad.

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Fri May 20, 2011 1:52 pm

quicksilvr wrote:My dad reminded me that we have a full set of nearly new stock struts in storage...the ones that came off the yellow car. So I'm just going to throw a stock strut on the rear to replace my bad one for now.

Why not put all 4 on? I'm sure they are better than what is on there now.

I have a new problem: the intake manifold actuator motor doesn't appear to work. I need to take it apart somehow? and clean it I guess. It's very stiff to turn by hand. The intake manifold is off the car, and the actuator is off the manifold.

Has anyone ever done this successfully?

That may not be possible. The motor is encased in plastic that is glued together. You may be able to get some electrical cleaner in there from the shaft that comes out of it though. Worth a shot.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Fri May 20, 2011 2:47 pm

Thanks Dante. Yeah, I thought about that, but it's more time and work than I want to spend right now to take them all off, and swap the R/T springs onto the other struts. I'll just swap the blown one for now.

acr2002 has successfully taken apart and cleaned an MTV before, so hopefully he can help me out. I've had one apart, but I smashed it apart with a hammer.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Sun May 22, 2011 10:45 pm

I have 3 complete MTV motors and two complete magnum intake manifold's sitting on my work bench currently.

The MTV off my 2001 R/T is definitely bad. It is so gummed up, it's hard to push it through it's travel by hand, there's no way the spring tension can move it.

After looking at how acr2002 took apart the one MTV, I know I can successfully take apart my gummed up one and get it working. However, I still have my doubts about fixing the broken wire on my original MTV that was on my old car. The wire is at the opposite end from where the case comes apart, and I doubt it's easily accessible. I might try to buzz through the little plastic tab flush with the motor unit and that might give me enough exposed wire to crimp onto.

(pics of all this business coming tomorrow)

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Tue May 24, 2011 10:10 pm

Did a little work today, it's been hard to spend more than 30 mins at a time on the car, so it's been slow. All I have left holding me up is waiting for my VC to get back from powdercoating, finding a coupler to go between my iceman and throttle body, and getting the exhaust pipe off the back to install my Thermal.

I installed my old magnum intake (from my old silver car), and used a working MTV that acr2002 kindly gave me. The original intake from the R/T is going to get polished, and I need to fix it's MTV.

You can see where I started to work on the right hand runner a little, just experimenting with medium grit scroll.

This is being a pain.....

Old intake on, and working MTV installed

Here are the two non-working MTV's. The one on the left is from my old intake setup, you can see the broken red wire. The one on the right is the original one from the R/T (there's no spring on it, because I was short a spring and had to rob it for the one that is currently on the car)

The only thing keeping this one from working....

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Tue May 24, 2011 10:59 pm

Bad place for that wire to break off!