Project “Christine” – A Halloween Restoration Project

When I was just a young buck (about the age of two), I apparently began my passion for automobiles. My father says my passion began when he purchased this little convertible Corvette matchbox car, a stingray to be exact. Well as time went on it was clear I loved automobiles, “I want this toy car”, “I want that R/C car”, were frequent demand-like requests that came out of my mouth. Well when I was around 5, my parents let me watch the movie “Christine”. A “mild” horror movie written by the famous Steven King about a geeky kid who’s a senior in High School who one day see’s this Red, 1958 Plymouth Fury in a field for sale on the side of the road for $300. Well to attempt to make a long movie short, he ends up purchasing it then obsessively restores it at a local salvage yard in exchange for a job.

As the school year continues, the car becomes more and more restored, and while becoming so, the new geeky owner ends up becoming more and more “non-geeky/cooler” and even ends up pulling the hottest broad in his school. Well upon finishing the car, a bunch if jealous loser punks, break into the garage where he keeps it and they trash the Plymouth, even defecated on the dashboard. After the police leave and later that evening, the owner is standing around surveying the damage then out of nowhere the car begin to basically completely rebuild itself in front of his eyes. Each evening after that night, the Plymouth begins hunting down each one of the punks in order to seek revenge for its brutal beating. Its a pretty good, car-oriented horror movie I definitely recommend if you just so happen to have an netflix account because I don’t believe you will find this 26 year old “classic” at Blockbuster.

Now mind you I don’t really see my 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STi I acquired earlier this year from a great friend of mine and of JadeCrew, Sean Bakley, getting trashed by some haters then proceeding to seek vengeance (at least I hope not) but, the story has its similarities. I picked up the car back in April where it sat in a garage for almost two years, with boxes and dust all over. The car has multiple moderate issues that need to be addressed such as;

-Two of Greddy limited edition 60mm gauges have stopped working.
-The Alpine IVA-D900 has randomly stopping playing my favorite driving soundtrack, but still powers on competely with no fuses blow anywhere within the entire ICE system.
-Multiple CF aftermarket pieces need to be re-clear coated.
-The entire lower half of the Chargespeed front bumper needs to be installed and painted.
-The rear CF diffuser and upper rear window treatments need to be mounted.

There are several other minor items I will include as work continues. But in honor of the movie “Christine” and in spirit of Halloween, I am going to attempt to “restore” this beast of a car as much as I can by October 30, 2009 for Hot Import Nights Jacksonville and post updates as progress continues. I believe when its done, it just might make you a little nervous if you happen to see it in your rearview mirror in the Central Florida area.

Removed the chrome grills, painted them flat black then re-installed

Dismantled the entire dash assembly in order to remove defective SAFC-II Controller, re-connect Greddy Turbo Timer and begin to research non-working Greddy 60mm Boost and EGT Warning Gauges

Removed Nitrous Tank set up, now in search of back seat..

Removed headlights in order to remove Yellow tint then re-clear