It’s not anyone’s first choice of platform for a build, but my parents had purchased it as a second car and it eventually fell into my lap and has been well, downhill ever since. I fell in love with the car after I darted driving it full time, mainly for the unique factor. Been a VW guy since the beginning so most mods spur from that scene and my goal is to keep it as clean as possible. The car is a 1999 SL2 dohc 1.9l, now running on a 98 computer to facilitate the stick swap and sai delete. I swapped it to manual just over a year ago to a trans from a sohc car with longer ratios, but have since built a short ratio trans from a dohc car with an lsd and swapped that in this past winter. Mod list is annoyingly long with a bunch of unimpressive little shit that all comes together so here goes:
MP3 trans swap rebuilt by me w/lsd
Rear disc brake swap
Coupe seat swap (soon to be tiburon seats)
Full black interior swap
Agility height/damping adjustable coilovers
17.5mm adjustable rear sway
3k hid fogs
Beefed rear sway brackets
Poly bushings on both bars and lca’s up front
Rust free front subframe seam welded
Aem cai
Obx stainless header
Taper bored tb
Sai delete
Added factory power locks/keyless entry
Sl1 color matched trunk panel
Full stereo system revamp
1/2" rear hub spacers
Cheapy eGay strut bar
Oil press. And water temp gauges in custom vent bezel
Custom made short shifter with delrin bushings
Lit needle cluster w/mk4 needles
Leather wheel
Impreza shift knob
I’m sure I’m forgetting a ton of little crap but, that’s boring anyway. On to some pictures of the bucket.
Second trans swap&new suspension/subframe project
Shifter build
Coilovers
Gauges
Interior (w/ old plaid boot and cluster)
Everything else
My thoughts exactly. It’s a never ending project for me, which in the future includes a mild turbo setup in which I plan on running a k03 turbo for a little more low end. But for these college years (this and next) it’s strictly low slow and little shit. I’m also OCD when it comes to cleaning, so it gets washed at least once a week and vacuumed out even more.
I think we can all agree that even what would normally be considered a rather undesirable model, can be well executed. . . if proper thought is put into it.
I was going to ask you if you had any plans for power mods. A K03 would certainly wake this up and make for a nice daily driver. I can appreciate the OCD cleaning thing. I can be pretty bad myself.
Yeah ideal platform it isn’t, but they actually do perform quite well in autox when prepped correctly. Mine weighs in at 2590 full of crap from college and stock trim. A guy I know had his down to around 1900 and it was a beast on the course. My reasons for choosing the k03 were pretty simple- I have a few from passats sitting at my brothers shop, the extremely low rpm spool, and my low boost requirements. A buddy of mine made 217whp at 7 psi with fuel only tuning on a t3. So needless to say these motors respond well to positive pressure. Dsm 4g63 manifolds bolt up with minimal mods as well.
While I’m at Alfred during the week my car sits in my parents driveway, so all I can do is clean it up Sunday and plan work for it for the weekend. This weekend holds seat bracket fab to make these guys fit. Should be a nicer sitting experience.
They’ve since been torn down and each covered scrubbed and rinsed, so don’t mind the filth.
good build, i loved working at saturn, and really enjoyed mt 02 sc2. what i noticed made a huge difference in handling is to modify a front strut tower brace to work on the rear shock towers. made a huge difference in the steering feel.
