Acquiring the Clip
So much like most things i do, i try not to initiate them unless i know good and well what i am getting into and know that i can do them right and not mess up. Well.. since that's almost never the case anymore and everything has a unique story in my life i guess i should get down on paper how this "mess" came about.
My original plans for the car were to get it to 100% stock status, fix up the rear quarter panel and just drive the hell out of it until i had enough money saved up for a V7 STi clip or something of that nature. I never really though about getting a GC STi swap.. until this came up.
The story goes something like this:
I was browsing on ebay one night for GC8 parts, just kind of looking what deals were out there, and things of that sort when i came across one of those Version 6 STi carbon fiber bars for some silly price like $15. Had wanted one (because let's be honest they look cool as hell) and thought: "i'll place a bid i'll never win it for this price" and did just that.
Couple days later when the auction ended as it turns out the price had gone up, but i won the damn thing. No biggie pretty excited. Logged into Paypal, money sent, didn't think much of it. The next day.. or maybe later that evening.. i don't remember.. not important, i got note from the seller that he was local.. turns out he was 20 minutes from me.
We met up, he gave me the bar and we talked a bit and he told me that he had an STi clip he was trying to get rid of. Whoa.. full STi clip ~20 minutes from my house... and he's trying to sell it.. go on. I told him i'd shoot him an email if i was interested (read: parents would let me use the space) and my father and i could come check it out.
I sent him an email and long story short my dad and i went to take a look at it and thought this was too good of a chance to pass up. It's not everyday someone has a full GC8 in their garage waiting for you.
Couple weeks later and some logistics and we had arranged for a truck to come haul it from one garage to another. Went over to the guys house and talked for quite a bit... seeing as the truck took longer than expected to arrive. The guy who sold the clip to me, Richard, was a really cool guy and told me that he wanted to come check out my progress and all that on swapping it and essentially "live through me vicariously" because he was unable to do it himself. It actually meant a that he told me that, not sure why but i guess it tweaked the heart a bit in a good direction.
Anyways.. the truck that we found apparently was in the business of moving pianos, and we decided to give them something new to do. Once the clip was moved into my garage, one of the guys asked to take a picture with the clip because i guess it's not everyday you move half a car around. Really quite nice that someone can enjoy the small things like that. Gives me faith in the human race that i don't see often.. but that's not what this "blog" is a about.
So here it is... sitting in the garage all ready to be ripping and torn apart and thrown into my RS, giving it what i think the
car deserves. Because i know that i sure as hell don't deserve it yet.