Monday, February 28, 2011
HUGE upate.
So I've been pretty busy.. I tore out most of the interior while it was sunny and warm here in Anchorage, AK and fainlly got a grip on what needs to be done to gut it even further. I also received quite a few parts for free and I will be posting names and sources shortly. Again, thank you so much guys! So here are the pictures.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Car finally home!
So.. Yesterday at 8am I picked up my Uhaul and trailer to go pick up my car plus a few items from the in-law's house in Wasilla to bring back home to Anchorage.
It was a very nice drive out, with clear skies and a nice clear highway.
Once out to Wasilla my brother in-law and I decided to pick up the car first to save some time when loading the Uhaul with the little things that we need from the parents house. Soon after picking up the car we got stuck on a side road in the middle of nowhere. After 20 minutes of trying to get the Uhaul free and completely failing. We bit the bullet and called for a tow.
The tower quickly towed us out and even offered to follow us until we made it back on the main road just in case, so I highly recommend Happy Hooker Towing in Wasilla.
We Started out journy another 20 minutes to the in-law's house and on our way there we got stuck on another side road just 5 minutes from the house.. After 10 minutes of trying to get free AGAIN an older gentleman spotted us and pulled us out with his Ford 350. I we thanked him numerous times and cursed having a RWD van with bald rear tires in one of the most snowy/icy areas ever.
After being delayed almost 2 hours because of being stuck, waiting, and other numerous things we got the van to the DRIVEWAY of our parents house and got stuck for a THIRD TIME. At this point I was just pissed we kept getting stuck mostly because of lack of traction. Luckily the land owner's sons were outside plowing with their four-wheels and helped us break free for the final time which took another 40 minutes.
Fast forward about another 2 hours and we were finally back in Anchorage with the car safely at home after much anger and irritation.
I will soon post pictures up of the car and the interior tear-down process.
It was a very nice drive out, with clear skies and a nice clear highway.
Once out to Wasilla my brother in-law and I decided to pick up the car first to save some time when loading the Uhaul with the little things that we need from the parents house. Soon after picking up the car we got stuck on a side road in the middle of nowhere. After 20 minutes of trying to get the Uhaul free and completely failing. We bit the bullet and called for a tow.
The tower quickly towed us out and even offered to follow us until we made it back on the main road just in case, so I highly recommend Happy Hooker Towing in Wasilla.
We Started out journy another 20 minutes to the in-law's house and on our way there we got stuck on another side road just 5 minutes from the house.. After 10 minutes of trying to get free AGAIN an older gentleman spotted us and pulled us out with his Ford 350. I we thanked him numerous times and cursed having a RWD van with bald rear tires in one of the most snowy/icy areas ever.
After being delayed almost 2 hours because of being stuck, waiting, and other numerous things we got the van to the DRIVEWAY of our parents house and got stuck for a THIRD TIME. At this point I was just pissed we kept getting stuck mostly because of lack of traction. Luckily the land owner's sons were outside plowing with their four-wheels and helped us break free for the final time which took another 40 minutes.
Fast forward about another 2 hours and we were finally back in Anchorage with the car safely at home after much anger and irritation.
I will soon post pictures up of the car and the interior tear-down process.
Friday, February 11, 2011
So.. Found the car.
After a long search from CL to local forums, I finally scored the Impreza I was looking for.
A 1995 Impreza AWD Coupe 5 Speed.
A 1995 Impreza AWD Coupe 5 Speed.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Primitive Racing and the Alcan 5000.
So I got a very awesome email from Paul Eklund of Primitive Racing!
Long story short, I think I may have my first company sponsor if all goes well ;)
We also discussed the Alcan 5000 winter rally and now my fiance and I are planning on running it for the 2012 event. Should be a great experience for us.
If you aren't familiar with either Primitive or the Alcan 5000, here are the links:
http://www.get-primitive.com/
http://alcan5000.com/
Long story short, I think I may have my first company sponsor if all goes well ;)
We also discussed the Alcan 5000 winter rally and now my fiance and I are planning on running it for the 2012 event. Should be a great experience for us.
If you aren't familiar with either Primitive or the Alcan 5000, here are the links:
http://www.get-primitive.com/
http://alcan5000.com/
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Second job.
So I just landed my second job at Subway! Hahaha. All the earnings from this job is going into the build, as well as give me an opportunity to use their bulletin board to get my car some recognition with the community.
Possible candidate.
While browsing the almighty Craigslist, I found this little guy. A 97 Impreza coupe with a somewhat half-assed RS conversion. http://anchorage.craigslist.org/cto/2196400158.html
I'm gonna go look at it and see if it's worth even half of that this guy is trying to get.. 3500 is REALLY steep, but cash talks ya know? So hopefully this will be the star of my project.
Also, going to sleep at 4am thinking you have to work at 5pm the next day, then getting a text from your boss telling you to come in at 2:30 really sucks. But it's whatevs.
I'm gonna go look at it and see if it's worth even half of that this guy is trying to get.. 3500 is REALLY steep, but cash talks ya know? So hopefully this will be the star of my project.
Also, going to sleep at 4am thinking you have to work at 5pm the next day, then getting a text from your boss telling you to come in at 2:30 really sucks. But it's whatevs.
Shopping for the right thing.
So my goal is to find something rather rare up here in Alaska believe it or not..
A 93-01 Subaru Impreza Coupe AWD Manual transmission. Basically anything that is for sale up here is either WAY too over priced, or no one wants to sell what they have.
The reason I am picking this platform above other very good candidates is because you can mix nearly EVERY subaru part from 93-2007 with little to no modification, thus making acquiring items for the car becomes a great deal easier. Not to mention the awesome AWD system Subaru uses with it's Horizontally opposed engine, making it a well balanced car. Plus the fact that I just love Subaru's.. Obsessive I know.
On a side note! Just got done watching the movie "Red", it was actually pretty good. Some parts were a bit cheesy, but overall the movie was a decent flick.
A 93-01 Subaru Impreza Coupe AWD Manual transmission. Basically anything that is for sale up here is either WAY too over priced, or no one wants to sell what they have.
The reason I am picking this platform above other very good candidates is because you can mix nearly EVERY subaru part from 93-2007 with little to no modification, thus making acquiring items for the car becomes a great deal easier. Not to mention the awesome AWD system Subaru uses with it's Horizontally opposed engine, making it a well balanced car. Plus the fact that I just love Subaru's.. Obsessive I know.
On a side note! Just got done watching the movie "Red", it was actually pretty good. Some parts were a bit cheesy, but overall the movie was a decent flick.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Introduction and Information
Hey!
My name is Kyle Hernandez. I'm a retail working, devoted father to a gorgeous baby boy, low paid, loving fiance, and I aspire to be.. A rally/track car driver. I have always loved driving ever since my mother let me try driving her 1996 Toyota Rav4 around a local church parking lot. Needless to say, it ended with me slamming on the brakes and flinging my year-old brother into the straps of his car seat nearly giving my poor mom a heart attack. But from that day forward I was hooked!
Now lets fast forward to when I was sixteen when I got my very first car, a 2001 Nissan Altima with black on black leather interior, 5 speed manual transmission, and a wobbly steering wheel. Within a few days of owning that car, we found out that the dealer who sold it to us tried to rip us off by claiming it was a 2001 but actually a 1999 inflating the price an extra 3 thousand dollars. So we quickly traded it back for an actually 2003 VW Jetta VR6 Automatic. I had many good times in this car, although rather reckless at times it still provided a good learning tool when it came how to properly drive quickly but safely on a paved surface. And through the next few years I jumped from various different vehicles and makes ranging anywhere from Dodge, Chevy, Honda, Acura, and finally to my now beloved Subaru.
When I first touched the keys to my new 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX I felt a great sense of " I can't wait to go stupid fast in this thing ", but that quickly changed once I sat in the seat and turned the key for the first time.
At that moment all I could think of was, "I wonder what it feels like to go sideways in this thing", and guess what.. I found out the upcoming weekend. I drove 206 miles to Anchorpoint, Alaska to visit my cousin Kirk who has a 2004 WRX as well, and he showed me his favorite stomping ground around the quite parts of town.
(Here is the car's first day home)
(After our first go around in the mud)
Now don't get me wrong.. I love going fast in a straight line, but nothing beats the feeling of the seatbelt digging into your shoulder while your car is sideways at 50+ MPH while your car's tach needle fluctuates from 5k to redline.
Fast forward again to today with a few more cars under my belt, a rolled 91 Honda Civic hatch, and the WRX back into my possession. I now have a beautiful baby boy named Landon Gary Hernandez.
So after years of wanting to build a rallyX and track prepped car I've come to a point in my life where I am stable enough to afford it as well as have support from my family and my loving fiance. This is going to be the complete record of the build from day one, including my current status of shopping for the car to be.
There WILL be ad's on this blog since I plan on generating revenue for funding the car, as well as product reviews for people on planning to do the same thing.
I will also ask of the readers to donate to my project. And it can be anything from $1 to $100 to even products, parts, and services. Anyone who donates WILL get listed in the blog. Anyone who donates over $100 will get their names decal-ed onto the car, and any company that does a donation will get a decal onto prime locations on the vehicle.
Again, thank you for reading my blog!
My name is Kyle Hernandez. I'm a retail working, devoted father to a gorgeous baby boy, low paid, loving fiance, and I aspire to be.. A rally/track car driver. I have always loved driving ever since my mother let me try driving her 1996 Toyota Rav4 around a local church parking lot. Needless to say, it ended with me slamming on the brakes and flinging my year-old brother into the straps of his car seat nearly giving my poor mom a heart attack. But from that day forward I was hooked!
Now lets fast forward to when I was sixteen when I got my very first car, a 2001 Nissan Altima with black on black leather interior, 5 speed manual transmission, and a wobbly steering wheel. Within a few days of owning that car, we found out that the dealer who sold it to us tried to rip us off by claiming it was a 2001 but actually a 1999 inflating the price an extra 3 thousand dollars. So we quickly traded it back for an actually 2003 VW Jetta VR6 Automatic. I had many good times in this car, although rather reckless at times it still provided a good learning tool when it came how to properly drive quickly but safely on a paved surface. And through the next few years I jumped from various different vehicles and makes ranging anywhere from Dodge, Chevy, Honda, Acura, and finally to my now beloved Subaru.
When I first touched the keys to my new 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX I felt a great sense of " I can't wait to go stupid fast in this thing ", but that quickly changed once I sat in the seat and turned the key for the first time.
At that moment all I could think of was, "I wonder what it feels like to go sideways in this thing", and guess what.. I found out the upcoming weekend. I drove 206 miles to Anchorpoint, Alaska to visit my cousin Kirk who has a 2004 WRX as well, and he showed me his favorite stomping ground around the quite parts of town.
(Here is the car's first day home)
Now don't get me wrong.. I love going fast in a straight line, but nothing beats the feeling of the seatbelt digging into your shoulder while your car is sideways at 50+ MPH while your car's tach needle fluctuates from 5k to redline.
Fast forward again to today with a few more cars under my belt, a rolled 91 Honda Civic hatch, and the WRX back into my possession. I now have a beautiful baby boy named Landon Gary Hernandez.
So after years of wanting to build a rallyX and track prepped car I've come to a point in my life where I am stable enough to afford it as well as have support from my family and my loving fiance. This is going to be the complete record of the build from day one, including my current status of shopping for the car to be.
There WILL be ad's on this blog since I plan on generating revenue for funding the car, as well as product reviews for people on planning to do the same thing.
I will also ask of the readers to donate to my project. And it can be anything from $1 to $100 to even products, parts, and services. Anyone who donates WILL get listed in the blog. Anyone who donates over $100 will get their names decal-ed onto the car, and any company that does a donation will get a decal onto prime locations on the vehicle.
Again, thank you for reading my blog!
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