Hey guys, my name is Shawn. I've been reading/viewing these boards for quite some time. Doing ALOT of searching and ALOT of reading, there is a huge "Thank You" due to all you guys for all your help. I have a 97 RS. Currently has 145k on it. And in short, has been through a little degree of hell. Haha. When I got the car, it was bone stock and had about 105k on it, i think. After a few months, the first thing I did was put rims on it. Got them used from a good friend for very cheap. Here's the car after about a year.




Well, that only lasted about another 6 months. I was sharing the car with my girlfriend at the time, and one weekend as she was driving past a construction zone, hit a rock about the size of a musk mellon. Cracked both rims on the drivers side and ripped one of the tires. So there went those. At some other point, she came home from work and I was washing the car and noticed the paint on the rear bumper was cracked and chipping. Someone had backed into the car while she was at work and just left, in this town...doesn't suprise me one bit, but needless to say, I was still pissed.

Then the "big one" happened. She was going somewhere, it had just rained, so the roads were wet. She was a habitual speeder, long story short...rear ended a van. Not hard, but it had a hitch so that did enough damage. Bent up the hood, put a hole in the bumper, the radiator, A/C condensor, and caught the edge of the drivers side headlight too. I didn't have my license when we got the car, so I put it in her name. So, she just wanted to junk it and get a new car. At this point it was way too late. I had fallen in love with the car and that just wasn't happening. So I saved up, did ALOT of reading here and slowly put her back together.

So, instead of getting stock parts, I knew I wanted to customize it a little more and ended up getting a stock type CF hood, Griffin aluminum radiator with 2 12" Flex a Lite fans, Blitz bumper, and Projector style headlights. Took about 2 months, waiting for parts and drilling out rusted bolts...Haha. but I finally got her back on the road.

A few months later, had a bad vibration in the front end and investigated what ended up becoming another month long project. In all I ended up replacing the drivers side outer tie rod, upper tie rod, and lower lateral arm.....and on the passanger side, inner and outer tie rods, upper also, lateral and the curved control arm.....and on the passanger side the axle nut was rust welded to the knuckle. Tried PB, an impact, a torch...nothin. Eventually had to remove the knuckle and axle as one piece and replace them.

Got some Blitz side skirts.

Got an AEM short ram.

Did some painting of the interior.

Did a little damage myself. Came home from work one day, car was overheating a little, so I took the hood pins out and went inside to let it cool before removing the cap. Got distracted inside, got a phone call and needed to go somewhere pretty quick, came outside, jumped in my car and took off down the street...a block down the road my hood comes flying up and smashes into the windsheild and roof. Thankfully didn't even crack my windsheild, but it cracked the shit out of my 8 month old CF hood

Got another set of used rims from a different friend for cheap.

Then I got picked up by a signed band and went on tour for 2 years and my car sat.

Which brings us up to present day. Back home, got my car out of my moms garage, new battery, a good wash of the car and I finally get to drive my car again!!! Here are some pics I took today.