Mayor West's 09 SS/TC Ext. Track Turbo #191 [South Carolina] [Registered] [Sold]

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
As of 12/17/2020 I am 100% legal: tagged, titled, and registered!

Hey everyone, lurked for a few years before finally getting to a place to make this happen.

After a bit of a headache with bidding through ABB, I won my auction today. It's a 09 SS with 129k miles. It's located just an hour south of me so I was able to see it in person this past Friday at Copart. It has a fairly decent interior, seats are just dusty, no stains or damage/rips. The wheels aren't in too bad of shape, only very minor scuffing inf any at all. The tires are damaged, but who reuses those anyway. The damage looks to be the rear left bumper. There is no front bumper but there's also no damage to anything other than the upper corner of the front passenger quarter panel, which is bent a little. The intercooler is slightly bent but it didn't look to be punctured. I saw no signs of a screwed up engine from my limited visibility into the viewing of the car.

It's marked as runs/drives but I was unable to see this in person on my trip. I did verify the LSD trunk code so that's cool, it also has the LCD display instead of the physical gauge, not sure how I feel about that though. The only modifications I can see are a K&N Typhoon intake and a stock-ish muffler-removed exhaust. The frame doesn't look to have been hit and I'm hoping to recoup some of my auction costs reselling a bunch of stuff. Auctions on eBay don't get my hopes very high, though. Maybe you guys could help me know what's best to resell (I plan on reusing seats/wheels for the time being to keep the wife happy on blowing money) The brakes look faded in terms of color but i'm sure they'll clean up well to resell.

I look forward to the disassembly and eventual ordering of the kit!

I'm located in SC (just south of Charlotte, NC) if anyone nearby wants to meet up and talk shop.

Let me know what you think of the donor! Final bid was $2,550, which ended up to be $858 in fees and an additional $300 for shipping ($3,708 all in to my door). I don't feel too happy about it being that high, especially after realizing I outbid myself by trying to raise my bid. ABB didn't answer the phone this morning or respond to my emails when trying to get support - not super happy about that.

I feel like 3700 all-in is a lot more than what others are paying but as I've seen, there's slim pickins for SS/TC donors, especially ones within a short driving distance to check out in person.

Still uncertain on what frame to get, I'm 6' 210lbs and am torn between the extended and normal frame lengths, as well as whether or not to get the track cage or not. I do think I'm settled on the normal doors vs easy entry.

Here's my timeline:
  1. Oct 10, 2017 Joined DF forums
  2. Jun 24, 2019 Bought Donor
  3. Jun 29, 2019 Received Donor
  4. Feb 13, 2020 Ordered Kit
  5. May 09, 2020 Received Kit
  6. Jun 01, 2020 Powder Coated
  7. Jun 05, 2020 Began Assembly
  8. Sep 15, 2020 First Crank
    1. Fixed Clutch Pedal Sensor wiring gremlin
  9. Oct 04, 2020 First Start & Idle
  10. Nov 01, 2020 Maiden neighborhood voyage!
  11. Nov 19, 2020 Insured
  12. Dec 10, 2020 Titled
  13. Dec 17, 2020 Registered/Tagged 100% Legal!
  14. May 07, 2021 Ripped R/F wheel off
  15. Oct 06, 2021 Received 2nd frame
  16. Dec 17, 2022 Sold Kit #191
Cliff Notes & Fun Facts:
  • It took me about 1 year and 8 months to pull the trigger on deciding to start the project.
  • It took almost 5 months to order my kit after purchasing my donor.
  • It took just over 12 weeks from kit order to delivery.
  • It took 3.5 months to get first to my first crank.
    • Stage 2 was already done and I had a roller, but clutch pedal wiring gremlin plagued my donor from the start so I never got to crank it.
  • It took me 222 days from kit receipt to make it tagged/registered/insured
    • Working on it about 2-3 hours a week with the occasional full day spent on weekends.
 

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Ross

Goblin Guru
If you go for a track frame, I would recommend a easy entry -unless you have great dexterity, as climbing in thru the side window hole is tight.
City frame doesn't matter as much.
Congrats on a turbo donor - they are costing more these days, $3500 is pretty good price. With a LSD, you did well.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
I appreciate your vote of confidence in the sale price. $3,708 out the door, shipped all in. I was hoping for a lot less obviously, I'm kicking myself for upping my bid without having used the system before, I could have had it for 600 less maybe. We'll never know! Time to start preparing the garage for a project. That'll keep my mind off the fees and ABB mess.

Copart didn't answer the phone, local branch or the main phone. ABB hung up on me twice and didn't really comprehend the problem so trying to get through the language barrier was tough.
 

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Daniel, welcome to the build forum, know you have been around for a while. I am having deja vu looking at your donor purchase, since mine was very similar in damage, but had more of it in the left rear corner. You should be able to sell many parts to recoup some of you cost, since most of your body panels are in very good shape. I sold off most of my car after pulling all of the parts I wanted to keep and actually made some money on the deal. :)

Being 6'2" and over 200, I believe you would be more comfortable in the extended length chassis. Even if you don't use up all of the interior length you will have some room behind the seats for storage or ??? I'm 6'3" and north of 250 and have squeezed myself into the standard frame - but my kit is the extended track frame.

Sorry to hear about the mix up with CoPart and it sounds like ABB did you a disservice through no fault of your own. Unfortunately you had to use a broker service being on the east coast, that steered me away from bidding on a couple really nice TC donors out your way a few months ago. But you have your donor in the bag and time to look forward to the experience of the build, it should be great, as the rest of are or have already found out. There is something truly satisfying building your own car. :p
 

ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
You aren't alone in having to pay up on a vehicle. Some people get some real deals and others don't. We didn't get a great deal but in the end, I'm dang glad we got the car we did, when we did! I thought we paid too much but after we got the car, I didn't see anything close for a long time.

Don't sweat it. Not all of us luck out. If you were not in the market for one, the deal of a lifetime would slap you in the face. :D

I know the extended frame is more, but no one has ever complained about too much leg room. We have the extended with sliders and reclining seats and they are the best things ever! I was just thinking about them the other day and how much I liked having the sliders and being able to recline back when I stuck as the passenger.
 

jamesm

Goblin Guru
I feel your pain on the donor. I have more tied up in my donors than I expected.

I'm also a vote for the extended. I'm 6' 2" ~245lbs and I can get in and out of the full door frame without trouble although I have a track frame so the top halo makes a nice handhold.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Delivered today! I paid $300 for shipping but the tow truck was only paid $180, so ABB pocketed quite a bit...what a racket.

Anyway, the car won't start. Clutch Position Sensor P0808 code so I've ordered a new one.

While I wait, I pulled the hood/trunk, lights, and seats just to get things cleared out. Tomorrow I'll do the doors. I want to start it and make sure it runs fine before I start the videos for dissaasembly.

Glad to finally get something done.
 

Briann1177

Goblin Guru
Just as an FYI, replacing the clutch sensor will require a relearn of the ECM. I don't think there is a way of doing it without the expensive GM tool. It will more than likely require a trip to the dealer or to a quality mechanic with those fancy tools.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Just as an FYI, replacing the clutch sensor will require a relearn of the ECM. I don't think there is a way of doing it without the expensive GM tool. It will more than likely require a trip to the dealer or to a quality mechanic with those fancy tools.
I saw that it needed to be recalibrated, but I don't really have a choice I think. Not sure how/what I'm doing to do about that. The car isn't really going anywhere now.

If anyone knows of an inexpensive solution or would let me borrow a tech2, let me know.
 

ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
Just as an FYI, replacing the clutch sensor will require a relearn of the ECM. I don't think there is a way of doing it without the expensive GM tool. It will more than likely require a trip to the dealer or to a quality mechanic with those fancy tools.
I love my '07! Just a clutch switch, no re-learn here. At first I was thinking - What are you talking about? Then it dawned on me that this is a newer car and they have the potentiometer on them.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Thanks Brian, I'll check it out in the morning. What book is this that you have? I tried to Google some resistance settings for testing the sensor but nothing came back as thorough as this.

There's a Chinese knockoffs tech2 for 300ish bucks but YMMV is what I'm reading on the reviews. I'd imagine that's be as cheap or cheaper than hiring a tow truck to take it to a dealership or shop to do, plus their service fees.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Brian, I really appreciate your help! In researching this I noticed that it was mentioned some fuel wires are spliced with the clutch wire. In addition to the P0808 code I have an evap code as well, P0453. I saw a post stating these two could be caused by the thinning of the harness. I'm guessing they're related? I haven't gotten to pulling the harness out, I'm still trying to get the car started. My fuel gauge doesn't seem to work. It did get to 50% once but I'm not sure what I was doing to make it do that, it's read 0 pretty much since I got it. I test everything I could with the multimeter, clutch metal harness had 4.9v to the C wire, and sweeping the sensor seems to work without spikes.

Where's you get your manual? I googled and saw one for 400 bucks and was hoping for something a little less steep.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Update: got the grounds all situated and refreshed the battery and got a new starter. It fired up beautifully and runs great. Didn't try to drive it cause it's roughed up but I trust it'll be ok.

Got most of the interior removed, and today I removed the cooling system, A/C, intake piping and all the engine wiring harnesses. Took some pics of the cams and turbo inlet to see how everything was. Looks like the previous owner took good enough care of it, looks like the oil was recently changed too when I checked the dipstick.

I need to get my engine stand back from a friend so I'm taking my time to get to that point.
 

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Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Got the brakes off last night, sold them for $268 shipped. Is that good? I saw them new on eBay for $399 and used for $250+ shipping so I figured it was an OK price given the market. This is currently the only thing I've sold on the car. I have a few people on CL & FB that are asking about a few pieces. I clearly posted that the wheels/seats aren't for sale and almost every inquiry asks about those specifically.

Also took off the front suspension and axles. Progress is slow, but sure! I hope to get the engine out soon, still waiting on my engine stand that my friend's using. Considering buying a new one if I can't get it sooner.
 
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