dice1998's 2012 Caprice PPV + 1994 Subaru Dump

[Eunos_Cosmo]

One thing that would almost definitely turn me away from the car were I looking at one to buy, just for longevity concerns, is the fact the the windows drop an inch when you open the doors. Pull the handle, windows drop, open door. Except that's not the sequence you get. Pull the handle, open the door, window catches on the roof as the door opens because nobody waits that half-second after pulling on the handle to actually open the door. I don't know if that's a convertible-only thing because the top's different. Also, I can't get in and out without a severe rub on the seat's side bolster, which means there's gonna be a hole there in a few years.

But with the rental rate I had and getting this as a free upgrade, I'm not going to complain. Too much.

My Boxster does this exact thing. It drives me crazy. I'm conditioned to wait the half-a-second, but anyone who gets in my passenger seat obviously does not.

@dice1998 Can you elaborate on your plans? Am I sensing an overland build?

 

[dice1998]

My Boxster does this exact thing. It drives me crazy. I'm conditioned to wait the half-a-second, but anyone who gets in my passenger seat obviously does not.

@dice1998 Can you elaborate on your plans? Am I sensing an overland build?

Gonna be honest: I don't know. The current plan is truck for a year or two and then flip back into something sporty such as a ZL1.

The more I drive this truck, though, the more I would like to tune it for a little more horsepower and torque but being it's a lease, it's probably not a good idea

 

[dice1998]

Gonna be honest: I don't know. The current plan is truck for a year or two and then flip back into something sporty such as a ZL1.

The more I drive this truck, though, the more I would like to tune it for a little more horsepower and torque but being it's a lease, it's probably not a good idea

I didn't tune it. I did buy a pedal commander and it really helped me enjoy the truck more as I had a much much less delay in throttle response...


And then I traded the ZR2 in. 6 months later and 6,868 miles later.

For this:

It may look familiar to some.

 

[dice1998]

I finally had some time to take some decent pictures of the car:

For those that do not know, the SS does come standard with:

Chevrolet's LS3 V8
Brembo Brakes front and rear
Blind Spot Monitoring
Rear Cross Traffic Alert
Lane Departure Warning
Front and Rear parking sensors
Forward Collision alert
Heads-up display
Heated and Cooled front seats
Power driver and passenger seat with power lumbar support
Memory driver seat and mirrors
Auto dimming rear view and side mirrors
Automatic Headlights
Automatic windshield wipers
Bose audio
Navigation system via Mylink (it's from 2015 so I do not rely on it)
Keyless entry and push button start
And a bunch of more stuff

My car was born with:

Magnetic Ride Suspension
Spare tire which is missing and has a tire inflator in it's stead
Sunroof

There are some things I have already changed to personalize the car to my tastes:

The first thing, and it's big to me, is removing the paonted-on pinstripe. Here's what it looked like with the pinstripe on:

I really wasn't a fan of it at all. A local detail shop I really trust did the work and I'm super happy with it!

Next thing is changing the dial tip exhaust to a quad tip axleback:

It sounds a lot "richer" without being annoyingly loud while driving.


I also bought some weathertech floormats for the car plus a weathertech sun visor.

The final thing I did, since the SS badge is missing in the rear, is add my own badge to the back.

A lot of folks in my area of Florida have no idea what my car is and ask "what kind of Chevrolet Malibu is that?" or "Nice Impala!" (which for those across the pond are Chevys two best-known sedans in the US I think) so I decided to buy into that and badge my car appropriately.

"If there are people out there that upbadge their base model car, why can't I do the opposite" is the train of thought here. 😆


I do need to do some additional odds and ends to the car such as:

It has no front fender liners. They have been ordered and waiting installation.

The fog lights do not work which is also why I haven't installed the fender liners yet as I'd like to get it on a lift and mess with the fog lights before putting in the front fender liners.

My rear center arm rest has broken tabs so I've been calling it my Bluetooth armrest since I can take it out of my car and walk around with it if I wanted to.

Oh and if you wonder what the key for an SS looks like:

 

[dice1998]

Some things have happened since my last update.

I had to buy a new Key fob as the one I currently use is being torn up even though I don't touch it. It's a habit of these old keys. Because if that though, cut replacements are extremely cheap and you don't have to pay for programming as the car allows you to program a new key yourself!


I also had some spare time at work and had a lot of help working on getting the aftermarket fog lights to work.

I was really happy that they were LED lights and I didn't have to worry about blowing a fuse.I will get the OEM ones working eventually. I'm curious on what happened with the previous owner and this project. It was 98% there. Mounted correctly and the grill cut quite well. Just not wired up for some odd reason..


Since that was done, the front wheel liners went in finally as well as a new rubber deflector under the front bumper.

That's when I learned that the front bumper isn't in the best of shape. Pictured below is the passenger front side. Note there's a large chunk of the bottom side bumper straight up missing.

Screwing everything in will help keep things secure but I'll probably weigh out my options for a front bumper eventually.

 

[dice1998]

Two steps forward, one step back.

I finally have a complete, working fog light set!

I found an aftermarket fog light assembly that is exactly the same as a GM part for a quarter of the price. I also replaced the light bulbs with LED lights purchased from Diode Dynamics to match the middle PIAA lights.

The one step back is when I accidentally destroyed some clips that hold the A pillar trim in place when I was trying to tuck in some cables from a dashboard camera and radar detector

 

[dice1998]

I'd like to start this post off with: I really liked the Chevy SS but that car wasn't taken care of. The SS also has a terrible infotainment system and no aftermarket options that worked for what I wanted (apple carplay and Android auto). Yes, there are one or two options but all of those options broke the heated/cooled seats settings and memory settings too.

The car also had some transmission issues from the first day I bought it. While the issue never became worse, no matter what I did, the issue never improved. I decided to sell the car and cut my losses between the money I spent sorting out the fog lights, wheel liners and other things. Also, the rear magride shocks started seeping..

Between the SS and my current car, I actually bought a 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel and liked it a lot more than I thought!

This car came with some pretty nice options too:
Gray Leather
Blind Spot Monitoring
Rear Cross Traffic Alert
Bose premium audio
Sunroof
Rear backup sensors
Apple carplay and Android auto
Heated (but not cooled) seats

The car was torquey being the diesel and the 9 speed transmission allowed the car to always be in the powerband. Also for my heavy foot, getting 400 miles per tank with mostly city driving which allowed me to fill up only every two weeks for around $65 at the hight of fuel prices helped too!

I really would have like to keep this car but I cannot support 3 car payments (I also make car payments for my mom and dad's 2022 trailblazer that I bought them)

I yearned for a sports car again so I placed an order for a Wild Cherry Tintcoat Camaro LT1 until I realized how boujee I am so I changed my order for a Camaro 2SS for the leather, cooled seats, heads up display and more for a couple of thousand more. Then I was told that I couldn't get Wild Cherry any more for 2022 so I changed my order to Vivid Orange Metallic. I was under the assumption I couldn't get my 2022 due to supplier constraint so I ordered a 2023 2SS in Radiant Red. Then I discovered my 2022 order was picked up.

For this order, I only went with Dual Mode Exhaust. I did not want magnetic ride and I use Android auto so I didn't want navigation and I didn't want the Recaros Seats which is why I didn't choose the 1LE package. The only thing I wanted became discontinued (Chevy performance intake).

Skip to 6mos later and my Camaro finally showed up and I was happier seeing the color in person than from pictures. Yes, I ordered a color I never saw and I knew it was risky.

I also wasn't sure at all about the silver wheels on this color but, again, seeing it in person helped a lot and this color/wheel combo is really growing on me.

I took it home the first moment I could on my dealer plate and encountered my first issue:

That's how I had to drive to keep the car driving in a straight line. The next morning I took it to get fixed and it seems like the factory forgot to do an alignment while the car sat waiting for parts.

No worries, one alignment later and I was happy.
After being cleaned up fully, I really am happy with the color:

And I already have 231 miles on the car. I really am trying my best to correctly break this car in like my Green Camaro so I can confidently drive this car like I did the green car where applicable and legal.

This is also my first daily driver manual transmission car and I keep having to tell myself to do things like wiggle the gear stick, make sure it's not in gear when starting up and foot off the clutch and minor things like that.

I think I'll be okay. 😆

 

[ss3]

I actually got off my lazy butt since it was a nice day and took some half-decent pictures of the car:




*I tried to get the camera to capture the pearl effect/shine
.


I took a bunch of more pictures but am eventually going to take more because I overlooked some things such as the actual seats and engine bay.
Click here if you'd like to look through the pics and see the features a fully loaded early 2000's Lexus has.

I wish I had some actual hood pictures of my Lexus

 

[mistamontiel]

@dice1998 $alute from Miami FLAWDUHHH! Congrats on making news post front page

As to jacking wiggly the stick.. man I see everyone do that but I'm the only one who does not, slot in gears ezpz. Keep it nice n hard!

 

[dice1998]

Here's that orange at night.



One day I'll get some good pics of this thing 😫

 

[dice1998]

I performed an Autocross. I won my class! It honestly surprised me as it was my first time running on this course with cones versus the last two times I did it where it was on a go kart course with defined corners.

I learned the car can perform but the tires (all season Goodyear run flats) are what is holding it back. I'm very impressed with myself and the car!



Still no good pictures.. yet.

 

[wfooshee]

Are you new to autocrossing, or been doing it a while? If you're going to autocross, you need a tire budget!!!

It's been years since I've been active, because I stupidly got married and bought a house! No spare change since then, especially after the divorce and getting her out of the house (financially.)

I don't know what the rules are any more for tires in the stock classes, but back in the late 90s/early 2000s, several tire makers had special autocross tires, very soft, that were still DOT legal tires, and thus legal for stock classes. Hoosiers were practically racing slicks, with only two grooves around the tire and a sidewall wear rating of 0, but Yokohama and others made tires for us, too. The Hoosiers were worth at least three seconds on most courses, compared to what I drove on the street! I seem to recall looking at a rule book a couple of years ago and seeing that tires have been clamped down on in the rules, but even so, you want a set just for autocrossing if it's something you're going to be at regularly. You probably already saw the damage it does!

(BTW, the "Champion" status is not that big a deal. At the regional level, every class has a champion for the year, as long as you're there for a majority of the events, and there are at least three people in the class most of the time. I was also G Stock champion in Dixie Region, now with the "politically-correct" name of Red Hills Region, for 3 years, I think. I got coffee mugs for those! I never went to any higher levels of SCCA autocross other than a Divisional that we hosted, just to see. Did VERY poorly as I corded my fronts with a brake lock and was unable to run any further...)

 

[dice1998]

Are you new to autocrossing, or been doing it a while? If you're going to autocross, you need a tire budget!!!

It's been years since I've been active, because I stupidly got married and bought a house! No spare change since then, especially after the divorce and getting her out of the house (financially.)

I don't know what the rules are any more for tires in the stock classes, but back in the late 90s/early 2000s, several tire makers had special autocross tires, very soft, that were still DOT legal tires, and thus legal for stock classes. Hoosiers were practically racing slicks, with only two grooves around the tire and a sidewall wear rating of 0, but Yokohama and others made tires for us, too. The Hoosiers were worth at least three seconds on most courses, compared to what I drove on the street! I seem to recall looking at a rule book a couple of years ago and seeing that tires have been clamped down on in the rules, but even so, you want a set just for autocrossing if it's something you're going to be at regularly. You probably already saw the damage it does!

(BTW, the "Champion" status is not that big a deal. At the regional level, every class has a champion for the year, as long as you're there for a majority of the events, and there are at least three people in the class most of the time. I was also G Stock champion in Dixie Region, now with the "politically-correct" name of Red Hills Region, for 3 years, I think. I got coffee mugs for those! I never went to any higher levels of SCCA autocross other than a Divisional that we hosted, just to see. Did VERY poorly as I corded my fronts with a brake lock and was unable to run any further...)

I'm definitely still a newbie to autocrossing! Camaro 1LE's have Goodyear Eagle F1 tires and a wider track but I'm told 1LE's would be in a super stock class versus where I am (F-Stock).

That being said I'm not sure if my class changes by going to another, stickier set of tires 🤔. I was planning on getting some new tires once this set was up (obviously). I did really think about a set of autocross-specific tires but I don't think I'm going that route just yet.

The all-season run flats did pretty darn well all things considered. We only had 5 runs per group and the tires didn't really start overheating until the 5th lap and going by the on-board temp gage, they weren't overheating yet. It definitely tortured the tires... I think I'm going to torture the tires as much as I'm able to before it becomes dangerous and then go with a set of Continentals. I had those on my previous Camaro albeit 245mm square setup but it woke that LT1 up as compared to the all seasons that had.


Hmmm..

 

[wfooshee]

If nobody's said it, you'll probably want to run really high pressures while you run, like into the 40, 42 psi range. Keeps the tread from rolling the sidewalls onto the pavement. So take a 12-volt compressor with you.

 

[dice1998]

Soooo it's been about 11,000 miles and almost a year since I took delivery of the 2SS. Still my daily driver and will be the forseeable future and still enjoying it!

It has had good amount of warranty work done. GM definitely are rushing these cars out without QC!



I did add another vehicle to the lineup for weekends though:

I'll be taking delivery of this some time this week 😁

 

[Darla Starch]

babby dumptruck 😍

 

[dice1998]

I finally have taken delivery of the Sambar and boy did I have some highs and a flew lows.

The truck is the complete opposite of my 2SS and it's awesome! As I found out, the Sambar is the only rear engined 4cyl kei truck. Very smooth power delivery and the cab is the quietest one of the bunch. Can it do 100kph with big ol' me in it? Eventually, yes.

The radio has been the first modification I have done. In the above post, it has a radio but it's AM only and only for Japanese frequencies.

I bought a decent, cheap radio with a big screen that has Android Auto and Bluetooth so I have some tunes to listen to while driving it. I also bought two new speakers as the one on the driver's side is original and brittle.

Wiring it up was a challenge and I gave up and asked for reinforcements (my good friend) to help me out. I also converted the japanese battery to US spec to make replacing it easier in the future.. and to know it's a fresh battery.

That night after getting everything to work, I was driving home only to have it overheat and evacuate a lot of its coolant on my driveway.





Problem solved though!




Camaro update: none. Still my daily driver, still love it!

 

[SVX]

Feel free to hit me up for any JDM parts (including maintenance). I have a plethora of websites that I can use to find part numbers, or equivalents, so happy to help.

 

[dice1998]

Small Sambar Update/Addendum: What I thought (and signed up for) is a 1997 but I just found out it's a 1994. Does that change anything?

One thing: I'm closer to it having an Antique plate in Florida.

 

[dice1998]

It's been a while.

Here's what the Sambar has been up to:

Do note the two carts in the back and the hanging axles.

 

[dice1998]

This is going to be a LONG write up. Be warned.

Starting from the top, I bought the truck in July and took delivery in August and from August to October I had two major overheating issues plus a third even-more-major issue which I'll come to in a paragraph or two.

The first overheating experience, I was driving the truck home when I peeked down at the temperature gauge and noticed it spiked. Luckily I was 2 minutes from home and had green lights all the way to my driveway. The second I pulled in and shut the truck off, coolant spewed everywhere. Great.

Spoke to the guy where I bought the truck from and he said he'd cover whatever the problem was with the truck causing it to overheat. Awesome! Hagerty is really good on free towing locally so I had it towed to the mechanic that worked on the truck previously and let him work on it. Few days later good to go and I was told it was an old, crusty radiator cap that caused it. Cool no problem easy fix.

That should have been my first red flag in hindsight.

The second overheating problem happened 2 weeks later. This time I was 10 minutes away from home and in traffic so I pulled over to let it cool off. 30 mins later, one of my coworkers passed by and saw me and offered to drive behind me. I was lucky again and all green lights all the way home. Towed it back to the guy and told the guy I bought it from.

I visited the mechanic working on the truck this time so told me it was a stuck thermostat and he removed it and I "should be fine". This should have been my second red flag in hindsight.

Now comes the third one I mentioned. Unfortunately I cannot share the video as there's me swearing up and down in the video. To sum up this video, It's either a Cylinder loss or valve but the engine was knocking something ferocious this time every time it started up. I was 20 mins from home. Hagerty towed it all these times no charge to me.

By this time it was October, 2023. This time I had the truck towed home and garaged it. I knew I wasn't going to give up on the truck because every time I drove it, I had so much fun doing up to 60mph. I was over this mechanic and decided to have my dealership work on it this time. The original plan was to tow it to the dealership I work at and borrow a lift and work on it myself but alas, time was never my friend.

I started doing homework and weighed out quite a few options from doing a diesel 4cyl swap to a Yamaha R1 swap. If it wasn't for the silly Hydraulic dump it had, I probably would have went one of these routes but I couldn't bring myself to do so yet thus I opted for a Subaru Remanufactured 4cyl that would be a drop-in.

For giggles, I went over to our Subaru Parts dept to see if I could get anything for my Sambar but it's not recognized in the North American system. I found Yokohama Motors orders these engines on your behalf and that's what I opted for. The only things I had to carry over from my old engine is the accessory drive/belts and carburetor.

This was a "wing it" process as things were dug into as no one here has ever messed with a Kei Truck let alone an inline 4cyl Subaru engine. It's why you'll see markings on some of the vacuum lines to ensure they go back to their correct spot. I ended up purchasing an very informative English service manual for it which came in handy for torque specs and wiring which I'll still need to use which I'll get into later on in this post. It's a good thing I had our guys work on this truck because I'm sure the previous mechanic wouldn't have told me things such as I should get a new fuel filter or new motor mounts. On the bright side, it did really have a new(er) clutch in it with a lot of life left! The remanufactured engine also came with all belts and even an oil filter! It essentially was "add fluids, carburetor, and accessory drive items and drop it back in!

Did you know: The Sambar has the most cabin space of any of the Kei Trucks of this generation since the engine is ALLLLL the way in the back (it's rear-engined). It is also, to my knowledge, the only 4cyl Kei truck for this generation as the others are 3cyl.

A lot of what you see above is transmission. I ended up buying a new fuel filter to ensure maximum life of the engine as well as put in diesel oil as a lot of guys in the south and warmer parts of the world run that since these engines are high revving engines. It's been 100 miles but so far so good!

I also removed the giant Double-din-sized Single-DIN radio that was in it and add it a more "reasonable" Single-din screen/radio since it has wireless Android Auto and a remote to use the radio.

Currently I'm chasing some grounding issues as it has an issue starting until I play with the dump switch (heh). The longest part of this whole ordeal is ordering parts and waiting weeks-on-end.

Camaro update: 21k miles and I'm really not in love with this one as I was the green one. I'm looking into getting out of it into something different. Don't get me wrong, I love this Camaro but i'm not in love with this one like I was with the green one.

Not sure what I want to get..yet.

 

[dice1998]

Small update as I'm not ready to dive in yet:

Camaro's Gone.

This took its place:

6.0 V8 (which was an option as the V6 was the standard engine)
Rubber Floors
AM/FM only radio
Steel Wheels
70k Miles


I've admittedly have had the car for about a month and have really liked it so far!

 

[TheHun99]

Hm, I just checked, I didn't realize these were also FR configs, like the Crown Vics and production started as the Crown Vic's was halted, plus a newer and more powerful V8... would be a perfect project car to do a manual swap etc., something I need to consider (after buying the currently leased Crosstrek next year and buying a lightweight manual RWD car for myself )

 

[dice1998]

Hm, I just checked, I didn't realize these were also FR configs, like the Crown Vics and production started as the Crown Vic's was halted, plus a newer and more powerful V8... would be a perfect project car to do a manual swap etc., something I need to consider (after buying the currently leased Crosstrek next year and buying a lightweight manual RWD car for myself )

I was thinking about a manual swap but I think i'll keep it automatic. I do have a bunch of performance goodies for the car in my shooting cart for my goal of 600whp ready to purchase once I clear out some of my debt.

 

[wfooshee]

Is that Caprice actually an ex-police car, or on of the many that dealers dumped when police departments wouldn't buy them? They weren't supposed to be sold to the public, but many of them were, apparently.

 

[dice1998]

Is that Caprice actually an ex-police car, or on of the many that dealers dumped when police departments wouldn't buy them? They weren't supposed to be sold to the public, but many of them were, apparently.

Mine legitimately was but I'm not sure to what extent. The next time I'm able to, I'll try to take a picture of the driver's side where, in the right lighting, you can see "North Carolina police department" still imprinted 😆

 

[wfooshee]

I was asking, because a lot of times ex-police cars that get auctioned to the public have numerous "scars" from the removal of equipment that had been installed, like the laptop bracket, the panel separating the back seat from the front, etc. Do the back doors open from inside?

 

[dice1998]

I was asking, because a lot of times ex-police cars that get auctioned to the public have numerous "scars" from the removal of equipment that had been installed, like the laptop bracket, the panel separating the back seat from the front, etc. Do the back doors open from inside?

Normally, straight from the department, you'd be correct and the rear doors wouldn't open nor the windows work. Whoever had the car before me already rectified those things so the rear doors had functional interior handles and the window switches actually worked and I was excited to see the previous owner had to replace the headliner!

There are odds and ends that i'll eventually make a LONG post about....Soon™.

 

[dice1998]

So: The Caprice.

The Camaro was awesome but I unfortunately overextended myself financially and I had to make a decision. I had too much money tied up in the Subaru and thus the Camaro had to go. Was I sad about it? Honestly kinda yes but not as sad as I expected myself to be. I loved the car but wasn't in love with it..

I was in the fence between a 135i with a 6spd Manual, an ATS-V for $100ish a month less or the Caprice. I decided on the Caprice because it was the cheapest car of the bunch by A LOT with a good aftermarket base and their cult following are full of super cool people.

I started looking on Facebook and found a 9C3 (detective package) with 186k miles on it located in Miami but the more I messaged the guy, the sketchier it became.


Because of me working at a dealership and having a good relationship with my bosses/coworkers, I was able to purchase my 70k mile 9C1 (patrol car) from Manheim auctions. It took a few weeks of watching to see a decent example come up that's not sold "as is" and that's what I wanted just in case something wasn't what I expected it to be.

So mine rolled up and was a pricey piece because of the miles. I risked it and purchased it and a few days later it rolls up to the dealership.

I knew the car needed some work but the bones were good!

The A/C blew ice cold and it ran like a champ. I also discovered that the roof liner was recently replaced too which was very welcoming. First test drive after it came off the truck was a blast!

It needed (and still) needs some love to make it right though.

First thing I purchased was tires and windshield wipers for it. I ended up, again, with Continental tires 😆

After that the car desperately needed audio as only one speaker worked so I bit the bullet early and bought a modified radio plus speakers for the car. Through the Caprice community I discovered an Australian dealer of modified radios for my car that keeps the original look (which I don't mind) but with a wealth of added benefits such as Bluetooth audio, and upgraded internal amplifier, Apple Carplay/Android Auto and reversing camera capability plus other things.

It was pricey but worth it.

The speakers weren't so bad and I went with come inexpensive ones that sound pretty darn good for their price point

The next thing I caved for was a complete center console kit for the car from a wrecked detective Caprice which means I will eventually have cup holders! I will eventually install this as to do so, the car needs to be gutted and will be down for a few days which I'm not ready for.

I also immediately purchase an HPTuners unit to disable "displacement on demand" which, at the time, was general motors way of describing cylinder deactivation that was notorious for being the reason for a lot of lifter issues with that generation of GM pushrod V8s whether it be the sports cars or trucks. So far, so good.. 😆

And that's about where I am for now. Just enjoying this pig until I get bored and purchase what's in my shopping cart for it...

 

[dice1998]

No update juuuuuuust yet. Just this neat smol thing: