My AT TX5 Turbo - The Telstar Journey

[SABBAi]

This is from the very start of my "new" AT Turbo, back in September 2014.

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About 10 years ago, I owned a red TX5 Turbo. it was my pride and joy and brought me many hours of joy building, driving and upgrading the car.




Unfortunately though, it was written off as someone ran into the back of me at the traffic lights. Since then I have always been on the look out for a Red TX5 turbo to replace it with. I've had a few cars that never really had the same appeal as the original one. A black TX5 turbo, a turbo converted sedan, 2 late model wagons with turbo running gear, etc.



In my usually weekly search for a replacement, I came across a car for sale on gumtree located in Sydney. It looked to be fairly tidy and very low Km's for the age, at only 110,000km.

The car was basically standard, save for some cheap pedal covers, a turbo timer and a cat back exhaust.








The car was a bit of a rare thing, as it has a dealer fitted bodykit made by the now defunct USC - United Sports Cars. Not only that, it was build plated!



An Arrangement was made with the owner and I travelled down to Sydney to get it. When I arrived in Sydney, it was dark and I didn't get a good chance to go over the car, but I had decided to go ahead with purchasing the car regardless. I spent a week in Sydney for work and drove home on the Friday. The old girl made it back to Brisbane with no issues.




More updates to come.

[SABBAi]

Dents, Scrapes and other body Damage
Due to the issues with getting into Sydney to get the car, I arrived at the sellers place in the dark. This was a blessing as I didn't get turned off buying the car due to the body work, but also a disadvantage as I didn't get to see how bad the bodywork really was. The pros for buying the car was the rare USC kit, the genuine 110,000 km's and the interior was near enough to being spotless.

When I finally got to check the car over in the day light, I was excited but it was short lived. Besides the expected fade, which is a given for a 25 year old car, the paint was not in great condition. It looked as if the car has spent a great deal of it's life under a tree, with it's inhabitant using the car for target practice. Obviously the previous owner didn't really care about this and the result is damaged paint.


Damaged paint on the Roof


The rear of the car wasn't spared either, with the same sort of damage on the drivers side rear quarter, which is probably in worse condition that the roof.
Not only is the colour stripped, the paint is pitted. No amount of detail work is going to repair this, with the only solution being respraying the damaged panels. The rear quarter panel also receives a nasty dent and scrape down through the paint which has been covered with a sticky of bullet holes, kind of fitting that I bought the car from Merrylands..... I peeled the sticker off to inspect the damage underneath, it's not pretty.




The car has it's fair share of 'Elderly first owner' parking tattoos. Front bumper, rear bumper, side skirt, rear kit, etc.





The rear bar didn't escape having the exhaust pushed up into it from parking up against something. The result is damaged fibreglass. By the looks of it, it wont take too much to repair it.




As for the dents, it looks like the roof above the drivers door was used as the resting place for a bag of rocks, or very localised hail damage.. Somehow I don't think mother nature is that selective of where she throws her little ice rocks.




The car has been keyed at some point also, but considering the rest of the body damage, this seems to be insignificant.




Here is one of the worst dents. I don't have a pic of the dent on the bonnet of the driverside front guard.


There is next to no rust in the body which is fantastic for a 25 year old car. The only rust found is in the rear tailgate, just below the rear glass. It's still in the early stages, so it shouldn't be too much effort to get rid of it before it spreads.





So far this paints a pretty nasty picture of the condition of the car, but realistically, it's not too serious. The car is straight and has never been in a major accident. The front bumper has been repaired and resprayed at some point, but everything behind it is dead straight.

With a little time spent on the old girl, she'll be looking sharper than a number 2 pencil.

[samyk]

Man that USC kit is hectic lol. When will you be getting the car back from Brissy to you?

[SABBAi]

I'm not sure yet Sam. It's still in storage at our place up there. It needs the ABS module to be replaced before it can drive anywhere as it has no brakes currently, even after swapping out calipers, lines and master cylinder.

I only know of one business who will bring it down here with no brakes, who I've used in the past, but the last experience I had with them wasn't great.

So until I can get back up there to replace it, who know. Covid isn't making it any easier either.