Evo 5 – 30K Miles: Underside Refresh

This Evo 5 was purchased from the very long term owner, and had been used for only a few journeys per year.

The idea was to have a nice example of an Evo 5 which was very clean yet usable, and this example was ideal, having been undersealed thoroughly for protection.
Things soon (and quite predictably) took a change of plan, with us slowly making small improvements.

We decided to place the car on the ramp for a quick refresh, which turned in to a rather thorough job.
The extremely thick underseal was removed just in a small area to begin with, and then it was decided that all running gear would be removed to make sure we could clean the entire underside thoroughly without missing areas.

This was a long process, as we made a conscious effort to ensure we retained the original finish to the underside of the shell.
we did consider painting the underside in the body colour for a ‘perfect’ finish but we wanted to retain the originality, even with a little patina.

All running gear also got a refresh, along with some upgrades.
All bolts, clips, brackets were re-finished in the correct original finish, aluminium rear suspension arms were sourced from an Evo 6 (giving a large weight saving over the original steel items).
Ralliart bushes were fitted, along with new Ohlins coilover suspension and a Superpro rear anti roll bar.

The Superpro rear anti roll bar was powdercoated Candy blue, along with the Cusco from underbody brace to replicate the original finish of the underbody brace.
Suspension arms, AYC housing, front subframe, plus more were powdercoated.
Rear subframe was blasted and left in this finish (being aluminium), and the rear diff was cleaned, with mounting arms painted black, along with the rear driveshafts being stripped and refurbished with genuine Mitsubishio items, and in the original colours.

Before refitting the running gear, we cavity waxed all the chassis box sections, and inner sills.
The floor itself was coated using a clear wax to ensure it was protected.

All running gear was re-fitted and then the body was detailed, with various improvments being done, such as the rear arch seals being replaced with new genuine items, bumper and bonnet mesh being powder coated and of course a 2 stage machine polish to the paintwork plus much more.

The car has since had a large magazine feature and won its first show with a Trophy.