GC Paul Magyar's 1995 Subaru Impreza L - Street Mod/Track build

[Fair]

Project Update for Oct 24, 2010: Wow, yea.... long time no update. We kinda got buried under the $2010 GRM Project E30 V8, my e46 BMW DSP disaster, the SCCA Solo Nationals and the GRM $2010 event for the past 6 weeks. I managed to get over to Paul's on the 24th and we got a lot of little stuff done - mostly installing new parts he'd received since my last visit. Paul did so some work during that time period... installed a mixture of 2.5 RS and STi and '95 Impreza brake lines in the engine bay are perfectly routed and buttoned up. He also got the steering column in and installed a few other odds and ends.

First thing we tackled: the motor got its new exhaust crossover tube (some fancy aftermarket piece) but its still got the stock up-pipe, exhaust manifolds and turbo. Which is odd to me - wouldn't you want larger diameter headers, up-piping, etc? Or at least ported cast manifolds? Apparently Paul has those upgrades in mind when he adds a larger turbo unit - but for now he wants to just "get it going". Which is what I've been saying for the last year, so I can't complain.

So we got everything we had on hand to add to the motor bolted on and were about to lock down the turbo when Paul noticed we were missing one piece of oil tubing for the turbo, so he's going to order that. Good grief. I'll come back next weekend and we can get that wrapped up and get the motor IN THE CAR, hopefully? Maybe? After we ran out of motor work we jumped into the suspension.

I spent about an hour under the back of the car and with Paul working topside we got the right rear halfshaft installed, the right rear upright bolted to that strut, E-brake cables routed, the ABS wiring routed, and everything in the rear buttoned up. It was still missing the main spring on the left rear but damn it I wanted to see the car on the ground, and with time running out we slapped on all of the wheels (including a temp spare on the right rear) and dropped the car down onto the wheels for the first time in over a YEAR. Sure, one corner was supported by a floor jack... but it almost rolled.

Costas and I had actually dropped by late the Saturday before and temporarily installed the new DEPO headlights/corner lights, the hood, and one of the new Certifit fenders Paul had rounded up and we snapped these iPhone pics, too.

More soon,

 

[Fair]

Project Update for Oct 30, 2010: Another Saturday spent on Paul M's '95 Impreza and we made more progress, but still no motor in the car. I know, I know... that's all I cared about tackling, but Paul had some worries about something and wanted one of the COBB guys around to make sure we didn't put it in the car without forgetting anything. So with the motor plans dead in the water we jumped into other aspects that still needed to be locked down. We started by swapping the entire doors... ???

Paul M here had traded Jason M the car's original roll up window '95 Impreza doors (~72 lbs) with a pair of '99 RS doors (~75 lbs/each) that had electric windows. The reason for the swap? Well Paul had already scored a complete set of RS inner door panels + RS interior rear panels, but they never came with roll up windows and he didn't want to cut a hole for the crank... or something like that? I didn't understand, but he wanted electric window RS doors and it was an even money swap so he's happy. It didn't take us 45 minutes to swap and align both doors, and they were in better shape than the old ones, so I won't complain further (3 pounds per door is not much for electric windows, I guess). I bolted in the seat/bracket again, too. Paul took pics of the doors with his camera including the scale, and I'll post them up shortly. Maneuvering these doors was some work - they were freagin HEAVY!

We also got the spring on the right rear strut, then got the car on the ground FOR REAL and actually ROLLED it back and forth a foot. On the tires. Really! First time the car actually rolled in over a year. Woo!

We played with ride heights and got the car down to where we think it should be, and leveled the front side to side. Didn't really get a picture of this, but no matter - it didn't stay that way for long.

So the two pictures above show the 18x9.5" wheels and 275s don't fit the rear (nor the front), and Paul had worked during the August/September time frame on "clearancing" the rear left fender to "fit" them. He spent lots of hours and learned some new body work/metal forming skills from a friend, and had a sort of bell shaped lip added to that fender (see the top left pic in this post). He had to cut the outer sheetmetal away from the inner, and had moved it outboard about 1-1.5". It was barely enough clearance once the car was at ride height - but the tire was smashing into the sheet metal once you added some bump travel. No bueno.

Paul thought he could work it even more but the metal was already so "worked" it was starting to get brittle. So he was going to plop down $4500 on some composite "wide body" composite panel garbage. Oh hell no. Next he talked about getting some cheap RaceonUSA 240SX bolt-on flares (blah). That would have taken a bunch of work to fit this car. I had a better idea... metal flares!

I popped back to the shop and brought back several fenders and fender flare sections to Paul's garage. Some of you will know what these are, as they are good metal candidates for flaring I've used in the past (E46 BMW fenders). Oh baby, did they ever look at home on this Subaru!

This was a major "eureka!" moment for the project. The decisions about tire clearancing were solved and its a cheap solution (if somewhat fab-intensive - assume 40 hours of work to do flares right). We checked the SMod rules and we can clearance the inner sheet metal from the axle mounting face outwards, so we made a mark in the inner wheelhouse section showing this line, then Paul started cutting away interfering metal from there outwards. We bolted the tires on both ends and put it back at ride height.

That's the before and after. The bare metal pic with the re-worked fender looks like it might work, but it lacks clearance for upward travel of the tire. It would only ever work for the hard-parking crowd. With the grafted on metal flares we are allowing the suspension to compress into the bump stop and still have tire clearance. This will also allow for a relatively narrow track width and narrower tire/wheel for autocrossing (18x9.5" and 275mm) as well as a wider track width and wheel/tire for track use (295 or more on an 18x10"), better suiting this dual-purpose race car to these two extremes.

Next up: I'm still pushing to get the damn motor in the car! But somehow a threaded, blind hole in the block for the knock sensor is stripped, so Paul is on the search fort a helicoil kit. Then it goes to COBB Tuning Plano for some electronics wizardry and tuning. "It will run before the end of the year", says Paul. Ha! We'll see...

More soon,

 

[Fair]

Update for Nov 9, 2010: Went by Paul's on the night of Nov 9, supposedly to install his engine. Calvin from COBB was there, local SMod racer Henry L was there. Problem was, all of the parts we needed to put on the motor weren't there...

They messed around on the motor for a bit, installed a few bits, but the threaded (blind) hole for the knock sensor was stripped when the sensor was being torqued, so that put the brakes on further work (time for a helicoil repair). And the turbo + up-pipe weren't back from SWAIN getting coated yet, so the motor install was pushed back another week or three. I messed around on the rear suspension for a while all night.

While they were tinkering on the "its taking freagin forever engine", I was checking tire clearance on the fender work already performed out back. Eventually I removed the spring on the left rear strut and compressed the suspension with the tire installed, checking to see if the tire hit the body before the strut bottomed out into the bump stop. Yep, still needs a lot more tire clearance upward. The offending metal is actually the metal inner-fender structure out by the edge of the fender - it curves downward. Luckily SMod rules allow for this to be cut out and modified, so long as it falls in the range "outside of the axle mounting face". We took a straight edge and scribed a line from the rotor face upward and around the wheel well. Then I started cutting away more metal from there out, which got us more bump travel room.

We still need to cut more of the outer fender panel sheet metal away, but keep it within the outline we made with the new metal flares we mocked up last time. The fender flare is just for looks; it will simply "cover up the ugly hole" we make trying to clear the wide tire under bump travel.

So now its time for me to bring my welder over and get to patching up the giant holes left from Paul's previous "flaring" attempt, spot weld the new metal flare on, then do more "compress the suspension/tire" testing.

Not much to show here, sorry. Other than mauling a few pizzas and cutting a little bit on the rear fender, the night was pretty much a wash. Since then many more parts have arrived and Paul has even installed a few things. There's a window (when Calvin returns to COBB after an upcoming vacation) that Paul is trying to hit (he's taking the car to them with the motor installed, so they can tune it), so he has his deadline and that motor has to go in. Go go go!

I'll probably go by there this weekend with the welder and see if we can get the fender flares tacked up on the rear, so he can at least roll the car with the car no longer being Hellaflush.

Hellaflush Subaru!

More soon,

 

[Fair]

Update for Nov 27-28, 2010: You can see in the update above that we had already started work on clearancing the fenders on Paul's GC for the wider 275mm tires (and hopefully 285s). Well on the weekend of Nov 27-28 I made a house call and Paul & I tackled the rear fender flare cutting/clearancing/welding, and it came out nice and tidy. Whenever we do flares like this I get a million questions, so we took tons of iPhone4 pics & videos, real pics with the Nikon D90, and better HD video with my Sony vidcam. I'm still splicing video together so that will come in the next installment.

Picture gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Projects/Subaru-GC-steel-fender-flares/

We've got the step-by-step for the rear chronicled in the gallery above, and when we tackle the fronts (3 times easier!) we'll add those pics there as well, plus videos. The rear of any unibody car is always is much more work than the front when adding real flares for substantially wider and/or taller tires. This is because the front fenders are mostly cosmetic and contribute very little to chassis strength - just a thin, formed steel sheet covering the tire. The pretty part. The rear fenders, however, are tied into the rear unibody structure, with as many as 3 layers of steel (common) that all come together at the outer fender lip joint. When you go cutting up that fender arch for more tire clearance, all of that metal gets mangled... and the structure goes to hell. You can't leave these 3 sheets flapping in he breeze. Most of our work was putting all of those pieces together again, properly, with adequate clearance for this much lowered car, with shorter struts, and much wider/taller tires. We probably removed and moved the upper fender arch upwards over 4 inches. Covering the tire with the cosmetic flare (in this case: steel) was the final part... and the easiest step. If you think its easier to do composite flares, think again - the basic clearancing and unibody reinforcement work is the same. Pimpin' ain't easy, but for many racers, this work is necessary.

Left: Paul's attempt #1. Right: Paul's Attempt #2. Both failed.

Before I got involved Paul tried to use my fender roller to make enough clearance in the left rear fender lip for the wider wheels (above, left), but that didn't work. Next (above, right) he cut away the outer sheet from the 3-piece sheet structure at the rear lip and started hammer forming the lip contour heavily. His second effort actually looked pretty good at ride height (he burned several hours learning/making this fender section) but like many flaring efforts, it had no clearance under suspension bump travel (wheel going upwards after hitting a bump). This might cut it in hard parking/VIP/car show crowd, but this doesn't work at all on a real street or race car.

Left: BMW fender flare "graft" mocked up on front. Right: And on the rear.

That's when I came in and suggested we add real fender flares. Again. Paul and I had discussed this back in 2009 but he was hesitant, mostly because he knew how much time and effort (30-40 hours) in fabrication and bodywork was involved on the 4-5 other flare jobs I've done on BMWs (several of which Paul helped with). He didn't want the delay. But we got to a point to where we couldn't move the car around - the stock wheels were the wrong bolt pattern and the new 114.3mm PCD wheels he had wouldn't clear the fenders at ride height. And the next step after the motor goes in is a trip to COBB, and they need to drive it... so after we mocked up some pre-cut BMW fender section templates I had on hand for BMW use, and they looked like they'd fit, we started cutting for clearance. This was the real work.

Since I wired up Paul's garage I made sure it used the same 220V outlets as my shop and welders, so when I brought my Miller 175 MIG set-up over, it plugged in and worked fine. I normally don't do house calls like this (if I haven't offered, don't ask!), but Paul is one of my oldest and best friends from college, so he gets special treatment. And I've sort of adopted/got stuck with much of this Subaru GC swap project. I also supplied a pair of the donor BMW E46 coupe front fenders, since I had a couple of spares from my DSP E46 project that were already partially hacked up, but not anywhere near the flare sections. Paul still has to round up 2 more fenders for the front (these are around $35 each from Certifit; no, you can't order them online).

Cutting and clearancing for full bump travel - the correct way

This next step is the most critical for flaring any car - and the one most people get wrong. With the spring removed from the rear suspension and a jack under the control arm we kept compressing the strut until it hit the bump stop (and compressed it as well), with the 275mm tire on the 18x9.5" test wheel. We kept cutting the outer fender sheet metal and modifying the inner structure, step by step, until we ran out of suspension travel. Lots of iterations.

Since this is a car built to the SCCA's Street Modified (SMod) class rules, we knew we were allowed to cut away the inner structure only from the "axle face outwards". So we drew a line around at the plane at the axle face onto the inner structure sheet metal and "pie cut" from there outward that to the fender lip face, then hammered these sections up for more bump travel clearance. Everything inboard from there has to remain stock, but luckily that wasn't an issue, as the inner fender structure arced downward fairly sharply from this plane down to the fender lip. This step took many iterations and burned about 3 hours of cut-install wheel-compress-mark-remove-cut-repeat for the left rear fender.

On the right rear fender this clearance work went a lot faster... we drew a "grid" on the rear fenders and transferred the "arc of clearance" from the first fender (left) to the second (right). This way we didn't have the 2-3 hour "hunt and peck" iterations to find the optimal full bump travel tire clearance; it took only about 20-25 minutes to measure, mark and cut that fender. We copied the mirror image fender flare donor section from the BMW fenders as best we could, also. The donor fenders are cross opposites of where they end up.. the left front BMW fender flare went on the right rear of the Subaru, and vice verca.

---exceeded post length, see more below---

 

[Fair]

---continued from post above---

The now cut apart inner and outer fender structures were super weak and floppy, so we had to tie the rear structure back together. Since Paul had started cutting on the left rear fender area earlier ("without adult supervision"), he had mistakenly cut away some portions of the inner sheet metal (see above, left), so I had to make and weld on small patch panels around the entire perimeter of the LR wheel arch to tie the remaining inner structure back to the outer fender. These were pieces of lightweight 20 ga sheet, cut in small sections (transferred from cardboard templates), welded along one edge, and hammer former around the arch, then finish welded (this makes a lot more sense when you see the video). The right rear fender was, again, much easier (since Paul hadn't touched it yet!). We knew where we had to end up with vertically, so once that was marked and the outer sheet metal cut, we left most of the inner structure in place. Then just pie-sectioned the inner structure instead of removing it, and I only had to weld in small patch panels for about 1/2 the perimeter of the opening.

Of course the inner sheet metal must be cleaned to remove undercoating and paint, to allow the patch panels to weld on, as well as the outer fender sections (for both the patch panels and the flare sections; and clean off the edge of the donor flare sections, too). This is dirty, nasty work which we did with 3 tools: the MBX crud buster, a 90? die grinder and a 3" (medium) ScotchBrite pad, and a 4" angle grinder with a 40 grit flapper disc. The electric angle grinder worked best but you have to watch out for heat or you'll warp the sheet metal and make for more bodywork later. We must have removed 12 pounds of mud from the car during all of this work - it was frakkin everywhere. And when welding in these patch panels you have to have the rear interior completely removed, of course. The undercoating you can't get to still catches fire constantly as you weld. Paul worked "fire marshal duty" with a small squirt bottle of water, and we had a real fire extinguisher handy.

Once the inner and outer sheet metal was tied back together with these 20 gauge sheet metal patches (stitch welded with a MIG, at ~1/4" intervals, with .024" wire, on low amperage) we could start on the actual flares. We cut up a donor pair of fenders (you want to use '99-01 BMW 328 sedan front fenders; we used coupe fenders which have a longer trim indention we had to fix via hammer/dolly work) and test fit them until the front of the car's fender arch lined up with the new flare section as close as possible. Yes, the '95 Impreza is made for a much smaller diameter tire, but since we were going to much taller 275/35/18s we had to "open up the arch", and the BMW fender sections worked great. We'll match the rear of the bumper cover opening with a few quick trims with the air saw, later (that ABS plastic cuts like butter so go slowly).

Welding on the fender flares themselves was the easy part. By far the hardest parts are the wheel/spacer testing, clearancing for bump travel, measuring, templates, inner fender structure/patch panels, and the metal prep. I spent maybe 15 minutes welding on each fender flare section. Slow, steady, skip welding about 1" apart, starting at the front of the fender opening. Paul held a pointed tip of a hammer on the section of the flare behind where I was welding, which puts the flare and the outer sheet metal in contact. We just slowly worked our way around, making sure to spread the heat and stopping to check the metal. We had very few fires to tend to during this step. The right rear had the added bonus of clearance around the fuel door; I cut around the door (using cardboard template I made with a "hand rubbing" of the fuel door opening, transferred to the flare, then cut out - before it was welded to the car) and I'll finish that up with a small patch panel at a later date.

So that's the basics of the flare job, and it was a solid 3 days of work. We both had a number of hours into the rear testing/cutting/Paul's rolling & hammer iterations, then spent two 6-8 hour weekend days doing the final testing, cutting, patch panels and welding on the rear flares. The rear is essentially done, save for the small fuel door patch panel, some more weatherproofing (to keep water/fumes out of the passenger compartment), and of course bodywork. It doesn't need any more welding on the flare sections, but I might add 100% more than there is now. Doesn't have to be a perfect linear welded seam - which is a LOT more work. We also tested with an 18x10" Enkei RPF-1 wheel. We'll mount a 285/30/18 Hoosier onto that wheel and verify that the flares clear those also, soon (should easily fit). That's the wheel & tire package Paul will likely use for NASA TTS class Time Trial use; he gets a solid 200 pound weight break for using the smaller 275/35/18s in SCCA SMod.

All of this work makes a lot more sense when you see it on video. We took vids of each step and will splice & edit that and upload it soon. Look for that in the next post. Please wait to ask questions until after I post the vids (soon). Have been on vacation (Playa del Carmen + Chichen Itza) and I am playing catch-up here at Vorshlag on drawings/work, plus I have a couple of other project threads to update first. Patience...

Paul's turbo and up pipe are both back from getting ceramic coated at Swain Tech, so hopefully the motor goes in this week. Then we can at least cut the front fenders over the next 2 weeks, for the upcoming COBB tuning and test drive. We'll tackle adding the front fender flares at the Vorshlag shop after its running (that's relatively easy; takes 1/3rd the work of the rears).

Cheers,

 

[Fair]

Project Update for Feb 15, 2011: I had a busy weekend, working on Paul's Subaru project on Saturday and McCall's Z3M LS1 project on Sunday, but we got a lot accomplished on both cars. Here's what was accomplished on Paul's Impreza... most notably the engine is in!

My wife and I met Paul for breakfast Saturday morning while he had new tires put on his Tahoe at Discount Tire. While we were there we mounted up one of my 285/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires onto his Enkei 18x10 mentioned earlier. We went back to his place and I slapped it on the rear of the Subaru (see above). Fits great, no spacer - and that's with no camber in the rear (it needs some). With a little fender rolling it will have tons of room at full bump travel. The floor was such a mess I didn't feel like pulling a spring to check that. The whole garage was a complete mess. The car still needs tie rods installed, and the front fenders cut, before we can even hope to get it on up front.

I quickly realized one thing - Paul hasn't set foot inside his garage since we last worked on the car together late last November. Every tool we left out after that weekend long "fender flare thrash" was still on the floor, as well as all of the dirt, weld spatter, tons of used parts he needs to sell, and hoards of new empty boxes. Oiy...

Left: One of many sets of used parts we put in the attic. Right: After hours of cleaning, we had room to work

So we spent the next 5+ hours cleaning out his garage and sorting usable and sellable parts from useless junk. I took pictures of all of the parts he needs to sell (which I'll post up in a detailed "for sale post" later, and handle the sale of all of this stuff - mostly stock and aftermarket Subaru bits) while we put them away in his attic. Cut up dozens of boxes, swept out the entire garage, moved the car so we could have room in the front to install the motor, installed his wall clock and some street signs he's had for years, and on and on. Paul removed the VIN plate from the old dash, we pulled the Sparco race steering wheel from a busted steering column, stuff like that. It went from a pig sty to a squeaky clean 3-car garage with tons of room around the car once again. Ah, now we can get some stuff done!

We finally started the real car work in the afternoon. Paul worked for a while installing header wrap on the crossover and up-pipe exhaust sections and installed the turbo, blow-off valve, and some turbo oil lines. He also mocked-up the (beautiful) COBB downpipe he picked up to fit the GC, mostly to make sure we had everything installed the right way. This all gets installed for good once the motor is in the car.

With Paul on the motor I installed the new Certifit OEM replacement right front fender, replacing a mangled and ugly green original fender. Then I swapped out the Vorshlag GD main camber plate portions (always meant to be temporary) for a pair of the all new "high caster" Vorshlag GC camber plates. This set-up orients the camber slots in the right direction, and the new HC design adds a good bit more positive caster up top to supplement the added caster at the bushings below. Looks great, very strong, and the caster is maximized perfectly; there's about .025" of room from the inboard camber adjustment bolt to the strut tower ring, so its got all the caster it can get up top. Plenty of max negative camber and total camber adjustment range, too.

Once I wrapped up those two little projects I helped Paul finally get this lump off the engine stand. Installed the pretty Fidanza aluminum flywheel and aftermarket pressure plate (both balanced to the new motor/crank), but he chose to use an old STi clutch disc. Some weird logic about an organic disc having more consistent (Pro Solo) launches with more clamping force from the pp. I dunno, it sounds kooky to put in a used disc into an all new set-up like this, to me. What do I know - I am not really a die-hard a Subaru guy. I don't have the Scooby hat, for one.

Once we got the flywheel torqued and the disc and pressure plate installed (hey Paul - buy a factory shop manual so we don't have to wade through internet forums looking for the proper torque settings, please) and the clutch alignment tool lined up, we hauled the chained up motor over tot he car for the motor installation. The trans was already in the car connected to the drivetrain, but the front crossmember was filthy, so I cleaned that to "shining". Still the car had no connected e-brake, no shifter installed, and no clutch hydraulics. Hmm, I'd sure like to have a way to put it into/out of gear, to hold the drive wheels via the e-brake, and a way to engage/disengage the clutch. I've stabbed many a trans and all of those things being hooked up always help... but what do I know - I'm not a Subaru guy.

Well Paul had never stabbed a Subaru motor, either, and we soon found out that two inexperienced Subaru guys was worth about jack squat. We forked around with that motor for an hour, and couldn't get the splines lined up. Several calls to experts offered up no obvious errors. It was well past 7 pm and we had both skipped lunch, so we called it a day. Paul joined Amy and I for dinner at the Purple Cow and we had a very filling and delicious meal.

The next day Calvin of COBB Tuning Plano stopped by and had it stabbed properly in no time at all. They hooked up the e-brake to help hold the drive wheels, and that was the trick. Color me shocked. Well, at least now we know. Calvin also heli-coiled the buggered-up, tapped knock sensor hole in the block that somebody back in October stripped on accident. So now everything can go back in place above that.

We still have some work to do before the car is finished enough to go to COBB for the custom wiring/tune and finish-up. All of the top end parts (intake, intercooler, etc) needs to be bolted on, and the power steering lines need to be hooked up before the motor is bolted to the subframe. Tie rods, clutch hydraulics, shifter installed, then things like the hood, the new headlight and taillight assemblies (and associated old-to-new car wiring splice work), brake system hooked up and bled, and fuel added to the car. Nothing we cannot handle in a couple of nights work. Let's just hope its not 10 weeks of waiting for the next work night! Since March is a crazy busy with 5 events already on that months' race schedule, we're trying to cram in as much work on the Subaru (and McCall's Z3M, and our E30, and our Mustang) in the next couple of weeks as possible. And if we're lucky Paul and McCall can get their cars running enough to make some races this year!

Meanwhile, in case the Subaru project gets bogged down further, Paul has his brand new 2011 Mustang GT to play with at track events. He bought it in January and loves it - this car is his new daily driver (the '08 STi is, sadly, gone bye-bye). The GT has the optional 14" Brembo brake package and we're going to install some Eibach springs and Vorshlag plates on it this week, and he can then have fun with it in NASA Time Trial TTB class for a bit. The Subaru's 18x10" Enkei's bolt up to the '11 GT (we're testing them here this week on the Vorshlag '11 GT), so that set of wheels could do double duty on both cars. Once the Subaru is running the GT will likely just go back to just DD status, but at least its a running, fast, reliable car he can take on track with little effort for the short term. Even the stock brake pads are solid, so all he really needs for it is a real set of tires and more negative camber, to keep the tires from eating themselves.

Until next time...

 

[Fair]

Project Update for April 2, 2011: I had this past Saturday open - well, after stopping by the Dallas Cars & Coffee show (pictures here) and then looking at a new trailer across town, so I scheduled half the day to work on Paul's Subaru. It had been 6 weeks since my last chance to stop by and help out on the Subaru project, but Paul had knocked out a number of things in that time. I'll touch on those updates then get to the work we did the rest of this Saturday.

The picture at left is the Enkei PF-01 we ordered for our Mustang. It is an 18x10.5" ET38 (7.2" B.S.) with a Hoosier 285/30/18 mounted for testing. Paul borrowed this a week ago and slapped it on the front of the Subaru... it fit perfectly without a spacer. Turns lock to lock with plenty of room. Sticks out about 1 inch, but the flare will more than cover that. Too bad it weighs 22 lbs. Still, its worth a look if he wants to use a wider 295 or 315mm autocross tire. Paul just picked up a 315/30/18 Hoosier yesterday to test with on the Mustang, so we'll see it on this wheel soon. At right is some Bondo work. Another friend of Paul's is a body man and had stopped by to help smooth out one of the rear fender flares. The LR flare is almost done, just needs a little more mud and smoothing.

Paul also got the start of the remote oil cooler lines installed underneath the motor, as well as the line built for the Accusump, which is routed through the firewall.

We installed the Whiteline tie rods and got the toe "eye-balled" enough so the car could be rolled around before going to COBB for an alignment. Then we burned about an hour or so getting the shifter installed. Paul had located almost everything we lacked before to install this, and after dropping the trans down to gain more access to start the poly shifter alignment guide at the back, it was all buttoned up. Then the various transmission crossmembers were bolted back up (what a big mess of steel that requires).

With the shifter work underway below I worked top-side and removed the stock steering wheel and airbag from the steering column. I read the "how to" on the interwebs and managed not to screw up the "clock spring" mechanism so all of the OEM '07 steering wheel parts can be sold. Installing the Sparco race wheel and column adapter was easy; I brought proper screws that I used on another one of our Sparco wheel installs.

Once the shifter was in place we installed the knob and it felt fine. The 18x10.5" on front once again, just to show how much it protrudes. We put the COBB downpipe on, locked down the motor mounts, installed the new aftermarket transmission mount, and then got to the motor. The coolant crossover pipe was bolted on and then the intake manifold was mocked-up. There were several vacuum lines on the intake Paul wants to plug so that isn't staying on lone. He also has some fuel line parts to procure before the fuel system is finished.

Last we installed the radiator, now that Paul had rounded up the factory OEM lower isolators. The STi versions were too large for the GC holes in the radiator surround, so they were opened up and then slide into place. We need to make some upper brackets, but he has to locate the correct radiator hoses first. Finally I cleaned off the white board and we made one big list of items to buy (click thumbnail above for large version) as well as the final work to be performed before it goes into COBB for a custom tune. The list is as big as ever but its also more detailed than before.

Paul has already purchased almost everything on this list and its in transit so we should have more progress soon.

 

[BAD STI]

Y'all are making some great progress!

I love those Enkei's and Hoosers. That car is going to be quick as hell.

 

[Paul.c]

Looking good. Makes me want a project to tinker with.

 

[Fair]

Project Update for January 13, 2014: Game on! Paul's project Subie isn't dead - this '95 Impreza L / '07 STi swapped Frankestein Subaru is finally at Vorshlag. It is being worked on again, "for reals."



My last update on this project was around April 2, 2011, and in the nearly three years since that post Paul's Subie has had very little done to it. What happened? Well, you know how it goes... people get busy, priorities change, and life gets in the way. For me, mostly things got very busy here at Vorshlag after we moved into our new building in July 2011 (but we're already looking for a much bigger space). I went from a 5-6 day work week to a 6-7 day work week (and from 8-9 hour days up to 12-13 hour days) with too many races on our schedule (25-30 race weekends a year for the past several years). That left me very little time to help Paul wrench on this project at his house. He obviously needed some motivation...



Paul himself also got very busy - with work, with his side business, and with his other hobbies including competitive shooting. Paul even roped me into that and we've done a couple of IDPA shoots together, which were a lot of fun (but it gets expensive for the ammo and eats entire days). Paul also bought a '11 Mustang GT and started racing that a little, then got mired up in the Chump Car build with McCall and me. He did manage to bodywork one of the GC's rear fender flares that I welded on so many years ago, with some bodywork guidance from his girlfriend's brother, which you can see above.



Paul (with help from McCall) also built one of the oil lines that will eventually go to the Accusump unit, which is visible at the back of the motor in the picture above. It goes to a bulkhead connector on the firewall, which is the right way to pass a line through a bulkhead or firewall. We mounted the JDM market GC "Version 5" STi front bumper cover, just for fun, and I had all of the front lights installed at one point. And he got one of holes for one rear shock reservoir cut and the 2-piece grommet installed. We will finish the other 3 reservoir holes/grommets and mount all four with some brackets, underhood and in the trunk.

Getting The Subaru Here Took Two Years


This is what we found after we opened the garage and moved a LOT of stuff off the car. It was buried inside a cocoon of boxes

That's right, it took two years of me hounding Paul to get this car to our shop. I borrowed a key to his house, took my enclosed trailer over there, and we grabbed the car last week. The Subie had no wheels on it, no brakes, was covered in boxes and lawn equipment, and there were parts everywhere. The model of neglected projects!



Kyle and I cleared a path, got wheels on it, figured out the e-brake worked, and pushed it down his driveway and dragged it into our trailer to get it to Vorshlag. The front toe setting was about 3" out, so it didn't roll worth a damn and hence the "pushing down hill" comment. Yes, we make house calls, but it doesn't come cheap!

Small Amount of Work Planned

Our punch list is fairly short for this round of work on this project car. First, we are going to install a GD Subaru COBB downpipe. Then install some Titanium exhaust, also made for a GD STi. Then somehow make the two fit this 2 door GC chassis... Lots of fun.



The rear valance was trimmed and the (what looks to be MagnaFlow?) Titanium rear section of the exhaust was mounted, tweaked, and rotated until the best possible fit could be found. Its made for a GD chassis but mounted on a GC, so it is a little compromised - but it is SO light. The GD COBB downpipe needs a little tweaking, and is a bit too short to mate up to the GD rear section. Ryan started off by cutting the ball-and-socket flange off the back of the downpipe, which will be replaced with some 3" stainless steel tubing and a slip-fit flange.



Normally we'd weld a V-band onto both the end of the downpipe and the start of the rear exhaust, but since it is titanium... not so easy to weld. In case this rear section doesn't end up working out we want to keep it intact, because Paul could sell it for some $$$ and probably replace it with a custom stainless exhaust that fit better for the same money he sold the Titanium stuff for. The pictures above show the ground clearance, which we are working to improve. There is a lateral misalignment of several inches that will be fixed with a cut/splice on the downpipe as well. New hangers for the GD downpipe will be made to align with the GC transmission crossmember as well.



Next we are going to install the wastegate and plumb the bypass into the downpipe. We've gotten started on that. I already mentioned the shock reservoir mounting and seals for the chassis hole pass-throughs.



Last but not least we are mounting the 3 quart Accusump in the rear seat area. This car is being built around SCCA Street Mod class rules, so it has to have an "interior" but the back seat can be removed. Once this huge oil reservoir is mounted we will make -10 AN braided lines from the firewall bulkhead to the Accusump, then plumb in the valves (he has a manual and an automatic valve). Then we will mount, plumb and test his oil cooler and supply lines.



After all of this is done we will top off all of the fluids, test the systems as best we can, and he is taking the car to another shop (COBB Tuning Plano) for some final harness wiring and a custom tune. COBB is the premier Subaru tuning shop in the North Texas areas, so that is a smart move. They have also worked on these Frankenswap Subies and know the tricks to getting them fired up.

What's Next?

After it has the engine properly wired and tuned, maybe it will come back to Vorshlag? It needs a hundred little things to be perfect, and maybe we can tackle some of that here. Its all up to Paul, really. We will stick the front fenders and hood back on it, trim the fenders to clear the 275mm tires, at the very least. Paul picked up some 275/35/18 Hoosier A6s and has another set of 18x10" D-Force wheels we built the flares around, in addition to these 18x9.5" TR Motorsports wheels that are on the car now.

Lots to do...

Terry @ Vorshlag

 

[IGOTASTi]

It has been a long long long time since you been on here.

WOW!

 

[Grinder34]

damn.

I must not have joined when you posted last, but it was worth the wait! What a beast.

First, I'm so jealous of your job that its made me a little sick with envy.

Second, that's a killer car. I'm on my phone, but when i get back to a computer I'll browse the previous pages and drool all over the keyboard.

Third, with friends like you, paul's kinda an idiot for keeping that thing behind a bunch of boxes!

Fourth, if you need a new friend, I'd like to know where to sign up