ScoobyNet.com - Subaru Enthusiast Forum

OK, after reading many other full project threads i decided it was time i started my own... i dont know if this is in the right section as its not a monster project.

As many will know, I was a difficult convert to the Subaru way of life :p even thinking of selling up soon after buying. but after a short time I soon converted.

Sorry if I go on a bit and this gets boring and drawn out. I did have some rather awful pictures of the car form 2004 with 17" Mille Miglia rims and blue calipers. Thankfully they have disappeared, hopefully never to be seen again..... edit that... no they havent, they are on the scooby site that hosts hundreds of pics but i forget the address... oh the shame!!! LOL

The only remnants of blue on the car when I took ownership were blue badging, and a few badly painted engine bay bits.

I collected the car from Bristol in early September of 2007, after seeing it advertised on pistonheads and actually being the first one i`d saw, and after looking at 20 or 30 other cars, flew over and bought 423.

the car was fairly standard bar a few up grades and a massive massive history:

AP Racing 6 Pot brakes
Braided brake Lines
Decat exhaust (prodrive)
ITG Panel Filter
Bailey BOV

the car also came with STi rear lights... these were fitted while I was waiting in Stranraer for the boat home... couldnt be landing at home with tango`d rears!!!!

460 miles later and over 16 hours of travelling we made it home

Below : (how it was when Ross owned it before the sale)

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Below : (photos from the original Pistonheads advert)

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Below : (photos of the 1st day home)

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After the initial expense of buying the car, once home I immeidately booked it into my regular mechanic for a full service, complete with coolant and belt change (all belts). Which fairly dented the wallet!

The front lip was also immediately repainted as were the replacement fog light covers, and restickered.

Most of the blue monstrousities (sp?) under the bonnet were quickly pulled off and painted satin black for the time being until the bank balance recovered and I could tidy it up.

October 2007
With the death of colin Mcrae, the NI section of Scoobynet organised a memorial run, attended by approx 70-80 cars, RB 423 of course went, and met a few other Rb5`s... namely kevin RB5 #420

Below : (Mcrae Run 2007 - #420 and #423)

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November 2007
To celebrate the history of the Impreza over the years, rallying magazine carsport held a photoshoot with many members off the Scoobyireland.com forum. Again 420 and 423 were paired up for a double page spread (sadly i lost a wheel centre a few days previous)

Below : (Ballyronan Marina, Carsport Photo Shoot)

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December 2007
With the addition of a few engine bay goodies in the form of a Carbon Fibre fuse box cover and aircon pulley cover, the engine bay was looking a bit better... still not great! The addition of an Alpine x001 Ipod only headunit also tied in nicely with the blue illumination of the dials etc... and I still cant find a replacement centre cap!

Below : (pro shot images, modifiedni.com and crusnig.com)

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Feb 2008
Ai Autosport RR day (298.5bhp / 235 lb/ft) not bad for a near standard RB5! - after the RR day the power bug hit. HKS BOV and P1 TMIC custom painted were added to the engine bay as well as having the standard RB5 wheels colour coded in 86F!

below : (AI RR Day)

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below : (HKS BOV & TMIC)

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below : (colour coded wheels)

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March 2008
the bug for big power has hit

Vf23 turbo from 22b STi
Walbro uprated fuel pump
SARD FRP
Blitz Dual SBC
Blitz 52mm Boost Gauge
Blitz BOV
Autobahn 88 FMIC
Apexi Intake

So much for keeping it standard!!! - all parts are being fitted over march / april, with much help and thanks to Simon (Mr. Sheen) without whom i`d have faced a massive labour bill!!!

All the RB5 badging was removed and refitted with the correct red badging - thanks to Kevin with RB5 #420 for the replacement badges :) oh.. and i also managed to get a complete set of centre caps off ebay! FINALLY!

Below : (td04 and vf23)

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Below : (boost controller fitting)

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April 2008
Pending free time means fitting of the goodies can resume! STi Carbon strut Bar also added... purely for the bling :) I had initially also removed the Prodrive cat back and fitted a Blitz nur Spec, but the thing was just too bloody loud. So Geoffo from Scoobyireland swaped me his H&S cat back system. Great system, well made and sounds lovely, car also goes a lot better with the 2.5" system over the 3".

below : (Simon fitting the front mount)

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Below : (Blitz Dual SBC and Alpine X001)

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Below : (SARD FPR, STi Strut brace, and Blitz BOV)

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Below : (H&S rear box)

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Below : (full engine shot)

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Below : (Larne Car show)

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May / June 2008
After waiting 6 weeks to get a set of Aero Guards painted, I gave up and sold them! The car is also now away to a reputable bodyshop to have a bit of a tidy and some early rust treated. This took me so long to decide as the car appeared to have never been painted, and I didnt want to risk going to some back door painter who would ruin a great car. Hence why i didnt use the bodyshop who were meant to paint my aero guards!!

Car is also booked for an ANDY F Ecutek remap on June 12th. This should then in turn make the car run a lot better and at around 1.3 ish bar of boost. with expected power and torque in the 320s.

Some bling added : finally got a stainless front panel cover... FINALLY!

pics to follow

below : (squishy rb5 courtesy of bioforger on Scoobynet, cuz I was missing it being at the bodyshop)

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had to post here as i`d too many images in the inital post.. :)

May / June 08 contd :

Late on the 11th June the car arrived back from the painters, sadly missing the headlamps and fog covers as these werent a priority and time was pressing on. Regardless, the paint job (Thanks to Terry Henry @ KRCR) is absolutely awesome! and having had a new windscreen fitted due to delamination of the old one, looks far better

12th June - Andy Forrest Performance Tuning day @ Murray Cars. EcuTEK remap carried out, car now running a max of 1.4 bar, with the turbo achieving 1 bar @ 2800 rpm. feedback from Andy was positive, and any questions I had were answered and explained in detail. I personally couldnt recommend Andy enough, absolute legend and the car is now 1000 better. Blew the BOV vacuum pipe about 2 miles into the journey home, but a quick cable tie courtesy of Scubbay soon sorted that

Stainless slam panel is also now fitted (thanks to grahames @ Rb5oc.co.uk), BOV relocated and the piping reduced in diameter and rerouted.

roll on Scoobfest this weekend for some proper craic and hopefully my headlights will be ready

Stainless Slam Panel :

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EcuTEK mapping :

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still grinning from ear to ear :D

best money i`ve spent in a long time!!!

the painter popped in today with a few photos of the bodywork (96 in total) so i`ll fire a few below and if anyones interested i can link to the complete photobucket folder.

http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/olli...nt%20June%2008/

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and another :

14th June 08

with the day being so nice, and finishing work a bit early, I decided to fit the knocklink and some of the engine bay detailing bolts and nuts (sadly i need more... lots lots more!!!!)

knocklink :

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Detailing bolts :

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small update - sorry for the continual poor ish pics, for some reason my phone (iphone) always has a haze? even when i clean the lense

Scoobfest 08 (15th June)

First outing since painting, still no lights, but no rust or dent on the rear :)

Excellent day, awesome number of scoobs.. roll on next year

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26th June

Headlights are in! looked really odd at first, but now i love em, car looks 110% savage with them fitted. Fog covers are also painted, but i`m waiting to resticker them when I get the chance :)

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JULY

quick july update here and some half decent pics!

beter front end pics with the morrettes! Fitted prodrive oil cap and battery tie, and sadly had to replace the MAF after only 8 short months! Reclocated the alarm siren into the centre of the bulkhead, and am looking at getting a custom cover made to make it less of an eyesore!

Fog covers refitted and rebadged :D

Tyres have arrived for the P1 WRC 18" Rims :D

and the best of the best, managed to get an STi Genome rear box so the H&S is off this weekend all being well and the genome is getting a new home :)

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Wheels where fitted for the grand total of less than 24 hours, but thats a story in itself, and they will hopefully be back on in the coming week, so i`ll be able to get some more decent pics of them on the car, so in the meantime the one on about page 5 or 6 is all i can give for how they look!

September

Oh my what a month! between a problem with the wheels (7 weeks in total and counting) and an exhaust arriving that didnt infact fit!!! I have actually managed something good tho. The STi genome exhaust was returned to the seller, and the H&S was swapped for a Newage Prodrive Exhaust which is a bit quieter but still nice.

Prodrive exhaust :

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The STi Genome Gauges had been sitting doing nothing until I gathered up a few bits and pieces. Luckily I came across a STi controller and Boost sensor on ebay, and also ordered a holder, so now I have the gauges in and working, all i`m waiting on are the sensors and sandwich plate for the remaining two gauges.

Gauges fitted :

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and with the paintwork finally settled and all the dents removed this week I could give the car a decent cleaning and take some better pics instead of the usual camera phone ones :

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ok, my last update fully was september !!! so here we go again, I`ve probably totally forgotten
something, at which point ill add on later.

October

Fairly quiet month this, Jonny (hhh1234) dropped me a message with an offer of a STi Genome rear box, so after not getting the last one, I jumped at the chance to get this!
So off with the Newage Prodrive rear box and on with the Genome!

STi Genome :

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November

Firstly, removal of all red badging and replaced with silver (thanks to The Boss @ rb5oc). Freshens the car up no end!

Badging :

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ICE was next on the list, with taking on new budget brand FLI at work I took the opportunity to upgrade and few bits and pieces :

Alpine X-001 Ipod / USB Headunit with bluetooth
Alpine Type R 17cm Front Components
Kenwood 17cm Rear Speakers
FLI Dual 12" Passive Enclosure
FLI Mono Amplifier
FLI 4channel Amplifier
Dynamat Xtreme

The build isn`t complete, infact I hate it, the layout is awful and it was fitted in a hurry, so it will be being removed in the near future and rebuilt.

Various ICE :

no pics yet... i forgot!

December

Even with the 18" P1 wheels in the garage their curse continued and the decision was made on christmas eve that they had to go. So up they went and went to a new home shortly after christmas.
After searching all over the christmas break for wheels, the decision was made to replace the P1 WRC rims with Revolution Milleniums in Graphite (thanks to Mr.Sheen for letting me try his, and to Rallysport UK LTD) again in 18".

Revolution Milleniums :

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The addition of a newage STi red stitched handbrake (sadly minus the chrome button) was a bit of an eBay bargain.. finally!

STi Handbrake :

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January

With the Revolutions on the car looked more like it was ready for a gravel rally, and desperately in need of lowerage. Tein S-Tech lowering springs were ordered up (to be fitted).

The Alpine X-001 Ipod headunit which had served me well was due for a change, so it was sent on to pastures new and replaced with a Kenwood KVT-522DVD 7" motorized touch screen.

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my first post is now apparently too large so i`ve to continue everything here :

February 09

the bellmouth H&S downpipe was fitted and the old regular downpipe has gone to a new home :)

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and most of all : thanks to mr.sheen and his magic spanners the teins are in! lowered the car lovely, but with the 8" wide rims, they just brush the rear occasionally and thats with full negative camber. Front is also set to full negative and getting the toe in sorted tomorrow to help avoid massive tyre destruction.

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and its out with the morette twin headlamps and in with the oem crystals for a while

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i think thats it for now, i`ve some other engine bits to go on then Simon(www.jollygreenmonster.co.uk) is going to map it in march