So last year i made a project thread about my car, and whilst i was keen to start modding/restoration, I was still using it as an everyday car. Finally i have it off the road and have started working on it the past few months. I've tried (when i rememeber) to take pictures along the way, and they will be added when i get home from work tonight!

I'm gonna list the base car i started with, then what i slowly did over the last year whilst it was an everyday, and then ill list the problems i have with it and the plan for the next year, along with pics of what ive done since its off the road.

The plan is to have a track ready scoob in 8-12 months time. Budget is around £200 a month (trying to keep costs down), and I'm planning on doing all the work myself.

A bit about me:

I'm a 28 yr old Engineer from Lytham St Annes, work at BAE systems.

I bought the Scoob just over 3.5 years ago, £2500 from Derby. Previous owner was a guy called Charlie Harper (Two and a half men anyone? ). 60km on the clock, and I had no idea what i was buying. No idea about Imprezas just that I'd always wanted one since I was a kid. Treat for splitting up with long term gf who'd hated them and thought they were chavvy.

So i guess in buying a JDM 98 STI i got pretty lucky.

The car came with

Standard red top 297BHP WRX STI engine
Full 3" system (Jasma but unknown make)
Defi gauges (oil temp, water temp, boost pressure)
I'm guessing a V5? spoiler
No idea on the front bumper - any ideas?
17" BK racing alloys with ditchfinder tyres
Some shoddy quick release kit
Rusted JDM Ohlins track and fast road





I blew the head gasket within the first 3 months, and it had a new engine courtesy of ScoobyTek Fleetwood, and this one came with 40km on the clock and ported exhaust headers! cost me around £1200 all in, including fitting me a decat downpipe whilst he was at it!

Now i started to read up about the car, joined the forum, and started to take a big interest in modding and performance. My budget as an apprentice was pretty horrible, and using it as an everyday it was hard to make decent upgrades as i couldnt have the car off the road for longer than a few hours!

First thing i did was replace the panel filter. Now i know this is not really reccomended in the classic subaru but i wanted a front mount eventually, so the filter had to go, along with the resonator in the front wing. In went a fairly cheap and cheerful RAMair filter with a elbow custom made from a local hose supplier.





Next my top rad hose blew, and luckily i avoided the dreaded head gasket as i pulled over instantly. New hose kit went on courtesy of Heavyset.co.uk



Whilst putting on gthe new thicker hoses i managed to snap off the plastic overflow connector on the top of the rad >.< new alloy rad ordered from jaspeed.co.uk








next my headlights went. found out it was some massivley bulky age old HID kit and the ballast had gone. Ordered a new slimline kit and removed the chunky old one





I then decided to take the plunge and get it remapped. Walbro 255, ESL board, and remap by Andy Carr at ScoobyTek Fleetwood.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was as much as i could do whilst using as an everyday. Over the next year i drove it to work and back and slowly little problems occured and built up till i finally have it off the road and in this (tiny) garage!





List of problems:

Rusted front and rear arches
(pic)
Possible broken steering column (wheel folds all the way up/back)
(pic)
CV boot split (os front)
Various other rust (suspension, arbs, track robs, trailing arms, boot catch, etc.
(pics)
Various paintwork defects





as well as the main problem of intermittent CEL coming on (knock apprantly, but everytime car is switched off then on CEL goes away so cant get this checked out at a garage cos whenever i need the light to come on it doesnt!!) , car not boosting until 6krpm some days and then others boosting fine at 3krpm.

---------------------

The plan is to refurb the whole underneath and shell of the car, removing rust etc before moving onto improving the power and performance. I have 740cc injectors, Fuelab FPR, Autobahn FMIC and a Scoobyworld 3 port BCS waiting to go on!

So i started by removing the front wings and replacing them with some non rusted from a guy near leeds , cost me £50 for both. Yes they are silver but the plan is to respray the whole car at the end

(new front wings on)

next is the full suspension and brake refurb. wheels off, front and back calipers off, front and back shocks and springs off, front hubs off, and front driveshafts off. I could just buy new suspension as this one was really rusted and dirty but theyre JDM Online Track, so im getting them shot blasted and power coated, and then refurbing with new rubber etc.





I will be contacting (or trying to) Ohline to try and get some OEM stickers for these.

Thats where im up to right now (4/10/16)

The springs are going in for blasting/coating this friday, same for driveshafts.
The front hubs are being split by my mate and Land Rover, if dnoe before Friday they'll join the springs at the coaters.
Front driveshafts are being split and sent off for coating also, with new boot replacements being ordered when i have money!

Will add the pics tonight and mroe work being done this week.

Hope you enjoy! Any advice is helped, and yes i AM following FMJ's threrad - its amazing!

Ash

 

edit: some reason it only lets me put 1 pic at a time on my posts - will edit more when i can get the pics on the computer!

 

So been out this weekend

haven't had chance to get to the garage - however my shocks are now good to go

 

The guys at Ohlins are ignoring my emails - so unable to get any stickerage for these unfortunately :/ any help on this would be good!

Just need the springs blasting and coating and some new rubber and these should be good as new!

The to-do list for the next week or two is as follows:

Ball joints out of front hubs (pain in the **** this i dont want to crack my hubs!!!)
Pistons out of front calipers
Front driveshafts split + cleaned out
Wishbone off passenger side (the outside bolt of the transverse bushing is STUPIDLY hard to get off with the car on axle stands, its like 2-3 inches long and i can only turn it 1/4 turn a time with a breaker bar!!!)
Track rods off

----------------

Once thats done its

springs
hubs
front shafts
wishbones
front calipers

all off to be shot blasted and powder coated (where possible).

-----

Things im ordering payday (Friday)

New rubber for front suspension
New CV Boots + grease kits for front driveshaft refurb
New track rods (cheap as chips , seems stupid to refurb!)

 

Here's some random pics - wouldn't let me put them in an earlier post :/




Anyone any idea of spoiler ?







Broken steering column??



So much room in this garage - not!!



Shocks pre refurb





First trip to powder coaters



Second trip next weekend

 

good reading keep it going

 

Flea - bay can be your friend at times.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ohlins-dec...oAAOSwtO5XIwtL

 

No boot in the Focus??!

Great work - love to see these classics restored. I have a v5 wrx.

Chris

 

I just dont care about the focus! gets treated like **** and always runs!

Update:

Weather been a bit crap so unable to get in and get the passenger front driveshaft off.
Still waiting on my mate to get the balljoints out of the front hubs and pop my caliper pistons out - he said hed have them done this week.

Im a little bit stupid so i've decided to finish off the mods needed for a bigger turbo by getting a fuelab FPR. Means i have FMIC, FPR, 740cc injectors, and 3 port BCS all waiting to go on the car when the refurb is done!!

Should have spent the money on refurb parts but couldnt resist!

 

Couldn't pass on the price of both of these ! Hurt the budget for this month :/




3 port boost control solenoid and a fuelab fuel pressure reg....

 

How much bro???

 

Less than £150 for both... fpr even comes with the gauge and fitting kit. Both brand new sealed

 

Time to pop the hubs out



Getting the final piston out of the front calipers was a pain I. The ****!. Blowtorch ftw



Next trip to powder coaters!

Need to buy 1 caliper piston as I had to ruin one to get it out. Will be adding new seas and bolts when they come back from coaters.

Also had a Massive bang on the press trying to get my wheel bearings out of the front hubs - so yeh I guess I'll need to get new from bearings too! The runners are decent tho so not too bad

 

Go for a stainless set of pistons From Godspeed. Comes with new seals too.

God luck with the project mate.

 

Arent all pistons stainless ?

 

Blow torch why didn't i think of that, took me ages to get mine out, what a long and annoying job.

 

i only need one! ill contact him anyway see if he can do just one .


@Jay haha yeh was the last piston as well!


just need to figure out what to tape up and what to leave exposed for the shot blasters.... will post in general asking for help as it probs gets more traffic than this post

 

I used a tyre inflator to get the pistons out mine. You have to do them all at the same time . I cut the rubber brake pipe and held the inflator onto it and used clamps to stop any coming completely out .

 

I had braided hoses so couldn't do that. Was a nightmare trying different ways of removing them. Didn't think about heat though.

 

when the brakes go back on it will be with braided lines ofc!

Pricing up my next order from ICP whilst the front suspension is all off in the powder coaters. Looks like this month will be a tough one!

front caliper seal kit
brake piston (x1)
front wheel bearing (x2)
track rod kit (too cheap to buy new so why not)
front lower ball joint (x2)
CV boot replacement kit (x2)

= ~£200

add onto powder coaters of around £80

and im looking at around £300, which is defo a lot cheaper (and more rewarding) than buying all new parts!

 

Transverse link bushes


Removing the original rubber bushes was a pain in the ****!!!
Powder coasters on Friday with a big bucket o parts!



Wishbone bushes

 

awesome, keep it up!!!

 

Subscribed.
Great jobs you're doing,always look forward to the updates

 

CHeers guys! Learning so much not just about scoobs but cars in general along the way - was ill off work today so had time to prep the wishbones n stuff for the polybushes after powder coaters tomorrow from where I'd damaged them taking out the old bushes




Before



After



Another after



Before



After

I know the ones on the outside of the wishbone are just superficial but it's nice to have a bit of prode in he work no?

 

So this arrived today





Will take more pics after I've eaten!

 

Thursday teaser

 

Shocks mock re-assembled. Quick question - the top hat won't spin all the way round anymore, just side to side a tiny bit , is that correct? Just a bit unsure at the moment

 

Been back at this the last few weeks will post some pics on Friday. Sorry for the long delay (8 months!) I blame it down to passing my bike test in January. Whoops

 

Progress this few weeks!





Managed to get weight on wheels for the first time in 6+ months!

sortedd out the brakes (caliper bolts were fouling) , bled the brakes from dry which tbh didn't take too long - will double check next time I work on it that the system is still sound but was a relief all the refirbished calipers worked

 

For the eagle eyes among you, you will see I have made a slight boo boo and forgotten to put the abs ring on before I pressed in the middle of the hub. I will be sorting this at a later date

Next task is to get two new tyres as two have somehow got nails embedded in them!

(oh and the top pic was me putting a leo vince exhaust on my 600rr . So simple compared to working on the scoob! )