Not strictly DIY as the work is being undertaken by a motor sport garage, but we have committed to a rebuild of our pretty rotten classic wagon which has just got underway. Have a complete back story and some early photos and wondered if it would be of interest to members here? I always enjoying looking at other restos and seeing these great cars being saved and brought back to life.

 

Would be interested in seeing a project thread on it.

 

Thank you for your interest. Very happy to oblige. Back story and first photos arriving soon.

 

I loved my Wagon -- unfortunatley it was badly affected by Rust

 

Here goes with the back story and the first photos of the '98 Classic wagon resto. Hope it's appreciated in the sense it is intended.

Back in the late 90s mine and my business partner's tech PR business was doing well and my business partner and I, after the hard slog of a start-up, we decided - after 10 years of working together - it was time to treat ourselves to something a little better than the humle diesel company cars we'd been driving up to that point.

His choice an Audi A3 1.8T Quattro sport, mine an Impreza Turbo UK 4-door. We judged both still humble enough not to make clients think they were paying us too much, but interesting enough to scratch a performance itch.

Suitably enthused and business still good, a year later in 2000 we decided to trade up to the next better model in our respective car ranges, this time for him an Audi S3 with a few after-market suspension, brake and engine map mods, and for me a just-announced - saw it in the Sun newspaper of all places - Impreza P1.

All was good for another year and come 11th September the following year (2001) we both had a meeting with the same client near Basingstoke to talk about what else we might do for them. Driving home late afternoon there was a radio news story filtering through from the US. An aircraft - we imagined a small Cessna or similar - had crashed into a tall building in Manhattan.

The rest, as they say, is history. And in the following weeks and months, much of our income - drawn mostly from US tech firms - nosedived. Overheads were scrutinised and regrettably the cars had to go. We reverted to using our own personal cars and reclaimed expenses for business miles only. Mondeo man was back. But Subarus, as we all will recognise, have a way of getting under the skin and several years without tend to create a void.

So it was five years later that car adverts and dealer listings were casually browsed - just looking of course - and a main dealer 1998 UK turbo 5-door with just 22,000 miles jumped off the page and begged to be test-driven. The turbo whoosh, the surge of acceleration and the extra boot space for a newly-acquired Labrador were too much to resist, a P/X for the Mondeo was arranged and a Subaru became part of the household once again. Friends reunited you might say.

We loved and cherished that car, regardless of distractions like an Audi RS4 and others along the way, it took us to many places and to many adventures, concluding in my wife's hospitalisation and major surgery when it sat unloved on the driveway while I shuttled back and forth to twice daily hospital visits in our easier-to-park and almost zero running costs Smart For Two electric drive.

In a low moment, feeling much less than perfectly well in a hospital bed, she asked me to look at selling the Scooby. But I kind of knew, looking back at old photos for the potential advert, that there was more at stake than a simple car sale. There were memories too, many memories, tied up in that car. And so it was that on leaving hospital I bought her an unusual birthday present - a NOS rear subframe, that being an MOT failure point the last time around. With a new MOT secured, Scooby was back on the road again.

In the meantime a long-anticipated move to the inner Hebrides - my wife's birthplace and family home - was suddenly back on the cards, with retirement (hers) and remote working (mine) making it a tantalising possibility. The Scooby by this time was showing some fraying around the edges, especially rear arches, sills, and rear chassis. We were lucky where where we lived at that time in that just over the river from us was a collection of repurposed WW2 buildings, now housing specialist car restoration trades. One bodywork specialist could fit us in, we sourced replacement panels and had a notional booking for a month before we were due to leave.

Come the allotted time and our local bodywork man couldn't any longer accommodate us. On moving out day we left England in convoy, ailing Scooby in the lead and me bringing up the rear, replacement body panels and all our worldly goods with a removal firm following one day behind.

Once installed we, the two dogs and two cars settled in to an all-new island life. We had chosen a house in what many describe as the island's most social village with a vibrant pub, active community spirit and opportunities to volunteer for things, so enabling us to meet people and make new friends, much as we did in our last village in south Oxfordshire. But poor Scooby alas succumbed to the heavy road salting so necessary throughout the winter, resulting in an MOT failure due to heavy corrosion. Scooby then sat unmoving on our driveway.

A chance encounter with Rob at Bayview Motorsport on the island led to a conversation and his agreement to at least assess the car and its condition, and provide us with an estimate. But it would not be until after the 2024 Tour of Mull Rally - still the UK's only closed-road rally. With a stage start right at the end of our driveway, we couldn't help but notice no less than 8 classic Imprezas competing. This further hardened our resolve to get Scooby back on the road.

Estimate received from Bayview the car was booked in and duly delivered to Rob and as this first lot of photos shows, the corrosion was worse than we expected, but not beyond repair.

 

Not many with the original exhaust !! -- f

 

Afraid it was not always thus. About 10 years ago, when the original back box rotted through, I weakened and bought on fleabay a replacement with a tailpipe the size of a chromed soil pipe and an exhaust note to match. When other parts of the OEM system began to fail I was lucky enough to spot on Ebay a new original system removed from a brand new car when it was replaced - at time of purchase - with a Woodward and Bernstein (I may have the name wrong here) 'sport' exhaust.

 

Loving the wagon... looks like a fair bit of work!

Mine is about to hit the project channel as well... first portion of work will be completed by a company, after that I need to learn to do some this myself!

 

Ours is now a lot further along, but frustratingly still has a few bits to complete. Last seen wearing a new coat of paint, but still no MOT. Watch this space.

 

Not much to see with a MOT, but a fresh coat of paint is another story all together!