OK, first post, but please be gentle with me....
Small bit about me...
Had plenty of the usual 70's/80's/90's fast Fords in the past, but gave up on them circa 9 years ago when I made the choice of an Impreza over an Escort Cos ( 15K for a 92/3 escos, 9.5K for a similar impreza, which I also thought drove better TBH) which lasted a few years before I had to grow up,get a house etc etc...
Got back into Subaru ownership 3 years ago, and have been there pretty ever since...
Anyway, I have recently been getting a bit fed up of a lot of the Subaru mentality regarding the marque..(if its not blue with gold wheels and loads of stickers it's not a Scoob..etc etc..
), and I have found myself lurking over here in the projects section especially, and found it extremely refreshing and good to see so many projects on the go...
So much so, that I am already thinking about returning to the marque, but more of that later...
I thought I would begin my introduction to your projects forum, with my ongoing rebuild of a 2003 WRX Impreza.
The car is 90% finished as of today, so will probably take a while to get all the updates, erm, up to date...
But suffice to say, that the plan for the car is fat arches, sat nice and low, torquey 2.5 engine with loverly 450bhp/450 lbs/ft for a hopefully great cross country car, with creature comforts..
It started off when I bought a 2003 WRX back in August 2006, which had had a bit of a fire..
As can be seen from the pics, it had got a touch hot, especially in the engine bay area, which had sustained most of the damage.
The interior also was a bit of a mess, mainly due to smoke damage.
Here is what I bought...
I am obviously quite lucky, in that I work in the trade, and have all the facilities at my disposal to carry out all the work myself.
Even though, this job is being carried out on a 'As I can afford it basis', so is being done in various stages, due to finances and time constraints...
First job was to strip all the crusty burnt stuff out of the car, mainly due to the toxic nature of the remains, and of course to throw it all in the skip...
All the interior, and the engine bay area were stripped completely, and the engine bay was shot blasted, to clean up all the metal.
This was carried out by a mobile blaster, who normally blasts buildings, for the bargain price of £50.00.
Well worth it, took him about an hour to do something that would have took me days to complete, and still would not have been as good.
Due the fire, all of the outer front body panels were scrap, and the some of the structural panels in the engine bay were damaged and would need replacing.
The front panels and cross members were also badly damaged, probably because of what would appear to be the attempts made by the Fire Services to open the bonnet at the time of the fire, so these too would need replacing, and have been removed.
Here it is once shotblasted, and with a quick coat of etching primer to avoid any rusting...
The inner wings were a bit distorted as well, so these were removed, ready for new panels to be fitted.
I managed to get hold of a front cross member set up, along with inner wings from a breakers, which not only makes the job a bit easier, but cheaper too
Here you can see where the new (used) panels have been welded into place, along with a few coats of primer, again to avoid any surface corrosion.
You can also see where all the seams have been sealed up, due to the original being burnt off.
With all the underseal protection also being burnt off, I thought it wise to replace this, so a few coats of stonechip have been applied to the required areas.
Next stage is to purchase new front panels from the dealers
, and get it looking at least like a Scoob again