Reed's RSTi Project From Hell

you had all weekend here and didn't get it finished up......

 

Look what came today!

 

Well I have been home since Tuesday evening and have made some satisfying progress, mixed in with quality family time. I started to remove the subframes from the along with the suspension. Ran in to a bit of a wall when one of the nuts that is welded into the chassis broke the weld. So now the bolt is just spinning freely and I will have to do some surgery tomorrow and hopefully get the rear suspension out. I;m headed over the Harbor Freight tomorrow to pick up a "quality" $9 angle grinder for the job along with some other odds and ends. Here is the bugger that is giving me a headache:



The front subframe came off without any drama so that allowed me to drop in the turbo subframe some with fresh whiteline steering rack bushings in.









I also was able to started on the front suspension and tonight I did a little mock-up on the front right corner :wiggle:









In the meantime, I threw the wiring harness in and routed the brake lines along with the ABS module, which took some time but is looking decent.









I wanted to fit the pedals but the mount is not going to work. So, I need to find a GD chassis and drill out the spot welds holding in the medal mounting thing sometime soon. I think there was something else I needed but I have forgotten now.





It is really nice to flip the ratchet from "un-do" to "do". I really hope to have the rear suspension done by the weekend and have the diff and axles buttoned up as well. I'll worry about the interior fittings over my winter break.


IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO A GD CHASSIS AND YOU DO NOT WANT THE PEDAL MOUNT, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

 

And more progress.

Got the rear drivetrain pretty much buttoned up, just need to go back and check the torque settings. I also got the Gas tack/charcoal canister up, which was a bit of a pain but it got done. After that I threw the car cover on and cleaned up. I'll be back in a few weeks to get back to work.

Pictures:

 

More updates. Put the sound deadening in, did some serious work with the dash beam and cut some holes in my firewall AND PUT THE REAR WHEELS ON for kicks. I will be needing some fender rolling and camber bolts for the back. Looks good though.









I'll be back to work tomorrow bright and early. And so ends the most lackluster update in the history of this thread.

Take care,
Reed

 

Coming along nicely... How much is this thing going to cost you when its all said and done?

 

Love your wheel choice!!

 

I love your paint! Looks so good. And I must agree I love your wheel choice. I love those wheels

 

Budget was around 15K and it looks like it will be a little over that once it is 100% done.

Oh man, the wheels look so unexpectedly good! I just kept them from my old STi and the bronze really works well with the grey. I guess I lucked out.

I'm really excited with the progress these past two days. I'm going to have to start actively looking for 04-05 wrx rear and a passenger seat if I don't slow down with the interior. Glass should be back in next week and I should be able to get the transmission and motor in too then. I'm also headed up to Allpro to get some RS pedals and possibly a few other odds and ends.











I swear the dash beam has been in and out of the car 40 times. This is as close as it is going to get on the STi dash. I'm pretty satisfied.



I also did some harness merging. Switched out the STi door connectors for the RS ones as well as the wiper motor. I'll also have to do the headlights, taillights, rear speakers, side blinkers and possibly a few more.













Take care,
Reed

 

I need to organize the first page a little better.

I managed to get plenty of work done these past days. I even worked until 6:30 in the morning yesterday. Interior is pretty much ready to be put together.

Pedals in, these were and pain in the old rear end



Blingity Blang



Dash is all ready to go



A word from the wise. The guard is there for a reason on an angler grinder. If you remove it to get to a stripped bolt head, you will slice through your nice, 2 day old gloves and make yourself bleed. Also, a 4 inch metal cut off wheel also does well cutting nylon and skin.





I started to put the rear end together. A friend helped me get the truck up and a bolted in the tails. The bumper is off to the side and just needed some hardware to mount the spats. I also threw in my camber bolts and got the rears to fit correctly.

 

looks good Reed, don't worry about that paper cut, just pour a little MEK on there and keep on going.

 

Looking good man. On that wiring merging.....I would've individually heat shrink wrapped each wiring instead of electric tape wrapped them. Done that in the past and it always works loose at some time or the electric tape makes a gooey mess.

Keep up the great work....looks like you've got a good bunch done.

 

I agree with Celticpride....should of heatshrinked each wire. The next best thing would be electrical tape with a small tie strap right at the solder joint. I have never had one come loose but can make for a bulky loom of wires.

 

Looking good!

BREEL - Are you taking notes on how to finish a car in a reasonable amount of time?

 

LOL I'm sure if you feed him some money he can finish his in a much faster timeframe.

 

You all are right about the heat shrink. I would have done that but I left all of my shrink in Tennessee and didn't want to go buy some more. Cutting corners I suppose.

 

nope, I'd just buy more parts that I want but don't need. if anyone wants to donate parts I do have a short list;

timing covers for AVCS
both AVCS solenoids
04+ AC compressor

 

Harbor freight has a grab bag of heat shrink and it's what 10 minutes down the road? Do it right the first time, wiring is one thing you don't want half assed.

 

I got some stuff done. Picked up the engine, well really I had to build it, which was an experience but I would have chosen to just go get it. Although, if I didn't build it my self then I have a feeling like it would never be finished. I also got the transmission in, rear axle 100% completed, Interior put together and a few other things. I have to run to the dealer to get some things to finish the motor and some items for the doors. I should also be able to pick up the front bumper.

First time on all four since November.







Still have some finishing to do on the center console + head unit.







We started to roll the rear quarters until the paint developed a hairline chip. Still brainstorming on what to do there.

















Take care,
Reed

 

excited to see this thing get finished man, coming right along!

 

Looking great man. Suck about the hair line crack on the rear rolling though.

What prompted the rebuild on the engine? Was the donor a bad one or this just more a being safe than sorry? I thought the engine was a brand new OEM longblock.

 

Goodness that looks beautiful.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. I was put under the impression that the motor was an OEM longblock, until I opened the oil pan. The rod for cylinder 3 was jacked. One new crankshaft, bearings and a rod later, we are ready to go. just another instance of not being able to do something right when other people are involved, but I suppose it it my fault for not being complete in checking over the engine before forking over the cash.









Take care,
Reed

 

Wow the heat marks on that one crank looks bad.

 

Actually they look good Subaru started heat treating the new cranks so that's why it looks so discolored. I think other manufactures like Audi and BMW have been doing it for a while too.

 

I totally forgot about that.....good!

 

only be concerned about the case valves and consider the rotating assembly as scrap when buying a Subaru core.

 

I updated the first post to make it more current.

The car started the day before I had to go back for school. Unfortunately I couldn't go get emissions much less a tag so I will have to catch a ride down to pick it up sometime soon.

I mixed up the fuel lines and had the return fuel line going to EVAP and EVAP to return, so about 30 seconds into it running, fuel started pouring out of the back of the car. A good and lost of swearing later, everything was kosher except for the leaking upper coolant line off the turbo.

No pictures though, so that sucks.

 

looks great!

 

Updates??

 

Are few and far between. I'm back up at school right now. Over spring break I put 272 miles on it, hot it aligned and registered before I found an issue with an injector so I found a set of dw injectors (the cc rating slipped my mind) that make sure any fueling issues are taken care of.

Ill drop them in when I get back in early May and hopefully that will be the last issues to address.

Take care,
Reed

 

Glad to hear man! Still waiting to see it in person haha

 

so reed.....regret selling the 05? lol

 

It works.

 

New wheels, tires and ride height. I think these are much better proportioned to the RS' smaller wheel arches.

Hooray for cell phone pictures:





Still need a grill for the front, just too lazy to find one. If toua is headed to the get-together tuesday i'll jack his or if anyone as one at caffeine and octane i'll pull a honda there.

 

Congrats man! Glad to see you got it running. It was fun to watch it happen.

 

Looks good man! Are you coming out to Caffeine and Octane? If not I'll make it out to the Tuesday Dinner.

 

def an awesome build. wish I had the time and resources to build mine from the ground up.

Toua I should be at C&O

 

Thanks for the words guys. I'll see you all at C&O.

 

Fog, frost and poor quality pictures:

 

I have yet to really see a Subaru around Fayetteville, but I'm sure we will cross paths one day. Great looking car, I've always wanted one of those bodies.

 

I'm up here in Tennessee for most of the year except for summer and a few weeks in winter so expect to see me motoring around then.

 

very nice build. great color choice

 

Replaced the torn CV boot. Cleaning the parts inside the joint reminded me of how cool engineered things are.





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