I used to do all the coatings for crucial,cobb crawford and many other subaru companies I surprised to see and uncoated crucial down pipe..Let me know if you need any help with the heads or turbo

I'm hoping it's that easy...

There's a bit of bondo on the pass-front quarter. I'll dig into it a little deeper when I get all the paint off. No sense in doing it now until I know ALL of what I need to do.




I've got a great Subie guy doing the heads now. Just picked up a rebuilt VF39 turbo, so that'll cover me there. I don't think I'm going to bother with power-coating the snail. It'll be pretty hidden anyway. The downpipe is going to be shortened a LOT so I'm going to wait until I have it all welded up with the muffler flange before I have it ceramic coated.

From what you can see in that pic most likely it got hit with the fat black bumpers on it so the bumper and shock absorbed most of the impact. That's a good thing. That brace (slightly bent piece) is VERY strong. Doubt the flare would have lined up if you had a serious problem. No idea how to fix it though but someone will.

That's really good to hear Chris...and makes total sense. I'll just whack it with the BFH and keep working then.

In other news:

Ordered enough wire to re-make the entire harness.
Working on finding a radiator that'll let me add a space-saver spare.
Picking up the heads tomorrow so I can get the engine back together.
Sold the engine and all the related pieces/parts, so I need to get that crated up and ready to move.

Get a 1/2" piece of plate, drill a hole though it, Add a small shim to each end of the plate, Insert the bolt through the hole and into the rear bumper mount hole. Slowly tighten the bolt. The spacer shims will allow for the bolt to pull the bumper mount past straight. The bracket will have spring back when you loosen the bolt.

Or if you have a slide hammer with a wide flat bar hook you could bump it out with that.

I may be in Cleveland the end of the week if things go as planned. Your still near my friend Pat's place right? Maybe I could bring my slide hammer.....

I am! That'd be great. (Also, if you're coming over, that'd give me motivation to clean the garage a little bit!)

I'll PM you my mobile number...give me a call and we'll coordinate.

This is more of what McMark would call "digital progress" but it needs done at some point.

These are the plates I'm fabricating for the dash and gauges. 1/8" aluminum that'll be anodized to match the Momo steering wheel. The backing material will be a perforated black vinyl, and these will bolt over that. I'm removing the heater controls, and hopefully having two discrete fans that will either be on rheostats or 2-stage switches for Defrost and Cabin.

C-Loop guards between the switches, and the toggles have green LEDs at the tip when "On". I'm also thinking about re-locating the key to left of the wheel. Still up in the air on that one though.

Nav is a TomTom unit that I have gutted out to have it mounted in the center console with an external antenna.

I'm going to end up with a 100% custom dash to accommodate the gauge cluster. Guess I'll fab that up soon too.

West marine makes some really nice switch plates.

I know...but for what I was looking for, custom is the way to go. Most of the parts have come in already, and I'm VERY excited to see what they look like when everything is together. I'm already starting to spec out the build for the dash. I've added a few plates too, and should have a very cool setup after all is said and done. I'm going to space the controls out a little more so I can fit the 1-2 knobs I'll need into the plates. The gauges should arrive on the 26th or 27th, so I'll be able to drop them into the test plates I'm cutting and get a good feel for what the rest will look like.

In other news...

I should have the motor back next week, and the trans married to that shortly thereafter. The V8 won't be out for another week, so I won't be able to test-fit until after that's out of the way.

I'm cleaning out the garage to make room for the tool-chest and workbench my Dad got me for Christmas. That'll give me plenty of space to finish off a few of the things that I've been struggling with.

I've got the body-shop all set to take the tub on Jan 15th, and they say I'll have it back by Feb 15th. In that time, I hope to have the wiring harness and all the other stuff ready to start bolting on after it returns. I've decided I'm going to re-make the entire harness. Since I'm going to have a lot of other custom crap stuffed in there, it may be easier to start from scratch.

All-in-all, I'm on schedule to drive the car by April.

Makin' a motor.

Wiseco forged pistons
Manley forged rods
ARP studs
King XPG bearings
...lots of good stuff.

And here are the heads. Freshly rebuilt/honed/floated.

Ops wrong form.

Gauges from New Vintage are all done. (Looks like he borrowed Andy's camera.)

Engine is almost ready to come home and meet up with the transmission!

Killer-B oil pickup and a new STi Oil Pan. (so I can use equal length headers)

Looking good Doug. Hope your in town next time I'm passing through.

Keep it up!

Hopefully we'll get a better shot of those gauges. I want to know if you can actually read the speedo past about 40mph. I've prototyped three digital dashboards now just trying to get legible speed information...

[edit: meaning, not obscured by the steering wheel at freeway speeds]

Well, I'll have them tomorrow or Thursday. I'll take pics immediately and let you all know. I had him do a custom Green LED light inside all of them, so it should look pretty good.

Got the gauges today. Lots of other goodies too, but I needed to be in the garage working...not looking at all the boxes.

So here's a quick shot of them. They look SPECTACULAR in person. This is going to be a great build!

Oh! Those are sweet!

They do look great. What's up with the 4 mph?

Good catch Mike. I hadn't noticed that.

I'm waiting for the Alcantara to show up so I can mock up a panel and see if this is going to work.

This weekend, I'm concentrating on getting this puppy stripped out and ready for the body shop.

Spent a few days this weekend hitting the garage. The more time I spend, the more rewarding he effort.

Interior is stripped out, and I gutter the doors. Took advantage of a break in the weather yesterday and soda-blasted the door parts. Take a look at the before/after. I blasted them for about 60sec, and then dunked in warm soapy water afterwards. Quick spritz with some WD-40 to protect the metal and we're jamming.

I need to take another pic or two of the interior. I've since removed the dash.

Sweet! Keep it going!

Got my wiring harness in today!

I wanted to re-make everything, and since all my gauges are custom...this was an easy $175 to spend!

Very nice...where was this sourced?

I found it on eBay. Actually, it was less than I said. $160 shipped.

http://r.ebay.com/bi3URr

The quality is seriously outstanding, and there are a lot of things that I didn't expect to have leads for. It also came with the relays for Hazards, blinkers, horn, and starter.

I was all set to order all the wire separately, but this was so much cheaper. I figured at the least, I'd have 30' of 20 different wire colors, which I couldn't buy for less than $200. This came with a modern fuse panel and everything else needed. The bag in the picture has pieces of 3" shrink wrap with all the circuits and the fuse number pre-printed so you can re-mark the wires after you cut them to length. What a time saver!

Almost don't with the motor.

Replaced every bearing on the timing belt. Replaced the water pump, upgraded to a bigger oil pump, new belt and guides, and I even got the shield painted "Grabber Green" before reassembly.

Nice! I love that green.
Modern engines have so much more flexibility for colors.

If I have so much as a blown fuse I'm going this route.

I'll take pics of the manual it came with. That has everything listed so you get an idea of what's there.

Spent the day getting everything out of the front trunk. I'll finish up tomorrow and then start working on the suspension. We're getting there.

I hit the garage today...and hit it hard. Spent 10hrs, and got a lot accomplished.

Got the trunk and good off. Removed the rear trailing arms, suspension, CVs, and then started on the trans and engine. I'm doing all of this myself, so I'm making use of the rotisserie I bought. I'll get the car down low, remove the bolts on the engine and trans, and then raise the car up 3' and scoot it out safely. Great plan I think.

Anyways. I'm going to put these arms and hubs up for sale in the classifieds. I have another set, and there's no sense in wasting these.

Ok...we're starting to get organized here.

Now that I have the gauges, wiring harness, and all the switches acquired, I thought I'd go through everything JUST to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.

Put all the LED switches, knobs, spacers, and bolts into baggies.

Got the power window motors, door lock actuators, alarm, loom, and heated seat pads in a box, and ready to go. Seat covers ordered from World Upholstery.

Oh...and I have a new pic for the DAPO Pictures thread. No clue WTF the thought was behind the silicone.

I also started laying out the rear trailing arms and had a question about the L bracket on the Tangerine 911 P-Brake conversion. Should I weld this to the arm or this bracket?

To give everyone an idea of where I'm headed, I mocked up the shifter and started to mock the ret of the dash.

Yes Mark...I know..."Digital Progress" doesn't count.

I have already made a few changes, so this is proving to be invaluable.

Anyways...enjoy!

looking good!

That's gonna be really nice!

That is going to look good.
Give a lot of thought to the shift boot as you go.
I was thinking of starting a thread on "show us you're cable shift, shift boots".
The problem I have is my shift knob and the top of the center console are very close.
I wanted the opening on the console as small as possible and I wanted it covering the linkage but that high up on the shift shaft you are getting full swing of the shaft. That is putting a lot of demand on a short boot with a lot of movement. I have still not come up with a boot design that I like. I may have to make my opening bigger and lower.

Kevlar Sexy.

I playing with Adding some height up front and drop the shifter down in the back. That will change how my center console will play out.

Tigre81 stopped by today to buy my rear trailing arms, and gave me a hand getting the SB350 out if the car. I COULD NOT have done that on my own. Holy crap is that thing heavy!

Tomorrow I'm going to weld some braces into the door jams so I can get it on the rotisserie and start making her do backflips!

Then I stopped by my motor builder to talk about the wiring harness and what I need to keep before I start rebuilding the harness. She's looking purdy!

Composite TGV deletes and the intake manafold look great. He should have everything ready to come home in another week.

Wasn't quite 100% on that green timing belt cover but it looks really good fully installed. Way better than leaving it black. That engine is gonna scream. Hope you got some good scratch for that V8 motor...Edelbrock INTAKE MANIFOLD...sweet.

Yeah, he got a hell of a deal on it. I didn't realize at the time I sold it...but it's all good in the end. No worries here. The hard part is going to be crating it up to ship to CA. THAT is going to take some effort!

It's all going to start getting easier now that the engine is out of the car. I should have it over to the sand-blaster by Friday. If not, It'll have to wait until Tues, but that gets me freed up to work on everything else.

Party time!

CptTripps,
Call Summit Racing and see if they have any left over crates from their engine program. You live close so you could pick up.

Van914

Worked a bit in the garage trying to make a brace for the doors and got frustrated. So I ended up working on some ideas for the upholstery today.

I'll get back in the garage tomorrow and see if I can get her upside down. :-)

Playing with LED Blinkers today. I'll do a different thread on them later.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbiDTxSqK0

Got into the garage and welded the tubes in the rear triling arms.

Made a template that came in 3.5" in the center, and then at 6.5", I came in an inch. Did that on both sides, and it worked real well.

My welds are getting better.

Those blinkers are bright. I'm liking that.

I'm using 1/4" smoked plexiglass to make custom lenses all around. Making my own baskets behind the plexi will let me use just about anything I want.

I loved that the Grote lights were rectangles, mimicking more closely the original tail lights.

Here's what I'm using for the front lights. These are almost the perfect size for the front markers, and with the right baskets, will work real well. I'm going to float these inside the existing baskets, and put some white LEDs behind it to use like Halo DRLs.

I'm gutting the plexi this week, and will get this mocked up so I can see if it'll fly. Who knows.

Here are the tail lights I used. Available at Summit for about $20ea

http://www.grote.com/product.php?product_number=G4502

http://www.grote.com/product.php?product_number=G4503