Project Wagon II
 

Thought I’d better start a thread as I am now loosing track with projects.

Project Bitzer (555 Sti caged classic), Project Rusty (RB5), Project what the hell was i thinking (Clio 182 track car) and now... Project Wagon the 2nd.

So weekend before last picked up a blob wagon wrx SL with 158k miles on it, all the SL extras like leather heated seats and sunroof, but with a fatality in the gearbox area. Seeing as it was cheap and i had the old bug gearbox sitting in the garage i decided to call on fellow Scooby owner CJ for some assistance....

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After a trip to Worthing to pick her up, recover my old gearbox we set about getting her working.

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After several hours of hard work, especially from CJ because of my lack of mobility these days under the car, and a very large puddle of gearbox oil, oops, i forgot to put the bung in the rear of the box when lifting in, we drove the car out and home just in time to make it to the SES Xmas dinner.

Project Wagon II
 

So after promising I would keep her standard....... for all of a day, i set about going through my parts collection, which has been growing over the years.

Realising i had a lot more than I initially thought, i realised this wasn’t going to stay standard at all.

So first up some jap sized number plates, not sure about these, but i’ve not used them before on a project, so i thought i’d give it a go. Also the Hella horns came out of a box of bits i had.

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Then an sti steering wheel, which i prefer to the wrx momo and a standard Subary double din stereo to fill the big hole in the dash for now.

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Next up is the car had a cobra full exhaust with sports cat on it, but the back box was a dustbin sized unit. Having another full cobra system in the garage i swapped the back box for a more sensible unit.

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And an HKS panel filter, just ‘cause to finish the first weeks modding, oh and a set of new Goodyear f1’s due to a puncture. Oh yeah, and a hardrace gearbox mount and engine pitch mount. The 2 lower engine mounts will going in with a future mod ;-)


This week i’ll be fitting a short shifter and genome boost gauge.

Also on the list for probably next month now:

Alloy saloon lower arms
ALK and poly bushes
Hardrace rear arms set to saloon length.
Spec c quick rack and bushes
Sti r180 rear diff, shafts and hubs
Full brembo caliper swap.
Whiteline 24mm arb’s front and rear.

Got all the stuff in the garage to go! But might get new rear subframe as old one a bit cruddy.

Cool project

You certainly like to keep busy. Wish I had some mechanical knowledge. Would like to fit Hells horns to my 2016 Sti,but understand that it's not that easy.

Got to love a wagon project :ok:

Good to have you back in a Scoob again, problem is we all know it will distract you from sorting the other 2 now you have a working one.

Cheers guys, driven a few miles over xmas in it and it desperately needs a map tweek. I posted on offer on ebay for a Tactrix cable, but it wasn’t accepted, so i need to save a few more pennies.

Hopefully tomorrow will allow a wash and a few hours of more modding.

It’s good to be back in a Scoob.

Looks a good one aswell happy motoring.

I’ve got a tactic here if you want to borrow one for a bit?

That would be very kind Nick, can i take you up on the offer? Can pop down anytime, good excuse to get a run in the Scoob :-)

Should be around today/tomorrow afternoon then from Tuesday next week.

Cheers Nick for lending me the Tactrix, now to understand tuning a Scoob!

Project Wagon II
 

Quick update, progress on exterior non existent due to wet weather followed by cold spell. So decided to rumage through my collection of parts from the old wagon.

A trip into the loft to put xmas decorations away gave me a surprise, as sitting on our cold water tank were the black sti car mats from the old bug wagon, 10 minutes with a hoover and in they went to replce the black with blue trim ones that were in the car when i got it.

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Geared upto find more parts surprises i headed back into the garage of doom. Out came a sti handbrake with the red stitching to match the steering wheel.

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The old short shifter with an rb320 gear knob, alongside an STI gear surround.

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A trip down the road recently saw some oil burning off the manifolds and causing smoke to rise through the bonnet scoop, probably rocker gaskets need doing but it prompted fitment of.........

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Another rummage around and a kenwood double din stereo fitted to replace the standard Subaru item.

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More to follow once weather gets warmer.....

Think i've got a spare cupholder if you need one, will check if you need it....

Lol i hadn’t put it back when taking photo, i have atleast two here. Thanks dude.

Should have known with the amount of spare parts scattered around at your place! :lol:

Cool daily project

Not posted in here for a while, seeing as I haven't done anything up until the last week,

So Rocker cover gaskets needed addressing......urgently, several times I took the car out and thought it was going to catch fire as the oil burning off the drivers exhaust manifold was producing a James Bond esc smoke screen through the bonnet scoop.

Decided I really should get onto this as can't wait until I put another engine in, and seeing as the current engine sounds sweet for a 160k miler, I might, in true British Government style, elevate it's retirement age.

Due to back issues etc etc, I trusted this to my mate to do, over two evenings all done without drama, and was a lot easier than doing a classic, especially as on ramps you could atleast get everything to a comfortable'ish position.

Next job was a front inner drive shaft gaitor. Back to ICP for another quick order, a wrx 2003 to 2007 gaitor was deployed, drive shaft removed, old gaitor removed and...…………….. oh s**t! OK so Subaru had different driveshafts on 2003 year blobs, I suspect by the looks of it, carrying them over from the Bugeye. So new gaitor had three half moons on the inside to help locate and attach, we ground these off, celebrated at our ingenuity and had them refitted. Excellent...……….. until 2 miles up the road when I saw smoke coming from bonnet scoop and could smell burning oil once again.

A quick look underneath and yes, we celebrated way too early and the boot had departed its correct position quite fantastically.

Also while up on the ramps I was reminded about a particular nasty looking crack in the WRX discs, which if you ignore, apparently don't go away!

Car home, time for a rethink.

I decided that the driveshaft was just plain annoying the life out of me, so Rob (Such a nice bloke that he is) donated me two front hubs and driveshafts from his old 2003 STI, I am hoping these might be the stronger fatter shafts as well.

Anyway I am going to strip these down, recondition, add a spot of paint and refit, hopefully they fit my 5 speed Bug box for now, otherwise another upgrade will be coming sooner than the Wife anticipated :-)

Onto the brakes.
So WRX brakes are just plain rubbish, end of discussion, don't try and convince me otherwise, I have owned three cars with them on and quite frankly Fred Flinstone and is Addidas's through the floor could do a better job at stopping the car!

While I would love some sparkly over the top Alcons or AP's, I had to run on a budget. Looking at Brembo's I was thinking that most sets are long in the tooth now, many been helicoiled, others just looking like me, rough with age.

With a few members now running K-Sports and being happy with them, I thought this was a cost effective route, being about £1100, they seem very good value for money. SO I started selling parts off my Clio race car and built a bit of a fund up. In the meantime however, due to inflation and capitalism I discovered that the brakes were now getting on for about £1400, which caused me a bit of an issue un the fact that I was now not quite so eager in buying them and started looking at other options.

After a long look around, I had a couple of beers, looked some more, then thought how much I could sell the wife for, looked at eBay's selling policy, realising that I suppose it is actually technically illegal to sell the Wife, and then remembering that I do indeed Love her and might miss her, I decided to look at Reyland Engineering,

They sell AP callipers suitable for the road, but manage to keep the price down a bit by selling non AP discs with them, after chatting to a few in the know, I discovered the Reyland discs weren't as good, I thought about it for a few nano seconds and reminded myself this is a weekend road car with a planned output of about 400bhp, not 1000!!!! So off I went to steal the Wife's credit card...…...again!!!

Then a lucky stroke of luck this week,, before I ordered indeed brakes, a set of AP's came up second hand for sale, for less than K-Sport money! I await for them to arrive, but I already have the Champagne on ice so that I can rejoice in my excellent money saving decision while not loosing out on the end goal.


So after talking this much drivel, I'll give you an update in a week or so once everything is fitted, I may even add pictures if you up vote me enough! :-D:-D

Now to sneak the Wife's credit card back into her purse! Do all Wife's have a anti bag tamper alert or is it just mine?

Looking forward to the next installment, hope you make the write up as enjoyable as today's post :ok:

Interestingly the legacy guys are using Cadillac ATS Brembos which have the same piston sizes as the STI ones but come in around £250 a pair!

Also forgot to mention another mod i made recently. As i liked the Goodyear tyres i bought about 200 miles ago, i thought i would buy some more.

Originally on sti 17’s i decided that too much Trump on tv had made me go “bigger is better”. Off i trotted to recover the Prodrive wheels that were sitting on the RB5.

Got them out of the garage and as expected all 4 tyres were perished and needed replacing, so the four more, but slightly bigger 18” tyres were put on and i was sent on my jolly way.

I need to address this rubber fetish urgently as in the last two years i have purchased atleast 25 tyres which between them have probably travelled less than 500 miles!

The wheels are looking a little tat, but i am sure a sprinkle of Prodrive/Subaru gold fairy dust will be applied soon.

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Couple of good points on your thread; never ebay your Wife, unless really desperate and champagne helps with everything.

😂😂 great read!

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk

Project Wagon II
 

Quick update:

AP brakes arrived, turns out they are a 362mm Graham Goode racing kit. 362mm was on the larger size of what I was expecting and i was wondering if i may have to fit tyres directly to the brake discs, as there certainly was not going to be much spare space within my alloys!

So off to a fellow enthusiasts house I trotted for some assistance.

All the old brakes came off without much fuss and new brakes all fitted up, placed first wheel on and yep, there isn’t much room. Wheel weights removed they just about fitted!!! Yes i am going to have to try and balance the wheels using inner weights only.

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Onto next issue of drive shaft gaitor thats been causing issues, off into the spare parts bin and a suitable gaitor was found and fitted, this should do for mot until i rebuild some new shafts up.

Just airbag light to solve now and the. In for mot. Touch wood it will pass.

Looking great, how do the brakes feel?

only tested them quickly on a private driveway, but first impressions is that they are adequate!

Those fronts certainly look substantial, are you sticking with Brembos on the back?

Maybe brembo maybe AP not sure yet.