Project Phoenix: 05 Wagon Restoration

It's amazing how fantastic these things look compared to how terrible they were when I got them. In all, it probably took me 5.5 hours to reassemble them properly, and they'll certainly never look this good again...

 

Did you reuse bolts when reassembling? If not, got a link for replacements?

Do the STI Master and Brake Booster while you’re at it.

 

Threw in a low mileage WRX master/booster combo a few weeks back. I felt the STI master was overkill and want to keep pedal efforts down if I can.

 

Did you reuse bolts when reassembling? If not, got a link for replacements?

 

Couldn't find replacements anywhere, was forced to reuse. I paint mark everything, so i'll be able to tell if anything starts to back out and will monitor for leaks initially.

FWIW, in the sticky up top, by JmP6889928 about various parts, there are a couple of post about getting new nuts and bolts.

 

see post #128,

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/idea-web-links-saved-various-parts-219238p4.html

Edited November 26, 2019 by Max Capacity

FWIW, in the sticky up top, by JmP6889928 about various parts, there are a couple of post about getting new nuts and bolts.

 

see post #128,

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/idea-web-links-saved-various-parts-219238p4.html

 

Good source for fasteners for sure. However, the Brembos use torque to yield fasteners (at least according to Brembo), which you aren't supposed to re-use. Brembo won't sell them to you though, and pretty much seems to recommend that you throw the calipers out if they've been split.

 

It's on my project list to build an FEA model of front and rear STI Brembo calipers and actually back out the proper bolt dimensions and torque to yield the bolts and clamp the calipers together.

 

Nice to have the ability to use work resources on the weekend, also thinking of getting the materials lab to analyze what the bolts are made out of to eliminate that variable. Have a set of split calipers sitting and waiting for this to happen before reassembly. Will definitely post about it once I get around to doing it.

However, the Brembos use torque to yield fasteners (at least according to Brembo), which you aren't supposed to re-use. Brembo won't sell them to you though, and pretty much seems to recommend that you throw the calipers out if they've been split.

 

That has been my understanding as well; but based on my knowledge of the industry, this is more from a liability and service standpoint than anything else. There's no reason someone well trained couldn't safely rebuild these calipers. While it would be nice to have new bolts, I'm really not that concerned about the old ones.

Agreed, especially if you mark and check like you said. Only concern I might have is if you track the car - issue might manifest itself as a sudden leak rather than a backed out bolt.

 

Plenty of people report reusing these bolts and don't follow up saying they put their cars into a wall when the brakes failed, which is probably a good sign.

Well its been 337 days, but the wagon finally is off jack stands and back on its wheels. Since Thanksgiving, we've spent a bunch of time in the garage working on little things; installing some new wiring troughs, drilling broken bolts out of the core support, throwing the side skirts, rear wheel liners, and mud flaps back on, etc.

 

This weekend was the big stuff. We quite literally wrestled the S402 6 speed transmission into the car, got it mounted into place but obviously without the engine. We'll leave it resting on the crossmember for now until I source a motor. Front axles, driveshaft, and shifter assembly went in as well, though we haven't hooked up the wiring or the hydraulic plumbing yet... just enough to make sure all the gears are there with the unit in the car. After that, the newly powder coated Rota Gravels and PS4S tires went on and we dropped the car down onto the rack for the first time in almost a year. It sits pretty good as is, but once we drop an engine into it and install the interior, i'm sure we'll need to raise it.

Additionally... black friday obviously came and went... and I took full advantage. Bought a new tool box for the garage, as I've been living out of an awkward combination of 4 craftsman boxes that don't really match up. In addition to the new tires, I tried to purchase everything non-OEM I needed to support the engine install. I essentially picked up a full exhaust system; Tomei UEL headers/up-pipe combo, CNT catted downpipe, and a ProTuningLab exhaust to replace my booger welded stock midpipes. A Grimmspeed TMIC, Clutch Masters FX100 clutch kit, GFB BPV, TGV deletes, Group N motor mounts, and i'm sure a bunch of other stuff i'm forgetting was also purchased in an effort to save some money. I spent like $3500. I think that $25k budget to have a running/driving car is out the window... Good news is outside of an engine, turbo, flywheel and some associated hoses/belts/bolts, I have everything I need to finish the mechanical side of this restoration. Maybe we can keep it under $30k?

Subbed.

Been a while since the last update, mostly been working on little things; removing surface rust from the engine bay, installing JDM tail lights, attempting and failing to restore my headlights when the clear coat I applied had a weird reaction, etc. This weekend I got some more significant stuff accomplished. The driver's side floor boards under the seat had some rust showing, so i went through the arduous task of chiseling off the old sound deadening and grinding off the rust with a wire wheel. After that was done, I primed/painted the area with some basic black auto paint and threw down some new sound mat. Then the beginning of the black interior conversion went in with black seat belts and close out panels on both side. Only have about half the parts for this, but its a start.

 

Additionally, I installed Prosport Supreme boost and oil pressure gauges into the cubby. Using some helpful insight from this forum, I found a pinout for the clock wiring harness that allowed me to splice into 12V battery, 12V ignition, headlamp status and ground. I tested all the features/functions and routed the wiring into the engine bay, tying them up since obviously there's no engine yet. Now that all the under dash work was complete, I could finally reinstall the HVAC unit, which has been out of the car since the brake lines were replaced months ago.

Great job!

Sub'd

The driver's side floor boards under the seat had some rust showing, so i went through the arduous task of chiseling off the old sound deadening and grinding off the rust with a wire wheel. After that was done, I primed/painted the area with some basic black auto paint and threw down some new sound mat.

 

I have this problem as well and also plan on adding some sound deadening to my car. Keep it up.

Today I picked ~$1700 worth of small engine parts from the local dealership. Spent easily 3 hours checking off, sorting and labeling all 285 pieces. They've been added to my dining room stash of motor build parts. We're just about ready to put a motor in (which I still haven't actually purchased), and I'm hoping to have it running by end April/early May.

 

Yes, I'm over $25k without even purchasing a motor. As totally expected, this has spiraled out of control.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Chocoholic005

Sweet Jesus. I didn't realize you didn't have a motor yet!

 

Do you have an hours breakdown yet? I'd really love to go through and do all the under carriage work you've done.

 

 

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Buying new shortblock or finding a rebuild candidate?

Do you have an hours breakdown yet? I'd really love to go through and do all the under carriage work you've done.

 

291 combined hours, not including whatever I do today. Probably double that if you include all the time I've spent researching/ordering parts.

 

Buying new shortblock or finding a rebuild candidate?

 

Longblock ideally. The motor that came out has 203k miles on it, and I just don't trust a motor of that age as an easy rebuild canidate, even if it's just low on compression. In my mind, it needs everything checked and machined to be worthy of running again.

 

That being said, I am really trying to get this thing running before my girlfriend leaves the state for a year in July. I don't feel comfortable rebuilding my existing motor in that timeline, so a new longblock is the obvious choice. I completely realize that's not the economical choice, but really what about this build has been?

Installed new clutch lines yesterday, including a new bracket to replace the crusty old one. Did a bunch of other minor things, but nothing too notable.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Chocoholic005

Spent the better part of the last 2 days ordering everything for the engine. We're going almost 100% all new here; Type RA shortblock, MAP stage 1 heads with new OEM camshafts and new head cores, 11mm oil pump, APR head studs etc. Only things being carried over are the intake manifold/throttle body, wiring harness, 25% of the sensors, valve covers and the oil cooler. Couple of weeks from now when parts start to arrive, we'll start with the build up.

Severely sprained my ankle last weekend, which has really limited me, but I was able to get a little bit done. Painted and installed the headlight brackets, which of course required drilling out more bolts that had snapped during disassembly. Installed a new fuel pressure regulator, and new rubber lines. I went with standard Napa stock instead of the $100 (per line!) quick connect fittings. I also painted the flanges/hangers on the Genome mufflers as they clearly were not made out of stainless steel like the rest of the canister. We had to strip the rust off with a wire wheel, but they should be good now with a few coats of high temp. paint. They still need a good polish.

I mangled those fuel lines trying to get them off because I didn't understand what a quick connect was. Not only did I mess up my hand for two weeks, I had to buy both. That was a dumb lesson to learn.

 

 

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I mangled those fuel lines trying to get them off because I didn't understand what a quick connect was. Not only did I mess up my hand for two weeks, I had to buy both. That was a dumb lesson to learn.

 

Subaru, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put a second barb on the hard line basically preventing you from using the proper tool to remove them anyways. I had to sit there with a couple picks and screw with it for 30 minutes to get them all off... quick connect my ass.

Looking good! And you guys are misunderstanding quick connect doesn't mean quick disconnect! Still doesn't change the fact that it's a stupid design decision from Subaru

Well I tried undoing them at the Corbin clamps. I think it took 3 hours. When I had to pull them again I got them in maybe 20 minutes. Granted my quick connect tool is getting pretty mangled now.

 

I suppose twenty minutes isn't exactly quick and easy but I almost cried with how smoothly it went.

 

 

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Subaru, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put a second barb on the hard line basically preventing you from using the proper tool to remove them anyways. I had to sit there with a couple picks and screw with it for 30 minutes to get them all off... quick connect my ass.

 

Well I tried undoing them at the Corbin clamps. I think it took 3 hours. When I had to pull them again I got them in maybe 20 minutes. Granted my quick connect tool is getting pretty mangled now.

 

I suppose twenty minutes isn't exactly quick and easy but I almost cried with how smoothly it went.

 

 

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Didn't either of you figure out just to remove the fuel lines from the shock tower by loosening the screw type hose clamps...I did that when I pulled my engine. I think I talked about in my thread, the click here link in my sig.

Didn't either of you figure out just to remove the fuel lines from the shock tower by loosening the screw type hose clamps...I did that when I pulled my engine. I think I talked about in my thread, the click here link in my sig.

 

I needed to entirely replace the fuel lines because they were 15 years old and quite hard. Otherwise, this would have been the better option and certainly will be my go to in the future.