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2001 Impreza L | WRX swapped | Rust repairs and weight reduction!

189K views 1K replies 66 participants last post by  bue car 
#1 · (Edited)
This is mostly the progress of my srp 2001 L coupe, but also some 98L and 2018 brz stuff.



Backstory:


I got the car in August 2011 with 100,500 miles. It was my first car, and it had lots of problems at the start. Almost sold it a few times, but once I read about all the swap stuff, I decided I had to keep it.

I messed with weight reduction, and fixing/upgrading the suspension while I gathered funds for the swap...lots of maintenance too...although the ej22 ran strong the whole time. It really was bulletproof. I had to have the transmission rebuilt, but was finally was able to start the swap summer 2014 and I got an ej205 in and running.

Fall of 2015 it was totaled (not my fault) and I spent a year slowly fixing the car myself with no collision experience. After tons of spot welds, test fits, wiring, and double checking......I got the car inspected and legal to drive again in November 2016, with a reconstructed title.

2017 and on will be dedicated to rust repairs,weight reduction, and self tuning.




Here are some up to date pictures, regardless of the different seasons:

















The goods:


ENGINE:


-USDM 02/03 ej205 (6/28/14)

-TGV deletes

-Grimmspeed catless uppipe, ceramic coated

-Cobb catted downpipe, ceramic coated

-02-05 wrx, Invidia q300 catback

-STi oil pan

-KillerB oil pick-up tube

-Avo turbo inlet

-lighter crank pulley, and no p/s or a/c pulleys

-Protune by Jermaine @TurboXS

-v3 accessport

-iWire merged harness



TRANSMISSION:


-'01 5mt (3.9) and cable clutch;
AndrewTech rebuild

-custom reinforced clutch fork

-'01 (oem) TOB, and pivot ball

-'06+ wrx clutch

-'06+ wrx pressure plate

-'06+ wrx flywheel

-TiC shifter linkage update and pivot bushings



SUSPENSION / HANDLING


-KYB excel-g struts (2/2/14)

-Eibach pro-kit springs 2/2/14)

-Group N front top hats (2/2/14)

-3/8 saggy butt spacers (2/2/14)

-18mm Outback rear sway bar

-20mm WRX wagon front sway bar (6/28/14)

-JDM GC8 crossmember (6/28/14)

-Whiteline steering rack bushings (6/28/14)

-Whiteline rear endlink bushings

-group N front-of-trailing arm bushings

-power steering delete



WEIGHT REDUCTION&DISTRIBUTION:


-Currently about 2690~ lbs.
-***Was at 2590, but the turbo engine swap and a full-size spare added well over 100 lbs back.

-Aluminum jdm gc8 hood

-USDM front bumper beam cut in half

-deleted a/c

-deleted power steering

-washer fluid tank relocated to trunk

-battery relocated to back seat

-removed hunk of metal from glovebox and under dash

-removed most sound deadening

-stripped trunk besides spare

-lighter wheels

-removed keyless entry system

-random little things. More soon.



----------



Here's the progress from the beginning mostly in order. I'm going to add in some dates/mileage later on. Bear with the potato pictures for the first few pages. I eventually got a digital camera, and now a DSLR, so the pictures get progressively better in quality.







Warning, picture heavy:







-Bought late August of 2011, bone stock.















--some actual wheels to replace the steelies and decent tires too.







16x7 with 205/50-16 Conti DW















--This is the oldest pic I have of my car, and the only pic from the beach driving I have left.























--Rally armors, which get used on a daily basis on PA's crazy roads :unamused:























--Homemade light bar that mounts 2 hella 500's























How it looked last winter:























--Polyurethane rear end link bushings







This is when I learned how hard pressing bushings is.....















--New outer tie rods, ball joints, and front wheel bearings.







This is when I learned to hate wheel bearings and ball joints......















This is a ball joint removal tool......mine were really stuck.















j
 
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#323 ·
Haha, love me some Chick fil a.

...but thank you all! It's been a long year of repairing the damage. Thank you to everyone who's answered all my random texts or PM's.....anyone I've bought parts from....anyone that's posted helpful info in the past.

I never thought the car would be driving again, let alone something I could fix myself. None of my friends or family really work on cars to be able to help me with this kinda stuff. So all credit goes to you guys.
 
#325 · (Edited)
Thanks!

The most annoying part of the paperwork was having to give them receipts for the parts I bought to fix the damage. So I had to dig through a year worth of emails to find invoices from parts I bought. Couldn't get everything because a lot was bought with cash.

...then, once I gave them the receipts they made me pay taxes on those parts I already bought. 6% sales tax so it was only like $80, but still really dumb.....thankfully I didn't even have all the receipts. :lol:
 
#326 · (Edited)
Out with the old, in with the...older?

Legacy GT is gone. Didn't want to....I love the Legacy GT's.....but it was time to get away from that headache.

Replacement is a downgrade in terms of engine/trans/brakes, but I finally found a clean Impreza and couldn't pass it up.

1998 Subaru Impreza L, sedan

-1 owner
-79,492 miles (79,500 after the test drive :lol: )
-5 speed
-99.9% stock
-no rust (well basically no rust)

I've been looking for another 93-01 for a long time. Finally found this one last week, about 2 hours away (110 miles) at a dealership. Has some small issues, but it's a very clean, and basically rust free chassis.









I found the car on Autotrader, at an actual Subaru dealership. Turns out.....the car was bought at the same dealership in 1998, and was serviced there it's whole life. Every service record and oil change is recorded.

It's not perfect. The passenger fender has a large dent, and the valve covers are leaking. The interior is the ugly brown/tan color....but none of that really matters. All easily fixable or cheap to swap out.

All that I care about is low mileage, clean chassis, 1 owner, and all stock.
Still has some original paperwork and the manuals too. Even though the interior is an ugly color, it's super clean....almost spotless.







Here's a few more iPhone pics for now. Gonna clean up the engine bay and wash the car again. Also have some stickers to remove from the rear bumper.

I really like the 98 fluted headlights vs clear ones on my 01. Might get a set for the coupe.

Just need a wagon to complete the collection ;)









 
#331 · (Edited)
Thank you sir. Nice to finally have 2

holy shite that is SUPER clean!
It has 1 very, very, small spot of rust just starting to form, but I'm getting rid of that this weekend. Besides that it's clean. Even the rockers are good!

Making the red coupe look bad lol

Driving to work is going to be that much more fun now!
The coupe isn't back to full daily duties yet, but I have driven it to work a few times already. Definitely makes driving to work at 4 am more enjoyable. Might alternate days between coupe and sedan to keep miles down.

The Legacy GT was kinda boring, but had absolutely no lag. Pretty much instant 15-16 psi because the car weighted 3400 lbs with the 2.5l and small turbo. Felt like almost like an n/a v6 :lol:

The Impreza (coupe) is definitely faster though. The Legacy GT was too heavy for its own good.


That was grandma's car haha.
It actually was an older couple lol
They took good care of it, but just let it sit a lot. Most of the time it was exempt from emissions since it was only driven like 4,000 miles a year.
 
#332 ·
HVAC in the coupe starting making loud noises the second I opened the fresh air vent. Drove it to work today and dropped the fan down during lunch.....just as I figured, leaves. :lol:

That's what happens when the car sits for a year. Cleaned it out and it's back to being nice and silent. Just have to clean the debris of shredded leaves from the interior now. :lol:

 
#337 · (Edited)
Nice to have a problem for once that doesn't affect that drivability of the car and was free/easy to fix.

lucky it wasnt a mouse or spider den..
I keep imagining black widows just crawling out of the vents by the hundreds, like a horror movie or something.

I normally takes naps in my vehicles during lunch at work, but not in the coupe anytime soon. :lol.

Reminds me I need to clean my fan! Good score on the '98, love the accordion shift boot. Miss having mine in the old OBS..
As much as I disliked the accordion boot when I first got the red coupe, I kinda like it on the new car. Kind of like a look into the past when the other car was stock.

WOW thats a clean car and low miles! Congrats on the pick up!
Thanks! I'm excited to have another 1st gen Impreza to tinker with. Hopefully I can keep it with minimal rust for a long time.

-------


Taking a few weeks to just enjoy the car before I go fixing more stuff again. I think the catless up pipe made a noticeable difference. The engine just feels more responsive than I remember....even compared to the Legacy GT's ej255.

Also, might be over-boosting a little....basically hit 20 psi at like 3/4 throttle the other day. If I went WOT it would probably be higher. Never really knew what the target boost was supposed to be, but it never went that high before.

I hardly ever go WOT or full boost, so I'm not too worried. The tune is very conservative.....never seen any knock in boost....ever.



Also got some new tires. Went with Michelin Xi3 snow tires again. 205/55-16. So I remember:
(176,800 miles)

Fake rally wheels are back on. They need a repaint badly but oh well.





Crossed over 177,000. Basically 100,000 more miles than the new car. 79,000 vs 177,000. Crazy.

(I know it's a random mileage, but it helps me keep track of things)



Found some parts at a pick n pull too. Finally some more 93-01's (and old foresters) so I gotta go back soon before all the goodies are gone.

$35 total:
-oem fender for the new Sedan
-fuzzy forester glovebox
-drivers lower dash
-extended arm rest
-grill clips
-washer nozzles
-oem hardware
-oem buttons/switches

My washer nozzle was clogged on the passenger side, so I grabbed a set off an OBS. Designed way better than the ones that were on the car. Works better than ever, even with the trunk mounted setup.

New on left, old junk on right.



Some of these interior parts will go to the sedan to slowly get rid of the ugly tan/brown interior. Some are replacement for the coupe.

Gonna drop the fender off to get painted white for the sedan, soon.



And got the ugly stickers off the bumper of the sedan. They were most likely put on the same year as the car was bought.....because they were really stuck..

Not perfect but looks better than before. Needs a wing.

(Before & after)




 
#340 ·
^^^ Oh yea, completely forgot about being able to look at those. I'll have to take some logs and read up to refresh my memory of how those parameters work. I'm always looking at the knock and A/F learning parameters, and forget about the other stuff.

I never saw it get to 20 psi before though. Even previous years in cold weather, the highest I saw was 17.
 
#341 ·
Weighed the coupe after work yesterday. The scale only goes by 20's so it's not super accurate, but it's free to use. Was hoping it would be lower, but oh well. I always used to go with a 1/4 tank of gas, but am doing a 1/2 tank now.

So:
-1/2 tank of gas
-full size spare wheel in trunk
-full interior

Current: 2700
(2680 with 1/4 tank of gas)

Previous: 2740
(2720 with 1/4 tank of gas)


So, total weight removed during my repairs was about 35-40 lbs. Even though it wasn't as much as I hoped, all of it was off the front end. So that's kinda cool:

-Aluminum hood
-USDM front bumper beam cut in half
-removed battery tray, washer fluid holder, horn bracket
-some other metal and brackets







More numbers for reference (1/4 tank):

2730 --> factory curb weight
2590 --> lowest, no spare wheel
2630 --> Pre turbo swap weight
2720 --> Post turbo swap weight
2680 --> Current (2700, with 1/2)


Eventually I'd like to be in the 2500's. There's plenty of stuff left to remove, so it shouldn't be a problem. Also want to get on a real scale soon to see the weight distribution.

....and because I can't resist a picture with both cars together:

 
#344 ·
Do alignment racks have a scale?

I called around a bunch of local shops the other week and asked if they can weigh cars, but no one said they could. All those places have alignment racks though...

They all recommended me going to the same place I currently go.....a gravel/stone sales building with a large scale. The closest place with a real scale is probably IAG, but that's a 1 hour drive just to weigh the car. The gravel place is only 10 minutes from my house.

I wonder if the highway truck scales are any more accurate than 20 lbs at a time. Probably not.
 
#346 · (Edited)
That's true. I'll have to call some places again to see if they do corner balancing, and if they would be willing to weigh the car.


For me, getting into the 2500's was a bit challenging- I gutted the car. I can still do a carbon fiber hood and light-weight battery to try and shed some more.
Yea, once it gets into the lower 2600's I'll start running out of stuff, but should be possible. Maybe mid-upper 2500's.

I'm thinking:
-cut more off front bumper beam (5)
-cut rear bumper beam in half (10)
-cut trunk floor, and trunk area (10)
-lighter battery (10)
-interior stuff (10-20)
-remove unused wiring (5)
-delete some evap (5-10)
-other little things (5-10)

That'll get me close to 2600 depending on how much gas....and maybe by then, I can do some tube stuff and afford some carbon pieces.
 
#348 · (Edited)
Ok so....who knows stuff about properly deleting EVAP?

Can't find much info on how to make it all work. Getting rid of the codes isn't my concern....just making sure the gas tank still vents correctly and stuff.

Haven't gotten **** done lately because of some annoying EVAP problems. Some are new, and some are re-occurring from years ago that recently popped back up. I just want to simplify the whole stupid EVAP system and be done with this nonsense.
 
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