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CRedfield's - 2000 Impreza RS (Warning-Lots of Photos)

15K views 40 replies 15 participants last post by  viper0998 
#1 · (Edited)
Subaru Impreza 2.5RS Sedan

Current Look:




--- [ Modifications] ---

Exhaust/Engine
  • Rebuilt Engine (Approximately 10,000 miles at time of purchase, 6/29/2014)
Transmission/Drivetrain
  • LegacyGT 5-Speed Gears (Installed new at time of car purchase 6/29/2014 with 0 miles)
  • Kartboy Short Shifter
  • Kartboy Shifter Bushings
  • Whiteline Steering Column Bushings
  • Legacy Shift Knob
Interior
  • 05 WRX Front Seats
  • WRX Carpet (Black)
  • Alpine Headunit, Sony Amp, two 12" Subwoofers (enclosure)
Exterior
  • Coupe Wing
  • JDM Grill
  • JDM Rear Spats
  • JDM Front Lip
  • Amber Everywhere.
Suspension
  • Nothing Currently
Wheels & Tires
  • Unknown
Brakes
  • JDM 4 Pot Front Brakes

--- [Table of Contents] ---
  • Coming Soon


--- [Upcoming Plans/Wishlist] ---
  • Repaint/Repair all Doors
  • Momo Steering Wheel
  • JDM Fog Light Covers
  • Repaint/Refinish Wheels
  • Sound Deaden all Doors/Roof
  • Refinish/Replace interior door cards with ultra suede
  • Cobb Axleback

--- [ My History] ---
This is my 4th Subaru, and 2nd 2.5 RS. Links provided below to their various journals. My first was a 2001 RS which I bought stock and eventually swapped in a 06 WRX engine. After many rust repairs I decided it was time to sell it. I was also getting close to my girlfriend and needed to redirect some funds to an engagement ring for her. While still owning the 01 RS I bought a 2007 STI. I kept it stock due to having an extended warranty but boy that car was fun. If those two vehicles wasn't enough I was doing a lot of traveling for work and needed a daily driver to put miles on and haul computer equipment around. I picked up a 2001 Subaru Forester to use as my daily driver. Some time after the RS and STI were sold and I ended up with my Forester and a 2013 Jeep Wrangler. Until recently...

Previous Subarus:
2001 WRX-Swapped RS - MEMBER JOURNAL HERE


2007 STI - MEMBER JOURNAL HERE


2001 Forester - MEMBER JOURNAL HERE


--- [ Original PrePurchase Photos/History] ---
I was sitting in the waiting room at AndrewTech waiting for my Forester to finish getting an oil change and alignment when I saw this car come off the truck outside. The shops owner, Sam had just bought it from someone on the eastern shore. It had a blown motor but plans were already in place to put a rebuilt motor in it and clean it up for resale as it was quarter panel rust free. I didn't think too much of it then but as the weeks went on I thought about buying it more. Literally 6 days before getting married Sam and I settled on a price and I was the new owner of this RS. While the engine was being replaced I had Legacy gears installed to replaced the aged Impreza gears and a replacement clutch also. This would be my sound daily driver to replace my forester and my new project car to learn and modify again.






No quarter panel rust!






 

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#2 · (Edited)
--- [ Cleanup and Reconditioning ] ---

Let me tell you. This car was MESSY. I removed the seats, carpeting, center console, passenger dash, etc and cleaned them with Simple Green inside and out.

BEFORE:













After the seats came out, but before I started cleaning. I found more change in this car than I have ever seen before. I think I can actually buy a full meal at McDonalds with all this change.




Oh the things I found under the carpet...


Found this in the trunk, I believe this qualifies as vintage now!


AFTER:
With the parts stripped out, every inch and crevice was cleaned with simple green. I still need to do the vents on the upper dash and the clips around the roof but everything lower was cleaned up.

I bought replacement black WRX carpet off of a Nasioc user in VA and got that installed. I scrubbed and re-installed my rear seats. I gave the front seats a quick cleaning but those will be getting replaced with WRX seats in the upcoming week so I wasn't too stressed about those.



The stock shift boot looked disgusting, I replaced it with a basic black suede with red stitching found on Amazon. I also installed a Kartboy Short Shifter sourced on NASIOC.


Center console without a spec of dirt


Passenger side with new carpet and cleaned up dash parts


Drivers side with cleaned up carpet and dash parts
 
#3 · (Edited)
--- [ Brake Upgrades ] ---

I'm trying not to upgrade or replace too much unless it absolutely needs replacing. From the beginning the rotors/pads were on their last breath, and made horrible noises when stopping. So the decision was made to replace the RS Calipers with JDM 4 Pots. I found a set from a JDM dealer on ebay. (Ebay: JapanDirectJapanese) I ordered them on Sunday and they arrived on Thursday. The rotors were Brembo replacement rotors and originally the pads were Hawk pads but the wrong type were ordered. (DO NOT ORDER 02-06 WRX PADS!)

PARTS LIST:
  • JDM 4POT Calipers
  • Brembo Replacement Rotors (for 02-07 WRX)
  • Duralast Front Brake Pads (for 06-07 WRX)
  • Brake Cleaner
  • Brake Pad Grease/Lubricant
  • Brake Fluid (You'll make it rain when changing the calipers if its your first time)



BEFORE:
Just nasty, stopping was pretty terrible.






AFTER:
Words cannot describe how nice the brakes feel now. People compare these to STI Brembos and I can see why. The stopping power I feel under the pedal now is tremendous.







Size does matter :drunk:


Updated pic with the wheel on:


*A big thanks to MilesToEmpty for helping me with this brake upgrade*
 
#11 ·
Nice car, very similar to mine. :)
I can say to you as I have told some others; "please dont post such humongous pictures, because it takes like forever to load the page. 1600x1200 is plenty enough. Most threads contains 1200x1000. You can rather refer to your online picture data-base.
Keep posting.
 
#13 ·
--- [ Viper Alarm Installation ] ---

Well I finally did it. I've been talking about trying a project like this for years but never got really into doing it... It was raining a little today but I removed the front seat, laid a few pillows down and spent the better part of the day up under the dash. With the help of google and various subaru forums this was pretty easy looking back at it. Would I ever do it again? no. never. I'd rather pay Best Buy to do it and have it be there problem. :lol: But I did it.

I didn't remove this at first but after getting into the wiring I ended up completely removing the factory alarm and keyless entry. It wasn't really bad removing it and honestly if it had a working siren it probably isn't a bad alarm, it even had a starter kill.


It was a mess. Wires everywhere.


 
#20 ·
--- [ Red LED Gauges ] ---

This project took place over the course of 1-2 months as I gathered parts, broke things, fixed things, cursed at things, and overall learned a lot of things.

I wasn't really happy with the OEM look of the gauges. The green wasn't doing it for me.


So I took the cluster out, and began to disassemble it. (Looks so sharp with the cover off)


Originally I went the "easier" route. I replaced the bulbs with super bright LEDS (superbrightleds.com)



And then I used nail polish remover and millions of cue-tips to remove the backing.


And, of course, I touched the speedometer needle too much and messed it up. Almost bought a new cluster but I'm glad I took a deep breath, read up on it, and figured out how to fix it. (Feel free to post here, or pm me for questions... it can be frustrating)


After all of that, the brightness was still meh. The hotspots were annoying also.


I read up on this issue further in a dozen RS25/Nasioc threads and found 6inch surface mount led strips. I got a strip, cut it in half and laid it out inside the cluster. I removed one of the existing bulbs and used it as a pass through for the wires. I then used the connector the LEDs came with and merged it into the cluster light wires so the cluster can still be easily unplugged.

Here is a shot of the LEDs mounted within the cluster.


And here is a shot of the everything reassembled (2 months later) and lit up at night. I'm very happy with it, its bright during the day and super bright at night.
 
#21 ·
--- [ Light Up Key Ring ] ---

I liked how this looked in my old STI. I wanted to do this to the RS and give it a bit of new class. Found one on nasioc and used a prewired white LED (http://www.oznium.com/). I spliced the LED into the dome light wire on my Viper alarm. (soldered that in of course)

I think it looks really nice. Some threads said they were annoyed with how it would turn off immediately when the door shuts but that's usually when I'm leaving the car and I could care less. I THINK the Viper alarm keeps the dome light on when I unlock and enter the car for a longer period of time.



Another note, it looks great from the drivers perspective. But I've noticed that from the passengers seat it doesn't spread the light well and you pretty much see a glowing LED. Doesn't matter to me, looks perfect from any angle I sit at.
 
#22 ·
--- [ Interior/Exterior LED Upgrade ] ---

Putting all these posts together from over the winter really makes it look like I went LED crazy.

I replaced the reverse bulbs with LED and while back there I also replaced the dull rear license plate bulbs with LED.

Here is a photo comparing the two reverse lights, and showing the dull license plate bulb.


Check out that replacement! Bright as the sun when i plugged it in.


And here is a final photo with both reverse lights swapped out and the tags.


Replaced the dome light and Map lights with LEDs too.
 
#23 ·
--- [ Painted Headlights ] ---

After seeing WRXSHIN's Journal I had to do the painted headlight mod. Looks so good with amber corners.

Looks mean with no headlights or center grill!


Headlights, its what's for dinner!


My mini paint booth. It dried grayer than I would have wanted.. oh well.



Annd... I forgot to even take a completed photo. I will get on that soon.
 
#24 ·
--- [ The Incident ] ---

Which leads me to the incident. Long story short I stalled out on the side of 270 south in a snowstorm. I had to be towed and at some point after that someone backed into me. :_sure:

Stalled on 270. Occasionally empty like this but a lot of the time there were semi's and other vehicles flying by.


Towed away.


And this is what I got in return.


So I filed a claim. Insurance will be replacing my hood/headlight and repainting the aged front end of the car. :) While it is at the shop I'm going to repair all areas of surface rust, minor dents, repainting the faded wing and rear bumper, polishing the doors (repainting if necessary), repainting the mirrors, skirts.

I've also sourced a front lip, JDM grill, replacement passenger front fender, passenger mirror, and hopefully some JDM rear spats and will have those painted with the rest of the car.

So hopefully in 2-3 weeks I will be posting some amazing freshly painted photos of the restored GC. :)

JDM Grill, soon to be painted.


[Coming soon photos of gutted interior/exterior prepped for paint, just finished doing the prep work this morning]
 
#27 ·
--- [ Painting: Phase I and II ] ---

Phase I:
  • Insurance replaced hood
  • Insurance Repainted the front clip

Phase II:
  • All surface rust repaired and treated
  • Rear clip of car repainted (Wing/Trunk/Quarter Panels/Bumper)
  • Purchased and Painted Front Lip, JDM Grill, Rear Spats
  • Pulled all door dings and dents on front and rear clips
  • Replaced passenger side mirror, repainted.
  • Repainted side skirts

Phase III: (Within 2 years)
  • Pull all dents on all 4 doors
  • Repaint all 4 doors
  • Repaint Roof

Full Photo Gallery Here









 
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