Figured I should post an update on the car since I still check this forum probably weekly to find answers to dumb questions. It's been a while, and a lot has happened.
Shortly after my last post, I picked up some Brembos. I don't think I've mentioned this, but I work at RallySport Direct, and they sold the stock brembos off of their 2015 STi with like 100 miles on them. It was a stupid good deal, as in I actually made money on this after selling my FHI 4 pots and H6 rears. The problem is that the rear calipers are basically impossible to make fit without a custom rotor or modifying the knuckle, it was much easier to buy a set of 04-06 rears and have them powder coated to match. Sexy.
This also meant that I needed new wheels since my 16" advans wouldn't clear. Found the guy who bought my Work CR Kais and asked him if I could buy them back, he agreed.
I hired a new mechanic to help me do stuff on the car.
Met up with some other cool dudes here in Utah.
And took it for some drives.
Kept modifying it with unnecessary stuff.
Including some winter wheels. 5Zigen FN01R-C in 17x8 +35. A little aggressive, but I loved how they looked. Note aggressiveness, it will be important.
Started having some overheating problems that I traced back to the radiator. I had a Forester Koyo Aluminum in the garage that was supposed to go on the forester, but with money and time being tight, I threw it in the RS. Everything lines up perfectly, with the exception of it being about half an inch taller.
I had to take a hammer to the under support of the hood where the cap is just slightly and make a new shroud. Yes, make, even with 3d CAD Design. Onshape is a FREE browser based CAD software that is actually really powerful. They even have an iphone app (difficult to design from scratch, but great for viewing or making adjustments to an existing drawing). I utilized the stock bushings and even had a spot for the hood prop anchor thing, then had it laser cut.
Problems didn't end there. Had a minor accident when a guy was turning right and then didn't to at the last second. :unamused: Broke the JDM grill and the hood was done for.
And I sucked the fender in with the tire while making a u-turn. Too much wheel...
And I don't have any pics, but the cancer came back. The quarter panel I replaced, and it started on the other side too. So like most of my problems I've faced in my life, I threw money at it that I didn't have. Wide body! There were 2 local guys doing wide bodies at the time, one was HT Autos, and the other was eBay. After seeing the two, I honestly couldn't see a difference, so I decided to save $1500 and go with eBay.
Remember that part about me not having money but spending it anyway? I decided to buy a house too. It came with a garage, which was nice to avoid working around my landlords to use theirs.
Finally had some time to fit the rears, which was surprisingly easy.
And then I blew my headgasket. I had been seeing intermittent cooling issues since I replaced my radiator, so I figured it was on its way out. Since we just bought a house, I really couldn't deal with the down time and money to fix it, so when it finally couldn't keep coolant in the system to get me to work and back, I parked it at my friend's shop and picked up an older legacy with all my spare cash. I hated patching the RS. I decided at that point that I wasn't just going to repair it, I wanted to do what I had been planning to do with the car for years. I told myself that it wouldn't be on the road again until it was swapped. This was August of 2017.
And threw my Works on the legacy, because I can't not mod.
That car lasted a whole 4 months before blowing it's head gasket too. Subarus blow (head gaskets).
We were in a bit better place financially, so we decided to spring for a car that I'd been following for a while. Surprised a lot of people when I showed up with it, I decided to buy American.
I bought this as more of an appliance to save some money, but I really have grown to love this car. I'm a big believer in electric power now. The Volt is 100% driven by electric power, and the internal combustion engine (ICE) acts as a generator to give unlimited range. Upper 30MPGs when driven on gas only, and as high as you can get when charging from the wall. And it's actually fun to drive! Instant torque, decently quick (for what it is), has all the features like lane departure, leather, bose, etc. Best of all is that it came with a warranty. Now get off my lawn!
Being the gentleman that I am, I let my wife drive the newer, nice car. That means that I get to FINALLY do whatever I want to the forester without worrying about what she thinks. I mean, it was always my car, but I still had to appease her.
So full fuel and intake manifold system, engine bay pieces, new wheels, coilovers, all the things!
I didn't completely forget about the RS, but it is hard to save money for a car that doesn't run. If you're in this situation like I was, I'm sorry. But it did get a few bits and pieces while sitting in the shop.
But here's the problem. The forester is fast, it looks fantastic, and it's a great family car. But I don't love it. It's a very good car to daily drive, but I haven't once taken it our for a drive up the canyon just because. I think the main reason is that it's an auto. It just lacks the raw control that I had with the RS. I miss driving the RS. Even with all the problems that it had, every time I was behind the wheel of that car, I loved it.
SOOO here's where we are. I'm done with the forester and I want to swap the RS.
If I wanted to sell the forester, because it's an auto, it's realistically only worth 5k. It has so much more invested, but the people who care about that want a manual. And a manual swap is more than it's worth. Can't do this.
Returning it back to stock would net me about 4k in cash plus another 4k for the car. Great, but that's a ton of work and hassle trying to track down stock parts. Then I'd have to turn around and spend 6k+ buying everything to swap the RS.
So I do what any sane and responsible person would do with a paid off and perfectly running car. :stupid: I'm going to use it as a donor. I can take all the mods that I have invested into it and put them to use on the RS, part out what I don't need including the body kit, forester specific parts, and everything else and make some money to complete the RS and maybe even throw in some extras.
I started it. The wiring harness is already at iwire, the RS will be getting professional body and paint work in a week. After all that is finished, I'm hoping to drop everything complete out of the forester and put it right in the RS in a couple short weekends and be back on the road by the first of August. I'm finally doing it. And I may have a couple surprises at the end.