[Mailman]

Great info!

 

[Aaronredbaron]

I am exhausted, today I drove it to our local car meet in Astoria, and I have about 70 miles on the swap now. It's starting to make some squeaking noises, might be some clunks or I don't know what all, but it's pulling strong and running great.

 

[bengeesup]

I am exhausted, today I drove it to our local car meet in Astoria, and I have about 70 miles on the swap now. It's starting to make some squeaking noises, might be some clunks or I don't know what all, but it's pulling strong and running great.

😂 Nice , the kid is so excited , made me laugh

 

[Aaronredbaron]

I guess I wasn't expecting this to go as smoothly as it has. So far I am nothing but Imprezed with my turbo monster. It is solid, I can't believe it, even with the manual converted steering rack.... So far it's more about trying to get used to its power than anything else (driving in wet conditions too, not trying to wreck anything being stupid here). I've had a belt squeele that made me feel a bit uneasy, but I think that was just getting the belt figured out, its a stretch to fit napa belt I found to do the power steering delete, and it stretched a lot! But I think It's just about there and I'm getting back to finishing the stereo install and making it complete, body work, etc....

 

[Aaronredbaron]

I am selling my Mini Cooper tomorrow. My swapped Impreza has become my secondary play car, and I can't afford to keep two of them. (daily driver is a 98 legacy) To be fair to this silly little British thing, it has been exceptional, and has served as my benchmark for my build. I still have a long way to go to meet it, but I feel like I can see what I need to accomplish to get there. Here is what the 2006 R53 Mini offered that I considered a positive feature and similar to my Impreza, or what I want my Impreza to be anyway...
-light- about 2700 pounds.
-boosted- The Mini was factory supercharged and is running a 17% reduction pulley
-Manual- Mini is 6 speed, although I wish it had a reverse lockout. Maybe someday I'll upgrade to a 6 speed in the Impreza
-close ratio steering rack
-very comfortable seats, good pedal placement for heel and toe
-HID headlights ( OEM on the Mini)
-although the mini was front wheel drive mine had an LSD so drives very well...
-consistent interior light theme with all orange lights (Impreza will be all green)
-Bilstein suspension
-powerstop brakes
-condition was very good, paint tires, etc...
-incredible stock stereo- harmon kardon

hope I'm making the right decision letting it go, I do love the Mini but I have decided it's time now that my Impreza is actually driving. I got a really strong offer on the Mini and he wants the OEM wheels, so I get to keep my FF1 Sparcos too.

 

[Aaronredbaron]

Broken window regulator, but despite being discontinued I found a replacement in the UK and it made it here in a few days.
Got it here if you need one. Subaru Impreza 2 Door Genuine LH Electric Window Regulator

Its running well but kind of cold with the huge koyorad, lol. after a long drive on a cool day in the rain at 50F the engine only comes up to 130F and the radiator is 68F, the heater core barely gets warm.... I guess I could have worse problems, I may have to block off part of the radiator or something for cool weather.

It pulls slightly to the left under hard acceleration, I need to get an alignment on it anyway, hoping it will also cure that issue.

 

[Mailman]

Where did you get the heat shield for the SPT intake? I've looked around and it doesn't appear to be made anymore.

 

[Aaronredbaron]

Where did you get the heat shield for the SPT intake? I've looked around and it doesn't appear to be made anymore.

It came with my donor car. It actually wasn't even installed, it was in the trunk, the intake was just flopping around, lol. I wasn't aware they aren't made anymore, the fit wasn't perfect but its close and much better than nothing!

 

[anthony12052]

you look like you live in astoria.
such the best feeling of hearing that swap fire up!!

 

[Aaronredbaron]

you look like you live in astoria.
such the best feeling of hearing that swap fire up!!

Yes, I live on the Washington side near Astoria. It is such a great feeling, you are so right! Its running really well, I need to replace one of the front wheel bearings, but running great!

 

[Aaronredbaron]

Wheel bearing is fixed, so much better! What a fiasco... I learned a lot and wasted some money, but all good now. I thought I would be smart and just get a hub at the junkyard, well they gave it to me with an axle, right hub but the wrong axle, and can't get that axle out (later ever with a 12 ton press). So I bought a bearing and a friend helped me press it onto the old hub. I didn't realize the hub was worn and it had a lot of slop at the end, but we figured by the time we tried to get that bearing off we would ruin it, so I wasted that new bearing bought another new bearing with a hub it all went back together fine and I finished the job.

Lesson learned; hubs wear out, don't mess around with trying to reuse them unless they can me measured to within spec.... At least I got a spare wheel that matches my set at the junkyard as well as a rearview mirror.

It's been one year ago today now that I woke up to this huge project sitting outside in the rain with a blown na engine, a trashed interior, and an auto drivetrain. Now its sitting in my garage as a running car with the swap complete, manual transmission, interior coming together and I'm trying to figure out paint and body (DIY or find a shop? I have struggled to find a body shop to even give me a quote but might have someone local who can take it in the spring)... I got a lot further, a lot quicker than I thought I would, to be honest! The car runs and drive very well. Super solid and quick and rowdy. Now that the wheel bearing is fixed I can take it for more, longer drives. Last time I crossed the Astoria bridge with it I ran into a sudden deluge of hail on the steep section of the bridge and it was full-on rally car mode time... I was't looking to do something stupid and end up over the guard rail into the river, but the car felt planted and solid when I was faced with sudden nasty conditions, and it just further reinforced my confidence in what I've accomplished!

 

[Aaronredbaron]

I found a matching '98 Impreza Outback Sport with a manual to compliment my coupe and be my daily driver. Its the same color and has the same wheels as my coupe! I brought it past 250,000 miles on the drive home, but it is in much better shape than my '97 Legacy I daily now. Far from perfect, it's perfectly fine for me for now to serve as a daily driver, trips into town and maybe up to the mountain.

And I was shocked when my buddy gave me these OG 2.5RS wheels for Christmas/my Birthday/ to celebrate getting the coupe running. He found these on FB marketplace when he was in town working a job and snagged them for me! 🤯

 

[Aaronredbaron]

I got my accessport working with a new cable, feels good to have that up and running, and I installed my sub. Its not a lot, its actually pretty reasonable for rounding out the system without being too much bass. I have 5 rivnuts holding the sub box in the wall. The amp is under the seat and I didn't want to screw into the floor or even put rivnuts in the floor, so I found two existing holes under the seat area I stuck rivnuts in for brackets, and I installed one rivnut in the transmission tunnel for a third bracket.

 

[Aaronredbaron]

More progress a little bit at a time. (I didn't rip it on the beach, this was a rare chance for some beach pictures, we had a deluge of rain and then it cleared up, and the sand was hard packed from that. I slowly drove it out there for these pictures, and then left. No sand anywhere after inspection when I got home. If I tried to do this in the summer I would have to drive through dry, deep sand to get a picture like this. I live a mile from the beach, and normally I never take this car on the beach. I have a beach basher dedicated for that!)

 

[Aaronredbaron]

I replaced the other side wheel bearing and then took it in for an alignment. I was nervous taking it into a shop to hear what they would say, but they just said I had eyeballed it pretty close, and that I had built a crazy sleeper, no other comments!

I still haven't ever driven it more than about 30 miles away from my house, and this weekend is going to be my first longer drive and car meet with a wider group. On Saturday our little car group in Astoria is going to join up with a larger car group from Portland that is driving to Seaside. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to start coming out of the woodworks with project cars this spring and summer. After the meet I might take it on one of my favorite drives near Astoria, this road is no joke, it is 30 miles of switchbacks with two hill climbs and descents, it is one of my favorite roads and I have not ripped it up yet in this car... Also have to watch out for deer and elk, I've almost hit deer 3 times there....

 

[Aaronredbaron]

This picture is from the Astoria Column. I took it to a car meet in Seaside on Saturday and Astoria on Sunday, amazingly it is still running well (fingers crossed) and my buddy with the Evo who always gives me a hard time about Subies... well he blew up something, we haven't figured it out yet, but it had a major oil leak all of a sudden and had to have it towed home.

I had a parenting moment/incident on Saturday morning when we were meeting up with everyone to head down to Seaside. My son noticed a mouse running around under the cars, and of course it ran up into my car, into the rear driver side wheel and along the control arm and up into the dam thing (perhaps that is where it came from? oof) ... and what does my son do?... He goes for a full force kick to the quarter panel, behind the driver side door. I was not quick enough to stop him... everyone is looking at me to see how I will respond... I just walk away for a moment, thank god MJ is legal these days here, say hi to my friends for a second... when I come back to open the door the driver interior door panel ripped in half. Of course it did.... but I didn't have the rear interior panels on, so at least I was able to get in there and pop the dent back out... so with the mouse still in the car as far as we know, we went on our way to the meet... double ooofff

 

[Mailman]

Ouch! If you act fast you may be able to buy this guys:

GM Driver side Door card

Immaculate condition. No tears or damage. $200.00 plus shipping and packaging if needed

www.rs25.com

 

[6DemonBag]

Congrats on all your hard work. Glad to see you having so much fun driving your car. The video of you and your son entering the tunnel made me smile...priceless!!!!

 

[Aaronredbaron]

Ouch! If you act fast you may be able to buy this guys:

GM Driver side Door card

Immaculate condition. No tears or damage. $200.00 plus shipping and packaging if needed

www.rs25.com

I wish I would have his add sooner, I messaged him and they are already pending. Dang it! Oh well, thank you!

I was able to repair the door panel, but I need to completely refinish them, they are garbage.

 

[Aaronredbaron]

Congrats on all your hard work. Glad to see you having so much fun driving your car. The video of you and your son entering the tunnel made me smile...priceless!!!!

Thanks! It's been a wild ride. I got my son a Tamiya RC car of the Impreza for his birthday and he built it and got it running with minimal assistance.