I finally have an Impreza! I was still stuck on my FXT and searching craigslist high and low for a black 05 and kept coming up short. I decided to look at for GC Imprezas to see if anything good popped up and came across this black beauty in Samammish priced at $3400
The guy I bought it from had a shop and he was using this car as a service loaner, the body looks pretty good just a lot of dings
The tires are pretty new and the maintenance looked good, I got to see it on a lift and everything looked great
The tan interior is not doing it for me at all but it is in decent shape I suppose, I do like the accordion shift boot though. The car has just over 200k and looks as well as I would expect with barely a spot of rust, I test drove it and about pooped myself when I hit the brakes doing 40. When I picked it up yesterday I was still thinking I would just keep it a while until I find another Forester but on the ride home I fell in love, just really want to upgrade the brakes
FXT swap, rally suspension but not lifted this time
Before I got my Legacy I was looking for a black RS coupe and was always a day late or a dollar short. I settled for the Legacy and I liked it but all the while I still wanted an Impreza. Naturally, when it was totaled, I looked for a black coupe again. Finding nothing but crap I looked for a Forester and found a salvage title that proved to be a disaster. The only thing that could make up for that heartbreak is now mine
So happy I got an L almost entirely for the lack of sunroof
The body and paint is really good aside from the small dings in the doors and rear quarters
Why Subaru decided to put a sedan wing on a L coupe and no wing on the L sedan I will never understand
The amazing features of this car, it has this awesome tape deck, power windows and locks and a great enthusiast base! The best part is what it doesn't have though
It does have air conditioning which is always nice in a black car
Single stage booster, pretty much everything about the braking system is awesome except the calipers and drums
No EGR on the 2.2, cable clutch and no cruise control
Found one of the PCV hoses disconnected and fixed that real quick
Kind of wondering what I should use to clean the VIN plate since it looks so rusty
Not lifted this time, suspension needs some work though. The brakes NEED to be upgraded they are incredibly weak even in great condition. I'm going to put studless m+s tires on my braids and street tires on my Forester wheels to fit the WRX fronts and Legacy rears.
I took the headunit out of my forester and got that hooked straight to the polk speakers I've been holding on to. The plan is to use a small amp on them to take some duty off the deck, nothing crazy but anything is better than stock
Just test fitted the dvd player since the dash is coming out
The window switch was dangling right on the speaker so I tied it up, I am so smart
The rear deck carpet was held in by the window silicone so I got angry and destroyed it as you can see
The sound deadening mat seems excessive to me so it's coming out, you can kind of see the carpet that's stuck in the window sealer
Got the rear half of the interior out and put the rear speakers in along with the rear strut bar, I kicked up so much old dust my nose is hella stuffy today
The strut bar is nothing fancy I was planning on getting the mounts boxed first but what the hell
It looked to me like the lower bar was just to reinforce the seating but it actually is quite rigid. When I used it to shake the car it didn't flex at all, I can't say the same for the strut brace unfortunately
I took the side impact beam out but it's going back in, the legacy leather didn't fit even without it and my daughter is far too precious for the minimal weight savings
All in a few hours
I'm a little upset that one of the speaker leads broke on me. Now I have to break out the soldering iron and fix that, all the wiring for the amp still needs to be run... I'm thinking this car will be without an interior for a little while longer
I got a few more things from a partout in Everett like the airbag and center console along with the buttload of clips I'm missing. While the carpet was removed I wired my old 4 channel amp, like really old, I seriously got it in like 2001, and thought I would share how to get the wire thru the firewall hella easy
One seriously overkill ground bolt later and the amp is installed! Most of the interior is black now, I just need to swap the dash and get door cards for it to look legit
The speakers are Polk 55rms and there is no way that amp will over power them. I fixed the rear carpet by letting it get wet outside and laying it flat. I cleaned the tire mark off with oxy clean and I would have installed it but it's still wet. Well, that and I broke the lead off the other rear speaker and I can't find my soldering iron to fix it
I have an assortment of shifter trims now, the accordian boot which I think looks the best, a leather RS boot with a hole in it and another leather one with the fake carbon overlay on it. I did like the RS knob better though so I'm gonna use it
FXT wheels and tires totally fit! 215/60-16's and they barely clear in the rear but no rubbing
I tried to fix this broken speaker terminal
It worked but when I installed it I didn't know about the amp problems so I assumed it was broken for good
When I went to plug it in and try it I noticed the other rear speaker wasn't moving at all. The cone was seized and just the tweeter was putting out sound. The two rear speakers I assumed were toast so I went looking for replacements. I ended up getting a cheap set of Pioneer 35W 3 ways to go up front and I discovered that the speaker fix actually worked and it was the amp that sucks. I tried putting it in 2 channel mode because I thought the right input was just bad but it turns out that channel is jacked up regardless. So I did the next best thing and I'm running the rear speakers at 2 ohms on the left channel. They were way louder than the fronts though so I switched on the low pass filter and the stereo sounds great. Later I came home and my RS rear seat belts had arrived courtesy of Mike, thanks buddy. After getting all that installed proper I noticed I forgot about the rear carpet plugs
I also took the time to install the LED panel dome lights
Yesterday I took the wheels in to get tires swapped, haven't seen the inside of the braids in a long time
Good thing the wife called in sick today because I got to use the Forester and do it all in one trip
Done and done
They had a mint set of blizzak take offs 196/55-16 asking $200 or a trade for my BFG's. I took the deal and mounted them on my FXT wheels. So I traded 8 tires for new Blizzaks and free mounting for 8 tires, I think I came out pretty well
The ancient relic amp finally gave up and I needed to get a new one, ended up getting this Kicker with perfect power for the speakers only $170 new. Then discovered the other speaker, the one I didn't solder, was blown and voice coil seized. I have a new set Polk db651 ordered for the fronts and I guess now I have a spare db650 in case another rear speaker decides to die
I ended up getting the Blizzaks, I'm probably going to be painting the wheels gold but it's pretty far down on my priority list
I tried to tackle the front and rear brakes today but after just doing the fronts I'm done. It's hot and I had too many problems with the driver's side and it discouraged me a lot. The awesome thing was that a random stranger stopped by to help. Well not really, he stopped to talk about suspension lifts and I put him to work. The stock L front bakes were in great shape but even in perfect condition I can't see them performing well
The WRX calipers from my Legacy need some cleaning up but the Hawk HPS pads are still good
The frustration begins with a seized slider pin, took a lot of grunting and swearing to get it out of there. Irritation level is growing...
I got it polished up nice, the pitting wasn't actually that bad. I used a gun cleaning kit to clean out the bore and the pin slides in and out smooth with fresh lube. There's a your mom joke in there somewhere but it escapes me at the moment
The disc brake hardware kits for front and rear, totally worth it to replace these. There was a burr on the driver's side bracket that wasn't letting the clip seat properly so I filed it down flat, irritation level rising...
I used some 120 grit to scuff up the rotors, cleaned the calipers and new hardware, fresh grease and red stuff should have these in tip top shape
I used a plastic brush to clean the surface of the pads and added the braided lines.
When I had my new friend push the brakes to bleed them I noticed hella fluid coming from the hard line connection. Tried tightening it and no luck, there was a scratch on the mating surface of the hard line and I had to buff it out. It sealed up eventually but not without getting me super irritated. Thankfully the other side went perfectly and I had no issues
The new Polks are a lot beefier than the old ones, they come with an adapter plate since they aren't drilled for multiple applications like the older models
The new speakers sound great but it sounds like they don't produce as much sound as the rear, older speakers. The s/n ratio is the same, all the specs are the same actually, but I hear the rear speakers a lot more than the front. It could also be the acoustics of the car and I sit really far back
My first day at the new store I go to unlock my door and go wtf? If you see your kids playing with your car keys and putting them in the house door my advice is to stop them. I got out my vice grips and carefully massaged it to the point it was accepted by the locks
I sold the TurboXS muffler for Forester that took forever to ship and I threw a huge fit about and got a WRX cannon. The transaction with rallysportdirect.com went smooth as baby buns this time around and I got an Invidia up pipe from them too
I started getting the motor ready to pull and taking the exhaust, top mount and turbo off got me really excited about the swap. After pulling a bunch more from the Forester I coated the new Invidia up pipe I got with my cannon
HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY
My Goals:
ID Vehicle: To simplify repairs/fixes/etc I'd love to know the cars history.
Main focus: handling, functionality, reliability.
End goal, yes the beaten horse "22b" exterior styling.
Technical Research (I'll post all my reading/research material links here)...
About Me:
I've been browsing this forum for a bit and finally have a reason to create a journal. My name is Jess and I purchased the RS I wanted in July 2013. I had a couple opportunities to purchase a sedan RS, but I wanted to hold out for a coupe. Being that I lived in Oregon, the prices for...
The story of this car starts in a galaxy far away and probably not interesting to anyone. It was born in Japan, sold in USA, been to Canada and later shipped to Russia. From there it traveled to Germany to hit the "green hell". It has been through many stages and transitions of identity crisis...
A forum community dedicated to Subaru Impreza GC8 and RS owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, troubleshooting, turbo upgrades, maintenance, and more!
lol
