[Suscaneer]

Hey y'alls, so I've been on here for a while, I own a 98 2.5RS coupe and we've had a very difficult owner/car relationship, so I've decided that it's time to move on from owning a coupe. I've come to realize that owning a house and driving a coupe do not work out well, especially when I am LIVING at Home Depot and Lowes. Yes I do own a truck, but thanks to guys like Carbotron, Hejjafish, Imprezya and 1055.....I've really been inspired by the wagon builds. So after much debate I finally pulled the trigger, I drove to RI last night and picked up a 97 Outback Sport Wagon. She's in halfway decent shape, she's an automagic (that's making a disapperance soon), 142k on the chassis, needs new struts, and the 2.2L engine is tired (low compression on one cylinder). This makes her the perfect candidate for a 2.5RS conversion. Basically over the next few months, I'll be stripping out the OBS, putting in many of the parts from my 98 RS and a massive part-out will follow along with the sale of my RS shell.

So without further adue.....I present to you, Lzzy.

So the gameplan for this car is basically to make a grocery getter than handles like a sonofb****, gets decent mpg and makes a respectable bit of power for an N/A car. I hope that some 2k grind cams and some tuning using a PP6 will wake up my EJ25D motor. I've also got some tricks up my sleeve for chassis stiffening ideas, I want this car to ride on rails!!
My thoughts are that if I'm driving a wagon, it's gotta be a kick @$$ wagon. She may have a "girlie" exterior according to my non-subie owning friends (they just don't understand), but she's going to be a rockstar.....hence the name Lzzy.

 

[Suscaneer]

So here is the list of mods to go onto Lzzy, parts listed in RED I am swapping over from the RS

Engine
EJ25D Heads Ported & Polished
EJ25D Intake Manifold Ported
V4 STI EJ20K Cams
STI Head Gaskets
EJ251 Shortblock
Injen CAI
Agency Power Lightweight Pulley
Grimmspeed 8mm IM Spacers
TB Coolant Bypass
Paranoid Fab Grounding Kit
MSD Coil
NGK Wires
NGK Iridium Plugs
AJW Performance EL Headers
Catco Hi-Flo Cat
18" Glasspack Resonator
Ebay Muffler
Rallitek PP6 Piggyback

Suspension/Steering
Eibach Sportline Springs
KYB GR-2 Struts
GD Front Aluminum LCAs
Whiteline Front LCA Bushing
Whiteline Rear LCA Bushing
Whiteline Steering Rack Bushings
Whiteline Roll Center Kit
Whiteline Anti-Lift Kit
Tribeca Front Sway Bar + Bushings
Whiteline Endlinks
Eibach Camber Bolts
Whiteline Trailing Arm Front Bushings
Whiteline Trailing Arm Rear Bushings
Whiteline Lateral Link Bushings
Whiteline Rear Sway Bar Mounts
Cusco Rear Adjustable Sway Bar
Power Steering Delete

Chassis
Ebay Front Strut Tower Brace
Paranoid Fabrications Fender Braces
Grimmspeed Master Cylinder Brace
Whiteline Rear Strut Tower Brace
Paranoid Fab Tower Brace Bolts
GT Spec Rear T Brace
GT Spec Rear Lower Arm Brace
Cusco Rear Lower Subframe Brace w/STi Diffuser

Drivetrain
Exedy OEM Clutch
2.5 RS 5 Spd Transmission
Group-N Engine Mounts
Group-N 5-MT Transmission Mount
Group N Pitch Stop
Whiteline Gearbox Positive Shift Bushings
Whiteline Diff Outrigger Bushings
Whiteline Subframe Lock-Out Bolts
01 RS Rear VLSD

Brakes
02 WRX Front Calipers + Brackets
04 Legacy Rear Calipers + Brackets
Techna-Fit SS Lines
Hawk HPS Pads (Front)
Hawk HPS Pads (Rear)
NAPA Premium Rotors (Front)
NAPA Premium Rotors (Rear)

Exterior
Depo Blackout Corners
Depo Blackout Turn Signals
Depo Blackout Side Markers
V6 Front Bumper
Ebay Lip
CF Hood
JDM Lightweight Front Bumper Beam
JDM Lightweight Rear Bumper Beam
JDM GF Tail lights
Mid/Top Hatch Spoilers
Carbon Wrapped Roof and Hatch
Rear Spats
Side Skirts
JDM Legacy BD4 17s w/ 205/45/17 Yokohama S-Drives

Interior
Kartboy Knuckleball Shift Knob
Kartboy Short Shifter and Bushings
02 WRX Front Seats
Reupholstered rear Seat (02 WRX Wagon Fabric)
Black Microfiber door panels
Black upper interior plastics (bedliner)
Recovered Headliner
JDM Spec C Roof Vent
New Headunit
New Door Speakers
New Rear Speakers

 

[Suscaneer]

Reserved

 

[Suscaneer]

Reserved #3

 

[Suscaneer]

Reserved #4

 

[krotch]

I have my own OBS and I want some new wheels for it and I have some goldies, but I think it'll clash with the silver/gray bottom portion. There are days I wished my OBS wasn't 2-tone.

Anyways, looks like you'll be doing the rear drum to disc brake conversion. I still need to do that to my coupe and eventually the OBS.

 

[Suscaneer]

I have my own OBS and I want some new wheels for it and I have some goldies, but I think it'll clash with the silver/gray bottom portion. There are days I wished my OBS wasn't 2-tone.

Anyways, looks like you'll be doing the rear drum to disc brake conversion. I still need to do that to my coupe and eventually the OBS.

If you look at 1055's build thread he had 17" gold wheels on a green obs and I thought it actually looked really good even with the two-tone.

Yes I will be doing the drum to disc brake conversion along with many other conversions.......this is going to be one long winter project.

 

[Jack_Stalk]

Is your RS totaled?

 

[dogletnoir]

Is your RS totaled?

Sounds like he's cannibalizing the RS to convert the wagon...

Best of luck, Suscaneer !

 

[Suscaneer]

Sounds like he's cannibalizing the RS to convert the wagon...

Best of luck, Suscaneer !

Ding ding ding......we have a winner!!

Thanks man!

 

[krotch]

If you look at 1055's build thread he had 17" gold wheels on a green obs and I thought it actually looked really good even with the two-tone.

Yes I will be doing the drum to disc brake conversion along with many other conversions.......this is going to be one long winter project.

I don't plan on doing anything big during the winter. I have no garage and it's cold.

 

[Suscaneer]

FIRST BUILD UPDATE!!

So I haven't been able to touch the car much, because I've been building a bar/lounge in my basement to have a New Year's Party. Well I finished that and now I'm headlong into the tear down, the nose is off the wagon and the interior has been gutted.

Ohh, I scored a PP6 piggyback for CHEAP!!

All was good and then i found these ugly little f***ers.

Driver's Side

Passenger's Side

Not the end of the world, now there's just more bodywork besides rusty quarterpanels....grrrr.

In the process of stripping out the interior I realized my carpet is in way too nice shape for me to replace it with a RIPT carpet. So I thing the interior will be simple, just a recovered headliner, door card inserts and dye the A, B, C & D pillar trims.

But I'm finally getting somewhere!!

 

[Suscaneer]

Update time.....so I spent the weekend tearing into my RS. Got the nose off the car and started to remove the engine externals. Then with the help of a friend of mine, I yanked the engine and then dropped the front suspension/brakes, front crossmember, trans cross member and transmission as one piece out from under the car. It was a little bit of a sketchy operation, but we got the job done.

 

[Suscaneer]

Got farther into stripping the RS this weekend, but no pictures this time. Removed the driveshaft, rear end and rear suspension from the car, got the right rear knuckle and suspension arms completely disassembled, but the left rear has the dreaded frozen lateral link bolt.

I will need to spend some time fighting with it this week in order to get it about. Also managed to get the audio components taken out of the car. Basically all that I need to remove from the car is the clutch/brake pedal assembly and then I can get the damn car out of the garage and roll the wagon in for dismantling.

As soon I as get the suspension dismantled, it'll be off to powder coating with the front lower control arms, rear trailing arms and lateral links. But the big question remains....what color to powder coat. The wagon will be all red exterior, all suspension bushings will be yellow, I'll have the gold whiteline endlinks, a bunch of blue suspension/chassis braces and red brake calipers. So do I go with cherry blossom red or purple for the powder coated parts? Or is there some other color I should consider?

 

[Suscaneer]

Didn't get too much done this week, spent more time acquiring parts than anything else. Managed to pick up a cut out driver's rear quarter from Pandolfe's in Berlin, CT for $200, got a rear decklid with the USDM roof and mid wings for $125 and pulled the trigger on buying a JDM Spec-C roof vent. Damn you Tim Hanson for dangling that carrot in front of me!! (haha)

But I managed to get the driver's side rear lateral link bolt, only took 45 mins worth of heating, hammering and cursing at it. All that's left is getting the brake/clutch pedal setup out of the car and then I can boot it out of the garage and roll in the wagon. There will be a wagon part-out thread coming soon!!

 

[krotch]

Cherry blossom red!!! Course, it's just pink. Go pink!

 

[dogletnoir]

Powdercoat purple... just because they will expect cherry blossom red.
A wagon with a Spec-C roof vent, more unexpected stuff.
Frozen lateral link bolts, hate 'em... doing the rear wheel bearings on my RS,
one came out with a bit of 'convincing', the other just won't budge no matter what.
We pulled off the whole assembly & worked around it. When it comes time to upgrade
to adjustables, should be fun.

 

[Suscaneer]

Well, I'm officially done stripping the RS, a buddy and I build a dolly out of a few old casters and some 4x4s, dropped the shell down on the dolly and rolled her out of the garage and under the carport. She looks all sad and pathetic under there, covered with a tarp. Now I get some much needed work done to my truck this weekend and next week the wagon strip down begins!!

 

[dogletnoir]

I know the feeling. The corpse of my wrecked del Sol is sitting in my driveway under a tarp. Every day, i look at her & feel sad...
On the plus side, looking forward to the wagon build !
Oh, & you can officially be jealous in a few days... when my V7 STi wheels arrive.

 

[Suscaneer]

Got the work done on my truck this weekend and rolled the wagon into the garage last night. Put her up on jackstands and managed to remove the entire rear suspension/rear end last night, except for a few other little things. Tonight I'll finish up the rear suspension and then attack the front end! Moar pics to come soon.