TSTi Build Log

Interior is Complete!

2010-04-11T13:24:00.000-04:00

The last few days lots and lots of progress has been made to this car. The interior is 99% complete now. Just waiting on a couple of things that we are missing and then we'll be 100% done.

I've been so busy with it that I've had pretty much little to no time to post up the updates that I'm doing it all in one post.

More Interior Shots!

2010-04-04T16:36:00.000-04:00

Today was only a half day.. Got some other stuff to do, but nontheless it was productive. Got the carpet in, got the rear seat in (PITA in a wagon btw), got the rear trunk sound deadning in, and the molded interior pieces. All that's left at this point is put the right steering wheel on, finish up the dash, get the front seats and seat belts in and fill her up with fluids.

Half the Interior is in!

2010-04-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

Got a lot done over the day, and a few things during the week. Roof rack deletes were put in, wiring was finished up fully including the rear hatch, sorted through the wiring mess in the front, put the dash in, head liner, pillars, seals, and a bunch of other stuff. Car is near done!

Interior is Coming Together

2010-03-11T20:26:00.000-05:00

Been busy sourcing parts for the interior of the wagon. Odd how some things work on sedans and wagons, and some only on wagons.. Really odd. In anyway, the interior is nearly complete now and ready. Have all the little brackets and things. All that's needed at this point is to finish up the wiring in some places and get the rest of the interior into place. The car will be making a quick trip back to the body shop to adjust the front rad support bar. Shouldn't take too long. As you can see, we figured out some of the wiring already by replacing it altogether.

Car is Grounded!

2010-02-16T20:51:00.001-05:00

The car is off the hoist and is sitting on the ground. The engine is in, transmission is in, the rear end mechanicals are all in as well. Basically everything underneath the car is done, minus the exhaust and u-frame. The interior work has begun: sorted through some wiring, and started mounting things like heater core and blower. Still a bunch more wiring to do however.

Been Away, Car Proccess Moving Along

2010-02-10T18:05:00.000-05:00

I've been way too busy with things last bit because the last week I was gone on vacation so before hand had to take care of a million things. While I was away, nonetheless, progress has been moving along still. Big thanks to my friend Adam for taking this set of pics and sharing them with me. I haven't seen the car since I dropped it off at the shop to have it put together. Kind of want to wrench of it also!

So looks like the old TS fuel tank is out, and the STi tank is in. Also the entire rear end mechanicals are in and so is the engine and transmission. Interior is being put together now and some of the wiring is being worked on, though there won't be much to do here as this is all straight bolt up and clip in since we are using all 06 STi parts including the wiring harness. The only wiring part will be wirring up the rear wiper motor, and wiring up the 05 headlights to the 06 harness. Should be no issue at all. Exciting!

Also took a couple of pics of the new headlights that I got back from getting them retro fitted with some TSX projectors. Here is a pic I took of one:

Car as the Assembly Area!

2010-01-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

Well we finally transported the car to the assembly shop. Still waiting of a few things like WHEELS and the forgot bumper beam at the body shop lol. This car will slowly start coming to life.

Under Side is Painted - Interior is Dry

2010-01-12T23:30:00.000-05:00

Managed to get out of work early today and headed over to the paint shop and put the car up on the hoist to do the underside. All done now. I didn't take detailed pics for some unknown reason - just over-all shots. Here are a couple of before and after shots. Also a shot of the painted interior but this time DRY. The underside will look like that also.

Painted the Interior

2010-01-09T22:18:00.000-05:00

Went today and spent the day painting the inside of the interior in black. Came out nice and I'm extremely happy that I decided to do this. Results below:

And saw that some of the car has now started to come together. I hope to have the car to the assembly shop where we will put the engine and all the good stuff by Wednesday or Friday the absolute latest. The only things left to do are the front end assembly and paint the underbody which I will also do personally during the week sometime.

Final Paint Steps

2010-01-07T15:34:00.000-05:00

Alright dropped by today to check up on things. Didn't really expect much stuff to get done with the past two weeks being pure holidays with Christmas and then New Years.. Nontheless all the small final little pieces are painted now. All the car needs is for these pieces to dry and for the undercoat to be sprayed on underneath the car. You know that rubber like material in the wheel wells.. We had to remove some of it in the rear wheel wells to do the rear quarter panels. Then put all the pieces together and take it to the assembly shop! I tired to get an up close picture of the paint colour, but my camera isn't the greatest for that sort of thing and this is indoors. The paint can be better seen in an outdoor setting. Here are some pics:

Here She is in One Colour!

2009-12-23T15:24:00.000-05:00

Popped by the shop today and was amazed. The colour came out even better than I had imagined it. As I mentioned before in one of the earlier posts, its a modified version of Subaru's Aspen White. Can't wait to get some better pics of the colour up as there wasn't enough lighting to try and capture it.

T minus 12 hours to paint

2009-12-21T22:24:00.000-05:00

Dropped by the shop in hopes of witnessing the paint being sprayed on but there were a couple of small things that needed to get taken care of before the spraying of the paint. The car is all ready to get painted up now. The shell itself is in the booth and the doors and all other pieces are outside the paint booth waiting next in line. It's all going to get done at one time. Less than 12 hours until this car see some colour finally! Here are some final pre-paint pictures for enjoyment. Not sure if I'll be able to get pictures done tomorrow after work due to lack of transportation so we may have to wait a couple of days to even see the car in finished up form.

And a small bonus picture. I always loved these cars!

Another quick update:

2009-12-15T18:24:00.001-05:00

Went by the shop today to check up on things. Car is all sanded and prepped almost now. Primer tonight (the painter is staying late) and then final prep and paint on Friday/Saturday. Since the last update, the quarter panels are all finished up now. Can't even tell that they aren't original unless you look from inside. Both sides of the car are now sanded. They were currently working on the roof and the fenders when I came by. The engine bay is also ready for paint.

Body Work - Almost Paint!

2009-12-08T20:09:00.000-05:00

Well the car is coming along well. I've missed an update because I've been kind of busy lately. Here are some updates as to where the car is at. Car will be out before Xmas for sure. The passenger side is fully prepped for prime. Driver side will be completed next day and hopefully the whole car will then be prepped. Not a whole lot of work left now - most of the major work is done now.

Wider is Better I hear...

2009-11-13T14:55:00.000-05:00

So the work has been rather slower than expected.. Half the guys at the shop got sick with the flu and then work piled up and the shop got backed up. Now that things are cleared up, the work on my wagon has resumed. Here are a few pictures that are some-what recent. In them you'll see the rear sedan quarter panels being fitted on. Other stuff that wasn't pictures is the rad supposed up front being changed out to accommodate the 04/05 head lights.

Sedan rear doors, bumper, and a different hood

2009-10-06T15:37:00.000-04:00

Took care of some other things today that were missing. For example, when we initially transported the shell and everything else to the body shop, we totally forgot about the rear doors. We also decided to bring the front bumper on a different day as we were running short on time the day we took the shell to the body shop. Anyway, today I had taken care of everything and then some. Forgot my camera at home however, so bare with the quality of my iPhone camera. But better than nothing!

Otherwise, did some dry test fitting as the front rad support hasn't been changed yet to the 04/05 one. But as can be seen in pics below, everything fits just fine. The work will begin this week on the car, which excites me. You really have no idea. Anyway, here are some shots to share for now.

While I was in the back changing the rear doors and changing the hood and things like that, I had taken a note of a few interesting cars that are awaiting to be brought back to life. The Celica especially interested me as I've just recently seen a friend shoot one (http://www.chrishoare.ca/blog/2009/09/featured-car-pauls-backalley-brawler-72-celica/) just like this one (but restored) and it looked crazy good in those pictures.

That's all for now. Hoping to get some time and drop by the body shop and get some prep work done and get some pictures of the process.

How to transport an Impreza in a back of a Sienna?

2009-10-05T19:32:00.000-04:00

Was going through the pictures to create that first post and decided this deserves its own entry! Here you go, a back of an Impreza sedan inside a Sienna :)

Project is under way!

2009-10-05T19:15:00.002-04:00

Well its about time that I create some sort of a blog page for this build.

Since this is the very very first blog post, I'll explain a little further into detail.

The car: is a 2002 Subaru Impreza TS wagon. I bought this car as a shell with the intent of putting a STi power plant into the thing. I will not be doing all of the work myself, however I will be doing a lot of the work on it. This includes the body prep as well as the mechanical side of things. Hopefully I get to put as much time into it as I hope to.

The plan: is to put a 2006 STi power plant into the shell. Yes, this includes motor, transmission, brakes, hubs, differentials, and full suspension. On top of that, the interior will be also fully from a 2006 STi. The donor STi was a roll over vehicle from US and was only good for parts.

Originally, the wagon had started out with a blue exterior, no engine, no transmission, no suspension, or any wiring for that matter.. In fact, most if not all of the wiring on the car had been cut! This includes wiring harnesses that were inside the doors. Whatever happened to just pulling the plug?

I've attached a few initial pictures of the day I first saw the wagon with its wagon front fenders and then the day that we towed the baby to the body shop without those fenders and a different hood. Anyone that knows Subarus will know exactly what's going on here. The 02 is going to get an 04/05 front end with sedan fenders. In addition to this, we will be doing a sedan conversion on the rear quarter panels! The car is going for a complete colour change to top it all off.