Hello All, I have made a few build threads in the past and have a couple on rx7club for my 20B FD. Before I get into this build I will give you a little background on myself. About me: I am in my last semester of law school. I graduate this May. Well, I work on cars for fun. I have been working in the shop/garage for over 20 years. I started with helping my grandpa in the shop changing oil, brakes, etc. I started when I was 8 years old. Back in 06 I had one of the first K-swapped Civics in Minnesota (I think RS motors had an EF and another guy in St. Paul had a white EG). I know how to do pretty much anything when it comes maintenance on a car. I'm a DIY type of guy. With that being said, outside of machining (which my dad does) and tuning, I build everything in my garage. How did I get to building a Forester? Well I sold my civic back in 06/07. Was out of the game for a while. Then got into Rx7s and have an addiction with the sound a rotary makes. I am still in the process of building my 20B FD, but it will be a beast when its done. Anywho, I picked up a forester a few years ago, did an STI suspension swap, rebuilt the engine, and sold it to some hipster girl with the same name as my daughter. Pretty cool girl. Then this year, I found another deal on a 99 forester L so I jumped on it. Had bad ball-joints, wheel bearing, etc. Simple fix. Why a Forester? I have two kids. Imprezas are cool and all, but are super small inside. I can fit many things in my Forester. Honestly, the Forester is the same frame as the Impreza as most know, but a more hippy style car (so my fiance says). My kids have leg room in a Forester. I can haul groceries in the back without worrying about not having enough room. If I need to pick up car parts...put the seats down and put the parts in the back. BAM! Lets be real though, I like the way the Forester looks. What are my goals? To make a bad@$$ Forester man... hahahah Really only looking to get max 350whp. If I get more, cool, if I do not get that, cool. My goal is to have a vehicle that can handle corners and have fun with my kids while driving them to school. What is my budget? Eh...I guess whatever I can afford. What is my ETA of completion? Its a project...who knows... Plans for the forester? 2.1L Stroker kit (I'll piece it together) upgraded turbo... well..you'll see. ON TO THE BUILD: I purchased the forester in the latter part of 2015. Below is a pic of it when I first got it. When I got it home I removed the top carrier and sold it for $200. Then I decided to do what I did on my other forester. That is remove the stupid subframe spacers. So I ordered parts from Subaru: Part number of the bolt for those interested: Then brought the forester in to preform surgery. 04 STI control arms v. stock forester control arms. The STI arms were fitted with whiteline balljoints and the caster bushingthing. This was such a pain in the .... yeah. Removed the subframe spacer. See the difference in length of bolts. The forester is a lot longer to accomodate the spacer. Once the control arm swap was done I packed my garage up again.
I ordered BC Coilovers for the Forester and installed them as well. Stock v. Coilovers... How it sat with the preset height from BC (my dad's forester and mine). Then the next day we got snow: And I had to get groceries. I parked next to my street enemy LOL I also needed new tires...so I decided to change up the stance a little bit... Enkei RPF1 17x8 & 245/40/17 BF Comp A/s tires. Then I got some stuff from Japan... And installed the JDM STI SF5 seats in the Forester: AND removed the front clip.. TO be fitted with this... Daughter wants me to paint the engine bay pink when I paint it lol. So far the mods are as follows: STI lower control arms, Whiteline Balljoints and bushings, BC coilovers, steel lugs, Enkei Rpf1 rims & tires, STI interior, STI front clip. I have to install: Perrin 25mm front and rear sway bars, STI endlinks, 05 STI steering rack & subframe, engine/drivetrain, dash, complete harness, OMG a lot more... I will update this once I get more pics of what I am working on now... for now, this is just a teaser pick from a few weeks ago. I will update this tomorrow or in a couple of days to get you to where I am at now. Then I will update this thread once I do something towards this build. IF there are any questions please feel free to ask. I am happy to help as much as I am able to or know. Feel free to comment of course. I encourage some friendly discussion. Have a great night! -Nick
Nope. I did not. Simply loosened the oem u-joint and it worked fine. I have the STI u-joint on the STI rack I will be switching though. The forester (rubber u-joint crap) will just give it a little more slop. Not a big deal. ahha. Yea a few people were going to apparently, but I spent a lot more on it than I should have lol. Doing that made me essentially decide to keep it .
I am currently working on removing the complete body/wire harness from the WRX. It is a pain in the ass for sure. I dropped the drive train as well. As you can see my garage is just a hoard of parts. Goal is to clean this crap up once the shell goes to the scrap yard. Planning on ordering my engine stroker kit parts this week. I will post up more pics this weekend. Law school is kickin my ass.
Some more pics of the breakdown of the WRX--When I first got it 400 screws and bolts later: And how it looks today ahhaha: So that is it for now. I will take better pics and update more thoroughly later this week(end). Goal for this weekend: -Completely remove the harnesses from the wrx -completely remove the drivetrain/engine (out from under it ahah) -Remove the fuel pump/hanger -Remove the door shells and rear hatch -Prepare for the WRX to be hauled to the scrap yard I just picked up a Cobb short shifter and knob tonight too. I will keep receipts of everything I spend on this build to help others looking to do the same crap I am doing. Thanks for the comments and tuning in -Nick
Finally was able to remove all of the wires from the WRX. Another shot of the engine bay. Will be lifting the shell up and then removing the engine/trans out from underneath the car. Pedal setup that I'll be transferring over to the Forester: Random shot of the Fozzy in the middle of some scrubs . That is all for now. Have a great night. -Nick
Well this has been a long while since I posted... Some crazy situation allowed me to get my Forester back. For how long before it sells? who knows. But it will be fun I suppose
