A faster grocery getter - 04 WRX Wagon

[Recoil889]

Hot damn nice work man! That twin scroll setup has me super jealous!! Can't wait to see/hear this thing roar to life!!

Just stumbled upon this, great wagon build man. Can't wait to see this thing running!

Thanks guys. I should probably get around to writing an update post. I'm still quite a ways from first start up. Hang tight, this is a very slow project.

Until then *vroom vroom.*

[Recoil889]

Here's a preview of what I'm working towards.





The person I had lined up to do the body work had to bail out last minute. Back to square one on that.

I picked up a full set of TSS subframes and dropped that off for powdercoat this week.

Work is kicking my ass right now, so progress is slow.

[SnazzyQ]

Duuuuuuudddeeeee thats gonna be so lit.

Also for body and paint Id recommend Phantasy Kolors. They do amazing work

[btns44]

Keep putting in work. Looks good.

[Recoil889]

Since the last update, I was able to finish removing all of the sound deadening from both front fender wells. I found a little bit of rust, but nothing that really penetrated the metal. I sanded all the rust out, removed the remaining adhesive, degreased and sealed them in primer. This was an absolute nightmare of a job. No fun at all.


Next step is to order a two-part epoxy liner and coat the wheel wells with it. The final body color will be applied over it, but it'll seal the metal off from road debris. Here's a good idea of how the front fender wells look now.


I came across a great deal on a Cusco 1.5 way LSD for the R180 and picked that up. That should make driving a little more interesting. Otherwise, I got the subframes back from powdercoat and got ahold of one of my holy grail parts for these cars. SAA turn signal mirrors.



I'm working on finishing up cleaning the interior and prepping it for paint. I haven't decided whether or not I'll be installing carpet of some sort, so I'm prepping it as if I won't.


Major stuff coming up:

Removing the spare tire well and mounting the fuel cell.
Finishing the rear inside wheel arches to take advantage of the rear tubs.
Cutting out portions of the rear end that'll have body panels affixed.
Rear bash bar.

[Recoil889]

Spent a little more time on this turd over the weekend.

I had been wrestling with how I'd handle keeping the front brakes cool, and after some digging around and talking with a few friends, I ordered a set of these ABS plastic brake ducts. They'll hook up to the bumper with flexible ducting and they'll be directed onto the rotors similarly.


In an effort to start clearing out some of the parts I've collected, I finally pulled out all of my interior pieces and fully assembled the interior with what I plan to use in final trim. Minus a little bit of cutting, what you see is what you get here for creature comforts. It felt good to assemble it fully, tear it down, mark the relevant parts for final assembly and get ready to get rid of the rest.

[dubs&boost]

are those brake ducts 3d printed?

[Recoil889]

are those brake ducts 3d printed?

I'm not sure how they're made. They're a very thin ABS plastic made by a company called "rooducts." I'm probably going to wrap them in DEI heat reflective tape.

[DER E30]

Just looked back at that header... That thing is beautiful!!!!

edit: also congrats on your own house and shop!

[Recoil889]

edit: also congrats on your own house and shop!

Thanks, man. Definitely felt good.

[MassimoCiocca]

wow

[Recoil889]

Small update:

I was lucky to stumble across a fantastic deal on a Facebook classified page for this brand new Cusco front differential. I've been doing a little digging around to figure out what I want to do with the center differential before I crack the six speed open to re-gear it.


I wasn't feeling entirely satisfied with how domestic the front end of the car was looking with the Kaminari hood. Luckily, a friend of mine was selling a set of his singular motorsports hood louvers, so I took those off of his hands. I haven't quite decided where exactly I'm going to mount them, but they look good laid out. I'll need to cut these in, so I'll probably do it towards the end when I install the aerocatch latches.


I received my fenders back from the body shop last week, too. I dropped them off as a test to see if I wanted to proceed with this shop for the remainder of the car. They came out pretty good, but there will need to be a correction or two done before the car is sprayed. After getting those back, I decided to halfassed put the front end of the car together.



I'll probably spend a good portion of this weekend continuing to mess around with getting the interior prepped and organizing parts for assembly.

[Recoil889]

Got my hands on a new OEM Saabaru rear bumper cover. I may order another one to keep around, it seems harder than it should be to get ahold of them.



Seems to fit ok. The bumper cover will need to be stretched ever so slightly to fix about a 1mm gap. Not sure the best way to go about doing it.





Sideskirts are ordered and on the way. I'm slowly sending bolt on parts to body work. Otherwise, things are slowing down slightly while I'm trying to figure out what to tackle next.

[Recoil889]

I had a chance to get the car back into the fabrication shop to finish up a few things, so I had it trailered up last week.
]

While its there, the spare tire well will be cut out to install the Radium fuel cell that I ordered a while ago.


I'm planning to run a remote fill neck connected to a dry-break fuel port either in the passenger side rear quarter lexan, or below where the stock fuel door would normally be located. Still a ways off from making that choice.

Next up is cutting out the portions of the rear quarters that are replaced by the widebody, finishing the rear wheel arches to match the inside radius of the tubs, and having a rear bumper beam made and welded in.

In other news, I was offered a trade of a Louis Vuitton wallet and an Art In Motion wheel by a 21 year old kid on Facebook, so I might just go ahead and take that deal. Things are looking up!

[Recoil889]