Haven't been on H-T in an age, I still have my civic as my primary toy, but have been daily driving a series of crappy subarus. A lemon 2000 RS, a couple of legacy wagons, but this one was my favourite, so thought I'd share a little of the effort.

As she's sold now, here is a before and after, the day I got her and the night I washed her before handing her over to a new owner.



and now onto the "build"

 

the day she came home to me


a very necessary car wash


and teh start of hours of polish and wax, turning the 8 different shades of red/orange into one consistant shade of red


and to make life bearable, a 6 disc CD changer from an '02 WRX, basically free from craigslist


roof rack, a transplant from my '00 RS (sold)


then onto some essential maintenance items, my daughter in the garage all night helped me replace all the fluids, like ALLLLLLL the fluids


front brakes


which were WELL past needing to be done. had to lube the calipers too, as you can see the uneven wear on the pads


and spark plugs and wires, also well past due


and the rear drums, oh how I despise drums, but these ahd to be done NOW! and couldn't wait for finding a disc swap

 

I hated these generic 14s, so I was not upset in the slightest when the tyres failed


off to craigslist for some '02+ WRX wheels


my kids loving the new look :D


my daughter helping again, note: kids love helping, and finding a simple task for them will greatly speed your night as they will come bother you anyway, might as well put em to work


and using them exactly as designed, a preview of the white wheels to come


project on hold for a bit

 

so moving on to some cosmetic work, pealing clearcloat can't jsut be polished away, so sanded back and would be painted later


sanded, one of many places where I sanded back the peeling clear, the roof was esspecially bad


and removed these peeling stickers, old glue from dealer tag, and the subaru emblems off for paint


after


And how I rolled for a while, she was my daily driver after all, so most work was done in the evenings then driven around raw in betwee


all of the black parts were deepkly faded, buy back to black product works a treat, testing on one small area here, which I left for a while and washed etc to see if it would last


door handle before


after, and it stayed this way for at least the next year, so I'd recommend the product


trim

 

next onto some rust repair. no rust anywhere else except under this poorly repaired dent from a previous owner

bubbling up through the p


chipping away the many layers


so thick!




testing out the rattle can paint, its a great match


after pushing the dent out, no idea why the previous owner didn't, onto some bondo


primer


fun, how I rolled for a while until I was ready to paint


and temporary red, it later got a gloss finish and blended far better

 

ok, the sad state of the wheels was bugging me, so onto some cheap rehab

the centre caps before


sanded


primed


white


and red lettering to match my civic


the wheels, I just redid the front as this is just a daily driver, keeping those costs down
taped up and scuffed back


yeah... make sure you press that tape down nice and tight, didn't make the same mistake on the other three


result


one painted at a time, so it took a week, but I painted one each night as soon as I got home, then drove it to work the next morning :D


all done


and, don't forget to wax your white wheels people!!! cleaned this off and waxed them up really well

 

some minor things to make life bearable for the daily commute, the cheapest speakers amazon has, as I wouldnt be running an amp


wet, factory, paper cones had to go


not amazing, but SO much better


in the doors, and in the rear


then a friend said, want some free stuff? uhh, yes! I like how the retro equipment fits with the ago of the car


and to replace the bent and cracked antenna, one from a 2002 WRX, I get radio so fast now!

 

fading dash plastics were a pain to see everyday, they had to go too

before


out and painted


after some vinyl spray paint


before


after

 

next onto an ugly headliner

out, this is how I rolled about for a week while I did the headliner (at least it wasn't 3 years like my last headliner project in the civic). can't believe how hot that roof panel gets without the headliner in


before, vinyl, cracked, generally ugly


new fabric



and in


vinyl sun visors still, but a vast improvement

 

and my favourite part I think it totally transformed the car, a legit subaru v4 WRX bumper I bought used. previous owner bought it but never even painted it before hitting a pole and cracking it

first i had to straighten out the bent support
before


the other side to compare


after




before


test fit




I cut a relief here and heated the bumper to push a big bump back down


filled


the more serious side, a large crack that needed to be brought back together


zip ties to hold it all in place while I fibreglassed the backside


then sanded and primered, this is the corner that had the huge crack, came out pretty nicely



paint paint paint




done with paint


some new lights in, and vents looking a little empty


so cheap *** chicken wire type fill for empty looking vent holes


and a garage door seal cheap *** lip added


and on the car


this is the repaired corner, a little rippling still visible, but I'm ok with it


the good side

 

ruh roh, failed water pump led to complete timing belt meltdown!!!


away she goes


the beast that I borrowed to pickup my new engine


and a brand new... ok 150,000 mile EJ1.8 at home



and torn down, we did new head gaskets and all new timing belts etc while it was out


very happy to find it so healthy after taking off the valve covers, you never know with a used junkyard engine


and while we have them off, a little cleanup


and some paint


intake runners getting the same treatment




the end result


time to pull the dead engine


a little side by side


engine bay scrubbed while it was empty



this shouldn't happen, some leftovers when I installed the new engine


fortunately, I had my dad taking photos as we removed the old one, a few minutes reviewing and I found the plug and the hose's home


little known fact, although identical in every other way, the FWD engine I replaced my AWD engine with had a different accelorator cable mount, so I had to build my own
I kept my car AWD, as I didn't replace my transmission



in and running!


and out on the street under its own power


and the old engine torn down, and rebuilt ready for resale, sold for only $100 less than I bought the replacement engine for

 

leaking steering rack, the best part was it was dripping oil directly onto the exhaust


out and rebuilt, all new o rings etc etc


and back in

 

I felt the grill needed a little updating. as going to the newer version grill would mean new grill, headlights, and hood, I tackled doign it on my own

the centre torn out


mock up



glass and bondo, lots of smoothing



daughter in on the game, saw me with the dremel and safety glasses and grabbed her own toys and glasses to come help


paint paint paint


done


and in place, but I felt the centre of the grill was not too empty


so I added an emblem left over from my RS

 

wheels, set #3, I really liked the "gold" with the red, and selling my WRX wheels and replacing with these was actually a profit


making friends at the office


oh... and a new toy in the driveway

 

hoods hoods hoods, I don't really like the RS hood scoop, so the plan was to replace with a legacy hood scoop
stock


legacy hood (not a direct fit)


and a second impreza hood purchased so I could hack to two together whilst still driving around a whole car


and some ms-paint shoppery to give an idea


I actually ended up selling the car before I finished this project. but as I still have the extra hoods I'm probably going to finish it and sell it or put it on my next impreza

 

wheels again, set #4, from a forester S. too large, but I took them in trade plus cash for the last wheels


then sold the forester S wheels and sat on jackstands for a day while I picked up some legit RS wheels with nice tyres



and that is the end of my little tale


I never got a chance to finish the hood, and I always wanted to lower it, and I didn't finish the paint.

the new owner has since painted it, and put on factory lips and sideskirts, lowered and an exhaust. I think he plans a WRX engine swap too, but hasn't happened yet. clearly he isn't looking for the 30+ MPG the little 1.8 offers

 

The RS wheels like right at home. Great work with the car, seems like a blast to drive. Seems like a lot of fun and experience to break down an engine and rebuild it yourself. Still haven't found the courage to do that yet :')

Regards,
Dan.

 

very cool build. I have always been partial to this generation Subaru despite never owning one.

 

def a fun thread to go through...thanks for sharing!