Topic: Brandon's 93 WRX

[chico_kj_23]

Most recent:


Just a brief background on myself and how I came to own the car. I'm not quite sure when or why I originally fell in love with Subaru's (I think it may have been GT3), but for some time I have been a huge fan. I originally had a black 98 RS that was near mint but foolishly sold it in the pursuit of easy power instead of keeping it and swapping. Anyways a few years/cars later and the 93 WRX's are finally legal for import. I had saved up some money and wanted to find one in really good condition. I didn't want too many headaches/surprises when it got here. I was able to find this gal with 24000 kms and basically stock.




I was pleasantly surprised when the car got here with its condition and discovered the car had STi pink struts and some aftermarket aluminum skid plate!
Over the first year I did a few minor mods/updates to the car including:
-5zigen FN01R-C Hot Versions wrapped in RT-615
-No-name turbo back (actually sounds pretty good considering the price)
-Apexi cone filter
-RA Mudflaps
-Pioneer head unit/speakers
No progress pic from this stage but I do have the finished product




Mod List

Engine/Drivetrain
-MadDad turbo back
-Heat wrapped headers, up-pipe and down-pipe
-Apexi intake w/ custom air box
-Reflective foil wrapped I/c end tanks
-ACT lightweight flywheel
-Exedy OE replacement clutch
-Group-N engine, transmission and pitch stop mount
-A/C delete
-Robs 440 Tune
-TwosRUs MBC
-Killer-b oil pickup
-Kartboy rear shifter stay
-Whiteline positive shift kit

Suspension/Brakes
-Brembo blanks F/R
-Hawk HP+ F/R
-Goodridge stainless brake lines
-Whiteline 24mm front and 22mm rear sway bars with endlinks
-BC BR 8k front 6k rear coilovers
-Cusco master cylinder brace
-OE optional front strut tower bar

Exterior
-5zigen FN01R-C 17x7 +48 in Titanium Colour
-Falken Azenis RT-615 225/45R17
-Blacked out headlight shroud
-20% tint rear, 100% front
-OE optional aluminum engine skid plate
-RA mudflaps
-RS coupe spoiler
-Detail by 10secdream

Interior
-Pioneer head unit/speakers
-Prosport boost/oil pressure/water temp gages
-Innovate LM-2 Wideband

Purchased/Planned
-Apexi PFC and tune
-4/2 pots
-whiteline roll-center and ALK
-upgrade rear lateral links
-upgrade radiator
-fit/mount Ver.8 TMIC
-Walbro 255 or equivalent
-550 injectors or bigger
-6-speed w/ DCCD

[chico_kj_23]

Fast forward a few years and I could feel that the OE clutch was starting to give out and got around to ordering some replacement parts. In the process of trying to accomplish the clutch job I discovered that a 20 y/o transmission and engine really don't want to be separated. After running out of time at the end of the summer 2012 and with University starting up again I gave up on the car for a while. So the car sat as such for around a year looking much like this.

After discovering some motivation, I decided that to make the clutch job easy I would just pull the motor and while I'm at it replace a bunch of gaskets in the name of preventative maintenance. Additionally I stocked up on a few suspension goodies and dressed up the old engine bay a bit.
Engine coming out

Engine out

Trans off

Holy burnt flywheel

Old rear main and plastic separator cover

Tear down


Clean up


New cam cover gaskets, looks pretty good in there!


Exhaust wrap, new ic piping and slew of gaskets



New rear main and metal oil separator cover

Re-assembly

ACT lightweight

Exedy OE Replacement

Re-united and cleaned up

Back home

Shiney I/C

Some suspension goodies



Almost there!

[chico_kj_23]

So after getting it all back together, I went to go bleed the brakes and to my dismay...no pressure. And I mean none at all. Can't even get fluid to flow in order to attempt bleeding. I suspect my master cylinder itshay the bed so I have a new one on order. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it will get here for a month or so but that's ok because I had no intention of driving the car till May anyways. I'm just eager to get it ready to go. Also, I may need to get new shift linkage as the left/right movement of my shifter, in neutral, between the 3/4 gates and the 5/R gates seems to be stiff/binding. Anyone experience this before? Once past the stiff/binding point it shifts into gear easily, it's just the left/right movement in the one spot that is difficult.

[kijho]

I'm so damn jealous of this.
Like... damn.

[chico_kj_23]

Thanks Spencer!

Many Spencer Hogg's, Such Confuse, wow

[colek]

That is a very nice and clean car.......

[GC8REX]

Super clean GC dude, congrats! Nice to see all that maintenance/modding over the winter, will feel like a new car in May.

[chico_kj_23]

I feel like I'm not gonna know how to drive it, haha. Its been almost two years since I last got to drive it and there has been significant changes in the suspension since then. Should be fun to find some twisty roads once I get the alignment dialed in. Hopefully I'll get to join in on some track days at Castrol so I can really get to know the cars new potential.

[GC8REX]

Might be tough noticing how the suspension mods changed it's handling, but trust me it will be a significant upgrade haha.

Definitely come out to Castrol, I look forward to getting out there this year once the cars done.

[Kazoobaru]

Super clean man! Big changes man, I'm sure gc8rex can relate since his car is nearly completely disassembled
 

[DiagTech]

Very nice GC. Engine looks great.

[chico_kj_23]

Thank you for the kind words folks! It has been a labour of love with a handful cursing/tool throwing splashed in between. 

[chico_kj_23]

Had the day off yesterday and got to work on some things that were annoying me.

First, the front bar that mounts the front of the skid plate had two of the three bolts snapped off inside it. I drilled and tapped the bolt holes, then stripped it down to bare metal and re-painted.

Also worked on fixing some previous mistakes I made when I was younger. Took the Poorly painted turn signals and sanded them down. I got all the paint off and smoothed down the manufacture marks. Just need to pick up some 2000/3000 grit for some wet sanding then ill hit it with some headlight polishing.



Also found this..


Also some big news, we took apart the master cylinder as we were curious what was causing the lack of pressure. Well to our surprise everything actually looked quite good. No scored cylinder or torn seals. We decided to clean everything up and put it back together then bench bleed to see if we could get any pressure. Well, we did get pressure so we re-installed it and started bleeding the brakes. It seems to be working fine now, but still needs some work on the bleeding. Peddle feel is still a bit mushy.

Things of note when bench bleeding and installing the master cylinder. Subaru absolutely derped out when designing the placement of the system with regards to servicing it. They give you all of 1.5-2 inches to get your hands trough and on the side flair nuts. Needless to say there was plenty of spilled brake fluid and cursing. Made sure to wipe down the area and drench with brake cleaner when done. Not sure if I should keep the new master cylinder that's on order or sell it. Might not be bad to have a back-up.

[chico_kj_23]

Spent some more time bleeding the brakes tonight, and actually followed the correct bleeding order. I almost got the brake pedal feel I'm looking for but I may bleed them one more time just to ensure I got all the bubbles out. Then I'll install the master cylinder brace and the brakes should be set for the season.

Also finished up refinishing the turn-signals. I'm pretty happy with the results!



Additionally I worked on fixing some more laziness/mistakes I made years ago. Cleaned up some of the wiring I did for the gauges and tucked some wires under the dash. I also picked up some thin sheet aluminum to redo the gauge mounting setup. Originally it was done with thin particle board but it was starting to fall apart so I thought it was time for an upgrade! I will post pics once I get it finished.

[chico_kj_23]

Got the gauge setup finished up for now. Still can't decide if I wanna paint it or leave the aluminum raw. It was my first time really working with sheet metal so I'm pleased with the results.



Thought this looked like a derpy smiley face...maybe it's just me

Done for now


Also got the master cylinder brace installed...why does everything that deals with brakes on these things suck so much...


Also got her sitting on all fours for the first time in nearly two years!!!


Moved it up and down the driveway to confirm I didn't completely uckfay up on the install. I really can't wait till the weather warms up so I can throw insurance on this and go for a drive!!

[VanCharvel]

Awesome car! Really reminds me of a lot of the work I've done with mine... Look forward to see what else you end up doing to her!

[Rick]

Just wondering how you like the BC coilovers, I'm thinking of getting some come spring time.

[chico_kj_23]

Just wondering how you like the BC coilovers, I'm thinking of getting some come spring time.

I haven't actually gotten to really drive on them yet so I will wait till that time to really judge them.

The quality seems really good so far. Great fitment for the most part. Only issue with respect to that would be that the mounting point for the brake lines is too big. Had to ghetto rig it with some zip ties to make sure it wouldn't come loose.

[Rick]

I haven't actually gotten to really drive on them yet so I will wait till that time to really judge them.

The quality seems really good so far. Great fitment for the most part. Only issue with respect to that would be that the mounting point for the brake lines is too big. Had to ghetto rig it with some zip ties to make sure it wouldn't come loose.

Oh ok, that's not anything to worry about though lol. Well I look forward to hearing what you think of them.

[Kazoobaru]

Where oh where did you get that master cylinder brace???

[chico_kj_23]

I actually got it as a gift so I'm not too sure where it came from.

I think you can get them on ebay maybe?

This one didn't have the best fitment, I needed to massage a few bolt holes on it to get a proper fit.

[chico_kj_23]

Picked up a bunch of goodies to take a stab at painting my 2.5RS/STi spoiler. The paint on my hood scoop and drivers mirror is also faded, so depending on how this turns out I would like to also fix those.


I picked up this spoiler a few years ago now and I'm finally getting around to painting it. Not sure how it's going to turn out or how it will look on the car if it does turn out, but I figured I would give it a go.

[chico_kj_23]

I got all the paint down on the spoiler, it will still need substantial wet sanding/polishing before I can call it a finished product but I'm happy so far. I will update with pics in the next few days once I get it done!

[chico_kj_23]

So I created myself a minor issue with my first round of wet sanding. I wasn't paying close enough attention and burned through my clear in a few spots, and my base coat... So I pretty much had to start from scratch on the spoiler. While I was at it I also prepped the mirror and hood scoop for paint. Two weeks ago I got all the parts painted up and made sure to LAYER on the clear coat this time. Last week I got the majority of the wet sanding completed and will just need to polish up the parts now.

Also just wanted to give a big thanks to WSC member Jarrod for hooking me up with the scoop bolts and nuts. Super nice guy that really saved me a bunch of hassle. I definitely owe him a few beer whenever I see him again.

Additionally, my ECU should be back from Rob sometime this week. Can't wait to get out there and start driving again.

[chico_kj_23]

Long time since I had an update with pictures!
Finally got the painting all finished up! Sorry I didn't take to many progress pictures but this should give you an idea.
Before: Note the clear coat failure


After: Painted and wet sanded


After: Polish/Wax
50:50