EXTERIOR
In May of 2014, I purchased a 1999 Subaru Impreza RS with approximately 188,000 miles on the clock. The "original" plan was to do a small motor & drivetrain swap in order to enjoy some spirited driving. However, this plan was short lived and things simply got out of control.
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The car was purchased here in Connecticut, where it spent it's entire life. Unfortunately, the winter months were not so nice to this car, as it was soon discovered that rust had simply caused havoc on it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I'm stubborn and decided to move forward with the project anyways. I decided at this point that I would go through the entire car, and build it from the ground up...removing and repairing any areas that were touched by rust.
So, as you can see in the gallery above, there was extensive rust throughout the vehicle. Part of this issue was that the toe subframes located on each side of the vehicle were essentially...gone due to rust. Normally this would be the point where the project would be scrapped, but I had nothing better to do. So I went ahead and got the replacement subframe pieces. Drilling out spot welds and grinding out rusty metal topped with almost two decade old undercoating sucks. Once the subframes were spotwelded and set back into place, we moved into the side rails of the vehicle. Which...were also completely rusted. We then cut out the side rails and replaced them with oem replacement pieces. While at it, we did some patch work on the floor boards of the vehicle.
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After finally removing all of the rust from the vehicle, I went ahead and picked up some used coupe doors, which were in much better shape than the ones that came with the car. That and some brand new front fenders, the car was finally taking shape again. While at it, I went ahead and removed the roof panel, and went with an Aeroism Carbon Fiber roof panel. Yes, carbon fiber...not vinyl wrapped...take notes.
