Project Impreza - heading for 400

[bigsigh]

Picked up this impreza a few months ago , have had loads on so its sat around for a while , but got a chance to get looking at it this week and took a few pics as i went.
Car is a MY97 WRX impreza , it took a very hard shunt to the center front so was bought with the intention of a quick strip down to gauge the damage and then either strip it for parts or fix for the craic.
Story was a young fella owned it and apparently ran out of talent and mounted a traffic island and smashed into a pole.
Thanks to Coog for his help so far

Pulled the bonnet off and bent some of the rough bits back to get a bit of room to work, needless to say both the rad and air con rad are scrap, O/S pulleys are both smashed and sump mangled, thermostat housing burst, modine ripped off and thats on first inspection.

Realising there was gonna be a good bit of work in this one way or another i figured i better read up the shed a bit before i start

Got a bit of industrial shelving to try and store things a bit better

Tidy up, brush out, roll car in and get ready to start

Pulled a few more of the ancilleres off the engine and get ready to pull the lump

 

[bigsigh]

Was supposed to get the lend of an engine crane but that didn’t materialise and i couldn’t wait about so just pulled in the big guns

Got the lump up out of the way and roll the shell back outta the road

Pulled the clutch off and got the engine on the stand

In the mean time had a look about the shell to uncover a number of horrors,
The thump had forced the engine back so hard it broke the rear engine stabiliser , snapped the clutch slave cylinder, bent the front subframe, cracked the steering rack, not to mention the ham fisted tard that mangled the clutch fork pivot mount in side the bell housing.
At this point im strongly considering this as a breaker rather than a fixer, but we will plough on for now.

 

[bigsigh]

Pulled the turbo, alt. , aircon pump

Pulled the inlet mani and got everything filed away

The cam pulleys on the driver side have totally disintegrated, the pass side are intact but obviously with not tension ont he belt will have been free to spin,

so im expecting at the very least to see some bent valves , and worst cast broken valve damaged piston and scored bore. On with the strip down...
water crossover off

Then flip er over to get the headers off , severity of the damage is evident, mangled sump, wrecked modine

And then the killer blow , as the modine has ripped off it had torn a chunk off the casing that it threads into

Anyway thought since i was in this far i might as well take a look at the damage inside, so made a start on the driver side which had the smashed pulleys,

Totally shocked to see no sign of contact or damage to the pistons at all , the hone marks are stll visible on the bores and the valves also have no sign of any interference or damage.

 

[bigsigh]

Went on ahead to see what the driver side was like, only to discover the same on the other side...

So ths s where im at now, dunno where to go with it yet just weighing up the options,

 

[Artoir]

Brave man! Envious of the workspace though, crack on lol

 

[Coog]

Good news on the driver side. I guess the only real damage to report is the bit at the modine? Might be worth going on ahead then

 

[bigsigh]

Yup I have been having a good look at it and trying to figure out how it works to see if it will function as is, really don't fancy introducing chemical metal into somewhere as critical

 

[Lyons]

Great project mate.

 

[johnm]

taking it aparts the best bit lol!
Brilliant project and the garage is brilliant.

Might be some work pulling that frame back into shape or are you going to cut it and weld in a new one?
What the suspension work and bolt holes like? any twisting in them?

 

[richie_mck]

Great project, love classic scoobsand you certainly know what you're doing. Looking forward to updates

 

[Lappintyre]

Fair play SI, didn't realise you were this handy lol! Seems a lot of damage I hope you bought it cheap!

 

[bigsigh]

Brave man! Envious of the workspace though, crack on lol

Cheers, the auld shed looks better than it is really, but good enough for what i need at the minute

Great project mate.

Thanks Ian

taking it aparts the best bit lol!
Brilliant project and the garage is brilliant.

Might be some work pulling that frame back into shape or are you going to cut it and weld in a new one?
What the suspension work and bolt holes like? any twisting in them?

Thanks mate, no the impact was just to the left of the pass side chassis leg, so it didnt get a direct hit, there is a slight ripple on it , but will have to do a few measure ments to see if its out at all or by much , if it is thats 100% game over , the car wouldnt be worth the cost of jgging , i have a new subframe stting there so first port of call is to offer it up and see if it still lines up, if so it prob wont be too far out, as for metal work , havent done anybefore, so will be a learning curve

Great project, love classic scoobsand you certainly know what you're doing. Looking forward to updates

cheers sir

Fair play SI, didn't realise you were this handy lol! Seems a lot of damage I hope you bought it cheap!

not handy barry , only tinkering lol

 

[johnm]

Thanks mate, no the impact was just to the left of the pass side chassis leg, so it didnt get a direct hit, there is a slight ripple on it , but will have to do a few measure ments to see if its out at all or by much , if it is thats 100% game over , the car wouldnt be worth the cost of jgging , i have a new subframe stting there so first port of call is to offer it up and see if it still lines up, if so it prob wont be too far out, as for metal work , havent done anybefore, so will be a learning curve

Depending on how far its out by you might be able to bend/pull/push it back into place.
If it comes to it, my dad has a hand operated pneumatic thingy ma bob for doing just that. I used it on my old prelude couple fo years back after a slight altercation left the suspension, subframe and body work twisted. To get the body back in line I used that and it was great.
If it comes to it, give me a shout and I'll dig it out and you can borrow it to see if it can be corrected

 

[Jola]

Great work so far Simon, I look forward to opening this thread down the line + seeing the car as a whole Keep us updated.

 

[big_pete]

Great project will be following this

 

[bigsigh]

johnm that would be great , ill give you a shout if required

Thanks Jola , there is no project budget as its all in the wedding fund so if it can't be DIY'd it'll likely not be done but fingers crossed

 

[DaddyCC]

you certainly know what you're doing.

Does he? Does he really???

Go ahead there Simone, brave brave man! Same as you though, first thought would be to check the body as thats some thump its taken, might not be worth your while I take it you picked it up for next to nothing?

Farmer spec engine crane ftw

 

[da.murf]

Cool project mate good luck

 

[pablo]

fair play - bit of fun sure. Im sure youd sell off the big money bits to cover your losses if you break it.

 

[brendy]

Nice to finally see some progress on this one Si
If the modine thread/mount is scrap, replacement engines aren't that expensive for classics these days. the rest of the car (bodywork wise) seem sound enough from those pics, liking the rims too.

 

[Boydie]

Jealous of the shed

 

[bigsigh]

Does he? Does he really???

Go ahead there Simone, brave brave man! Same as you though, first thought would be to check the body as thats some thump its taken, might not be worth your while I take it you picked it up for next to nothing?

Farmer spec engine crane ftw

She wasnt as cheap as she should have been seeing the damage done, but still wasnt mega bucks.
proper engine crane is a little more delicate , but just ask Coog i don't do delicate , large persuaders and ham fisted ignorance FTW

fair play - bit of fun sure. Im sure youd sell off the big money bits to cover your losses if you break it.

yup thats the plan, sale of the major bits will get my money back should i end up going that way

Nice to finally see some progress on this one Si
If the modine thread/mount is scrap, replacement engines aren't that expensive for classics these days. the rest of the car (bodywork wise) seem sound enough from those pics, liking the rims too.

really trying not to go the replacement route, its a couple of hundred i just dont have at the min.

Jealous of the shed

you wouldnt be if you saw it first hand lol, the photos are flattering

 

[Jola]

What is it about dudes + sheds/garages?! My OH is more bothered about how the garage looks than the house haha.

 

[brendy]

What is it about dudes + sheds/garages?! My OH is more bothered about how the garage looks than the house haha.

When we were looking out for our house 10 years ago, I said I didnt care about the house at all, all I wanted was a garage. We looked at easily 10 houses+ in person as well as the hundreds online and in brochures.
Ended up with the only house that didnt have a frigging garage and no real room down the side of the house to build one but plenty of room to build a 25'x14' extension though...WOMEN!

 

[Laundrymike]

Some project, fair play for you taking it on! If you need some more space, I'll get that Mini outta the way for you;-)