RS Revival - Derustification

As I've said plenty of times during this RS Revival project, the biggest issue is rust.  From the rear quarter panels to the guts of the suspension, harsh Nebraska winters and neglect could've easily brought this 14 year-old coupe to it's knees.  After months of on-going work with this Impreza, things are really coming together.  The suspension was replaced a few months back, but because of rusted-out portions in the control arms and cross member, things still weren't quite right.  This weekend's progress has done just that: finished the last of the adjustments to the suspension thanks to new-ish parts replacing the rusted-out old ones.

The Front Suspension is all squared away.  New bushings, Aluminium Control Arms, it's in good shape.  The rear suspension was frozen and unsafe, so we removed the rust-eaten rear cross member at the source of it.  Then we sandblasted and refinished a donor cross member, refinished the control arms, and bolted it back up.  It might be tough to tell from the photo to the left, but the big shiny black part is the new one.  It's actually not from an RS, but out oa 2002 Subaru WRX Wagon.  As it turns out, it bolted right up to our 2000 Impreza 2.5 RS Coupe.

We also added some protection to our work, putting in some Primitive Racing skid plates.  There's a 3/16" aluminium rear differential skid plate and a 1/8" aluminium front skid plate.  With this car's first Rallycross event approaching, we thought it'd be best add protection where it was needed most.  Paul Eklund's armor is well-known in the rally world, so it's great to have his company's name on the underbelly of this little monster.