We can Rebuild it... again...

At the beginning of the month, the RS Revival project car was at an all time best!  Body looked great, interior looked great, engine ran great, it was a far cry from the beat-up rusted-out misfiring car it was a year ago.  As luck would have it, things wouldn't last.  Not even a week after the car was running like this, the front drivers side of the car decided to meet up with a deer.  Hood creased, grille shattered, fender punched in, and some nice stress marks on the newly repainted bumper.  Yes, it could've been worse... MUCH worse.  But it was still heartbreaking to see the car beat up so quickly.

The next day was spent searching for replacement parts.  It took a couple of weeks, but everything is finally lined up and on it's way to repair what we technically already had repaired before.  There's a couple of slight changes with these new parts going on, but they're for the better I think.  The first is the addition of Fog Light Covers.  These should help keep rocks and bugs off of the OEM fog lights.  We're building metal brackets for them so they're easily removable when it's "Rally Time".  A Rally car HAS to have big fog lights, right?

The new grille we found has the Subaru logo in the middle instead of the Impreza "I".  As cool as that "I" is, people had a hard enough time figuring out what kind of car it was... let alone who built it!  Having the Pleiades Star Cluster on the front again should clear those questions up.

Lastly, we are actually replacing BOTH fenders, as one of them is hailed/dented/pretty beat up.  Instead we'll have two factory-painted fenders that have been rolled to fit wider wheels.  This is good because the rally wheels barely fit on the car.  When we rebuild the quarter panels, we'll be making the same adjustment.

In the meantime, I've been cleaning engine bay stuff up quite a bit.  I cleaned underneath the windshield wipers / bottom of the windshield and got a lot of grime and dirt out of those tough-to-reach spaces.  Everything should be on the car and buttoned up by the weekend, so it'll be good to keep moving forward on this project instead of redoing more work!

2015 Impreza Facelift

It's a formula that worked well for the 2013 Legacy and Outback that's coming next to an Impreza near you!  The 2015 Subaru Impreza is set for a facelift midway through it's generational lifetime.  The 4th Generation Impreza, which made it's debut as a 2012 model, has been received remarkably well thanks to it's new grown-up look and great gas mileage paired with the All-Wheel Drive system we already love and know.  Much like Subarus before it, the Impreza will see small updates inside and out to give it a little more competitive edge for the next two years until it is replaced by the 5th Generation model in 2017.

Announced on September 25th, the 2015 Impreza will have an updated front facia and interior, as well as incorporate EyeSight® Driver Assist Technology, joining the ranks of the Forester, Outback, and Legacy for that "Top Safety Pick +" category by the IIHS.  As with all 2015 Subaru models, it will have a standard rear-vision camera displayed on it's new touchscreen radio.  The tachometer has been updated, as well has taking up a sharper rear spoiler for sedan models.  The new facia has some obvious cues from the Impreza and WRX concepts that enthusiasts have been clamoring for, which is nice to see coming through as Subaru moves ahead.  They have also managed to wring out another MPG or two with the design, likely from the new aerodynamics of the revised front-end.

Click the link below for my personal take on the changes here and where the Impreza lineup may be headed!

RS Revival: One Year in the Books

On September 6th of 2013, this 2000 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS Coupe started a long journey toward recovery.  This "RS Revival" has seen quite a bit of progress from that day that it changed hands to nearly a year later.  Today, when that new motor fired up for the first time and it wasn't shaking uncontrollably under the hood... it just hit me how this car has improved by leaps and bounds.


With this rebuilt 2.5L SOHC Boxer Engine breathing new life into this car, it sort of acts as a placeholder for a years-worth of work on this car.  The work has not been a solo act.  There's a long list of great people who have helped get this car to where it is today.  From simple advice to help working on it to sourcing parts, there's not only communities that I've tapped into that have contributed... but also a great little community that has gathered around this car that continues to grow.  I've really enjoyed working on this car in their company so far and I am convinced we would be nowhere near the point we are now without them.

The photos below really tell the story of where this car came from and the journey it's had up to this point.  As it continues to improve, it's neat to look back and see the progress that has unfolded in that short year.



There's still more to come with this car.  For now, this is a good point to pause.  The new motor is fantastic.  The body isn't trash.  The interior is a nice place to be.  It's just an all-around better car than it was when we started.  I'm very proud to see how far it's come and am excited to continue working on this great little Subaru!