Hello again! The masking is complete and the car has been totally sanded down to the metal in preparation for the complete paint job, including inside the doors. The hood will not be painted as I like the carbon fiber look of it.

Hello everyone, I have great news! The car’s finally fully repaired from front to back according to spec! We have the 2011 bumpers on and the car has been prepped for painting, marked where it needs to be sanded down to the metal because of rust spots since the car’s been sitting around for so long.

Below are teasers

K&N is giving away 5 Limited Edition Vaughn Gittin Jr. HPI Remote Control Drift Cars. This Monster Energy, K&N, Falken Tire, Ford Mustang themed Drift R/C Car is a model of the 2011 Ford Mustang drift car that Vaughn Gittin Jr. drove in Formula Drift last year and was featured at the 2011 SEMA Show.

Only 5000 R/C cars were produced and K&N has 5 of these to give away to Facebook fans.

One Limited Edition Vaughn Gittin Jr. HPI R/C Drift Car will be given away each week until Friday, March 2, 2012. Entry period ends March 1, 2012. For more information about K&N’s Limited Edition Vaughn Gittin Jr. RC Drift Car Sweepstakes or to enter, go to K&N’s Facebook page at http://www.Facebook.com/knfilters or go to http://www.knfilters.com/rccar.htm.

Being a Subaru, it’s going to HAVE to be driven in the winter to fully appreciate the car’s all-wheel drive and variable center diff. Considering winter’s just around the corner and the initial stage of the project, which is to get it on the road, is nearing completion, it’s time to go shopping!

Options, Options, Options

Tires

Sean strongly recommended Vredestein tires as they last long and provide unsurpassed performance. We went with 235-45R17 XL Vredestein Wintrac xtreme 97V tires as a compromise to comfort, tire load and tire wear. I’ve heard of others going slimmer because a slimmer tire in winter provides less surface, therefore, more pounds per square inch to get traction. However, I prefer not to compromise the tire’s sidewalls since load on each tire increases with a slimmer tire. Also, I believe that the performance gain by 10mm or 20mm slimmer tires is negligible.

Regardless of personal beliefs though, the recommended step down from 18′s were 17′s and a bit slimmer. I’ll be conservative and go with the recommended points.

Wheels

As far as wheels, I wanted something black to match the black paint and make it slick looking. I found Drag DR-31 wheels reasonably priced and looked good to me.

See below for pictures!

The brakes are on, the clutch/flywheel are in, the engine is in… all that remains is the intake, downpipe, turbo, gaskets and such and we’re ready to head back to MAACO on Merrivale for Scott to finish up there!

The good guys at MAACO, where we had the frame work was done, told us that to open the hatch on this particular model, we needed power. We need to open the hatch to fix the rear quarter panel without damaging anything. I thought that was a design flaw on Subaru’s part but whatever, there’s surely some sort of logic behind that decision… I figured that now that the frame work is done, the car’s in a state where we can put the engine back in it so why not go ahead and do that to they can continue fixing the body.

Auto Parfait

Well, I had a mishap during a downhill competition which resulted in a broken wrist. D’oh! So unfortunately, I’m not capable of doing any mechanical work. So I began looking around for a good mechanic that would be up to the task and I found one! Name’s Sam from Auto Parfait, a kick-ass dynamic and hardcore guy who was thrilled at the idea that we’d ask him to work on this project of ours.

Finally, the day has come where the engine’s going back in! Just for peace of mind, while the clutch and flywheel are accessible since the engine’s off, Sam’s team took the clutch off to inspect it. It was a good move because the clutch was almost finished. Considering this is an ’08… this guy must’ve been doing launches all the time ’cause the clutch is worn out!

New Parts

So I need to do some clutch shopping… I looked into some clutch companies, Exedy, ClutchMasters, and finally, the parts expert, Mr. Sean Maisonneuve himself, suggested I look into SPEC clutches. Spec has a good reputation and the price was right. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t putting something stupidly overkill in the car, like, an un-sprung stage 6 clutch that would break my leg during daily driving situations… However, I wanted to make sure I was putting something in that would leave me options down the road for power so I wouldn’t have to buy another clutch later. I decided on a Stage 3 clutch.

Since I’m replacing the clutch with some performance stuff, I also wanted the engine to respond better and so I wanted to replace the flywheel as well with a lighter one:

This is going to be one sweet driving car! Since the clutch was a good indicator on how the original driver drove like a madman,  I want to start fresh so I’m going to go ahead and upgrade the brakes too and get me some quality EBC brake rotors and yellow stuff pads, all supplied by Premier Performance of course with awesome prices!

EBC 3GD Rotors are manufactured using premium disc blanks mentioned above, the unique wide aperture slots in the EBC sport rotor actually draw cool air under the pad during heavy braking and reduce brake temperatures whilst also helping remove dirt, dust and debris and gasses created by heavy braking from the pad contact area. They also improve braking in off road conditions of wet, mud or sand and as such are a great choice for 4×4 vehicles. Blind drilled holes eliminate the chance of rotor cracking which is common with “through drilled” or completely drilled vent holes.

Having made my purchases. I patiently ran in circle and did some thumb twiddling races until the day arrived where I got the parts… Here they are:

Now, the installation can proceed!!! I’m soooo excited!!! 

For a limited time only!  When you buy a case (12 quarts) of 5W30 or 5W20 Royal Purple, pay only $7.00 per quart!

Finally, we’re gaining momentum again in this project. After many months of hard work on the frame components and coordinating jobs and teams, the STI frame rebuild component of the project is nearing completion.

Bad News

While undergoing the frame work, we had an opportunity to start fitting the body kit parts to ensure alignment. However, we quickly discovered that there was no way that the kit was going on the car as the front bumper wouldn’t get past the rebar ; metal component behind the bumper designed to absorb energy in the event of a crash. Upon contacting Extreme Dimensions, we were told the kit was for off-road use only.

You’d think this is kind of critical information as it forces you to remove a safety component of the car.

I am sad to say that this kit will not find its way fitted to my vehicle as I am not willing to compromise the safety of the car’s passengers for a look. I would’ve appreciated easy access to information detailing the specifics of the kit’s fitment right on the web page we found the kit. I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do with the kit as its been too long to return but we’ll figure something out.

Good News

The good news is that the frame work is done and that was our biggest concern. More good news comes where it’s been confirmed that the 2011 front end will in fact fit the 2008 frame so I’ll end up with the 2011 bumpers, which is nice because I like that better than the ’08.

On top of all this, I recently broke my left radius (larger bone in the forearm) while practicing for a downhill mountain bike competition, which sucks. It really sucks! Needless to say, that makes it challenging to put an engine back. So, we’ve teamed up with Auto Parfait, a local shop that knows a great deal about Subaru’s, and so we’re getting them to put the engine back in this week, which is very exciting.

Furthermore, the shop’s owner has a great deal of experience doing these kind of rebuilds and so he’s helping us making sure we follow the steps so we don’t run into any issues with the government when the time comes for getting the car safety’ed and registered.

The Seibon carbon hood looks amazing !

Anyhow, that’s it for now! More soon!!!

The first of many: Premier Performance has finally launched the first customer self-serve section of their website containing a featured brand “Mini Site” for EBC Brakes with price search capabilities, application guides, and extensive product information for your research pleasure.  As said before, this is only the first of many advancements to come for the Premier Performance web site including a complete overhaul of the current version 2.5 bringing it to version 3.0 by mid August.

Keep your eyes peeled and check back often!

For now, visit the new page at http://www.premierpartscanada.com/performance/ebc-brakes/ebc-brakes.php

In preparation of the car for the body work to be done, ie. frame rails straightened and replaced, wheels aligned, aprons replaced and so on and so forth, we were given the opportunity to further prepare the car by removing the front axels and removing all wiring harnesses (ABS sensors, fuse box, battery wires and others) out of the way so the work can be done right away.

Like men on a mission, we arrived early yesterday at the body shop in full force of 2: Myself and Larry. We made quick work of the axels as well as removing the front strut towers and getting the brake assemblies out of the way so they have easy access to the wheel wells and frame rails. After removing the aformentinoed, we then removed all other wiring harnesses inside the engine bay for as much clearance as possible.

Once that was done, the body shop specialist, Vernon, helped us lower the transmission cradle so he could start pulling the frame without damaging anything else. As we lowered the cradle, it centered itself on its own weight so it gave him an idea of where he should be trying to pull the frame.

And we’re off to the races!

Image Gallery

Below are images of the car on the frame straightener. Axels off, everything in the engine bay unbolted and out of the way with the transmission cradle dropped. Let the games begin!!!