91 SS to RSRA Spec bare shell complete restoration/build

[BC622B05STI]

Hi everyone, at the beginning of this year(2011) I bought a legacy sport in Texas and had it shipped to me here in Northern California. It was said to be in absolutely perfect condition and the photos I recieved seemed to show that was true however when it arrived I discovered the sales people had taken some very creative photos to make it look that good.It only ran on three cyls, it was smoking badly from the engine bay, the rear bumper was badly damaged, the windshield was cracked, the rear trunk garnish was broken and the list goes on. I was devastated and did not know what to do but I had already purchased the car and paid to ship it and there was basically nothing I could do because of the sales agreement I had signed so I spent three months working weekends and hours after work going through it and getting it to a point where it looked good and was safe to drive. I will post pictures of the first part of this project but that is really just the begginning of the story. The Legacy was back together and on the road after three months of ownership but not for long....Heres the first few pictures of the car. Some were taken after a week just cleaning the car so it looks ok in these pictures.

[BC622B05STI]

Now that it was cleaned up a little I took it to the shop and thats where the real work began
First thing I did mechanically was to repair the shift linkage






ok so here is the short shift that we made out of the original lever. we cut the pivot bucket off and lowered it on the mounting/pivot rod to get clearence off the floor and then added an extension to the shift lever itself to move the pivot point further away from the shift rod. We then made new bushings from Delron and it worked out really well, it shifts really nicely!

[BC622B05STI]

Then I bought a turbo rebuild kit and rebuilt the turbo

[BC622B05STI]

Then I stripped the manifold and everything off the engine to replace all the belts and hoses, some water hoses were leaking, some had been replaced with regular heater hoses and some were just about to blow out so everything was replaced with new parts from the Subaru dealer

[BC622B05STI]

Some more of the engine parts as they were cleaned up




Then I stripped out the complete interior resprayed all of the plastic including the dash.


Then painted all of the bumper supports and brackets and headlight buckets black

[BC622B05STI]

Then I bought new rear garnish, front grill, door seals, painted the wheels and replaced one bent rim. Replaced brake rotors and pads. And the trim around all the windows were replaced. I will post the pictures a few of the old and some of the new

[Apex3]

Good work! It looks awesome! Keep it up!

Don't know that I've seen work this thorough on one of these before.

[BC622B05STI]

And then more of the project up to the completed car

[BC622B05STI]

Then just as I was finishing the car I was contacted by a member of SL-I.net about doing an online article on my Legacy in the members ride magazine here are pictures of that feature on SL-I.Net




Well you would think thats where this story ends, the car is back on the road and it just passed emissions test and is registered in California now, all that needs to be done is the replaced rear bumper really need to be painted and so does the front.........so now really this is where the big project is about to begin

[BC622B05STI]

Just as a preview untill I have time to continue the thread this is what the Legacy looks like today

[Legacy777]

What did the rear triangle trim set you back? I really need a new one on my car.

Also, you mentioned, you "resprayed" the plastic interior parts. Can you elaborate on what you did?

Thanks

[BC622B05STI]

What did the rear triangle trim set you back? I really need a new one on my car.

Also, you mentioned, you "resprayed" the plastic interior parts. Can you elaborate on what you did?

Thanks

If you give me a couple of days I can get you the names of the products I used , but basically I used a grease and wax remover then bulldog adhesion promotor, then I airbrushed all the plastic with a product designed for spraying interior plastics. I will check through my invoices for a price on the rear trim. I may be able to get the product that I sprayed also. I highly recommend you go through all the steps, the cleaner, the bulldog then the spray. It turned out very well, even the dash pad which was extremely faded and burnt by the Texas heat looks good.

[BC622B05STI]

Ok guys so for those who are reading through the thread I bet you are wondering how the Legacy ended up as a bare shell after so much work only being back together for three weeks......
Well I went back to Indy for the month of may to work for one of the Indy car teams and I wanted to have the bumpers painted while I was gone, so the person that was originally going to paint the bumpers decided that because the paint was going to be difficult to match he would do me a favor and paint the whole car. After a discussion with my dad he agreed and they decided it would be best not to bother me at work and so they removed all the trim and door handles etc to prepare it for painting so when I arrived back the car looked like this

It had brown primer patches all over and nothing like it was when I left for Indy.
Thats really where the project begins, I decided that if we were going to paint the car then I would remove the sunroof and fit Original group A Legacy roof vents. So I had Bruce Terry of specialtymetalfabrication.com do this extremely difficult process. He has been rebuilding bodys for rare and expensive cars like Lista Jags and dino ferraris etc and I thought he would be the right guy for the job. He was concerned about the problems related with fitting in this panel and it took some planning for him however the end product was awsome

[BC622B05STI]

[BC622B05STI]

Also during this time I purchased a Subaru engine that came directly from Japan and the people at STI. It was going to be used for development but the project never ended up happening. It was thought to be a wrc spec engine and I got it for basically $1000 worth of Cosworth parts in exchange. Well it turned out to be an EJ20 Engine with factory hand ported rsra heads Identical to those found in the rsra Legacy so I decided to use it in the Legacy
Here are some pictures

[BC622B05STI]

I guess I have a problem with uploading pictures here so I will carry on with this some other time.

[BC622B05STI]

I have done the cc calculations and Ported the brand new spare set of cyl heads to match the factory hand ported heads and also lapped the decks of the block. There is much more work to be done with my engine build but this is where I am at with the engine








And here are the original heads and the new heads that I ported to match factory ported heads. I also made some modifications to the ports on both sets of heads around the seat area. I have to get new valves and springs and do a complete set up with three angle cut on valve seats and do spring setup yet so there is a lot of hours to go into these heads yet. I have nearly 20 hours already and that number will double when I am done but that original group A Legacy sound when they ran with these heads is hard to beat


Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jiBF2mG ... ata_player

This is the Colin Mcrae Legacy and working on A Legacy Rally car is where it all started for me

[Binford]

BAD-ASS!!!!! I"m speechless.............

[91legacyawdturbo]

Ditto^ glad to see another 91 taken care of, awesome build. Are you going to use a Japanese front bumper and lights to make it the RSRA?

[MConte05]

Where did you get those Group A vents? Also do you have any reference material you are using? I have a 1994 Legacy that I rally (wrecked it last week during a 60mph corner) but I am rebuilding it and looking to paint it white and make it pretty close to the Group A look. Would love to know if you have any reference materials for specs and whatnot.

[BC622B05STI]

Where did you get those Group A vents? Also do you have any reference material you are using? I have a 1994 Legacy that I rally (wrecked it last week during a 60mph corner) but I am rebuilding it and looking to paint it white and make it pretty close to the Group A look. Would love to know if you have any reference materials for specs and whatnot.

The roof vents are from Possum Bourne motorsports in New Zealand. He drove a factory group A Legacy in New Zealand, he was tragically killed in a car accident pre running a hill climb in N.Z however his business was sold and still sells Subaru performance parts today. I worked with Possum for several races so I just had to have his vents on my car












Heres the Legacy I worked on as well as Possum Bournes Legacy group A rally car








Those are all images and other than general dimensions that is all I am working from but I will have wrc style crossmembers going in the car very similar to the original that will be awsome

[BC622B05STI]

Are all of these pictures loading on here for you guys? I seem to be having some trouble gettting them to come up !

[subytech]

WOW Amazing

[Legacy777]

Very cool history and pictures!

I imagine the issues with the images not showing up is related to the computer and/or browser. If you have an older PC, it may not have enough memory to handle all the images.

[Binford]

Are all of these pictures loading on here for you guys? I seem to be having some trouble gettting them to come up !

Pics are working for me