Brando's Newbie 818R Build Thread

[Brando]

Either way the rear knuckle calipers need to be 4.5" between the holes. I wasn't able to find a solution to make the rear Wilwood caliper bracket work with a knuckle that will take a 5 x 114 (3.75" between holes) so I just opted to press new bearings in the rear. The 4 or 6 piston will still run into an issue if you get the rear STI knuckles to support 5 x 114.

The solution I ended up going with is purchase new front knuckles with larger pre-pressed 5 x 100. I didn't want to locate & purchase 4 new axles to fit the 114's so this works well for me. Until a few days ago I wasn't aware they changed the front wheel bearing size after a certain year. It is my understanding these are more robust than the 2002 bearings I had from my donor but still 5 x 100. I will get more details unless someone else can elaborate further on this.

Speaking of that POS...I think i need to take a moment to vent.
For those of you building an R...I feel using a donor isn't the best way to go. I see many of the R builds are not going that route and you guys made a smart decision IMO. I think if you dig hard enough to find an ideal fit for the donor then perhaps it might be worth it if you wish to keep things stock. Not realistic especially for track use.

What I have used at this point from my donor:

• A peddle box that needed some bending to get to fit due to donor accident
• Steering Rack (had to replace 1 tie rod end)
• Axle pieces
• A few nuts and bolts

THATS IT!!

Replacement List:

• I tried to bleed my clutch last night but it shot a drop or 2 per compression. Trashed.
• The master cylinder looked pretty tattered. The damage from the crash jacked up the bracket. Turns out you can't just order that bracket without the booster (that i could find). So i just ordered replacement brake & clutch cylinders
• Tire & wheels are obvious replacements as are the seat(s)
• Donor didn't come with a motor so I found one with $3k which supposedly had 45k mi. That's was for the motor, trans and they threw in a radiator for free.
• My rear knuckles didn't work for the Wilwood setup and front i replaced for something with a slightly better bearings.
• I'm assuming the Boyd tank that's coming my way wont need the donors fuel tank pieces
• Some of my rear traverse/trailing arms were either bent or stripped/stuck together. Not to mention no ability to adjust them.
• Crash damaged to the left front LCA, so went with 06 aluminum LCA's
• Steering column i suppose I can use, but there was no key! I decided to purchase a second column. One will be stripped and painted and one will be street. Not sure how i will deal with the key situation being 1 column wont use it anyways
• Wire harnes...I guess that's up to your patients level. I can't see myself spending weeks learning and dieting wires. I would blow a head gasket. I did still need 7 ends of the donor harness to splice into the TEC-S VCP sells so i suppose that might count for something.

All in all I also chose poorly on my donor. Most of you found a much more usable WRX to dismantle.
The time and energy spent stripping the donor probably wasn't a financially sound move...but it did help pass the time waiting for my kit and hacking away at it was a stress reliever