It's my birthday today, so I guess now is the perfect time to start my build thread. This is my first kit ever and I have very limited fabrication experience, so this will be quite the task.
FFR says my 818S will have a June 21, 2014 production date. I'm planning on making a soft top, so hopefully the soft top and wiper kit are available at that time.
Donor pallet is shipping to me today ( I'm in Arizona ) from Wayne @ VeryCoolParts. Included in that crate are some goodies such as the 2005 WRX 2.0L donor parts, K-Tuned billet shifter kit, Electromotive TECs ECU + VCP harness, AWIC kit w/ BOV, STi OEM oil pan + dip stick, Killer B pickup + baffle windage tray, new front aluminum control arms. I also have the Quaife QDH3Y LSD on order from The Race Line.
I'm going to try and use parts from as many vendors as possible to help support the community.
Just starting, I already know this project is going to cost upwards of 30k, but I know it will give me much more satisfaction than going out and buying a 30k production car. For others that are scared of the cost, I'm assuming you could build it for under 20k if you obtained and stripped the donor yourself, used all OEM components, and didn't need to replace or dress anything up.
This week will involve preparing the garage for delivery of the donor pallet + goodies. It gives me the opportunity to re-organize my tools as well, so this should be a fun week.
Look forward to sharing my progress with the group. My plan is to provide as much detail as possible during the build to help others out who haven't done this before.
- Aaron