Dan's 818C (Lightweight818)

[BigDanSubaru]

Hello everyone, my name is Dan and I am building an 818C with my father, son and friends. Some of you may recognize me from the 818 Builders and Dreamers Facebook group. I also have an Instagram account dedicated to this build. I decided to name the project "Lightweight 818" not because I aim to make mine lighter than anyone else's, I just thought it worked well as a name. Link here: https://www.instagram.com/lightweight818/

I decided to track my progress on here as I journey along the build process because I have seen great ideas and inspiration come from these threads. I have been dreaming/planning this build for over 5 years and I still feel so unprepared. I have been working on Subarus since I was 15 (I'm 30 now). I have swapped engines in my 03 and 05 wrxs when they needed work. But I am by no means a fabricator. I have no idea how to weld (I did it once in college) so I'll be avoiding that if at all possible in my build. Or I will outsource the weld work to my uncle who welds scrap to make artwork on the side.

Anyway, when the thought of building this car first sparked, a few hurdles presented themselves.

1. I need a garage
Long story shot, I tackled the first hurdle after drawing my own site plan, buying a custom pre-engineered metal building, submitting a building permit request, being denied, applying for a variance, attending the variance hearing, getting approval, having the slab poured, waiting a year for the carport company to get their **** together, having the metal building installed, getting the permit inspection approved then filling the garage with the necessary tools and equipment to get the job done.

2. I need more tools
I obtained most of my tools as Christmas or Birthday gifts from relatives. Every year my list was packed with tools that were on the list of required/recommended tools in the FFR build manual. This is a seemingly endless endeavor when you are just starting out collecting tools.

3. I need a donor
I took my time in trying to find a donor that wasn't completely trashed. Finding a low-milage donor with little to no modifications and being outside of the rust belt was extremely difficult. So...something had to give. I found my donor on CoPart. It's a 2007 WRX, 1 owner, 57k miles that was in a light t-bone accident on the passenger side. The car ran and drove as listed. I bought it site-unseen as it was located in Wisconsin (basically Hell for cars), and I am located in PA (a slightly less intense circle of Hell for cars). One owner and low milage is great but MAN was this thing rusted all to **** underneath. I had no idea because the pictures did not show this (of course). You'll see in the pics just what I am talking about.

4. I need a kit
I ordered my kit December 8th 2021 on a hunch that prices were going to increase soon. I am glad that I ordered when I did, because no more than a month later the kits actually did go up in price (thanks Covid). My kit was delivered by Stewart Transportation on May 26th 2022. This was one of the most exciting days of my life. I had been looking forward to this for SO long!

5. I need free time
I am still in college, but will be graduating in Spring 2023. I have been going for 8 years part time to get my BS in mechanical engineering. I also have a 2.5 year old son (Cameron) along with my wife (Marina) that I balance my limited free time with. Once I am through with school, I think my build will progress much faster.

When you want something this badly, you find ways to start making your dream into your reality. I am a Subaru Ambassador (have been for 5 years) and most of my life revolves around the brand. People refer to me as "Subaru Dan" at school. As much as I thought I knew about these cars, I am diving into an 07 Wrx donor which I have never owned or worked on. Nor have I ever disassembled one to this extent. I am learning so much about these cars and am really enjoying the build. This thread should have been started a long time ago, and I am very behind on posting pictures. I won't post them all here (see the full album on Instagram), but I'll post some of the main milestones up to where I am now.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my story and what my build is about. There are a lot of very talented builders here and I am looking forward to interacting with you. Here are some donor car arrival day pics to start things off!

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[BigDanSubaru]

The first thing I did was start taking off the body panels of the donor car. Most of them were in pretty good shape and sold for a fair price online. These parts are a rare find with only 58k miles on them. Even though some fell victim to the Wisconsin rust, and some were damaged in the accident. Thankfully, my metal building got installed just after I had found buyers for the hood, trunk lid and driver side doors. I made sure to label all of the connectors with blue tape as I disconnected them. It was a shame having to dismantle the car. I made sure to take her for one last spin around the block and say my goodbyes.

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[BigDanSubaru]

The passenger side doors were more of a challenge due to the collision. The door hardware was hard or impossible to get to without using a pry bar to bend metal out of the way. The door had pinched the wiring harness, making it impossible to remove without cutting the door and bending it open to fit the connector(s) through. Once I got the wiring free of the bent up door, I decided that I needed to establish dominance (as shown in the pic). A lot of parts that I removed received a similar solute for being stubborn and dragging out a task that should have taken a fifth of the time that they took. I removed all of the seats and other interior items and continued to label the connectors as I went. I probably missed a few along the way and there were some that I didn't know what they were. I am sure that will be fun later when I go to do the wiring.

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[BigDanSubaru]

More interior teardown. Got the car on stands and removed the exhaust. I was going to try to sell it used, but Wisconsin rust basically ate half of it. That explains why it was louder than I expected when I test drove it. I also removed the intercooler and some other engine bay items. The floor is a rusty dirty mess and the whole garage smells like PB Blaster.

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[FFRWRX]

Hey there Subaru Dan!

Nice to have you join the party. There doesn't seem to be a lot of new posting lately, but there is certainly a ton of information here. Pretty much any issue you run into, someone here has been there before. And please feel free to ask anything; the search function is pretty good, but if in doubt, just ask.

And of course it is nice to have someone with a great deal of knowledge on the Subaru itself. I was saved the work of tearing down a donor by buying mine from someone else that did that, but I have torn down 2 cars in the past to build Cobra replicas. The wiring harness is maybe the number 1 challenge.

Rick

[jbs72697]

Welcome Dan
Congrats on getting your project off the ground and your shop approved and built. Looks like a nice space to work
I took delivery of my 818S kit way back in May of 2021 and I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t made too much progress building. I’ve only really been taking the donor apart and getting the two underside panels installed. With the long thanksgiving weekend I’m hoping to get the donor completely apart
One thing I found being pat of this group of FFR owners is that they are a great bunch of people that happily offer advice, help, and encouragement. I even met a few of them at FFR’s open house on June
All the best!

[BigDanSubaru]

With the wheels removed and sold, the horror show was revealed. Even with the low mileage, the years of salty wet Wisconsin roads took their tool on basically everything metal under the car. I expected there to be rust, but not nearly as bad as this. Copart didn't mention anything about it, nor did they take any pictures of the underside of the vehicle. I guess that is the risk you take when you bid on a donor site-unseen. The hydraulic jack handle made for a great pry bar for the really stubborn ones. Twisted a few bolts off in the process but no amount of penetrating fluid was helping us. I also didn't have my air compressor up and running yet so this was all done by hand up to this point. Let's not even talk about that long bolt that goes through the rear knuckle and the trailing arms. F*** that bolt.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Hey, thank you for the kind words. This certainly isn't the dream garage I had in mind. But hey, it's still a dream garage if you're building your dream IN the garage...right?

I would have loved to have come to the open house, but that is difficult given my schedule being so tight. Maybe next year!

[jbs72697]

Hey, thank you for the kind words. This certainly isn't the dream garage I had in mind. But hey, it's still a dream garage if you're building your dream IN the garage...right?

I would have loved to have come to the open house, but that is difficult given my schedule being so tight. Maybe next year!

That’s true about a garage. Believe it or not, this is my “dream garage”. I have very little room to work. And I actually gave in and did what i swore I’d not do, use the 818 itself as a place to store parts and boxes
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[BigDanSubaru]

That’s true about a garage. Believe it or not, this is my “dream garage”. I have very little room to work. And I actually gave in and did what i swore I’d not do, use the 818 itself as a place to store parts and boxes
536716AD-65A7-43C1-A6CD-8B2053D0A99F.jpg

I totally understand that. I slid boxes underneath my 818 since it is also up on jack stands. Great place for them because there really isn't any under car work to do on the 818 right now.

[rjp]

1. I need a garage
2. I need more tools
3. I need a donor
4. I need a kit
5. I need free time

This is basically my list, too. Back in 2018 I did a factory tour which sealed the deal on wanting to build an 818. I had a 1 car garage and planned to eventually buy a house, so, of course, the first thing I did was buy a donor. I've lugged that to temporary housing and now to my house, with a nicely sized garage for working on the kit. Unfortunately, I was a few months slower than you, went to the build school in April, and learned about the wait list then. I have almost the exact same donor, same color, 2006 WRX TR (the previous owner beat the crap out of it).

I'll be following this to live vicariously until maybe I can buy a kit.

E: I wish it was only a price increase that happened

[BigDanSubaru]

Removed the radiator. I did the donor tear down before I received my kit and I'll admit that I didn't reference my digital copy of the build manual as much as I probably should have. If I would have referred to it, maybe I would have remembered to remove the lower radiator rubber mounting bushings. Oh well, they were a cheap pickup from the local dealership.

I found a buyer for the fuel tank so I jumped on the removal of that quickly. I am going to be using the Boyd fuel tank and not the FFR provided one. I have heard too many horror stories about that fuel tank to trust it on my 818. Since I am going Boyd and that tank comes with a fuel pump and sending unit, I sold my donor stuff with the OEM tank. This was quite the task to remove alone, but I managed it.

I also sold the rear differential to some older gentlemen who drove up from a few states down. They claimed to be using it in a Datsun 510 which is pretty cool. I like selling the parts to people who will take care of them and put them to use elsewhere. Hate seeing perfectly good parts sit around collecting dust/rust.

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[BigDanSubaru]

This is basically my list, too. Back in 2018 I did a factory tour which sealed the deal on wanting to do an 818. I had a 1 car garage and planned to eventually buy a house, so, of course, the first thing I did was buy a donor. I've lugged that to temporary housing and now to my house, with a nicely sized garage for working on the kit. Unfortunately, I was a few months slower than you, went to the build school in April, and learned about the wait list then. I have almost the exact same donor, same color, 2006 WRX TR (the previous owner beat the crap out of it).

I'll be following this to live vicariously until maybe I can buy a kit.

Yeah I have heard about the wait list situation. I was very fortunate to have ordered when I did. Man, it was something in my gut or just fate I guess. I was planning on waiting until I graduated to order it, but something just pushed me to get it ordered.

Happy to have you here! I have plenty of updating to do on this build thread. Lots of pictures to share. Feel free to check out the Instagram if you wanna peek ahead at some of the pictures that I will be posting.

[BigDanSubaru]

I labeled as many of the connectors as I could on the wiring harness. I removed the harness and laid it out on the garage floor. Miles and miles of wire that I really don't want to think about right now. I boxed it all up and threw it on top of my shelving unit. It has been haunting me up there ever since. I took some college classes on circuiting and stuff. It is certainly not my strong suit.

I plan to get the harness into the car and do only the necessary cuts to get the car running first. Then I will go about the wire diet process in a pretty minimal way. I don't have the confidence to remove as much as some have on here. I figure if I cut out only a few circuits at a time in between test starts, I can find where I just messed up and fix it a little easier.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Spent the night with my dad and some friends trying to remove the engine and trans from the donor. We removed all of the bolts holding the trans on, but we could not free it from the motor. We ended up pulling the whole engine and trans out together out the top. If we had a lift, we could have dropped it all out the bottom like the manual suggests. This worked though and I was able to separate the trans from the engine once it was out of the car. I needed to use some heat on the alignment pins, then tap a drywall knife between the mating surfaces. Once I had a small separation, I got the cold chisel in there and finished the job. The trans is sitting on the workbench now and the motor is on the stand I picked up from Harbor Freight. Not much left of the donor now!

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[BigDanSubaru]

With the kit on its way, I needed to get this donor shell out ASAP. Shooting it with a bazooka seems like the easiest method, but I may lose my garage in the process. Also, I don't know how to fire this thing.

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[BigDanSubaru]

I decided that cutting the donor shell in half and shoving it onto my dad's trailer would have to do. Took 4 of us a couple of hours to get it all cut up and loaded on. Even with everything stripped off of it, it was still pretty heavy. My dad's Infiniti FX50S is the bright blue car hauling the trailer. He got a lot of strange looks the next day when we showed up to the scrap yard. Not every day you see a luxury performance SUV hauling a hacked up Wrx behind it.

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[wallace18]

Boy that brings back some memories for me. I wish I had a team like you did. I cut up my 2002 WRX and took it to a metal dumpster. LOL.

[BigDanSubaru]

Boy that brings back some memories for me. I wish I had a team like you did. I cut up my 2002 WRX and took it to a metal dumpster. LOL.

I definitely appreciate my team of friends helping when they can. It's a social thing for us and a learning experience for us all. This project was mostly intended to be a father-son project. It took so long to get this project started that it has become a grandfather-father-son project. My son is only 2, but he loves to spin the wheels and sit in the car.

[BigDanSubaru]

While I was waiting for my kit to arrive, I was brainstorming some ideas for a different rear end design. I like the regular 818 rear, but I also wanted my build to be different. Here are some early concepts I made using a free app on my phone. I cut and pasted some layers to play around with taillight and exhaust placement.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Here are some other design ideas I came up with. I landed on one that I really liked. It uses two taillights with an exhaust next to each taillight. I think this would be really unique and eye catching. A custom grill shape will need to be made and that should help relieve some of the heat inside the engine bay as well. I colored it red just to see what it would look like. I am still not sure what color I want my 818 to be. But I am teetering between white and red. Maybe some stripes too (small offset ones).

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[BigDanSubaru]

With the donor shell gone, I got to park the daily driver in the garage for a while. Here are some more pics of the donor car. I test fitted the quick release steering wheel and ordered a Subaru badge of ownership for it. I plan to put the badge of ownership on the 818 somewhere as a memorial for the Wrx. I miss that car sometimes and I wish I had driven it more before I tore it down. It wasn't exactly safe to drive though. I found out during the teardown that it had a broken front sway bar endlink. Doh!

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[rjp]

Are you counting the donor and 818 as separate Subarus or the same?

[Ajzride]

I like the exhaust tips up high like that, but seems like a nightmare to try and actually fabricate, hope you got better metal skills than I do.

[BigDanSubaru]

Are you counting the donor and 818 as separate Subarus or the same?

The donor is the Subaru tied to the badge of ownership by VIN. The 818 is more of a Frankenstein Subaru I suppose. An American made kit car brought to life with Japanese organs.

[BigDanSubaru]

I like the exhaust tips up high like that, but seems like a nightmare to try and actually fabricate, hope you got better metal skills than I do.

I'll definitely be paying a performance shop to fabricate that exhaust for me. There is no way I could do that with my level of welding experience (1 project in college).

[BigDanSubaru]

While I was waiting for my kit, I started collecting some aftermarket parts for the build. My basement quickly started piling up with stuff!

Mishimoto X-line radiator, Boyd fuel tank, Corbeau Forza seats and harnesses, STI aluminum front lower control arms and some beautiful parts from Zero Decibel Motorsports.

For anyone interested in my wheel setup, here are the specs.
Front Wheels: 18x8 +45 Storm Grey Enkei Tuning TS-V
Front Tires: 215/35ZR18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S
Rear Wheels: 18x9.5 +45 Storm Grey Enkei Tuning TS-V
Rear Tires: 255/35ZR18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S

I am using the VeryCoolParts trailing arms for clearance in the rear as well (pics later).

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[BigDanSubaru]

A little more prep work while I wait for the kit to arrive. Got my blast cabinet put together and my air compressor all hooked up. I also ran a leak-down test on the motor and found that all of the cylinders were well within spec. I expected this, since the motor only has 58k miles on it and the single owner was an older gentleman who took it to the dealer for regular maintenance. But it didn't feel right to do all of this work and not just check it. Plus I picked up a cool tool that I can use on my other cars to check engine health. I ran this test with the engine at room temp because it was already pulled from the donor. I think it will still be fine though. The test is probably more conclusive with the engine at stable operating temp so all of the expansion can take place before the test.

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[BigDanSubaru]

DELIVERY DAY! I knew this day would come some day. I was going to make this project happen no matter what it took. This was such an exciting day! Al (our delivery driver) is an awesome guy. He is super helpful and nice. I tipped him some cash along with an assortment of fresh baked cookies from a local bakery in town. I went through all of the boxes and took inventory which was a pretty laborious task. But it was like Christmas morning opening all of the carbon fiber parts. I'm really impressed with the build quality on them. I recorded the delivery with my security cameras but the quality is that of a potato. I might edit them together someday and put it on YouTube.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Rivets for days! Here are some pictures of when we attached the aluminum panels underneath the car. We also started putting the front firewall together.

Over on the engine stand, I am taking the intake manifold off to be cleaned up and painted later. I also started disassembling the front brake calipers for media blasting. Just taking the brake pads out made a gigantic rusty mess on my nice new workbenches. But, that's what I built these benches for. They are going to get all dirty and dinged up at some point anyway.

At this stage, these posts are going to seem very ADHD. Which makes sense because that's effected me my whole life. I jump from task to task quite often. Stuff still gets done, just not in any particular order.

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[BigDanSubaru]

The rear lateral links were horribly rust (as was everything else under the donor car). I media blasted them, primed and painted them. I was considering just upgrading to adjustable ones, but I decided to file that one into my future upgrades list. I am too early in the build and I don't want to spend a bunch of money right up front. Anything could go wrong at any time and I chose to save my funds for when/if that happens.

I got the STI aluminum LCAs installed. Some holes in the frame got a little too much powder coat in them and the bolts would not fit through. I opened the holes up to the correct size, nbd. One thing that I underestimated was just how much time it takes to clean up and paint parts. Not even just the donor parts either. There are so many brackets and such that come with the kit that are not powder coated from FFR. It would be nice if they had at least done the door frames and corner fender supports since those are so large. Powder coating is so expensive here so I am just painting those items with black chassis paint from Autozone.

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[BigDanSubaru]

My front knuckles were so rusted that the ball joint pinch bolts snapped off in each one. I was pretty frustrated and over-excited to get them apart and messed them up even worse trying to extract the broken bolts. So I used that funds I would have spent on the adjustable lateral links on new front knuckles. With the new knuckles and wheel bearings in hand, I drove to my uncles shop where he pressed everything together for me.

When I got home, I just HAD to throw the front wheels on. In true The Fast and the Furious fashion, I did so without the brake rotors on because... you know....who needs those?

The rear hubs are cleaned up and painted. Ready to be taken to my uncles shop later to get assembled.

I put all new Whiteline bushings in the lateral links which are polyurethane. Notice that I also ground off the sway bar connection tabs. Those were driving me insane since they have no purpose on the 818.

Okay, so I guess I'll take the wheels off and put my brake rotors on. I picked up some slotted EBC rotors. I don't trust the drilled ones after seeing so many fail on the track.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Time to start working on the rear a little bit. It took forever to blast all of the rust off of the rear knuckles. I also had to get my uncle to press the really long bolt out that holds the lateral links on. That bolt was seized in there tight! I got them cleaned up and painted then assembled with new wheel bearings. Rear wheel ON! But....it hits some stuff. The large gold colored upper link is hitting the wheel. I played around with some adjustments in the alignment, but it was still hitting.

While I did some research on weather or not I would need wheel spacers, I blasted and painted the front brake rotor dust covers. I also cleaned up and deleted a bunch of the lines on the power steering rack. The manual tells you to just loop the line on the rack with a hose which is what I did. But it didn't mention anything about all of the other ports that are near the input shaft on the rack. I decided to cut all of those lines and cap them so the system is sealed up. I finished it off with the Whiteline steering rack polyurethane bushing kit.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Back onto the brake caliper project. I got them all media blasted and in primer. Then I started brainstorming ideas for the color. I landed on classic red because I think it looks good on almost any color of car and I am not set on what color mine will be yet. I also took some inspiration from another builder (Mike Camera) and had some custom decals made to suit the car a little more. I tried to get the decals to resemble the OEM Subaru styling, but with a little more pizazz (cars with italicized font on their brake calipers go faster).

I painted the rear Subaru sway bar (which goes in the front on the 818) in the same red caliper paint. Then I got the steering rack installed (temporarily) to get it off of my workbench. I decided not to install it using the FFR clamp. I opted for the Zero DB Motorsports version because I think it supports the rack more evenly and won't smash the bushing so much.

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[BigDanSubaru]

These are some pictures of the rear suspension install. You can see where it is contacting the wheel. Looks like I'll need wheel spacers to clear the suspension components.

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[BigDanSubaru]

While I am working out the rear wheel spacing problem, I assembled the front calipers and installed them on the car. Fresh rebuild with new seals and I replaced any pistons that had scoring on them. I also assembled the rear calipers but I can't install them until I have the rear worked out.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Took a break from the suspension work to get some things done on the engine. I removed the stock oil pan, pickup and windage tray. Replaced them with all Killer B products. I have had issues with the Subaru oiling system before and I don't want those issues on my 818. The pan may hang below the frame when the engine is installed. But I will work out a solution to that later. Maybe as simple as a skid plate or perhaps installing a spacer plate between the frame and the engine mounts to raise the engine a bit. Has anyone done that?

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[BigDanSubaru]

Went to test fit the headers and found that the OEM oil heat exchanger interferes with it. From what I've read on it, it's more for cold start to help the oil heat up to normal operating temp than it is for cooling. I deleted it. I can always run a thermostatic sandwich adapter and use an external oil cooling system later if need be. I also took the timing covers off and started the belt replacement process. Lastly I installed the magnetic drain plug and the oil drain valve in the oil pan. I rotated the valve flat after I took the picture and realized how stupid it was to have it hanging down like I originally installed it. I have this valve on my 2015 wrx and I love it. Makes oil changes so clean and quick and it has never leaked a drop.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Bolted all 4 wheels on for some pictures even though the rears still aren't sorted out yet. I am working on the wheel spacer thing. I also finished installing the new timing belt kit. All JDM parts of OEM quality. None of the cheap Chinese knockoffs that come with the Gates kits now. I had to replace one of the covers because it was cracked. While I was at the dealership, I got all new hardware for the covers too since those were all rusty.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Turns out they don't sell wheel spacers at Home Depot. BUT, they do sell flat washers. This worked for getting an idea of how thick the spacer would need to be to achieve the desired clearance. But I would never leave it installed like this. That doesn't seem safe. 3D printed plastic is a much safer option, right? Just kidding! My coworker has a 3D printer and was bored so he printed this spacer for me to try out for fitment. Unfortunately the bolt pattern was just slightly off and the spacer would not slide onto the hub. It's a cool paper weight for my desk now.

I finally landed on some 10mm spacers (link below). I bought them with some extended wheel studs to ensure there is enough bite on the lugs. This worked out great! I have the clearance that I need now for the suspension components. Hopefully the tires don't rub the fenders. If they do, I'll have some more work to do to sort that out.

https://www.fastwrx.com/products/mac...th-wheel-studs

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