The Bolton Build - 818C

[FFRWRX]

I thought I should start a build thread since so many of them have helped me; hopefully I can pay back a bit and maybe help others.

The background:

I bought my kit partially built. It came from western Canada, made a brief stop in Mississauga, and then I bought it and brought it to Bolton (just north of Toronto, Ontario). I have not been in touch with whoever started this build, but they did a very good job. It was built to the point of a running car (2006 Impreza WRX donor) with some of the body panels in place. It included the Factory Five black wheels, most of the carbon fibre pieces, powder coated frame, padded interior pieces, trunk kit, and boxes and boxes of parts.

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When I got it, it wasn't really running. It would start with enough effort, but wouldn't have any power or run above idle. Not sure exactly what the issue(s) were, but I cleaned some of the grounds, corrected the spark plug gap (from .046" to .031") and replaced the O2 sensors. Starts and runs now.

I have a 4-post lift which makes it much easier to work on. I took the roof section off the car and hung it from the ceiling.

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First priority was to put an exhaust system on it. I wanted a catalytic converter to reduce the exhaust smell, and a muffler to keep it fairly quiet. I used 2 1/2" pipe. Since I have the trunk kit I wanted the exhaust to be well below that, which also means it can't cross over the tranny from one side to the other.

Being limited in the room to run any length of piping, I bought a cat, muffler, and some 'U' bends from Summit Racing and put it together. Please excuse my welds; I know they are pretty awful. It is the way I chose to adjust the bends that caused most of that. Instead of taking things apart and re-cutting the angles on the ends of the pipes, I cut a 'V' out of the pipe, closed the gap, and welded it. Good in theory, ugly in practice.

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I've got about 2" clearance with the tire and the CV boot, so I'm going to wrap the pipes. There is a support just after the muffler up onto one of the frame members. The tail pipe piece is clamped so I can adjust it to make sure it is straight and to see how far I want it to protrude.

Next priority was the wiring. The stock harness was all there, with the exception of the airbag stuff. There was so much wire and connectors stuffed into the center console that I just couldn't leave it like that.

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I've made a lot of progress with the wire diet, thanks to the information posted on the forum. I'll start to detail that next.

That's it for now,

Rick
former FFR1063 owner/builder -- the first Factory Five car in Canada