svl 818

[svanlare]

The build has started in San Jose!


I put my order in back in Sep and jumped on the hot list shortly thereafter. I also put a deposit on a donor from AJW thinking I would get the donor long before the kit showed up.

Early this year I got the call from FFR that I could have a build date of March 1 if I wanted it. I leapt at the chance even though there had been no progress on the donor front, nor had I cleaned enough of the garage for the project. So much for time to prep.

With the kit’s date fast approaching I took the first donor that became available. I have a 2007 WRX Sedan with 87K miles, pretty much stock except it looks like it got some major work just before it became a donor as the motor and transmission were very clean even though the suspension looks every bit an east coast 4WD used in winter.


In terms of build, this is intended as a fun driver that I’ll use frequently. It is replacing a 1988 911 Targa that I used heavily as a daily driver for 13 years with lots of auto-x and the occasional track day. A couple years ago it was totaled in the morning commute when the guy behind me didn’t stop on the freeway when the rest of us did. Since I have two sons who were 15 and 12 at the time, I picked up a Mazda 3 to teach them to drive and figured I’d pick up something in a couple of years for me.


I’ve looked at several kits as this is a project I’ve contemplated for a long time. I’m primarily looking for a 4-wheel motorcycle, and I’ve been close to starting a 7 clone on several occasions. When I saw the 818 however, I thought that was much closer to something that could be used frequently; and in northern California perhaps even as a 9-month car.

I have no experience with this level of garage project. I very much appreciate in advance all the answers to the rookie questions I’m likely to pose. This forum has already been an incredible resource.

My plan is to use evenings primarily as research and prep. I travel frequently for work during the week so 1 or 2 solid weekends a month is all I really have available. While I’m thinking this is a two-year project, my soon-to-be-15 son is planning on it taking less than a year. I guess I’ll have to take some time off this summer when he is free to make some serious progress.

[svanlare]

As far as progress to date:

The donor arrived March 7th. We got it moved from crates to bins, inventoried all the parts and got everything stored to keep it out of the rain.



After a couple of false alarms, the kit arrived March 29th. Same routine, we got everything out of the rain, unpacked, inventoried, and ready to get started. Since the neighbors were having a party at the time, Stewart had to park the truck down the street and my 818 had it’s first drive down the road!




We even built the front shocks at it seemed too easy a task to pass up while unpacking the first box.


Since one of the backordered parts is the box of rivets, we are back to prepping parts. The Spindles are probably the worst parts we have. I’m looking to borrow a press to get the bearings out, and then off to the bucket-o-doom the parts go.

[Frank818]

Sad to hear about the Porsche. These cars deserve a total respect, but hey, some people don't think way (like that guy from behind).

Let's see how you BOD works out!!!

[STiPWRD]

Good luck with your build!

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Congratulations.
Another father and son(s) project. I am having a blast, I'm sure you will too.
I live in Ohio but do work for Lightning Motorcycles in San Carlos. So I get out there 4-5 times a year.
I give you a call before my next trip.
Bob

[68GT500MAN]

Congratulations on the delivery. You and your sons should have a great time building. If you need some rivets to get started, let me know which ones and I can send you some. Also, come on down to Huntington Beach the weekend of April 26th and get to know some other builders.
Doug

[Mechie3]

2007 is a good donor for the first one to pop up!

[svanlare]

Thanks all for the good-luck wishes, I'm sure I'll need it. The father-and-son project has already been a blast and I can see that continuing.

Sad to hear about the Porsche.

It was rough, we spent 2 months arguing about the value of an old Porsche and how to repair it. Happy to be building the 818 and I'm hoping some of my salvaged parts will make it into the build

I give you a call before my next trip.

Just send me a message and we'll have you over. I'm very excited about your electric build, and it would be fun to connect.

Also, come on down to Huntington Beach the weekend of April 26th

That coincides with spring break for my boys and my parents live in Corona-Del-Mar so it works out pretty well. I'll have the whole family there and really hoping to see a complete 818 there.

As for rivets, I'll keep working on donor prep for now as all that work needs to get done, but if I get stuck I may give you a call.

[svanlare]

The 2007 was more than I wanted to spend, but I hesitated all of about 30 min before deciding it was too good to pass up. The last motor I swapped was a greasy mess (a '72 VW Squareback), so I feel very fortunate that the first donor that showed up requires so little work before I can put it into a car.

[wleehendrick]

The build has started in San Jose!

Welcome! I actually got my donor from up there last year.

My plan is to use evenings primarily as research and prep. I travel frequently for work during the week so 1 or 2 solid weekends a month is all I really have available. While I’m thinking this is a two-year project, my soon-to-be-15 son is planning on it taking less than a year. I guess I’ll have to take some time off this summer when he is free to make some serious progress.

I'm in a similar situation (in terms of travel and time I can put in) plus I'm building off-site... I'm still making good progress. If you can get a few hours in evenings, and a couple weekends a month, it won't take as long as you think!

[wleehendrick]

That coincides with spring break for my boys and my parents live in Corona-Del-Mar so it works out pretty well. I'll have the whole family there and really hoping to see a complete 818 there.

I'll be at H.B. later this month. The original plan was to have my 818 there, but not gonna happen. FFR will bring at least one, Erik's electric will be there, and Brandon may have his R ready, so there should be at least a few!

[AZPete]

Congrats on the arrival! Your donor engine looks much better than mine did before I cleaned it up - and both from AJW. As I said when you were here, I'm envious that you can do a father-son build. Rivets holding you up? Just buy some at Ace and get working.
Pete

[svanlare]

I was pretty excited how the engine looked when it showed up. The spindles, not so much. How is your car coming along, did you get through the wiring?

I won't let rivets hold me back. The next two weekends are booked so I won't be able to work on the car, and since I knocked over my compressor and it is out for repairs I can't really rivet anyways, so I'm cleaning for a bit before we get to real construction.

[Xusia]

Welcome & congrats! I'll be down in Mountain View April 22. Will you be around?

[wleehendrick]

since I knocked over my compressor and it is out for repairs I can't really rivet anyways

I've installed every rivet in my 818 by hand with a $20 Stanley riveter from Amazon. The 1/8" are easy... but the 3/16" really work you forearms!

[longislandwrx]

I've installed every rivet in my 818 by hand with a $20 Stanley riveter from Amazon. The 1/8" are easy... but the 3/16" really work you forearms!

Agreed, there are a lot less rivets than I anticipated and a lot more rivnuts.

[svanlare]

I've installed every rivet in my 818 by hand

I was hoping to be lazy :-)

In any case, I'm hoping to borrow a press this weekend to get the bearings out of the hubs which should leave next week to start drilling and fitting panels.

I've only thought through using rivnuts for the engine firewall (still need to get some panels cut) and the body and then using rivets pretty much everywhere else. However, I imagine with each "sub-job" I'll end up re-evaluating.

[Kalstar]

Great bonding and memories that will last a lifetime. Will be fun to watch what the two of you create.

BTW Harbor Freight sells a cheap air rivet gun, just do it. Works great!

[EODTech87]

BTW Harbor Freight sells a cheap air rivet gun, just do it. Works great!

I second this. I can't imagine how sore my arms would be after installing over 200 rivets in just a couple of days.

[TahoeTim]

Lol - I did 6000 rivets on my airplane.

Get the air riveter... it's man code to NEVER pass up the chance to buy a new tool

[svanlare]

TahoeTim: I completely agree, I have a cabin in the sierras and for a while I was buying 2 of each tool, one for each garage!

[svanlare]

I’ve not had any weekends since the donor or the kit have arrived, but I have squeezed in a couple of weeknights around travel. Since my donor showed up shortly before the kit I really didn’t have time to clean or get ready for the kit to appear so I have been focused on dealing with cleaning the suspension parts.

So I thought I would start by removing the bearings, and then cleaning up the hubs and spindles. Good plan, except the hubs were rusted into the bearings. After a couple of trips to Harbor Freight and several evenings with no progress to show, I hauled all the parts up to my brother’s house where I thought he had a press. Turns out he doesn’t, but he does have a ten pound sledgehammer.

With everything secured, and with appropriate sized socket for a punch, we were able to separate all the hubs. For the most part we killed the bearings at the same time and ended up with just the races left in the spindles. I thought the HF tools could take care of that, so I packed up everything and took it home.

Several evenings later, I gave up on the HF front-end tool set and purchased a press. The rear bearings came out with no problem (2 down) and I was thinking with the right tool every job is easy.




The fronts however still would not budge. All I managed to do with the 12-ton press is bend the press frame, while the bearings stayed fixed. I’m pretty sure I figured out my mistake however. I pulled the retaining clip before we punched out the hubs, and I think the bearings moved a little, but ended up wedged in the spindle. I started cut out the bearing race, but after grinding away for a while thought better of this plan. Click-click-click on the Internet and I have new bearings on their way and a pair of front spindles. I’m sure this won’t be the last mistake I make.

After a number of frustrating evenings, I feel like I’m finally making forward progress. I have a pile of parts now working their way through the bucket-o-doom and I’m very impressed with how well it works. I’m snowboarding with my boys this weekend, and Huntington Beach next, so I’m hoping with two weeks of cleaning parts, I can move into assembly mode.

[svanlare]

Things will stay busy here through May, but I have been able to grab some evenings to make progress.

I’ve worked my way through most of the rusty parts. I’ve cleaned up the donor parts with either the wire brush or the bucket-o-doom depending on what I’m dealing with. Overall, I’ve been able to make steady progress and now have a table worth of parts painted, prepped and ready to go.



This weekend we took a crack at something other than cleanup. We started to panel the front firewall. I’ll be cleaning the aluminum next and then spraying with bed-liner. Hoping this month to have enough evenings to get that done as well as riveting the panels in place so we can start hanging the suspension.




Couple of questions however at this stage.

All of the loose hardware came in a box with my donor. Some of it is easy enough to figure out, but for the rest I don’t have a clue. I’ve been using the opposedForces website for looking up parts, but for many of the hardware descriptions it is just something like: “Nut” or “Bolt-washer assembly”. Does anyone have a source that I can actually figure out the bolt sizes (M8-95mm grade 8) or do I just use my best guess as I go along?



Most of the rusty bolts, I’m going to attempt to throw in the vibrating/tumbler to clean up. Any suggestions on how to treat the parts when they come out so that they don’t just rust away when I’m done?

[K3LAG]

Most of the rusty bolts, I’m going to attempt to throw in the vibrating/tumbler to clean up. Any suggestions on how to treat the parts when they come out so that they don’t just rust away when I’m done?

I threw mine in a zip lock bag with some Breakfree CLP, gave the bag a good shake and let them sit for a while. Wipe the excess CLP off before you use them.

Larry

[Frank818]

One thing I can tell, do NOT use this product on the threads or if you want to keep the zinc plating on the bolts/nuts:

http://www.jelmar.com/CLRbasic.htm

This product removes rust very good by leaving the parts in for a couple of hours and then if it's not all good you just brush and clean. But it removes the zinc plating too, so your bolt is now fully exposed to rust in the threads and you have to apply something to prevents them from rusting. Too much time consuming, so I manually clean only the heads of the bolts and nuts and I don't touch the threads with that product. I use other products to remove dirt and then I apply some spark plug copper grease when I install them.

[svanlare]

K3LAG and Frank818 - Thanks for the suggestions.

Frank, rusted threads is exactly what I'm worried about. Once the bolts are cleaned, if I do nothing to the threads, I'll have a rusty mess on my hands again in no time.

[Frank818]

You can zinc plate the threads. I tried that, it works great, it looks cool, it seems to stay on the threads after you screw and unscrew it, so it serves the purpose, but... it's hell of a long process for just a small item at a time!! I gave up just cuz of that. You need to use warm water to make the process more efficient, but that isn't a prob as the water warms up the more time the process runs. You also need to keep the water swirling, as steady waters tend to prevent mixture from being balanced. And since it's also a direct-line process (anode sees cathode in straight line), you have to turn around the part at some point. And if you leave it in for say 30mins, turn around and leave it in 10mins, you won't have the same thickness of zinc on each side.

You need a lot of zinc sulfate (the heptahydrate, most common and cheapest, ZnSO4+7H2O), about 30ml per 100ml of water and you need a pure zinc plate.

I gave up on all that, way too long.

So if you don't have rust on the threads, I suggest a good clean and then use some copper thread grease (also called copper grease for spark plugs, available at Summit Racing and many other places) to prevent further rusting.
If you have rust, you can put it in your bucket-o-doom to de-rust and then put the copper grease. If there is any zinc plating left, it will keep it. If there is no OEM zinc plating left, then you can use anything you want to derust and still I suggest that copper grease to prevent rusting again. Not too much of it, though.

[STiPWRD]

Spraying the bolts with some WD40 should inhibit the rust (someone correct me here if I'm wrong). This is what I usually do. Also, you may want to buy a bin with some compartments to better organize that big box of bolts. I took my 02 donor apart and labeled all the hardware in bags so if you get stuck, let me know and I can check what I have.

[Doowop]

I've been looking at different solutions. When I was doing for restoration, we use to juste wire brush them, which can be dangerous! , andthen paint them. It is very time consuming and paint chips once you tighten them etc....
It looks like easwood as a kit that is this: http://www.eastwood.com/metal-blacke...ystem-set.html
looks ok but you still have to coat it with clear coat.
I want something simpler.
It seems that parkerizing/Phosphating is a good way to go.
You just need to throw your clean parts in a solution and get it to temperature. you could just put a hot plate in the garage for that purpose. Here is some info:
http://www.palmettoenterprises.net/P...ses/-FAQ-.html
http://www.calvan.com/

I think I will be doing this for all my nuts and bolts and misc brackets, etc...

[svanlare]

I'm going to give the Eastwood system a try and see how it works.

[svanlare]

STiPWRD,
I bought a donor kit, and the hardware just came in a box. I moved it to the plastic container to organize the garage so I had something other than a shelf full of cardboard boxes. I keep planning to sort the parts one evening, but so far that has been a low priority task compared to de-rusting and working on the firewall...

[RM1SepEx]

I used eastwood fast etch on mine, then a wire brush to polish them up... didn't stop them from re-rusting tho

My brother is going to setup Parkerizing for his gun work. That would be a good soln

[svanlare]

I have one more week of travel before I settle down a little. This weekend was my older son’s high school graduation and my wedding anniversary. We celebrated the graduation and will do the anniversary next month somewhere. From here I’m hoping for 1 good weekend a month and continuing to read the forum and take care of smaller jobs in the evenings.

The good news, is all the evenings of cleaning, drilling, painting did have us set up to get the front firewall attached today pretty quickly which brings us to a nice milestone of checking off the first section of the assembly manual. I used a bed-liner finish for the front side and a glossy finish for the interior. I’m planning on mounting some sort of sound deadening and figured it would stick best to the glossy.




As for next steps, most of the suspension parts have been cleaned up. The lower control arms are modified. The shock mount brackets are installed, and I have Wayne’s trailing arms ready to go. I was very thankful for the impact wrench when I took the rear bushings apart and swapped the mounts. Now know why you cannot torque them until they are at ride height.

I have axel disassembly and rebuild as well as steering rack cleanup to go before I can hang all of the suspension.

[AZPete]

Your front firewall looks good. And, it's fun to start building rather than cleaning. I've been learning from your fastener treatment talk but my AJW crate did not have all the fasteners heaped into a box. Many bolts & nuts were threaded back in their original places, which was nice, but all others were missing, which means I got to know the people at Ace very well ($).

[RM1SepEx]

Bummer Pete, since i did my own donor disassembly I have EVERY nut, bolt, clip etc... I have a whole drawer full of unused bolts etc... in my garage

[svanlare]

Thanks! It does feel good to have something built beyond sticking the plastic end caps in the frame.

The eastwood system has arrived, but I haven't started on the bolts yet. I'll make sure to update how that works when I try it. Not being familiar with subaru's, I'm struggling a bit to figure out what nuts and bolts I have vs. which I need. I'm hoping it will be "mostly" obvious once I start trying to put things on the car.

[svanlare]

Had a little time yesterday and so thought we would hang the pedals. Seemed like an easy job that could be pulled off before a dinner party.

Well, on the cars with the with the separate "pedal-box-front-plate", the plate needs to be attached (pg 140) before the aluminum panels (page 60). I got that done right, and then went on to clamp, measure, drill, debut, unclamp, prep, prime, paint, caulk, hang, and rivet the panels in place. Felt good.

Then yesterday when I went to hang the pedals, nothing fit. My guess is the dimensions between the chassis where the pedals attach and how the plate need to be bolted in place to the chassis is critical and I didn't check that before I attached the plate. I think the plate needs to move down 1/8 to 1/4 inch so that the pedals can attach flush to the plate AND attach the to the chassis from the top.

I've drilled out the rivets on 2 of the aluminum panels and today I'll attach the pedals, then finalize the position of the plate then reattach the aluminum. Hopefully I can reuse the holes even if I have to drill new ones into the chassis. That's the plan anyways. If this works, I'll have to add to the assembly suggestions, that completing page 140, and then test fitting the pedals (continue on to page 145) before tightening the pedal plate (page 141), and the doing the aluminum panels (page 60) would make this part of the process a bit less error prone.

[Frank818]

I have that pedal box plate with 5 bolts/nuts M8 in a small ziploc. I have installed the plate and the alu panels and now I pray all the Gods in the Universe I won't need to remove the panel! lolll Darn

[Joseph]

I also bought a kit from AJW. I did not request him to put in a limited slip kit in the differential. Did you get this option? Now I read about many people putting this item in the transmission as part of their build. I am thinking I may wait until I complete the car then find out if I really need this item. I will be using the car only on the street (no racing.) What is your opinion. I noticed that you rolled the car kit into your garage when it was delivered. Did you build a dolly in anticipation of the delivery or does Stewart have a dolly on the truck.

[svanlare]

Frank,
I can now add to the skills I've learned on this project, drilling out rivets. I'm pretty sure you'll have to take off the two panels that the clutch and brake master cylinders go through as the panel attaches from the outside and the aluminum goes over the top. Drilling out the rivets was easy, all of the caulk was a pain. I guess I did a good job there. I'll add a bit more of an update later; but once I got everything lined up, it went together well.

Joseph,
I did not get a limited slip when I ordered the donor. At the time I was worried about budget more than anything else, but now that all the checks have cleared for the kit and the donor, the extra money could be found. I'm on the fence about wether to do this or not, but I'm leaning towards getting one as I race an old 300zx and a Miata and adding the limited slip was the single best addition to both of those cars.