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Way back in December 2018, I posted this thread about a Factory Five factory tour: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3877148 In January of 2019, I purchased a 2006 WRX in lovely condition to use as a donor for an 818 build. This was my progress on the project for quite some time (not including selling my condo and buying a house with a good sized garage). Last year, April 2022, I finally decided the timing was right, and so I booked a trip to Michigan to go to the Factory Five build school, with the intent to order a kit after if I didn't decide I hated it. Unfortunately for me, my timing was impeccable. In December of 2021, Factory Five stopped taking orders on the 818. It's not a high profit kit for them, and they could max out their production making their other more profitable kits. The GTM was also paused. According to their wording, and their responses, the 818 was not discontinued, you just couldn't order it anymore, and also they may not resume orders, and they don't have a plan for it's future yet. I was dumb, and being optimistic, so kept waiting to hear that they were opening the order books again. I started evaluating other things I could do with my donor. It's got rust in spots all over it. The previous owner did horrible things to it. I started asking around to see if I knew someone who might be interested, but I wasn't ready to get rid of it just yet. By luck, the one person from the build school that actually had a kit already on order contacted me to see if I was interested in buying their virtually unstarted kit. It was configured with pretty much every option I was after, including the correct donor year setup. He had also purchased a lot of third party parts that I had also planned to purchase. About a week later and the kit was in my garage. This was back at the start of April. To provide some information to those who aren't familiar with the 818 (which is probably almost everyone), the 818 is a mid-engine rear wheel drive kit from Factory five that uses a 2002-2007 Impreza, WRX, or STI car as a donor. The kit includes a tube frame chassis and fiberglass body (plus other bits and bobs). The transmission gets converted to front wheel drive and then shoved in the back of the chassis. The suspension, brakes, cooling system, and electronics from the donor are all used, plus other miscellaneous parts. The coupe looks a bit like this:  (This is a giant sticker that the kit's prior owner had printed and since he was getting rid of the kit, he let me take it. The photos in this post are all donor-related, since that's where most of the work is right now. Donor looking deflated, having sat around in various places for 4 years.  These wheel dollies roll infinitely better than the rusted-everything donor.  Rust  Rust that sealed the hood closed  Rust & mangled pinch welds  Rust  Rust & Oil  The engine bay (hood removed)  Even the pulley is rusty  Rodents storing stuff everywhere  E: Updated image links to images posted via an account. carticket fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Apr 30, 2023 |
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Apr 30, 2023 18:28
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 18:04 |
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This is out of chronological order, since I got the kit before I started tearing down the donor. The kit packed up in a trailer just before departing for my garage.  The body panels unloaded.  The chassis and all the boxes of parts.  Compacted the body onto the chassis temporarily. The hard top took up the other garage bay for about a week.  I then hung it upside down from the basement ceiling. It's a bit low under it but you can still move around.  And what better location for all the carbon fiber bits!  I started inventory and organizing boxes and quickly realized I needed more shelf space and also stronger shelves  The larger stronger shelves  Almost done with inventory at this point  I don't have anything more recent, but I finished the inventory. That new shelf is much more filled now. I discovered a few missing parts: two aluminum panels that make up the front splash guards and something rather important: the rear hatch. Due to the way the previous owner took delivery of the kit, the hatch was never included. Luckily, Factory Five still has those parts and is going to provide it even though they want you to do an inventory within 45 days of taking delivery. The two aluminum panels I can purchase from them. I hung a piece of plywood from the basement ceiling and shoved all the other aluminum panels up there. The body (minus the hard top) is hidden under my screen porch, covered by a tarp and on pallets to keep them off the ground, but setup so any water that does get in should be able to drain away. The kit is basically moth balled until I either get tired of removing rusty parts from the donor or finish removing rusty parts from the donor. E: Including here rather than another post. At this point, I've removed three of the four doors on the car. As shown above, the hood has been removed. I've removed the radiator/fans, the alternator, and battery. It's been a bit slow going both due to time availability, and also having to stop and shop vac after every part comes out. So far, none of the bolts have been seized, which is much better than I've been expecting. I've been labelling every coolant connection because some of these parts are reused as-is, and some are adapted for the new chassis. I need to go do that with the electrical connections (the door connections, and two airbag sensors that were removed), as I will need to hack away at the harness once it's out. carticket fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Apr 30, 2023 |
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Apr 30, 2023 18:43
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IOwnCalculus posted:Following this one closely. My old man used to kick around the idea of doing a Factory Five Roadster, but now he's content to drive an overpowered Cadillac instead. The Roadster is a million times easier than the 818 according to the guys who teach the build school. Mostly because things are more modular, simpler designs, and replica parts. They had to work hard to make the Impreza platform work for this build. Their goal was lowest cost to build, so using as much of the donor as possible.
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Apr 30, 2023 21:20
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Updates are going to be pretty sparse, since all I'm doing right now is donor teardown. I switched from drivetrain teardown to interior teardown to change things up a bit. I think I might make a bench from the rear seat. I printed out the whole wiring diagram so I can properly label connectors with the connector letter+number from the diagram. I have a feeling I will thank myself later for doing that.
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May 17, 2023 04:56
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I'll probably post some pics at milestones like a stripped interior, empty engine bay, etc. I still have to figure out how I'm going to roll the husk into the driveway.
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May 17, 2023 14:11
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At the very least, the whole airbag system, which is not coming along, is easy to identify
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May 17, 2023 16:17
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NitroSpazzz posted:Furniture dollies are cheap at harbor freight or similar and work great for pushing car shells around. If you hit a pebble they'll grind to a halt but otherwise they're pretty nice. My driveway is 100% pebbles. I've got the kit chassis on a set of those dollies, though! Slow is Fast posted:Yup, its all separate and bright yellow. I use a grinder to grind the security screws off the module. I need a defrost to get the car titled/registered in NH, and the coupe apparently gets quite warm inside, so I was going to do a Vintage Air system. I might try to use the stock controls, just because VA doesn't have any modern looking controls. The air handler and all that, though, is destined for junking.
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May 17, 2023 17:14
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The previous owner of the kit did literally buy a big old bag of bolts for everything since he was using new or professionally rebuilt parts for everything. Hand tool rescue is a big proponent of Evaporust. I also have access to a small sandblaster. Things like the headers, though, I'll just get something aftermarket to replace them probably.
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May 20, 2023 19:42
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Still tearing down the donor. Not a lot of progress made recently. I had someone come out to evacuate the refrigerant and it turns out it was already empty. It probably leaked out over years. Finished stripping the interior aside from a few small trim pieces and carpets. Gotta sort through the rubble tonight. E: few of these parts are used in the kit build, so I used the method of "remove screws and nuts until things move" Also found what is probably the least surprising thing in the glove box.  Meeting up with the original owner later this week to get the last few parts. Some sheet aluminum parts. The headlight covers. The rear hatch.
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Jul 18, 2023 19:10
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I picked up the hatch and some aluminum panels today. Still need to get the headlights. The original owner of the kit had an STi 6 speed he bought for the build, and he offered me a deal I just couldn't refuse provided I come and pick it up (a few hours away). So, I guess I'm going to have a 6 speed now. He has all the Factory Five parts to convert it to FWD. I need to look, as I may need to pick up a different bellcrank for the shifter cables.
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Aug 7, 2023 01:49
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Yeah, it's weird. As far as it goes taking about it in a Subaru context, the drivetrain is FWD. In terms of the car itself, it is RWD.
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Aug 8, 2023 04:39
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It is mid engine, correct. The engine is fully ahead of the rear axle.
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Aug 8, 2023 13:01
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Yes, just confusing terminology because the rear wheels are driven with the front axle output on the transmission.
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Aug 9, 2023 00:15
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 Going to end up picking up a hoist just to make getting this out easier, with the only problem being this taking up the rear of the vehicle I would use to pick up an engine hoist. I'll need it for donor teardown and kit build anyway, might as well just get it now. E: this picture makes it look absolutely gargantuan
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Aug 15, 2023 13:22
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It took three of us to get it into the car. That was mostly because it had the mount on and there's a pallet there, so I was in the hatch lifting the "light" end to get it nestled on the pallet, while the other two guys lifted the bulk of it at the other end.
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Aug 15, 2023 19:49
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Based on the sand and concentrated areas of rust, looks like the previous owner of the donor took it on the beach at some point. Stripped the front end, though, and working on extracting the harness. It's almost like they designed it to be installed once and not uninstalled ever.
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Aug 27, 2023 21:29
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   Completed harness extraction from the donor. Photos show the progression over a few days. My garage is a loving disaster of car parts, but I have almost everything off the chassis that I need that isn't attached to the front or rear subframes. Dropping those is the next step. There are still a few odds and ends like fuel pump, fuel level sender, and probably some of the miscellaneous electrical stuff that I unplugged from the harness but left on the chassis. Conservatively, I should have the chassis out of the garage by the end of October, but I'm hopeful to have it out before the end of September. Once I drop the two subframes, I'll need to build a dolly to roll it out on, and then it will sit until the build is far enough along that I'm confident I don't need anything else from it. Then I'll finally have enough room to organize all the poo poo I've taken off of it. carticket fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Sep 5, 2023 |
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Sep 4, 2023 23:21
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Covered in rust tonight. Got the drive shaft out. Everything was pretty well rusted (diff cover, bolts on the shaft and the shaft bearing). Glad I picked up a face shield for working on this. Unbolted the steering column while I was under there. Started removing the front suspension brace. Looks like 8 bolts, and I broke free half of them before stopping for the night. It was a bit too hot to keep at it. E: suspension brace is out. Apparently the parts catalog calls this the "front frame assembly". carticket fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Sep 7, 2023 |
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Sep 6, 2023 03:30
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 After dragging my feet on this for a while, I finally dropped the front subframe. The rear of the car is supported by jackstands because the CG is now very far back until I drop the rear subframe. E: garage is a mess. Something about accumulating parts taken off a car, plus parts going on a car, plus the two chassis takes up lots of space.
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Oct 2, 2023 15:36
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I stuffed most of the trim in the trunk, the body panels are outside, the interior is filled with things like the heating system, dash is on the roof of the car. I also have two extra cat backs, in addition to what came on the car. A goon helped me out by taking the stock struts/springs off my hands, but I still have what was on the car. And I have a lot of new parts for the build so I now have donor parts that need homes. I really can't wait to wheel the chassis out of the garage and just start organizing.
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Oct 3, 2023 02:06
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Between rust malaise, stuck bolts, and a bout with COVID, progress has been slow. I think I've decided to buy new rear suspension components. I still want to get all this crap off the donor, though, and I'm trying to do that this week so I can put the snow tires on my daily. I think it's time to break out the cutoff wheels for some of this (not just the Jesus bolts, per the Subaru thread, but a bunch of other stuck bolts, including the loving oil drain plug on the oil pan).
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Nov 7, 2023 18:53
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Starting to be destructive. Cutting things that need to be cut to remove them from the donor. Drilling holes in the floor of the donor to attach casters. The usual. LH rear assembly is out. I'll get RH tomorrow. Debating on whether I want to bother pulling the remaining suspension bits. I've decided I'm going to buy new lateral links and trailing arms (fancy adjustable ones, I guess), so I don't need to rescue them from the donor. I don't think the bolts are going to get *more* seized over the winter outside.
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Nov 12, 2023 02:18
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 And it's outta here. I still need to jack it back up and get two bolts I couldn't get at while on the quickjack, and maybe I'll go further and get the rear diff out. I've gotta rejigger the rear casters a bit because it turns out the spare tire area is not up to the task of supporting the weight of the chassis. It's scrap at this point, so not a big deal. I could definitely tow it around the driveway as-is, but the rear has a tendency to swing to the passenger side which is annoying.
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Nov 14, 2023 00:22
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Posting my excuse for why I probably won't be working on this project for a bit!
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Dec 7, 2023 13:22
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 18:04 |
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Yeah, I'm okay and so is the other driver. This is +3 days from incident. Still got some bruises and airbag burns in one arm, but they did their job. The car would probably make a great rally car. Replace bumper and bumper beam, bang the very front of the frame back straight. The engine bay looked pretty untouched, all four wheels are in the right spot pointing the right way, no fluids lost. I figure a rally car is gonna get beat up anyway! They could plausibly not total it, but 6 airbags deployed (4 curtains, steering wheel, and footwell), and the frame is tweaked where the bumper attached.
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Dec 7, 2023 19:34
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