I spy Turbo Colt!!!

Opps, thats an old Legacy wagon.

 

^ Yep - that's my new daily driver...if I can ever get it back together. Funny thing is I almost bought an old turbo Colt that'd been modded to be AWD, but it was an automatic and they'd completely gutted the interior. The legacy is getting a 5-speed swap with 3.9 ratio and a VSLD for the back. Motor is an EJ20G JDM WRX engine out of a 1996. Going to run it off the US Legacy 2.2 turbo ECU so I'll be down about 20hp over the standard EJ20G.

Also in the garage is a partially stripped GC8 impreza, a completely stripped Merkur XR4ti, my BMW Compact, and the T-leg. In one of the other shots (outside), you can see the back end of a starlet. Quite the eclectic mix of cars.

Dave

 

Gotta say I'm jealous of the guys out racing their cars already while I'm stuck in the garage doing body work. My buddy Josh suggested that once I was pretty happy with what I'd done, I should hit it with a coat of paint to see if there were any imperfections. Damn...this technique works well...too well.



So, it was time to get back to work:



And after being pretty happy, it was time for another bit of paint:



Thanks for reading!

Dave

 

More body work...I'll admit this was way more work than I'd been bargaining for. Oh well, gotta finish it, there's no turning back. Here's pics of what I knocked out this weekend:









I think this ones sorta interesting as you can see that now I've just got a few spots I'm still cleaning up vs. the first pic in this post where there were lots of fixes:



And, here's where I ended the weekend. Looking much better, but still a few spots needing some more TLC:



Thanks for checking it out.

Dave

 

Good luck with the body work.

I've earned the nickname... Anti-body man for a reason!

If you need help putting an 18x10.5 wheel under your car to fully support a 285/30/18 or a 275... shoot me a PM. I've got what you need

 

Alright guys, time to ask for some more opinions from the track junkies. I've been using the stock sway bars on the car since it was built, but with sticky road race rubber finding its way onto the car in the next month or so, I figure I need to suck it up and think about upgrading them.

OEM front bar: 24mm and ~11 lbs
OEM rear bar: 22mm

I've seen various front bars offered, but these appear to be the commonly suggested options:

Cusco 25mm
Tanabe 25.4mm tubular chromoly (bonus points for being 3lbs lighter than OEM)
Whiteline 26mm

Out back, I actually picked up a 3-way rear sway bar with adjustable end-links a few years back but have never used it. Not sure who made it, but its dark grey/silver and measures right about 25mm.

Curious to hear your guys thoughts!

Dave

 

Hotchkis rear and the Tanabe Front

Reason: They're lighter.

Explanation: Weight is more important.

 

I'd go with the hotchkis rear.

As for if you really need FSB or even the rear, comes down to spring rate. For hillclimbing you don't want as stiff a spring setup as you would use for tracks. Altho its not all that far off!

Personally i'd do the rear and not worry about the front.

 

i think you have spys in my shop dave :P my new sway bars are sitting next to the car

 

Hmmm, both you guys have recommended the hotchkis rear bar, but I've already got a 25mm one. I need to dig into my parts pile tonight and see if I can determine who made the rear bar I've got. If weight savings is the only reason to consider the Hotchkis rear bar over the one I've got, I'll probably just stick with what I've got (2-3 lbs for $200 isn't worth it to me), and I'm already planning on taking big weight off the back end of the car with other mods. On the front end since I don't have an upgraded one yet, going with the hollow one sounds like a smart move.


I picked my springs a little on the soft side because of the un-even nature of public roads, so was thinking based on that, the sway bar upgrade might be more important than on a 'normal' track car so the car doesn't lean too badly.

Add to that this local guy I know named Paul said I should be swapping out the stock one.

Dave

 

Awesome!

 

I run a robispec adjustable FSB so i don't think that its a BAD idea! lol . Its just that cost/PIA i'm not too sure that you really need it. You can just dril another hole in your stock one to make it adjustable and stiffer. . Not alot of room to do it but it can be done.

 

Gotcha. If I didn't have access to a lift, I wouldn't consider it, but with the new shop, dropping the subframe should be relatively quick and painless. Read some posts on re-drilling the stocker, and it seemed like you'd pick up just 3-5% according to some calculations.

Found this handy chart on whiteline's website giving approximate stiffness changes:

http://www.whiteline.com.au/docs/bulletins/BL-281.pdf

I'm assuming that with the Tanabe since its hollow but using chromoly instead of spring steel, that this chart doesn't really help. If I went with the Whiteline 26mm offering, that'd be approximately 38% stiffer. Anybody have a clue on how much stiffer the Tanabe one is?

Dave

 

Just keep in mind that 24mm is pretty big for a stock FSB. This isn't a subaru were talking about!

 

Ok, swaybar decision seems to be relatively easy on which one I should do if I decide to go through the trouble of upgrading. Next up is underbody body and chassis bracing. Since I've been running skid plates under the car for years, I seem to have lost those two black bars that tie the control arm mounting points together. My car is relatively stiff...fully seam welded and rally cage that ties in at 10+ points around the chassis.

I don't have the money or desire to bolt a jungle gym to the bottom of the car with the whole line of Cusco bits, but since I don't have those OEM braces, is there any benefit to picking up a brace to tie the front and back edges of the control arms together? Seems like there are two styles, a plain jane looking box, or the Tanabe which ties into the upper bolt on the control arm.





Now that I think about it, the Tanabe option might be better as I think those tabs on the bottom of the front edge of the control arm got bent up pretty good. Rears are still fine, but somehow I unwelded the captive nuts on them...quick instal FTL!

Another brace that I see folks mention as being beneficial is the front fender brace. Seems like there are two styles to these:





Seems to me like the fully triangulated one would do a better job, but it sits pretty close to the fender liners, so I'm wondering if that might cause issues with wide tires and a lowered car.

Thanks!

Dave