88 WRX Touring Wagon Project

[wagonist]

I'll get some pix up when I get home again, but basically the gist is this:

Achieved so far:
88 Touring wagon rolling shell bought
87 EJ20T RX Turbo sedan bought
both stripped to within an inch of their lives (actually the sedan has been stripped way beyond that & is now officially dead)
JDM 4.11 gearbox & diff sold
00 Oz spec WRX gearbox & Oz Lib RS rear diff bought
engine bay of the wagon prepped & repainted.
00 WRX 4 spot front brakes bought
JDM 93 WRX front brakes sold
custom twin core rad to suit EJ20T fittings bought
inlet manifold & cam covers painted for that blingage factor (water/air intercooler & front calipers are next)
nose cut bought to replace some bent panels
rad support modified so rad drops vertically onto mounts
steering column tilt mechanism swapped to later version
WRX ECU mounts remade to fit onto L series ECU mounts
WRX hydraulic clutch master cylinder mounted
WRX brake master cylinder mounted & brake lines modified to suit
new uprated clutch kit bought
factory full skirt kit bought

Tasks remaining to get it on the road:
reinstall WRX engine wiring loom into touring wagon.
modify central locking
finish installing the alarm
finish modifying clutch pedal to suit hydraulic clutch
finish modifying handbrake cable to suit rear handbrake
buy Lib RS turbo rear brakes (got some? pls contact me)
modify RS rear backing plates to fit L series
change suspension

Stuff to do when I can afford it:
modify RX turbo interior to fit wagon (when funds allow)
paint rest of the shell (when funds allow)
get custom swaybars
get upgraded suspension

We want pics when you get back too.

[mattw]

I saw a freaky L wagon/WRX conversion happening here in Adelaide a couple of years ago which blew me away. Whoever owned it had tasked a chassis repair workshop to perform a total WRX running gear swap, suspension and all. the guys at the workshop had boxed up new suspension/ diff mounts front and rear.
major work went into making the mounting point to suit the rex lower wishbone arangement, unfortunately resulting in a shortened wheelbase at the front (scrub, scrub I bet). Major structural work performed from front to back. Aparently the owner had plans of rallying it (or thats what he said, and was going to put it on the road on the sly). It sat around at this workshop unfinished for ages, low on its gold wrx alloys (ran out of money?) If I wasn't at uni at the time I would have made an offer. ... Amazing effort was put into it. don't know of its whereabouts now. he paid up his bill and took his unfinished project home..
Anyone else see this one?

Love to see pics of your work, mad keen to do one myself one day, before we run out of the 'distilled dino juice'

[BlackMale]

when u get back i want them now.

[wagonist]

My camera's been playing up & my unwired connection at home hasn't been allowing me to upload photos to imageshack.

Got the camera sorted now & I'll post up some pix next week.
Hopefully the weather clears up a bit so it looks ok.

I've heard about someone doing the WRX rear suspension swap, but it sounds like too much work, though the rear suspension setup in particular is a lot better than the L series.
With some adjustable castor/radius rods, I reckon the front could be made better than the WRX.

I did see an article in an old Zoom magazine about a guy who simply swaped in the whole brakes from an RS Liberty.

He got the front lower control arms machined to accept the balljoints from the RS steering knuckle and then the strut bolted in. Used the RS steering rack as well. Not sure what he did out back, I'll see if I can dig the article up for you.

I do believe MechaWagon has done a similar swap however.

[wagonist]

I've got that Zoom as well.
I've got the complete WRX struts fitted into the lower control arms, hence the reason I can now fit my 4 spots to the front.

Mine had WRX (well mostly) rear brakes on, but the way they were fitted was well dodgy & wouldn't hold up to an engineer.

going to an engineer this weekend hopefully with some ideas to get an opinion on what can & can't happen.

[wagonist]

Some pics
Before of both cars:


Damage on each:


Mid term pic of wagon (RS rims are now sold):


& this is the engine

Not sure how its going to look in a bright yellow engine bay yet....

If the sun stays out I'll get some pics ofthe cars in their current states.

[wagonist]

The current status of the 2 cars:

[BlackMale]

Nice 1... she is really comming along. Oh and Thanks 4 the pixs.