Joy... of Building and Driving

[chug_A_bug]

Looks like a Fun little project... just have have with Joy and keep the pics Coming.

STI power Sound Great.. maybe AWD too

Chris.

[Humble]

I don't think I'll be going AWD, I think it spoils a lot of the driving "sharpness" from rwd cars. My daily is an 07 mazdaspeed 3, still stock if you can believe it, and while I love the power, it lacks the more precise nature that my 04 bmw 330 had. I loved driving my old street bug project Mojo, but I never really dialed in the suspension. I'm going to try and keep things as simple as possible.

I've been re-reading my build threads, dredging up old successes and failures I had forgotten about, but also a lot of dreams and ideas I didn't get around to. Taking lessons from my other cars I think I'm going to start simple then progress through each step, even though certain parts might go through multiple iterations.

I'm going to divide like this:

stock motor - reliability
exterior - new front and rear glass, all new seals, blackout trim, kamei spoiler
brakes & wheels - upgrade to disks and 15" 4x100 wheels
suspension - custom or sourced coilover front, front sway bar, mendeola rear
interior - steering wheel, rear seat delete, seats, stereo and speakers, panels
motor/trans - subaru motor and trans swap, stock wrx or sti to start
brakes & wheels - 4 pot wilwoods and 11.75" slotted rotors, more wheels
suspension - re-evaluate coilovers, rack & pinion swap
paint - a real paint job

[Humble]

Alright, updates are on their way! I've been stock piling parts over the winter and found a bunch I'd forgotten about, so Joy is getting a suspension/brake overhaul this week. She's also getting a new set of wheels and tire but you'll have to wait until the end to see those

Here's what I've accumulated:
Front:
disk brake swap
SS braided brake lines
flip-it tie rod conversion
new lower ball joint
new tie rods
new idler arm
new steering damper
new camber+ eccentric adjusters
new 7/8" sway bar
new lowered castor fix sway bar bushings
new control arm sway bar bushings and hardware
new coil over kit and front springs
old kamei front air dam

Rear:
disk brake swap
SS braided brake lines
new pivot and spring plate bushings
take-off kyb shocks from the race bug
944T torsion bars from the race bug

Also on the horizon is blacking out the trim, handles, and headlight rings, and new window seals and maybe new windows.

I'll already started the work, rear disks are on but calipers aren't mounted yet. Since this bug is a CA car that has never left the SF bay area, everything is coming off so smoothly. I can see why folks want CA cars so badly!