This project has been ongoing for the balance of this year and is almost fully completed before I take it to stage II for some power upgrades. I will try to be as brief as possible from how I got the vehicle and what was done over the current year. Story is that my bro purchased an '06 Cross Sport Forester through Crism a couple of years back and over time the car was just never taken care of, car was lovely but never serviced regular and over time it began to deteriorate. Starting his new business he needed to get something more suited so he decided that he would have sold the car, I always told him that if selling check me as I drove it once or twice and it never let me down. Weeks from receiving his new vehicle he got in an accident, the forester was a wreck, I could not believe .
The insurance didn't offer him much for the wreck so I told him to keep it and I would take it off his hands. What a shame as this cross sport came with lots of STi stuff even though it didn't have the STi logo on most anything. Anyway, moving on now so I wrecked the car home after much a conversation with both mom and wifee, I needed to scrap the entire front end to see what the damage was and what sort of damage the engine took as well. Damn was not a nice sight, removed the smashed HID headlights, mangled condenser and radiator had to be cut out as the front end was jammed totally against the engine. It seems that the car had direct impact on the passenger side chassis and it looked to have been crumpled llike a harmonica, seriously. The entire engine twisted and the transmission was jammed into the tunnel and the driveshaft was bent as well so the car could not even roll on its own.
Now began the fun part, removing the engine, I disconnected all harnesses from the engine in an effort to remove it but then decided that raising the engine up and out was the only option. I decided to drain the transmission and remove that to make the engine out problem easier. Transmission dropped out with not much problems besides dislocating my shoulder, long story. Biggest issue was removing the downpipe from the turbo as it was jammed against the booster. In the end after three to four hours and stripping a converter bolt I was able to remove the exhaust and the engine, for a first-timer on a subaru and a wrecked one it was not too bad. Decision was made to leave the crossmember in as the passenger side was bent to much that if taken off it may not have been able to go back on. Looking at the engine bay now the firewall was impacted and now I could really assess the damage from the accident.
Next move, stripping the interior, this was easy and in the space of two hours most of the interior was out. The blower setup was cracked up as it jammed against the dash bar and is all broken, the instrument panel as well is a little cracked as well but on further review I will have to use it as it is not a regular setup, will touch on that later. So interior is scrapped, seats are mint, looks like STi non-embroidered seats, not the regular fabric or leather material, seat belts are locked from the impact. So now let me give an further update what has been done since then. I have made several trips to Neal and Massy, bought the last front fenders at a discounted price, got the last new non-turbo bonnet from Gobin, the resident Subaru parts man, as N&M did have a turbo bonnet or non-turbo for that matter. Priced replacement HID headlights and they came up to $11,000 ($1800USD) each before discount, that was not an option, choice at that point was to get a non-hid setup and retrofit the HID setup in it or pay $7,000 ($1100USD) for them outside which was still heavy for my as budget did not cater for that expense. My next step was a brave one, I spoke with my friend in Japan and bidded on some HID headlights, scored them at a very good price and had them shipped to me. I also decided to bid on an entire air bag setup from an SG5 and won that and had those items shipped to a friend in Japan and packed in a container to be brought in.
While parts were being shipped in I began cleaning the carpets and mats and whatever I could to past time and eventually I got my hands on the headlights which were in mint condition and a two months later I received my air bag setup. I removed the dash bar and some harnesses from the engine bay passenger side so that whenever the car had to go to be straightened I would get the best job possible with notihng being in the way. Now we move to a three weeks ago, car was wrecked to the shop to be pulled and straightened, a front half was purchased, no exterior or engine and transmission but all other harnesses and really what I needed. Plan was to swap the entire passenger side chassis and apron and the front radiator panel. The straightener began the process of pulling and realised that while he was able to get the firewall sorted the chassis was in a mess so it had to be drilled and removed. A day later I came to find the entire left side removed and he began unsweating the needed parts from the front half. All harnesses and whatnot were stripped and labelled and boxed for future purposes. I was also able to score on a reinforcement bumper bar, left and right side L-frames along with some other pieces that I would have eventually needed.
Revisited the straightener to find the front-end on and loooking somewhat like a car again, problem time, the fenders and bonnet fit no problem but the headlights do not fit, seems that the older model radiator panel is a little different form the '06 model radiator panel, well luck would have it that I purchased the last radiator panel months before and was actually trying to sell it, good thing I didn't and bit the bullet and had him unsweat the older model panel and fit this one. In the end now the headlights fit, bumper support, fenders, bumper, crossmember, steering rack ........ EVERYTHING!!!! My only problem now is that the repaired bumper has stretched and does not fit proper so I will have to take the vehicle over to have the bumper cut and rewelded to fit properly, I would have bought a new bumper but they do not have this model STi bumper locally so will have to get it fixed somehow. Sorry for being this wordy but will edit with pictures where possible.
The damage,
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. Don't underestimate the W3 JL 8", it thumps even better than in the skyline 
