So what do we do...

We're debating - Keep the dash - Get rid of the dash... Personally, I think get rid of the crap and sell it to put some cash back in the car fund. But - What do we do after it's gone?

Here are a few of our options:

• Painters tape over the existing dash and lay a thin layer of fiberglass and resin.
• Remove the dash and build a custom dash out of a "net" or "skeleton" of balsa and hot glue. and glass over it.
  
• Aluminum sheet metal.
• Zip tie the cluster to the dash beam and race it!!! (ya I'm sure tech inspection would approve that, haha).
• Get some thin PVC type material, heat gun it, and shape it into what we want - lay some glass over that.
  

There has to be at least 40-50 lbs in the dash, heater core, AC crap, and blower. Not to mention the random brackets and airbags.

Feel free to comment, we need some ideas!

Finishing Up

So last weekend we finished up the front end body work. Tacked in the new panels and primed them up. Everything lines up perfectly... other than the radiator brackets which totally confuses us... maybe the piece was stamped wrong? - Anyway - That can be a quick fix with Kris' TIG Welder and some Aluminum :)

The tacking and seam welding went very smooth and was easier to align than expected. I guess that can be attributed to the minor damage up front.

Once we finished we moved to removing the interior. It all came out easily and we made sure to preserve each piece for resale down the road. Next step will be removing all that sound deadening - Ugg - Dry Ice here we come...

Motor?

Well - Opportunity presents itself - I think I'll take advantage. A local friend of mine came across a EJ205 (US 2.0L Turbo motor) out of an 2005 Subaru WRX. We picked up the ECU, Wiring Harness and motor (bad short block - spun rod bearing) along with the stock radiator, fans and other goodies. The seller had his car totaled when a tree feel on it (Sorry Junior!) but he was able to help us out with costs. - If we end up preparing this car for NASA ST-2 Classification, we're going to need a little more power than the stock 2.5 naturally aspirated motor.

Step 1: Body Work

On the 15th of June, we started working on the structural body work. The front end came apart a lot quicker and easier than we originally thought. We put in about 4 hours worth of work to take out the damaged Radiator Brace and passenger front sheet metal. We had to straighten out the mounting points for the fenders but all it took was a few hundred whacks with a hammer :)

We had to drill out about 50 spot welds and use a metal chisel to pull the damaged panels away from the frame. Once that was done - we cleaned up the metal and made sure it was all ready for the new pieces to be welded in.

While we had the whole darn thing apart - we figured it wouldn't ever get ANY easier to do a timing belt and water pump. So we did.

The Beginning !

So the ultimate goal of this blog is to keep both a log of our personal progress and build history, but also as a user guide for those who have interest in a similar project down the road.

So we found our Subaru 2.5RS shell at a local auto auction for around 1400$. The reason for the low price was it has a salvaged title and accident damage to the front passenger side. The research we did on the chassis revealed it had been in an accident with a truck, localizing the damage above the frame.

Closer inspection - we found the frame is straight, motor unhurt (besides the cracked timing belt covers and bent power steering pulley, haha). Cosmetic wise, she's hurt - but nothing we can't fix! (Plus... race cars don't need to be pretty, do they?)

Pictures as of the beginning (Project Started: 6/15/09)