A. Daigh

Wondering if anyone can help me with a strut mount issue i'm having... I have a third gen bh wagon. Recently bought 4th gen Bilstein b6's and jdm pinks. attempted to install with the 4th gen tophat and the bearing on USDM strut mount is to thick and does not expose enough thread to get the nut on far enough. I have read that I need JDM strut mounts but am having a hard time finding them for 3rd gen. Any ideas?? thanks

Here’s mine! Dug up some photos from back in 2011. I recently got interested again so I am going to make some changes and build her again or get a 4th gen and go nuts. We’ll see!

This should be a fun project! Here's Just another idea or possibility for you since it's going to be a fun build car not so much a daily or a wife pleaser...Have you thought about swapping the dash? I know people think STI dash is a downgrade from 05+legacy. I ended up doing this in my 02 outback because I liked the center mounted tach and it actually made the swap really damn easy. Pretty much plug n play other than wiring in the door locks, window switches, wipers, fuel level sensor and pump, headlights and all that. You will have to modify the dash beam slightly but it pretty much bolts right in other than the glovebox area. Oh, and swap some HVAC parts as well (cant remember specifically) but it all works out in the end and is cleaner than you would think. Be prepared to have a small gap on either side (about an inch) due to the STI being slightly narrower than the Legacy. You can hardly notice it though. I would run the STI modules anyway because the car will be mostly STI. I wouldn't even consider a standalone or any of that. If you want to keep the Legacy dash you can still run the STI harness like you were thinking, you'll just have to wire in all the dash functions also.

Dang! $500 is a steal for that donor car. I remember when I did mine, I got an 06 wrx with 32k that had been rolled for like $4500 or something. As dgoodhue said, there's a lot of info out there you just have to do your research. Once again I would highly recommend finding a GT donor car as well so you aren't trying to source all the GT parts individually. I would look for an auto one so you have the driveshaft.

I can definitely be done! However, (from personal experience) swapping into a 300k mile car is where I would do some more thinking. These guys are right, you are going to need pretty much everything off the LGT such as crossmembers (turbo and non-turbo are different to clear exhaust) steering rack, possibly hubs, axles, Wiring, modules, hood, (if going that route.)paint? body work? So you need two donor cars if you want to do it as cheap as possible. Now you are going to have a ton of money and time and two cars into a body of a car that is falling apart (window frames leaking at highway speeds/body panels rusting out.) So do some thinking! if you absolutely love the 2.5i then it can be done, it's just going to take a lot more time and money than finding a neglected LGT. Check MT craigslist. There are a few LGTs on there. Also saw a wrecked LGT with no engine on helena craigslist for like $850 Hope this helps!