John Hall's 2007 specB - Daily turned Restoration (Respray, Engine Build, Air Ride, More!)

[Dre617]

nice, thanks.

[BagRidersJohn]

My wheel parts arrived yesterday so of course I had to do a test assembly last night! I can't wait to assemble these and put them on the car, I think they'll be great!

 

I widened them, added lip and stepped them up to 18" (they were 17" on my WRX)

 

Check 'em out! This is a rear that measures in at 18x10.5 -7. This configuration is what Rotiform calls "hidden hardware" where the wheel hardware threads into the back side of the face, and the face tapers out to the wheel lip. I've always loved these wheels I'm really happy that my wife encouraged me to hold onto them and rebuild them for the Legacy. I had them on the Legacy for a while in their 17x10 configuration, but I'm in love all over again with the wider lips and 18" profile

 

 

I have to put this face back on the 17" assembly so I can have the tires pulled but man am I excited to put these things together for real!!!

Edited July 2, 2020 by BagRidersJohn

[BagRidersJohn]

Little update!

 

 

I told myself I wasn't going to do it, but lo and behold I pulled the rear subframe. It was pretty darn crusty but fortunately no bolts sheared and the chassis itself looks remarkably good when considering the subframe!! I've got a good amount of wire wheeling and cleaning to do then I'll be hitting the chassis with some epoxy and undercoating to seal it up nicely.

 

Anyhow, with the entire rear end out of the car, I'm in the process of cleaning the parts that will go back in the car (e.g., aluminum knuckle / trailing arm, aluminum upper arm, rear diff, axles, etc.) and have a TON of brand spankin' new OEM and aftermarket parts to replace the crusty old bits. I'm replacin

 

Off the top of my head....

• Rust free rear subframe from California
  
• Aftermarket adjustable lateral arms
  
• Custom trailing arm bracket to center rear wheel (to be tested)
  
• Whiteline trailing arm bushings (W63398)
  
• Whiteline rear diff bushing kit (KDT903)
  
• Whiteline toe lockout kit (KCA307)
  
• New OEM wheel bearings
  
• New OEM backing plates
  
• New OEM handbrake cables
  
• New OEM nuts/bolts for lateral linkages other odds and ends
  
• New OEM "subframe support arms" (20157AG02A / 20157AG03A)
  
• New OEM "crossmember stopper" (metal bits that go above/below subframe bushings)
  

 

As you can see in my list, I decided to replace certain nuts/bolts that were particularly rusty or were damaged during removal, but I'm not replacing every single nut and bolt back there. I've been soaking the hardware that will be reused in a rust dissolving product that works great and the hardware comes out looking new albeit with a slight etching. Everything will be reassembled with liberal amounts of anti-seize, of course!

 

Thanks for reading!

[Shogun506]

Rebuilding it from the ground up. Nice to see all the effort you're putting in

[BagRidersJohn]

Rebuilding it from the ground up. Nice to see all the effort you're putting in

 

Thank you! At this point in time for the chassis itself I'm "only" focusing on the rear end of the car, basically everything that is really inaccessible with the rear crossmember, diff, etc. installed. The motor needs a refresher as it sits at nearly 200k original miles. Whenever I pull the motor for that round of work, I'll strip down the frontend just as I have the rearend.... prop shaft, trans and all so that I can address any signs of rust above those items and do any maintenance I deem appropriate.

 

I've still got a lot of work ahead of me but it is rewarding and I'll get it done

[BagRidersJohn]

Like always, I'll start this post with a "sorry for the lack of updates - I've been super busy working on the car blah blah blah"

 

But seriously

 

Also, I'll no longer link from Instagram and instead I've started uploading to Imgur. Eventually make a start to finish album and/or go restore the links in previous posts. Sorry about that.

 

So, here's my car now:

 

I've primed and blocked out everything except for my side skirts and the plastic trim garnish (whatever its called) so its all nice and smooth, no orange peel, no dings... its a great feeling.

 

I also went ahead and shaved the holes on my JDM bumper cover

 

I've REALLY been focusing on body work as its starting to cool down here in VT and I'd like to spray sealer/base/clear on a nice warm-ish 70+ degree day. Hopefully next weekend if I can build a few stands for doors and other panels by then.

 

I tested a couple of different colors and landed on this one that I absolutely LOVE. I have so many extra body panels kickin' around, this one is my old USDM rear bumper that was cut up for flares and thus destined for the dump. Can anyone guess what color this is?

 

For a while I got a bit distracted and was working on things that weren't body work. With the entire rear end out of the car, I decided to clean up the rear diff, suspension arms, and got a new crossmember from California.

 

I spent a long time with the needle scaler and wire wheel cleaning up the diff, then hit it with a coat of rust converter / epoxy primer, followed by another coat of epoxy sealer. I was about halfway through this process when I decided I needed to focus on bodywork before I ran out of summer, but its looking really good. I'm excited to get back at this once the car is painted

 

Similarly, I couldn't bring myself to install grimy parts back on the rear end, so I brought all the aluminum parts to a shop down the road from us that does vapor blasting and had them clean them up. They look AWESOME now. I have all new bolts, bushings, hub/bearings, backing plates... all new everything going back in this thing!!!

 

I can't recall if I've posted a picture of the air ride management, so I'll include one here. Its a very simple and functional setup that can be removed with extreme ease. You'll also notice I've covered the entire trunk area with some heavy duty black butyl for sound deadening and will be following this up with some MLV for dampening.

 

I think I posted this already but the IG hotlink broke itself. I got new lips/barrels for my Rotiform wheels to step them up to 18" and bigger lips to better suit the big hips on the specB. I haven't got around to rebuilding and sealing them yet but I'll leave this here for motivation for myself

 

Alright that pretty well sums it up. I've got to scuff a few small parts like door handles and the plastic "bump guard" for the doors, but other than that (and a bunch of cleaning) I'm ready to paint. Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll have a nice red specB to show you in the next update!!

[MaasaiWarrior]

Looks like an old school Volvo red...

[BagRidersJohn]

Looks like an old school Volvo red...

 

I think I know the color you're talking about (I've looked into a wayyyy too many reds recently!) and its close, but this is not a Volvo color

 

It is hard to do a color justice in a single photo under bright LED lights and similarly hard to identify. This is a Subaru color, a relatively new one "Crimson Red Metallic" color code M1Y that is found on 2018+ Legacy and Outbacks... and probably some others, but those are the models that come up in the PPG Paint software.

 

I spent a lot of time researching red paints... I knew I wanted a dark metallic red, but not so dark that it turns really dark brown in the shade which was the case with the Honda color I sprayed first. I also didn't want a red with too much orange/pearl in it that would be too gold in the sun.

 

This color caught my eye when driving past the Subaru dealership so I picked up a half pint from the paint shop and sprayed my test panel. I laid it down over a black primer sealer which makes the basecoat just a slight bit darker than it would be if sprayed over your typical lighter grey primer, but not drastically so. I'm using Southern Polyurethane products for everything except basecoat (which is PPG) with their Production Clear being my choice for this project. It is water-like in color so has minimal impact on the final color of the panel unlike some clears that have a slight yellowish hue after they've cured (PPG clear does this for sure!) I kept the bumper around my shop for a week or two and would bring it outside now and again to ensure I loved it under every type of sunlight. I'm super happy with the color and can't wait to see the whole car done!

 

--

 

Car update...

 

Last night I finished blocking out all my panels and scuffed up all the small stuff like door handles, hood scoop, tow hook cover, etc. Over the weekend I picked up a ton of plastic sheeting from Lowes to hang over the walls and cover the entire floor of my shop on paint day. I also grabbed about 50' of chain to use for hanging parts. Now I have to do a whole lot of cleaning/tidying up around my shop, and strap some wood to the ceiling to hang parts from.

 

I'm keeping a close eye on the weather and just waiting for a nice high 70's day to take off and laid down sealer/base/clear!

 

After the car is painted, I have a bunch of work to reassemble it but that's all easy peasy and a lot more rewarding than the countless hours of sanding I've been up to recently, lol.

[Dre617]

wow, looks amazing

[BagRidersJohn]

wow, looks amazing

 

Thanks! I'm so excited to get the car back together. I started cleaning out my shop last night in preparation of "spray day"!!

 

I have a ton of work ahead of me once the car is painted but man am I super motivated to get it all done!!

[Dre617]

Where in Vermont you located?

[BagRidersJohn]

Where in Vermont you located?

 

I live in Georgia VT which is about 20-25 mins north of Burlington

[Dre617]

you are basically Canadian :lol:

[socalsleeper]

Very cool!

[BagRidersJohn]

you are basically Canadian :lol:

You're not wrong

 

Very cool!

Thanks!

 

---

 

I've been working long days this week and haven't got much shop time but in the time I have found I've just been cleaning up my space in preparation of spraying on the next warm day we get. It was 45 yesterday morning

[BagRidersJohn]

Well the forecast has been off and on here in northern VT (or as Dre617 said, basically Canada) so upon seeing a nice 80 degree day on Thursday, I decided to take off Wed/Thurs last week and bust ass to get the car painted. AND I DID IT!!

 

I used wood I had left over from various projects to build all sorts of things for my DIY spray booth. I built stands for 4' LED ballasts, I built stands to hold my bumper covers higher off the ground, I built a stand to hold the trunk, I built a thing to attach all the small pieces to... lots of stuff!

 

I used some old keyboard stands atop some wood stands to hold the bumpers. This worked great!

 

I hung the doors from the ceiling via a 2x4 strapped to the joists and some chian. I ended up adding some bungee cord and some leftover deck balusters jammed into the speaker cavities to push the bottom sides out from one another, this worked great. My wife snapped this pic on Tuesday night as I had just about finished getting everything into position

 

Masking up the car took a while.

 

Here's the stand I built for small parts. Just a bunch of wood stakes screwed to some plywood. I ziptied the small parts to these stakes. It looked like a torture chamber device lol

 

My amazing wife helping me tack and degrease all my parts. She also played a crucial role in masking the place, and telling me to get my butt back out into the shop whenever I tried to slack!

 

To ensure airflow through the "booth" I set up a couple regular box fans in the back door of the shop (the door opposite of the overhead doors) and as you can see in the last pic, had some high CFM fans below the overhead doors blowing air out. I attached some 20" HVAC filters to the front of these fans to catch any bugs/debris, which actually worked out REALLY well. The booth didn't move as much air as I'd have liked (you'll see in subsequent photos) but overall it did quite well.

 

Next post will be the spray photos

[BagRidersJohn]

I decided to spray the color over a black sealer. I used Southern Polyurethane products for everything except the base coat, which is PPG's "MBP" grade basecoat of Subaru's M1Y "Crimson Red Metallic".

 

My intention with the black sealer was to spray two coats of base over this, enough to achieve coverage but allow the black sealer to darken the color up a bit. This proved successful on my test panels but the whole car I think shows a big difference! I love how it came out.

 

The sealer laid down nice and smooth. As you may have guessed by my DIY booth setup, I don't have any fancy spray guns. For the sealer, I sprayed through a "PNTGreen" brand HVLP gun with a 1.4 tip purchased on Amazon for like $33 or something

 

More sealer! You can see all the wood strapping and bungee cord work for the doors in this photo

 

Did I mention it looked like a murder chamber in there? Here is my bench area after my first coat of base... notice the overspray on the walls and a bit of spillage on the bench/floor.

 

I'm really glad I decided to do the HVAC filters for the input fans because it was nighttime by the time I was spraying base/clear and with the shop lit up like hospital room, it was a major attraction for every bug in the state it seemed like. The two fans below the overhead doors didn't exhaust as much air as I'd have liked, but it got the job done. I'm glad I bought new filters for my respirator before spraying!

 

And here it is!

 

In case anyone is wondering, here are the products I used throughout the process.

No super high end stuff, and bought just about everything off Amazon with the exception of the paint products and even the Southern Polyurethane stuff was ordered over the phone and shipped to my door. Really great folks at SPI!

 

Coatings

Filler: Mostly Evercoat products with a few instances of 3M Bondo Gold

Build primer: Southern Polyurethane 2K Regular Primer (6500 series)

Sealer: Southern Polyurethanes 2K Sealer (6400 series)

Base coat: PPG "MBP" grade base coat (Subaru M1Y color code)

Clear coat: Southern Polyurethanes "Production Clear" with a slow activator

 

Consumables & Equipment

Duragold 3" and 6" sanding discs, 2-3/4" paper, and blocks

"ZFE" Brand 3" pneumatic DA polisher (only used 3" sanding discs on this thing)

"SHININGEYES" brand 6" pneumatic DA palm sander

PNTGreen HVLP spray gun (primer with 1.8 tip sealer with 1.4 tip)

MasterPro HVLP spray gun (base coat with 1.3 tip and clear coat with 1.4 tip)

 

I have a LOT of work to do before I can actually reassemble the car, but I had to at least loose fit a few panels together so I could see more of the color at once... I love it!!

 

I didn't have enough room to paint the body kit so I'm in the process of prepping for that now. It worked out nicely to spray it separately, as I have a couple little areas that need to be touched up so I'll spray those along with the kit. I have plenty of leftover base and clear coat, so it should all match nicely.

 

Believe me I'm super excited to see the car all together and sitting on the ground, but I have a lot to do before I can start reassembly and at this point I'm not going to rush it! At least now the majority of the big paint work is done which is a HUGE breath of relief. I'm very motivated to keep on working, but this week is my anniversary and my focus is on my wife, without whom I'd never had got this project to where it is now!!

 

I'll keep updates coming and now that the images are on Imgur the links should be good forever!

Edited September 7, 2020 by BagRidersJohn

[Infosecdad]

That is a ridiculously beautiful red.

Amazing job!

[seanyb505]

Oh man that looks awesome

[BagRidersJohn]

That is a ridiculously beautiful red.

Amazing job!

 

Thanks a lot! I think the black sealer really did the trick for making it just a bit darker than the M1Y Subarus you see on the lot / out in the wild... I think its a color option for all 2018+ Subarus but I'm not certain... that's just what PPG Paint software says!

 

For my first time spraying a complete car, I'm absolutely jazzed about the outcome. I'm really looking forward to seeing the whole thing after some wet sanding and polishing!!

 

Oh man that looks awesome

 

Thanks a lot!

[Dre617]

for real bro, that looks wicked. I been thinking of buying one of those popup car ports from Harbor Freight as a spray booth, this puts the idea back into my head. Great move on the filters with the fans, I would have completely ignored that idea. Where you get the LED bars? and congrats again that looks amazing for a DIY project, might as well start a paint shop lol

[BrandonspecB]

Wow, looks amazing!

[BagRidersJohn]

for real bro, that looks wicked. I been thinking of buying one of those popup car ports from Harbor Freight as a spray booth, this puts the idea back into my head. Great move on the filters with the fans, I would have completely ignored that idea. Where you get the LED bars? and congrats again that looks amazing for a DIY project, might as well start a paint shop lol

 

Thanks! I bought all the lights in my shop on Amazon. They're not super heavy duty or anything but they put off plenty of light (especially with like 20 of them) and are wayyy cheaper than the big box stores. Appreciate the compliments man! I've got a lot of color sanding to do but I'm stoked to have made it this far.

 

Wow, looks amazing!

 

Thanks a lot!

[whitexc]

You took the time to do things right and it shows. The color is outstanding and your work is just as good. Keep it up.

 

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

[TorqueLegend]

Awesome color subed for sure.