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The rest of the sound deadening removed. I chose to keep certain areas with the sound deadening, as this is not an all out track build, and some compromises have to be made. I chose to keep some of the sound deadening around the windshield, as I did not want to deal with the dash rattling with my upgraded suspension. I removed the majority of the heavy black matting, but kept a small square in place for under the ecu, as I wanted the extra security around my electronic management systems. I pulled probably 85% of the sound deadening, there is still some in the far reaches of the steering column and behind the heater core, but I did not want to have to remove and reinstall all these systems for a couple pounds of matting. Like I said, compromises were made, but this was a rather easy job if you take your time and a considerable amount of weight can be removed with minimal side effects. 30 bucks of dry ice will allow you to chisel all the rubberized sound deadening, and elbow grease will remove the heavy matting under the dash. I believe the bag of interior sound deadening I removed was 18-20 pounds of dead unnecessary weight. Not bad for a little side project. The best thing is , once I post pictures of the reinstalled carpet and interior, a person would be hard pressed to notice that any work had been done. Just what I was after, remove unnecessary weight without unbearable side effects.


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After removing with dry ice, there still is some minor work to be done. I picked up a wire wheel attachment and used that to sand the metal, removing any residual pieces of rubberized sound deadening. Then vaccummed and wiped down the areas to be painted with acetone, which cleans the surface and will allow the POR-15 to bond evenly, as well as making the metal as smooth and oem looking as possible. Seeing as acetone is extremely flammable, it is a good idea to have a fire extinguisher handy as well as a good fan blowing to ventilate the area. Here is the interior waiting for the POR15.


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Interior painted with POR-15. All interior holes patched, plugged, and sealed. Slowly getting to the point where I can reinstall the interior and finish rewiring the battery.


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Interior carpet reinstalled. Nice to have this step behind me, feels good to have a task on the done checklist. Net savings was approximately 18-20 pounds. I highly recommend this to enthusiasts, as it was not difficult to accomplish. The interior comes out very easily, a few screws and fasteners and all interior trim pieces come out, the carpet is easy to remove, then it is just a couple hours with a chisel, dry ice, and a grinder for a very substantial weight savings. Way, way cheaper than that carbon hood so many enthusiasts go for as an initial modification. Highly recommend this, as it is really not that difficult or time consuming to accomplish.


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So quite a bit of progress has been made, just finally got access to my girl's computer which is where I upload all my pictures. Here is some of the progress. Majority of interior is reinstalled, only item still to be installed is dash and passenger seat, have to install passenger seat last as the battery is under it and don't feel like disconnecting and reconnecting the positive battery terminal under the seat at the moment. Rear seat installed over TIC X Brace, fitment is oem like but with greatly enhanced rigidity. Nothing like functional parts for performance.


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Here is a better shot of interior pieces reinstalled. Wiring has been run at this point for the battery to be relocated to directly under the seat next to my amplifier. Very tight in there with the amplifier, so I had to mount the battery a little different than I wanted which will make disconnecting the positive cable a little time consuming as I will have to remove the seat, but that is just four bolts so I am hoping down the road it won't be such a PIA. We will see, more pictures to come with the finalized mounting and wiring.


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Minor update, just got off the phone with Big O tires in Benicia. Just put a set of 275/35zr18 Nitto NT05 on order for my Rota's. Very excited to throw these tires on and bang out my fenders for proper fitment. This will be a massive increase in mechanical grip, stepping up from a 225 series tire to 275. After installation I will post a picture up of both old and new tires stacked together to show the massive increase in rubber. Very excited!!!!

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Here is a picture of a loose mockup of the area under my passenger seat. I did not want to lose my Alpine amplifier, as this is still a street driven car, and did not want to move it from its original location. I am using this area as a place to put the unecessary weight of some the concessions to make this car a daily driven car, and this is one of the best areas for the weight to be put. It lowers the cars overall moment of inertia, is the lowest place for extra weight on the vertical plane, and helps offset some of the weight of the driver sitting on the left side. This area was originally home to just my amplifier, and now is a little crammed to include my Odyssey battery. I had to compromise slightly my original mounting arrangement, and will need to unbolt the passenger seat to disconnect the battery. Time will tell if this is too big of PIA on the daily basis, if it is the battery will be moved to the right side of the trunk. I am hoping it will not be an issue, as it is only 4 bolts to remove. We will see...


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Finally got the correct Aeromotive fuel rails for the car. These will be installed after the clutch break in period, when I install the gtx3071 and tune on the dyno. Glad to have finally got the correct parts for the car, that would have been a real bummer to have found that out with the car apart and a dyno session scheduled. The list is definitely getting smaller...


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Just got my Nitto NT05's from big o in Benicia. Big thanks to Kelby at Big O for helping me find the right tires for my needs. Nitto nt05 275/35-18, an aggressive fitment for sure, but with judicious fender pulling should be able to fit with 0 rubbing. It is important to be able to run these to full compression without rubbing, if I can't then I will be using LIC Motorports carbon fiber fender flares and will be doing some cutting. These tires look amazing, have a decent 200 treadware rating, and huge traction producing tread blocks. They also used a nice new rubber compund, should translate to an amazing handling car, definitely night and day better than my previous setup, even at the same tire size. So I am upgrading the quality of rubber that meets the road, producing more grip, than increasing the amount of rubber that meets the road, producing more mechanical grip. Here is a picture illustrating the difference in amount of rubber from my new setup (Nitto nt05 275/35-18 on Rota 18 inch DPT's0 and my previous setup with oem wrx wheels with 225 series BFGoodrich G force Wets. I love seeing how much more traction producing rubber I have. I will weigh the new setup to compare to the old to at least let people know the increase in unsprung weight.


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And a different picture of all that tire. 3 new Nittos are almost as much rubber as all 4 of my old tires. Have to love the increase in mechanical grip from all that extra rubber. Thats a lot of tire on a subaru


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Test fitting the new rim and tire package on car to determine the amount I need to pull the fenders out. Tires fit well on this rim, so not too much extra needs to be pulled.



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Quick mock up to check how much fender needs to be pulled. When I installed the Cusco Trailing links I ball parked the length to approximately the same length as the stock links. Obviously, I made a mistake as the wheel is definitely biased toward the front of the wheel well. Fortunately, I have adjustable trailing links, so it was a small matter to adjust the length of the link to reorient the rear suspension to its proper positioning. Technically, this adjustment only affects the rear caster of the suspension, which doesn't have nearly the same effect as caster does on the front wheels since the rear wheels are not steering. Sometimes, adjusting caster in the rear can adjust the bumpsteer of the suspension, so I will need to take some measurements and see. The wheel now is centered in the wheel arch like stock, and should not be difficult to pull the fenders to allow full suspension travel with 0 rubbing. In preparation for pulling the fenders, I spent a considerable amount of time cleaning the inside of my wheel arches so I could see exactly what needed to be done. One of the good things in having a pre 05 gd wrx is it is much easier to pull the fenders, as the car doesn't have all the extra layers of sheet metal and welds to make life difficult. The pre 05 models should be more like a typical fender roll and pull, one of the few times it is advantageous to have a pre 05 wrx.

Obviously, my rear braking is totally anemic, and I am greatly looking forward to getting an sti 6 speed installed with some aggressive diffs and rear brembos.


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Image looking down at front fenders showing how much the front fenders need to be rolled and pulled. Not too bad, just a little bit of a pull should allow proper suspension articulation. PLease excuse my fat *** pale belly intruding on the picture of car goodness.


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Picture of front wheel mocked up for trial fitment. Lots of room in that rim for the 355mm bbk from stoptech. I will most likely be upgrading to this kit when I wear through this set of rotors. We will see how the brake temperatures are with this kit, and if I need to upgrade I will. I have a feeling it will be necessary for track use, so I bought 18's, if the 328mm kit is adequate 17's would have been the better choice for lower unsprung weight. I have a feeling I will be upgrading though, so I didn't want to have to go buy another set of rims to clear my brakes.


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