Maiden voyage

Last post we were about to sort the radiator and feeling pretty good. We didn't realise but things were able to get slow - even for us.

Indecision, changing plans and covid left us with not a lot to show for all that time spent stuffing around in the workshop.

Time to button some stuff up.

Access to the workshop was limited during covid so we need to get it good enough to drive over to my backyard.

Important things first, the antenna and housing is ugly and useless - no radio here.

The internet served up an STL for a blanking plate and someone to print it, so ~$30 and a wish were sent.

This is the result. Fits nicely, that'll do.

The liberty battery is huge, heavy and doesn't fit well in the Impreza, so we replaced it with a small AGM unit.

Add some steel bent roughly to battery shape, reinforcement plates and fresh cables and the battery is now mounted under the passenger seat.

One problem: it's a long run to the fuse box from here (and that doesn't fit nicely either)…

This seemed like a bad idea but required surprisingly little work extending or rerouting wiring. I'm unreasonably happy with it.

We added a battery isolation switch while we were in there, which is nice because it is an uncomfortable job disconnecting the battery now.

We did also get the radiator plumbed in and fans connected and it made the (admittedly short, although very wet) journey easily!

Now that it is at my place and I've been able to get a raft of little things sorted like g-sensors mounted, wiring tidied and trim replaced.

Next up - fix speedometer and ABS:

  1. A little more tidying up - mostly better radiator and dashboard cluster mounts.

  2. Swap front knuckles/uprights to GR STI including active ABS sensors. That should get us a speed signal for the speedometer.

  3. Custom rear knuckles/uprights to complete the set and get ABS and traction control operational.

  4. Talk to the engineer

  5. Track days? Turbo?