I'm Huw (Rallye95) and I thought it was about time I shared some pics of my GEN2S1 1995 2.2L Liberty "Rallye" Sedan documenting it's progress from the world of stock (and in this case, neglect).
These are the original images of the car from carsales:
It came equipped with:
- what I assume is a dealer fitted sun roof (the original owner worked at a Subaru dealership where it was bought new, according to the guy I bought it off)
- black skirting, which was a light grey when I got it
- factory "Rallye" alloys 14"
- factory foglights
- car alarm and immobiliser(?)
- Kenwood head unit
- a pristine tweed (grandpa spec) interior protected by wooly seat covers
- purple cellophane tint with optional adhesive
- permanently extended aerial
One of the first things I did was get some Forever Black onto the once black trim with subsequent applications of Armorall.
Next the seat covers had to go, followed by the cathartic removal of the "tint". Conveniently the tint was barely stuck to the glass and a hair dryer made short work of whatever adhesive was remaining.
Minor bits and pieces were neatened up such as:
- straightening the numberplate
- replacing the aerial
- LED interior lighting
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Not happy with my stock car any longer I started looking at mods for my N/A suby.
Which lead to:
- a resonatorectomy
- K&N High Flow Panel Filter
- Kicker front speakers
- Pioneer rear speakers
And I started looking at the cosmetics of the car leading to the purchase of:
- Legacy G2S1 grill w/green emblem (matched my paint perfectly!)
note: the leprocy in the clear coat on the bumper, a combination of a small ding from previous owner and a sunny parking spot.
Then:
- because of a few scratches in the chrome I sanded the Legacy grill and sprayed the grille satin black.
- after numerous attempts to rescue the wiper arms I bought a set of new ones.
- white LED dash cluster lights (did a good job of modernising the look of the dash)
- JDM projector headlights w/35w 4500k HIDs
- JDM projector fog lights
I am really happy with the look of the car since these additions to the front end. The light output of the projector/HID combo is amazing! So much better than stock.
I made a big point about adjusting the headlights, to the point where they are slightly lower than stock.
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My rear suspension was replaced soon after I got it and the fronts were on their way out, creaking in the winter months and generally not doing very well.
I spent ages trying to decide on suspension, whether to go Coilovers or WRX suspension and finally found a decent set of:
- GC8 WRX STI suspension
I enlisted the help of a mate and spent a saturday installing the suspension
This is how the car sat prior to the installation (with four struts in the boot):
The front suspension was a walk in the park, just fitted straight in with minimal fuss. Quite a difference in height between the old fronts and the new fronts once we removed them!
After we got the front suspension in:
And then began the epic gutting of the car in order to reach the fabled strut mount. The Haynes repair manual described this process as: "On sedan models, remove the rear seat back." We quickly realised that this was not the case, leading to the removal of the entire rear seat, trim from the pillars and seat belts to make it possible to access the top of the strut.
...and we didn't even find five cents under the seat, just some crumbs of safety glass
(thorough criminals?)
Once we finally got access to the strut tops the suspension just fitted straight in just like the fronts.
It bucketed down shortly after finishing the suspension and I've yet to get a pic of the car post installation.
When removed, the WRX rear suspension was the same height as the recently replaced set, but they dropped heaps when the car was taken off the stands. The fronts, although they were about an inch shorter when compared with the old pair, didn't noticeably drop at all when installed. Just goes to show how soft the old set was I guess.
The car feels much better now with a much firmer ride and a more level stance, maybe slightly lower in the rear.
Not long after, I contacted Shazza (Show Us Your Tints) about getting my windows tinted. I decided on 20% all round and Shazza did a great job, neatening up the look of the car a lot.
I'll have some more photos up soon...
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To come:
- DONE - black 17" Gen4 Wheels (courtesy of CRUISN)
- DONE - Walbro fuel pump (due to a possibly dodgy fuel pump)
- respray bumper
- removal of dents from previous owner
Possibly:
- DONE - lowered front springs just to drop the front a bit more
- unequal length Gen1 headers
- some kind of exhaust
