2004 WRX STI "Restoration" Project

Our 2004 Subaru WRX STI restoration project was a true test of patience and skill. Our entire team has their hard work in this machine and we couldn't be more proud. This was a passion project that took nearly three and a half years to complete.

I purchased this car about 4 months after my blue STI, nearly 11 years ago. It was a rolling shell with no drivetrain, and my plans were to build it nut and bolt as a replacement for my blue car. Life happens and the attachment grew to the blue STI as the years went on. The amount of work between myself, my dad, my friends and our staff at the shop made me realize the blue car could never be sold.

This car took the backburner and sat outside for years, slowly being picked apart as good pieces were needed for other cars. One day Igor and I were chatting and thought "let's restore the white shell" and the rest is history.

First thing we did was acquired a parts car. We purchased a 2005 STI locally with no engine that was rotting away. The updated interior and 5x114.3 hubs/bolt pattern were a huge win.

We began by stripping the parts car to harvest the important suspension and underbody components that we would need to make the white car a rolling chassis again. Everything was stripped and painted or powdercoated before being transferred over. The blue car was rolled out on a dolley and the white car moved in its place.

We stripped the white car to a bare shell, no suspension, gas tank, interior or drivetrain. The underbody was ground down and undercoated in a durable rocker guard like coating.

This set the tone for the rest of the build. Starting from ground zero helped us achieve the outcome we were striving for. To date the underbody looks like it came off the factory assembly line, with some tasteful upgrades. We added the entire Whiteline Performance suspension catalogue to make this unit handle on rails.

Once the car became a rolling chassis we started to move some of the basic interior components over, including the steering and dash so the car would be easily moveable between the mechanical and paint shop. Paint was the next stop, and our collision team absolutely knocked it out of the park with a complete respray including engine bay and jams.

Igor and the team started building the engine while the collision team knocked out the body work and paint. Unfortunately we don't have much photo documentation of the engine assembly, but it consisted of stock pistons and rods with upgraded bearings and head studs. Heads and block were redone by RM Machine in Chatham.

It was finally assembly time! We got the complete drivetrain installed and the car running for the first time in over 10 years! From here we assembled the exterior, interior and all the small details inbetween. We rebuilt the brakes and painted them in a deep candy apple red, refinished the wheels in factory BBS gold and added all the factory STI decals back onto the car.

The last ten percent of a project always take the longest, but also is the most important part. All of the little details were completed and addressed. This felt like a lifetime of work, but was worth it in the end.

We plan on doing a full photoshoot to encapsulate the beauty of this car soon. I will add them here when we do so, but for now Igor and I plan on holding onto the car as a piece of our shop history and an investment. We have a video on our Youtube channel documenting the build if you are ever interested to watch.

• Drew