2013 Subaru BRZ - the "salaryman" build

Why not a chunk of 2x4 with a slot cut it it? Thats what i use here, and it works great to distribute the load. And damn near free.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Well now, that would be too easy and too blindingly obvious, wouldn't it? .

I probably have to swing by Lowes tomorrow or Monday anyway, let's see how much a 2x4 would set me back there.

Well, another evening of scraping, swearing and pulling at the dang sound deadening. I'm about 80% done and should be able to get the rest of it out tomorrow evening, then it's going to be the fun time of trying to scrub off the residue (of which there is a lot) with Goo Gone and mineral spirits.

I did take it out for a parts run yesterday, first time I really drove it since I bought it as the trip back from the body shop didn't really count. I suspect that my somewhat spirited driving must've either blown one of the exhaust gaskets or found some thin metal in the exhaust (PA car with its original exhaust...) and created a fresh exit for the exhaust gasses because it started sounding rather fruity and, err, Subaru-like when I was getting on the pedal a bit more. Oh well. Still left a bunch of smiles on my face.

First post here, but I own a BRZ and wanted to chime in on the jacking points. If you're jacking onto stands, there are lift points at the center of the car. Front is a boss in front of the aluminum engine cover, rear is the 3 protrusions on the underside of the diff. There should be a page on it in the manual. The lift points are pretty far in, so you may need a low profile jack. I can confirm that the smallest HF aluminum jack and the HF low profile long reach can get to them at stock height.

But if you have the quickjack, that's definitely the way to go.

I'm excited to see what you do with the car; I've had a ton of fun driving mine. Hopefully I'll get mine to some autocross or on track this year.

In reply to Dumpster_Dan :

Thanks. I've jacked up the rear using the diff, but haven't managed to find the front boss. Didn't have time to pick up 2x4s on the weekend but should get a set of pinchweld blocks for the QuickJack by tomorrow.

In reply to BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) :

Best I can describe it is it's a pill-shaped boss stamped in the subframe. The frontmost plastic undertray has a half-circle cutout in that area that seems like it's for jack pad clearance.

I'm definitely jealous of that quick jack!

You can also use hockey pucks with a slot cut in it for a jacking block. That's what I'm going to use.

More progress on scraping the remains of the sound deadening. I can almost look into the trunk without getting stuck.

Also, note to self - don't buy the cheapo knockoff pinchweld blocks for your QuickJack that were made by someone who only got to see a vague photo of one of the original ones. *Sigh*.

Hallelujah, I finally got this thing off the ground, without help from the QuickJack. I had a bit of a poke around underneath, so far it looks OK with the usual surface rust on the subframes and all that, thanks to it being a PA car. Hey, at least no holes...

Other than that a quick inspection underneath it suggests that I need to replace some of the missing aero panels under the car and possibly replace the OEM exhaust. It doesn't have rust holes yet but it's not in that great a shape.

I also couldn't find any evidence of the gearbox and diff drain plugs having been opened recently so I'm guessing I'll change the fluids just in case.

As to the QuickJack, it looks like the QuickJack with the length extensions would be the perfect fit size wise so I'm toying with that idea at the moment.

Which model QJ do you have? The BL-5000slx is a tad short to hit the reinforced parts of the pinches, but with the proper blocks (Or even just the normal rubber blocks) it lifts just fine. Mine has been up and down countless times over the past couple years. 

PS. nice car, you picked the right color ;) Feel free to reach out regarding any twin related questions! 

In reply to Ironsides :

I've got a 5000 SLX also and am running into the same issue you mentioned with it being a tad short to allow for jacking up on the reinforced section of the pinch welds. The extensions - which are supposed to make a 5000 SLX as long as the EXT model - add 6", which should according to my measurements allow the pinchweld blocks to sit right under the reinforced sections. Got to figure out if that's worth the money to me or not.

Right, I guess I'll skip rebuilding this brake caliper and just pay for someone else's rebuilt caliper instead. Not to mention that this is the "good" side, I haven't even pulled off the calipers on the passenger side yet:

Rebuilt calipers for all four corners are ordered, but of course Ye Olde Parts Shoppe's delivery estimate of "Get it tomorrow if you order within the next X hours" magically turned into "yeh, we can probably get them to you sometime Saturday" for yesterday's order. Oh well, the calipers seem to be a little bit in short supply so it was either RockAuto or this particular large chain.

I also tried to replace one of the rear shocks and pulled out the wheelwell liner to get a bit more clearance in a misguided attempt to avoid disconnecting the lower control arm (spoiler: didn't work out). And what do I find behind it but rust. It's surface rust and minor by local standard as there is a distinct lack of daylight shining through, but yet another thing to address, especially as it's in a place that you can't see unless you pull said wheelwell liners. Looks like at the very minimum I have to remove the bubbly paint, chuck some rust converter on it and paint over it. More delays.

I'm hoping I'm not finding more crunchiness on the passenger side.

Speaking of rust, if this car turns into more of a keeper than a quick build, I'll also have to pull off the subframes and derust and repaint those. It's all surface rust and I'd like to catch it before it goes past the "no big deal" stage.

In reply to BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) :

If you get a sec, snap pics of where your seeing rust, I have been eyeing a twin. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

Will do. Most of it so far was obvious (like the beginning of the rust on the subframes, the exhaust that is getting near the end of its life), but the one under the wheelarch liners is annoying because there is no way to find that during a PPI unless yu take the liners out (which very likely means replacing the push pins).

I suspect I'll find some more when I pull the front bumper off to change the radiator.

Overall it's not bad, but this is an 8 year old PA car, so expecting it to be rust free would've been a stretch.

Obviously I took the photo of the rust spots before cleaning things up properly. I'm a little surprised that the driver's side is worse when it comes to rust spot than the wheelwell on the passenger side. The passenger side has a couple of rust spots, but a lot fewer.

After a little more swearing, I pulled out the rear shocks, replaced them and now we've got some yellow stuff out back. According to the latest AutoZone update, I should be getting the rear calipers on Tuesday so when they show up I should be able to button up the rear brakes and suspension.

And yes, I know I still need to tighten all of the suspension bolts that I had to undo. It also looks like someone's been in there before and a couple of the suspension bolts were put in backwards. Oh well.

Now that the AutoZone "computer says no but we didn't bother telling you about this" portion of the brake caliper order has been unclogged, I have received three calipers. I'm hoping the fourth one is still somewhere on the way, otherwise I might have some issue with some additional fluid leakage...

Edit: good news, Autozone emailed me with an update that the remaining caliper is still "processing".

Looks like the last brake caliper is on the truck for delivery today. That's the good news.

Bad news is that my 2nd vaccine appointment has been moved to the weekend of the first track day that I was planning to use as a shakedown weekend (because it's local at Summit Point). That's that weekend snookered given the side effects I got from the first shot, and it pretty much nixes all of the events for May, because the planned second event in May was a 5h+ tow away (either Watkins Glen or VIR). I'm not taking a couple of days around a weekend off, with hotels and long tows just to find out I blew up the car on the first lap.

Ah well, that's taken the urgency out of the build a bit, but I'd still rather have the vaccination, given my job.

Well, I now have four calipers. Now all I need is a little more motivation and time to put them on.

No progress on the BRZ, been juggling too many lawn tractors, motorcycles and other assorted stuff.

However, this arrived today:

Coated FT86Speed UEL with cat - I didn't want any of the other performance headers that also remove the first cat, and this came up on FB for a bit over half price compared to a new one. It's in pretty good shape, too - seller alleges low miles, and it certainly looks like it.

Plus there's a used Perrin 2.5" exhaust on the way, so all I need to get the car proper track ready is a set of wheels and tires and maybe a tune.

Oh, and maybe some exhaust gaskets first.

If I were you I would skip the Perrin exhaust. These cars are just so damn loud when uncorked, and there isn't much power to be gained with a catback.

In reply to captainawesome :

Little bit too late for that, it's already on the way. The Perrin is supposed to be not quite as stupidly loud as some of the others, I guess I'll find out.

The OEM exhaust on the car has "benefitted" a lot from the PA weather and winter driving, so it's on its last legs. Hence the need for another exhaust - I was hoping it would be a case of "just change the header", but that didn't quite turn out to be the case.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Hopefully with a cat in your header plus the cat in the stock front pipe you'll be okay.

In reply to captainawesome :

Thanks - that's what I'm hoping, too. I'm not a big fan of noisy cars but it looks like the selection of grown up exhausts is very limited even if you're willing to pay a fair amount of money for them.

I'm very specifically leaving the front pipe OEM with the cat in it to keep the noise down. Guess if that doesn't work I may have to fit a turbo to reduce the noise .

Perrin exhaust showed up yesterday, didn't even have enough time to peek into the box until today. Yes, it's a used exhaust but it's in really nice shape and I like that it's mostly held together by V-Bands. Photos to come, it looks like a big improvement over the OEM one that's quietly rusting on the car.

Exhaust gaskets are on the way from Grimspeed, so hopefully I should be able to put almost everything together next week.

The battery should be good for at least another decade, right? Right?

Of course with another bout of vaccine side effects and having to deal with other stuff like every time I have a few days off, I've just managed to start working on the BRZ and am now as far as I wanted to be roughly Monday evening.