Since Tomek is currently laying down the carpet in the Impreza and will soon start installing the seats, I thought it would be a good time to write a little summary.

Is it worth it?

Yes, definitely yes. Time takes its toll, and although this particular example was in objectively good condition (see sills, shock absorber mounts, and fenders), I don’t know how it would have looked in a few years time. Now, I can sleep a bit more peacefully. Besides, there’s a lot of fun in all this work — we laughed like beavers chomping on aspen twigs. There’s also satisfaction — maybe not exactly “build not bought”, but something along those lines.

Was it a lot of work?

Yes, an awful lot. It took us 24 days (plus 2 days for transporting the body to and from Nowy Sącz). Even if we assume just 5 hours a day between the two of us, that’s 30 workdays, and there were days when we worked much longer, plus sometimes Tomek’s dad helped us. So, those 30 days are seriously underestimated.

What tools are needed?

Actually, not much. For cleaning, a drill and an angle grinder with a bunch of polyamide abrasive discs and wire brushes. The turntable worked great and made a huge difference; you could say it turned our regular home setup into something semi-pro.

Could you do it for me?

Tomek and I joked that we could, but it was just a joke, right?

Is it expensive?

That’s a relative term. The chemicals are indeed quite pricey — Dinitrol, for example, costs 117 PLN per can, and you use a lot of it. A lot also depends on how much zinc plating and powder coating you do. I have a detailed spreadsheet in case of any questions.

What about outsourcing it?

You could, but it would be neither cheap nor quick. 30 workdays, VAT, electricity, someone’s income — this all adds up. There’s also the question of whether someone will do it properly. This kind of work has huge potential for “eh, just leave that”, but when you do it yourself, you get to decide whether that “spot” still needs work or can be left as is. And honestly, you sleep better knowing exactly how it was done.

Sandblasting?

Probably not, or at least as little as possible. I’ve written before — we only sandblasted areas that we absolutely couldn’t reach with a drill or grinder, and even then, there was a ton of sand everywhere. At first, you think it’ll all blow away, but even towards the end, when we flipped the car on the turntable, sand was still pouring out, and we had to blow it out again. I can’t imagine how it must look when everything is sandblasted.

What would you do differently?

I’m not sure if differently, but we had a month for this, during which both of us were working, and only after hours did we go to the Impreza. This imposed limitations from the very beginning that we had to stick to. In an ideal world, we’d have the whole summer, we’d strip the engine bay to bare metal, do the entire brake system, steering rack housing, hubs, spindles, axles, drive shaft down to the last screw. But the world isn’t perfect, and deadlines were tight. The rest will have to wait. The car is staying with us for a longer time, and I also plan to be friends with Tomek for years, so there’s a good chance it will be finished.

Finally the entire gang at work (spot the professional):

• Impreza
• Gd
• Sti
• Rust Diaries