Free Subaru Impreza, Either Brave or Stupid...Or Both?

[GazST86]

I'll start by introducing myself, my names Garry and my daily is a mk3.5 Focus ST, been lurking about PH for a couple of years now though car history isnt very PH, admiring a few of the projects/restorations and now have one of my very own (or possibly bitten off more than I can chew!)

So a friend of my late Father-in-Law, is a bit of a tinkerer when it comes to cars, in fact his last purchase was a £100 +/- non-running Toyota Hi-Ace van which last I seen was carried away on a low-loader, then he 'acquired' the star of this thread, which is in an even worse state (but it starts & drives, so...) however age being against him it will probably end the same way as the van.

Went to visit him last week & he threw the paperwork (V5 and some old MoT certs) at me "Its yours, take it away!!" so today I did!

Its a 1996 Subaru Impreza Sport 4wd wagon with 86k miles on it, unfortunately non-turbo so not popular or worth much, however still a challenge & if all goes well a winter hack at some point (the Focus being worse than useless in snow), comes with no MoT so that what I'm aiming for over the new year at least

Plans/shopping list are (in no particular order)

N/S Sill - had a jack put through it at one point and just left to rot
N/S & O/S rear arches - O/S maybe salvageable however N/S is most definitely gone
Exhaust - centre pipe needs replaced
2 suspension arms
Front wings - due to corrosion
Boot lid - again, rust
Paint - a few areas requiring attention either due to rust or previous bad repair especially bootlid and rear D pillar
A bloody good clean!!

So despite being handy with a spanner, I've never had anything this in depth before, and parts being pretty rare, how hard can it be
?

Plan on using this thread to document any success, or more likely it'll go viral and I'll be the laughing stock of the interweb no doubt

Edited by GazST86 on Wednesday 10th October 19:28

[S100HP]

I hate to be that guy, but I'd not bother. It's a 20 odd year old, undesirable model with a bucket load of rust. You'll sink a fortune into that and it'll not be worth anything.

[Ructions]

Weigh it in at the local scrappy.

[rossub]

Ructions said:

Weigh it in at the local scrappy.

+1

Non turbo... only worth £1k in mint condition.

That thing is fked

[GazST86]

rossub said:

Ructions said:

Weigh it in at the local scrappy.

+1

Non turbo... only worth £1k in mint condition.

That thing is fked

I admit, I was hoping for a better reaction, and while I agree, yes its a bucket, it cost me nothing so no harm in poking about it, even if it never sees the road again at least I tried.

Just thought since I've heard of other cars in similar condition coming back from the dead, perhaps I could do the same, start with this then move onto better

Anyways I'll probably spend the next few days looking underneath, and update this accordingly either way

[DonaldTrump]

Agree with the above, the money you will no doubt have to plough into that obvious rust bucket, you would be better off saving and buying something better. By the looks of it, it won't be to hard to find something better.

[DamnKraut]

Damn OP, what an utter turd

Agree with the others. Rip that bucket apart, sell some of it as spares and use the shell for practicing welding or test firing an AA gun or a mortar into it

[Ahbefive]

It's a cool car but you can get a turbocharged one with m.o.t and little rust for less than you would spend making that look half respectable.

[anonymous-user]

Agree with the above I'm afraid. Get it on a ramp and look around the rear suspension turrets and inner arches, rear of sills.... it'll be structurally fubared!

[Jonesy1972]

You Sir, are a brave man. If the exterior panels are in that condition, I imagine underneath will be a tale of woe, but only an inspection will tell. Still, as you say it cost you nowt, so no harm in looking or even as another has said, in using it to test your welding skills etc. Good luck!

Jonesy

[HM-2]

Photo from the front: "that doesn't look too bad"
Photo from the rear "fk what are you doing?!"

Worth about 10x as much in bits.

[downthepub]

Yeah, convert to a small number of £ and buy some winter tyres for your Focus.

[Quhet]

That's hilariously rusty, how did it get so bad?!

[InitialDave]

If you can weld and are sufficiently bloodyminded, it probably is fixable and a candidate turning into a winter hack, but it strikes me as disproportionate effort. I'd break it for parts and buy an already MOT'd one (actually, I'd do those things the other way round, in case I need spare bits).

[carinaman]

The 2012 MoT was interesting. That was 6 years ago. There are better ways to waste your time and money.

[GIYess]

Oh dear. I share enthusiasm for saving undesirable cars but looking at that MOT history I fear it will never see the road legally again. Use it for tinkering and learning on and maybe sell a few parts but don't sink thousands into it. If it was a better example I'd be all on for it but its just too far gone by the look of it. Use parts money to get another snotter?

[Northern.N]

Id look at selling that to a local farmer for a hundred quid or two...theyll use that on the farm i'm sure.
Spare ££ for you for a service,tyres, beer, haribo.

[Smitters]

Yeah, I agree with the masses. I love an Impreza, but not this one. The parts cost will exceed the car value quickly, without leaving you an interesting vehicle at the end. I've had a non-turbo Impreza and they sound good, but that's about it. I would either weight it in, or parts it and weigh in anything that doesn't go in a month and split the proceeds with the supplying chap/jolly japester.

[RB Will]

lol I saw the front and thought that actually looks quite tidy, then saw the back!

If you were closer I would offer you a few beers and have it off you if it drives well but you are a 700 mile round trip away which makes it all too expensive

[RS Grant]

They traditionally rust from the inside out.. so if the exterior looks like that then I'd expect that the underside/inner arches will be in a hell of a mess.

This is a crazy plan, but it will be possible. It might even be worth it (stretching man maths/sentimental value to their extremes!) if you're planning to go back to a completely bare shell and put in a LOT of time and money to build it into something special. But even then I'd still punt it to a farmer/scrappy and buy a better condition shell as a base if you were going to be pumping that amount of money into an Impreza project.

What is absolutely beyond crazy to me, is for you to put all the work into restoring it just to run it through winter and destroy all of the work/money you put into it... because it will fall apart again post-restoration if you use it as a winter hack.