87Creep's 90s projects: AE101, SW20, GF8 WRX

[87creepin]

DRL overcomplication complete!

I disconnected stuff and this front harness from the front radiator support. Here’s my wires prior to covering in conduit, which was then cable tied to the factory harness and then reinstalled 

It then snakes under the drivers side fender, to under the dash where the relay is 

I have these knockoff AMP super seal connectors, the plastic is a bit cheap but the pins click in securely and it seems to be weatherproof. (I’ll have to get some legit ones to compare) 

Unfortunately I only have 2 pin connectors on hand and these have three wires. Rather than overcomplicate with 2x 2 pin connectors, the red ‘drl’ wire is connected with a sheathed spade connector. Shouldn’t be too much drama as it’ll live behind/in the bumper out of the rain. 

and here’s my 5 pin micro relay diagram (use a small one, big ones take up too much room) 

it took a while to work this one out; I knew that 85 and 86, when receiving 12v would switch 87a over to 87. But I forgot what I knew about circuits and got hung up on polarity. and also the wiring diagram I was Using wasn’t too helpful. 
 

basically, when ignition is ON and when car is running, the DRLs will be on. 87a - 30 and it finds ground through the ground connection I’ve made. 
 

but when the headlights are switched on, they find ground through that circuit and the relay pulls 87a to 87. The DRL circuit becomes an open circuit, thus no longer illuminating, and being legal. 
 

and extra relay spam that may be helpful to those installing alarms, my outback was a cunt, I couldn’t work out how to get my remote door unlock and lock to work. 
 

courtesy of the 12volt

Basically I had one wire to a switch in drivers door doing both unlock and lock and some unaccesium at the other end. I now have a working remote for lock and unlock. I’ll spend a bit more time trying to get the lights to flash with on and off as the 12v have a guide on how to do that. 
 

wiring in 91 - 97 Toyota > wiring in 98-03 Subaru 

[87creepin]

I thought it’d be a good idea to install some Makita One Ways, as my subframe is about 150mm off the ground, but all I achieved was a droop of 10mm. 

 

unfortunately I found my shocks and top hats were pretty bad 

shocks were very easily compressed By leaning on them. Rears didn’t even bounce back up. 
 

bolted them back in and got this 

I’d love some coilovers but realistically I need to be road legal so will go with lowering springs and new shocks + top hats. 

[87creepin]

Whilst poking round the fuel tank area for o2 thief countermeasures I noticed the left rear floor was pretty scabby 

 

I think moisture has got in after the seam sealer failing. somehow. it’s not a bad window seal or anything as my carpets have never been wet. 

I know my car isn’t OS as most OS (lol!) But it’s old car things. The oldest car I’ve owned so far, a second gen Prelude, didn’t even have seam sealer on a lot of panels that folded over others. I’ll remove the affected brackets, tidy up; and apply seam sealer once spot welded back in. 

but I will have to get a spot weld drill bit. And scrape the wrecked under seal off which will be fun. Just to make sure there’s no rust underneath. Can anyone recommend a good similar replacement product? 
 

tidy bracket 

And the poos 

 

the seats are the epitome of povo spec. But they’ll go back in for now… 

[87creepin]

Paint will come in the next post! 
For a few reasons I haven’t got round to painting this: a) I’ve had to focus on selling my outback, and getting it a wof, b) financial and c) I’ve never really been happy with the purple-darker shade of blue KA4 I got sent. And that leads on to further restless nights about should I do door jambs, and remove the doors, bonnet, boot etc, could I get a subtle effect with aliex pearls etc. 

but I’ve decided on a colour, it’ll be something that isn’t loud, but not boring, is relatively uncommon, and will give me a lot to do with keeping it clean and scratch-free. 
 

anywho, I got the rusty rear seat brackets sanded back, rust treated, and painted:

Disassembled the head unit I got from RXFORD with the intention of adding extra RCA outputs and hardwiring a Bluetooth adapter in. 

but this was put in too hard basket; Bluetooth hardwire seems doable but +2 RCA is out of my pay grade, might be easier to just use line outs. Will revisit this job later. 
 

Pulled out my parcel shelf speakers, which were a factory option

They worked, but barely. 

 

I’ll replace the speakers, and refinish the speakers in a colour match dark grey. And get the stickers reproduced. 
 

tided up my bumper support brackets

did the rear too

all trim is off so the pinch welds are exposed; I’ll be painting the door jams because OCD 

 

polished all my lights because I’m procrastinating scuffing said door jambs 

will put some paint on those black rubbers 

before top, below after 

 

scuffed all the black trim and weatherstrips, still got to do the bits of the door that are black. And door handles 

Outback is 99% ready to be moved on, road legal and I’m kinda over it 

Massaged exhaust the day before inspection, where it was fouling subframe, did a bit too much with the hammer as it created a new hole 

cut a section of pipe out and welded it with exhaust still on car; ugly as. Also used said hammer on exhaust heat shield and it no longer rattles about - it used to, only just enough to hear it. 
 

and decided to have a play around with this takata x speedhunters tow strap I’ve had laying around for years. I remember it saying heavy duty etc, but mounting it may be an issue, as there are holes in the frame rail for an m12 bolt but I found only suitable one is an m8. 

With an m10, but no access through bumper 

And m8 

for track use only… hopefully I get there soon. Thanks for reading! 

[87creepin]

Rust caught early 

This car isn’t too bad for rust, besides lower a-pillar/firewall I birdpooped back up a few years ago. 

the worst of it is in the rear floor/seat, but I’ll deal with this later.

Its mainly just failed seam sealer/paint over spot welds, but credit to previous owners as no water has been allowed to accumulate. 

I chiseled off some of the sound deadener expecting the worst but it’s fine, bad angled pic but to the right there are spot welds under it that are rusty 

And the boot 

 

generally scabby but shouldn’t require too much work which is a win 

pretty stoked with this, as a bad seal/poorly repaired rear end/water ingress would’ve made this worse 

Bonus points for Firestone full sized spare wheels tyre logo etched into the sound deadening: 

 

my door frames were rusty in areas, so sanded them back and treated them 

 

they were rusting from stone chips, so I may or may not have overreacted 

 

and spotted something else to disassemble 

I’ll figure out a way to paint this, even if it is very cracked from the sun 

after a quick wet sand and polish 

[87creepin]

masked up

The only windscreen rust, treated

In a bit of scope creep, I’ve decided to prime the whole thing and paint door jambs/insides too. 

but I thought I’d have enough primer, but I didn’t. I ordered a new kit as soon as I was finished. 

The RH side is done with 2 coats, the roof got 1.5 so will get 1 more and the bonnet was a bit of a fail. It’s a crappy product and sprayed shit all over, even if I noticed it was unusable in the tin I thought I’d try it anyway. It was full of hard lumps and I tried to filter it but still did poorly. it got so bad that I just finished it with spray cans to give me a sense of “finished”. 

the bodyian stuff I use is awesome, got quite a good finish out of it 

compared to the other stuff: 

 

Was going to paint some trims, but that meant having to open a door to pull them out, messing up the masking, and then parking the car outside the shed, where people could see my priming fail. 

 

[87creepin]

Priming finished. Apart from the fuel flap but that doesn’t matter too much. 

Shitty primer was fun, created a bit of extra work but got it done 

Will let it cure and start sanding shortly. 
 

also painted weather strips, door handles, grille and rear garnish 2k matty B.

Tried out wiper blade top bits too because faded but the paint reacted. 

went pretty good except a bug landed in a door handle and on one handle I got it a bit thin on top. Will have to invest in some fly spray. And also cos I’m not used to playing with the fan pattern. Iirc if I narrow down the fan, then I should lower the air pressure to compensate. 
 

also my rear garnish should’ve been primed first really but I would like one that has all the lights rather than a plain plastic cover. So not too bothered if it’s not 100% perfect. 
 

still got some other stuff like mirrors and other trim to Matty B. 
 

[87creepin]

Got the roof and bonnet fully prepped. 
 

 

It’s dusty dirty work. The vac I have came with a really short hose, unsuitable for body work, so sent dust all over. 

made it sludgy with some wet sanding 

 

It’s important to smooth out the edges too, any ugliness will show through in the final finish:

Had a bit of fry up on the bonnet which is always a bit of a head scratcher. 

it’s commonly a reaction between the solvents and the old paint below it. I used to get a lot of it on sun-fucked ABS parts and fibreglass bumpers. The solution in the old paint shop was a) don’t cut through to the old shit, b) remove it all, or wipe with thinners and try again. But I found this funny video from the Gunman that’ll help. Worth a watch for the epic rage 

Removed both front guards, prepped and stripped all plastic fasteners. In this pic I’m cleaning the inside, as you don’t want loose dust/dirt getting in your paint and it only takes a min or two as an extra step 

all done, note it’s important to make sure the edges are smoothed out whether primed or not. Just to make sure it’s all nice. Priming guards off the car is definitely better, as you can cover all areas a bit better. 

 

uh oh more rust 

This area is a bit of a trap for rust as water must get trapped in those bits. The other side was worse: 

Admittedly I’ve seen worse on mid-00s cars, cut and shut jobs. I took a wire wheel to it, rust treated and painted black, looks funky. But once guards are on won’t be seen. 

[87creepin]

I removed my doors as the plan is to paint the door jambs as well as inside the doors. This will make for a decent paint job rather than a rough and ready closed door job. 

The doors will be stripped of everything but the glass/window winder mechanism, this means that I’ll be able to cover all the panel that’ll be visible once the door cards are on. 

Removing the doors is a manageable one man job if they are light/small enough. Don’t do this if you have a ute/luxobarge/van. 
 

First the harness is removed/made manageable enough so that when the door is removed it won’t get in the way. Interestingly enough my rear doors have two wires but use an eight pin connector. 

then the catch, it’s been a while since I’ve stripped doors so apologies if I get the wrong terminology. My brains full of other Barry info. These ones have a bolt which I believe is better, but yours may have a pin which requires a gentle hammer. I have a few stashed away for when I do my SW20 door catch conversion in 2028. 

Then with the door closed, remove all but one bolt from the hinges. The last one can be removed carefully but for the last few threads do it by hand while supporting the door with the other hand+a leg. It should come out easily enough without too much drama. 
 

take lots of pics of where things go before removing, label containers of fasteners etc, 

Here’s all my hinges that’ll be painted. I scraped off all the old Seam sealer. 

found some rust too on some brackets that’ll be dealt with shortly 

Got distracted by my strikers, 

After some time with a mini wire wheel and metal polish: 

 

Once the doors are stripped the last two I primed can be prepped, the other two can be checked, then the insides can be scuffed/cleaned then they’re done-ish. 

[87creepin]

The stripping is complete, there is a bit more scuffing to do and other small jobs. But we’re getting there! 

I attacked the lower rear panel which had a few tiny rust spots all over it. I treated it with Brunox but only took a before pic 

Some hinges had a small amount of surface rust but were in otherwise fine condition.

I gave em a good scuff with scuff paste, warm water, and got in there with a pipe cleaner to get rid of any crud.

Buzzed the rust off, then put ‘em aside for some rust treatment 

Had to tidy up my door bracket support things. They have the worst rust of everything in the car. 

 

That’s the worst of the two. I don’t know what you’d call that coating, would it count as e-coat? Generally this car has a bit of failed seam sealer/weak coating on spot welds/old e-coat and that’s where the rust is but it’s more or less survived the worst of it. Pillars, firewall, windscreen? Mint. 
 

Also attacked these brackets which attach to my rear door lock actuators and keep wires out of the way 

Hung them all up to spray with Brunox but ran out, will have to order a new can

The door jambs are all scuffed and cleaned, but I went back and smoothed out some scratches/chips with the DA sander 

Generally shouldn’t be a big deal as those which are covered by the trim aren’t seen

A light coat of g5 rub through primer just to minimise any flash rusting 

Other side had some big-ish dents and chips, so filled them in and I’ll sand em later. 

 

[87creepin]

Check ya edges! 

 

Stripped and scuffed, I’ll mask off this Shell sticker for some period correctedness 

 

All doors cleaned off and scuffed, 

 

Hosed off the car too, especially in wheel arches, rocker panel, pinch weld, get rid of the dirt and the sanding dust 

[87creepin]

Supercheap was having a 50% discount on panel stands, and I had $20 credit, so I went and got two panel stands

The build quality is very good and I feel bad about putting overspray on them. 

I then removed my bonnet by myself, which was pretty nerve wracking, as I’m used to having/being a second pair of hands to help. 

 

stripped it, removed the sticker, organised All the parts, measured bolt-distances on the hinges etc which should help reassembly and getting fitment 100%. 

will have to order a new sticker/get it re-made but I left the tire size one as I guess thats important for warrants(?)

Rust free W 

Then removed the boot lid, this was also nerve wracking but SCA supplied heavy duty cardboard is A+ and it helped that my panels are light and small-ish! (Not like me) 

As before disconnect everything like washer hoses/latch cables that could interfere with removal. Strip, label and I’ll scuff/rust treat later. 

[87creepin]

I’m waiting on supplies etc to carry on prep and rust treatment of the insides of the boot and bonnet. And paint… paint is finally coming. 

So I made a start on the Matty B trim pieces, beginning with the door frames. First, grab ya trusty vice grips. Or winders.

masked up - you cant really see in the pics but I made sure to tape to an inner ‘ridge’ of the door frame, so there’s no taped hard edge, just the rear quarters got a hard edge because I didn’t bother/don’t know how to remove them.

I also was getting a bit low on masking supplies, that’ll do etc. And I had to sand them back as the rub-through primer I use reacted whenever an old layer of paint and brunox is in the same area.

But overall turned out pretty good, not perfect with dust in one spot and a visible deep scratch in another. 

 

On this bit of masking paper I was testing out the fan pattern, something that I’m not good at, but I feel like I got it as I painted the part and not the part + everything around it and waste paint  

 

I was Going to set up my temporary “booth” to paint in, but it was getting late and my tent structure was buried beneath boxes of parts in the back corner of the shed lol.

Here’s the rear door brackets after drying. I think they came out good, except for a bit where I missed but sprayed some paint on when I checked. 

 

I wanted to get the rest of the matty b stuff done, but got distracted by my door jambs 

This side was all wavy and warped, probably would be best fixed by some heat and shrinking but I just put filler in and left it 

the other side got attention too, again a lot of scratches/scuffs and lines from where the trim digs in to the paint. Plus the temporary primer Coat had reacted badly  

 

sorted. But I got a run ****, I just really suck at using aerosols 

 

Rest of the parts that are going Matty B are scuffed and cleaned (except for mudflaps) and are just laying about wherever there is space 

 

And I’m masking up my tail lights, which is very time consuming 

 

[87creepin]

On today’s post: 

- trims are done 

- my colour gets revealed 

- and I go down many rabbit holes 

my trims are “done”, I ran out of space/paint so will do the mud flaps later. 

 

 

I say “done”, because there’s still door mouldings that will be done body colour, and I would like to do the rear badge in silver. 
 

I then painted the insides of my doors first. I’m using 2k fleet black from auto colour bank. It’s common knowledge that keeping black paint nice is a full time job and requires a lot of ocd, so right up my alley 

 

I was going to erect (pause) a temporary car port as a booth, but 6x3m is far too small after having a hmm, but decided better to keep the workspace clean, water the floor, and cover the walls. 

I purchased two more stands and that’s probably all I can manage in terms of space. While they’re sitting on the floor I have cardboard bits taped to them to stop any damage. 

Prepped and cleaned the inside of my boot lid and bonnet 

Above is before scuffing/cleaning. I sprayed some 1k primer over the rust treated bits but ended up wiping it all off with thinners. More on that later. 

Painted them all

note that I play musical chairs with the panels in between painting, paint one, push it to the corner; make sure there’s enough space round the next one, and repeat. 

I’m happy with results, went well, except for a few spots of water and a bit of dust here and there. But not too much. Oh and I should’ve masked off the visible inner bits I.e back of each door as I got overspray on them. the above looks a bit peely too but I think it’s just the paint curing.

I didn’t wanna “waste” too much so insides got two coats and doors three. It looks a little dry because I ran out on the boot lid. But I doubt there’d ever be a Barry contorting his body to look at the inside of my bonnet/boot at a car show. 
 

Rabbit hole chat! I began this with my old rusty/yuck nuts and bolts 

The paint and rust will stand out in a bad way. What’s the right way to fix these? After going down a few rabbit holes on case tumblers, sandblasters, electroplating, and parkerising, I decided the best way for Me would be to soak the painted ones in brake fluid, rusty ones in vinegar, and once they have been cleaned, use por15 metal prep which gives them a zinc phosphate coating. And oil them after. 
 

You may notice that there are a few OSers who warn others not to use 1k primers and rust converters. The details in the paint thread, but I had to use thinners to remove this: 

The 1k primer reacted with the brunox beneath it. Because the brunox doesn’t really convert rust all that well, and the 1k is just a headache, I’ll use 2k epoxy to seal now. 

[87creepin]

I’ve got my painted bolts in thinners now and it seems to be way more effective than brake fluid. Unfortunately I haven’t escaped the laborious task of scraping the paint off though. 

por15 metal prep has arrived though 

I’ve upgraded my air filter and added one at the gun, it works well but I now check the filter for water more frequently lol 

 

It was producing a lot of moisture, after painting a few panels I’d go and empty out the water, then be able to spray again. but unfortunately I found the reason why: 

cos I’m a moron my compressor sits in a corner away from where I’m painting (I need to build a filtered enclosure sometime) and it’s only a small compressor with a 2.5hp motor and 40l tank. The fan cover was covered in crap/overspray and the filter was really dirty. 

I’ve ordered the above “valve plate fitting” reed from AliExpress for $2.50 and a new air filter, will change its oil too. 

also will probably have to get new charcoal canisters+filters for my respirator, and May run out of masking plastic. 

Just a bit of a footnote to painting a car in your shed and some of the hidden costs involved 

[87creepin]

I’ve got all my parts and car painted! 
finally. 
 

Due to limited space, things have to get painted in stages

They’re given 24 hours at least to cure, then I carefully tape some thick cardboard on the edges, and set em aside. 
 

Until a door fell off the one shitty stand I have, giving it a small dent in a corner and other small damages 

 

It happened to a few other guys at the panel shop I used to work at, never me, but everyone gets a turn eventually

Theoretically it’s a bit naughty to use filler as it can map out the repair and show through the paint, I should’ve used glaze over top but was in a hurry 

 

Also fixed up the fry up on my bonnet, i ended up being able to feel the repair due to the many layers of paint so put on some glazing putty and sanded it smooth. This turned out well.

 

Sorry no specific pics of the result

I got the paint on pretty well, I gently heated it up putting the tin in a bucket of hot water as recommended by Pete’s Hobbies on YouTube and it helped a lot 

 

 

 

 

it went well: but I did have an issue with water in the paint because I didn’t check the filter enough. This was mainly in the bonnet. 

[87creepin]

Cleaned it and started masking 


But first I sprayed some under seal on my sills 

 

Wet the floor, cover up the walls and other stuff etc, fly spray around but not on the car and here we go 

 

 

Lots of isocyanates 

 

The next day 

 

I didn’t have the same water issues this time, but I did get a few bugs in my paint from when I thought it a good idea to raise the shed door in between coats. I used a bit of masking tape to “pull” them out and apply a little extra paint to affected areas. This worked well. 

[87creepin]

Time to reassemble and call it done! 

 

 

 

 

 

actually I got some AliExpress flake, after being inspired by the likes of This guy on YouTube. 

Scuffed up and masked an old WRX bonnet,  Two types of flake, one coat, two coats, and three coats

 

Bust out your drug dealing scales, measure out how much you’d like ~ I decided 5g per 600ml of clear would work nice. Here is about 150ml so 1.25g of flake is needed. 

My pics aren’t very clear because lighting/toxic clouds/not warming the clear up but here’s the rainbow: 

 

 

And the silver

 

i found the third coat to not be enough so dumped a bit more in and redid it. But I’ll be going with the rainbow - 10g per 600ml with a very light coat followed by two coats should give me the subtle effect I’m after. 
 

 

With that being said I’ve started wet blocking my panels down. Didn’t get far as I’d like due to my compressor shitting the bed; will do it without the help of an air gun and my compressor should be running by the time I have all panels prepped for the rainbow 

 

[87creepin]

While there was a break in the rain I pulled the car out to clean the shed 



note all that dust is just from outside, it’s not in the paint. 

bit peely, it was nicer when I had painted it but unfortunately the overspray settles on it without good air movement. 

and dumbass me missed two small dents on the lower rear quarters, one on each side, just above where the bumper sits. 

Got all my rusty/painted hardware out from their vinegar/thinner bath 

Turned out OK but this is two weeks worth of soaking, and the lower one had brunox over it before putting in I think. 

Using my rotary tool (knock off dremel) I took off the paint/rust of all nuts and bolts 

 

 

To this 

I then bathed them all in degreaser, wiped them dry, and put them in their next bath of por-15 metal prep 

fizzing! 

I’ll then soak them in a bit of engine/diff oil whatever I have most of/least important. 

This worked out to be the best/easiest/cheapest method for me. 

It turned out to be a days work though, it’d be much easier and faster with a blast cabinet. 

[87creepin]

A Por-15 fail, wet sanding and scuffing done, and now we’re reassembling 

The plan to coat the visible bolts/nuts of the doors, bonnet, boot, and front guards has failed. Initially they looked OK when I pulled them out of the metal prep but after an hour here they are:

 

milky. Yuck 

Maybe it’s because I didn’t use their cleaning products. It is a water-based solution after all, so perhaps I should’ve used a water based cleaner as well as the tolulene etc based brake cleaner. 

I’ve wet sanded/scuffed all my panels. It went well, hardly any dust, but unfortunately where I did get moisture I either burnt through or left it and will touch up with a brush/light coat of colour. 

The above and below are of the bonnet, the most-affected panel

 

Got it done but will need to touch up on either side. 

Had a pretty bad run on the bumper and on a guard too 

 

Unfortunately cut through but its fixable being at the bottom 

Cos I like to load up the stands with parts close as together, I put it really thin and dry on my fuel flap (trial colour on boot lid badge)

 

As I reassemble, I’m masking the hard to reach inner bits too. It’s much easier to mask certain areas this way than when the panels are on. 

 

Door partially reassembled (just locks and harness) so that it’s enough to latch up. 

 

Also spent way too long aligning my boot lid, I think one hinge is a bit wonky

the nice side 

And the bad 

 

I’ll reassemble, scuff the car, clean, mask, and clean it off, then get that aliex pearl on. cheers!