Tidgy

looks more like somethings scuffed it going by the pic but im no expert on paintwork by any means

They normaly go frrom the inside out, so first sign is bubbles under the paint.

they tend to pinch the crank bearings, which is whatr fails rather thant he crank itself. If your planing to keep the car and thinking of tuning it then may as well do the rods and pistons while your there, also maybe look at closed decking it as its not mega money i the grand cost of a build.

Prices have gone up recently but sounds over priced to me. Does look tidy but strong money (bear in mind its all opinion of what they are worth) Be aware you will need to chuck some money at the brakes imo as the ones on it are crap. The '16' inch model was a despeced car provided cheaper to race teams to convert to rally cars, so the idea of it being a special edition is horse pish. They put the cheapest nastiest seats, wheels and brakes on it, should have a wrx spoiler as well. From looking at it the spoiler, wheels, interior are aftermarket/mod's as these were the bits they put the cheapest bits on as they were always chucked int he bin

If yoru planning to keep the car then i would get the engine rebuilt, even if it means parking it up for a while. Second hand engines are just that and no real way to know hoe they have been treated.

I wouldn't just do the hedagaskets, bear in mind clinic have done hundreds if not thousands of them over the years. Friend of mine was told o no just do the HG by a highly respected tuner, less than 1000 miles later it dropped the crank and they paid out a few days before the court case.

Ah right, yeah only series mcraes have them, could ask around to see if anyone localish owns one to pop down to the trimmers for them to have a look. try here, http://www.series-mcrae.com/

bodywork, engine and running gear shouldn't be too bad as they are the same as a standard one. Seats is the hard bit as your finding out, they were series mcrae only, Head rests are gonna be a nighmare to find as well i would have thought as most of them break the little plastic string type bits.

its fits the hole yes, but wiring is different as 2007 has avcs, plus its 2.0.

yeah he does seem to be taking the pee a bit.

yeah, although everyone makes mistakes, its how you act that counts in my eyes

welcome, as said get some pics up 😄

Subaru UK seem to be doing everything they can to go out of business for many years. In less than 10 years they took a large fanatical following (and i dont use fanatical lightly), alienate it and reduce the numbers to a fraction. The 2.5 engine was a distaster for the brand, but rather than put it right they carried on, burried their heads in the sand and basicly destroy the impreza's reputation and made alot of customers unhappy. This in turn led to poor sales and it became a culture of plug in to find the fault rather than a mechanic who knows the products inside and out as the mechanics wouldnt stay long as they never knew if there dealer was gonna go under (subaruy franchises dont seem to last long) and they could get paid more elsewhere. I remember when the hatch first came out, local dealer (of which there were 3 within about 10 miles, (Beeston, mansfield and derby, plus 2 others a bit futher north one in matlock and one in sheffield which is the only one still going) invited the local owners group down and basicly threw us the keys to take it out and see what we all thought (Prob didnt wanna buy that one after we all tried it hahaha). Now they are more bothered about sponsering horse trials and golf tournaments. The ironic thing is subaru US is growing in strength, they are in the US rally champ and winning it year after year, they have join RallyX and are building a decent rep in that, this has brought more and more fans back to the subaru brand to the point that US is getting things like the S209 or is it R209? what ever its called. Really does show where subaru have gone wrong.

You tend to find they already have crap reputations and people only find out after they have problems and go looking for more info. The number of dodgy places and mappers i know would shock you. The info tends not to come out till they go under. There is even one who people think are well up there in reputation, but its becuase they cover up problems and no one challenges them cos of who they are, one that even rang me with an obviously attempt to shut me up when i let on they were just rebranding parts to sell them at a massive markup. A friend of mine took the same one to court when they cocked up his engine build and they settled before it got to the court room as they didnt have a leg to stand on, part of the agreement was he couldn't speak out about it on forums and such so you dont hear about it, although i have to confess i'm not sure how that would hold up in court if he did and they sued him.

Plenty out there if you have the right budget. They do seem to be going up in price, but there are alot of rusty sheds out there so its def buyer beware.

only engine known to be worse than the 2.5 turbo is the subaru diesel engine.

welcome, glad you got there in the end 😄

ICP is import car parts so they are fine to use. they actualy suply most specialists with parts as well

Pesonaly i would go with the heavy duty ones, they will be a different material hence the 'heavy duty'. bear in mind if you stiffen up the roll bar the next weakest component will get extra flex, which may well be the drop link, also you may find the bush's are on the way out on the drop links.

At that age rot is gonna be a big issue and anything without a rebuilt engine will be getting prety tired.

should be fine

not many dealers around now adays, tbh you may be better going to a specialist.

welcome

aye true

I suspect this would invalidate your insurace policy.