Maybe the Impreza isn’t a classic? Or maybe it’s not a classic just yet? But for sure it’s slowly approaching the “NLA” status — no longer available for purchase. And that’s exactly the status I saw while looking for 90871FE040 a replacement reinforcement panel for the scoop. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it’s been giving me gray hairs for a long time every time I opened the hood. So I finally decided to go to war with this wee plate.

It started with dismantling the scoop. The bolts, nuts, and screws were heavily corroded, so they went straight into citric acid, then met a wire brush:

By the way, citric acid works great — highly recommended. It dissolves rust nicely and makes brushing much easier.

Next, I tackled the air guide and cleaned up the rusty spots.

I primed and painted it:

Then it was time to deal with the real culprit — still politely glued into the scoop, as if nothing ever happened:

And here it is in all its rusted glory:

So what to do with it? At first, I thought I’d cut it myself, it’s just a piece of 0.8 mm sheet metal, after all.

That was never going to work — too many bends and curves. I came to my senses and decided to have it laser-cut. Easier said than done. The truth is, no one wants to deal with such small of a job, and when they hear you don’t even have a CAD file for it, that’s usually the end of the conversation. Luckily, I found a company, Biga Stal, that did it without any fuss — quick and easy. A few days later I had a perfect stainless steel plate in hand:

From there, it was smooth sailing. After painting, all that was left was to buy the proper tape to attach the plate to the scoop. I went with 3M VHB 5952 acrylic, 1.1 mm thick. Aside from the color, it looks and feels exactly like the original.

At the top, I added a window seal to prevent rubbing (you can just about see where it was glued on the original piece):

And it’s (almost) ready for installation:

Almost — just waiting on good news from the galvanizing shop:

Here’s how it looks:

Of course, one screw had to choose freedom and escape.

P.S. Since laser cutting is done from full sheets, I ended up with a few extra plates. So if your reinforcement piece looks like mine did a few days ago (and it does — they’re all the same), I can share a spare with you.

P.P.S. A recent postcard from Slovakia, that car sure is pretty.

• Impreza
• Gd
• Sti