I’d like to think that the wheels of the TDT bureaucracy are grinding away at my application (exemption for the short VIN). In the meantime, I managed to sort out a few things in the break between Christmas and New Year. Hopefully, this will pay off during the MOT prior to the permanent registration.

First, I replaced the headlights. I’ve been hunting for original European spec ones for a long time. So far, I’ve only managed to buy the right-hand one, maybe the left will show up on the classifieds someday. In the meantime, I fitted a Depo aftermarket. To be honest, the quality seems to be very good and, apart from the branding, they’re no different from the originals. I bought the right one with electric height adjustment, so if I ever find a matching left-hand one, I might have an idea for my next hobby project.

That left me with the JDM headlights. On this side of the Channel they’re useless, so I decided to convert them to bi-xenon using Mini H1 projectors. I’ll report back on how that works out. And since such a conversion is completely illegal anyway (no self-leveling and no headlight washers), I’ll also add yellow film, because why not! I have something like the N1 WRC look in mind, but we’ll see how it turns out.

Next up was replacing the lower control arm ball joints. In theory, nothing special, but in practice it took some effort. The nuts had to be cut off because the bolt was spinning inside the joint, and that stubborn one on the right-hand side absolutely refused to part ways with the steering knuckle.

As is typical with Subaru, every single component is sold separately: the ball joint, nut, washer, cotter pin, and the taper. I also replaced the bolt in the steering knuckle. This is a comparison between the OEM ball joint and the one that was installed previously:

My guess is that the car must have been very aggressively lowered on coilovers, and those extended ball joints were used to compensate for that.

I also have a lead on what might be wrong with the rear braking performance. It turned out that the brake pads had completely delaminated, the friction material had separated from the backing plate. To make matters worse, both the left and right rear calipers each have one piston that is stuck. I’ve ordered a rebuild kit for the rear axle and a full set of pads for both front and rear. We’ll see how much that helps.

I got a chance to spent some time lying under the car, inspecting things here and there. It looks good, actually, very good. You could even say better than I expected based on the photos from Japan. As I’ve already mentioned, it’s not perfect, and I’ve seen auction photos of cars where no one would guess they’re nearly 30 years old. Still, there’s nothing to complain about. The black coating sprayed over most of the underside turned out to be wax, not some kind of bitumen as I’d feared. The wax is not dried out at all, it’s still pliable and does a good job of covering the components.

Of course, there are things that need doing or replacing, such as the radiator fan shrouds, which are now held together mostly by the power of habit:

The plan is to strip this car down to the very last bolt over the coming years, and it looks like the base for such madness is very solid.

And finally, a little postcard: despite being up on “jack stands”, it still looks pretty menacing.

• Impreza
• Gc8
• Type-R