A Fallen WRX Rises Again

[Doug @ Forma]

The sun is shining, the temps are rising and our 818S is nearly complete. So, even though she's a bit dusty, we had to get her outside for a spin around the parking lot.

We've been posting a lot about our newest builds, a Mark IV (http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?23720-FormaCars-MKIV-9004-Build) & Type 65 (http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?23727-FormaCars-Gen3-Coupe-9-Build). It's time our 818S (https://www.formacars.com/blogposts/?category=FF+818) got some forum time.

Just a few pics for now, look for a full write up soon.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58175c3615d5dbcebad13573/586fea28579fb38a7f1249cd/58d436b44402432cd5864b76/1490303888621/2017-03-23+16.15.13.jpg?format=1000w

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[frankc5r]

Looks nice. Paint or wrap??

[flynntuna]

That's a great picture with the donor in the background. :cool:

[Shawn818c]

nice build!

[Doug @ Forma]

Looks nice. Paint or wrap??

It's paint. The graphics are vinyl. We've got a plot cutter (And a wide format printer, but these are solid), so we can cut out any shape we want.

[Mitch Wright]

Nice work.

[Mechie3]

I've been waiting to see full pics!

[shinn497]

Dang loving the bodywork. Did you do that all yourself ?

[Doug @ Forma]

Dang loving the bodywork. Did you do that all yourself ?

We did do much of the prep work on this one, but not the final prep and paint. Body work is something we will be outsourcing in the future. Just too messy and without a dedicated, closed off area for it, you just make a big mess of the entire shop. We'll continue to do the body fit up here in house, though, which will require some body work, but most will go to our fantastic body shop.

We did do several small things to improve the body. We weren't happy with the match of the Factory Five side vent trim, so we remade them (we can supply these, if there is interest). We also assembled the trim and mesh differently, which required trimming the mesh (we did the same at the rear). We designed and machined the exhaust tips (we do intend to offer these). Not visible here, we also created underbody pans for the rear and new inner fender shields for the front which aren't installed yet (both of which we intend to offer).

We wanted the inner fender shields because of this:

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All that debris is from 3 trips around our parking lot yesterday. We'd like to keep that stuff out of there.

[axelthrasher]

Nice looking car... very purple. Any shots of the interior? Do I see some custom door upholstery?

[Doug @ Forma]

Nice looking car... very purple. Any shots of the interior? Do I see some custom door upholstery?

Soon. :D The weather here in Ohio just broke this week, which will let us schedule a photoshoot soon to get some quality shots.

To be a little less vague, we did wrap the door insert in contrasting vinyl as well as put our CNCs to work on a few billet pieces. :cool:

[shinn497]

welp it is gorgeous. I am wondering. For the home builder. Just how much should be done with bodywork. I actually want to get a red base coat and then later change colors with plastidip. we will see.

[axelthrasher]

Soon. :D The weather here in Ohio just broke this week, which will let us schedule a photoshoot soon to get some quality shots.

To be a little less vague, we did wrap the door insert in contrasting vinyl as well as put our CNCs to work on a few billet pieces. :cool:

Do you plan to offer those door insert wraps and other billet parts? I feel the door cards need a lot of help from FF... so anything is an improvement.

[Doug @ Forma]

welp it is gorgeous. I am wondering. For the home builder. Just how much should be done with bodywork. I actually want to get a red base coat and then later change colors with plastidip. we will see.

Thanks for the kind words. It really depends on the level of finish you want in the end. Obviously, the higher end your paint is going to be, the more work you're going to want to put into the fit up and initial prep work. I'm not completely familiar with working with Plastidip, but it seems rather forgiving, especially if working with matte finishes. We were going for a high end paint and so we put a lot of effort into aligning the panels & getting them very smooth.


Do you plan to offer those door insert wraps and other billet parts? I feel the door cards need a lot of help from FF... so anything is an improvement.

The wrapped part was simply the FF aluminum trim part, wrapped in padding & contrasting perf vinyl. We did order new aluminum part from FF without the door handle cut outs, however, because we're using electric door releases.

We had it out to Cars & Coffee on Saturday and got a great reception. Here are a few camera shots from Saturday, including a couple interior shots.

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It was cloudy early on, but the sun came out and made it a really nice event. Even got a plum crazy (the color we used) Challenger parked next to us at the end. It was a great morning and we got a lot of positive feedback on the car.

You can see that we've made a custom steering column cover to avoid the bulk of the Subaru covers. We moved the turn signals to the steering wheel and developed a canceling mechanism to make this happen. It's a tubular aluminum cover, a billet hub and a 3D printed shroud and it allows the Subaru height adjuster to be used. This is something we'd love to offer, assuming there's interest and we can price them right.

The door panels have the perf vinyl covered insert and billet pull handles that have the release buttons integrated. We really were not satisfied with raw nature of the FF pull handles and rather than spending a lot of time cleaning those up, we made our own. That also gave us a natural place to put the release button. We were going to do a second release button up high to be easier to reach from outside, but these aren't hard to reach at all so we didn't. We do intend to offer an 818 door popper kit with these handles included.

Lastly is our center console with a billet shifter mount plate housing the critical switches you need to reach while strapped in and a billet upper console housing a Dell tablet. The tablet interfaces with our Infinity Box and controls all chassis functions like lights, wipers, on/off, etc. It can also do audio, but we don't have that built in yet.

[Hindsight]

I like that you reinforced the trunk lid. I need to do the same to my trunk lid and especially hood. What did you use to adhere the reinforcement, and did you do it with the trunk lid off the car, or on the car in the shape that the trunk lid holds?

[flynntuna]

Those exhaust tips are very nice. Adds a refined look.

[frankc5r]

Very nice car. I see you have both side rockers and diffuser. FFR just sends rivits. Could you outline what you used to install the rockers and diffuser?
Thanks

[Doug @ Forma]

I like that you reinforced the trunk lid. I need to do the same to my trunk lid and especially hood. What did you use to adhere the reinforcement, and did you do it with the trunk lid off the car, or on the car in the shape that the trunk lid holds?

Here's what we did.


Installed the deck lid on the car and clamped down to match the body. Ours was 3/4" - 1" high on each corner to start.
Made a template for the inside curve of the decklid.
We removed the decklid and flip it over on a stand, supported on each end, and added weight to the middle until the curve matched our template.
We then cut a foam bar to the curve and laid it on the decklid. We glued it in place with the same adhesive we used on our sheet metal.
We used fiberglas mat & resing to cover the foam and create a stiff structure.


Once finished, our decklid was now only 1/8" or so high in the corners.

We didn't add any reinforcement to our hood. It's a bit flexible when off, but once tied down it's fine.


Those exhaust tips are very nice. Adds a refined look.

Thanks. We originally planned on just a pipe through the mesh, but that needed a trim piece, which turned into a billet piece which looked a bit lonely by itself, so we added another. :D


Very nice car. I see you have both side rockers and diffuser. FFR just sends rivits. Could you outline what you used to install the rockers and diffuser?
Thanks

On the CF rocker extensions, they are riveted in place to the body panels. On the diffuser, we used rivnuts in the frame and screwed it in place.

[Mechie3]

Did you make your headlights removable/serviceable? I'm not a fan of the "glue it in in place, hope the LED's never burn out" method of mounting FFR suggests.

[Kyle @ Forma]

Did you make your headlights removable/serviceable? I'm not a fan of the "glue it in in place, hope the LED's never burn out" method of mounting FFR suggests.

Unfortunately, this is the case.

[phil1734]

Any plans for some sort of parking brake boot? It looks like yours is pretty bare like nearly everyone else and you seem crafty enough to come up with something. ;)

[Doug @ Forma]

Any plans for some sort of parking brake boot? It looks like yours is pretty bare like nearly everyone else and you seem crafty enough to come up with something. ;)

The parking brake boot is one of a handful of things left to do.

[SnyderJD]

Love the clean look, and really like the steering wheel cleanup! id be interested in that as well as the billet handles..

[axelthrasher]

Love the clean look, and really like the steering wheel cleanup! id be interested in that as well as the billet handles..

I too really like the steering wheel surround - the only downside is the guys that need the turn signal/wiper stalks integrated into it. Doesn't appear to play well with the OEM Subaru turn signal/wiper stalks.

[Doug @ Forma]

Love the clean look, and really like the steering wheel cleanup! id be interested in that as well as the billet handles..

Thanks, we really didn't like the bulk of the stock Subaru column surround. We so intend to offer a door popper kit that includes those door pulls as well as the pulls alone (with caps where the release buttons would be).


I too really like the steering wheel surround - the only downside is the guys that need the turn signal/wiper stalks integrated into it. Doesn't appear to play well with the OEM Subaru turn signal/wiper stalks.

The turn signals in our car are on the steering wheel. We've engineered a canceling mechanism that's inside the base of the tube. As designed, it's intended to work with Infinity Box but we're looking at ways to integrate it into the Subaru wiring to make it more universal.

[Chef818]

Do you have more pictures of the engine bay & muffler routing?

[Doug @ Forma]

Do you have more pictures of the engine bay & muffler routing?

We don't have many yet (a photo shoot is on the agenda now that the weather is improving.) These shots shows a bit more.

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There's no muffler on this build, but we've looked at tucking one in the passenger side rear corner.