Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon770
Wow wonderful job! If you haven't already done so, I'm sure every one would love to see a write up with pictures, parts instructions to this mod posted in the how-to's seaction. Just curous as to what your final cost of this project turned out to be. Estimated man hours? What's the difference in ride? Thanks for the post.
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I'm still doing some "shakedown" of the car, and I've got the ABS issue and a rub to clear up. Plus, I want to test fit my STI wheels on the car as well to make sure everything clears without the wheel spacers... this would be a silly mod if you *have* to run low offset wheels that poke out the fenders... I should only have to do it because of my brake clearance issue.
Once all the odds and ends are sorted, I'll be putting together a write up. I'm hoping it won't be a "how-to" but instead will be an installation manual for a conversion kit. My friend that runs KStech (another shameless plug:
http://www.kstech.biz) said he'd be interested in running a one-time group by on a few kits. If we can get a few people here interested in the conversion, we'll run off a batch of the adapters at the water-jet place. The only problem is he's going to need a monetary committment from people up front because he just signed a lease on a new shop and his cash is tied up in buying stuff like lifts and alignment racks.
As far as cost, here's a quick breakdown off the top of my head:
STi Kunckles and Unit Hubs (new from dealer): ~$500
STi axles (used from PDXTuning, thanks again Pegdrgr!), misc seals/clips: ~$400
STi ball joints (I alread had a pair): $0
Materials and tools for building the BJ adapters and ABS standoffs: ~$200
StopTech 328x28 BBK (used from NASIOC): $750
Wheel Spacers (new fron IchibaUSA): ~$100
Shop labor for machine work I couldn't handle at home: ~$100
So, it looks like the conversion cost a bit over $2000.
But the purchase of everything was spread out over the last 2 months, so it actually didn't feel like so much.
As far as my time... I probably spent 20-30 hours on designs and revisions (lots of time pulling apart the SVX and my WRX to compare parts before I even decided to attempt this). Probably another 10-20 in the garage actually wrenching. But I didn't really watch my time. It was mostly an hour or two here and there after work or on the weekends.
Geting back to the kit... I'm not quite sure what would be included. Certainly the ball-joint adapters and ABS sensor stand-offs. Perhaps the STi knuckles pre-machined for the SVX suspension and tie-rods. Probably not the axles, hubs, or ball-joints. My guess is the best kit would be one that has all the custom stuff done, but none of the OEM available stuff, the idea being to make the kit as cheap as possible while still making the job 100% bolt-on. But the big problem is going to be the end-links, unless the kit includes pre-bent links or custom short links, you'll have to figure out a way to bend your own links.
What do you guys think about the interest in kitting this mod up? Is there anyone intersted in paying to have all the fabrication done? If there's no interest I can simply do just a how-to write up with all the designs and part numbers instead and you guys are on your own for getting stuff made.