The Wizard Of Fozz - sf5 Project

[WizardOfFozz]

Hey all!
My names Kevin and Im from Central PA. I sold my 13' WRX back in august for an 09' Fozzy daily that would fit my needs as a photographer and cinematographer and already knew i was going to want something new to start working on.



I just recently started on a new project that I picked up back in September. Its a 98 Forester with 160k miles on it with all the major engine maintenance just completed.

For the winter here I will be gutting the interior, reupholstering the seats, door panels, and headliner. Painting all the trim pieces, new carpet, new dash, steering wheel, sound system, etc. Once the interior is complete I will start on the suspension work. Planning on keeping this static for now, and looking at a couple different sets of Rotiforms to mount up. Other than that just cleaning up the exterior paint and trim, and doing some minor modifications to make it fit my liking a bit more. Eventually I have plans to swap the motor and trans as well but that will be further down the road.

Hope you all enjoy this, I will try to keep it updated regularly with progress over the winter.






As of now the interior has been mostly pulled, still need to get the remaining front half of the car. Seats have been sent off to be re-upholstered and have the bolstering fixed. Hopefully get everything pulled out this weekend, then its time to start working in there.

[WizardOfFozz]

Modifications

Saved for modifications list

Interior:

- Trim Painted Black
- Black Impreza Carpet Kit
- Custom Re-Upholstered and Bolstered Stock seats with Hawaiian Fabric
- Custom Headliner with Hawaiian Fabric
- Brazilian Cherry Wooden Trunk
- OEM Upgraded Wood grain Console Trim
- Grip Royal Walnut Jack steering wheel with nrg hub

Exterior:

- JDM F Badge Grill

Suspension/Wheels:

- BC BR Extreme Low Coilovers w/ Camber Plates and custom 14k Springs
- Rotiform TMB in DDT Finish 18x9.5 +25

Engine/Performance:

[PassionGarage]

can you give us some idea on what we are going to see in the build, looking forward to seeing a nice foz
keep it up

[CDeez5]

I can tell that this is gonna be great!

[WizardOfFozz]

Thanks guys, over the winter I plan on doing a full interior overhaul, with Hawaiian print and woodgrain, possibly a wooden trunk floor as well. Still want to keep it static for now so looking into a couple different coils. Looking around 18x9.5 + 10ish wheels, eyeing up some Rotiform TMB's the mono block style. Fab up a custom exhaust with UEL headers, some exterior touching up, kinda wanna keep the two tone for now, maybe look into the sf5 aero (if I go this route I'll get a custom paint job). Eventually looking into a boosted setup but that will be later down the road once I get the car sitting how I like it. Definitely lots of work to come in the next couple months. At this point just kinda seeing where things lead me and what I like.

[srtkr]

Glad to see another forester owner.

[SeattleStance]

Wow! love a low forester. This is going to be soooo dope.

[hinrichs]

This makes me miss my fozz, will be watching.

[WizardOfFozz]

A little Progress

Nothing too major yet. Still waiting on my upholstery to come in from Hawaii. Finished pulling the interior so its about 95% done now minus the headliner and a couple misc things. Old speakers are out and getting ready to replace all 4 of the old junk ones as well as the headunit. Gonna be ordering a 98 impreza black carpet kit, as well as lining up some odds and ends. Most of the work will start after the holidays as of now, but it is 65 degrees here in Central PA so i had to open up the garage door do a bit of work!

Door Panels out


Shitty Aftermarket Speakers Out


Carpet and Dash

[WizardOfFozz]

More Progress

More things coming in for the car and a bit more progress. New black impreza carpet kit came in, upholstery finally shipped in from Hawaii, interior and exterior trim completely removed now. Upholstery has been dropped off with the seats to get that works started. I pulled the car out of the garage to start cleaning the gutted interior since its been so nice, also now i have a clear garage to start working on painting the trim as well. Will be continuing to clean the car interior when its nice as well as cleaning off the trim pieces to prep for painting. Headliner will also be getting wrapped soon as well.















Slowly but surely putting along with this. Header and Coils are next on the list to purchase!

[WizardOfFozz]

Update Time! - (Lots Of Pictures)

Been on a bit of a posting hiatus (mainly because ive been getting a lot of work done), but I figured it was time for a bit of an update.

First I grabbed a couple friends and we wrapped the headliner in the Hawaiian fabric.





I also grabbed the black carpet kit i bought from JC Whitney for a 98 impreza and overlaid it on the oem carpet to start cutting holes to get an idea of fitment.




Now it was time to start washing all the trim to get the grime off before paint prep.




Now that all the trim was cleaned it was time to turn my garage into a temporary paint booth and start painting. The whole process for trim painting took about 2-3 weeks of every night in the garage for the most part working.




Of course my daughter had to help as well...




And finishing up the side trim with some dulipcolor vinyl dye



Now it was onto the seat-belts.

First i pull them all out and after taping them at the end so they would stay open




I then soaked them all in OxiClean to remove all the built up dirt and grime over the years so they were clean for pain.




And yes car parts get washed before dishes lol ^^

Now it was time to paint the belts. After taping off the edges



I soak each belt in lacquer thinner for about 10 seconds to let it soak in. Then I just used my regular spray paint and soaked them completely. The lacquer thinner allows the paint to seep into the thread for a nice even coat that wont crack or wear off.



Here is the final product, its definitely darker than shows in the picture, not 100% black but it better matches the interior scheme now.




Finally all the trim painting was done!



Now it was time to tear down the paint booth and clean the garage, then pull the Fozz back into the garage to start cleaning the gutted interior before reassembly.




Now after sitting in the garage overnight to warm up i started to scrub the entire interior. Here are some before and after pics for comparison. The inside of the car smelled like cat piss and it was all grimey and disgusting.

Before:









And now After:







Much Better! I just used Spray Nine with a scrub brush to do the initial scrubbing, then just got a big box of shop towels to wipe each section up as well as finish pickup up any leftover residue. Then just hit it all with a shop vac and let it sit with a fan to air out overnight.

Now that the interior is clean its time for reassembly!

First I started with the carpet which I knew was going to be the biggest pain in the ass to get installed.














It took a lot of cutting, fitting, and maneuvering with trim prices but I finally got things situated pretty well.

Now that the carpet is 90% set I decided to start moving onto more of the interior. First up was the headliner!





Also did a few more things like the front pillars, the lights and console on the ceiling, and the back window trim.






That is were i left off as of last night, I will be finishing the interior trim for the most part this week. My seats have finally been finished and I will be picking those up on friday. Here is a little preview the guy sent me from his shop:





This coming weekend or shortly after I will be ordering the coils, grip royal wood grain wheel, and UEL header. Stay posted!

[Supleme]

Great progress.

[Scape-Zs]

Those seats are rad, fabric is awesome!

[WizardOfFozz]

Those seats are rad, fabric is awesome!

Thanks man! Took about 3 weeks to actually get here it was made by a lady in Honolulu Hawaii, the quality and color is superb!

[Ryan.]

great job so far. pumped to see how the interior looks when its all back together.