Visit to Special Edition/ Fiberfab Speedster /Subaru Conversion

Nice plan!  You will love the convenience of the Suby engine.   What transmission will you end up with.

The speedster is a swing axle car, I had a transaxle built with a 3.44 R&P ,super Diff. welded hubs 3rd and 4th and HD side cover.

How long is the estimate to get it all done?

The process started back in Feb., Carey has all the parts ready so they are hoping for 4  weeks. Maybe less.  Depends on the radiator.  They may need to have Griffin make a custom one up. They were hoping one of the radiators they have for their Speedster conversion would fit but it is to be decided. I need a little time to recover from (a forget LOL) the 10 hour round trip to deliver the car.  Wasn't a fun drive. I am thinking of staying the night when I go to pick the car up. Carey recommended this and wants me to take time to put some miles on the car to make sure I am good with it. This way If something needs to be corrected they can do it. I like that approach. Their customer service appears to be top notch. 

Jimmy V. posted:

The process started back in Feb., Carey has all the parts ready so they are hoping for 4  weeks. Maybe less.  Depends on the radiator.  They may need to have Griffin make a custom one up. They were hoping one of the radiators they have for their Speedster conversion would fit but it is to be decided. I need a little time to recover from (a forget LOL) the 10 hour round trip to deliver the car.  Wasn't a fun drive. I am thinking of staying the night when I go to pick the car up. Carey recommended this and wants me to take time to put some miles on the car to make sure I am good with it. This way If something needs to be corrected they can do it. I like that approach. Their customer service appears to be top notch. 

You're really going to enjoy the conversion.....you're in good hands and the 3:44 transmission is a real good choice. Keep those pics coming, Amigo. 

Thanks for the positive comments. I can't wait to get the car back. I will continue to post pics as Carey sends them. I contacted him this morning. They are doing a disc brake upgrade on the rear and using correct 5 lug hubs so the cheesy 4 to 5 lug wheel adapters can go. I  inquired today about changing the front discs out to be 5 lug to match. Waiting to hear back on that.  I will post the outcome.

 

Carey, Mike, and Brad(and the rest of the crew) are awesome. You're in good hands.

I love the look of your car and what Beck will be doing to it too 

Hi Gang,

 Thanks for all the well wishes and positive comments. Carey and the crew at Special Edition don't mess around. They are making impressive progress on my car. Carey will send an update each Friday with pictures and the weeks work completed. They have had my car since Tuesday late morning and have removed my transaxle and installed the new billet shift coupler I sent, (It appear they did this without needing to cut an access hole on the floor of the car in front of the back seat.) and installed my new transaxle. The Subaru JE253 engine has been assembled and is ready to drop in for test fitting next week. I will keep posting the progress each Friday. This is fun !!!

Oh man... those 904's  

One day... ONE DAY... So beautiful.

I know what you mean. I wanted to push one of the GTS's into my trailer. I saw no less than 9 of them in different stages of completion. Carey wouldn't miss one just one of them would he?

Fantastic! Couldn’t be more happy with my Beck Suby transplant. Carey and crew will work the magic.

  Week two of the Subaru conversion work. Carey and the gang have the engine and transaxle fitted into the car. They were worried about the space between my frame rails, it came out tight but they say there will be enough room to be able to change the plugs if needed. Their regular radiator they use on their Beck Speedster conversions is too big for my Fiberfab car. They are going to use the slightly smaller radiator they use when converting their 550 Spyder's to Subaru power. Next week they will be cutting the front of the underside of the car up to fit the radiator and fabricate the exhaust stubs. This remains an exciting journey. I cant wait to drive my car!

I re-read Carey's report and they have the header stubs fabricated and are waiting on a special exhaust that A-1 has made. It is in transit from California.  They want to wait until the exhaust is in place before they fabricate the rear engine mounts.  They will be working on the cooling system and heat next week. I guess I have 3-4 more weeks until completion. I will be driving in the fall weather.

Jimmy....I feel for ya on the wait ! The engine mount and exhaust are always interfering with one another. Even on my VW engine in Rhonda. Here's a photo of the weave job of my rear Traction bar thru the exhaust tubes. I had to give up the heater boxes but I'm in SoCal.....Bruce

I have not seen a rear mount like yours before. You call it a traction bar. So it keeps the horns from flexing under hard take offs or hard acceleration? It is a very nice piece of work.

Yes Jimmy ......Having a type 3 engine case or a new universal case is needed because they have the bolt bosses already in the case for the rear motor mount. The outside ends attach to the square 2" tubing that's welded to the shock towers for support of the rear body. These ends are rubber insulated to isolate engine noise transfer to the body. I guess it could be called a rear motor mount OR a traction bar. Gets rid of wheel hop though. You must have the front nose cone movement limiter as well. Since I had to install a 3 foot long,  5 lb,  3/8",  aluminum bar up in there I thought I might as well make it look pretty Huh ?.........................Bruce

Looks Awesome Bruce!

3rd week of  work on my Fiberfab  Speedster's Subaru Conversion and other modifications by Carey and crew at Special Edition in Bremen, In.

The front area for the radiator has been cut, mounting brackets are being fabricated. The ducting will be made once the radiator is mounted.

 I am having the rear drum brakes converted to disc brakes with 5 lug Porsche rotors. Changing the front rotors from 4 lug VW to the Porsche pattern. A new dual master cylinder is also being installed.

 A1 has made a custom stainless exhaust which is in transit. Pics will be sent soon.

Carey is working on the Subaru engine mounts. Here is what he said in his email:

 "As expected, we ran into some unforeseen fitment issues with the
engine mounts and radiator fitment, BUUT I believe we have everything
figured.  I’ve got the front trunk cut open and the radiator
temporarily fitted.  We’ll be making the mounting brackets later today
and then start the ducting for that.  I believe the central scoop like
we use in speedster and spyders will work fine, but if not we’ve left
it to where we can force extra air via the horn grills if needed.
As for the engine mounts, I now see why the other pan based guys were
using the bell housing mounts and not the Subaru engine mounts.  Mated
to a 5 speed Subaru box, the motor sits a full 1.5" further forward
allowing for an engine mount bracket to attach to the frame horns.
Mated to the VW box out sits just far enough back that the bell
housing mounts are going to be a bit more secure than the stock Subaru
engine mounts.  Thus we’re modifying the truss bar system and the
adapter plate to allow for this same attachment of the engine w/ the
beefier trans mounts.  It’ll just take a little bit if machining and
it’ll all mate up nicely.  It should also allow us to keep the trans
straps and I think it’ll be 95% of what I intended w/ the Subaru
engine mounts.  We haven’t ruled them out 100% just yet, BUT it’s
looking more and more like the only way to use them would be to box in
the frame horns and extend them 1.5” and I just don't think the gain
will justify the work."

 Stay tuned for week 4 report next Friday.

 

 

I actually know what he's talking about with trying to make the Subi motor mounts work with VW frame horns. 

You're building everything off the horns anyway so you can't easily improve the strength by using the beefier Subi parts. But you DO add weight.

The Rhino mounts seem to hold up well, and the transaxle mid-mount keeps it all stiff. The kafer bar will make it better yet.

So does the Suby engine have front and rear mounts ?................Bruce

MY EJ22 has one mount on each side. They're forward of center but not all the way at the front of the block. 

Just two mounts, in a Subaru you can't really see them, they bolt to the subframe that connects the front control arms and houses the steering rack.

DannyP posted:

Just two mounts, in a Subaru you can't really see them, they bolt to the subframe that connects the front control arms and houses the steering rack.

I took the easy way out and installed HD oem VW mounts on the transaxle then bought two brackets from "Small Cars"  like you see in the first photo. They hook up to the bellhousing end of the Soob motor right near the VW mounts, then head aft and pick up the main, center motor mounts on the Soob motor. Then they carry further aft where they attach to a custom transverse mount that I shock mounted up to the frame rails. Transverse mount shown in second pic. It works quite well. I've since cleaned up that ratty wiring in the pic. 

The third attachment is a short video I did to actually see what action is applied to the engine mounts under some "acceleration conditions" while standing still.  This test was done on a previously installed 2.2l Soob without the aft transverse mount but with only the HD VW mount rubbers. No visible twisting movement on the mounts that I can see. Not knowing any better, I still went ahead with the transverse mount with the larger 2.5 l Frankenmotor. 

Week 4 of Subaru Conversion. It seems to be crawling now but the big part of the conversion is finished, now the detail work is being done and it feels like it isn't moving fast but I know this part is critical and important. Below is what Carey of Special Edition wrote.:

 

I decided I don't like the silver on silver look of the engine. Since it is coming out again before final installation I asked Carey if the intake ,valve covers and the other accessories that they have powder coated silver can be done over in Red. I like the contrast and the fact that stock Subaru turbo engines have red accents. Carey as always afforded me his super customer service attitude and is having it done. I can't say enough to promote how great Special Edition is to work with. True professional's that bend over backwards to make sure you have the finished product you desire. Thanks Carey!!

 I have attached a picture of a turbo engine in red , my engine is not turbo but it gives an idea of what it will look like.  .

When you building it you want everything perfect a la OCD... after a while .. it will do  

Week 5 is completed. The engine is back out for the last time. The intake, valve covers  and others bits are off the engine and are out to the powder coater to have the color changed from silver to red.  The Radiator is mounted and the shroud is finished. They will final attach it once the new fuel tank is finished having the return line and larger feed line installed by the welder. The wiring is finished and in process of final attachment and covering. All of the work looks professional and well engineered. I am so looking forward to the first drive. I will post some video in a few weeks when we arrive at the point. Good work surely does take time.

Week 6 of my Fiberfab Subaru conversion. This week it appears that not much has happened on the car. Waiting for other parts to come in such as an A-1 Exhaust custom made for the Subaru conversion. It is finally in transit so we will see it this coming week. The truss bar system has been installed. Carey is making the ducting for the radiator Sunday and Monday. He is considering running extra ducts from the horn grill openings extra cooling is needed. I decided to change the engine parts to the color red (silver on silver was too bland) the parts are back from the powder coater and ready to be re-assembled on the engine and the engine will be installed for the last time. Carey estimates at this point 2 weeks after the parts arrive this week. I am hoping to get some use out of the car before the bad weather sets in. Some of the recent days here in the Louisville Ky. area have been perfect driving weather and it is killing me, absolutely killing me. Each week has been harder than the last, regardless I want it done right instead of fast. So I will wait.

Until I enlarged that last picture I thought it was some strange sea creature.

Looks like they’re doing a nice, clean job.

Is that an Alaskan King Crab? Oh... No... Soooby intake. My bad.

 

Jimmy V. posted:

Week 6 of my Fiberfab Subaru conversion. This week it appears that not much has happened on the car. Waiting for other parts to come in such as an A-1 Exhaust custom made for the Subaru conversion. It is finally in transit so we will see it this coming week. The truss bar system has been installed. Carey is making the ducting for the radiator Sunday and Monday. He is considering running extra ducts from the horn grill openings extra cooling is needed. I decided to change the engine parts to the color red (silver on silver was too bland) the parts are back from the powder coater and ready to be re-assembled on the engine and the engine will be installed for the last time. Carey estimates at this point 2 weeks after the parts arrive this week. I am hoping to get some use out of the car before the bad weather sets in. Some of the recent days here in the Louisville Ky. area have been perfect driving weather and it is killing me, absolutely killing me. Each week has been harder than the last, regardless I want it done right instead of fast. So I will wait.

Patience, Amigo. You'll have a great professional conversion and less grey hairs than I got trying to figure things out myself. You'll love it. You're in good hands.

Thanks for all the support during this tender trying time in my life.. separation anxiety is a real thing...LOL 

 Patience at times hard to have when your baby is being worked on  

Well it wasn't bad at week one but after week 6 it is off the chart. The anticipation is killing me. I find myself watching Speedster clips on youtube and lurking this site way too much. You would think I'm an 6 year old waiting on Christmas. The day will arrive soon enough and part of the fun is the journey. Now if I repeat that 100 times will it get better?? LOL..

This too, shall pass. I almost lost my mind waiting on my original Beck build, which I kicked off in August and received the next March (it was a planned winter build delivered as promised).

Since then, I go through it again each winter, with each batch of upgrades.

So far, for the very first time in 8 years, I have no upgrades planned. That should make the winter wait a little easier :-)
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I wonder if there is any Speedster events near the Louisville Ky. area?  ( I know about Carlisle and plan to come next year) If not I wonder if there is enough of us the live in 6 hours of Louisville that would come to an event if one was organized. Just a thought. Anyone listening?

Tom can you list the projects done on your car ....

A combination of stuff done by SE and by myself:

Natalie Upgrades & Repairs

Initial Build - 2010
- MPH Speedo
- Extended Sump
- Camber Compensator
- External Oil Filter
- Exhaust Tips
- Dead Pedal
- Passenger Mirror
- Zip out rear window
- A1 Sidewinder Exhaust
- Bumper Risers
- Stayfast top
- Battery shutoff
- Fuel Pump Shutoff
- Nardi Wheel
- Power Point
- 2054 Engine
- Rancho Pro trans
- Heat
- Grille Badge
- Grab Handle
- Porsche Badging
- Fire Extinguisher
- Rain Hats
- Jet Doctors

2011
- Hydraulic Clutch
- Oil temp gauge
- Oil Cooler
- CHMSL
- Cocomats
- Racing Lap Belts
- Stayfast Tonneau

2012
- Tweaked side curtains
- CSP Shifter
- Air Horn
- Fire Suppression System
- Added top snaps

2013
- Breather Box
- LED Tailights
- CHMSL Flasher
- Custom Sidecurtains
- Cyllinder Head Temp Gauge
- 4-Wheel Disc Brakes
- Improved Parking Brake
- Improved Heat
- Cup Holders
- Heated Seats
- Calibrated Speedo
- Emergency Rear Decklid release
- Pop up Decklid latch
- Drain plug sump plate
- Riveted on door handles
- Helm joint on clutch pedal
- Welded bolt on muffler
- Holes in spare tub

2014
- Dash Trim
- NOS interior door handles
- Sound Deadener in Doors
- Pinned on badges
- Powder Coated Exhaust
- Upgraded Paint
- Braided brake lines
- Swap Speedo & Combi Gauge
- New Seat Tracks
- Stainless Side Curtain Tabs
- Braided Clutch Line
- Windshield seal
- Upgraded interior mirror
- Upgraded Battery

2015
- New CHMSL
- PowerPoint move
- Brake & Turn Signal swap
- Phone Mount
- Under tank fire suppression
- New alternator stand
- Upgraded alternator
- Pulley Upgrade
- SOC Badge Mount
- License Tag Frame
- Repair side curtain tab
- Brake squeal
- Carb rebuild

2016

- Suby Powertrain (Gloss Black)
- Notchy shifting
- Oilite shift bushing
- Rhino shift coupler
- Center PowerPoint on run circuit
- RF Hubcap dent
- Battery mount improvement
- Before (1728) & after weight (1811)
- Signal mirrors
- 2nd gas tank
- Remove old vents
- Remove old heater knob
- Remove old switches & bracket
- LED Headlights
- OBD2 port

2017

- *(2) Brake/Wheel/Tire Upgrade (Gloss black aluminum wide 5, with drum skins and black centers) Black Porsche studs and nuts
- *(3) New gauges (mph/kph speedo) with green LED backlighting (including existing coolant temp gauge) grommet added to coolant temp gauge
- (4) Horn fuse blowing (Louder Hella horns) front mount behind grills. Painted flat black
- (5) Door scratches
- Flush Brake system & put in DOT 4
- (6) Backup Lamp Repair
- Trans drip
- Lube heater cable/mechanism?
- Inspect Header for cracks from my misadventures
- (8) Normal maintenance
- Bleed clutch
- Air Filter cleaning & oiling
- Coolant Loss
- Inspect Radiator mount for looseness
- *(7) Bigger overflow bottle
- (1) Throttle Travel (added throttle controller)
1834 pounds

2018

- Door plate screws
- Hawk brake pads - Front

- Pegusi