Well, it really isn't a short time overall. I started the top AE86 when I was about 20. I worked for a body & mechanical shop at the time of the restore, and spent lunch hours and hours after work as long as the owner was willing to stay. I'd come down on weekends and put in hours with the head painter on prep work. Just sanding the body took almost 50 hours of wetsanding. The BRZ was a project that started in late August of 2014 and just finished up this October with the final finish paint work. I crunched the numbers and I with slight help from a few friends, probably had close to 1000 hours in the paint prep and fitment of the Rocket Bunny kit alone. Thats why no shops want to touch those things, because even decent kits take forever to make show quality. I appreciate all the caution and I don't want to make you think I don't appreciate the advice. As far as links go, I believe I have a ton of pics of the BNR32 build, but they are on a private forum. The BRZ, well, I don't spend any time on NASIOC or the FT86 forums, I just lurk and read up on stuff. I have plenty of cell phone pics during all the fitment work. I used to be very active on club4ag, but with Moto's lesser involvement, and the downfall of constructive features and helpful members, I've distanced myself from there as well. :/ Like I said, I get lazy with trying to update forum posts, but I never loose interest in the project at hand.
I love how everything in your wheel well shot looks redone. Thats how my first AE86 looked, but sadly, I sold that years ago. My wife has a 2012 Impreza herself. When I was single, I had hours every night to invest in these things, now that I'm married with a house to take care of, my time will probably be way worse than yours has been in the past. The Matrix I mentioned, the rings went bad in the engine swap. My machinist buddy and myself have been wrenching on that 1 day a week, since March. lol. Just to disassemble and rebuild the motor IN THE CAR because doing AWD motor swaps with just a hoist in a regular garage is not a walk in the park. I'll see about digging up some links to past projects, but I'm in my mid 30s, and some stuff just isn't findable after over 10-15 years. FYI, I started doing autobody at the age of 15, and took apart my first turbo motor just for fun at the age of 17. (a 1987 Thunderbird Turbocoupe)
~Mike
