I had a bit of a front ender in my STi V and called David Hendry cars in Malmesbury for advice on a body shop.

They referred me to Bailey's Vehicle Accident Repairs in Okus trading estate Swindon.

I took it in there and though they weren't an Admiral approved repairer, they claimed to have experience of repairing imported Subarus and they had a 22B in for repairs at the time.

Picked the car up a few weeks later and all looked good until my wife went to lift the bonnet for check the oil, and found it much much heavier than before.

I specifically told them that only STi parts were to be used, yet they've put a UK spec bonnet on (STis have an aluminium bonnet, and believe me you'd be amazed at the weight difference). I also noticed an STi badge missing from the new wing.

So, if that's your 22B in there, I should check everything over very carefully. The owner of the place told me that a wing for a 22B was £2,500 whereas a wing for my car was £90.

Anyone know of any other differences between STi and UK spec (front) that I should be worrying about? the headlights look ok. Are the wings the same?

Needless to say an aluminium bonnet will be going back on the car faster than Roy Bailey can say "I'm a Toss*r". I will also suggest that Admiral check how much they've been invoiced for the bonnet specifically.

I suggested Graham Goode Racing and ParK Lane as possible sources of proper STi parts, and asked him if he'd had any problems getting the parts from Japan, but he hadn't! Surprise Surprise.

One more thing is that I've noticed a little clutch judder when pulling away from low revs which I never had before - a little drag racing perhaps?

Brendan.

[This message has been edited by healeyb (edited 13-03-2000).]

 

Chances are he also used UK spec headlamps which are adjustable (there should be a bundle of wires ty-wraped away somewhere) I've had this problem as well, it doesn't seem to matter what you tell them about where to source parts from they are all muppets