Topic: blame's '06 WRX 'Roo' (and friends!) *R.I.P. in pieces* :(

[blame]

***CURRENT STATE OF ROO***









well, i'm not new here, and i didn't just get the car or anything.. i guess i just figure i've had the car for 2 years and it's about time to start up a progress thread since i'm starting to add parts on a little more of a regular basis. 
the car is starting to become what i would consider 'lightly modified' and getting to the point where i can put a little bit of personal twist on it here and there, so maybe this won't be another thread with the same car with all the same mods.


so we start our journey by shooting back in time to ye olde days of the summer of 2009.  i was working hard at building up a $350 1986 Rx7 GX that was in rough shape



(most of a blown motor, 3 wheels, BURGUNDY interior *puke*)


 i was daily driving my trusty little honda, a 1992 Accord EX-R coupe with a '93 JDM H22 swap among many other minor things.



well the honda, having travelled over half a million km's at this point, decided it was time for a rest and let her clutch, fuel feed line from the tank, rear main seal, left CV axle and IACV go all within about a week.  this is all fixable stuff, and in fact all stuff i had fixed before in that 500,000km journey of friendship, but it seemed like the time was right to let her be parted out and go to the big junkyard in the sky. 

it was time for a new car, and i had a few stipulations i had to meet this time around.  i had grown incredibly tired of front wheel drive over the years, and seeing as i was already building a nice little rwd toy car, i was set on an awd all-year round daily driver.  i wanted something fun.  i wanted something reliable.  i actually wanted something that i would be happy enough with that i wouldn't try to mod it all the time (yeah that one didn't last). 

i considered an R32 skyline GT-R for a brief few days.  i was thinking that the atessa awd system is good, the car is heavy and torquey so it should do ok in snow with the right tires, it's a proven platform that will make huge hp if i do ever want to build it.  but i wanted something nicer, something newer, something that would give me a few years before stuff started falling off because it was old.  i really like the turbo awd idea, i had been a big fan of subaru's since i started watching WRC with a buddy years ago, but i had always loved them from afar.  i had never been in one, never known anyone who had one, never worked on one.  it was time for research, kijiji, auto trader, 780tuners etc etc etc

a couple weeks later, and a very sketchy trip down to calgary and back in my barely running again, now jdm turbo powertrain swapped rx7, 





i iron out all the details, bribe a friend to drive me to calgary on a beautiful august day, and come home with this





my beautiful black 2006 WRX with 66,000km on her

she came with RA basic mudflaps, an '04 STi intercooler, an '06 STi wing (on stock wrx trunk), an injen CAI, a 3" catless downpipe, a not-yet-installed 3" cat-back exhaust, and all the stock parts (minus intercooler and wing). 
i wasnt a fan of the canister style muffler on the exhaust so i sold that, i've never been a fan of cold air intakes, but was too lazy to go back to stock.

so i'm now happy as a clam, driving my own little rally car.  take her to castrol once just to see how she does (14.5 on bald stock no-seasons) and i actually don't mod her for a while (stereo/sub and amp/shift knob etc doesn't count)

[blame]

the weather turns cold, and i waste no time digging up info on where i can get out and really drive this rally car how it should be driven


rally cross!!!






copious amounts of snow!!




muddy gravel roads!




this thing is awesome..


around the middle of winter, the itch starts to hit me..  this beast can be BETTER!
i start reading around wsc and nasioc, seeing what people are doing,  i see that an exhaust and good tune can pretty much make this thing feel like a whole different car and i get excited! 

for a couple months.

i've got the exhaust i want ordered, suspension on my wish list, drooling over wheels with wide meat wrapped around them..

and then my job transfers me to Fort St John B.C.

"where the hell is that?" you say?  i still dont know, 100km past the bush in the middle of nowhere is the closes i can come to describing it.

ok it's not that bad, but pretty close.  so all the plans grind to a halt.  my exhaust has been delayed and problematic since i ordered it, and then i find out that the manufacturer i ordered direct from doesnt even have any in stock (a month after i ordered it) and won't make more for a few weeks. i could really use the money for the move, so i swallow sadness and cancel the order and go through the huge hassle of moving.

ok, here in BC.  i've gotten settled, like the job in the new location even if the new location leaves something to be desired..  but i still have the modding itch.  but no money.

CHEAP MODS TIME!!
headlights get blacked out, silly prodrive stickers get pulled off, center console gets plasti-dipped






well at least i'm doing something, right??

so i'm in foreskin john for a couple months.  they sometimes have freak thunderstorms.  they have really bad drainage.  they have lots of really big trucks with lots of silly rig pigs driving them.  sometimes when all those things happen at once, it is really bad for subaru's..

we had a severe thunderstorm/flash flood in july of 2010, and it is great fun for big diesel's with 900 foot lift kits and tires bigger than my car to go romping through the flooded streets as fast as they can.  everything is going fine as i'm picking my way through the shallow side of a flooded road only a couple blocks from my house when i am very abruptly tsunami'd.  i'm hit with enough water to actually lift my poor little subaru off the ground, caused by mr tough guy with a huge snorkeled truck plowing through the deep side of the road fast enough that the wave he creates is cresting over HIS hood.  water enters the engine bay from the front, from the bottom, from the everywhere.  i see water fill the engine bay so fast it shoots out the hood scoop.  i don't have anywhere near enough time to shut my car off before she coughs to a halt on her own.  crap.

i get out and a passerby who sees this happen pulls an amazing good samaritan and helps me push my waterlogged Roo up a sloped parking lot to higher ground.  it is still pouring.  the same road that i was able to slowly roll through about 4-5 inches of water is almost 2 ft deep now, on the shallow side.  well great.  CAA is called, car is towed home, intercooler is pulled off to see muddy flood water pouring out if both it and the throttle body. insurance is called. 

floods are an act of god!  i explain every detail of the situation!  Roo is going to be fixed!
the closest subaru dealer to me is in grande prairie, a 20,000km motor is sourced from a wrecked '06 WRX.

i watch my baby rolling away on a flatbed to begin the process of rebirth.

[blame]

fast foreward a good month or so when my baby is back, new-ish motor, brand new turbo, all new fluids, steam cleaned carpets, and an exedy stage 2 clutch that i had delivered to the dealer to put in while everything was all apart

she's as good as new and i couldn't be happier to have my beloved baby back.
random things happen for a while, stock airbox goes back in with a k&n filter, i find a nice '05 STi cluster in ontario, as well as a mint WRX trunk and lid, and i get my dad to pick them up for me.  the trunk is too big to ship but dad sends out the pretty STi cluster.



fall turns to winter and the ladyfriend and i go down to vancouver/van island to see some friends.  (normally a death-defying treacherous drive, a breeze in a WRX!)

i think to myself "hey i'm closer than i'll ever be!" and i take a day trip down to Tacoma Speedometer to get my STi cluster set properly



sexy!
while i'm in vancouver i pick up an '07 sti front bumper cover in great condition.  mine's sandblasted to hell

fast forward a couple months.  still winter.  obviously.  the itch gets too bad, and i start buying parts.

i see a VF43 for sale on WSC, i buy it.  i see a group buy in v-limited lips, i buy one.  i read up on GrimmSpeed 3-Port EBCS's, i get one of those too.  i plan a trip to edmonton to take over my buddies garage and giv'er hell for a couple days, and order another exhaust through a shop in red deer

the time rolls around to gather up my bits and head to deadmonton for some wrenching and beering, but i haven't heard a thing about my exhaust since i ordered it...  call the shop, shop calls the manufacturer, manufacturer is dumb, shop can't give me answer, shop finally finds out that manufacturer yet again has no stock and won't have any for a while (yes, same manufacturer as before) and i am on my way to edmonton with a limited time frame in which to install and tune. crap.

the shop very graciously refunds me and i need to find myself an emergency exhaust or the whole trip is going to be pointless,  seeing as i have an appointment with sunny 2 days after i'm installing the turbo/nonexistant exhaust etc.

once again, wsc comes to the rescue!  i see in the vendor threads that tunerworks has a couple of fujitsubo catbacks that they are discounting to make room for new ones.  one more trip to calgary, then it's install day

turbo on, EBCS wired, lip mounted, fujitsubo mated with aforementioned 3" catless DP, safe tune from sunny flashed, everything went great!!





the fuji has a 2.5" taper where it connects to the DP, but that's nothing 20 min at Alta custom exhaust and a 3" 2-bolt vibrant gasket from mopac can't fix!  3" all the way.



TUNE DAY!  head down to calgary (again)







256hp and 315tq on 91 octane,  sunny is the man!

he's such a champ that he even helps me track down and fix a boost leak i didn't know i had at the bypass valve.  long long day, and more pennies than i had planned for, but sunny the evil genius/mad scientist gave me a better price than i expected considering the long hours and in the process got himself a vary loyal follower.
happy happy, car's a full on rocket now!

[blame]

back home, not much goes on for the rest of the winter.  summer comes and a couple minor things get done, kartboy short shifter, tic shift bushings and ati clock pod thanks to chris at touge tuning.  i get a few prosport gauges, i kinda wish i had gotten better ones but oh well they work.



my lack of suspension and wheels starts to bug me a bunch.

i save my pennies and discuss things with cam at lightspeed.  BC racing BR type coilovers are ordered.  rear camber plates and damper extenders are a must.

lack of good  music inside the car starts to bug me.  there's not a whole lot you can do in a honda without feeling very silly, so a more than decent stereo (all around, not just a thumpy rattly mess) was always a major focus of mine, and although the stock stereo in my WRX is good compared to a lot of stock stereos,  audio stuff starts getting ordered also.

and here is where i sit at the moment,  coilovers should be here soon i hope (there was a mixup with bc racing and it's been a month already, but i still have faith) i have a couple new JL 12W3V3-4 subs sitting in my apartment waiting for my 2 new amps to show up, and i have a line on a second audio integrations sub enclosure, as well as some killer boston acoustics components for the inside.

soon, a funky colour will be getting sprayed on the stock wheels to get me through the winter without feeling that my car is boring, swaybars and better brakes will be added to the handling department, i'll find a way to eventually get my WRX trunk sent here from ontario, and the penny saving will start all over again for some beefy wheels and meaty rubber to go on for next summer.

i've dabbled in most forms of motorsport that can be accomplished with a street car, but never been extremely competitive in any of them.  i've been to the drag strip, autocross, drift trials, rallycross, but the 2 'street car' forms that i feel the greatest draw to are ones i've never gotten the chance to try.  and unfortunately with my location in life right now, it feels like i might not get to change that for a while..  time+distance rally's seem like they would be an absolute blast, and i'd love to give it a shot one day,  but i would absolutely kill to get involved in time attack/solo1.  not even extremely competitively, just to drive the circuit and have a great time beating on my car.  there's just something about being on a high speed closed course with real corners, not just cones that i get excited just thinking about.  oh well maybe some day.

i know there is a terrible ratio of long long words to fun fun pictures so far, but i am doing this at work, and i'm limited to the pics i have on photobucket already.  i'll do some scrounging on my home computers in the next few days, and hopefully add a few more delightful images to liven things up so it doesnt feel like homework to get through this thread.


TL;DR VERSION:

mods -
VF43
04 STi intercooler
Grimmspeed 3-port EBCS
Killer B oil pickup and windage tray
3" catless exhaust (fujitsubo legalis r-type evolution)
APS EL split-pulse header and up-pipe wrapped in DEI titanium wrap
sunny tune
ebay v-limited lip
blacked out '07 STi headlights with OEM ballasts and 5000k bulbs
RA basic mudflappys (UR's in the mail)
hawk hps brake pads
kartboy short shifter
cobb delrin shift knob
TiC shift bushings
Pioneer AVIC F900BT navi/deck
2 x 12" JL Audio 12w3v3-4 subs
Twin Audio Integrations 12" sub enclosures
'05 STi gauge cluster
prosport gauges
ati clock pod
rear subframe lock bolts
BC racing BR type coilovers + rear camber plates and extenders
shiny '07 STi front bumper cover (STi stickers yanked off the fog covers, custom WRX stickers 'installed')
17x9 +42 Mach V 'Awesome' wheels
255/40/17 Hankook Ventus V12 Evo K110 tires

Next summer:
swaybars
as many bushings as i can get my grubby little mitts on
convert gross green interior lighting to sexy red lighting
brake rotors/lines/fluid
with any luck, 6-speed/DCCD/brembos/etc/etc

well that was way too long and included way too much info that nobody cares about, so i'll stop it here for now and clean it up at another time.  look forward to more pics etc!

thanks for looking

-sean

[blame]

You ever feel like you have a terrible curse?  Like things that are ridiculous and terrible and terribly ridiculous seem to happen to you all the time?   I do..   i have the dreaded Ancient Shipped Goods Curse of the Damned!

i kid you not, every single time i have ever had something shipped to me something has gone horribly wrong, and right now is no exception.

i have two car audio amplifiers that i ordered from an american-based website that only has UPS as a shipping option (i try to avoid UPS for a number of reasons, not just outrageous border fees).  when the amps were shipped from Oklahoma, there was a typo made by the shipper (or the ups office, not sure) on the first letter of my postal code.  as a result of this, my amps have spent the better part of 2 weeks trying to get to an unused postal code in a nonexistant city in Prince Edward Island.  despite me calling into UPS the day it was shipped (and many days after) to provide the correct information.  as these things usually go, each person i talked to assured me that they had fixed the problem and the package would be turned around right away to make it to my door.  still waiting to see it start heading west.

more recently, my BC Racing BR Type coilovers that i had ordered a little while ago came into the shop without too much delay, awesome!!!  they were even sent to me yesterday from alberta to BC, more awesome!!  the shop unfortunately used an old address for me that they had on file instead of the new one i provided with greyhound shipping instructions (greyhound and canada post/USPS are my preferred shippers by far, seeing as they're pretty much the only 2 options that have depots where i can pick up from in my stupid little town)

so i call this shipper bright and early, talk to a young lady whose best suggestion is to wait at my old apartment and try to intercept the driver when he goes to make the delivery.  so i go.  a couple hours in, i'm getting frustrated and i have stuff to do so i call back.  this next lady says "oh well i'll just send a page to the driver and find out when he'll be there so you can meet him" well jeez, that would have been a great option this morning..  she also takes my new address and in general is extremely helpful! she tells me to expect a call in 30-45 min.  i go home and happily go about my business for a while.  2 hours and no call, so i call back.  another nice young lady informs me that she can see the notes from the previous lady, but nothing has been entered into the system.  so she says she'll make sure the driver's time frame is acquired and that i'm called so i can go meet him.  i cross my fingers this time, as i have to get going to work soon.  no call before work.

so here i sit, at work giggling to myself, thinking how silly it is that i can almost expect stuff like this to happen now

anyways, enough ranting.  i'm sure everything will all work out in the end, it usually (not always) does,  it's just a heck of a lot of work and frustration in the middle

look forward to seeing some pics of shiny new coilovers and a gradually accumulating pile of audio equipment soon! (eventually?)

-sean

[YvanF]

Nice little read while bored at work.

I too own a WRX and have the itch to mod. Will start a little parts pile in my spare bedroom this winter and do a mass install day next spring methinks.

Good luck with that shipping fiasco.

[blame]

Hey thanks Yvan, and it may be that the evil tides have turned on my shipping luck! Well I have my fingers crossed anyway!  It seems as though ups has gotten the RIGHT PROVINCE in their system with regards to my amps!!  This is even provable with online tracking: they are moving west! They still have a long way to go, and lots of opportunities to fail, but my hopes are officially up.

And on to the real news of the day. After lots of calling, lots of uninformed and misinformed call center employees, arguing with a driver about the actual address of my building, and some sort of screwy package scanning software that was sure my package had gone back to Edmonton when in fact it was at the (nonexistent) depot right up the road: i sweet talk my way into being able to go pick up these!







BC Racing BR Type coilovers with rear camber plates and damper knob extenders!!
Awesome sauce.

The parts pile is starting to take shape..

-sean

[Catalyst]

very nice!

i like!!!

[YvanF]

Those are sexy!

[mudferret]

Coming together nicely. 

[bejamin]

Nice!! i need some of them....

As for all your shipping woes, it serves you right for living in the middle of butt f*%# nowhere...

[blame]

Bahahaha your theory is solid, however the curse was still with me in Edmonton, vancouver, Toronto.. Pretty much anywhere I've lived

-sean

[blame]

Well my car is having a very productive trip to alberta!

Did a day trip to Calgary a couple of days ago, met some awesome subarubians, had a steak sandwich, killed off an entire species of insect with my windshield, and got some goodies!






JDM v8 Sti tail lights in awesome shape. Swapped the bulb harness etc over from my ugly 06 lights (only minor trimming of 2 bulb sockets was required) so that when lights are on the inner red circle and the outer red light are on, then the outer red light gets brighter with brakes.

Thanks Honz!



Some sexy rear aprons, gonna paint em up and put them on next spring. Gonna be sexy.

Thanks Guglianoh!


Then back in good 'ol Edmonton





Sexy sexy Sti steering wheel in excellent shape.
Thanks Canehdianj!

That's it, I'm not allowed to spend any more money on this trip or I won't have any gas money to get home!

-sean

[blame]

"Project: this is going to sound freaking awesome" is under way

-sean

[Catalyst]

good god batman!   

[mudferret]

Wow, looks like a trunk full 'o audio.  Hopefully it doesn't drown out your boxer rumble 

[blame]

Ha ha thanks kiddies, yep trunk will be full of all sorts of subs and amps as per usual. But what I'm really excited about are the new 5.25" coax speakers in the rear doors and the 6.5" components with 1" tweets in the front doors. They're gonna be getting all sorts of power from one of the amps in the back and I think they're gonna sound ridiculously good.

The subs are just JL W3's so they aren't gonna be stupid loud, but hopefully very clear and punchy.

Not gonna finish tonight but I'll throw a couple progress pics up in a few

-sean

[blame]

Ok as of now I have both rear doors done and the driver's front door done, and all new speaker wire run to the trunk for them.
A word of advice: if you're going to be putting aftermarket speakers in your Subaru, spring for the IA Performance spacers. I did a lot of research before getting all my stereo stuff because I want to do the stereo once, get it over with, and never have to mess with it again. The general consensus I saw when reading tons of audio installs in subaru's is that it's a huge headache getting anything but stock-sized speakers to fit, and even then you have to butcher up the stock brackets etc etc

Get the speaker adaptor spacer things. The full kit was like $40 and it makes everything fit awesome. Comes with 6 spacer rings with every screw you need, extended door skin clips, and of course an awesome sticker.

Rear door with spacer on and wiring in place


Beefy 5.25" coax installed


Back together, mmmmm stealthy


Speaker comparison for rear doors


Extended door clips


Front door installed and wired


Mmmmm gonna sound gooooooood!


All back together. No-one will ever know!!



Gonna go do the other front door speakers and wiring, then call it quits for the night. The ladyfriend is off work soon, then dinner, then sexytime!

Ps: feeding wire up through the rubber wire harness boot thing from the front doors to the car is a whole new definition of hell.

-sean

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Jebus.

[jhtopilko]

looks like a good dd.

[blame]

thanks bud!

quick update on the arse end of the car: everything is installed and working, sounds insane.  i love the setup.
i have a bit of alternator whine and startup/shutdown pop, but after having done a bit of research on the sensitive internal pico fuse for the rca outputs on pioneer head units, i have a couple easy things to try that should fix it all up.

the speakers are great.  a little bright, but with the crossovers set to -6db not bad.  crisp but not tinny.  and holy hell are they clear.
the subs: holy jebus.  i underestimated these things, they pound like crazy.  still very tight and punchy though.  JL makes some good boomers.

i haven't finished tuning the setup, or even cranked it past about half yet, i have my eye on a 220 amp alternator that i think i can make work, the stock charging system with it's wussy 85ish amp alternator won't handle the 2500-3000 watts that everything i put in is capable of drawing.  so i won't get to really tune it and turn it up until i do something about that.

here's the trunk as of now:  i haven't decided where i'm gonna mount the amps yet.  i made sure to get ones that were compact enough that i could mount on either side of the pass-through to maintain it's functionality, but i'm also considering mounting them under the rear deck just to absolutely maximize the trunk space/useability.

i love how much trunk space i'm able to maintain with those sub enclosures.  way to make an awesome product, Audio Integrations!

[blame]

bwahaha!  easiest fix ever!

alternator whine, startup/shutdown pop, EVERY extraneous noise coming out of the stereo is gone.  nothing but crystal clear audio signal now.  i'm loving it

i can't wait to get my alternator.

-sean

**EDIT**:  if anyone's actually interested in a bit more in-depth and wordy discussion of the stereo install, i put more info about it here http://www.westernsubaruclub.com/smf/index.php?topic=24784.0

enjoy

[blame]

quick update:  got the amps all mounted up..  went with the back of the seats just cuz it was easy.  might  do an amp rack in the future, we'll see









i'm still liking the massive amounts of useable trunkspace left, and keeping the full use of the pass-through.

oh, and i'm not sure if i mentioned or not, carpet and board were trimmed to leave full access to spare tire etc.





also: i finally have some non-stereo related stuff ordered again haha.. looking forward to it!

-sean

[YvanF]

also: i finally have some non-stereo related stuff ordered again haha.. looking forward to it!

Ha ha, I have the same problem.

I started off telling myself, "ok, so money is not readily available right now, so i'm just going to buy my shifter bushings, klunk killer and trans x-member bushings".

Next thing you know, I have the below on order:
Group-N Trans mount
Whiteline front and rear swaybars
some interior goodies...

as well as pricing out a new set of rims..... and tires to boot.



My gf is shaking her head at me everytime I start saying, "well, I was already ordering stuff, so I figured i'd just add XX to the order".

haha

Keep us posted bud

Cheers

[blame]

canada post just dropped off some sexy shiny 2007 Sti headlights for me

mmmm HID'ssssss





not gonna be going in till spring, so i have a while to get a leveling switch and make a harness

-sean