Topic: richie_rich's 2008 WRX *Pic Intensive* - THE END

[richie_rich]

I should have done this a very long time ago, but better late than never right? 

This car has come a LONG way.  My journey with Jen-Ette began in early 2009 when my brother, having leased this car for a year, didn't want to deal with monthly payments, and decided he was going to take a big hit and do an early lease return (LOL, he ended up taking over the lease on Perfect Dark's 09 STI not even a year later).  I decided to take it over since my Tacoma X-Runner was a huge gas hog.  I really didn't plan on doing much with this car since it already came with an Ultimate Racing axle-back exhaust, and Cobb lowering springs, was just gonna do little things here and there.  Keep it simple, and not spend money.  Famous last words for my daily driver.

As she sat this year before going into winter mode, here is the modification list.  All work, installation and labour on this car has been done by me with family and friends assisting unless otherwise specified! 

EXTERIOR/APPEARANCE/LIGHTING
-2009 OEM STI spoiler with a black bottom and red pinstripe
-Perrin Wing Risers
-Subaru Sport Grille
-red Hella Horns with Subiemods bracket
-eBay front lip for an STI
-2009 OEM WRX rear license plate garnish
-removed Impreza and WRX emblems
-cut out holes for STI dual exhaust with OEM Subaru Accessory exhaust finishers (to hide the cut lines)
-Liberal Japan LED rear reflectors
-Kakumei red front tow hook
-Iron filmed headlight and foglight lenses (installed by Steve at Perfect Dark Tint)
-Red filmed taillights with iron filmed reverse and turn signals (installed by Phil at Perfect Dark Tint)
-60% tint on all windows, UV 80% tint on windshield (installed by Steve at Perfect Dark Tint)
-Retrofit Source MiniD2S Bi-Xenon HID conversion headlight projectors with OEM ballasts
-Osram Cool Blue Intense 66240CBI D2S HID bulbs
-Cree projector LED 9005 bulbs for the DRL
-Flat black painted headlight housings with red projector shrouds/surrounds
-LED front and rear turn signal, reverse, and license plate bulbs
-Yellow Eurolite 9006 fog light bulbs
-OEM Subaru roof rails
-Yakima snowboard attachment


WHEELS/TIRES/SUSPENSION
-2009 WRX265 OEM front sway bar
-2009 STI OEM rear sway bar
-Cobb Sport lowering springs
-Cusco front strut tower bar
-Gold Sonic Tuning ST8 wheels, 18x8.5 +35 (currently for sale)
-235/40/18 Kumho Ecsta Platinum LX tires
-Muteki SR48 Titanium lugnuts


PERFORMANCE/UNDER THE HOOD
-Perrin Intake
-Perrin Catted downpipe
-Invidia Q300 V1 exhaust for an STI
-05+ Legacy engine cover
-Tuned by Airboy


INTERIOR/SOUND
-LED bulbs for map, interior, and hatch light
-WeatherTech Digital Fit Floor Mats
-GaugeTek VBG1 Vent Boost Gauge
-Recaro Euro Accord R seats
-Bride Seat Rails
-ARC Titanium Shift Knob
-Pioneer AVIC-F700BT Navigation/Stereo with rearview camera
-Leadtour RFID Keyless Entry, Remote Start, and JDM Pushbutton Start with bezel (installed by Joe at AutoTech Performance & Security)



And I think thats it so far.  Only planned changes at this point are replacing the wheels with a set of white 18x9 Work XD9s (sitting in my basement), and a set of KW V1 coil overs.  I tell my self I'm done and just want to enjoy the car, but I don't think thats gonna happen. 

Here are a few shots that Jason (hoanger) took of my car in the summer for his blog, hope he doesn't mind.  And I sold the STI BBS wheels pretty much the next day, and have sold the Raceland Coilovers that were on when this pics were taken as well.  Blog entry here: http://lifewithjson.com/2013/09/03/aldrich-evangelistas-subaru-impreza-wrx/

[richie_rich]

Very pic intensive random shots timeline!

2009

This is how my journey with her started, gold stock wheels, Ulitmate Racing Exhaust, HID kit, and Cobb springs:


Black emblems, black vinyl on license plate garnish:


Added Prodrive P7s, blacked out sport grille:


And thats it, I'm good, no other mods.  Nope.

Pinstriped grille, garage door seal lip:


Got bored, lets change colors!



2010

Bye bye yellow, back to red with tinted lights, added STI spoiler (painted underside black, added red pinstripe) and a bunch of stickers:





New Wheels! Axis Halos:




2011

Bored again, pinstripe change to white on the wheels and grille, taillight film change, added eBay front lip:



Bored yet again!  Sprayed wheels silver, taillights and pinstripes back to red:



Vent boost gauge, Pioneer Nav unit:


Replaced bottom reflectors with Liberal LED reflectors, and replaced license plate garnish with a color matched STI/WRX265 one:



2012

Winter 2011-2012, collected a few front end parts (STI grille, Hella Horns/Bracket/harness, TRS HID Projector retrofit kit:


Put all the above on the car, and added new wheels again:


Lowered more with Raceland Coilovers:


Perrin wing riser added:


Chopped up the rear bumper, installed my brothers stock STI exhaust, and added OEM accessory exhaust finishers:


Bye Rotas, hello Advan RG's (gold and silver):




2013

Swapped out stock STI exhaust for Invidia Q300 V1:


15mm spacers to flush out the Advans a bit more:


Plastidip white on the Advans, back to a white sport grille:


Leadtour RFID Keyless Entry/Remote Start/Push to Start/Stop:





Halos and tow hook:


STI BBS wheels with 5x100 to 5x114.3 wheel adapters:


Red projector shrouds/surrounds, roof rails:


Accord Euro R Recaros with Bride rails:


A few days after Jason shot my car, moved to Zaiders old Sonic Tuning wheels:


The silver lasted less than a week:



2014

This is how she looks right now in winter mode:



That concludes the journey so far, thanks for looking!

[kijho]

/drool
Awesome! One of my favorite Subi's

[Fry]

Oh no, painted shrouds! GrantC is on his way.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Glad to see you finally posted a project thread.

[hoanger]

What wheels are you going to get once your XD9's sell?
 

[soulvaccination]

About time you got around to writing one up...

Looking forward to the details being in one place, and finally having somewhere to point people when they ask if I am you at wings meets 

[richie_rich]

LOL thanks guys!  Added pic intensive timeline as the second post.

What wheels are you going to get once your XD9's sell?
 

Maybe I'll just buy a new car every 2 years. 

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

LOL thanks guys!  Added pic intensive timeline as the second post.

Maybe I'll just buy a new car every 2 years. 

[RhinestoneChow]

Great build, I wish I could keep cars for that long...

[hoanger]

Maybe I'll just buy a new car every 2 years. 

[YvanF]

Hahaha, sooo many different wheels!!!!

Looks good!

[Fry]

lets see some Dyno plots.

[richie_rich]

lets see some Dyno plots.

Sorry, no dyno plots.  Sunny street tuned the car before he had a dyno.  Probably would plot the same as any other 08 at stage 2... i hope.

[jellynuts]

I always wanted to know more about this car   Nice build!

Did the Euro-R seats or Bride rails need any modification to fit? 

[richie_rich]

I always wanted to know more about this car   Nice build!

Did the Euro-R seats or Bride rails need any modification to fit? 

Thanks!

The seats were straight bolt in, no modifications needed.  I bought the Bride RO rails which have holes that line up to MOST Recaro bolt holes.

[richie_rich]

Got to do some WORK today. 

Got my valve stems and spoke decals last week.  Picked up my lug nuts from Jimmy@VEX today (thanks again!).



So it was time to commence project "Put the decals on straight and properly or else I'll cry and have to order new ones again".

Started with this:


Ended up with this (I put the valve stems and lugs in there for added effect):


Such cool decals:


The project was a success, only one of the decals is just slightly not straight, but you need to stare at it for while to notice.



Next up, find some tires for these wheels... and then wait for spring... 

[TQuon]

Can we get some more information on your headlight project retrofit?. Like where you bought it, how much it was, and how hard it was to do all of that?.

[Jimmy@Vex]

Awesome! Can't wait to see how those wheels look on it.

[richie_rich]

Can we get some more information on your headlight project retrofit?. Like where you bought it, how much it was, and how hard it was to do all of that?.

Retrofit was a kit from TheRetrofitSource (TRS).  Was not too hard at all, just popped the headlights in the oven for a bit, and pulled them apart.

[richie_rich]

Was a busy week for me with my car.

First off, I had to replace my power steering pump.  Late last year, I discovered my power steering rack started leaking.  Was going to replace the rack this spring when it was nicer out, so for the meantime I decided to put some Lucas Power Steering Stop Leak into the system to slow the leak down.  It helped a lot, and the leak slowed down to a crawl due to it being much thicker.  But the -35ish weather we had a few weeks ago killed the pump due to the thickness of the fluid.  Replaced the pump with a new unit from Subaru ($$$) since I couldn't find a reman/rebuild anywhere including online.  Replaced the pump and flushed out all the stop leak stuff and filled with Mobil1 fluid.

Old pump beside the new one:



Next up, Wednesday, finally did something that I always wanted to do, but didn't want to do at the same time.  My brother and I both put in HKS SSQV blow off valves.  There will be no discussion of why I did it, why I shouldn't have done it, or anything like that.  At the end of the day, its my car, its my choice, live with it. 



And then today, spent a couple hours in the garage with my brother installing my new KW V1 coilovers (thanks again Jimmy@Vex!). 
Looks like a new box design from what I've seen online:


Everything was secured in the box very nicely.  And the coilovers themselves were so nice that I didn't even wanna install them!


The neat little toolkit to hold the spanner wrench, and damper adjuster/ring lock tool.


So then in they went.  Decided I didn't wanna go too low, so I brought the perch/collar on all four coilovers down to where I have an inch of adjustment (about 6 threads) left if I choose to go lower.  Dropped the car, and parked it..... really?  It can go an inch lower??


Thats plenty low enough for me, can't even consider going more lower.  My mud flaps rub on any little dip on the road.    I may adjust the front down a thread or two after a few days of settling to even things out.  The rear will either stay, or be raised a bit, but I'll decide that when I get the wheels on.  Overall impressions on the comfort and ride are very positive.  Both my brother and I were in the car during the first drive.  Its a little stiffer than my Cobb springs, but still very close to the comfortable side.  Just enough stiffness to feel sporty, but not bumpy in any way.  Throw it into a corner, and thats where it shines.  I though my old Raceland coilovers were pretty decent (and those were all the way low, these are currently at the same height with more to go), but its a night and day difference between those and these KWs.  I can only imagine how different it is between the V1 and V3's, but I really didn't have a need/could justify the extra cost for damping adjustabliity.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Looks good dude. I can't wait to see it with your summer rims on it.

[richie_rich]

So if I put the wheels on, the snow will stop, right? RIGHT?

Nope...

Tires are 245/40/18 Pirelli PZero Nero All Seasons, so I should be ok... I hope.  5mm spacers in the front because without them, the inside tire sidewall was just touching the coilover.  Also dialled in the height a little bit more to my liking.

iPhone shots for now, will get camera shots when it warms up a little and I can clean the car a little more.

[cmyles]

Ohhhh man, you make me want to slap my rims on right now hahaha.
Looks so good!

[RhinestoneChow]

Looks so good! You should let me shoot your car!