I just joined to say this thread is brilliant! Car is beautiful, and good on you for painting that rear wing yourself-turned out excellent. I actually found your thread because I just recently sourced some rear aluminum exhaust finishers and I wanted to see what they’d look like on the car (mines also RBP). Need to swap out the exhaust for dual tips first, I still have the oem single tip. I also have an option grill I need to paint (along with power folding mirrors and spats to come) but I’m hesitant to order paint from an online vendor (I’m in US but after seeing your results would order from Omagh on EBay in a heartbeat) due to worrying about it matching properly. Also appreciate the tip about painting the rear sway bar-I’ve got one from whiteline as well (still new in the package) that I was wanting to powder coat, but I think POR15 is a nice alternative. Any other plans for the car? Cheers!
Mines a 2.5 auto…but, it’s a compromise as the wife can’t drive a stick, so I’ll happily take the car as an auto to be able to own it. It’s still pretty fun even in stock form. Would like a little more power, but I’m also torn because I’m only the 2nd owner and it’s in such nice shape I don’t want to ruin it by heavily modifying it. My motto for cars now is mostly “restore and preserve”.
A lot of folks in the US swap out the vf40 turbo that comes with it for the vf52 off the 08+ WRX. With a decent tune it’s a solid turbo that gets close to 300bhp with stock injectors and fuel pump. Has good power range throughout the power band. My goal would be around that, plus a transmission tune to give it quicker shifts. I’ve got paddle shifters out of an 08+, so that’d be a nice uograde to add to the interior.
I like having the option to fold the mirrors, but I understand if they were auto, it’d feel a little more like a higher-end luxury car. A friend has some nice mufflers for me-just need to get dual tips for them. I could bring in some sti mufflers, but for the price of bringing them in from Japan, for a little more I can buy an entire exhaust system in stainless steel. Plus, it’d look a little funny since the U.S. bumper is a little longer than the JDM.
I’ve used por15 on some of my other projects, good stuff! Also cheaper than powder coating the sway bar.
I do have some paint places, think I’ve found one I’m going to try. Some other folks on legacygt.con have tried it and had good results, so I’ll start there. They also have kits with primer and clear, so it’ll be easier to just buy everything in one shot and have it all ready to go.
That interior would look fantastic on the car…it’s hard for me not to want to bring in a JDM interior with the leather and suede (mines all leather now), but it’d be at least $1-2k in shipping alone…that’s too much for me to spend on an interior for an 18yo car. I agree with the suspension, I’d like to update mine and lower it just a bit, that sounds like a nice mix of looks and performance without making it ride too harsh. Can you elaborate on the bottom end? With the 2.5, i‘ce got the Sti bottom end, so it’s got forged internals, good for about 400.
Ps-sorry for the long posts, I tend to write a lot…lol
You can spray mine next
Bumper and bonnet here for you too
that came out very well!
keep the led brakelight of the old one....type of thing you'll never be able to find a replacement if needed
Sti stuff is pricey…but personally, I also like keeping things as they are. I have a friend who also has a bp5 wagon and he’s got a sti s402 carbon fiber splitter that came with a bumper…think he paid at least $1k alone for the bumper? Idk it was a lot, plus shipping from Japan…I’ve seen s402 fenders on JPN auctions for $2300.It's not an sti car anyway though so does that sticker really matter? Unless those splitters are worth a fortune or something? That splitter body colour would look great. But I officially have no taste at all
Cannot get over how clean this is in the flesh and underneath!
Albert Einstein said if a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what does that say about an empty desk? That looks way better than my garage!Clean garage = nobody ever does any actual work