Firstly, if you'd like to keep up to date on my build...
Follow me on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/SubieRumble
AND
Follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/datsubierumble/
So let's begin.
I bought my car in October of 2012. It had 119,000 miles on it & I am the 3rd owner. The car was 100% stock except for black powder coated wheels, cheap mud flaps, Hella horns & some cheap ebay HIDs for the foglights. Yah know... The usual lol
I kept the car stock for quite a bit, almost a year. I bought Rally Armor mud flaps, cleared up the headlights & quickly & I mean QUICKLY became addicted to modifying my car. Yes, I know mud flaps & clearing up headlights don't necassarily qualify as 'modding' but that's all it took for me to realize that I love working on cars.
*Past thoughts to self*
"car needs to be lowered a bit, I mean look how the rear sags so low compared to the front... ewww."
So I bought EMUSA coilovers.
Yes. eBay, cheap, Chinese made... Nothing special, but they were ride height & camber adjustable & only $450 shipped. After 2 years of owning them, they served their purpose & are still going strong. I don't track my car so performance wasn't too much of a concern. Say what you will & of course you get what you pay for. In my opinion. I got more than what I payed for, they're still going strong!
*Past thoughts to self*
"damn those stock wheels are so small, narrow, & boring"
So I bought XXR 527s. 17x8.25 with a +25 offset wrapped in 225/45r17 hankooks.
Yes. Ebay, cheap, Chinese made & extremely common... Nothing special. However I like the looks & again, after 2 years of owning them, 0 issues. I got my money's worth.
Here's a list of all handling related mods
XXR Wheels 17"x8.25" +25 Offset
Hankook 225/45r17 all-season tires
EMUSA Ride Height & Camber Adjustable Coilovers
eBay Front & Rear Upper Strut Tower Brace
Next up I decided to work on the bland appearance of my car. At this point I had just another World Rally Blue (WRB) WRX like every other kid with WRX it seemed lol. I wanted to make up something that made it look better but not be too flashy. I wanted that subtle, good looking WRX. Nothing ricey & nothing boring.
For the front end, I did the 'black nose' mod as I like to call it. It's similar to the newer GTR or Evo look
I masked off the area that needed to be black (& fixed a small dent caused by the previous owner)
Whether it's your cup of tea or not is irrelevant to me, it's something that most Subaru's (at least in my area) don't have, so my car definitely stock out of the bunch more after this.
Next up was clearing up those disgusting, fugly headlights. It turns out the plastic lenses were shot & the headlight was leaking like crazy. So instead of fixing them myself, I just trashed 'em & upgraded to '05 STi headlights. Now if you don't know, '05 STi headlights use HID bulbs which conflicted with my wiring harness so good 'ol lightwerks hooked me up with a conversion cable
(here's the link if you're planning on doing this)
OEM STi HID Wiring Harness -- HID Projector Headlight Retrofit for Subaru, Honda, BMW, Scion and More | LightWerkz.net
This simple upgrade made my car look SO much better. I blacked out the inner housing as well.
I added STi side skirts & then added on to them, Duraflex C-Speed Side Skirts.
(don't be jealous of my photoshop skills)
I thought that the WRX wing was pretty ugly & since I thought the STi wing (as awesome as it is) wasn't right for me since my car wasn't an STi, I decided to go wingless. I also added the 06-07 STi vortex generator, roof vane, whatever-tf you want to call it.
Here's how it looked after I was settled for a while with modding the exterior. This is before I started engine modifications (I'm talking more than just stage 2)
Follow me on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/SubieRumble
AND
Follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/datsubierumble/
So let's begin.
I bought my car in October of 2012. It had 119,000 miles on it & I am the 3rd owner. The car was 100% stock except for black powder coated wheels, cheap mud flaps, Hella horns & some cheap ebay HIDs for the foglights. Yah know... The usual lol
I kept the car stock for quite a bit, almost a year. I bought Rally Armor mud flaps, cleared up the headlights & quickly & I mean QUICKLY became addicted to modifying my car. Yes, I know mud flaps & clearing up headlights don't necassarily qualify as 'modding' but that's all it took for me to realize that I love working on cars.
*Past thoughts to self*
"car needs to be lowered a bit, I mean look how the rear sags so low compared to the front... ewww."
So I bought EMUSA coilovers.
Yes. eBay, cheap, Chinese made... Nothing special, but they were ride height & camber adjustable & only $450 shipped. After 2 years of owning them, they served their purpose & are still going strong. I don't track my car so performance wasn't too much of a concern. Say what you will & of course you get what you pay for. In my opinion. I got more than what I payed for, they're still going strong!
*Past thoughts to self*
"damn those stock wheels are so small, narrow, & boring"
So I bought XXR 527s. 17x8.25 with a +25 offset wrapped in 225/45r17 hankooks.
Yes. Ebay, cheap, Chinese made & extremely common... Nothing special. However I like the looks & again, after 2 years of owning them, 0 issues. I got my money's worth.
Here's a list of all handling related mods
XXR Wheels 17"x8.25" +25 Offset
Hankook 225/45r17 all-season tires
EMUSA Ride Height & Camber Adjustable Coilovers
eBay Front & Rear Upper Strut Tower Brace
Next up I decided to work on the bland appearance of my car. At this point I had just another World Rally Blue (WRB) WRX like every other kid with WRX it seemed lol. I wanted to make up something that made it look better but not be too flashy. I wanted that subtle, good looking WRX. Nothing ricey & nothing boring.
For the front end, I did the 'black nose' mod as I like to call it. It's similar to the newer GTR or Evo look
I masked off the area that needed to be black (& fixed a small dent caused by the previous owner)
Whether it's your cup of tea or not is irrelevant to me, it's something that most Subaru's (at least in my area) don't have, so my car definitely stock out of the bunch more after this.
Next up was clearing up those disgusting, fugly headlights. It turns out the plastic lenses were shot & the headlight was leaking like crazy. So instead of fixing them myself, I just trashed 'em & upgraded to '05 STi headlights. Now if you don't know, '05 STi headlights use HID bulbs which conflicted with my wiring harness so good 'ol lightwerks hooked me up with a conversion cable
(here's the link if you're planning on doing this)
OEM STi HID Wiring Harness -- HID Projector Headlight Retrofit for Subaru, Honda, BMW, Scion and More | LightWerkz.net
This simple upgrade made my car look SO much better. I blacked out the inner housing as well.
I added STi side skirts & then added on to them, Duraflex C-Speed Side Skirts.
(don't be jealous of my photoshop skills)
I thought that the WRX wing was pretty ugly & since I thought the STi wing (as awesome as it is) wasn't right for me since my car wasn't an STi, I decided to go wingless. I also added the 06-07 STi vortex generator, roof vane, whatever-tf you want to call it.
Here's how it looked after I was settled for a while with modding the exterior. This is before I started engine modifications (I'm talking more than just stage 2)