17 replies to this topic

[UglyShoes]

So this was my first bugeye. Stage 2. Few cosmetics except that I had the wheels painted deep blue with a super-fine flake. I was going to have the body painted iridescent white but I didn't get that far...






...because then THIS happened when I let a friend take another friend to the airport on one of the TWO days it snowed all year. Lost it on the ice. (I didn't have snow tires on it... because it wasn't snowing)

[UglyShoes]

...and this brings me to my current Subie.
I got a good deal on it because the looks were, um... "distinctive".





I made some changes right off the bat.
For instance the second day I had it a friend and I swapped out the split-pipe homemade exhaust for the 3" Invidia I had on the old car (which I bought back from insurance).

OLD...


NEW...


Besides exhaust, the car came with a dual-stage boost controller (max was set at 16 pounds), headers and a cold air intake. The guy I bought it from kept saying it was "tuned" and was calling the Defi boost controller a "tuner" and said it would be compatible with the Cobb tuning/access port I had from my old car...





HOWEVER, with a little research right after buying the car I learned it in fact had NO tune. So it was running all these mods and potentially high boost with stock maps. Also I discovered the injectors are still stock as well.

Soooo...

I took the intake OFF and replaced it with the stock air box from old Subie. (Besides worry about pushing the boundaries of those injectors, the bottom-mount intake had NO splash/rain guard so this was a definite concern). And I turned the second stage boost setting from 16 to 10, just in case the switch gets bumped or something.

Also I swapped out the ECU. When I discovered the lack of tuning I didn't have my access port with me. (In fact, I don't know where it is... I'm in the process of moving, etc and I KNOW I have it I just have to find it). Anyway, I didn't wanna run this car with these mods on stock maps so my friend suggested I take the stage 2 computer out of the old car and put it in this one. So that's what I did.

Edited by UglyShoes, 20 May 2012 - 10:37 PM.

[UglyShoes]

Now for the outside... I knew I'd be repainting it immediately so I let my coworkers have at it with spray cans. They're all artists with backgrounds in graffiti so I figured they'd do something stupid, but creative and artsy too.

No. They just went for stupid...





...I rocked this for about a week then just flat-blacked over the whole thing with a rattlecan. I'd expected it would be faster/easier to swap out that body kit than it turned out to be. And obviously I can't have it painted until I do that.

BUT at long last, this weekend at Carlisle I met up with someone who traded out the kit for stock bumpers and skirts. So now here's where I am, cosmetically...

[UglyShoes]

My agenda from here:

Grill and a paint job,
Mud flaps (to help protect the paint),
Upgrade injectors,
Replace intake (leaning toward Cobb),
Upgrade intercooler,
Tuning,
Upgrade brakes (when I'm due),
Cosmetic details along the way,
Hopefully replace broken wheel and have it painted to match the other blue ones and put them on (though I do love the BBS wheels that are on it),
And then see where time and money (but mostly money) take me...



...Oh yea, I'll probably need a clutch at some point in there too.

Edited by UglyShoes, 20 May 2012 - 10:58 PM.

[Moosen]

Wow ummmm you have had some interesting cars

[6 Star]

Welcome to the USMB.

...and this brings me to my current Subie.
I got a good deal on it because the looks were, um... "distinctive".

Haha the powerbait paintjob was kinda "getting silly with it".
The kit didn't look so bad, not too ricey.
Could have just cut the screen thing off the back bumper and called it good.
Then put some oem tails and headlights on and you're almost to JDM.
She looks like lots of fun.
I'd love to have a wrx, but its out of my network.

[UglyShoes]

Powerbait!
That's a new one. I've gotten disco ball, bass boat and bad spacey sci-fi movie prop...

[6 Star]

Theres a dude with an ae86 that lives on my street with the same paintjob, his is blue though.
We call it bassboat and powerbait lol.

[UglyShoes]

Sad part is, someone spent a looot of money on that paint job. And now it's been graffiti'd, painted over and any day now we're gonna start sanding. So I'm glad whoever had it done isn't around to see it.

...unless he's here.

[AKghandi]

Wow. Those rims are amazing.you definatly need those on your new one.
sorry to hear about your first one..i bet the driver at the time got more than a stern talking to about that.....

Thank you for fixing the paint, that was horrible..why would they do that to a poor defenseless japanese import??

Sweet car though, in the same position i would do exactly what your doing. But i might have left the body kit and just matt black'd it.

[Ricearu]

way to de-rice and FIX it. P.O. THOUGHT he was fixing it with all those "upgrades". Bet he wondered why nobody would buy it... Oh well to each his own. Nice swap on the kit back to stock. I would be tempted to "red out" those tails and keep them for the stock look with unique light pattern but that is just me. VHT sells "niteshades" paint not only in black, but red too. I just un-murdered my brother's wrx tail lights last week and sprayed them red instead. It is kinda cool and distinct too

[AKghandi]

"Haha the powerbait paintjob was kinda "getting silly with it"."

power bait/lure lol

thats what i first thought when i saw it,

[6 Star]

"Haha the powerbait paintjob was kinda "getting silly with it"."

power bait/lure lol

thats what i first thought when i saw it,

^These are the exact squids that I remember my dad using when I was a kid.
Good memories.

[O.C.D.]

Um wow 678

[UglyShoes]

Wow. Those rims are amazing.you definatly need those on your new one.
sorry to hear about your first one..i bet the driver at the time got more than a stern talking to about that.....

Thank you for fixing the paint, that was horrible..why would they do that to a poor defenseless japanese import??

Sweet car though, in the same position i would do exactly what your doing. But i might have left the body kit and just matt black'd it.

You mean the blue ones? Yea I like them a lot. Hope to buy the missing one asap. Until then the black ones are cool, though.

And yea, I don't know what the previous owner was thinking but it worked in my favor, financially.

way to de-rice and FIX it. P.O. THOUGHT he was fixing it with all those "upgrades". Bet he wondered why nobody would buy it... Oh well to each his own. Nice swap on the kit back to stock. I would be tempted to "red out" those tails and keep them for the stock look with unique light pattern but that is just me. VHT sells "niteshades" paint not only in black, but red too. I just un-murdered my brother's wrx tail lights last week and sprayed them red instead. It is kinda cool and distinct too

I really want stock tail lights but in the mean time I'll probably strip off that flat tint (my friend's "experiment") and put gloss tint on em. The red is a good idea though- hmmmm...

[subyrally]

welcome to the party!

is it sad that i kinda liked the shiny paint job? granted, i would never do that on my own car, lol.

[subeman90]

hey funny story.... your old bumpers are for sale with the car attached to them:

http://lancaster.cra...3075855481.html

[UglyShoes]

Haha! The kid told me he planned on selling it. I wonder why he'd want to put a body kit on it to sell it... but I guess it does appeal to a certain group.