Welcome all to my build thread of my 2005 JDM Hawkeye WRX STI. I picked her up back in May of 2018, with a few mods already done to it! It had also had all the fluids and a few hoses replaced at RCM for £700. It has been well looked after with a extensive history folder. Since coming from a Clio 197 F1 edition, the power delivery and AWD handling was something else! I've been mostly just enjoying the car how I bought it and getting more confident in driving it spiritedly. Now I want to put my own touch on the car and over the next year I have plenty of plans for it!

Spec as I bought it:

Claimed 340bhp/350ft/lb
Cusco Coilovers
HKS silent hi power
Walbro 255
Perrin Battery Hold down
Perrin Radiator Surround
Defi Triple centre Gauges and Boost Pillar Pod
Front Splitter, side skirts and rear spats
Alcantara Steering wheel


The day I picked her up!













One of the first thing I have done to it was replacing the water filled tail lights to the JDM style, I feel like they suit the car better and just a generally cleaner look!












I have also replaced the interior and Plate builds from the dated yellow to crisp white LEDs, these also output way more light in the cabin! The reg housings where sorry looking so gave them a quick clean up too!

 

Up next was a post winter decontamination to get rid of all that winter muck! I also had all the wheels off to clean the inner arches and to add Carbon Collectives Platinum wheels to the faces and inner barrels of the alloys.

 

That's lovely. I like that a lot.

 

Lovely car you have there mate, where in Warwickshire are you? there is a really good specialist in Warwick called thwaites if you dont wanna come to stinkley every time.

Good choice with auto finesse mate, I use their stuff on my hawk with great results.

 

that's the first post from fawor thats ever made any sense.
Did you get a dictionary at the car wash?

 

looks great!!

 

Really nice car mate, looks lovely and shiny

Good work with what you have done so far, the rear light cluster looks
much better than the lexus lights look

 

Yeah defiantly more things i want for the car! I quite like the chargespeed parts and some carbon wouldn't go a miss


Thanks Man! Loving it!


Haha thanks, took quite a few hours to give it a proper once over, absolutely filthy again now though... Yeah those lights look way better!


--
Does anyone know why some posts it allows me to reply fine and others it has to get "approved by a administrator"? Keeps coming up when i try and reply... just deletes the post

 

Thanks Man, I'm Worcestershire based. I have had the car MOT'd, a general health check and a oil, filter and coolant change since owning it, I took it to Pole Position and they did a great job! Car went through without an issue, They did say it is a tidy example which is always nice when you buy a new car!

 

Nice shot mate, of some nice scoobies there

 

Made use of the lighter weather, gave the car a clean and also polished up the exhaust! Love the look of it, but it's just to quiet for my tastes, something to add onto the wish list Also tested a pad and compound for a future paint correction!
















Hard to capture on camera with the late afternoon lighting. But definately an improvement on the small areas i tested.

 

What did you use to clean your exhaust, looks awesome

Autosol I am guessing?

 

I used Meguiars NXT metal polish and a lot of scrubbing

 

That's what I need to do to my exhaust too lol
Yours looks fantastic mate

 

Thanks man, yeah those little jobs can make the whole car look cleaner! I just used a microfiber cloth, and got the polish from Halfords. An metal polish would do the trick really!

 

Looks lovely,very tastefully mods on the last of the proper imprezas before they ruined it will that Mazda 3 looking turd.

 

 

Cool car you have.

 

Lovely car, I would have done the same with the rear lights, blobeye lights look nicer than the hawkeye ones in my opinion. The Jdm’s with those lights are wired differently to Uk. Tail lights are on the small round inside lights and brake lights are on the outside. Should be easy to swap over. Keep up the great work and I’ll look forward to seeing any updates!

 

Great looking hawk you have there

 

What a difference the wash has made. Lovely hawk!

 

Another Wash but this time added some product for that water beading

 

A little update, One of the wind deflectors was unfortunately cracked and with the window open it made the most annoying noise... So i had the fun job of removing them and the foam adhesive. Heat gun, rubbing alcohol, adhesive remover and a lot of swearing and scrubbing finally got it all off! Those window trims and on the to paint list now

Up next was something I've been meaning to do for a while! Restoring the headlights and removing the yellowed look. I attacked them with the follow 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 grit sand paper. Each grade changing direction. Then machine polished with compound and then finally a polish! What a difference it has made!

Finally gave her a wash and got some more water beadage shots

 

Those headlights turned out great.