Sean's Blobeye Prodrive
 

I'd like to introduce myself to you all, having been on the forum for a while now I figured its time to get a little thread going about my 05 blobeye WRX Prodrive.

Before I go into the car, I am Sean, I'm a photographer (mainly automotive) with a couple of magazine features under my belt (hopefully more in the future), and blog for a Facebook page called Exiled Media, which is just something me and a couple mates do for fun.

You can see my work here if your interested http://www.flickr.com/photos/smrobinson/

So onto the car, I had been searching for around 6 months to find the right one, a few people may wonder why I didn't go for an sti, well mainly initial cost, but also I am not too fussed on massive power, if I had plans to go for big power I would of saved for longer to get an sti, but this is my daily car, and being capable of 300-330 bhp anyway I am more than happy with that for a mainly road going car.

So what I got what this:

55 plate WRX Prodrive (factory fitted)
57k on the clock
Full Subaru dealer history
2 previous owners (2nd owner only had it four months due to personal circumstances)
And the colour I wanted Obsidian Black Pearl

Here's a shot from the dealer
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After the 4 hour round trip to bring her home, the first thing I wanted to change was the completely dated gear knob, so I bought a weighted D1 spec gunmetal chrome gear knob and a red stitched black suede gaiter.

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I took her for a quick drive the same day and shot this

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Now the paintwork was in very good condition as it was, but like any car and especially black, it was covered in swirls and a few scratches that were irritating me, so I had the car detailed. The colour is so deep and glossy, it really brought it back to life.

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OBP looking stunning!!

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I then purchased some brand new genuine wind deflectors

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At the moment I am currently saving to pay for my wedding, so a lot of the progress on the car was going to take longer than I would like, but keeps it fun at the same time.

This give me some time to think about what direction I wanted to go with the car, at first I was going to get the sti winglets, but then I just figured thats what most people do, and tbh, I like to be a little different. After all my car is not an sti, and I don't want to try and make it look like one, else I may as well have just bought one to start with.

Over a few months I did some saving, and then I bought these :norty:

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Got the deflectors and coils fitted and she looked like this

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I have some rear camber bolts to fit now and need to get the alignment done, but I had a minor issue with one of the coilovers which I had to get sorted first..

Little review of the Meister coilovers, quite simply I am very impressed with them. On fully soft they are more comfortable than OEM, however I did notice that the steering lost some feel when like that, I have settled with 10 clicks on front and 8 on the rear which works perfectly for the road, firm enough but not uncomfortable… with plenty of adjustment left when I o some track days.

Next up I wanted to work on the front end a bit, I love yellow fogs on black cars, so I bought some vinyl and attempted it on the front fog lights. Now the main part of the light looked great, but the edges were a nightmare and I couldn't get them to look right, so i ripped it back off and bought some stained glass window paint.. £3.89 delivered, absolute bargain :)

Progress during, with before and after. I only used one coat and it looked perfect.

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Whilst I was doing this I ordered a splitter from HTautos, and got them all fitted up together. Love how the front end looks now :cool:

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And this is pretty much where I have got to so far, getting the alignment done in the next week, and having the tyres replaced at the same time.

Lovely blob, would love one,minus the yellow fogs lol

Haha, I know the yellow fogs won't be to everyones tastes, but at the same time if I ever change my mind its easily reversible :)

I'm going to do the same mod to my fog lights on my black wagon. I like it pal :) out of interest where did you get the stained glass paint from?

Lovely blob mate, you're right in the fact about staying wrx and not copying the sti. Spend the money on other areas making it super tidy and just enjoy it.

Hi mate, I got the paint from ebay, but I think you can get it from places like hobbycraft as well..
Here's where I bought mine from, and I went with the lemon colour.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PEBEO-VITR...item5409b7af8c

And thanks forgedmarco, thats the plan ;)

Nice mate, I have the yellow fogs on mine but their currently on eBay lol

Very clean car, looks good.

Fogs are a marmite mod each to their own.

Before you take the car to 300+ bhp may be a good idea to source some Brembos with bits off an STI or uprate the pads and discs. With the mods you've already done it'll be an entertaining and very brisk car on a B road.

Appreciate the advice thenewgalaxy, I will be looking to upgrade the brakes before upping the power, but the mods that cost that kind of money are in the distant future at the moment, I have to budget my spending until the weddings paid haha.

I have however now got some new tyres and a full alignment, drives much better. My friend borrowed my spare camera for the trip to Japfest and got this roller shot for me, not bad for someone with no camera experience.

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Some bad news is that I cracked my splitter after just 1 month :facepalm2:

So its either get it repaired if possible or buy another, but got more important things at the minute so it can wait for now.

Nice looking rex mate

Looks great.

One question, where did you buy the gear gaitor from and how much was it?

Regards,

Subaru Collector 555.

I was about to ask the exact same question. :thumb:

Haven't seen a suede one before, love these little touches :luvlove:

Regards,

Subaru Collector 555.

Nice motor and great progress ;)

Thanks guys. I got the gaiter from an ebay seller in America, it cost about £15 if I remember correctly, but it was almost a year ago now so can't remember exactly.

Mini update… I have fitted some chrome inner door handles to tie in with my gear knob, and just because they look better than plastic.

Next week the car is going in to have the roof resprayed, recently got a nasty chip and some stained lacquer from bird excrement that the previous owner must have left on for too long. I was hoping to get the bonnet and bumper done at the same time but I can't afford that at the moment :(

I managed to da polish some bird stains out of mine mate

I've had the car machine polished, but this is actually burned through the lacquer so the only fix is a respray. Roof is messy anyway so I was going to be getting it done at some point :)

So the car goes in for the roof respray this Thursday and being as the weather is nice today I figured I would have a go at some spraying myself..

The grill was very faded which was letting the front end down so I decided to take it off and have a go myself. I did think about debadging it ( I still might in the future) but for now I just decided to spray it up.

The horribly faded grey

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I masked off the badge and rubbed it down with 1200 grit sandpaper ( never done this before but it seemed plenty)

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First coating of primer

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And the finished result after 5 light coats of Satin Black.. Chuffed how it come out.

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I need to look at doing the wiper arms and the plastic cover they sit on soon too.

Good job there mate. I work as a prepper/painter by trade so know how bird sh1t eats away at paint if left on to long. Keep a pack of baby wipes in glovebox for future. Little buggers seem to aim for freshly cleaned cars grrrrrrr.

Well I haven't updated this in a while, but my roof has been resprayed and looks great.

I've now ordered a Sparco Evo bucket seat and some Buddy Club seat rails, as I am quite slim I just get no support from the standard seat, I have always wanted to get some better seats in every car I've had, so this time I've gone ahead with it. Hopefully it was the right choice.

I will update with pics once I have it installed.

Looks very nice mate, I really want to know which camera you're using!

I use a Canon 7D and a decent selection of lenses :)

Most of the shots for this thread are just quick snaps though, my proper work is on Flickr.

Nice looking blob and some great pics I need to do my grill as its gone the same as yours had.

Already sounds complex! I have been looking for a good quality EASY to use camera. Last one I used had like a trillion features! :cuckoo:

Great pictures.
I really like the fogs.

Thanks guys…

Unfortunately some more bad news, I came out to my car after finishing work a couple days ago to find someone has scraped down the side of my car, I think I'm cursed as this seems to happen to every car I've ever owned, either vandalised or damaged by someone else who drives off…
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To top that off I have also had issues in getting my seat delivered and having a game about that too, so all in all not a good week.

Gutted for you bud. There was a video posted on here of a guy keying an Aston Martin, think titled scum.

The key is to get a camera in the car that has motion sensor and records while your not there. Then at least you can report them to the police, or take legal action.

Yeah I saw that.. I've decided that I am going to look into buying a cheap run around to use for work and keep the scoob for best as like I said its not the first time its happened to my car(s)..

Just had it looked at by the body shop, the panels are bowed slightly too, so its going to be the whole rear door and whole rear quarter that needs to be sorted. :(

Don`t let them get you down as some people have no respect for other peoples property.