stevep360

iTrader: (20)

Decided to start a thread so that I have a documented history of everything that's been done to the car over the last couple of years. Have many pictures so will get them up on here.

I first became a subaru owner way back in 2004 when I bought an STI PPP with only 800 miles on the clock. I then paid 23k for it and at that point was one of the best cars I had owned, even better than the 360. I kept the car for 2 years and got rid for decent money before buying a diesel hack for daily use



So after having owned blob eye when they first came out, I decided to get back into the fold in 2009. Looked for ages before the right car came along, a standard 03 blob eye in WR Blue with only 39,000 miles on the clock, fully documented history and a folder full of receipts.

This is how she stood when I collected her from a place called Kilbirnie, West of Glasgow. Previous owner was in the Strathclyde mounted Police unit and he had been using the car to get to work in the bad weather over the winter.

tubbytommy

iTrader: (20)

looking forward to this, sounds like a similar project to my car

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

First job on the list was purely cosmetic. Get rid of the horrid scoobyworks graphics and give the car a wash before sending it off to get detailed. The car went to a local detailer who set about detailing the engine bay, which had never seen a cloth and the bodywork which was horribly marred. Results were pretty good. All mudflap lettering was renewed and a rather dull blue grill badge was replaced with an aftermarket pink one.

prodriverules

iTrader: (52)

Subscribed

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

The car was driven happily for a few months when the hankering for a little more power was being felt. I had a dyno printout in my large folder that I had inherited with the car and the printout showed 262.7 bhp. Pretty standard as delivered from the factory.



I took the car along to revolution247.com and we fitted a K&N panel filter, a full revolution exhaust sytem with a prodrive sports cat (as standard box was looking tired), a walbro 255ltr fuel pump and a new set of spark plugs. The cars map was then tweaked by Racedynamics and a few more horses were exploited. We guestimated the car to be making around 330bhp, the fuel economy was much better, the car boosted higher and was much more driveable. This was all the power I needed, and I was more than happy. Until I got itchy feet again.

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

Looking good so far. The worst area of my car by far is the engine bay but I hope to sort that this summer - yours looks mint

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

Next couple of little jobs, get rid of the dodgy stereo and replaced it with the OEM one for the time being, I was given the OEM unit by the previous owner, so sold the touchscreen thing and was £200 in pocket via ebay. One of the few times I would get any brass back from the money pit.



Now back to OEM

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

Was never a huge fan of the standard gold factory alloys on the car. After looking around for a new set, I finally decided on trying to get some P1 OZ WRC wheels. The only problem being I needed 18 inch with an ET46 offset if they were gonna clear Brembo's and If I ever decided to upgrade my brakes I didn't want to have to buy more wheels.

These wheels in this offset are very hard to source. Managed to get a set from a crash damaged car.

This is what they looked like when they arrived.





And after having them refurbed.

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

The car soon started to suffer from the dreaded knocking struts. Now this is where I made the biggest mistake on the car. I ended up putting KYB ultra shockers on to try and keep the OEM feel. Big mistake. Whilst the car was in bits I got revolution247.com to put eibach springs on at the same time. When I put the OZ wheels on the car it looked very clean apart from the brake calipers which were letting the whole car down. The standard gold Brembo's were scratched and had surface rust on them. After a little research I had them removed and sent them off to Godspeed whilst snowboarding in Val D'isere. When I came back this is what they looked like.








And the car with wheels, struts, shockers and brakes fitted.



Added a sneaky front splitter too.

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

After 2 months the KYB's had already developed a knock at the rear. This was replaced under warranty by KYB via Camskill who was nothing short of brilliant in helping out. I had also managed to aquire a set of secondhand AST Sportline II coilovers, they had originally come off a Hawkeye PCD 114.3 and I thought they wouldn't fit. Pity as they were exceptionally well priced. However the plan was always to get them refurbed by AST UK, so I enquired if they could be converted back to PCD 100, which I was told they could so sent them off to be refurbed and converted. The Eibach springs were removed and sold on ebay. I detangoed the headlights and replaced with relevant silvertec bulbs.

The AST's before fitting.

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

After much looking around for some guages (oil temp, oil pressure and boost), I started hunting for some lamco gauges which were an optional extra that Subaru were supplying with new cars. Like everything else these were extremely difficult to source and it took many months to source a full set. However because I had to buy them all seperately the bulbs were different colours and one of the needles had faded. I managed to buy some broken ones off ebay and started the dismantle them so that I could build a good working set. I ordered some bulbs online and got all them working with matching green backlights to my dash. Ordered the last clock pod in the country from the stealers and I finally had a set of working guages.



I also took the opportunity to fit a upper front strut brace, a lower h brace and full whiteline goodies at the back. The handling had been much improved. A lower zunsport grill was fitted and I ordered some custom mesh from Zunsport so that I could replace the upper grill mesh to match the lower.

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

If I wanted to go for more power I would have to decide which way was the most efficient to go. Some said a top mount would be good for 400bhp, others said a front mount. I didnt like the looks of these big stainless in your face type FMIC's so started to do a bit of research. I saw an APS DR 725 for sale on 22b. It was still new in the box as the owner had decided to sell up, so for £900 I snapped it up. Also if I wanted power hikes in the future the FMIC would be the way to go. The guy met me in bradford and the box only just fitted in the car. I also knew that I would need some larger injectors so after first buying some 650cc power enterprise one's off Harry on here, I decided to just bite the bullet and get some ID 1000's. Grant on here was selling some boxed new ones so I bought them and sold the 650's on. I also decided to go syvecs and go mafless on the car. Unfortunatley fund's didnt quite reach to buying a turbo, and I hadn't at this point decided which standard location turbo to go for. So off the car went again to revolution247.com, to get the bits fitted, and removed.

Bumper off and front mount on





Different look in the engine bay now



Also painted the radiator brackets, battery brace and alarm mount as they were looking tired. The front mount hidden behind the zunsport grill, which had to be modded to fit after the bumper was cut. Also upper custom made grill can be seen.



The car was again mapped by Racedynamics to take into account that I was now on syvecs, had bigger injectors and was running mafless. Car felt quite laggy as the turbo was still the standard unit and was not powerful enough to deal with the FMIC. Car was now making 340.3 BHP

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

After much humming and harring about a turbo, some months later, and after much reading of the billet thread on here I decided to go for the SC46 Billet. Every mapper I spoke to said that the 46 was proving to be a great turbo on 2.0ltr's with AVCS. So I ordered one from Kev and the boys and this arrived.



Couldn't wait to get this fitted. I again managed to get lucky as Grant on here at this point had decided to go rotated and was selling a new unfitted perrin hard inlet pipe and Harvey Smith uppipe. I also ordered some GT spec headers and sent both the headers and uppipe off to get ceramic coated. A hidden custom cold air intake was fitted also as was a 3 port prodrive boost solenoid. A Wideband lambda was also fitted from Tim at JTI (Top Man).

Simon (JGM) road mapped the car for me on his way back from ireland. Bloke's a wizard on his laptop and in under 2 hours had the car running better than ever, pulls like a train in every gear and setup anti-lag and launch control. He installed my 3 bar map sensor and the syvecs cal switch. Standard clutch had started to slip at this point but I had a Cusco twin put to one side which we replaced shortly after the car had been mapped. All good.

At this point the shockers had started to fail again, so after a chat with Camskill it was agreed that the shockers were unfit for purpose. They were all removed and sent off for a full refund. We replaced them with a set of AST coilovers, which I wished I had fitted in the first place. These coilovers are epic.

Coilovers fitted.

Dirk Diggler 75

Nice Blobeye ......

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

Car went back for its annual detail. So Dave at DDB Valeting gave it a good once over again.





Also whilst on ebay I spotted an extremely well priced set of Sti Genome gauges in a genuine Genome pod, and as I knew I would be pushing the mechanicals on the car further decided to go for them. I sold the Lamco's on ebay for £250 and revolution247.com swapped over the gauges again.

As they arrived from Japan.





And fitted

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

Whilst all this was going on I had been keeping my eye open for a spec c interior. Had seen a few WR1 interiors of varying quality, one of which I sent back as was not as described, when I noticed a member on here selling his newage spec c interior which he had bought, fitted the fronts in his classic and put the rears into storage. The interior was mint but didnt include the doorcards and I would also have to source a carpet. I did buy a perfect carpet off DBrad on here but at the time I couldnt find a decent spec c interior so I gave the carpet to a mate who needed one and had done me loads of favours .

Standard interior.



Out came the seats.





Out came the carpet.



I sold them on here quite quickly advertised at sensible money.

No luck with finding a good secondhand carpet so ended up buying a new one from the dealers



But starting to look much better. Also took the opportunity to run an electrical cable from front to back whilst the carpet was out for a little future mod.



Front seats in. Had no luck with doorcards so spoke to my detailer, he said he knew a trimmer who would be able to do my doors with exactly the same material but black in colour. And seeing as my doorcards are in mint condition, it seemed a no brainer. Stripped the door cards out and left them at DDB valeting. 2 weeks later they came back, as expected looking amazing.



With everything fitted.

Retrimmed Door Cards.



The only oustanding issue that needs sorting is the boot liner. The standard Sti interior has a luggage hole under the armrest in the centre of the rear seats. The Spec C does not have this, its a one piece rear seat with no luggage hole/fold down armrest so I am left with this in the boot.



It will be sorted though.

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

After many conversations over the last 6 months between various engine builders and after aquiring an EJ22T CDB, it was sent off to Alan and Martyn at Enginetuner.co.uk to have a long engine built. I have also purchased a set of perfect, non cracked big port JDM heads which will be used. I have also started collecting the kit needed for the final build. Full engine spec and details will be updated soon.

The block.



















The heads, sorry for the small pics. No cracks around spark plugs.

























Full Rotated Scoobyclinic/RCM kit



Tial 44mm V Band external wastegate.



And the turbo (long story here , more to come) a GT30.76




I have also bought a litchfield 1 ltr swirl pot and have sent this and the rotated pipework off to extremetemperaturecoatings.co.uk to be ceramic coated.

Jolly Green Monster

iTrader: (4)

Lovely car Steve

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Looking good Steve

Scoobyclinic/RCM Rotated kit looks great

Good luck with project


Jura

JP4

iTrader: (12)

Am sure I sold you something not too long ago....steering wheel....or was it the scoop?.....

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

Scoop dude , that will come in an edited update. Just need to sort some photo's out.

JP4

iTrader: (12)

ooops....didn;t mean to give it away! Look foward to it! Otherwise thread's coming along great!

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Lush car with tasteful mods, nice job Steve

Maz

iTrader: (34)

A nice journey so far Steve, looking forward to the rest of it!

STI Glenn

fantastic job looks very nice

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

A few things back from the ceramic coaters. Sorry I didn't feel it necessary to unwrap everything.

Litchfield 1Ltr Swirl Pot, got this coated the same time as the rotated pipework.



And the RCM Pipework

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

Ok back to the turbo. I had already ordered a GT30 from the clinic, but after speaking to Martyn at Enginetuner it was obvious to him that the GT30 would a step back with the plans we had for the heads and block. So after speaking to Scoobyclinic, Kev and Adam swapped it over for me and I had only a small amount extra to pay. So I am now sat with this a Billet GT35R with the new clip wheel design.

hhh1234

iTrader: (17)

How ur car has snowballed out of control . I love it

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

I had been toying for while with the idea of changing the blob eye console. I had some Carbon DI-NOC wrap in the garage so in the past decided to see what it would look like wrapped. It was very therapeutic.





But it looked absolutely GASH. So I robbed the wife's hairdryer, quickly removed the dodgy wrap and binned it, hoping no-one would notice the error of my ways.



Since then I have been on the lookout for Spec C dash kit. Look what I got brand spanking new from the stealers :-)

The must have JDM hazard



And the full console including side air vent surrounds



These won't be getting fitted until I sort the head unit out. More to follow on that one.

stevep360

iTrader: (20)

Was gonna go for an aftermarket steering wheel, but the wheel boss i ordered got lost in the post.

So after speaking to Scott at Scoobyspares I ordered a mint version 10 steering wheel from him. Just felt it would be a better fit for the Spec C console.

Before.



After



A big thanks to the lads at revolution247.com again, they swapped it over in 15 minutes whilst I popped into the shop for a look round.