My built, widened and bagged 06 WRX Wagon

[John@BagRiders]

Hey everyone!

This is the story of my WRX wagon build. I bought the car about three years and and loved it more and more ever since. I was featured here on Stance Works in October 2014 in this awesome article (thank you so much!) http://www.stanceworks.com/2014/10/g...006-wrx-wagon/. I figured it was about time that I did a build thread, so here I am!

Current Image / Powaaaaa





Current Mod List (updated June 2017)

Engine / Performance
Built Short Block
BC Rods
CP Pistons
ACL Race Bearings
ARP Head Studs
GrimmSpeed 3" Divorced Wastegate Downpipe, thermal wrapped
Magnaflow 3" Race Catback
Blouch Dominator 1.5XTR 3" Inlet 10cm^2 hotside
PTP Turbo Blanket (Black)
HKS Equal Length Headers, thermal wrapped
GrimmSpeed up pipe, coated and thermal wrapped
KSTech 73mm short ram intake
Perrin 3" Turbo Inlet
GrimmSpeed Electronic Boost Control Solenoid
GrimmSpeed Lightweight Crank Pulley
NGK One Step Colder Spark Plugs
Killer B Motorsports Oil Pickup
Killer B Motorsports Upper Coolant Reservoir
Front Mounted Intercooler (generic core, custom charge piping)
Reversed Intake Manifold
TurboSmart Recirculating BPV
IAG Billet TGV Deletes
IAG Black anodized fuel rails
Custom -6 fuel lines
Aeromotive -6 Fuel pressure regulator
Ported/shaved/polished Intake Manifold
Ported Throttle Body
KStech 19mm Phenolic Intake Manifold Spacers
Mishimoto 3 port baffled catch can plumbed with AN fittings
Mishimoto aluminum radiator
Mishimoto aluminum radiator stays


Exterior / Aesthetics (a.k.a. "all shaved errythang")
Shaved/tubed engine bay
Complete Sedan Front end conversion (fenders and bumper)
Complete Sedan Rear end conversion (doors and quarter panels)
05-07 STi Rear Arch Trim Pieces
Custom hybrid Wagon + 05-07 STi Rear Bumper
Shaved front bumper license plate and filled in "mustache holes" below where the license plate mounts (see pics below)
Blacked out headlight housings and amber side marker
Custom red tail lights
04/05 RS Side Skirts
Wingless rear hatch (from a 2.5i) + shaved emblem (holes welded and filled) + wiper delete
Scoopless hood (from a 2.5i)
Roof rail delete
S204 style front lip (painted gloss black)
HT Auto side skirt runners (painted gloss black)
Voltex-style rear diffuser(painted gloss black)
BaysonR JDM replica rain guards

Interior Comfort / Engine Monitoring
Alcantara Headliner & Sunroof slider
Alcantara Sunvisors
Alcantara A Pillar Trim pieces
Alcantara B Pillar Trim pieces
Alcantara C Pillar Trim pieces (in progress)
Alcantara Shift Boot
Alcantara Center Arm Rest
Alcantara Handbrake Boot
Prova D-Shaped Alcantara Steering Wheel
Black inner door handles (from a 2.5i)
JDM Red Hazard Button (estimated +9000whp)
Limited STi / S204 Center Console w/STi shift surround
Sneed4Speed Billy Club Pro Delrin Shift knob
Red LED Conversion for driver side window and door switches
Red LED Conversion for HVAC Controls
Version 9 STi Gauge Cluster
White LED's for all interior bulbs (Map, Dome, Glove Box, Cargo)
STi Floor Mats
SMY Dual Gauge Pod (replaces Gauge Cluster surround)
ProSport Fuel Pressure Gauge
ProSport Oil Pressure Gauge
Cobb AccessPort V2
Zaetech DigiGauge 2 Air Suspension Gauge (OLED edition)

Air Suspension Details
Air Lift Performance Struts
Bag Riders Air Management Package
Air Lift Performance 3H Control System
Seamless 4 gallon air tank
Air Zenith OB2 Compressor
Fancy hard lines

Other Suspension / Driveline / Handling Stuff
USDM 2004 STi Transmission
Chase Bays braided clutch line
Chase Bays brake line/ABS delete kit
Chase Bays power steering kit
Whiteline transmission crossmember bushings
Whiteline Adjustable 24mm Rear Sway Bar
Whiteline Rear Strut Tower Bar
Whiteline rear diff bushings
Kartboy outrigger bushings
Kartboy Front Swaybar End Links
Kartboy Rear Swaybar End Links
Kartboy Pitch Stop Mount
Group N Transmission Mount
Group N Motor Mounts
StopTech Drilled Rotors
StopTech Performance Pads
StopTech Stainless Steel Brake Lines
Rotiform LHR Forged 3-piece Wheels 17x10 3.5" Lips / Concave Face / Hidden Hardware
Hankook Ventus V12 Tires 215/45

Audio
Pioneer AVIC-F700BT Head Unit
Pioneer Speakers all around
SSL Evolution 1500w Amplifier
Pioneer 10" Subwoofer
Generic Sub Enclosure from Amazon

Miscellaneous
GrimmSpeed High Lift Hood Struts
OEM STi Short Throw shifter
Kartboy front/rear Shifter Bushings
Perrin Coolant Overflow Can
Air Pump Delete (KSTech block off plates)
07 STi Alternator
Outfront Motorsports alternator relocation bracket
STI Oil Cooler assembly
Optima Yellow Top battery (relocated to trunk)
ABS delete
Fuse box tuck
Engine bay wire tucked and shaved

About Me
My name is John, 29 year old family-man and Subaru nut hailing from the northern reaches of Vermont. My career is being the IT Director here at Bag Riders Air Ride located in South Burlington, Vermont. My day-to-day activities typically include a lot of coding and server administration stuff. For my fellow nerds out there, my degree is in Linux Server Administration and Information Security but mostly I'm a full stack developer writing a lot of PHP and JS when server/network stuff doesn't need tending to. In my free time I enjoy hanging out with my wonderful wife Ashley and our family, working on my/her Subarus, bike riding, hiking, and generally anything outdoors (lots of that here in VT). I've worked here full time for about 4 years now and feel truly blessed to be surrounded by the awesome team here at BR. Four of us here have known each other since the first day of college where we shared the same dorm. Over the years our team has continued to grow and all of our new hires are really awesome and feel like another family member here, which I think is what keeps us all motivated to provide the best service we can to the automotive community we have been a part of for so many years.

Backstory
Before my WRX, I had a bagged 2.5i urban grey wagon on cast Rotiform NUE's. This was the first car I modified and it goes without saying that it all started there. Here's how my 2.5i sat just before I sold it.


While I loved what had become of the car but it was slow and automatic, and I quickly learned how much more was possible with a WRX. I've always loved tinkering with things and after reading about the endless possibilities of mods you can do with a car like a WRX I knew that was what I wanted. After some hunting around, I found a Limited WRX wagon in nearby Massachusetts. The car was originally a California car and had only seen a single MA winter. It had just shy of 80k on the odometer and was bone-stock with a flawless history; it was just what I wanted!

Here's my 2.5i next to its successor, before the snowball effect of mods happened:


The first mods I did were all interior stuff, like painting everything black and wrapping the headliner in micro suede.


Going a little out of order technically, but eventually I picked up some S204 HVAC knobs and the red hazard button. I liked this look but it didn't stick around forever


No surprise here, but it wasn't long before I had swapped over the air ride from my 2.5i over to the WRX, except this time I kept everything nice and clean with AccuAir's EXO mounting system. I had the mounting brackets powder coated to what used to be pretty close to our brand teal. We since re-branded so now I have to get these re-done some time haha.


I kept all the wiring tucked up in this OEM panel (yay wagon) to keep the install stealthy and contained. I didn't have to raise my floor or build a false floor, everything is tucked into OEM foam compartments that Subaru provides for you to hold... random tools I guess?


I even found a nice little spot for my Zaetech DigiGauge ECU and pressure sensors! Thanks Subaru for all of these little compartments, they really came in handy.


Freshly bagged, no notch or anything except maybe the pinch weld. Not low at all, but that changes soon.


I got my Rotiform LHRs and loved them from day one


I got a vanity plate and my WRX had a name "Slamaru". I'm a very tongue-in-cheek guy haha.


Annnnnd here's where we start going a little overboard. In effort to save money I swapped over my sedan front fenders/bumper cover/wingless shaved hatch from my 2.5i to my WRX. While I had the front end apart I also tucked the main wiring harness that otherwise gets destroyed in the driver-side wheel well.


Oh yeah, roof rail delete happened around this time.


Somewhere along the way I stiffened things up with a Whiteline rear swaybar and Kartboy front/rear end links


think still before any notching/tubbing but with the sedan front end on. This was the same bumper that was on my 2.5i and has the license plate bracket shaved and the two holes below that filled.



The front wheel wells and all sorts of other stuff prevents you from going low in the front, here's a pic of everything that got chopped up:


The wheel wells just got raised up as far as the fuse box could go before the hood wouldn't close. Doing this provides PLENTY of room for activities.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KOULaHb.jpg/IMG]

Also gotta hammer the dickens out of the front strut towers to safely crank the cambers to the max


I wanted to go with a scoopless hood eventually so FMIC was the way to go for me. I chopped up the crash beam and mounted it right in the middle of that sucker. I painted the intercooler black (obviously) with some high temp grill paint from Lowes. It's held up amazing over the last few years and it's super easy to touch up.


Eventually got the whole shebang plumbed up with the help of our favorite local fabricator Cyrus who has helped on pretty much every project that has passed through Bag Riders (thank you Cyrus you're the man!). I think at this time I was what is commonly referred to as "Stage Two". But, like most things on this car, it wouldn't be that way for long!


I think before I said things started to get a little crazy, but if they hadn't got crazy then, this was definitely where it started. I had planned on doing the full sedan conversion ever since I got my WRX and I finally pulled the trigger. The local scrapyard sold me half a car delivered to me for $700, I thought that was pretty damn good!


Welp, no going back now!


Sedan door on seeing how it will look, also learning that the glass needs to be swapped!


One side all mocked up, ooo yeah


The inner wells were extended out to meet the wider quarter, keeping it nice and clean and OEM-ish.


Here's how the quarter panels looked before grinding and filler and what not. The filler neck is in the same spot on the sedan and wagon thankfully.


This lovely lady friend helped me swap over the glass/motors from my wagon rear doors over to the sedan skins. This was almost two years ago. We are now engaged


While Cyrus was working away on the quarter panels, I ripped off my intake in preparation for some porting and the ol' flip-a-roo (reversing the intake manifold)


Here I am in my super duper dirty office at the shop thinking "Hmm, I bet these here hard lines won't fit so good once I flip the intake manifold around, maybe I should replace them with some flexible lines and go parallel." I would have been wise to do that, but I didn't cause I didn't have the money to dump into a quality fuel line/rail setup. I'm planning on doing that this winter, though.


Got my stuff back from GrimmSpeed! They ported/polished my IM, TB and TGV housings and deleted the TGVs. These will have some nice smooth air flow!


I found this spot fits my battery perfectly so I'm hoping to get around to doing that this wintertime.


Had my intake stuff powder coated to a gunmetal kinda grey


For a while my car was a harlequin lol


Alright alright back to the good stuff. I got the intake manifold back in (the opposite way this time) and things are lookin good! While I had everything apart I cleaned up the wiring harness a bit, installed a Perrin turbo inlet and a Kartboy light weight crank pulley. With 9mm IM spacers, and the alternator dropped as low as it could go, the throttle body just barely clears. Once again my friend Cyrus came through with a VW idler pulley that was the perfect size to use as a tensioner for the alt/ps belt, so I kept the OEM belt length and it's been working great for well over a year now.


With more of Cyrus' fabrication skills, I had some custom charge piping and the car was all back together!


I love the clean look of all red tails so I did mine and I think they came out pretty good! The color has held up great, and they still clean up real nice!


With the car all back together and running, it was off to the body shop! Here's an in-progress pic of the quarter panels


I got my A and B pillers wrapped with microsuede to match the headliner. The C pillars are in progress!


Pretty sure she has cleaned these wheels more than I have in the past few years haha


In the paint booth! Back to Urban Grey Metallic!


Here I was ready for Wicked Big Meet 2014. Unfortunately I didn't make it. The car had a really strange issue when it came back from the body shop. After weeks of diagnostic, it turned out to be the fuel pump control module had got fried or otherwise gone bad.


During the diagnostic process, it was discovered that my VF39 was very well on its way out and as a result of various things there was some damage to the cylinder to walls so I decided to have the motor built. I brought the car to Charlie at Six Star Motors and he figured out the random electrical issue and built the motor which is running just as strong as ever up to this day.


I picked up a Blouch TD05 18GXT, some 1000CC injectors and a 255LPH fuel pump. Ready for more power!



---


Alright, going to bed but I'll try to get this all caught up some time tomorrow!!

[John@BagRiders]

So eventually Charlie figured out the issue with the fuel pump control module and I got my WRX back with a built short block, ready to be tuned. I headed on over to the awesome dudes at BrenTuning in Mass and put down 364whp/wtq on their Mustang dyno. My 5spd and TD05 left some power on the table, but the car has never driven better than after they tuned it, thanks guys!


The car was all back together and running smooth, just in time for H2Oi 2014 which is where my StanceWorks feature was shot!


Winter came pretty quickly after H2O last year and as-so my WRX hung out in the garage for a while. It wasn't until the springtime that the next round of mods started...

Here I had decided that "it's spring time pretty much!!" lol


While no doubt I loved the rear end, something about it just wasn't right. The arch of the rear wheel well wasn't perfect because, like the front end, the wagon bumper isn't made to work with sedan parts. So I did the only reasonable thing and set about getting a custom rear bumper made! First step was to acquire an 05-07 STi bumper and 05-07 STi rear arch flares.



The fabrication process for the rear bumper was handled by Bobby at Gorillaz Garage, another local shop. He absolutely killed it!


No detail was overlooked, he went the extra mile and made a custom bracket to mate the sedan bumper cover to the wagon chassis


The outcome was perfect!! The rear arch finally "flowed" with the rest of the car and the exterior felt complete to me


While my WRX was with Bobby, I was busy gathering parts in preparation for the car's first show: Wicked Big Meet 2015

I picked up these Corbeau RRB seats, I love them! They're right in the middle of your fixed back racing seat and your typical reclining bucket with just enough side bolster to prevent me sliding around when driving spiritedly.


I swapped out my gauge cluster with a Version 9 STi cluster which matches really well with my VEI oil pressure and boost gauges, as well as my Zaetech DigiGauge which you can see I modded into where the OEM clock unit would be.


I vinyl wrapped my center console with 3M matte black and had the shit boot, hand brake boot and armrest thing wrapped in alcantara to match my headliner and a/b pillars. The upholstery work was done by Overland Designs, definitely hit them up for any of your trim needs!


Overland Designs also made me a custom set of one-off alcantara wrapped sun visors that blend in perfectly with the headliner and the rest of my alcantara interior


Another upgrade to the "cockpit" and one of my favorite mods to date was this Prova D-Shaped alcantara wheel.

[emanuelparedes]

Awesome build!

[Dome]

Box flares on a wagon, I love it

[John@BagRiders]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!!

Still in Wicked Big Meet prep at this time, I decided to rebuild my Rotiforms to better fit the wide body as they had originally been built with respect to pre wide-body fitment.

Of course, Ashley aka the real MVP tackled cleaning the faces!


Another inch of lip made me fall in love with these wheels all over again. Also, kitty approves!


All sealed up and ready for tires!


Fitment lookin good


Dialing in the fitment for WBM, hadn't removed the longer studs from the front yet


Put in some slotted rotors while I had everything apart


I bought myself a DA and a bunch of detailing supplies and gave the car a full clay/buff/sealant before WBM. It shined up realg ood!


Just before rolling out to Wicked Big Meet I had my car in our shop to calibrate e-Level


Probably the cleanest the interior has been this year lol


Here's Will and Alex being goons in the parking lot of the hotel we stayed at for Wicked Big Meet. The subie next to me is our warehouse manager Kevin, that car has also been featured on SW!


Posted up at Wicked Big Meet! The front isn't kissing lip to fender due to the balljoint being maxed out. I ended up fixing that this summer with Whiteline balljoints.


Love this shot


Literally on the way home from WBM I ordered Whiteline's roll center adjustment kit and installed it ASAP. Its whenever I do mods like these that I'm super thankful that the car isn't rusty. The balljoints popped right out!


And with those ball joints swapped out, the front end now sits lip to fender. It actually will insert but I try not to do that as to not damage the fenders.



I had a few solid months of summer driving before this happened...


Thankfully, Charlie at Six Star Motors had a USDM 04 STi 6speed kickin around that he gave me a great deal on, I just had to source the rest of the stuff. So I went out and found an R160 diff from an auto WRX, an STi driveshaft, a new heavy duty clutch, some DCCD switches, a clutch slave cylinder, and probably a few random other things that I'm forgetting. Regardless, this allowed me to keep my 5x100 hubs and not extend my track at all which was hugely important to me to avoid rebuilding my wheels again.


The tranny swapped happened in one day thanks to Charlie and Tim at Six Star Motors. While I was gathering parts for the swap, I also bit the bullet and ordered the center trim from the S204 STi along with a new 6MT shift knob the "Billy Club" courtesy of Sneed4Speed. I absolutely love it! This is how the interior looks now.


The tranny swap was done just in time for my favorite time of year here in Vermont... Autumn!




Alright, now we're all caught up! I'm excited for the next round of mods I'm currently preparing for. I'll be sure to keep this post updated as my build continues. Thanks for reading!!

[MommysLittleMonster]

This is, honest to God, one of the most well-done Subaru builds I've read in a very long time. Excellent work, your attention to detail and the depth of your commitment are incredible!

[rightfullrudder]

^ What he said. Love this.

[Louis_D]

I remember seeing the feature when it came out, I was already impressed, but now I am even more! Your car is completely sick, it all flows together so well.

Keep it up!

[John@BagRiders]

Thanks for the kind words folks

Here's what I've got planned for the car in the future...

Interior wise, I've currently got the C Pillars with Overland Designs (http://overland-designs.com/) for some alcantara love, those will complete the alcantara from the pillars up! I think that will pretty much do it for the interior, maybe a new head unit at some point but otherwise I'm very happy with it how it is now. One other small detail I plan on figuring out this weekend is a custom badge to fill the holes where the Limited Edition badge goes on the shift surround trim that I installed not too long ago.

I've got a few aesthetic changes coming up too

As soon as I decide to put the WRX in the garage for the winter (any day now) I'm going to start tearing into it for the next round of mods. I want to clean up the engine bay, so I'm hoping to delete the ABS module, move the battery to the location pictured in one of the posts above, move the fusebox somewhere, and get a manifold block to clean up all the hose routing. I've also got a couple of baffled catch cans to install, and I'm planning on swapping to aftermarket fuel rails/lines since the stock hard lines aren't happy with the intake flipped. I think with all these small changes, the engine bay will look much cleaner!

Lastly, I'd really love to put get the car over 400whp now that I have the STi tranny. I confirmed with the guys at BrenTuning that it would just require a larger turbo, but with a wedding coming next year I've got to be at least somewhat responsible with my budgeting haha. Either way at some point, the next round of power mods will be just that- probably a Dom 1.5XTR or something comparable that I can squeeze a 3" intake on in the stock location, an external wastegate up pipe, and probably some Killer B EL headers. I'd also really like to change up the charge pipe routing and maybe powder coat or polish it.

Alright well none of that stuff is gonna get done if I'm just sitting around! I'm headed out to the garage to clean it up a bit in preparation for the work I'll be doing in the coming months

[becausephilchow]

Looks amazing man, love it!

[19birel]

Love the attention to detail on this! What did you use to paint those interior trim pieces black? (you did paint those right? lol) I've been trying to figure out what paint would actually hold up over time haha.

[Nuts]

Very nice. Love the detail of work and attention to detail!!!

[notmarshall]

this is one of my favorite wagons, its too good.

[fackinsteve]

Beautiful work youve done to your car. I can really appreciate the body work that was done it as well. Gotta love a New England Autumn though, I love VT

[Meeve]

wow! a staggering build! It's nice that your gf seems to be great support in this.