Having my cake and eating it too. My 2002 WRX Wagon

[thathalfginger]

Hey guys, been lurking for a while but I've finally made some progress on my car so I figured I'd start a thread. I bought my 2002 WRX Wagon in June after working all throughout high school to be able to achieve my dream of buying my own car. I bought it completely stock and with only 81k on the clock. The interior was pristine but the driver's side door has some dings. I wanted something japanese and turbo and this fit the bill perfectly. The car being a wagon was also a welcome bonus and wagons are just better

My plan for the car is to have a street style look and have find the balance between form and function (cliched). I just want to go lower but maintain the performance inherent to the car.

This is probably gonna be a slow thread as I'm a college student and have little funds

Here are some pics of when I got the car. I don't tend to edit my dslr pics because I'm lazy and am more of a video guy.





I did edit this one


Soon after I picked up a STI Duracon Shift knob.
Its a little too light but I don't want to spend money on another and I love the look of it.
Sadly,the STI logo has already become faded over the short period of time I've owned it.





I strongly dislike plastidip. It never looks good and it's become one of the worst trend's in the "scene".
But I digress, the silver on my dash was worn. and I wanted the whole interior to be black.
I used the devilish product and it turned out good.

Here's a before pic but not my car.



After



Also did the vent rings



I'll update tomorrow with some of the bigger upgrades I've added but I'm done for today.

Stay tuned!

[thathalfginger]

After going to leaving for school in late August, not much was done to the car.
However, when I came back home for Thanksgiving break, I was greeted by my new cobb catback!
My car finally sounds like a subie should.











Sound and the fitment are awesome and the craftsmanship is top notch.
Should have a video up soon so you guys can check it out.

[Pyramid]

Nice! I think you should do a front end swap, i'm not a fan of the "bug eyes".
Good luck!

[zebra]

Nice! I think you should do a front end swap, i'm not a fan of the "bug eyes".
Good luck!

So, because you don't like that look, the owner should change the whole front end???? Nice advice buddy! You should probably change the whole front end on your car IMO!

[thathalfginger]

Thanks for the feedback but I love the bugeye front. Although it's not very pretty, it was a large departure from the previous generation of impreza and its a unique and recognizable style. In my opinion, it stands out unlike newer Subaru's that tend to have very tame styling.

[thathalfginger]

Day 3 Stanceworks noob update:

I've been trying to catch up to my current build progress by posting everyday so bear with me.

So fast forward to winter break. My family is awesome and for Chirstmas my Grandpa got me OEM STI floormats and my Aunt and Uncle got me a Prosport Mechanical Boost Gauge.

Excuse the snapchat screengrab it was the only pic I had when I got them





I heard they add at least 30hp lol

Here's the boost gauge but I am waiting on a gauge pod to come from China so it might take a while before I get a chance to install it.

The color is white during the day and green at night



Now I am up to date more or less. Here's a preview for whats to come.

[_e90]

You must be swapping front ends because Pyramid said he's not a bugeye fan

[thathalfginger]

You must be swapping front ends because Pyramid said he's not a bugeye fan

Dang you caught me red handed

[thathalfginger]

Today is the day. I have finally reached my most current progress on the car.

And sadly, this is probably when the build will begin to slow as I save up for wheels and suspension.

Anyway, on Sunday my friend and I began the process of painting my headlight housings black. In my opinion, this makes the bugeye a much more good looking car. Its also a way to get the look of the Jdm projector headlights without dropping the cash money.

It took a little more than a whole afternoon but I cannot be more pleased with the results. For my first time really gettting to take apart and work on a car, this platform could not be any easier to work on.

After baking the headlights to heat the glue, we eventually pried them open.





My homie doin work with the rattlecan. We used Rustolem Semi-gloss Black with about 4 coats on each light.



Any here is the result. I couldn't be more pleased with the result. IMO it looks alot more aggressive.






Next up I plan on painting the stock black sideskirts body color. Hopefully I can get this done before I go back to school in 2 weeks.

Similarly, does anyone have an experience using Dupli-color perfect match? That's what I plan on using along with their primer and clear coat.

Hope to update soon! Peace

[rstaylor25]

Subscribed my good sir! Very clean bug!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[philohlean]

Sincere thank you for not having an exhaust with a fart-cannon haha. Cobb makes really quality stuff! Are you going to do one of their stage tunes? Clean bug-eye, look forward to progress!

[iamsilverfox]

headlights made a big difference. looks good man

[thathalfginger]

Thanks man, hope to keep updating as much as I can

[thathalfginger]

Sincere thank you for not having an exhaust with a fart-cannon haha. Cobb makes really quality stuff! Are you going to do one of their stage tunes? Clean bug-eye, look forward to progress!

I plan on going stage 2 eventually with either a Cobb off the shelf tune or a protune. But first, I must go lower!

[SouthCarolinaGuy]

I like the way that exhaust looks.

[_e90]

Blacked out headlights totally change it up. Nice.

Can't wait to see some lows and new wheels.

[thathalfginger]

Update yeeee

Finally got my boost gauge installed and wired up thanks to my homie and his dad the colonel. The job took an afternoon and the morning after. It was kinda a pain to wire up the thing as I wanted it to be white during the day and green to match the gauges when the headlights are on. But after alot of tinkering and guesswork I got it wired up nice.

Some pics for ya

Actually cold in here in SoCal so I threw the hood on



Mounted with the car turned off



Car on



Headlights on



Works and looks great although the gauge is reading about a pound too high. I'm deciding on whether to send it back or not as it was only 40$.

I'll try to get a video of the gauge and the exhaust soon but I have work the next 3 days in a row.

Hopefully I can update again once I paint my sideskirts before I head back to school. Peace.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Love the detail of having it match both day and night. I can't stand aftermarket gauges that don't make any attempt to match the factory lighting.

What are you calibrating the gauge against that suggests it's reading a pound high?

[t.han]

had a blobeye a few years back running stage 2. i noticed you are in cali, so you will have to be mindful of emissions! looking forward the progress

[thathalfginger]

Love the detail of having it match both day and night. I can't stand aftermarket gauges that don't make any attempt to match the factory lighting.

What are you calibrating the gauge against that suggests it's reading a pound high?

The needle just sits a little below zero when the car is off so that's why it reading high

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Wouldn't that mean it's reading a pound low?

[OSSHWA]

Off to a pretty good start. And I agree with your comments on plastidip - my entire car used to be dipped........NEVER AGAIN! I guess I figured i'd give it a shot......and I did......and peeled it off within a matter of months lol. I vowed never to use it again but I ended up dipping my OEM upper/lower grills because they were a bit faded/weathered and it made them basically look brand new again.

Wheels/suspension soon I hope?

[thathalfginger]

Here's the exhaust video I promised!

It's a collection of different clips outside and inside while driving.

I can figure out how to embed the video so here's the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-2irkAyrX8

[PD63]

Nice wagon man, I've posted pics of mine on here before if you wanna take a look at it. Recently sold the wheels and raised it up thinking about if I wanna keep mine or not

[thathalfginger]

Rare update while I'm in school!

It's my birthday this weekend and I stumbled across something rare and cheap on ebay today. Soooooo, I decided to


I splurged (but not really) and picked up a set of Jdm black chrome projector headlights.



These usually sell from anywhere from 400-800$ to which I picked up for around 260$!

I guess the seller didn't know what he had lol. Or I got scammed. Doubt it though.

Here's how they look installed



In my opinion, this is the one mod that really takes the ugly ducking bugeye to the next level.

Ill update once I head back home and try to install them. Hopefully I can get them wired up but wiring is not my forte. It's scary lol.

Until next time and hopefully my next mod won't be headlight related haha