2004 WRX - Shoopster's build (or rather, repair) thread by Shoopster

10 minute(s) of a 119 minute read

Fuunny! I assure you, it was much, much slower. Even with the Brembos, the trailer pushed me at a couple stop signs (new experience).

I couldn't wait for the day to be over; when the trailer came off, I was like "I'm FREE, FREE at LAST!"

7-8-2014

UPDATE on the wheels setup

I had the fenders rolled in because omg the scraping on turns! If a passenger was in the backseat they had to sit in the middle  

My fenders were all rippled and jagged (?) so I it needed to be done anyway.

BEFORE

AFTER

Aaaand, I found a local guy looking to trade his Brembo-clearing V7's for my V5's, so it looks like we'll be rolling goldies for the winter again! ...and losing the spacers 

UPDATE! 1 year later, up-pipe again...

First job when I bought the Shoop was the up-pipe - it was my first post in my build thread. We knew that the gaskets were garbage and that they wouldn't last, but at 1am you used what you have. Here's what cheapo gaskets look like after a year. All the leaks.

The eBay no-name up-pipe itself, also lasted a year; the inside sheathing is broken.

So, lesson learned and after much research and debating, I picked up a Grimmspeed flex uppipe through Matty @ WTF Tuning 

The flex section's location is largely similar to where the OEM one is placed.

Next to it, the eBay special.

The hardware that comes with it  quality stuff. The gaskets are even better than the OEM ones: thicker, with a more substantial ring around the inside than the OEM

This cancerous piece of heatshield was cut away from the vicinity (headers, I think)

UPDATE!! Zero Sport stainless steel hood splitter

Some 3m tape to keep it from rubbing against the hood & scratching the paint, and of course whenever possible, switching out old rusted screws for stainless. 

Stock '04 WRX hood splitter 

Zero Sport w/3M

BEFORE

AFTER

Gratuitous Shoopster pic

UPDATE on the STi HID's

Driver's side headlight was out for a while, and there was a major humidity situation going on inside. (Would you believe) I found a local guy who sells HID's for $30? So, got a couple of 6000k - white with a barely blue-ish tone - and my headlight still wouldn't work. 

But where is all this water coming from? 

Next step then, must be the ballast. ...Just a lil' water, eh?

Here's a pic of all the water than poured out - had I even expected this, I would've video'd it, sorry, but it just kept pouring out... I guess a ballast holds quite a bit of water lol 

When I bought this set of headlights last winter, we opened them to blackhouse mod. We had found the casing was cracked, and had to epoxy that. 

Apparently that's where my infiltration was. But to find it, we took out all the bulbs, sealed it all up with tape (and hands), and blew compressed air into each of its compartments (which also dried the inside). Found the leak (bubbles in the white-ish glue, below) and sealed them (again) with gasket-maker (the orange stuff)

We dried everything out, the wires, the pin-clips, put the bulbs and new ballast back in... and still no light. Drove around for another week with a busted eye before finding time to remove the headlights again... 

Good news this time though: we forgot to re-connect the ballast LOL I love an easy fix. Headlights are go.

UPDATE on teh busted bumper situation

So, my bumper's been busted since Christmas morning when a Corolla landed on it on the Shoopster Launch Pad.

New (OEM) bumper is too expensive, with paint would cost about 500$. Plus my aluminum hood is dented too (another 500$). So for that price (approximately) I decided to get a JDM nose a couple months ago; I had found this black beauty with giant fogs - pretty rare on a sedan, eh? Yup. That's because it was a wagon nose and didn't fit.

Is that a beauty or what?

Too large... this is what i might've looked like if it had fit...

If you didn't know, the wagon bumper is a couple of inches larger than the sedan; to fit, you'd have to install the wagon fenders too - which is somewhat of a downgrade, body-wise. 

So close, and yet, so far :sigh: 

My pastry-flake bumper beam is gone, though. Replaced it with a JDM one temporarily (I know, I'd better not hit anything...)

I've already bought a used - proper, steel, also rusted but ok - bumper-beam that we'll install when my new nose arrives -- a Limited Edition WRX (sedan) nose with big fogs -- it'll probably need to be modified to fit the fogs & their bezels....

SAND & PAINT

Tired of the Shoopster looking busted, avoiding the big meets; quotes for fix & paint are too expensive (for a winter bumper that would just crack again), I decided to sand and spray-paint it myself with Grimmspeed WRB. Which, it turns out, is a surprisingly close match! I'd say only the texture/finish is different (duh) other than that it's spot-on...

I didn't bother with putty, and it took a whole day of sanding; painting took maybe 4 hours plus drying overnight. 

First round of sanding (drove around with the bumper like this for a couple weeks...)

And my one-day intensive pictorial:

Leftover sticker-bomb behind the license plate delete, because I didn't have any gold left .

Yep, that's Felix in the X.

And, my "finished" winter bumper - all told, 2-3 coats of primer (2 cans), 2 coats of WRB (2 cans, plenty left. Shoulda done a third.) 3 coats of clear (2 thin 1 med per instructions)

Da-da-DONE ! 

...For now.