sybir

iTrader: (45)

So. Day 1.


1997 Legacy Outback Limited. All the trimmings, leather heated seats, gold trim, the works. Got it used with 67k miles, in near perfect condition.

First thing I did was pull off all the gold trim. 19 feet of gold pinstriping later, car was looking much cleaner. Drove the car stock for about a year or so, just doing stuff like tint and stereo, and a cone filter replacing the stock airbox. Car still slow.

Picked up a set of RS rims to get rid of the balloon-tire look, and the car actually handled decently, even on RE92's. Still 19 feet off the ground, but it worked pretty well. Went through a few different sets of kumhos, nothing memorable. Cracked a foglight, so I replaced them with Hella 500s. Car still slow, but not quite as bad due to much shorter tires. Whiteline rear endlinks got rid of some creaking in the rear, but not much else.

Finally graduated and joined the real world, got a real job, and the mod bug that had already bitten was allowed to really take hold. Met some great guys through a local Subaru club with a road/rally prep/AWD turbo tuning shop, S-Squared Motorsports (http://www.ss-ms.com)

Went to a Ground Control custom setup, with WRX struts and tophats and progressive Eibachs. Best mod so far.

Axxis pads front and rear really improved the braking, to the point where the brakes were actually useful.

Soon after, picked up some Gram Lights 57Cs, with some questionable Goodyears, but I loved the looks so much I didn't mind the tires.



Got some WRX seats cheap and swapped them in so that I could actually go around corners without sliding off a leather seat. Bolted right in, look like they belong there. S-Squared active weight transfer was born.

Went to STi takeoff RE070's, 225/45/17s. Yes, I rolled the crap out of the fenders to clear them, and the car feels incredible. It *can* be done, but the only reason I was comfortable with flaring the fenders like I did is that they're covered by a body-color decal (that gray stripe) from the factory so I won't see any cracked paint. So much grip. I do miss chucking the car around on RE92's, but I'll manage.

New brakes, Wilwood billet Dynalites and WRX rotors, really improved braking, if not pedal feel, but some experimenting with a new master cylinder may help that.



Next mods are JDM rear lights (in the mail) and a Borla/Apex'i header-back combo, painted flat black to keep it subtle (ha!).

Still slow, but I love it, never seen anything else like it, and I'm getting things in line for an EJ20/5MT swap down the road a little ways......



And some updated pics......

sybir

iTrader: (45)

Mod list:

Interior/Exterior
Momo Daytona Carbon, 350mm, on Dai Kei hub, with functional cruise
Aluminum gauge surround
JDM WRX E-brake, leather w/ red stitching
JDM BG STi pedal kit w/ dead pedal, gold/red.
Tint, rears 5%, driver and passenger 50%.
Hella 500 yellow fogs, yellow StonGard
JDM amber sidemarkers
JDM BG rear lights
Hippo Sleek replica mesh grill
Morette headlights (Hella projector low beams, Hella driving pattern highs)
Yakima Doublecross towers
Tein BG hood struts
Zerosports replica radiator shroud


Audio/Electronics
Pioneer Premier DEH-P8MP
(F) 6.5 inch Pioneer 3-way coaxials (need to install my Premier components)
(R) 6.5 inch Pioneer 3-way coaxials
Alpine MRV100m mono sub amp, mounted under rear load floor
Kicker Solobaric 10" in fiberglass box
iPod integrated through changer input
Hella Supertones
Valentine 1 (hardwired)



Suspension/Brakes:
Tein Flex coilovers, 04 STi fitment
Whiteline Race ALK
Whiteline 22mm front sway bar
Whiteline rear swaybar links (18mm stock bar)
Whiteline rear strut tower bar w/ QR's
MRT front strut tower bar
(F) Stoptech ST-40 calipers on 328mm slotted rotors, Axxis Ultimate and Hawk Ceramic pads
(R) Axxis Ultimate pads, Power Slot rotors.
ATE Blue fluid
17x8, ET48 Rota Boosts, gold
235/40/17 Hankook Ventus RS-2's
17x8, ET48 Rota G-forces, bronze
225/45/17 Bridgestone RE070's

Power (ha!):
JDM NA EJ25
Borla SS headers
2.5 inch header-back w/ hi-flo cat, into an STi catback.
JDM 4.11 4EAT

Lots of other little things that aren't important

Egan

iTrader: (14)

Ugly wheels.

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

That last pic looks proffessional

Kevin M

iTrader: (12)

Yeah Sybir, you should totally ditch those awful, horrible, disgusting wheels. Good luck finding some poor sap to take them off your hands.

sybir

iTrader: (45)

Yeah, you should have seen the ricer I bought the wheels from

Thanks for the comments, guys. It needs work but it's getting there.

EJ20 swap moved up a bit, since I just sold my other project car.

nhayden

Wow - great wagon.

The wheels are not that bad - I would say a color change might make them a little nicer with the rest of the car. Maybe matching the gray on the bottom stripe of the car, at least until you can get a new set of wheels.

sybir

iTrader: (45)

Haha, we're all joking about the wheels. They were on Egan's black WRX wagon until he got Stoptechs, then on BAN SUV's car until he got P1's. They fit the car perfectly, and I love the way they look. The color match looks quite a bit better in person, too.

Thanks for the feedback!

sybir

iTrader: (45)

New toy (ignore the dust):

sybir

iTrader: (45)

Thanks! It's cool to see more people messing around with OB's. They're great cars with a few mods.

I've replaced the Sparco wheel with something a little more classy, and bolted on the JDM rear clusters, I'll get some new pics up tonight.

Also got another set of silver 99's for winter (w00t), since my black ones are on a track car at the moment

scoobsport98

iTrader: (5)

You inspired me to take my pinstripe off also. I have the exact same color scheme on my OBS- taking the stripe off made a HUGE difference (I kinda thought you might not even be able to tell the difference) It cleaned up the whole look of it- much less clutter- the whole thing looks darker (more uninterrupted black, I guess)

On another note, what tint would you suggest? I was thinking of just getting 35 all around to stay legal, but would that even be worth the trouble? Is 5% too dark to see through at night? Maybe ~20ish in the rears and 35 up front.... who knows?

Nice work on the wagon- but you never mentioned the blue/grey stripes on your front fenders...? They look interesting- whats the story behind them?

sybir

iTrader: (45)

My car is 5% on the back 5, no tint on the fronts. I need to do a light tint, becuase the transition is so abrupt. I like the 5%, and have never had any visibility problems, can still see fine at night, etc.

One note, I'm running halogen replacement 1156 bulbs in my reverse lights, they're considerably brighter (and get much hotter). They're an incandescent base with a halogen top; I don't worry too much about the heat becuase they're only on for a few seconds at a time.


Blue/silver/black (I know, you can't really see them unless it's bright out and the car's red paint is visible) stripes are the shop logo for my local rally/race prep shop in Sacramento, S-Squared Motorsports. My car runs a lot of support duties, so we stickered it up, and I liked it so much I keep it on year-round. It's more subtle (and offers more visibility) than a windshield banner, or massive logos, but it's the same thing we put on all the shop cars, race cars, etc, so it makes for a cool effect when all the cars are in one place, parked together at a track day, etc.

Removing the pinstripes was absolutely the best external mod I did. Glad other people like the look, too. I really need to polish the car up and take some better-lighted pics; being outside 24/7 on a car this old, the paint has taken a beating