[RunsWithScissors]

Painted my calipers red (because racecar) with a little bit of HKS oil spill for SnG's. It's a bit "boy-racer", but I think it's funny. lol

Also got a picture of the car in the daylight with the new TE07's on, with the Potenza RE-71R's

Also picked up a new RS front bumper from someone off the forum here, so I'm going to need to fix some of the bodywork and get it cleaned up and painted before I put it on.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Went to the junkyard today and found a wood trimmed steering wheel (to match my shift knob) for the crazy high price of $6. Picture of it on the way home in it's musty state:

And a picture of it cleaned up some, with a JDM Momo airbag I picked up at boxerfest a couple years back.

Can't wait to put this in, not to get rid of the Nardi/NRG combo, but so that the dash "airbag" light goes off! lol

 

[mike-tracy]

That's a nice combo. The woodgrain steering wheel is advertised as being a Momo as well, but I didn't notice any markings when I had one. Looks good tho.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

So I tried to swap the steering wheels yesterday, which was supposed to be a 10 minute job, only to find that whoever put the quick release on screwed me over. Not sure why you wouldn't just fold the wires back under the column if you weren't using them instead of this. Cutting plugs is only acceptable in the junkyard. Open to different ideas on how to proceed, so let me know what you guys think would be the best recovery option.

So the quick release went back on until I can get the plug situation sorted. Picture of the current interior setup (peep the nice shift knob, that should match the wood wheel about perfectly). Excuse the dirty car, didn't have time to clean it before crushing some cones.

The local SCCA group had it's AutoX test and tune. The humble 1.8l was only 1.2s slower than the green corvette behind it. Used the old wheel/tire setup; trying to use up the tread before going over to the Rays/RE-71's.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Well, not much has changed in the last month, been busy. Have been doing a lot of research on swapping the multifunction switch to correct the airbag/horn issue, and figuring out how to swap the front bumper. Had another autox event on 5/1, and was only 0.6s slower than my friends (super modified) Evo8, so that was rather enjoyable. I'm getting the car ready for a road trip next week; the girlfriend and I are going to explore the northern east coast. I'm sure I'll have some pictures for the thread afterwards!

Some pictures of the steering wheel swap (I know the lighting isn't great, but the wood grain match is very close):

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Well, I've been pretty busy lately, putting a lot of time into finding and buying parts for the swap, and doing lots of research (thanks to this forum for being here). Since the last post, I threw the old wheel/tire setup back on, some clothes, tools, and the girlfriend in the car, and we took a road trip up through the great north east. We put on almost 2000 miles driving up through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Great vacation, lots of driving, and got some great pictures of the car. The humble 1.8L averaged 34mpg for the duration of our trip, which was super surprising from a 26 year old awd car! lol Now that we're home though, I can do the mods I've wanted to do for the car for the last couple months (I didn't want to make the car unreliable for our trip). So brake swap is coming, I still need a few things for the rear disc swap, and the engine swap are the main things I'm looking to accomplish.

One of the pictures my girlfriend snagged on our vacation, this one was from Acadia National Park (I highly recommend it, if ya'll haven't been)

Since being home, my buddy was nice enough to move his Evo8 out of his shed to help me swap the RS bumper on. We put some quick releases on the bumper as well, so that I can take it on and off to do the bodywork/paint easily. I made up some aluminum brackets for the fog covers as well, but they're not perfect. So if anyone knows what the factory part number is for the bracket, let me know! lol

All in all, been spending a lot of time with the old girl lately, and looking to keep making progress. I'm pretty excited about some of the things upcoming for the car, and I'll try to keep this thread updated!

 

[Khoality]

Such a great color!

 

[RunsWithScissors]

With the new (to me) RS bumper finally on the car, I decided to buy some JDM goodies to spice it up. I ordered a front grill with the Green "I" badge shipped from japan; since I've never seen one in person, I wanted one for myself. I know the Green I badge has some controversy around this forum, but I figured it would match my paint lol I'll be doing the bumper bodywork/paint in the coming weeks, I'm excited to see the finished result.

Also been having trouble finding the final pieces for my rear disc swap. Through an unfortunate adventure that includes lost packages, a thin junkyard, and other life things getting in the way, I'm only one corner away from finally getting everything together. I'll update the thread when I finally do get through it all.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

I decided to stiffen up the chassis, and get something to hold me in the seats a little better during autox. There's a lot of information out there on the pros/cons of 4pt harnesses, so I'll leave it up to ya'll to do your own research. lol
Braum universal harness bar- chosen, because there are no made-to-fit for the coupes; This bar stiffened up the chassis nicely, and has a decent finish. My only complaint is that it is a universal bar, therefore the fit isn't perfect; but it's acceptable.

As for harnesses, I decided to go with the Takata Drift 2, 4pt harness; mainly because I wanted Takata harnesses, but also because they have an ASM built in. I have a smaller frame, so I didn't want to go with the 3" harnesses and have them chaff up my neck. lol Very pleased with the fit/finish of the harnesses, and they do an exceptional job of holding me in the seat during cornering.

Just a casual update. More stuff to come. I have a set date in my head for when I want certain things to be accomplished by, so I'm spending a lot of time (and money) to meet that goal.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Today I picked up an 05 sti tmic for the ej22t swap. I was reading about the trimming that's necessary to make it work, but I want to give it a go. It's definitely big enough for my purposes. I'm now torn though, as it came with the air splitter, which is beefy AF. I was going for a stock-ish looking build, but in order to get the most performance, I would have to graft a high rise scoop on my car... So I'm going to sit on this one for a while, and see where I end up. Rather unsure of how I want to proceed as of now. lol

Image of the side profile of the air splitter. It's massive. Basically twice the size of the stock GC scoop.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Spent my morning with a pair of tweezers as I drank my coffee, straightening the fins on the intercooler. I think it came out pretty well.

Now I'm looking into what it will take to adapt a ~4" scoop onto a GC. I see that a fair amount of people have done it, I just need to figure out what all it takes/weather or not I'd want to have the high rise scoop on the car.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Today was a super successful day at the junkyard! I picked up a rear disc hub which is the final piece in my brake swap, so I can begin that in the next week or so.

Better than that, I finally found the radio plug I needed for the factory head unit/cassette player! I couldn't be more thrilled. I also snagged a replacement clock-spring so that I can swap the wood grain steering wheel on, and it has the horn/airbag plugs intact so that I don't have to have some kind of janky wiring on something as important as the airbag. All of that for $50. Pretty pumped right now.

Also, a couple days ago, I had a few too many beverages with a friend of mine and we ended up messing around with some paint. Since I had leftover paint from the brake calipers, I tried my hand at putting the HKS pattern on the fog covers. Not sure if I like it enough to do the whole bumper, but I'm kicking the idea around to run the bumper patterned for a while, until I can find someone to do the bodywork on the bumper, then I'll paint with the factory color to match the rest of the car. lol (Opinions welcome)

It's so satisfying to finally put my factory radio search to bed. Next weekend I'm trying to allot time for the brake upgrade, as well as the coilover installation. I'll keep this updated as things progress. Next thing I'm looking for is a turbo crossmember

 

[SoCoNoHa]

Maybe black out the bumper and keep the funky fog light covers? I think they look sick.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Maybe black out the bumper and keep the funky fog light covers? I think they look sick.

Thanks! lol The bumper is definitely getting painted black and I'm going to see how it looks. If I don't like how it looks (due to the needed bodywork) I'm going to pattern the whole bumper to match the fog covers. My thinking is that the busy artwork will detract peoples eyes from the rough shape of the bumper itself. lol

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Weekend update; This past week, I painted the front bumper. First black, to see how it would look with the fogs; then pattern-matched to see how it would look, under the premise of "if I don't like it, I can always just paint it black again"

With just the black bumper, I thought it would look too different on an all green car. I think the full pattern is definitely the way to go. It's a 15' paint job for sure, but it'll do until I buy a new bumper skin (which I'll paint match to the rest of the car).

In other news, the car finally got the front end brakes/suspension being addressed. The drivers side caliper was hanging up and creating a lot of heat, so it needed to be addressed. New goodridge SS brake lines, 06-07 4-pot calipers, and my old set of Bilstein PSS9's went on the front corners; as well as the 1-1/16 master cylinder swap. I had too many beverages to complete the rear disc swap and bleed the system. The rear corners are getting the same Bilstein's with a disc swap, as soon as I can get them off of my parts car.

In other news; I bought an 06 WRX turbo crossmember for my swap, so I can finally write that off my list of parts I needed to acquire. I just need a few more pieces and parts, but I'm slowly getting there.

 

[mike-tracy]

Nice progress! Did you get the steering rack with the crossmember?

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Nice progress! Did you get the steering rack with the crossmember?

I did not. I tried to, but the parts place didn't have any in stock. I'm looking for a wrx rack as of right now, and looking at (potentially) getting the L&E column adaptor. I noticed their site hasn't been updated since 2009, and I was going to call them tomorrow to make sure they still had any products in stock. If not, I know several competent fabricators that could help me make an adapter.

 

[mike-tracy]

Ha, yeah, probably prudent to call L&E. I'm sure you're aware, but the 05-07 cross members have different mounting points for the steering rack, so you have to get an 05-07 steering rack as well (sti, wrx, na)

 

[Mailman]

I just bought an L&E adapter a week or so ago, and they shipped same day.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Last night I bought new ball joints, tie rod ends (outer), and a remanufactured 06 STi steering rack. I still need to pick up some bushings and bolts to attach it to the crossmember. I also bought the L&E adapter, and was pleasantly surprised on how quickly they had it in the shipping process. I'll keep the thread updated as things progress