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Luis's first Forester :)

('01-'02) 
11K views 78 replies 24 participants last post by  edwing206 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey guys. I've been on the site for a couple of months now and I've learned so much already! I love this place!

About me: I'm 19 (20 on the 16th! :big grin: ) and I'm a college student. I work as a part time custodian at an elementary school and on the weekends at a church close to my house. I used to drive a 1995 Toyota Camry which I did not like at all...very grandpa-ish haha. I got approved for a loan for about $10k so I started to look for a WRX at first, then I realized they were kind of expensive so I started looking for a bug-eyed Impreza. I found a nice clean 2003 Outback Sport at a local dealership and test drove it and almost got it. My mom convinced me that I should find a cheaper car so I could use my money for school and all that other fun stuff (yeah right...fun), then I saw the Forester thread over at NASIOC and I knew I had to have one! So I looked around and all of the good Foresters were too expensive or had too many miles (close to 200k). I spent hours and hours looking for a good Forester online and I finally found one on Craigslist. So here I am now, White 2002 Forester L 5spd with 121k miles on the clock. The guy I bought it from sold it to me pretty cheap because he thought it had more problems than it actually did. When we test drove it the suspension was all wacky and made a lot of noise. It also pulled a lot one way then the other way. It turns out the from top hats were installed wrong so they were not allowed to rotate freely, instead they twisted a LOT and it gave the steering wheel a bit of resistance when driving. They twisted so much that when I replaced them the rubber on the top was all torn up. Another problem the car had was that when it started up it would sometimes struggle to turn on and die. I replaced the starter and it starts up perfect now. The guy was asking $3500 for it, I offered him $3000 and he said I could have it for $2800. I was super excited and of course bought it. All in all I'm in about $4000 in it after fixing it all up and buying some mods I guess you could say.

I wouldn't have bought the car if I was looking at it by myself as the problems seemed like big issues to me. I took my older brother with me (he's 23) who was a Toyota Technician for 4 years and he said the problems were easy to fix and I was getting a good deal. I'd also like to take this time to give a shout out to him, you rock! He's taught me everything I know about cars and when I don't know something he most likely does. He's incredibly good with cars and I'm glad he's there to help me out. :tissue: Oh, I mean....*cough cough*

Anyways...

List of what I've done so far:
Yellow Lamin X on the fogs
Replaced starter
Replaced suspension with GR-2 struts and WRX sedan springs. I have a set of WRX wagon springs waiting to go on to eliminate the saggy butt.
Replaced old crappy looking steering wheel with a WRX Momo one
Painted the front grill and bought an emblem that I painted white to match the car
Replaced the SUBARU letters on the back with a nice big Subaru emblem (I love how it looks with this)
Removed the cross bars (I want to remove all the rails on the top and install flat black vinyl over the entire roof)
RedlineGoods perforated leather shift boot
Leather e-brake boot (thanks Vinnyd for the hook up, you the man!)

That's all the changes that I can remember off the top of my head, if I think of any more I'll add them in.

Future plans:
Replace my old man wheels with something nice (However, I am a broke college student so this will probably have to wait unless I find a REALLY good deal)
Install Morimoto Mini projector headlights and an HID kit ( also install projectors in the fogs and HID kit too)
Change interior lighting to something brighter and white (anybody have any suggestions?)
Change dash lighting color to red
Buy a JDM Forester grill and a new front emblem that's bigger and paint it white again
Buy a rear spoiler (anybody wanna trade theirs for my rain deflector :big grin: )
Install front and rear sway bars (which ones would be good? And do I NEED new end links?)
Kartboy SS

I forgot to add that I'm going to be plastidipping all of the grey panels/bumpers/whatever. They look OK in the pictures, but in person they are kind of faded.


I'm not trying to turn my car into an STI killer or anything, I just want a nice looking daily driver. I probably won't do much engine wise. I want to add suspension upgrades to my current setup so it can handle well though.

I just washed and waxed my car today so pictures to follow!

Sorry for the EXTREMELY long post but I'm excited that my car is starting to come together.
 
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#29 ·
Well I haven't done much to my car other than maintenance and other small things:

Got a snowboard rack for the upcoming season.

Used a headlight restoration kit to clear up my head lights and I'm about to install some vinyl over them to keep them clear.

Got some red lug nuts which I love.

Bought some Aspen White touch up paint and filled in a bunch of little random chips and stuff, makes the Foz look a lot better.

I also got some front Bugeye WRX seats which are amazing! And I got rear 05 WRX seats that are all black, they don't match the fronts obviously but I actually prefer having the back all black, it looks much cleaner especially with my tinted windows.

That about sums up 6 months of little random things I've been doing to my car in one long-*** post haha thanks for reading.

Here's the latest picture of my Foz with my friend's Limited Edition Ninja 250 before we went for a little cruise:
 
#34 ·
Please tell more about fitting the 05 wrx rear seats. What kind of modifications did you have to make?

Tyler

Well I haven't done much to my car other than maintenance and other small things:

Got a snowboard rack for the upcoming season.

Used a headlight restoration kit to clear up my head lights and I'm about to install some vinyl over them to keep them clear.

Got some red lug nuts which I love.

Bought some Aspen White touch up paint and filled in a bunch of little random chips and stuff, makes the Foz look a lot better.

I also got some front Bugeye WRX seats which are amazing! And I got rear 05 WRX seats that are all black, they don't match the fronts obviously but I actually prefer having the back all black, it looks much cleaner especially with my tinted windows.

That about sums up 6 months of little random things I've been doing to my car in one long-*** post haha thanks for reading.

Here's the latest picture of my Foz with my friend's Limited Edition Ninja 250 before we went for a little cruise:
 
#32 ·
Thanks man! Consider them yours if I ever sell them haha.

Swapping out the steering wheel was super easy! You need to re-use your current airbag and swap out the cruise control stalk with your current one and you're good. I can't remember if I had to cut and re-wire the connectors but I'm pretty sure I didn't. If you do need to I would crimp the wires just to be super safe, this is an airbag we're talking about after all. :icon_biggrin:

Good lookin fozzie
Thank you!
 
#38 ·
Hey Rob, yeah I got wagon seats. I'm almost positive that sedan seats won't fit in Foresters, or wagons for that matter.

And climbingbum, yes they still fold all the way down and they are SO much more comfortable than the stock seats.

Here are a few pictures of the seats as requested. The pictures are a little washed out due to a crappy cellphone camera and the fact that it's super sunny out, anyways:





 
#49 ·
^
i have a white sf that will be my turbo project. that'll be way down the road. and then i had a champagne sf that had black and white panels. i just recently had it painted black. i'm still working on the bottom half, myself. it was a mistake for me to use bed liner spray. now it's a pita to sand down. i did it for when i was living in ny, for those winters.

(Sent from my Android using Tapatalk)
 
#53 ·
@ tallazz No worries, one day it will be an awesome turbo SF!

Thanks Philip! They were a breeze to install.

I posted this in another thread but I'll put here too. My younger brother got this '99 RS with 99k original miles a few weeks ago. I'll post his mods here too since my journal moves so slow lol. It's fun to drive even if it's an automatic. We're planning a 5MT swap in the future.

 
#55 ·
So yesterday I installed my Kartboy front and rear shifter bushings, what an improvement! They were a royal PITA to install but it was well worth it. Shifts feel a lot smoother and there is almost no slop in the shifter anymore. I can't wait to get a KB short shifter later on to complete the package.

Today I'm going to install my DIY rear subframe lockdown bolts, hopefully they tighten the back end up. They cost me around $20 and I got all the parts from Lowe's.

And last but not least my Flossy Redhead Heavyweight shift knob with a custom engraving should ship out this week, 1.2 pounds of smooth shifting goodness!:biggrin:
I'll post pictures when I get it so you guys can see how awesome it is haha! I might even get a WC Lathe Werks 'Mock STI reverse lock out extension' to add some more weight and for the badassness of it!
 
#58 ·
I thought I included a picture, guess not. Here you go(the black round things next to the bolts are the Kartboy front shifter bushings for those wondering).


Here's where I found the write-up: http://www.scoobymods.com/showthread.php/diy-rear-subframe-lockdown-bolts-13527.html

They are just M12 x 1.25 x 50mm bolts (you need two of these, they can be 50mm-60mm long, it doesn't matter), and 3/4" x 1/2" bronze flange bearings (also two of these). If you buy them at Lowe's they are right by the house key cutting area in pull-out trays where there are other automotive bolts and stuff (I never even knew that section existed until I went looking for these, took me a good 30 minutes of walking around to find them!). If all else fails just print out a picture of the bolts and flange bearings from the link I posted (scooby mods) and ask a Lowe's worker to help you find them.

You can also get them online.
Bolts: M12-1.25 x 55mm DIN 960 Class 10.9 Yellow Zinc Cap Screw | Fastenal
Bronze Flange Bearing: BSF-1624-8 1/2"IDx3/4"OD Powder Metal Bronze Flange Bearing | Fastenal

Remember you need two of each. Also the bolts I got look shorter and a bit different because they have thread going all they way down the bolt instead of the thread starting after the flange bearing, you can get either or, it doesn't matter. And one final note, the grade(strength) of the bolts need to be 8.8 or higher, the ones I got from Lowe's are 8.8, it says right on the top of the bolt. Good luck and as usual, if you need any help post in here or send me a PM, I'm always happy to help!
 
#61 ·
A little update:

Last week my brother and I replaced the timing belt and tensioner, which was leaking. My Foz seems to run smoother but it could just be me. Also my gas mileage has increased so far by about 2 MPG, so I'm happy about that.

My clutch is in need of a replacement, good thing this came in the mail over the weekend:



Hopefully I have time to install it sooner rather than later.

And finally I hauled 890 pounds of stuff to the dump this past Saturday. The Foz handled the heavy load better than I could have imagined.

 
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