edwing206

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. 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.

edwing206

Thread Starter

AND..one of my puppy because he's so awesome.



Thanks for looking!

2.5x_sleeper

Very nice looking Forester & a great start on your Member Journal!

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]

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'07 FSXT - COBB Surgeline dyno Protune - Stage 1+
'03 X +AVO turbo kit = XT (son's)
'95 Neon Sport

Domindart

awesome! cute doggy pic :D

There is a journal I think where somebody refinished the bumpers (faded) by simply applying a solution or paint.. may want to try that, it looked like new in the pics.

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04 XT in silver
~Brent

Domindart

I like the rear emblem, where did u get it??

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04 XT in silver
~Brent

Timo's Forester

I want to know this too!! Was it big enough to cover up the holes left from de-badging??

I painted my bumpers (My 01 Modz :)) They look wayyy better!! Yours would look really good with the black and white!

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2001 Subaru Forester L

Timo's Forester

as for replacing the dome light, just go to ebay and search, thats where I bought mine! Its got 12 LED's and it lights everything up so much better!

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2001 Subaru Forester L

edwing206

Thread Starter

Thanks for the kind words!

That's Mochi, my 5 month old Aussie.

I got the emblem from a local member of NASIOC. It was only $20, a steal! Unfortunately it's not large enough to cover the holes from the de-badging. They are pretty small though, so I don't mind them too much. I think I'm going to get some of those Impreza wing delete cover vinyls.

Your bumpers turned out great Timo! You're the one who inspired me to do mine. I want to do plastidip though because I feel it will hold up better than paint, not to mention won't chip. I just hit up ebay, thanks for the tip!

2001 Subaru Forester S

What's up with the steering wheel emblem? Never seen it before.

edwing206

Thread Starter

It's a MOMO steering wheel out of a bug-eyed Subaru WRX (years 2002-2003 get the yellow MOMO emblem and I've seen white emblems as well as red ones).

2001 Subaru Forester S

I like it. :)

slickohio

really digging how your sf is coming along
I reeeallly wish mine was white..

edwing206

Thread Starter

Thank you guys!
At first I didn't know how I would feel about the white because I've always heard that they are difficult to keep clean, but so far it hasn't gotten too dirty lol.

civichx97

congrats on your forester, you sound pretty excited and its good to see you've got some plans for it! :) Your puppy is so cute!! What's his name?

I just brought mine home last week and it needs some work to get on the road :( but it'll be a fun project.

ProjectSF5

Looks like it's in great shape!! Can't wait to see it become yours. Good luck with it.