Batman and Bell the XT

My previous build: First Car Journey

Warning! Picture Heavy!
A few months ago I moved on from my Forester XS. I had been wanting a manual every since I got my green one, and I knew I wanted to stay in the Subie family, so my hunt began. One day scouring the good ole' interwebs and I found what appeared to be the bargain of the century. A 1 owner, 2004 Forester XT, aspen white, 5 speed manual, 90000 miles, for less than $9000. I couldn't believe it, and I immediately told my dad we had to go look at it.

Arriving at the dealership, we saw the car, test drove it, inspected it, and then I called my mother to convince her to let me buy another car :N_poke:

As the phone call ended, my salesman went on a test drive with a young couple in the XT. When they came back, the salesman came back over to us, I shook his hand, and said, "You have a deal, good sir." Once those words left my mouth, I knew what to call my new XT, Bell. Don't know why, don't care why. It was meant to be.

Initial driving experience, terrifying. I lowered my previous car within 2 weeks of ownership. My green forester was 5 inches lower than stock. Plus add the turbo on top of that and it was a whole new world for me. Just look at the height comparison:

First few mods included hooking up my stereo setup, and transferring over my DIY JDM grille. Doing my stereo, it turned out that the previous owner had a pretty sweet stereo. Some thing in the rear tucked nicely that helps with a stereo(don't know what its called), amp wiring all hidden and done up right. This all worked for the better, because I had been wanting a stealthier stereo install regardless. Here is my current setup:




So it was then time for me to fix my fear. Took a couple days to swap from one to the other, but eventually I ruined my rally car

Yes my mudflaps were promptly removed as they sat on the ground. Made for a good laugh though. As you can see as well, I swapped over the BRZ wheels.
To spruce them up a bit, I dipped them white. Who doesn't like white on white?:shrug:



Also went ahead and got a fitting license plate (This all looked in focus on my phone :icon_confused: )



The entire time I was driving my car, the temperature gauge stayed fairly high, but never overheated. However you could always ever-so-slightly smell burnt coolant whenever you parked and got out. After reading countless threads about it, I came to the conclusion that my thermostat was bad. So I replaced that (yay fender dent)


This fixed my problem. Temperatures were great, car was happy. I moved onto some more mods.


Some version 7 JDM STi seats. These went in easily the first time. Bolted in no problem. Then I figured out JDM belt buckles were different, so they came back out. Going back in the 2nd time, my driver's seat 'ed me. One of the bolts snapped as I was tightening it. Turns out the threads had been completely stripped. This was a fun fix. You would think I would get the bolt out right?? Nah. Drilled a new hole in the bracket and car, and stuck the biggest SS screw I could find in it. Been a month or so, no problems. Eventually I would like to install it properly, but I'm happy with my ghetto-rig for now