My name is Josh, and as many of you know, this is my 2004 Forester XT Premium, 4EAT. It has the oh-so-huge sunroof with black leather interior, heated seats, auto-climate control and the awesomeness that is the turbo.
I primarily bought the car to lower and make into a street-bound car, but my love of the great motorsport that is Rally, I was thrust into a different direction. I wanted to create a rally-inspired Forester that is capable off-road and isn't afraid to get down and dirty.
I first bought my Forester used in October 2008. It was immaculate. No flaws in the paint (except for some minor pitting in the front due to rocks and bugs), the interior was perfect, engine was perfect, and the suspension was great. What I would do to get it back to those days. :biggrin:
Here are some pictures of the exterior and interior when I first purchased it (and cleaned it up good).....
And here is a photoshopped image of the direction I originally wanted to go in...
But soon, after getting a couple of door dings and a couple of scrapes on the front and back bumpers, I realized that I was stressing out worrying about little dents/nicks/dings, etc. And with my love of rallying, I soon ventured out onto my very first dirt road with the car.
This road wasn't well kept. It was rutted, sandy and I was very wary of taking my car on it once I got out there. But, determined, I pushed on. While I was on that particular road, I realized how much potential this car has off-road, and was amazed with the ease it showed in sand, mud and going through ruts. From there on out, I was hooked, and abandoned my plans for a "street" version of the car. It would soon evolve into a "all-terrain" or "safari' type vehicle, and that's where it all starts..........
Grille Blackout Modification:
Sanded the grille with some 180-grit sandpaper. Cleaned all surfaces with rubbing alcohol, and sprayed on a Duplicolor "Adhesion Promotor" (clear primer). Sprayed the grille with Duplicolor "Trim Paint" which is a nice, dark satin black. Sprayed about 3 or 4 thin coats, making sure to get the corners and into the nooks and crannies before spraying the entire grille with a final coat. I carefully taped off the Subaru emblem before painting.
LED Headlamp Modification:
The LED headlamp modification was extremely simple. The hardest part is breaking open the headlamps. I put my headlamp assembly in the oven at about 250 degrees for a few minutes at a time. I constantly checked on them every couple of minutes until they got very hot to the touch. As soon as the were, I pulled them out and quickly used a putty knife to separate the two halves of the headlamp assembly. Once open, I used two LED light boards from superbrightleds.com (one from either side). The light boards themselves were originally white, so I taped off each individual LED and sprayed the boards black (with the same paint used for the grille). I used 3M Adhesive Trim Tape (found at any local autoparts store) to secure them to the inside of the headlamp. The LED boards are wired up to the parking lamps so they turn on when the parking lamps turn on. I sealed up the headlamp assembly by re-baking the headlamps in an oven until hot, and squeezing them together. I also replaced the parking lamps with white LEDs to match the mod. Here is the outcome of the modification....
![]()
![]()
After about a day, I decided I didn't like the look of the white LED's in the parking lamps. It looked a bit too "ricer" for me, so I swapped them for amber LED's, and the look dramatically improved and looked much more "stock" than aftermarket.....
Stereo System:
Next, in my list of modifications is the stereo system, which I tackled all at once. Here is what the system consisted of...
- Pioneer AVIC-P4000DVD Head unit
- Alpine Flex-5 Amplifier (4-channel + Subwoofer Drive)
- Infinity Reference 6.5" Component Speakers up front (Infinity tweeters in factory location)
- Infinity Reference 5.25" 2-way Coaxial speakers in the rear
- Infinity Reference 10" Subwoofer in custom-built small box
- 120GB iPod Classic in glove box connected with Pioneer iPod cable feeding audio and video to dash unit
- All Phoenix Gold wiring leading up to the harness
Pictures are below of the setup. It's extremely crisp. I listen to a lot of rock, classical, jazz, orchestral, and some electronic and have had the system turned up VERY loud. These speakers have not distorted nor popped at near full volume. If you are looking for a very crisp, balanced system, Infinity is the way to go by far.
First is the head unit, the Pioneer. When I purchased it, it retailed for $499, but got it for $350 on my special website I purchase my electronics from. PM me if you would like the address. It's a fantastic head unit, and the iPod integration is spot on perfect. Not to mention, it'll do video and audio through the iPod.
The component speakers went in with no problems. The factory tweeters popped right out, and I used some 3M Adhesive Tape to secure the new Infinity tweeter in the stock location. As for the front door woofers, they went right in, no fitment problems at all. I fit them flush to the door (using some rubber-foam tape between the speaker and the sheet metal), using self-tapping screws into the sheet metal (as the stock speakers only had 3 mounting screws, the Infinity's used 4). The component speakers also used Crossovers, which I mounted to the doors in the location as seen in the picture below. There is a bulge in the door card, right where they're mounted...
![]()
NOTE: To remove the door card, you have to take off the harness from the master window switch on the driver's side. Be EXTREMELY careful when removing this plug as you can accidentally separate the two halves of the harness, causing all the wires to come out of their designated slots. If this happens, here is a pin-out diagram of how to put them back in correctly......
The rear door speakers go in without any problems at all. Again, using the self tapping screws straight into the sheet metal with rubber foam tape between the speakers and the sheet metal. No other modifications were needed.
Next was building the subwoofer box, which can be a bit messy as you can see below......
But after a few hours of cutting and fitting wood, I managed to get a subwoofer box was was extremely shallow, and was the exact width of the passenger side section of the rear set (allowing me to fold down the driver's side rear seat without the box in the way).....
But after a couple of weeks, I decided that the box was far too wide as i wanted a larger space when I folded down the seats, so I went back to the garage and crated a smaller box that was the width of the driver's side rear seat, allowing me to fold down the larger passenger side of the seat. The smaller box also helped with keeping the bass tighter and deeper as the Infinity subs are designed to be mounted in very small boxes. This is the box I'm currently running at present.....
The smaller box is mounted with Industrial-Grade Velcro stuck to the bottom of the box. This velcro has not let go of this box yet with all my off-roading and crazy cornering. It's a very simple and effective mounting method. I also cut the compartment flap underneath the subwoofer so I still had access to it without having to remove the sub box as seen in the picture below...
The amplifier is mounted underneath the rear seat with more velcro. All the wiring to and from the amp is ran through the center console straight to the deck. The wire for the subwoofer goes under the carpet to the side sill, and to the back underneath the paneling to feed the subwoofer power.
