2004 SUS 'Lifted RS30' Project

[rkrenicki]

Better picture time. In looking at the lines, I have it on there pretty good. I need to mess around with the drivers side a little bit but all in all they are pretty straight.





The color match is very very close, it is only ever so slightly lighter in tone.

[rkrenicki]

Here is some detail of the bumper interference. With the hood completely closed, it has no place to go but to push the bumper itself back.. or pull the hood itself forward, but since the bumper is plastic, I am hoping it is being bent instead of the hood. But, with the gap that you can see there it looks more like the hood is being bent. This is why I am not closing the hood all the way except for these pictures.



You can see the width difference better here:

[rkrenicki]

USDM Bumper skin "mostly" off.


New clips and bolts for the edges:


Outback bumper beam off the car:


Tabs on ends of Outback beam. It is funny, this is the only real rust on the whole car. By some miracle, the rest of the car is virtually rust free.:


I also swapped the hood insulator over to the JDM hood as it did not come with one. I also swapped around the sprayer nozzles as I had recently replaced them. I will need to see if I can get my hands on the evap label for the hood, I would probably put it over on the right side where there is no current label.

[rkrenicki]

JDM beam installed, and the bumper ready to go on.


Bumper on!


Close up of some of the fitment issues. There is a pretty big gap between the fender and the bumper, and the bumper keeps popping out of the clip here. The other side has the same problem as well:


Since my US license plate will not bolt straight up without an adapter, I whipped on the Japanese plate that I have. I do not believe that I can leave this on all the time in CT, so it is purely temporary right now:


I changed out the headlight clips today since I had it all apart. For the first time in a very very long time, both headlights are properly attached to the car with all of the intended fasteners.


My claybar kit showed up the other day, so I tackled the old badge residue. It came right off, I was amazed at how something so simple could do such a good job. I went around and did all of the residue around the car, but I finally put the RS30 and Piston 6 badges on.




I also received these new Osram "disappearing" yellow turn signal bulbs. They are a blue color when off, and yellow when on. Here is a comparison between normal 7507NA bulbs and the new Osram ones. It is not a big difference, but I think it looks pretty good. I found these for about $6 a bulb which is an amazing price for this type of bulb, they are usually $14 each or higher. I stocked up and bought 10.


This is the JDM lights with normal 7507NAs:


This is the JDM lights with the new OSRAM bulbs:


And finally, this is of the OSRAM bulbs lit, there is no hint of blue:

[rkrenicki]

Oh what a long way she has come.. I did not clean her up, I just went back to that same school and snapped off a few shots with my point and shoot.

Before:


After:


Before Rear:


After Rear:

[rkrenicki]

Wicked stawm comin'.. I snapped a lightly snow dusted photo before I left for work.. by the time I get back home there should be a few feet of snow.

[rkrenicki]

I did a quick and dirty photoshop of what I was thinking of doing with the plastidip. I think that it looks pretty good myself.



The brackets will prevent me from having to pull the bumper cover down and over the existing ones, which would release some of the tension up where it meets with the fender. In fact right now, I cannot even get the bumpers bracket to line up with the cars bracket so its it just floating. Once the legacy brackets are in it should hold the bottom edge of the bumper up a little bit, and take some weight off of the fender clips.

As for the license plate, I have decided just to drill new holes in the CT plate to make it fit. I realized last night that while my original solution is fairly straightforward, it really is not necessary. While building an adapter could cost $5-10 in hardware.. making two holes is free.

Of course, both that and the plastidip will have to wait until after Nemo has run his course.

[rkrenicki]

Help! I can't seem to find my car! Oh wait, heres a rearview mirror...



EDIT: I found a couple of doors, and a headlight.

[susiemk]

Car looks NICE, lots of JDM bits!
I have a pair of JDM sideskirts off of a GTB Wagon in silver if you need them.

Was the hood in the box aluminum?
I was gonna buy the JDM GTB hood but my friend @ the JDM parts place told me it was steel making it just a scooped baja hood in my opinion.

My JDM tails came with some sort of iridium tinted bulbs but if they had'nt I would have just sprayed a light coat of silver paint on the amber bulbs - I've done this a few times with very good results the bulbs still turn on bright amber & "disappear" against the silver reflectors.

I got the GTB bumper on my old '00 Brighton Wagon with no problems I just had to ditch the foam isolator as the JDM bumper is alot thinner than the US bumper.

[rkrenicki]

I did make the fog light harnesses today so the lights will be plug-and-play. The pigtails were in the trunk which I obviously could not get to under all that snow.