This is my first time actually trying to do most of the work on the car myself. First mods were the TRD duckbill spoiler and the JDM clear side markers. I ended up going with the HKS Hi Power Spec L2 catback exhaust as I liked how subtle it was. The install itself was pretty straightforward, but getting the stock exhaust off the rubber hangers was kind of difficult. I've done exhaust installs on my previous cars so I was familiar with it.

I've been following Kevin Vo and watching his install videos which has helped a lot in understanding how to do things. I got HKS Hipermax S coilovers and Cusco Lower Control Arms next and decided to dive into attempting the install:

The videos I saw looked straightforward, but I wanted to make sure I got everything put on correctly so it took me a few days working on it a couple of hours a night after work. This is how it sits now with the preset settings from HKS. I'm pretty proud of myself getting it all done on my own and with the help of bothering Kevin over IG haha

I got an alignment done, but want to try taking my car to the track in the upcoming months. I'm thinking of upgrading my brake pads and changing the brake fluid and brake lines before hand. I also placed an order for Advan RZ-F2s in Racing Umber Bronze, but won't be getting those for a few months.

 

I'm thinking of upgrading my brake pads and changing the brake fluid and brake lines before hand.

Might think about doing the WRX brake swap if you're not going for any particular racing spec:

WRX Caliper Swap

Looking to do a caliper swap on my 22. I've seen folks do it - JW about the parts. I've actually seen people get them on amazon for around 130 a set for the fronts. Wondering - Also what pads I should get, also stainless lines. And the rears also I'd like to do. Does anyone have part numbers...

www.gr86.org

 

Got Continental ExtremeContact Sport 02s put on my Advan RZ-F2s this past weekend and mounted onto the car. I thought transferring TPMS would just be moving it from my stock wheels, but I didn't think to get new valve stems so I'm running without TPMS for now. I ordered valve stems and will get the TPMS put back onto the new wheels once I receive them. I love how the wheels look on the car so I'm really happy with what I ended up with!

I went to get my alignment and corner balancing done by Robert at Chewerks. Ended up going with -2.0 in the front and -1.6 in the rear due to Robert's recommendations since I'm daily driving my car mostly and I'm a beginner at track. If I end up loving my first track day and need to have a more aggressive camber setup later I'll change it down the line.

Corner Balance

Curb Weight

 

Got Continental ExtremeContact Sport 02s put on my Advan RZ-F2s this past weekend and mounted onto the car. I thought transferring TPMS would just be moving it from my stock wheels, but I didn't think to get new valve stems so I'm running without TPMS for now. I ordered valve stems and will get the TPMS put back onto the new wheels once I receive them. I love how the wheels look on the car so I'm really happy with what I ended up with!

I went to get my alignment and corner balancing done by Robert at Chewerks. Ended up going with -2.0 in the front and -1.6 in the rear due to Robert's recommendations since I'm daily driving my car mostly and I'm a beginner at track. If I end up loving my first track day and need to have a more aggressive camber setup later I'll change it down the line.

Corner Balance

Curb Weight

Clean build, car looks great!

I have a question on the corner balancing - did you have adjustable endlinks installed on the car? I have been researching corner balancing as I need to get it done to my car, but I have not been able to get a clear answer on whether or not adjustable endlinks are necessary.

 

Finally got my steering wheel spacer from 949 Racing installed properly. During the initial install I made a mistake and forgot to put the nut back on to secure the spacer so when I thought I had put the steering wheel back on correctly, my steering wheel ended up falling off and breaking the clock spring due to the weight. I freaked out and didn't realize what had gone wrong until right before I went to sleep that night. Ordered a new clock spring from Subaru and also an OBD2 adapter to do the VDC sensor midpoint reset. I didn't know how to use Techstream so I ended up bugging @TessaSeveride for help and eventually figured it out. Before the reset it said the steering angle was 1 degree, so I'm not sure how much difference it made but I'm glad I went through the proper steps and got it done.

It's a lot more comfortable now with the spacer moving the steering wheel further away from my knees. Being 6'3" (190cm) tall made my knees come up right below the steering wheel so it was awkward at times during certain turns.

My driving positioning is super comfy now for me so I highly recommend the spacer for taller drivers.

 

Installed the Project mu HC+R3 pads, brake lines, and changed to Project mu brake fluid. This was my first time doing all that on my own and it was very satisfying learning how to do it myself. I'm so glad we have so much resources available to us now compared to before.

I also changed my oil to Motul 5w30 300v because I was able to get a good price on it. This was all in preparation for my track day.

 

I picked up APR's carbon fiber aero kit and finally took the plunge to install it. I started off with the rear spats since those were the most simple to do and it gave me confidence to drill holes for the bolts to go into. Taking the bumper off was pretty straightforward and it gave me confidence that I would be able to install the front lip pretty easily, but that was not the case at all. Doing it by myself was a huge hassle especially trying to put the bumper back on. The side skirts were another issue doing alone too as I was worried it wasn't lined up properly when I was marking the holes, but I was able to get it done after taking a really long time. I ended up getting help on the other side skirt from some friends and it made it a breeze with additional hands. I'm pretty happy with how the car looks now and it feels more complete.

 

More goodies just arrived from Japan.

I'm going to ceramic coat my new wheels tonight and will have them mounted tomorrow. Alignment and corner balancing scheduled with Chewerks next Wednesday. It feels like time is passing by so fast, my first track day is a month away but seems like it'll be coming up so soon! Need to find some time to swap out the brake pads/lines and change my brake fluid. I still need to figure out where would be a good place to bed my pads, I can't really think of anywhere nearby at the moment to do it safely and properly. I'm also going to be changing to 5w30 before track day.

 

Just got my car back from getting PPF installed for the front end and also having my car ceramic coated. Didn't get any pictures since weather has been bad, but some goodies from Japan arrived recently.

My friend also came back from Japan just a couple of days ago and brought me back lug nuts and a little souvenir.

 

Just got my car back from getting PPF installed for the front end and also having my car ceramic coated. Didn't get any pictures since weather has been bad, but some goodies from Japan arrived recently.

My friend also came back from Japan just a couple of days ago and brought me back lug nuts and a little souvenir.

These rims are so fresh 4th week 2023.

 

You want to have adjustable end links for front and rear sway bars. The car is corner balanced with sway bars disconnected. Once they are done making adjustments, then the sway bars are re-connected. The ONLY way to not screw up what was just done is to have adjustable endlinks...otherwise you will introduce jacking or bind.

 

I see - that makes sense. And I suppose the further you are from stock height the worse the issue will be.

In terms of "screwing things up", how much are we talking here? Let's say you have perfect cross % set up, and go to reconnect the factory endlinks, will it be immediately noticeable? Or will you be at say, 90%, 95% of how good the setup was? Just trying to gauge the value of spending $500+ on adjustable endlinks for my purposes.

Sorry if that's a dumb question - I swear the more I learn about suspension, the less it feels I actually know 😅

 

The sway bar is a spring...once you corner balance the car (which means adjusting individual ride heights to have similar handling left to right, etc) the distance from the sway bar to the control arm will not be the same. If you have fixed length end links, you will have to place torsion on the sway bar to hook it up. This will mean the sway bar will react one way in one direction and different in the other. PLUS, you just undid you corner balance by added load from the sway bar. The sway bar should be invisible to the suspension until there is body roll or individual wheel movement.

 

Got it, that makes sense. I guess no sense in cutting any corners if I'm going to go through the trouble of getting the car corner balanced, right?

Just ordered Whiteline front and rear adjustable endlinks - they seem to be well regarded and Subimods has them on sale right now, so much easier to stomach than the SPL links I was originally looking at.

I appreciate all the help!

 

Very nice 👍

 

Just following in your steps

 

If you can, corner balancing the car can go a long way! Sick build tho, that was my original idea of a build, hks coilovers + cusco suspension arms. Then fortune auto + spl parts happened 😂.

Also, I recommended others. Before you try ripping out the brake lines for SS brake lines, give brake master cylinder brace a go. I mean eventually, everyone should get on SS line if you track the car often. However, for the time being if you want a firmer brake feeling, a 15 mins to 30 mins job should be sufficed.

 

I found someone who's kind of local that specializes in alignments though he's more expensive, but I'm thinking about bringing my car to him to get that done. I just ordered some Continental ExtremeContact Sport 02's and hopefully put my wheels on this Saturday.

I've already ordered Project Mu HC+R3 pads, brake lines, fluid so I'm waiting on those to come in, but I'll take a look into the brake master cylinder brace. Thanks for the tips I appreciate it!

 

Looking great so far. Every now and then, I wish I would have ordered my car in CWP.

 

SBP is nice too! I originally ordered mine in CWP, but then red started to grow on me and I started regretting ordering it in CWP. But our cars look great in all the different colors and it's a fun car to own so I think color choice shouldn't hinder our experience with it in the end.

 

If you are going to do any performance driving, dialing in more negative camber in the front will be important. If your coilovers have adjustability, have them dial in -2.0, or -2.5. This is still not super aggressive but will help handling.

 

That's a good recommendation. 2.5 in the front and 2.0 in the rear. With 200 TW tires you will experience the car that you purchased with new capabilities

 

Wow, now the car looks really nice with rzf2 rims and height. Enjoy your track day.

 

You're the first I've heard love working on their car 😅. I hated working on my car, it was good to know that my mods work on track. But ain't the preparation a bitch

 

I guess the learning process is fun for me, but doing the work itself I got frustrated a lot of the times hahah cause I don't know what I'm doing. I would try to follow instructions from videos, but sometimes getting some bolts/nuts off were really difficult and I end up spending way too much time when it should be straightforward 😅

 

I like working on this car. I've worked on a lot of rust bucket pieces of shit in the past to appreciate new bolts. Bled my brakes and swapped in my track pads today too. Best part about swapping pads bedding them in.

 

Where do you usually take your car to bed your pads? I find it difficult for me for the area I'm in because we don't really have any open roads where there are no cars around.

 

I personally love working on my car. My 47 year old back is a different story. If I had a lift, that would be a different story!

 

Hahah oh man, I always rant to my girlfriend how beat up I feel after working on my car for half the day. It definitely feels like a workout after being in so many awkward positions and laying on the ground. Having a lift will definitely help so much more

 

Doing brakes, suspension work isn't so bad. Oil changes, trans and diff oil changes are a legitimate pain in the ass. Difficult to even get a creeper under this car!

 

Yeah when I was changing my oil I thought I had enough space to slide under with my creeper but my face just ended up hitting the underside 😅 I jacked up the car a bit and raised the jackstands one click higher and thought I had space, but ended up having to go up even higher to get enough access to reach the drain plug.

 

Excellent and then post some pictures.

 

Just be careful! In Florida they cracked down on street racing to such an extent that of you get pulled o er and say things like "i was testing, checking" etc they can arrest you and impound the car. Be safe!