DoctorDaveLGT

I'm in the same boat. I get feedback knock every now and then when cruising around town and it's usually in the -1 to -3 range but sometimes hits -5. No FKL and DAM has never dropped below 1 so I don't pay too much attention to it. I still have the original exhuast manifold heat shields at 174k miles and always figured it was those or some other drivetrain noise.

Easily my favorite pre-facelift bumper.

Ooh, that's different. You have the fenders already? I was going to post mine for sale but I can see that being a stretch and me just giving them away.

I had my JDM headlights polished and hit with a clear coat when the car got painted a year ago. They still look like they're brand new.

Probably right. I'm not an expert on paint so I'm leaning on their recommendation and what I've gathered over the years from others with pearl paints and blending it in. This is my go-to shop for the past 6 years and they know what I expect out of their work and they deliver. For example, when the car orginally got re-painted they had a younger kid who was just sloppy with the detail in his work and very slightly overtaped the rear quarter and the roof rail. So small you wouldn't see it unless you were really up close and looking for it. They re-did the entire roof and rear quarter and ate the entire cost because "it should have been done right the first time". Plus I've got a great relationship with them so I'm never paying the standard rate.

Yea, sorry, I'm not talking about paint repairs in general. I'm coming from my perspective of the whole front end conversion and the fact my car isn't Subaru's SWP anymore. The S402 fenders and both bumpers are changing colors and I'm having it blended in because white's are also one of the hardest pearls to paint match and I want the color match to be better than "close enough" for how much money I've put into it. I'm not saying nicks and scratchs in pearls need to be blended into the next fender.

I honestly don't know what it would be for just the bumper. I've always been under the impression that with pearl paints you need to blend/fade into the nearest/connecting body panels for it to "match" and just painting a single body panel by itself will look off from the rest of the car.

Hyea, I about shit a brick when I saw the cost. I figured it would be more then the S402 fenders but I didn't expect damn near double. Had I known that I would have just bought a front clip off eBay and sold the parts I didn't need to recoup some costs. That's what I get for being "extra" and wanting 2 different JDM bumpers to have them painted at the same time. Oh well, live and learn.

Idk know what the exact shipping cost was but I bought a JDM bumper from xt2005bonbon for low $200 shipped via greyhound. I bought a JDM spec b bumper with grill and fogs from the yahoo Japan auctions and the shipping alone was a little over $1.1k. I'd say $500 shipped with the beam included isn't great but it could certainly be worse.

I figured you did and I'll probably put a worksheet together for all my receipts together someday, just not in a rush too. I know I'll be deeply disturbed by total I've paid in shipping getting parts from Japan and realizing I could have bought a NA Miata instead to toy around with. I wouldn't mind sharing mine either once it's actually done. I don't even know if many people would want to see that but I always thought it would be nifty if there was thread dedicated to all expenses of different builds and its' aspects. It could give perspective to new owners looking to modify their cars or help other owners plan/budget for future modifications. Ideally would have builds were the majority of the labor was outsourced vs. a more DIY approach to see the difference there as well.

I'm pretty sure 05MNLGT with his S402 rep build is winning. I'd be curious to see the numbers behind that build. The accountant in me wishes there was a thread dedicated to some of the more expensive builds with spreadsheets to see everything that's gone into each. Similar to yours but with a little bit more detail for each of the categories. I've got all receipts saved for mine but I've never had the urge to summarize it all in an excel sheet. Mainly because it's a labor of love and not a financial investment. By that I mean I don't expect to get anything back out of it above the going rate for scrap metal. My investment is hopefully for many years of enjoyment driving an incredibly fun & unique car. With that being said, all in, I'm in the low $40k range currently and I still have plans for a built motor, 6 spd swap, and 6/2 pot brembo conversion.

Here, here. Since mid-December my bill for the wagon's JDM postfacelift conversion and 18g turbo upgrade supporting mods has crept into the 5 digit range. I've also bought some other parts that aren't specifically related to either project as well. Going to be a hell of a summer though.

No longer available. Seat has been gutted for parts.

If you make a carbon lip for the under spoiler make 2 please . And keep me posted on what you find out with the 2.0GT lip. I'll update on the bayson r STI lip I bought in the next couple weeks.

Alright, time for an update. All paint items are in for the JDM post facelift conversion. I'm going to be dropping them off at the shop before the end of the week and wanted to document the items beforehand. I definitely went a little over board with this by giving myself multiple options of how I want the car to look at any point in time. Picked up both a 2.5GT & Spec B/STI JDM bumper. The GT bumper with the Subaru OEM under spoiler is going to go on the car first and I'm trying to find a subtle lip that will fit decently to the under spoiler. I believe a CS-1 style lip for the '11-'14 STI will do the trick and currently have a Bayson R one ordered to see if I'm right. I also purchased a new OEM/JDM STI lip for the GT bumper in case I want to take off the under spoiler and go the more typical front lip route. Still debating if I want to run the GT bumper without the fogs since they're really just accent lighting with HID headlights. Currently don't have a lip for the Spec bumper but going to try and source a genuine S402 carbon fiber lip in the future. The S402 fenders are going to be rolled to give me just a little more room in case I want to try and run something wider than a 245/40 in the future. I'd like to delete the chrome on the fender vent but also feel like if that accent isn't there it will look just like an odd black spot. Once everything is done I'll wrap the chrome in either a flat or gloss black to see what I think. Headlights, headlights, headlights. I've been back and forth on what I think will look best so I decided to have 2 sets (blue & grey). The housings on the blue tint versions got trashed during shipping so I'm going to transplant everything from those into the housings of the black ones. The lens from the black ones will get polished and replace the ones on the grey set since the passenger light grey has an un-fixable crack in it. Not sure which set will go on first. Shields will get flipped on both sets and I'm not concerned with the leveling function at the moment. Both sets will be sanded and hit with a coat of clear to eliminate future fading. Next up is grills. I specifically purchased the S402 grill first and the other came as a bonus with the Spec bumper. The black trim from the S402 grill is going to get re-done, PPF'd, and go on the non-S402 grill which will go on the car first. This will give me sometime to have the S402 emblem restored and I'm going to get the carbon fiber grill trim from Madrig to go on that one to match the carbon fiber lip I'll eventually get for the Spec bumper. Just the JDM bumper beam and side strakes (front of rear wheel) that will be getting painted and put on to complete the entire spats/strake set. The front end and the spats/strakes will be getting PPF'd once everything is painted to make sure the car stays mint after all the work. I haven't taken the wagon to any shows/C&C's but I'll be anxious too once this is done.

Not a fan of the STI lip on the under spoiler but I think that's due to the "wings" at each side of the lip. I'm looking more for a flat lip that just adds a subtle accent like this one, even though it still has slight "wings". Just wish I could figure out what that one is. It looks really similar to the 11-14 STI CS-1 style so I picked up a Bayson R to play with.

Damn, this makes me more anxious to get my killer B headers on.

Fenders will be getting the roll treatment since they're getting painted to match the car. They defintely seem wider just from looking at them but I haven't attempted to take any measurements. My current fenders are rolled with an ever so slight pull so I'm curious to see how much width I'll gain even though it won't be a true comparison from USDM pre facelift to jdm S402s. If I were to step up to a wider setup I'm not sure on the wheel specs yet but I'd want to be able to run 255/40/18 tires at least. Would probably switch over to STI pink springs at that time as well since from my understanding I'll gain a smidge of height compared to the swifts.

JDM facelift Spec B/STI bumper got delivered today which was the last item I was waiting on before dropping everything off at the shop for the paint prep work to begin. Need to take pictures of everything tonight to document and update my build thread. Also need to get going on flipping the shields on the JDM headlights. First time I will be cracking open a set of headlights so should be fun.

Bump, make an offer, just want it gone.

Love a good green!

What's your wheel and tire setup? There's a good chance I'll get an itch for this once the S402 fenders are on.

I've been thinking the same thing and been watching it for a while. Don't think I can go through with it though. I bought a facelift spec B bumper from the auctions and the shipping was $1.1k alone , which at that point I realized I would have been better off buying a front clip from eBay. I really do think that bumper would look great with everything else.

Interesting, I'm curious to see it in action. I got a harness from Ralph over on the FB group to help get mine wired up but I don't know when I'll have the time to dive in.