Abductee

You're right. I forgot. My bad. Seems I also forgot to get a before pic. This is shields flipped but not flattened. 20201031_070715 Headlight was just resting on radiator support and without outer cover. I did readjust the shield to eliminate the line above the cut off. Once headlights were fully assembled the orange peel from the clear coat diffused the crispness of the line.

Vacuumed down and charged AC. Everything went swimmingly. Datalogs sent from most recent revision to my tuner. Looking forward to multiple hiking/camping trips now that the weather is starting to cool down. Started drawing up plans to modify my roof rack so my Rockymounts Tomahawk bike rack fits inside it but is still removable.

Exactly. Looks chemical in nature. Probably from all the expressway construction I have to drive through to and from work.

Washed my car today- I was super unhappy to find this 20201113_143534

I'm going to give this product a shot- https://stickydashfix.com/ Shipped out from Australia and has decent reviews. SOA won't respond to any of the emails or phone calls to date.

I got tired of waiting for my buddy to help recharge my AC system. Ordered and received a vacuum pump to replace my old one that gave up the ghost. I already had everything else. I hope be able to get to it Sunday.

Dash cam installed, Rear door swapped. New door had black handle and clear glass with crappy tint, so I swapped in my factory tinted glass and swapped handles. Also swapped out my bosch WBO2 sensor that had failed and was reading high. Installed LaminX yellow vinyl to the fog lights. Cleaned some Japanese dirt off the bumper (haven't washed the car yet). 20201107_114757 20201108_101152 20201108_111615 20201108_115319

Haven't done a whole bunch this week. Just driving back and forth to work. Mechanically it's fantastic. Still have to vacuum down and recharge the AC though. I had that thought as well, but I'm not sure I want to go full ricer. I did look at the RRevsports carbon hood. I would still wrap or paint it even if it was real carbon. I looked at dipping the whole car, but for now I'm just going to wrap the hood myself. I may wrap or dip the whole car in the future as a stop gap till I decide/want a full paint job.

Technically I would have to do the roof and doors to truly be "POLIS"

Installed a DGM hood scoop on a NBP hood. Ordered a few 3m vinyl wrap samples to see what would be closest to SWP for the hood.

lol

Finished this up (mostly) today. Still have to swap LR door. 20201101_165809

You don't happen to make an adapter harness for the fog lights do you?

26th task cntd- My kid was sick (just a cold) so I took the day off today and let the dog and my kid roam around the yard while I worked on the car. I replaced the AC line that runs from condensing coils to the expansion valve and I replaced the expansion valve as well. The system was only open for maybe 8 hours before I checked to see if it still had a charge, but I would hate to go to charge it and find that the expansion valve was bad and then have recover what I had just charged and then replace the valve. The line was bent and sort of kinked in the accident so that was going to get changed anyways. Since my brain was in ‘not at work’ mode, my laziness wound up causing more work as I didn’t want to remove all the vacuum, aos/pcv hoses on the LF frame rail to simply drop in the new line. Once I had started down the lazy path I had no other choice than to persevere as stopping then would be a waste of time. 4 hours later it was in. 20201030_104506 The expansion valve dropped in no sweat so I had that going for me. 20201030_110520 Also I received a delivery of some new wheels as well as my replacement door today. I was still irritated about the way things went down with the 2011 wrx wheels I attempted to purchase (read as seller was a complete waste of skin) and I have been looking for quite a while to replace the stock wheels which I have never liked even a little bit so I bought some very reasonably priced Rota Titan in 17x8 45. These happen to be flat black which I may run as they are (most likely) or I may paint them burnt bronze as I have always like that color on white vehicles. 20201030_133544 I had the idea of wrapping the car in flat white and leaving the flat black wheels. The headlights and grille are blacked already. Stormtroopers can’t hit anything, so if I stormtrooper the car then I will never have to do this again right?

Drilled out the spot welds on the old and new stuff and welded the new back in. 20201029_192850

26th task cntd- I rewired the headlights using the JDM to USDM harness kit from AW4BYT in the classifieds. A great kit and super-fast shipping. I ordered the JDM to USDM headlight and level switch harness on Thursday and got it from Hawaii by Monday. I had already ordered a level switch from Japanparts.com before I knew that AW4BYT offered them as an option with the harness. 20201028_204347

26th task cntd- Once I had replaced the twisted radiator support panels and got everything lined up, I found I had to modify the hood catch. The release on the 09 USDM catch is much taller than the JDM. I hadn’t thought about the fact that the JDM would have the cable pull from the opposite side, so I bent mine back into shape and trimmed the release down. 20201014_164809 20201028_173557 I heated the headlights in the oven at 200°f for 10min and pried them open. The original lenses were fairly yellowed so I wet sanded them with progressively finer grit sandpaper starting at 600, 1000, then 1500, then 2000 till they looked new when wet. I guess the humidity was too high or my clear coat was going bad, but it wound up orange peeling. Usually they turn out very nicely. I am not a paint or body guy, but I do ok with small rattle can projects. I decided to leave the headlight lenses till I get the car repainted and let a pro do it. I may change my mind and redo them myself when the humidity in Florida drops for those 3 or 4 days in January. 20201025_122838 20201025_174919 I started working on the rest of the headlights and getting the grille painted. 20201025_175018 20201027_180948 20201025_143149

I am doing a DRL delete and using an amber LED bulb for running light. Turn signals will be amber LEDs as well. I may change it up later.

I can't wait to put this 20201027_180948 Into this 20201028_173557 Also lucked out and found a white left rear door. Coming from Texas so should be here Friday. I am on call this weekend but I am hopefull I can be driving by Monday.

Not yet. Curious to see what it looks like without flattering. I am just going to experiment before resealing them up to satisfy some curiosity. Ill report my findings

https://www.btssm.com/ You can dig up more info here

Ok yeah I wasn't thinking about the refraction of the lens. Shields swapped. Thanks

So in the pic with both shields, the left is LHD and the right is RHD? For LHD the shield would be higher on the left looking out from the bulb correct? The reason I ask is it looks like my headlights are already swapped. Just double checking. Thanks in advance

I am very appreciative for the quality of work and super fast shipping. I ordered on a Thursday and got the harness on Monday. Very pleased with the harness. Kinda makes me want to go ahead and pick up some folding mirrors just cause I know the harness will be the easy part!

I would have issues with my idle for a little while after a reflash (reset ecu same thing). One thing that helped be fore the miles were driven to relearn the fuel trims was- After reset I would place the key in the ignition in the on position without touching the gas pedal or starting the car. Do this for 30 seconds. Then start the car again without touching the throttle and let it idle for 2 minutes. Then drive normal. Do you have any idea what your fuel trims look like? You may have a vacuum leak somewhere