Shinjyo's 07 Spec B Refresh Project

[Gabo]

The picture makes it look clean but my clear bra (was installed by previous owner) is in a very bad shape with lots of scratches. I am planning to remove it when I get the JDM front end going. I have been watching videos on how to remove it. The only thing I know is they won't come off easily in one piece.

 

Same here, but it looks like a heatgun will help with removing bigger pieces at a time. I'm more concerned with the paint peeling off along with the clear bra.

[BrandonspecB]

Car looks great!

[Esq]

Great looking ride! Thanks for sharing. I'm on to a new adventure in replacing the engine in mine soon. Still researching options. Do any of you know if an EJ257 short block with D25 heads will marry up to 07 Spec B's? After some research it seems possible.

[shinjyo]

Great looking ride! Thanks for sharing. I'm on to a new adventure in replacing the engine in mine soon. Still researching options. Do any of you know if an EJ257 short block with D25 heads will marry up to 07 Spec B's? After some research it seems possible.

 

Before searching more, why not just find a low mileage EJ255 engine, rebuilt and put it back in?

 

Why do you need to replace the engine?

[Esq]

Before searching more, why not just find a low mileage EJ255 engine, rebuilt and put it back in?

 

Why do you need to replace the engine?

 

I'd love to do an engine rebuild, but I live in Michigan without a heated/insulated garage. The temps right now are in the single digits. I've tried to use portable heaters, but they have to run all night and struggle to keep the temp up. The temp doesn't really bother me, but I guess it can affect an engine build, especially the heads.

 

My Spec B has a burnt valve on cylinder 1 and 152k miles on it. I figure if I'm going to fix the heads might as well replace the short block and clutch too. I'll probably go with a local performance shop in the area. If it was warmer I'd do it all myself, except the machining ;0)

[shinjyo]

I'd love to do an engine rebuild, but I live in Michigan without a heated/insulated garage. The temps right now are in the single digits. I've tried to use portable heaters, but they have to run all night and struggle to keep the temp up. The temp doesn't really bother me, but I guess it can affect an engine build, especially the heads.

 

My Spec B has a burnt valve on cylinder 1 and 152k miles on it. I figure if I'm going to fix the heads might as well replace the short block and clutch too. I'll probably go with a local performance shop in the area. If it was warmer I'd do it all myself, except the machining ;0)

 

Do you know what possibility the reason that caused a burnt valve?

[Esq]

Do you know what possibility the reason that caused a burnt valve?

 

Not sure yet. Haven't had a chance to tear down the engine. I suspect a faulty injector that I didn't catch soon enough.

[Homedepotmade]

Subscribed. Good work.

[suparu]

Very nice write-up indeed. Thank you.

 

Also Great info for us as beginner here

[Ahmed Shawky]

Chapter 12: Nexus 7 and JDM Bezel

 

 

 

There is another thread that cover this topic extensively. So I won’t cover the technical part of it. My goal was just to use the Nexus 7 as my boost gauge and map, but not for music, amp etc. Modifying the bezel is kind a process of try and fit. The only thing I did extra was to create a frame to offset the screen further into bezel so that it’s provide a little more shade under the sun. PM me for the background if like it. The bluetooth OBD reader is PLX Devices Kiwi 2 which gives very fast data communication and low power usage. I think my tablet drops about 7% battery over the night. I also made a start up animation as gif but I did not use it for more smooth operation. The torque app background was from a fellow member (FunkyDragon). Thanks for his kindness for sharing his work.

 

 

 

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the legacy gt animation

 

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Can i know from where i can buy the 2 din pezel please

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[tfreeman303]

You're the kind of person that I hope buys my '07 Spec. B. There's rust damage on mine since it lived in the north east for the majority of its life. I was planning on fixing it up myself, but plans have changed.

 

Great work! Subbed in case I am able to get another Spec. B in the future.

[Homedepotmade]

I have an 08 Spec B and I am going through the exact same issues as you are. I guess our cars is showing its age.

[shinjyo]

Just hit 100k miles not too long ago.

 

JDM facelift front end conversion is coming next.

 

Probably the last picture before doing the front end. Smog check day! Pass!

[Gabo]

You might have mentioned it and I missed it......

 

What wheels are those? Specs?

[jrho]

You might have mentioned it and I missed it......

 

What wheels are those? Specs?

 

I might be wrong but they look like the OEM STI Enkei wheels. 18x8.5 et55 but with an adapter as they would be 5x114

[shinjyo]

You might have mentioned it and I missed it......

 

What wheels are those? Specs?

 

They are JDM OEM STI Enkei. 18 x 7.5 +55, PCD 5x100

[shinjyo]

Chapter 15: JDM Front End Conversion

 

I got a pretty good deal for this front cut from a JDM seller. If you need the info, I can pm you the information. I have always loved the JDM front especially the S402. I am not a perfectionism. So, my goal wasn't trying to be a S402. It was a front cut from japan. It comes with bumper, bumper beam and misc parts, fender, headlight and headlight bracket, and grill. I need to source the JDM fender liner and modify my plastic splash guard for a short bumper. There is not much DIY in this chapter except the headlight wiring took me a while to figure out. So let's begin....

 

A quick comparison of USDM and JDM.

 

This is the USDM bumper beam.

 

This is the JDM bumper beam. All you need is basic tools to remove all clips, bolts and screws. Most of the them are reusable if you are careful.

 

Here are two pictures showing the difference between USDM and JDM bumper beam. You can see the USDM beam are wider and sticking out more.

 

 

Time to remove fenders. There are bolts at three corners of the fender including the one hiding inside the side skirt. So you need to at least remove the side skirt half temporary to see the bolts.

 

 

 

Here is the difference between JDM and USDM headlight.

 

Here is the difference between JDM and USDM fender liner. Luckily, they were not too expensive to ship.

[shinjyo]

Then it's the headlight. Mine is the JDM HID Headlight (nonbixenon). There were a couple thread I read again and again to understand the concept of the wiring. Attached are the links (here I thank all those members who spent countless hours to walk through the process and left many important information for other members to aid the installation!):

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/jdm-headlight-install-walkthough-249269.html?t=249269

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/jdm-headlight-install-walkthough-249269.html

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/wiring-post-facelift-hid-lamps-270311.html

 

 

YMMV, my headlight comes with harness both on the headlight and from the JDM car. The color of the wires is the confusing part which as long as you can trace down the wiring and figure which one is the ground, the rest is just following the general guideline from other members who had done the work. I will attach one in my case which you can see what I have. All I did is:

 

JDM Headlight--->connect JDM harness/wiring attached to the JDM headlight originally(male) --->connect JDM harness/wiring to the JDM car (female) --->splice wire/soldering USDM harness/wiring cut/removed from the USDM headlight (female) ---> plug to USDM harness from the car.

 

This method is the most basic method that took care the low beam, high beam, signal, and little corner light (assumed you removed USDM DRL already). The rest is the foglight which is even easier to wiring. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Several members suggested to wiring the ground to the body in lieu of the USDM harness grounding. I am still looking into this. In the future, I will work on the JDM beam pattern conversion and level switch. Since I don't drive it much at night, it will be a later project. Hopefully my USDM retrofit lens will work on this headlight. If not, that set of retrofit lens with H1 HID kit will be up for sell. I got them from lightwerkz, you can find out more here.

https://www.lightwerkz.net/index.php/complete-retrofit-kits/retro-quik-subaru-legacy.html

 

This is the JDM harness from the JDM car side. Again, color may varies.

 

A sample of wired harness

 

Wiring mess...

 

JDM Headlight wired for testing

 

After that, I just fit the splash guard with minor cutting to fit the new bumper. Installed the bumper and the took it out for a spin.

 

Headlight on!!!

 

Installed the Ebay JDM front lip and did a carwash.

 

Side view.

 

Complete with two tone color. The JDM conversion is probably the mod with the most satisfaction! JDM parts fitment is 10x better than USDM parts fitment. Every signal panel lines up perfect with a tight fit. I can tell you even the JDM plastic clips have a much high quality than the USDM ones.

 

The next chapter will be vinyl wrapping....just waiting for the ebay 15-20% discount code....

Edited June 22, 2019 by shinjyo

[shinjyo]

I want it to be a sleeper without any attention. Thinking about either Gloss Pearl White or Gloss Metallic Black:spin:. What do you guys thing?

 

White

 

Black

[BrandonspecB]

Looks awesome! I want to do the JDM bumper to mine. Where do you get the parts from and what year/model Legacy are they from?

[apacman316]

can't wait to see it get wrapped!

[jrho]

Gloss Metallic Black would be an easier route for sure as you wouldn't have to wrap the door jams etc. I've always thought that if you stray too far from the original colour then you're going to have to pay attention to details like that. Being said, since your colour is fairly dark to begin with you might not need to wrap door jams and such with the White but it might make panel gaps appear larger.

[shinjyo]

Gloss Metallic Black would be an easier route for sure as you wouldn't have to wrap the door jams etc. I've always thought that if you stray too far from the original colour then you're going to have to pay attention to details like that. Being said, since your colour is fairly dark to begin with you might not need to wrap door jams and such with the White but it might make panel gaps appear larger.

 

Thanks for pointing it out. You are right! Per many professional vinyl wrappers, it's actually easier to wrap a black or darker car to white than a white or lighter car to black as the light color door jam will show up easily after wrapped.

 

In my case, I wont worry about it because I won't go that far to wrap the door jam because I don't want to remove my doors completely. It's not going to be a show car, only for my own daily use with a little protection to the 10 years old paint. I think black color looks great on the facelift JDM frontend. But I am leaning toward white since it will hide imperfections better. Also, the vinyl black is no where near a true black paint.

[shinjyo]

Some say if you cannot finish your projects during this pandemic, you will never finish it. Turn out I was crazy busy due to work and kids. I actually haven’t done much during the pandemic other than regular oil change. I am not sure how many of you still read forum as 90% of people are on FB or other social networks now. I even saw many new legacy group showed up in the FB during the pandemic. However, I still think that the forum is a very good place for information sharing especially those step by step diy tutorial. So, I decided to come back and finish the writeup of what I have done in 2019.

 

Chapter 16: Power Steering Rack and Steering Pump

I had ongoing problem with leak and smell coming out from the steering pump. Steering fluid level dropped a little at a time and I always have to come back to refill the fluid. I replaced the O-ring but that doesn’t fix the problem. Look underneath the car, all the area around the steering rack are full of dirt and grease. I suspect there is a leak within the steering pump and one of the line that feeds the fluid to the steering assembly. You can see the pictures below for the mess. I read about other owners has various experience with aftermarket pumps and racks. It looks like either hit or miss. I didn’t want to take the risk and deal with the mess. While I was wondering around, I was lucky to get the new OEM steering assembly as well as the steering pump from Subaru Parts Warehouse with 30% discount. So, I decided to bite the bullet and replace them.

The procedure was pretty straight forward. The only thing that got me a littlet nervous was to remove the tie rod. Many tutorials tell you to hit the rod end with a hammer after you remove the castle nut and cross pin, the rod is supposed to drop itself after it’s loose. I hit it many times and nothing moved. So, what saved me was the ball joint separator. Clap on it, slowly tighten the bolt and it will slowly squeeze the rod end out until you hear a huge “Bang!”. The rod came out. To remove the solid fluid line, I have to use small wrench along with wrench crowfoot set. The rest is just unbolting everything. I don’t have to remove any of my exhaust in order to get the steering rack out. You will also need to remember how many turns when you loosen the tie rod out on each side, mine was about 14-15 rotations on each side. For the steering wheel, I just loop and wrap my seatbelt around my steering wheel to hold it in place, also mark the steering column teeth before you loosen it. I have attached a couple youtube videos for removal instruction. I didn’t remember any problems overall. For steering pump, you will just unbolt everything directly per the service manual. But I have to transfer the steering pump bracket and one of the connector. After I replaced everything, I performed a time consuming manual pump priming and bleeding process (as this is my first time doing it). Before I put the belt on, I rotate the pump by rotating the pulley clockwise to get the fluid into the pump first. I did the whole process myself without any help. Wat I did was to put a camera looking at the fluid reservoir while I am turning the steering wheel from clock to clock to bleed the system and seeing the air comes out. I did not start the engine at all until I complete the whole process. After that, test drive it and come back to fill the fluid up to the full mark just little bit if needed. I have no whinning, weird sound or leaking rack at all after this installation (as of now it’s 10 months already, still look dry and clean).

 

Steering Rack Removal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGVeeLNuDv8&t=889s

Steering Pump Removal

Steering Pump Prime process

 

Parts that I used:

- 34110AG07A Steering Gear Box Assembly

- 34430AG03B Steering Pump

- 34115AG01A Adapter Gear Box Unit

- ball joint separator

- wrench crowfoot set

- breaker bar

- torque wrench

- Subaru Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) for the steering fluid (2qt)

- Lots of grease remover and brake cleaner

- Patient and lots of time for bleeding process

Things to remember:

- Alignment is a must after everything is done.

- Hand prime the steering pump while adding the fluid, do not start the engine as I heard it will damage the pump if you didn’t complete the prime/bleeding process.

- Bleed the air out by steering to left and right clock to clock, add fluid as need when you see the level in the reservoir drop, do not let the level drop lower than half full mark.

- Count the number of rotation when you unscrew the tie rod out. Use about the same number of rotation when you install it back in.

- It took me probably 2 hours to prime and bleed the system by doing it extremely slow and keep reading the service manual, reading varies posts, and watching youtube video.

 

Dirty and Wet

 

Drain the ATF first

 

Steering Pump Removed, look at all the wet housing

 

Steering rack out

 

Old Steering Pump

 

Cleaned Rack Support

 

New Steering Pump in

 

New Steering Pump in

Edited May 24, 2020 by shinjyo

[shinjyo]

Chapter 17: Vinyl Wrapping

 

Now, it’s time to do something to the two-tone body color since I installed the JDM front end. I am a cheap owner and doesn’t want body shop to touch my car. Although my original paint is decent, I prefer not repaint the front end yet still have to deal with 100k miles paint since my car is almost 100% sitting outdoor. I don’t want to spend $3-4k to repaint the whole car also. Therefore, I decided to wrap the car so that the JDM front end can match the body color. Over the years, I have wrapped various parts from interior to exterior. I have also removed wraps after several years of used which shows no damage to the car parts to prove that wrap is safe to use. In addition, I park my car on the driveway and my neighbor has a tree that spits lots of tree saps onto my car during the summer time. I hate it so much. I know the wrap can help to protect the paint for the next 5-10 years. Also, I always want a white Subaru (you know the subie white with gold wheels always rock!) and never been able to find a white one. This is why I decided to go with gloss white pearl. I have used two manufacturers before: 3M and Avery Supreme SW900. I like both. But I find Avery a little easier to stretch overall which will make the installation a little easier. The other thing is Avery SW 900 has a gloss white color which 3M only comes in stain white The 3m white doesn’t come with the gloss effect like a real paint. The Avery gloss looks a little bit more like a real paint. I won’t go into detail about installation. Most is the combination of my own experience and watch the youtube channel, CK Wraps. It took me roughly 55 hours to complete the whole car with on and off over the course of two months. I spent at least half of those to clean, detail and perform paint correction. I also took the chance to apply Carpro Cquartz Vinyl Protectant to protect the wrap. I did two coats and the result was wonderful. When I wash it the first time after two months sitting outdoor, all dirt and grease come off like butter. A little detailer with microfiber makes it look like the first day I finished wrapping it. So far, the wrap went through the whole winter season with a few heavy storms in SOCAL, it has been holding up great. If you stare close enough to the pictures, it’s not perfect. I might have to redo some of the area if I have time again, but I am really happy with the result.

 

Parts that I used:

 

- Avery SW900 -109-S Gloss White Pearl (5X70ft) about $650 shipped

- Typical Wrap Tool kits from Ebay or Amazon

- Get the wrapping magnet if you don’t have a second pair of hand

- Very sharp cutter

- Your clean hand

- Heat gun

- Wrap wire cutter

- Carpro Cquartz Vinyl Coating (Optional)

- Patient and lots of time

 

Things to remember:

 

- Keep clean hand and clean floor

- Detailing and paint correction prior to the wrap is highly recommended. Just don’t wrap on freshly coated paint surface since it doesn’t stick well.

- Overlay some areas are needed, do not use any adhesive prime.

- Buy extra material in case of error

 

 

Washed, Detailed, Paint Correction, Prep for the wrap

 

Side Doors done

 

Doing Hood

 

Hood Done

 

Fenders and Quarter Panels

 

Look close to the panel gap

 

Inlay for front bumper

 

Working on the front bumper

 

Front bumper on

 

Trunk and Rear Bumper