The previous owner of the STi took very good care of the car. However, the rims were HAMMERED! There were signs of many different encounters with a curb on all of them.
A buddy of mine on Nasioc decided to sell his set of BBS off his beautiful white 06 STi. They had been spray painted gun-metal gray, and also came with a set of new Federal 595ss tires. So, I bought them of course.
I made an appointment with UnknownCoatings (powdercoat specialist) to get them re-finished.
I ended up choosing a color called Black Chrome with Clear. They turned out near perfect. I would not recommend anyone other than UnknownCoatings for powdercoat applications. He does fantastic work.
Check the pics, and hit him up if you need anything powdercoated!
I am constantly keeping up on the Subaru, getting oil changes and all required maintenance done on time like everyone else tries to do.
I had the car down at Mark Miller Subaru in Sandy getting an oil change, and as I was paying the bill I noticed a little gem hanging on the wall next to the register.
I know for a fact that these are not rare by any means, but I had to have it!
I had a brushed aluminum Subtle Solutions license plate delete that looked pretty good on the front end of the car, but I was in the mood for something that blended more with the rest of the car. Something black, and something that stood out. A Euro style plate...
This was the perfect solution!
Check the pic!
So I had my mind set on a new shift knob (again). I had test driven a few different STis prior to buying mine, and all of them had the same factory shift knob. This knob was seriously like no other knob on the market. It was heavy, silver, rough texture and the perfect size.
The Titanium STi knob is the ultimate factory knob because of its weight and exclusivity (price). It is a rather expensive knob, but it honestly packs a punch no other knob comes close to.
I ended up getting this as a gift from my father (for an occasion I cant remember). Has different STi logo stickers you can add to the bottom of it based on your style.
Let me tell you, no other knob is "funner" to shift :)
Check the pic, its a good looking unit.
As February approaches, I was in the mood to get something for my car (as we all get the "mod bug"). I had ordered some prepainted WRX side skirts for the STi. I got 'em, installed 'em, and fell in love with 'em :)
I had about $150 left to spend on my current budget, so I decided to do some "front lip" shopping.
I came across http://www.jnaperformance.com and their replica JDM V-limited front lips for 06-07 STi....so I ordered one for $109!
I paid for it, and received an email from JNAperformance saying that the lip was on back order for the next month...
I decided I would wait it out, and see if this was legit. A month later, I got another email saying that they had just got the parts in, and they were just waiting on customs to get them through to their shop.
It ended up being about another 2 months before the lip showed up on my doorstep, but it was well worth the wait!!!
I got the front lip somewhere around June of 2010, so it literally took about 3 months to get it from JNAperformance. However, they were FANTASTIC about letting me know what was going on, and why they were taking so long to get them in. I would recommend JNA to anyone! They are a fantastic company, and the urethane front lips are great quality.
Check the pics on their site!:
http://www.jnaperformance.com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=105
I will admit it, I am a total COBB fan boy! Since they are a local company here in Utah, I have always loved the name. Jess and I went out to COBB one day after work because I had found a few shirts I liked online, so we went out to their shop to pick them up.
We go out there, picked up the shirts, and saw that they had one short throw shifter left for my year of STi (these are not longer made). Out of the blue Jess tells me to get it, and she will just give to me for Christmas! I was like....OK! Keep in mind I didnt get this till Christmas, and had some time to do some research on parts. I had the COBB short throw on my last WRX, and had the odd experience of having it come loose on I-15. I couldnt get the car to shift into 3rd and 5th gear, so this encouraged me to find all other options for the short shifter to see what would be best.
I had seen the Kartboy short shifter on http://www.rallysportdirect.com, and knew that it did not require any modification as to the length of the throw, as well as the height adjustment. It also came as a package deal (somewhat) with the front and rear shift bushings. RallySport knocked off a couple bucks if you bought them both together. So I decided to put the COBB part on KSL.com, and get the Kartboy unit for Christmas from Jess.
Check out pics of both parts. They are both very sexy, but you honestly have to decide how adjustable you want it to be.
Jess also thought it would be nice to surprise me with a new Cobb shift knob (since WRX and STi ones are different). She went out to their shop, and picked it up herself. I was told that every employee was jealous that their girlfriends wouldnt get them such a cool gift like that haha!
Red > Clear + Red + Gray...I had been searching for a set of 04-05 STi tail lights since I bought the car, because the 06 tail lights are kinda cheezy looking.Finally, I came across a pair that had come off an STi that had been in a front end collision. A friend of mine on Nasioc buys wrecked cars, and parts them out. I happen to be the first one in line for these tail lights. They are worth the wait.
From this:
To this:
My birthday is October 2nd, and it honestly snuck up us faster than we all anticipated.
The only thing I wanted to do on my birthday was wash the car, put on my new COBB cat back exhaust, and leave her in the garage. So I got my new Catback on, put her in the garage, and that was it. Jess even new that was what I really wanted for my birthday, because my mom asked her how my day was going and she replied "his car is clean, in the garage, and he is happy". :)
End of story there haha...
Finally, NO RAIN!The first nice day in the time I had owned my new STi, and I finally got to wash it. Literally like a month and 2 weeks after I bought the car, I finally got to wash it!!
I went to Walmart and got a new bottle of NXT wax and Scratch X, and got to working on the paint.
I also scored me a couple sets of Meguiars Supreme Shine Microfiber towel, and they are awesome!
So I know I am about 2 years late on this post, but it needs to happen...
I bought my first Subaru STi on June 2, 2009. It was an odd experience to say the least.
I have wanted an STi since I was in Junior High School. The car always appealed to me because of its aggressive presence, and amazing exhaust note. So here is the story about how I acquired
my 2006 Subaru WRX STi.
In early 2009, I had been casually looking on KSL.com in the classified section for Subaru's because I like looking at cars for sale. Jess and I had gone to check out a couple of 04 and 05 STis in Sandy, but non were even close to the caliber that my current 2003 WRX was at. I test drove a couple, and was pretty impressed at the torque and power they could generate. However, I was not at all impressed at the condition any of these cars I was looking at were in.
So, I kept looking on KSL.com and also on the websites of a couple dealerships in my area. The three dealerships in my area were Nate Wade Subaru, Mark Miller Subaru, and Larry H Miller Subaru. I bought my current WRX at Larry H Miller and was not impressed by the salesman that helped me at all.
I casually looked online for about 3 months, when finally I came across a 2006 STi at Nate Wade Subaru. The pictures of the car looked very nice, and I couldnt see any sign of abuse or neglect by the previous owner. I sat at work for about a week and a half looking at the advertisement for this car, when finally I asked Jess if we could go down and take a look at it :). She gave me the ok, and I called the dealership and made an appointment for us to take a look at the car.
We went down after work around 4pm on one of those days where you dont know if its trying to rain or just be nasty. We got down to the dealership to find that someone else was in the process of filling out the loan application for the car. The weather could not make up its mind at this point of the day, and it started to rain. The salesman that we were working with gave us the "ok" to go take a walk around the car in the rain to see if there was any chance we would be interested in it. Well, let me start off by saying that you NEVER find a car that looked as clean and well taken care of then this car looked. We walked around it, checked it out, and looked at each other like "dang, why couldnt we have gotten here an hour earlier". We told the salesman that we were very interested in the car, and if anything were to fall through with the folks that were going through the loan papers, to let us know asap!
We drove home talking about the car and how nice it was, along with all the things that go through peoples mind when buying "another" car (keep in mind this would be my 6th car in five years). We got back to Jess's parents house, kinda disappointed that we hadnt gotten there sooner.
Not even a minute later my cell phone rings. It was the salesman from Nate Wade calling to tell us that the couple that was interested in the car had backed off because they could not qualify for a loan on the car. I was ECSTATIC at this point, so we got back into my car and drove back down to the dealership. They were so kind because they shut down the first time that they let us take the car for a 2 hour test drive back to my parents house. We took our sweet ass time with this test drive :), because neither one of us knew that anything was going to come of it.
We stopped and picked up the Greggor (because he loves subarus) and proceeded onto my parents house. We got to my house, and no one was there of course. We sat there for about ten minutes before my mom showed up, and pulled in the driveway. She didnt even notice that the car sitting in the driveway was different that my current car haha.
She looked at me and said..."whats goin on?" So I looked straight at here and said "what do you think?". She looked around trying to figure out what I was talking about and said "about what?". So I spilled the story about the new car, and why I had been looking at other cars and what not. She looked at me with disgust, and told me that it was my decision and at this point she didnt really care what I did. So we waited for my step dad to get home and get his opinion about the matter, then left to take the car back to the dealership.
We ended up buying the car that night :)
We took my WRX that night because there were a couple of items that needed to be attended to on the STI by the dealership. We also needed to strip all of the current mods off of my WRX so I could sell them and try and make back the money.
I ended up picking the STi up on June 2, 2009 with Greggor and Dave. I couldnt have picked a worse day to pick up a new car because it was raining as bad as Ive ever seen. We picked up the new car, and left the WRX. I was so sad when we left the WRX at the dealership sitting in the rain. I felt like I had left a friend behind on the battle field under gunfire. BUT, I was sooooo happy to now have the car I had been longing about for the past 6 or so years!!! I was so shocked!
The first thing to do was to get my mud flaps on, and go buy some black STi floor mats. The car already had an SPT intake and heat shield, so there was no need to worry about upgrading the filter! But there will always be the next best thing while its in my hands.
Check the pics of when I first brought it home!
I guess its time to start a story line for the STi.
More to come, I need to get my mind right before I start this. Gotta be perfect.
SPT Intake:
Pic of the Heat Shield:
