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Hello.
I am lento.
This is how my car currently sits:
I don't like GT wings. I really don't like most GC builds. Stretch and demon camber don't make me angry. I like blast pipes, oddball builds, exposed rivets, radiused fenders and stir fry.
I believe that should suffice. Here's some backstory on my build.
Around 6 months ago, I was scouring my local classifieds and a clean looking (if not hilariously high mileage) 1996 Impreza coupe came up for sale. It was a 5 speed, AWD, EJ18, and appeared to be a Brighton (manual windows and locks). It was green (still is, as a matter of fact...) with a gray interior. The last Impreza coupe I owned was an auto with a tan interior, and the price on this one was far too good to pass up. So I drove waaaaaay north to check it out. Long story short, I ended up buying it. There you go. That's it.
That's the day I brought it home. Yes. That is rubber trim on the wheel wells. Yes, it was a pain to remove. No, I still haven't gotten all of it off yet.
Alternate angle:
....and a booty shot.
I really wish I would've gotten pictures of the seats. They were held together entirely by the hopes and dreams of the previous owner. It was disgusting. Crusty sweat, lots of duct tape, stains all over.
First job was some STI seats I had laying around. Yes, it's sideways. Turn your head.
And then I did nothing but fix crap for a few months. Painting trim, removing rust, cleaning stuff.
I had lots of plans in mind for the car, but I was saving for school and had a budget of approximately zero.
Then I got a killer deal on an RS bumper, foglights, and 3 of the 4 sideskirt pieces. Still searching for the driver's side rear piece.
And then some kid ran into me when I was parked in front of my college apartment.
I wasn't super happy, but I got over it eventually. Thank you, insurance money.
(I refuse to go with facelift headlights and grille. I really like the old slat grilles, and I'm searching for both a EU market L wagon grille and a triangle grille that came on the old Imprezas.)
I have been slowly gathering parts for the car since I bought it (and I had plenty of random parts laying around). I managed to find some ST coilovers (manufactured by KW, essentially V1s). I also got some JDM clear corner reps by DEPO (I really don't like the crystal corners, and these match my headlights so much better). Random sidemarkers, lug nuts, etc.
...aaaaand then I bought a widebody. It's the AIT B22 kit by BMAGIC. Surprisingly high quality, budget-friendly price, and reasonably wide. I didn't need an extra 3 feet on each side, so it does the trick.
Here's the box...it was HUGE.
I installed the fronts, the coils and the corner lights. I also finally got a new headlight in the mail and installed that. The car was DUMPED at this point, since I didn't mess with the height on the coils (I spent like 8 hours just getting the bolts off of my stock suspension...they were rusted on tight enough to not care about hours of torching, smacking and p-blaster-ing).
And then I got wheels.
I managed to find these XXR 521s (matte black with polished...."hardware") for the price of used tires, and they came with reasonably unworn 275/35/r18s mounted. Score. Here's a shot of the wheel to show the relative fitment in the wheel well:
Another angle:
Yes, they're reps. No, I don't care. If I could afford real wheels, I would buy some.
I scraped along for a few weeks on my steelies, and then my brother and I rolled/pulled the living shiz out of my rear fenders. It was quite the experience. I managed to pull the passenger's side out enough to almost cover the tread. We went too easy on the driver's side (first time doing anything remotely like this) so it needs to be fixed. Ah, well.
Here's a shot of the wheels mounted up:
Needs about two degrees of camber in the rear and just as much in the front, if not more. I beat the snot out of the front wells so the wheels would clear, and (somehow) I have almost no rubbing in the front or rear. Just when I hit a giant pothole, of course.
The rear bumper cover doesn't quite fit right. This is due to the metal trim on the bottom of the taillights pushing it in and down so the ends don't stay flush. The previous owner was involved in an number of fender-benders, so lots of things don't line up. IDGAF
....so I just decided not to run it for now. I rigged up an LED I had sitting around into one of the OEM plate lights and ziptied it to my bumper beam so I don't get pulled over.
This is how she currently sits:
This is the side that needs another half inch to an inch of rolling:
I'm not going to cut the rear fenders out until spring, since I only work on the car on the weekends at night, and my garage has been averaging around 9-15 degrees F at night.
Then I bought an S13 Rocket Bunny-style ducktail and proceeded to chop the crap out of it. I'm still working on glassing it together (never worked with fiberglass before, but, then again, I've never done any of this before, either, and it all seems to be working out just fine).
Here's what the sideskirts, rear widebody panels, and RB wing look like mocked up:
I've got some extending to do on the ends but it shouldn't be a big deal.
Here's a closer shot of it:
A shot of the passenger's side roll:
Like I said, I've got quite a bit planned for her.
This weekend I'll be making fiberglass headlight covers, finishing the wing, painting the gray interior trim matte black, spraying the bumper beam in the rear, rebuilding the PS pump (it screams like a banshee) and a few other small things.
I am eventually going to do an EZ30D swap out of an LL Bean outback. I'm not shooting for huge power, but this thing is light and is already a ton of fun to drive with the 1.8.
I would like to increase the radius of the wheel arches and get adjustable suspension components so I can go lower, but for now it's fine.
There you go. That's about it for now.
I update IG more than anything. Follow me at @bien_lento
Total spent on the build so far (including the cost of the car) is less than your average set of mid end wheels. I don't intend to spend more than 3k on everything, including the swap.
I am lento.
This is how my car currently sits:
I don't like GT wings. I really don't like most GC builds. Stretch and demon camber don't make me angry. I like blast pipes, oddball builds, exposed rivets, radiused fenders and stir fry.
I believe that should suffice. Here's some backstory on my build.
Around 6 months ago, I was scouring my local classifieds and a clean looking (if not hilariously high mileage) 1996 Impreza coupe came up for sale. It was a 5 speed, AWD, EJ18, and appeared to be a Brighton (manual windows and locks). It was green (still is, as a matter of fact...) with a gray interior. The last Impreza coupe I owned was an auto with a tan interior, and the price on this one was far too good to pass up. So I drove waaaaaay north to check it out. Long story short, I ended up buying it. There you go. That's it.
That's the day I brought it home. Yes. That is rubber trim on the wheel wells. Yes, it was a pain to remove. No, I still haven't gotten all of it off yet.
Alternate angle:
....and a booty shot.
I really wish I would've gotten pictures of the seats. They were held together entirely by the hopes and dreams of the previous owner. It was disgusting. Crusty sweat, lots of duct tape, stains all over.
First job was some STI seats I had laying around. Yes, it's sideways. Turn your head.
And then I did nothing but fix crap for a few months. Painting trim, removing rust, cleaning stuff.
I had lots of plans in mind for the car, but I was saving for school and had a budget of approximately zero.
Then I got a killer deal on an RS bumper, foglights, and 3 of the 4 sideskirt pieces. Still searching for the driver's side rear piece.
And then some kid ran into me when I was parked in front of my college apartment.
I wasn't super happy, but I got over it eventually. Thank you, insurance money.
(I refuse to go with facelift headlights and grille. I really like the old slat grilles, and I'm searching for both a EU market L wagon grille and a triangle grille that came on the old Imprezas.)
I have been slowly gathering parts for the car since I bought it (and I had plenty of random parts laying around). I managed to find some ST coilovers (manufactured by KW, essentially V1s). I also got some JDM clear corner reps by DEPO (I really don't like the crystal corners, and these match my headlights so much better). Random sidemarkers, lug nuts, etc.
...aaaaand then I bought a widebody. It's the AIT B22 kit by BMAGIC. Surprisingly high quality, budget-friendly price, and reasonably wide. I didn't need an extra 3 feet on each side, so it does the trick.
Here's the box...it was HUGE.
I installed the fronts, the coils and the corner lights. I also finally got a new headlight in the mail and installed that. The car was DUMPED at this point, since I didn't mess with the height on the coils (I spent like 8 hours just getting the bolts off of my stock suspension...they were rusted on tight enough to not care about hours of torching, smacking and p-blaster-ing).
And then I got wheels.
I managed to find these XXR 521s (matte black with polished...."hardware") for the price of used tires, and they came with reasonably unworn 275/35/r18s mounted. Score. Here's a shot of the wheel to show the relative fitment in the wheel well:
Another angle:
Yes, they're reps. No, I don't care. If I could afford real wheels, I would buy some.
I scraped along for a few weeks on my steelies, and then my brother and I rolled/pulled the living shiz out of my rear fenders. It was quite the experience. I managed to pull the passenger's side out enough to almost cover the tread. We went too easy on the driver's side (first time doing anything remotely like this) so it needs to be fixed. Ah, well.
Here's a shot of the wheels mounted up:
Needs about two degrees of camber in the rear and just as much in the front, if not more. I beat the snot out of the front wells so the wheels would clear, and (somehow) I have almost no rubbing in the front or rear. Just when I hit a giant pothole, of course.
The rear bumper cover doesn't quite fit right. This is due to the metal trim on the bottom of the taillights pushing it in and down so the ends don't stay flush. The previous owner was involved in an number of fender-benders, so lots of things don't line up. IDGAF
....so I just decided not to run it for now. I rigged up an LED I had sitting around into one of the OEM plate lights and ziptied it to my bumper beam so I don't get pulled over.
This is how she currently sits:
This is the side that needs another half inch to an inch of rolling:
I'm not going to cut the rear fenders out until spring, since I only work on the car on the weekends at night, and my garage has been averaging around 9-15 degrees F at night.
Then I bought an S13 Rocket Bunny-style ducktail and proceeded to chop the crap out of it. I'm still working on glassing it together (never worked with fiberglass before, but, then again, I've never done any of this before, either, and it all seems to be working out just fine).
Here's what the sideskirts, rear widebody panels, and RB wing look like mocked up:
I've got some extending to do on the ends but it shouldn't be a big deal.
Here's a closer shot of it:
A shot of the passenger's side roll:
Like I said, I've got quite a bit planned for her.
This weekend I'll be making fiberglass headlight covers, finishing the wing, painting the gray interior trim matte black, spraying the bumper beam in the rear, rebuilding the PS pump (it screams like a banshee) and a few other small things.
I am eventually going to do an EZ30D swap out of an LL Bean outback. I'm not shooting for huge power, but this thing is light and is already a ton of fun to drive with the 1.8.
I would like to increase the radius of the wheel arches and get adjustable suspension components so I can go lower, but for now it's fine.
There you go. That's about it for now.
I update IG more than anything. Follow me at @bien_lento
Total spent on the build so far (including the cost of the car) is less than your average set of mid end wheels. I don't intend to spend more than 3k on everything, including the swap.
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