[BluePearl04]

This is gonna be long... Bear with it.

I've been lurking for a while, so I guess it is time for me to make a journal. I had been a HARDCORE DSMer for the past 8 years, and when I heard word that the Evo was coming to America, I was pumped up. I had my heart set on getting one, infact the only thing I had known about the STi was pretty much what I had seen on the Gran Turismo series. Flash forward to October 04, my Brother was diagnosed with a Cranial Pharyngioma, which is a brain tumor. The hunt for the Evo was put off and I bought a 03 Ram 1500, because I figured we'd need it to haul around wheelchairs and such. It came in handy because we did a lot of driving between Baltimore and Harrisburg during his recovery to get better therapy at Johns Hopkins. After he started getting better, we stopped needing the truck and gas was getting expensive. I started seeing a lot of STis running around on our daily trips to Baltimore and I started getting bad thoughts of trading the Ram in on an STi or Evo. One afternoon the Wife calls me up and tells me to start looking for cars, whatever I want, as long as the payments aren't a ton more than the trucks. All the STis I looked at seemed to be out of my price range, so I was looking for Evos. One afternoon I find an Evo in Lititz, PA. Cool, its affordable, and has everything I want. I talked to the wife, and she told me to clean the truck up and go buy it. I had planned on going on a Thursday that I had off from work to pick up the Evo, which I was super excited to buy. In the mean time (a few months prior) good friends of ours had picked up an 05, and I fell in love with it, but was settling for an Evo. It was okay, I had spent a huge chunk of time with 4G63s anyways. So that Thursday morning I got a phone call from my Dad, my brother was sick and they had to take him to the Doctors and probably would end up in the hospital.. Again. Seeing as how I work for my Dad I went and covered for him at work while he took Kyle to the doctors. I worked that Friday so I couldn't go up, but Saturday morning the Wife and I went up to the dealership. When we pulled up we saw an 04 WRB STi, neat, but thats not what I had set my mind on. I saw it had a slightly higher price tag than the Evo. I talked with the salesman and he informed me that they had sold the Evo that Friday night.

Damnit.

So I asked about the STi, and saw it looked like it needed a few things. A few odd things. Apparently while the car was in transit, it was left unlocked and a few things were stolen out of the inside. The floormats and shift knob were gone and the turbo timer looked like someone had tried to steal it, but just pulled the face off, the buttons were gone! Also the tires that were on it were TRASHED. I talked with the salesman about buying it as is, and what kind of deal they would make me. I took it on a testdrive, we fell in love with this car. I had to have it. When I got back to the dealership they offered me the same price as the Evo I had went to buy that morning! It was a Saturday so they were super slow with the paperwork at the bank. We had figured out what the payments would be if we could get a certain rate and term. We worked out a deal that if we couldn't get the terms we wanted we would just take the more expensive payments and bite the bullet. In the end things worked out and I walked off the lot with my STi!

I know that was long but here are a few pictures.. I'll get some more up tonight as well as a synopsis of events to date.










Upon further inspection it seemed as if someone had went "offroading" and busted the harness that went from the rear of the car to the vent valve! It was throwing crazy CELs. Easy fix, some quick disconnects, a new vent valve, di-electric grease, and electrical tape.. Good as new! Another problem that needed fixed was the front speakers were not working, so I took the doors apart and what do I see? Rockford Fosgate Punch speakers, neat.

Thats my long freakin' post. More pictures tonight once I download them off my camera, plus I'll snap some more later tonight, after I wash it up real good.

[BluePearl04]

It also appears to have upgraded front brake rotors of some sorts as you can see in the second to last picture. If anyone can tell me which brand they are I would appreciate it.

[CbnSTi]

Quite the find and good luck with her! Nice color

[Allen504tke]

Congrats on the STi, hope everything goes well for your brother too.

[BluePearl04]

Thanks for the kind words about my Brother. He is doing much better. The tumor caused him to gain weight like crazy! We just need to get him to trim down, he'll be good. He loves the STi too.

I forgot to add, I have an Injen intake which I snagged for super cheap coming in the mail, along with the Pink "I" badge. Too bad both sellers suck when it comes to shipping... *grumble*

[AndrewSS]

hey, congrats on the STi and welcome to the site!

[nice-rice]

Congrats on getting the car, great choice. Good luck on future mods and for your bro.

[BluePearl04]

Here are a few more pictures that were on my computer from the day after I brought it home. You can see a shot of the interior missing the shift knob and floormats. Why the hell would someone steal floormats? Anyways, I really need a new camera and some better scenery.

[BluePearl04]

I really wish I knew who the previous owner of this car was, so I could kick them in the nuts. I've been pouring hours into getting this thing back into shape, not that it was in bad shape, its not, its in great shape. Just little things that were left untouched just baffled me. In the pictures you can see that the horn is all chipped up, which bothered me really bad. I tore the front of the car down and fixed that. The vent valve being broken too. I just thought if someone bought a $30k+ car they would have taken better care of it.. Oh well, its in good hands now.

I do have a list of modifications I would like to do, I'm slowly working on knocking the list down. I just sunk a TON of money into my house, and with it being new construction and summer coming up, I can only see more and more being dumped into it.. The car will get modded when I have extra money. I did order some Rally Armor mudflaps though.. Can't wait til they get here.

[KiTsuNe]

If its an 04 it might not have even had floormats. I waited 6 months before i got floor mats in my 04. Good luck on the car! And good health to your family.

[BluePearl04]

Hrm.. Maybe so.

On another note, my Pink I badge came, and I got an email that the seller of the intake "forgot to ship it."

I still need to get some new pics of the car up, I've been so busy trying to get everything fixed that needed to be fixed.

And to top it off, I got a nice 4 inch scratch on my drivers side back door at work.. Looks like it will buff out, I just haven't been able to get it out.

Thanks for the space.

[Alex]

Great journal, sorry to hear about your troubles. I have an 04 as well, its definatetly the original JDM (glorified wrx)

[Ikon]

looks good...

[MorePSiTehBett4]

car looks good

i am sorry about your brothers misfortunes...We take life for granted

good luck with the car!

[BluePearl04]

Thanks for all the kind words about my brother, it means a lot.

In other news, the intake showed up today. Its used, the filter and pipe need cleaned, but I'm ready to get it on the car. I started my AP & exhaust fund today. I'm about halfway to an AP. Woo.

Pics coming soon.