[DCH]

Hey guys! I guess it's about time I created one of these journals. I would have created one sooner, but I've been enjoying reading everyone else's that I just didn't even think about it.

But now that I've got some goodies in the garage, I figured, "Hey, why not!?"

Purchased October 8th, 2006! 2006 Aspen White STi



First thing I had to do, kill that front dealer plate!



Thank you autospeed!

I wanted to finish off the exterior, and thanks to Myles @ RaceCompEngineering, he helped me do so with a nice Christmas Present!



Gotta love that V-Limited lip!

I can't thank Clint at TurnInConcepts enough for the wicked TiC Super Shifter Set! I'm in love!



The drop of the shifter lever, then the crisp shifts it makes. Oh man. Lovin' it!

And the ModBug decided to bite...when it did, it bit hard! Thank you Adam @ Z1 Performance!



Cusco Front/Rear Sways!

Complimented by those ever-so-beefy Kartboy Endlinks! You've got yourself a match made in heaven!



A photoshoot with my brother's 2005 G35 Coupe came about, the pictures are somewhere on this forum. But shortly after, I had to do something with my front!

Next up, another aesthetic mod, but hey, serves a purpose!



Thank you SubaruGenuineParts for that setup!

And once again, thanks to Adam at Z1 Performance, my wallet stooped to an all time low!





Not to long after, installation took place! The end results after some quick adjustments!





More to come....

[DCH]

Literally, the night after I came home from that photoshoot. My car saw some violation. I was heated!





But I wasn't gonna let that rain on my parade! Speaking of rain, major thanks to Eddie @ GarageSpec for some JDM goodness!



Then, I got a little tired of seeing my crooked STi emblem on my trunk, so I debadged! Stealthy!



The end result...



A quick shot at my stock engine bay!



Some artsy fartsy!

[DCH]

Now let's go ahead and insert the famous "I has a downpipe!"



But let's not just stop there! Thank you Rich (daddysscp) for getting this out to me so quickly!!!



Hopefully, I'll get this all installed tonight with more pictures and a video for you all!

Thanks for looking!

[hiphopp]

good stuff!! loving the coilover!!

[AndrewSS]

Nice, good stuff so far. Fancy DP

[tyler_sti]

You remind me of myself when I mod. All out CRAZY..lol. Car is lookin good man. I would have camped out the next night with a 12 gauge, to see if those goons still had a problem!!

[alphaSTI]

Crazy man. Hope you finished that DP last night. I wonder who installed those Cusco coils for you? Oh right that was me.

[nice-rice]

The car looks good man, nice mods so far.

[importfanatic17]

That is a great looking car, I wish I could afford those Cusco coilovers *sigh*...btw I love ur pictures. The one with the shifter is awesome!

[DCH]

Hey guys!

After seeing all of you folks installing the DP + catback yourselves, I decided to make you STi owners proud and do the install myself as well. Mind you, my knowledge of cars is very little, and I have very little mechanical hours under my belt. But I decided to take on the task simply because I've read that it's a really nice install to do yourself. And after finishing the project, it was a very nice install to do!

I started off removing the giant STi axelback. Goodness, I knew the damn thing was huge when I installed my sways, but to take that sucker off, what a beast. Compared to the Whisper, this thing was huge! I moved on to the mid-pipe where I had some *slight* trouble getting those bolts to budge. I sprayed some PB blaster a good 10 minutes before I even started to work on the car, and it still took some force. I ran around the house looking for a breaker bar, and finally found one. Crawled back under the car, and finally muscled it loose. It's tough when you're laying on your belly trying to force a bar down. Who woulda thunk!?

After getting the 'cat-back' section off, I figured I'd move onto the downpipe. Started off with the evil hidden-bolt stock heat shield. I used the same breaker bar to get that thing loose. Four of the five bolts/nuts came off with a struggle, but a pretty simple struggle after spraying tons of PB Blaster and grabbing an ice cold drink to refresh. But then there was that hidden, hard to get to nut that's under the intercooler. WHAT GIVES!?

Many of you have said the downpipe could have been removed without taking off the intercooler. I envy your tool set. My simple craptacular toolset didn't have any fancy curved tools, nor any long sockets. So this one was gonna be tough. I removed the intercooler, which was also a pain in the rear because the turbo inlet piece took FOREVER to budge. Got that sucker taken off, and I swear, section of the car lit up and the nut was a pulsing beacon of light! That sucker came off with ease as I used my giant breaker bar for assistance!

Got back under the car, to take off the downpipe. But no! There was the bottom piece to the heatshield that was holding me back! So hunting down more tools, I finally got that section off as I was balancing the downpipe on my chest. Yes, I do realize that I could have made life a hell of a lot easier if I had just reattached the bolt that was holding the stock downpipe to the car, but I didn't feel like feeling around the floor for it.

After fiddling around with the O2 sensor, I followed the yellow cable trail to the plastic connector and unhooked it. I was seriously trying to fit my wrench to that thing while it was still attached to the car! But hey, figured it out. Took it off. Attached it to the V2, and got that back on the car! The easy part begins, as downpipe is on, mid-pipe is on, and axelback is now on. Gave all the nuts and bolts one last check, and cleaned myself off a bit before I went to go sit in the car.

Grabbed my Cobb AP that was sitting in that cool nifty Type-S cell phone holder, connected the green connectors underneath, and reflashed to Stage 2 ACN 91

It only took about 7 minutes, and I did a little dance once it was over. I'm sure the neighbors loved that one, or thought I was on the good stuff. It was 1:14AM when my car started with a whole new life! The sound of the car was just out of this world! Perfect even! The perfect amount of sound at idle, and once you put that foot down, she'll let you know what's up! I got back down to the floor to check for any leaks. To be honest, I kind of just layed there on the floor and just listened for something I wouldn't normally hear. All good!

Took her out for a spin, WOW! The roads were completely empty being so early in the morning, so it was a nice uninterruptable drive! Loved it!

I'll take some shots and videos for you all. Another excuse to drive the car, as if I needed one!

The install, probably one of the hardest things I've had to do thus far. But knowing that I did it myself, that is a feeling I'll never forget! I will admit, my brother helped me remove the intercooler, but the punk didn't do anything else but ask, "are you done yet?!"

Cliff notes: Installed MadDad TBE + Cobb Stg. 2 reflash =

Thanks for reading! I'll have more goodies for you all in a few weeks. w00t!

[BM_STi]

You bought the car on my 21st birthday! Nice progress man!

[DCH]

Originally Posted by BM_STi

You bought the car on my 21st birthday! Nice progress man!

AHAHHA! Thank ya! What's with IWSTI members buying their cars on each others' birthdays!? I bought mine on yours, Stephisto bought his on mine! Who's next?! Super!!!!

[wdb]

Congratulations on the install. Nice photochop on those license plates too.

[STi_4_Daddy]

Ahh!!! the sweet smell of success (DIY'er)
Good job!!!

[sarasube]

great job,
also hope to do my maddad dp anyday now.
then stg2.

thanks