Petro's 2002 Plasti Dipped Forester S Premium Sport- July 9th

[iampetro]

Went and test drove it on Sept. 21 2013 at noon and by 2:30 I was plated and home with this new beauty

Engine:
- picked it up with the stock 2.5L at 224,450km
- New battery (Dec 2013)
- staying stock with regular maintenance

Interior:
- Beautiful rare seats thanks to this Canada only model (check pics further down on page 1)
- Heated seats
- Stock rubber trunk mat
- Always kept super clean

Exterior:
- Stock colour silver but now Plasti Dipped Red with a Black roof
- Rare Sport Model Alloy Rims with summer tires
- 03-08 Forester Steel Rims with Beefy tread Toyo observe GO-2 plus winter tires
- De-badged
- Removed Fog Light guards
- Original tint in alright condition. I think its 50/35
- Lightbar with 2 random flood lights
- roof rack cross bars


This 2002 Forester S Premium Sport is the absolute top of the line forester for the year, it has a bunch of dealer options/upgrades on top of what a normal 2002 S premium would have
- Sports Mesh Grill
- Sports Rims
- Spoiler
- Flaps
- Nav Rear view mirror
- factory upgraded sound system
- armrest extension
- Subaru security system


its got higher milage but it was owned by a Subaru specialist master mechanic trusted far and wide so....


Plans:
- Engine will stay stock and hopefully strong for years to come
- Stereo will stay stock and interior will stay clean
- Keep it super low budget




(pics from when I got home the day I bought it)

[chrish8r]

Very cool. I like those wheels a lot. They kind of look like a revamped snowflake design.

[iampetro]

That's what I thought too
They are very flat on the outside of the spokes where normal snowflakes are more rounded

I love discovering the little new thing when gettin a new car

[iampetro]

I had a bottle of headlight restore/cleaner from years ago with my BD so this was free and took 20min.
I figured out how to use it properly this time

[iampetro]

I just drove over 2 hours round trip after work to go get my winter tires from Rocky's
He gave them to me with the Purchase of the forester. Toyo's with plenty of tread
I was under the impression that they were on generic steelies but when I got there I was pleasantly surprised

[iampetro]

screenshot of the short but sweet FS add

I said the price was fair and didnt haggle
After I handed over the cash he said since I gave him the asking price he would throw in the Forester rims with nearly new winter tires on them, freshly balanced and ready to go.
It payed off to not try and get the car with a lower offer.
I figure the rims+tires are worth at least $300 so I feel like I got the car for $2000

[iampetro]

So I took a Mr Clean magic eraser to the rust/rust stains today and holy crap!
So much of it disappeared so quickly and easy.
It still hasen't been washed yet but its looking way better today.






The biggest difference is in the last pic, the pass rear looks pretty bad in the old picture in my older post but it looks much better now. This was with no touch up paint sanding or anything, purely wiped with magic eraser




Tomorrow I will clear some space in the garage and probly start sanding and dipping the hatch

[iampetro]

So I wanted a beater to practice random things on and today I tried my hand at rust removal
It sucked it wasn't hard but i still thought it would be easier. I bought some attachments for my drill and once I found the right one to use it got better.
Stupid Subaru putting holes behind 4 different spots on the badges. Very little bondo used so we'll see how it holds up.
Next is the rust beside the front windshield, i'm going to do the roof and pillars black and so I left the top half of the hatch unpainted since it will be black soon enough.









All the badges I removed


The finish is super smooth, I definitely have the technique down

[iampetro]

I just cant stop!


I decided to just sand this crap down to the bare metal and didnt use any bondo on the roof.


1 coat done. I ended up doing a good 4 or 5


and done


If it wasn't raining right now i'd go get actual pics outside
The transition at the hatch from the red to the black worked perfectly

I 'll be doing the side mirrors black next

Boy does this make me wish I had the same 15% tint from the wagon on the Forester
its begging for darker tint than the 50%/35% front/rear it came with

[iampetro]

It's tempting to go 3 tone with a Black roof, Red middle and keep the bumper line and down Silver

[iampetro]

with all the snow today it was finally time. I put the winters on the forester today

[iampetro]

Got to work at 7am yesterday and it was so dark
Decided to snap a couple quick pics of the foz at night




it was cold

[iampetro]

Some quick shots of the interior
These seats have great side bolstering and are very comfy







I'm so tempted to get a JDM front lip on eBay but its almost 20% of what I paid for the car

[iampetro]

So when I bought the foz it had a 1L bottle of oil in the back.
I thought it might be incase it burns oil or maybe just to have incase of whatever.

We've had it just about 7 months and I don't think I had ever checked the oil never had a dash light or temp rise or funny sound other than the usual hight milage knock for first 2-3 min of being on.
So I checked yesterday and the oils full and all good, could use and change but it has less than 2000km on it

The coolant however was low.
The overflow tank was empty and when I opened the radiator cap it had coolant pretty close to the top so I wasn't too worried...

I bought some premixed coolant and put that in. Haven't driven it yet but I'll stretch its legs tmw.

Glad I looked when I did but I hope I didn't let it go too long unattended.

It's still my wife's dd and in the 7 months I've probly driven it 12 times. I need to pay more attention to it
I can't wait to get my red plasti dip job done. ETA is next month

[iampetro]

I adjusted the tire pressure and drove it around today after adding the coolant
All seemed well. After a bit I pulled over an checked the overflow level and it was at a good level

The temps were higher today and the winter tires have good tread depth so they're pretty loud...

Might have to change tires soon

[iampetro]

Well Wednesday the Forester took a tiny rock to the windshield and the rock won I'll have to replace it sometime soon

Put the JDM shoes with summer tires on the FOZ today.
Debadged the side door "FORESTER" from each side

Then, since it was in the garage I started to paint.
I've been dying to do the side mirrors since I got it, they were so beat up.

Next time the forester see's the light of day it will be red...

[iampetro]

[iampetro]

Still have to do the hood and front bumper.
I want to try and source a cheaper JDM front lip so that's why I'm waiting to paint the bumper.
and if I can get a cheap WRX scoop for $50 or less I'll cut a hole in my hood and paint the hood then.

If both those fall through I'll just do them red in a month or so






its not perfect but I like it and that's what matters

[iampetro]

damn.
I just went to remove those big AWD stickers you can see in the back windows (more clean/de-badged look)
but the tint is over top of them and im guessing this tint has been there almost as long as the cars been around

I'm not taking the tint off to do that but I really don't want that sticker there...
only solution I could think of was an SF wagon mafia sticker big enough to cover it.
Its a cool sticker but then Its not really the clean look Im going for.

I plan to finish the red dip on the hood and front bumper tmw. Stay tuned for pics

[iampetro]

its been a long time coming but its done!













Now I really want to dip my rims white and drop the suspension a bit, that would help complete the look

[LeggyxPower]

looks really good man, makes me miss my purple ugly duckling... grab some legacy suspension and it should look good

[iampetro]

Roar!
Theres a screw in the sidewall of one of my tires

I sooo don't want to buy new tires for this car... might have to put the winters back on?

[LeggyxPower]

Roar!
Theres a screw in the sidewall of one of my tires

I sooo don't want to buy new tires for this car... might have to put the winters back on?

buy some used ones, either kijiji or i know wheel depot off merivale and bently can be pretty cheap

[iampetro]

good idea
That's a block away from my work

[iampetro]

The cars still being dd to work and its only loosing around or less than 0.5psi so I'm leaving it for a short time
I think i'll try a diy plug from Canadian tire, these tires only had 1 summer left anyways... I want to get that summer

Got the registration changed from silver to red this week. No need to get pulled over for no good reason
The red dip cured pretty well. It looks better than it did the first couple days.
The black roof needs some love and touch ups. might do that this weekend

[iampetro]

I just took the foz out for a rip and I love that car
It handles amazing and drives so well for the 2K it cost.

Im still leaking air from the screw in my Passenger rear tire but its only about 1psi a week.
and the car sees no highway driving or extended trips, only short around town adventures.

2 weeks ago I MSG'd a guy I know through my local sub club
His parents had an '03 and '05 forester and wrote them both off in separate accidents this past winter
Both taken away with the snow tires/rims on leaving the summers at his parents house

In march he listed the 2 sets of summers on original alloys for $400 each. not a single reply
I msg'd him 2 weeks ago offering $200 for either set he/they would let go for that amount
and I haven't heard back yet (I can see that he hasn't logged into his profile since)

I'm kinda banking on one of those rim/tire combos for the $200 I offered so till I hear from him I'll keep checking my local forum every day
His parents live 2 blocks away from my parents so I can pick them up conveniently close. (I go swimming at my parents every weekend)
If I get them I am totally painting them White before they go on. I want white rims on my red car

Only problem is, they may have sold them 4 months ago and just never updated his FS post.... so for now I wait patiently

The foz gets lots of attention around town. My wife has had several ppl come up and ask her about it
I got the thumbs up from a 2door RS a couple days ago in it.

I've always enjoyed having a car everyone in town knows is mine. My BD's always gave me that feeling

[iampetro]

Me and LeggyxPower finally crossed paths

[iampetro]

Got this from LeggyxPower today
Can't wait to put it on this weekend

[iampetro]

first thing today I had to put this on




I put the lights on top but I might move them down to under the bar




Now I pretty much have to buy 2 or 4 more lights to fill out the bar

[LeggyxPower]

wow...that looks so much better on the forester then it did on the legacy..Looks so good man!