hey all, first off i want to say that this forum is awesome! hope to get to meet a lot of you guys in the future.

i have owned many subarus my last one being a 500whp STi so this is a huge change but i must say i am truly in love with every bit of the car… minus the torque steer!!!

in the beginning of January i purchased a

2004 SSM 6 speed TL (bone stock, minus a k&n intake and a few led lights)

i am not one who can drive a car and leave it unmodified, its not in my blood.

a week after purchasing i already had a XLR8 j pipe installed, could feel the power difference instantly. But the sound just wasn't there.

Last week while down in florida i went to a reputable exhaust shop that is known for there custom exhausts and had a CBE made

exhaust sytem on my tl now consists of a XLR8 j pipe, one resonator and straight piped 2.5" piping all the way to end. no mufflers just straight piped and i love it!!!

have a custom fabricator making a set or 3.5" quad tips right now to finish up the exhaust setup.


and last but not least i am waiting for my type s front end conversion to arrive in the mail as well as the type s A spec front and rear lips

have many many other mods planed but i can't share everything or there won't be any fun in it


i created this thread to show the progress of my tl, to help me keep track of what I've done and to maybe give others ideas, and to hopefully post any questions that i might have. only have a few pictures of my car this is how she sat when i got her.

 

welcome!

 

Type S front fascia on an 04 eh? This will be interesting

From one newcomer to another, welcome :

 

how so?
I converted mine.

honestly, it still looks like a TL.



Congrats, OP!
have fun modding her!

 

In for pics!

 

Thanks for the welcome guys!


Yes it will still look like a Tl. But a bit different since I will have the type s a spec front and rear lip. And a spec skirts in the future.

 

Welcome-be sure to post more pictures!

 

hope to have pictures of the goodies coming in mid next week! then off to the body shop they go.



time to look into headlight mods lens, cut off, doing something to the stock housing to make it blend in more with the car.


what have some of y'all done to your stock headlights? is it worth switching to a newer style projector like a 2006? i have access to a set right now for close to nothing if they are better than the 04 and 05 ones.

 

got a few updates to add

happened to find someone local that was parting out a type s and i wasted no time in picking up a few goodies

type s tails, type s grille, fogs and a few other things that i will post pics of once installed but the most exciting was what i received in the mail today


A BOX….. but wait whats in the box…????





THATS CORRECT THE A SPEC FRONT AND REAR LIPS… boy oh boy are they gorgeous pieces. too bad they don't come painted the color i need them. will hopefully have some more updates next week of wheels and suspension. stay tuned.

if all goes as planned i will own a set of wheels tomorrow. they are 18x9.** ill leave it at that. some will hate the wheels while others will love em. i thought id give them a shot for the tl as i was stuck on a specific wheel type on the subaru.

 

only hold up on suspension is i don't know which brand to buy. at the moment I'm torn between tein or megan.

megan was never on my list when looking for coil overs (in the subaru scene i ran kw clubsports) but as you all know the availability for the tl is limited.

i want a good ride yet it needs to be stiff and able to go pretty low to accomidate for the drop I'm going to have.

those of you here what do you run?

 

If you want to go low, buy Megans. They go insanely low and have damping adjustment so you can adjust the stiffness. TEINs are known for a "stock-ish" ride but they don't go super low.

I bought a used set of Megans almost 2 years ago and haven't had any issues.

 

well here is where I'm not sure, if teins ride like stock that means i don't want them if I'm going low. stockish ride means I'm going to be rubbing every time i hit a dip in the road. or am i wrong?

i don't plan on tucking wheel but i will be tucking some tire so i will be decently low on my wheels i just picked up tonight.




xxr530 18x9.75 with 225-40 all around in black chrome. i think these wheels will look sweet on the ssm tl

 

I like the new items!

Listen to Tyler-he knows his stuff.

 

Megan coil overs it shall be

just trying to find the best place to purchase them new, or even used.

And I'm looking into rear chamber kits as i am hoping to stay away from anything more than -2 degrees.

as soon as i get suspension. wheels go on and exterior pieces will be painted also when remainder of the pieces i am ordering come in as well

so brace thyselves for pictures and pictures upon pictures!

 

nice progress

 

thank you! just trying to do it right the first time

 

Hey man! Nice car and cool projects. Do you happen to live in Montreal? Your username suggests that you do.

 

nope, i live in South Carolina.


have a little update for you guys, but unfortunately no pictures…

placed my order on megan coil overs after much research, picking peoples brains and looking away while clicking the pay button! lol

this weekend if all goes well, i will be picking up the type s front bumper and dropping off lips and bumper cover at the shop to have it painted.

coil overs should be in mid next week so hopefully i will have some major and much needed update pics.

not going to be purchasing many parts for a bit other than a few for headlight and suspension just to leave something for me to be able to change down the road

 

Have you decided what you're gonna do with your headlights?

 

Today i got the last piece for the puzzle to be able to send parts off to the shop

type s front bumper (yes i know my car isn't white, but everything i purchased came in that color don't understand why they couldn't do ssm lol)






test fitted the wheels, oh i mean placed them beside the car should look good. was lazy and didn't feel like fitting them on without proper lug nuts.
acura center cap changes the whole look of the wheels imho.




i do have to admit i hated how car looked when i first got it as i came from this…. aspen white 2005 STi. took me a year to build the car but every aspect of it was covered. from brakes, to the very last internal part in the engine.



but after all these pictures I've seen with aspec kits and all i can't wait any more as i am truly in love with the tl now. just not the FWD!!! flipping sucks in snow, as i came to find out yesterday.

dropping off parts tomorrow and maybe will have them painted saturday even. Well see. not in a rush as I'm going to lower it before i install bumper and lips.


as for headlights… blacked out, turn signal amber delete (will do carbon fiber inlays if my diffuser allows not sure how the 2004 tl one is) zkw-r lens, upgraded bulb and for now i think thats it

 

not my photo nor car, just using as example!

this is what i want to do to my headlights, just not sure if i can do the carbon fiber inlay or not. if not no biggie. not going to waste money just to have that. i just happen to think it would look sweet if i could, then carbon fiber on acura letters on from bumper and a little carbon fiber in taillights down the road

i have blacked out a few subaru headlights so hopefully this pair goes smoothly

 

Curious to see how the 9.75s will fit, its such an aggressive fitment

 

The only thing you have to do to achieve that headlight is to black out headlights, remove the orange diffuser and place the carbon fiber vinyl in the corner

Nothing you can't get done.

I'm not a fan of removing amber on the headlights, though. Need that contrast.

 

PLEASE....remove the orange diffuser. Get switchback bulbs instead.

 

it will be aggressive, not sure if I'm going to like it. but only way to find out is to try it worst case ill sell or trade for the 8.75s. but from pictures of other tl;s with these wheels with same specs i liked how it looked a lot.


you make it sound so easy, is there something else that can be done to make the headlights stand out? i thought about color matching but have never seen it in person nor any pics of an ssm… all pictures i found were closed and couldn't be viewed

i can't stand the amber, kicked myself backwards every day for not taking them out of the headlights in my sti. the orange just doesn't go for me. but to each his own

that is the plan, switchbacks are on the list but they are going to have to wait a bit as its going to leave no fun if i do everything at once. already bought more than i should've in the 2nd month of owning the car. or is it still the first month…??? lol

 

^^^ Yea, this place makes you spend a lot of extra money.....

 

I've done quite a few headlights for TLs.

The one thing I don't like about what the guy did in that picture was he removed the amber diffuser, and so that area where he just stuck carbon fiber doesn't look that good.

What I do is I cut the amber diffuser so it's the size of that corner, and then I wrap the diffuser with carbon fiber.

The outcome is MUCH better. Just sticking carbon fiber in the corner looks cheap, and out of place, hence my method.

It's also known as a "partial diffuser".





Where do you cut the diffuser?



See how the diffuser pattern changes in the corner?
That's the line.

 

wow!!! i probably never would have caught that. thank you very much!!!

you are right, its look much better having it done your way. is there a specific carbon fiber wrap you use or that section doesn't get much heat?

wish i had my lens ordered and in my hands so i could take my headlights apart right now

 

Good job, GP.

 

That section isn't exposed to much heat, but I used 3M 1080 vinyl

 

^thanks man, ill be sure to show how i did when i get to the headlights


another small update, front bumper and both a spec pieces are sprayed and drying in the paint booth. going to pick them up monday so ladies and gentlemen be ready for some pictures.

also ordered a set of ingalls rear camber arms.

 

^^^ Looking forward to the update.

 

pictures speak for themselves did not get rear a spec on but did get the whole front on, along with fog lights wired up. i do have to say it hurt having to drill holes in the front bumper after spending so much $$ on it and then having it painted lol i only hoped i was drilling the correct holes other than that the installation was a breeze, wiring up the fog lights took the most time.

did not do the headlights as i decided to leave that for a later time.

enjoy the few pictures i took. let me know what y'all think



fresh out of the booth….

type s bumper with type s grille installed

a-spec front lip installed

all done

 

mmm that looks amazing

 

^i thought so too. i can't stop staring at it, i still can't believe how much it transformed the car. the stock wheels don't even match any more just because of the lip...

 

Wow, look at how great that looks!

 

looking good!

 

another update!

ordered ingalls rear camber and toe arms, went to change them and of course the bolts were frozen. so i ordered bolts should be here monday along with the skunk2 front camber aarms

finally got my lugs in so now i can install my rims, roll my fenders and such.


throughout the week i installed the rear a spec lip kit, the type s taillights, and my megan coil overs car drives much better, looks better and handles great. i am glad i went with dampening adjustment coil overs. we will see how these hold up.

here are a couple of pictures to keep you fellows and gals entertained until i get the new wheels on

ENJOY!!!


putting rear lip against it before i start cutting literally half my bumper off to make sure i received the correct piece.





dropped on megan coilovers


type s tails, a spec rear lip



another front end shot (most definitely needs to have headlights redone)

 

where did you get those quad tips for the mufflers?

 

I have no mufflers but I got them at an exhaust shop in Florida when I had my cbe made.

They look horrible in my opinion, it's just the only ones they had at the time. I'm looking into making my own in 3.5" or maybe even dual 4" if I can make sure they fit nicely