Official jdm conversion/aftermarket body thread

What good is one without the other?

Cost me 80 dollars for it so it was a cheap gamble. I can always get another one used somewhere!

 

You sure that can't be cleaned? Just pull em apart and clean up the plastic, if it's etched it, just cut and buff it.

 

The housing os badly damaged on the rear:

 

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/desperatedano/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150122_142103.jpg

 

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/desperatedano/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150122_154232.jpg

 

 

 

And ballast is fried i guess! So minimum i would need new ballast and rear housing. I dont think you can buy the rear housing sperately like you can for the front lens,

You can buy front lens? I didn't know that !

Yep if you check on opposed forces they list the front lenses as separate parts. I have seen some 05 ones on eBay recently

the headlights come in one unit even though they have part numbers for the pieces they are only sold in one unit.

the headlights come in one unit even though they have part numbers for the pieces they are only sold in one unit.

 

False.

 

And I'll prove u wrong in the morning when I'm sober and have a valid link to the parts I'm talking about

http://parts.subaru.com/showAssembly.aspx?ukey_product=49296222&ukey_assembly=6025807

 

You can see that it is only an assembly so you can't just buy the clear front cover from Subaru here in the US. I don't know of any parts sites for Europe but if they allow you guys to buy it separate then that is awesome.

I have seen 08-09 (without the washers) lenses being sold on Yahoo Japan Auctions.

Subaru of Japan does sell the headlight piece by piece. Meaning if you wanted to just buy a lens cover or the body or the inner housing you can. However, it's not cost effective as they usually price the parts comparably close to the entire unit. But it is possible. Whether they have stock of the individual parts is another story.

 

Here is a link that give you a part number breakdown for each part of the headlight assembly for a USDM 05-07 legacy or outback.

 

http://opposedforces.com/parts/legacy/en_b13/type_34/electronic/head_lamp/illustration_1/

Edited January 24, 2015 by valleylegacy

so as he is saying then it looks like other countries get the option.

That link doesn't work

strange, I just clicked on the link and it works just fine. Browser issues possibly?

Maybe cause it's on my phone

Here's another left headlight that you could use: http://page3.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c495652401

Here's another left headlight that you could use: http://page3.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c495652401

 

 

Thanks, but i found another one locally during the week and ordered that. Ones less problem to worry about!

OK so I was messing around with the headlights today to see if I can get them powered up of the wiring that is already there and I'm glad to say that the 07-09 uk xenon headlight with built in washer jets is plug and play into the pre facelift jdm gt wiring.

 

The manual levellers also work fine so no need for me to go messing around with sourcing the auto leveller sensors off the suspension control arms.

 

Few pics:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/desperatedano/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150202_200411.jpg

 

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/desperatedano/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150202_200444.jpg

 

 

Also ordered a subaru honeycombe grille from Japan as I couldn't find any over here and Subaru dealer wanted mega money for it! I should have the wings and bumper this week and the passenger side headlight should turn up. Then it will be time for test fitting to see what's missing and if this all goes together easily!

 

Fog lights and Sti front lip are the only outstanding items currently but not essential to the conversion so I'll get them as funds allow. Ill post up a full list of parts needed when I'm done for anyone that's interested

Alright JDM crew... Hopefully you can see the forum link below without being a member. This is my build thread on a local motorsport forum. Starting at post #183 is my trials and tribulations for completing the Albero bumper. In there are pictures of filler plates my friend made to fill the gap from the JDM bumper to the USDM fender liners under the car. He says if you ship him a template of your setup and send pics of yours, he can make you some from aluminum for $25 shipped. If yours are exactly like mine, it'd be a little cheaper. Also, if some of you go in together, it'd be cheaper on a group buy kinda thing. If you're someone involved with sourcing and providing JDM bumpers, this could be a good collaboration.

 

Once he did the hard work making them, the install is SUPER easy. Just popits and done. Hope this can help some LGT friends in need. Would be cool for at least one or two of you to be guinea pigs to try this out to see how him making one for you remotely would go. He's one of those super cool people that is the kinda guy we all wish all sellers/buyers would be like, so I can pretty much promise he'd go out of his way to make it a good experience for you. The price he's offering is pretty low margin for him, so hopefully you might see this as a good opportunity. He's just a fellow Subaguru that likes to help the community.

 

Here's the link: http://www.idahomotorsports.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54700

...also in my build thread toward the end are some pretty sweet super strong sway bar support brackets he fabbed for me. Some of you may be aware of the stock bracket shearing off.

Unfortunately I can't see the link :/

Crap. Hang on...

I can only post 20 pics at a time, so this is gonna be chopped up, but I'm just copying over all my posts. Hope you fellas don't mind. Most comprehensive USDM to JDM bumper conversion to date, I do believe.

 

How it showed up from Japan:

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/2013-08-19103746_zps8ca493ea.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Couple crappy pics of where it's at. Bumper beam, etc. has been hackzord to fit JDM bumper. Now in the process of making all connecting points rubberized.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/2013-08-25204027_zpsd517d3f3.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/2013-08-25145359_zps4c252d05.jpg

Edited February 16, 2015 by '06GRPLGT

I've finally got some time to put down the latest updates.

 

First, here's a rundown on the JDM Liberal Albero bumper. The above pictures are after the first test fit.

 

Step one was modifying the stock USDM bumper beam to allow for the shallower JDM bumper. Most guys in the U.S. just remove the beam to make life easy, but I didn't want to compromise the structural integrity of the car. Sometimes I care too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the stock beam "before" picture:

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-18152333_zps0ce1940e.jpg

 

 

 

 

XissiX helped me cut both the beam and it's mounting brackets like so:

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-21192114_zps4a604cc2.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-21192246_zpsa243310a.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-21193144_zps4cf8967c.jpg

 

 

 

 

Had to unbolt and rebolt the whole thing a few times to get it perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hood latch must be just a little different in Japan, so we had to do a quick modification. Here's before and after:

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-25132812_zps8c676991.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-25133547_zpsc4eb3d6d.jpg

 

 

 

 

Looking underneath the car, it became very clear that JDM didn't fit ANYTHING like my stocker. None of the mounting points lined up, and there were huge gaps in the fender liner and undertray. We decided we'd regroup when XissiX could mock up some filler plates. First, we had to cut some holes in the undertray (three to be exact...along the top one in the middle and on each side. These are for the Albero bumper mounting tabs to go through:

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-25130428_zpsde56fe7f.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-25130439_zps01d04a12.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-25134940_zps96b6bf1b.jpg

 

 

 

 

The mock fit went well, so I headed back home.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-21195042_zps8fd85dac.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-08-21195012_zps8d836e02.jpg

 

 

 

 

After adding the mesh it rubbed in four spots (see tape), so I spent several more hours back at home taping spots that rubbed, grinding, tweaking, and refitting. This step was super annoying and tedious.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-07-16222655_zpsfa1024a6.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-07-16222625_zpsf02c0b0c.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-07-16222604_zps45ebc77a.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-07-16222556_zpsbcdf7ea6.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05192547_zps2e02cc0b.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05192535_zps0d7a5ec3.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-07-16222521_zps4f2ab6a7.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-07-16222437_zps64862f06.jpg

Edited February 16, 2015 by '06GRPLGT

(Cont.)

 

After that, I needed to figure out mounting points. The top of the bumper secured well at each end with stock popit locations that lined up nicely, the center of the top would be solid since it lined up well with the stock bolt locations, but nothing on the bottom lined up except a few popits on each end. Filler plates would utilize some stock and some created popit locations to secure the sides/ends of the bottom of the bumper really well, so I devised a way to make a solid center mounting point for the bottom of the bumper using the stock undertray. First was drilling a hole in the undertray from above using a spade bit on the end of a few extensions:

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05175205_zpse431b40c.jpg

 

 

 

 

At Nate's recommendation, I began my search for rubberized mounting hardware. Fiberglass doesn't like vibrating against metal, so moving forward, everything the bumper touched needed to be rubber. After spending more time than I care to mention at places like D&B and Fastenall, this was the first setup I came up with. The center of this three way is some rubber thingy I found (threaded spacer of some kind with threads impregnated into it).

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05175428_zps79c78fb5.jpg

 

 

 

 

This is looking down from above, so the hex bolt is underneath where you can't see it. That bolt threads all the way through the threaded rubber spacer and into the acorn nut on top.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05190016_zpsdda11b4d.jpg

 

 

 

 

They didn't quite come together as tight as I wanted, so I super-glued some metal washers onto the rubber thingy to add some length to it. Read: Finding all the bits n pieces in the right lengths with matching threads was quite a project. You can also see in this picture that I ended up notching one side of the spacer so it would fit perfect without hitting the stock metal mounting bracket. Could've easily worked without, but I'm anal about these things.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05184202_zpsadb45f7c.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05175337_zps5514721b.jpg

 

 

 

 

Next up was adding rubber washers to the setup, and painting the acorn nut black with my beloved spray on truck bed liner. That stuff is seriously awesome for stuff like this.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05190408_zps4cce9ed2.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-19174313_zpse69244bc.jpg

 

 

 

 

Once the bumper was on with the mesh installed, you can't get to the top of the bolt without this setup. I would come down from above with it while holding a wrench on the hex bolt underneath.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-19174558_zps7a5a43b9.jpg

 

 

 

 

This is what that all looked like at the end. Tried to make it as discrete as possible.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-19174952_zpsac3168ec.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-19174957_zps7ffc4591.jpg

(Cont.)

 

Next step was round one of paint. I forgot one very important part in the paint scheme. Can you spot what's wrong with this picture? For reference, I've provided a couple pictures of what it's supposed to look like. I'll get to the answer later in case you don't spot it.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-16170424_zps5a85c5d7.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/DesktopBackground_zpsc91859b0.png

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/Tokyo-Auto-Salon-2013-Parking-Lot-21_zpsb0c612b1.jpg

 

 

 

 

At this point, it was time to see Nate (XissiX) again for filler plates. It was important to me to keep the underneath sealed for aerodynamics, cosmetic, weatherproofing, skidding, snow driving, and keeping the engine bay clean. Nate's a badass and has lots of cool toys like a plasma table. I don't understand this part, but he drew this cool looking diagram that went into the computer so the table knew what to cut. This part was impressive.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-01111851_zps0bfe04ee.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-01113626_zpsa5d6cba8.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-01113632_zps8ebc3716.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05175516_zps26d1272a.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-05175507_zpsdec839fa.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-19175800_zpsfd327ef8.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-19180754_zpsbaa66617.jpg

(Cont.)

 

Next up was figuring out the clusterphuck that was mounting USDM fogs onto JDM mounting points. This took two days of studying and trial/error to sort out.

 

Here's the wonderful instructions. They were pretty much worthless.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11191320_zpse564a62e.jpg

 

 

 

 

The rest of these pictures are pretty self-explanatory.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11202808_zpsf54db145.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11202410_zpsdf243fe9.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11202543_zpsbe67b843.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11202921_zps1207e05b.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11202959_zpsd1a1e27a.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11204701_zpsbab631ec.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11210224_zpseae2258c.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11210201_zpsbb693a46.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11221539_zpsbe941d42.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-12124923_zps9de5eb70.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11202418_zps29433823.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11202444_zps34617e42.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-11202502_zps36c7a5b3.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-18183549_zps403e27df.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-18183617_zps2e2e8e2a.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-18183931_zps667a55cf.jpg

(Cont.)

 

Sidenote: Kept the fenders taped up to avoid the bumper scratching them with all the R&R I was doing. This is a better picture of how my wheels and center caps turned out.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2013-09-19162250_zps61b79c9f.jpg

 

 

 

 

After looking at pictures of the car, it seemed like something was missing and that it wasn't as nice as I'd expected. I quickly realized the paint mistake I'd made. I couldn't figure out what was missing until it hit me. Here are the pictures I was looking at.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/10-12-13_zpsa4ac0291.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/10511063243_c641c6b0ea_b_zpsd5fa00dc.jpg

 

 

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/10486659443_a9925108af_o_zpsbbb3587b.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/COPY2_zpsef88043a.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/10470034046_fa4737c90e_o_zps2c315f2e.jpg

 

 

 

 

You've probably figured out by now that I'd forgotten to ask Gordon to paint the areas to each side of the license plate black. So the bumper went back for another round of paint. Luckily Gordon gave me a break on the price for round two. Waiting twice for the paint to completely cure didn't help how long it was already taking to complete this project.

 

 

 

 

Anyhoo, next step after getting the paint corrected was to figure out how to cleanly mount a plate to the front. I wanted it as low-profile/flush as possible without touching/rubbing the paint. With Nate's help again, he tapped the bumper with threads so I could source the right pitch/length of allthread that would allow me to do the following. Note: This meant another round of running around and digging through my own hardware stash to come up with something that would work perfect.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06175221_zpsd9ac5fcc.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06175207_zps35f807fc.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06173909_zpsbec32579.jpg

 

 

 

 

The new hardware hit the bumper a little, so I trimmed it to fit.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06180153_zps8ea645c7.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06180133_zps0e1314e6.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06180811_zpseafdc6d6.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06205010_zps82223a4d.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06205939_zpsb2eee408.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06211424_zpsa2c43ce5.jpg

 

 

 

 

Now if you look close, you'll see the plate frame doesn't touch the bumper, but it's super flush and solid. This meant another couple acorn nuts getting sprayed with my trusty truck bed liner.

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06205541_zps187ddc50.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-06205653_zps0d21dc31.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-07135222_zps99335bb4.jpg

 

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x312/kagenmateer/Suby/Albero%20Bumper/2014-08-07135230_zps25d59626.jpg

Edited February 16, 2015 by '06GRPLGT