EricS

I’ve been looking at picking up a new set of wheels and came across a place by the name of Howie Industries. They seem to have better pricing than many others online. Does anyone have any experience in ordering from them? Thanks for any input.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I tend to agree that the previous owner had a very specific reason for ditching the car. I've owned 5 subarus over the past 30 years, 4 of them used. All have been great.

HA - that's funny! I watched lots of videos before I started, but hadn't come across any by that guy ;-)

Not quite today, but I finished this up a few days ago. I bought my 2016 Legacy 2.5i Limited back in Feb after someone crashed into me and totaled my 2001 Legacy. The person who had this one before me wasn't super careful with it, so it came with a variety of curb rashes on both sides of the front bumper, the hood looked like someone had plowed through some bushes at high speed (carried over to the passenger side view mirror as well), and there was just a HUGE number of gravel pock marks across the entire front bumper. The rest of the car looked pretty nice, so while I was bored at home under quarantine, I decided to do some painting. My original plan was just to fix the curb rash, but when I inspected things close up, I thought it would be a shame to have newly fixed spots right next to what looks like it was hit with a gravel blaster, so the project grew quickly as I started working. I was a little nervous about taking sand paper to a car for the first time, but I've spent lots of time wood working and restoring antique wooden cabinet radios from the 1930s, so I figured this wouldn't be TOO much different. Here are some before and after images following lots of sanding, puttying, sanding some more, priming, painting and clear coating. I also filled in the holes and gouges in the front bumper left by the front license plate since PA doesn't issue front plates. It's not quite perfect, but looks WAY better than it did when I started. When it was all finished, I sprayed a can of Plasti-Dip on the silver grille work to tone it down a bit. I like the overall look much more now.

Looking closely at the one I was able to remove reveals a bit of glue residue around the opening. I was able to get one out but not the other (maybe the glue still held on that side?). In the end, it didn't make any difference - both got painted and turned out equally nice. The one that I couldn't remove just got taped off. I spent about 15 mins with tape and newspaper and painted it without any issues at all. I scuffed it a bit with 400 grit paper after taping it off.

There are four clips that hold the vents on the sides of the front dash in place: two on the side next to the open/close control (covered with white cloth) and two on the bottom. I was able to remove the passenger side vent, but not the driver side vent, so I painted that one in place after taping it off. I still need to adjust one of the vent clips after the paint dries on the driver side vent, but it is MUCH better now. Given how narrow the trim is, I wasn't sure if the vinyl wrap would adhere well, plus I was bored today...

Thanks for the details, KJS2023! I was able to get one of the side vents out. I scuffed it with some fine grain sandpaper, taped off the louvers and sprayed it with some flat black enamel. We'll see how it holds up. Depending on how this goes, I'll tackle the one in the center of the dash next.

Relatively new member here and if this has been asked before, please forgive me. I did some searching and didn't see any previous discussion of this. I recently purchased a 2016 Legacy Limited 2.5i after some moron plowed into the front of '01 Legacy (yep, still bitter about that - it only had 80k miles and I had just done new head gaskets and a new clutch so I was looking forward to another 15 years from it.) Anyhow, does anyone know how to remove the stupid silver trip pieces so they can be painted black? Why any car manufacturer thinks it's a good idea to make ANY part of the interior of a car shiny and reflective is beyond me. These are distracting safety hazards in my book... Is it easier to paint them in place with a small paint brush, or should they be removed prior to painting? What kind of paint is best? Is some sort of tape better? I don't really care what method is used, but the reflections have got to go! Any insights would be appreciated! Eric

I've noticed this with my 2016 Legacy as well. Polarized glasses render the screen unreadable. Another unfortunate element is angle and position of the screen itself. When driving east in the late winter afternoon, the screen is at the PERFECT angle to reflect sunlight right into my face. The screen should have been mounted to that it is more vertically oriented so it would reflect less light that comes through the side window. I've been thinking about just covering it with velcro mounted cloth... This screen is a total fail in my book.

+1 for the Morimoto XB fog lights upgrade! Just installed them on my 2016 Legacy 2.5i Limited w/ eyesight and I really like them. Much more light further down the road and to the sides than the stock lights. Installation was easy, though the replacement lights needed minor modification for installation.

New member here, just wanted to say a big "THANK YOU!" to everyone here. Just bought my third Legacy (previous ones were a 1990 and a 2001) and noticed a slight exhaust smell in the cabin while sitting waiting to pick up kids from dance class after school. A google search led me to this forum and I was able to get it taken care of at the dealer where I bought it a few weeks ago. It's a 2016 Legacy Limited with 76k on the clock. Took it back to the dealer, showed them the images posted to this thread and asked them to check it out. They replaced the exhaust manifold part referenced earlier in the thread and didn't charge me a dime. They told me Subaru warrants the catalytic converter until 80k miles, so I just squeaked in. They officially wrote it up as a "check engine" light problem for the catalytic converter and dropped in the new part, saving me $1795 plus labor. If you've got less than 80k on the clock, it's worth a follow up with your local dealer...