Shoopster 2.0 : Shooptronic! 2001 JDM EJ205 AVCS+OEM shiftronic into a USDM 04 WRX

5 minute(s) of a 17 minute read

QUICK-LINKS BUILD MENU:

1. Easiest Airbag Recall ever
2. 07 STI roof-vane and rear backglass with wiper, quarter-panel rust-removal and paint 
3. Next update: Shoopy takes not one, but two hits! Winter 2015-16

1-6-2017

I brought my passenger airbag in for the Recall mid-swap. Walked it up to the dealership with it in my arms
5 bolts. Still took an hour

OK, so where do I start? How about the body? *Before #Megaswaptronic*
Some paint, roof-vane and rear-windshield with wiper
PICS: Backglass with wiper, roof vane, and other bodywork - Album on Imgur



I took Shoopy into Car-Pro body shop in Montreal twice, whom I highly recommend. They're known for their attention to the most minute detail. On the menu:

- Paint and install rear jdm bumper (blond chick didn't know how to park, scraped her Echo's rear quarter on Shoop's bumper. I saw her do it and she continued to deny it, she was convinced she would have "felt it", and when I showed her the identical primer & paint-dust scratch along both our cars, she was like, "But that's gray, neither of our cars is gray!". She called her boyfriend and I got the impression that he knew she's a bad driver because he told her to just fork over her insurance information lol )

- Rust around gas cap & both quarter panels (OMG they did the madman job! Cut, welded, opened up the quarters, filled them in, rolled them back in, painted. Better than factory, you run your fingers along the inside of the arch and it's totally smoothe!   )

- I had two roof-vanes, one OEM and one ZeroSports. The OEM was the just-in-caser, I really had my heart set on the ZS and my friend Claude at PharesA9 had done a sick paint job on it to match my headlights housing. Turned out the ZS is a replica; it doesn't follow the arch of the GD rear, and so wouldn't fit into the OEM brackets. So I get a call from Car-Pro, they gotta go with the OEM. I unfortunately don't have pics of the installation itself, but they have this old-school machine that installs rivets with a kind of metal tubing between the inner and outer rivet, for threading through it to fit a bolt. As such, the roof-vane brackets can be removed (which I never will, but anyway...) and the holes under the brackets are properly weather-proof  If you look at any installation video on YouTube, you'll find that most people just drill holes in the body and bolt it on

- And so, while we're at it, let's change out the back-glass. This is prior to bugeye swap btw. I bought a backglass with wiper & motor at the same JDM shop (ask me). It is smoked from factory (not a tinted wrap), and also has the squiggly defrost lines under the wiper's resting position. For the rear wiper to work, you also need the wiper-arm (on the steering wheel) and a windshield-washer-reservoir from a WAGON, in addition to some wiring and tubing, of course...

- Aaaand, while we're at it, I also scored two JDM WRB rear sedan doors from the same shop, also with OEM smoked windows. We installed driver's side rear door (which is very light compared to my USDM, I don't know why...) because mine was rusted along the bottom. Swapped out the door harness, the speaker (Alpine! Score!), put the door card back on. I had Car-Pro blend driver's side paint (because JDM nose, USDM driver door, JDM rear door) and install the smoked window and other speaker in the passenger-side rear door.

You might have noticed in the pics that my front bumper was missing a few bits. Yep, Shoopy's 2nd front bumper took a hit winter 2015-16 -- two hits, in fact, within a week of each other -- I'll post about that, next update.