Acree's BRZ - The product of boredom and an EE degree

[Acree]

2013 Subaru BRZ 6MT Limited - Crystal Black Silica

Photos from Photoshoot (3/22/14)












I've been meaning to do this for a while but just kept on procrastinating. I wanted to start a thread to help myself keep track of the progression of mods and projects for this car. I know most of you are like me and like seeing pictures. I will make it a point to post up pictures with every update. I thought the name "Testbed" would be very applicable considering what I have in mind for the car. I will updating this section with links and pictures to the individual posts as I go along. I am an electrical by education and profession, so naturally, most of the custom work I will be completing will be electrical.


Modifications Updated 01/27/14

Performance
Ark Grip Exhaust
Ark Test Pipe
HVT Dynamic Electronically Controlled Valving Prototype Coilovers
HVT Camber Plates
RacerXFabrication LCA w/Urethane Ends
Whiteline Front Control Arm Inner Rear bushings (waiting to be installed)
P&L Motorsports Black Stainless Steel Brake Lines
Carbotech XP-10 Front and Rear
Kartboy Rear Shifter Stay Bushing
Turn in Concepts Solid Steering Rack Bushings
Motive Autowerks Master Cylinder Brace
Forgestar F14 18x9.5 +40 all around
265/35/18 Michelin Pilot Super Sports
ARP Carbon Fiber Brake Ducts and Full Hose Kit

Exterior
Tom's JDM Tail Lights
Dual Function LED Authentic JDM Sidemarkers - Paint Match Tinted with Clear
Professionally shaved front bumper
Fully debadged except rear Subaru oval
Trunk swap spoiler delete
Muteki Gloss Black close ended lug nuts
Grimmspeed Hood Struts
30%/15% Front Rear Full Ceramic Tint
Headlight Conversion - 700mA Brighter Boomerang, 700mA Luxeon Rebel x7 Turn Signals, Clear Lens Swap, Washer Modded, Fully Blacked Out

Interior
Blue LED Interior Conversion
Dual Function Domelight
Hardwired Valentine 1
Color Matched Autodimming Homelink Mirror with Integrated Color Modded V1 Remote Display
Raceseng Slammer Shift Knob
Accele RVC1150T Backup Camera
WeatherTech Floormats
Custom TapTurn Module with DRL Enable/Disable Outputs


One-Off Projects
Blue LED Interior Conversion


Hardwired Valentine 1 Install

Blue Valentine 1 Homelink Mirror Retrofit

Dual Function Domelight


Dual Function LED Authentic JDM Clear Sidemarkers

LED Headlight Conversion


Background
My car list is relatively short. I'm 26 years old and have been working on cars since I was 6. When I was growing up, we had a laundry list of domestics including a blown 68 Camaro, a 68 stepside chevy with a 454, a 78 F150, a dirt track racer, etc. In high school, my first car was a 98 GMC Sierra, and this is when my passion for electronics and lighting really came about. When I was 18, I picked up a 2005 Nissan 350Z. I drove that car for 5 years and worked on tons of electrical projects for myself and several others.

In 2010, I picked up a 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution 9. Due to a catastrophic engine failure 3 weeks after I picked up the car, it went under the knife for 8 months getting a 2.4L built motor and all the bells and whistles. My ultimate goal was a daily driven highway monster. Here it is as it sits:


I was always a sucker for Electric Blue.


Mustang Dyno 93 oct Tune: 352/370


Mustang Dyno E85 Tune: 556/546



Fast foward to 12/24/2012. I had been eyeballing the FR-S/BRZ for years but never really considered one. My commute for a few months had been 90 miles a day. The Evo is definitely not a grand tourer. Balance shaft deletes, no cats, solid motor/transmission mounts, horrible mitsubishi build quality all combined to make a very tiring drive. All of that plus never-ending miscellaneous shop visits for maintenance or tuning tweaks put a sour taste in my mouth, not to mention pissing the girlfriend off something fierce.

I finally made the decision to part out the Evo and sell it. I truly wanted to buy a Toyota, but the "Scion" plus the lack of any trim levels pushed me to the BRZ. On the Evo, I had always planned on switching out many of the sub-par systems that came standard with the USDM models with the nicer features that came standard on the EUDM/JDM models such as auto-climate controls, headlight level control, HIDs, etc.

I decided I wasn't going to mess around with that stuff this go around, and decided on the BRZ Limited. I wanted a black 6 speed and didn't want to wait. I called around to every dealership I could find in the state. Not a single one had the combination I wanted. I finally found Ferguson Superstore up in Tulsa, OK. They had one with everything I wanted with only 8 miles on the odometer. I flew up the next week and drove the car down on Christmas Eve. Here are a few pictures when I picked her up!






And this is the first day home.


-Acree

[bdub85]

Great looking car! I did the same thing you did. I had a Evo IX, and I ended up selling it for an FR-S. Didn't have as much work as you, but it was putting out 350 whp on a Mustang Dyno on 93.

[swift996]

Nice, congrats!

[ATL BRZ]

CBW FTW! Congrats!

What are your suspension plans?

[Acree]

Originally Posted by ATL BRZ

CBW FTW! Congrats!

What are your suspension plans?

I'm looking at a set of KW V3s or AST 4100 or 5100. All of these suspension work will be done at the same time as tires and wheels. Before I touch any of that stuff, I will be doing full intake/header/test pipe/exhaust/tune. I'm looking really hard at the Nameless catless header and am almost positive I will go with the Ark Grip exhaust.

-Acree

[Acree]

Blue LED Interior Conversion

I've been doing LED interior conversions since 2005. I started on the 350Z/G35 platform and moved on to the Evo 8/9/10 when I bought my evo 9. With under 500 miles on my car, I converted the BRZ.

Every LED has been selected with the exact same spectral distribution. This means that the color blue perceived between components is identical. In some of the pics, the color of blue appears to be lighter. In reality, the color is exactly the same as the first picture. Unfortunately the camera renders brighter blue light as a "lighter" blue in the photos.



This is the true color and evenness of the LCD screens.




















This one is really over-exposed, but I love it.


-Acree

[Acree]

Dual Function Daybright Domelight

Copied from the other thread...

This is a project I've been working on for a few weeks now and thought I would finally share it with you guys. I really didn't like the idea that in order for me to have blue lighting in my car, I would have to sacrifice usability and utility. If you've ever tried to find/read something in pure red/blue/whatever light, you know it's difficult at best. I decided to remedy that problem by creating a dual function domelight.

After waiting a couple of weeks, I finally received my proto-boards, reflow soldered the components, and retrofit it into the domelight assembly. There are a total of 24 PLCC LEDs that are used for accent lighting. The 6 main LEDs are Luxeon Rebel LEDs and run up to 900mA each.





For the Accent function, the domelight is simply left in the "DOOR" position. A voltage controlled pulse width modulation circuit ensures that the LEDs are dimmed as LEDs should properly be dimmed. Every single product offering currently available for this vehicle does not properly dim the LEDs and simply relies on the stock voltage drop. This leads to a domelight that seems to just instantly turn off after dimming just a small amount. My domelights accent LEDs dim 100% linearly. There is also built in thermal shutdown protection, over-current protection, and over-voltage protection.







[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhA-6GIDAz0&feature=player_detailpage"]Daybright Domelight Accent Function - YouTube[/ame]

For the Main LED function, the domelight is simply switched to "ON." The main LEDs are truly the best part about this project. I designed the board where I can easily choose any amount of light output between 100 Lumens, all the way up to 1400 Lumens of total output. For comparison, a stock HID bulb outputs ~3200 Lumens. I ultimately narrowed it down to 3 stages:

Stage 1 - 500 Lumens
Stage 2 - 900 Lumens
Stage 3 - 1400 Lumens

The comparison photos were all shot at the exact same F-Stop and ISO. Enjoy.











Another upside to this design is the Accent LEDs can be any color, and the main LEDs can be any color. This includes cool, neutral, warm white, plus deep red, red, red-orange, amber, green, cyan, blue, royal blue, purple, etc.

-Acree

[Skorov]

Looks awesome!!
I have a question regarding your instrument cluster. How did you get the numbers and the lines on the Tacho to be different colours? They are coloured by the same LEDs are they not?

Did you have to paint the lines blue?

[Skippman]

My god that's beautiful work! How long did that take you to do?

[Acree]

Originally Posted by Skorov

Looks awesome!!
I have a question regarding your instrument cluster. How did you get the numbers and the lines on the Tacho to be different colours? They are coloured by the same LEDs are they not?

Did you have to paint the lines blue?

It's a combination of LED swap, substrate alterations and additions, and some other tricks.

Originally Posted by Skippman

My god that's beautiful work! How long did that take you to do?

The interior conversion is a 12 hour straight job. The domelight took a little over a month from conception to final assembly. I'm still working on a few small revisions of the board design.

-Acree

[Skorov]

Originally Posted by Acree

It's a combination of LED swap, substrate alterations and additions, and some other tricks.
-Acree

Damn you and your secrets!

Thanks for the answer.

[Lverasky]

The blue led looks so cool.love it,

[Febul]

Originally Posted by Andrew@Autolux

It's a combination of LED swap, substrate alterations and additions, and some other tricks.




The interior conversion is a 12 hour straight job. The domelight took a little over a month from conception to final assembly. I'm still working on a few small revisions of the board design.

-Acree

Where are you located? Would you be willing to do this for pay?

~Febul

[FriedRicr]

i would pay to get this done ot my future fr-s ..... wow!