Lerroy's 2014 JDM VMG (NZ)

lerroy · Sep 1, 2023

Welcome to my build thread

I'm making progress on my car as funds allow. I will try to add links to parts I have purchased to help anyone but feel free to ask questions.

Contents of main work done to the car for quick access:

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Original first post where it all started.

Hi all

Have been lurking on here a while, waiting for a good spec to come up for sale in NZ. finally found something that ticked all the boxes...

2014 GTS JDM import in White, full leather interior 70,000kms

I had it checked over pre inspection all seemed good, did say air con wasn't that cold
The mirrors also didn't seem to retract properly but did open when manually closed

i'll find out more next week but its looks to have

STI front lip and side skirts
OZ racing 18" satin black rims
silk blaze start button (looks quite odd that will go ASAP)
window deflectors
door handle protectors

Couple of questions if anyone could help:

1. Do they look like aftermarket mirrors ? Did white model ever come stock with mismatched mirror colours ?
Confirmed these are stock mirrors JDM and other levorgs always came with silver mirrors.

2. The headlights don't seem to have the black in them, searching online i see some early models are white like mine but some are black is there a difference at all ?

robo498 · Sep 1, 2023

I have the gen 2 levorg and it is grey with silver mirrors.... maybe that's what they did in Japan, or they swapped the mirrors of the newer model. You are correct about that start button... terrible! I see you didn't get the silver sports peddles? I think you should add them to your list! Other than that it looks great.

P.s. I did the idoing head unit and speakers, very good for the $$

Enjoy the car, if you were in Australia I have the sti gun metal wheels.....

Daniel03 · Sep 1, 2023

If I'm not mistaken the black in the headlights started on the 2017 models.

lerroy · Sep 1, 2023

robo498 said:
I have the gen 2 levorg and it is grey with silver mirrors.... maybe that's what they did in Japan, or they swapped the mirrors of the newer model. You are correct about that start button... terrible! I see you didn't get the silver sports peddles? I think you should add them to your list! Other than that it looks great.

P.s. I did the idoing head unit and speakers, very good for the $$

Enjoy the car, if you were in Australia I have the sti gun metal wheels.....

Thanks for pointing out pedals now im gonna have to get a set

it does look from google searches that you might be correct on the mirrors, and yep cant wait to get rid of that ugly start button just ordered oem

lerroy · Sep 1, 2023

Daniel03 said:
If I'm not mistaken the black in the headlights started on the 2017 models.

You might be right although i have seen a few JDM imports for sale 2014/15/16 with black also

robo498 · Sep 2, 2023

Take the covers off and spray them, or wrap them to change the colour?

lerroy · Sep 2, 2023

robo498 said:
Take the covers off and spray them, or wrap them to change the colour?

yeah i actually like the color difference jut wanted to find out if they were oem of aftermarket. all good

lerroy · Sep 23, 2023

Updates :

New wheels are on, much prefer them to the oz racing set, these are STI Spec C wheels from a 2009 ish..

I've removed the silk blaze starter and sourced an OEM from be-forward, installed much better than the strange aftermarket unit

New rear rubber matt sourced from Rubber tree in NZ, this car will be a weekend family car so hopefully protects rear.

You can purchase from here Rubbertree NZ

As you can see in this photo some speaker spacers, a new Idoing headunit, speakers and sound deadening are on order, as i have a 2014 the climate controls need to be swapped for the idoing unit to fit. I got new climate controls from Be-forward from a WRX 2017, luckily they are a straight swap and functions as per the original unit. I purchased the climate controls from beforward.jp

Was a bit of a pain to remove the factory head unit, all the videos online seem to show bolts on either side but after removing all the trim and inspecting mine didn't have these at all. I removed the vents and head unit front panel to reveal a pair of what look like some proprietary safety screws.

Seeing as the idoing unit wont be using these my solution was to multi tool the frame which released the headunit, wasn't what i really wanted to do but achieved what I wanted. I've filed back the metal that's left so its not as janky.

My head unit did come with the Panasonic nav unit, I don't have side view camera so hoping its not needed will test rest of car

I have 2x USB below head unit and 2x USB for rear USB charging, good news is they dont seem to be linked to the head unit and still function with it removed

STI pedals installed as well, sourced from Black hawk Japan, pretty easy install just a bit of fiddling, they go right over the rubber stock pedals except the brake with rubber has to be removed.

Link here for pedals $145 NZD

What's coming next / ordered :

New mesh grill from Japanparts
Rear STI pods from Japanparts
Idoing head unit
Dynamatt sound deadening / speaker spaces / tweeter mounts and OEM hardness adaptors.
Focal components speakers

Wanting to black paint the head lights, have sourced some new sealant and will do the old oven / heat gun trick to open them up. Have done this on previous Subarus without issue so touch wood. Whilst they are open I'm wondering if i can replace the C light with upgraded LEDs, seems to be a few kits online for WRXs has anyone done this ?

Also want to black out the chrome on rear bar and windows as well looking at options, might just plasti-dip as ive done before, vinyl tape looks like a good option as well but have no experience with that and looks finicky

LMTBRK · Sep 27, 2023

So nice man! Just bought myself a 2014 GTS last weekend. Same spec as yours, but with the blacked out headlights. Look forward to seeing what you do with yours bro!

lerroy · Sep 27, 2023

LMTBRK said:
So nice man! Just bought myself a 2014 GTS last weekend. Same spec as yours, but with the blacked out headlights. Look forward to seeing what you do with yours bro!

Thanks man congrats on your purchase

So strange how same year/spec has different headlights

lerroy · Sep 29, 2023

Had a pretty productive weekend...

Idoing head unit and Focal AS 165 F Component speakers installed, also sound deadened both front doors, im just running from the head unit at the moment but its still sounds pretty amazing.

Idoing head unit is awesome, screen is so sharp. just got to figure out the reverse camera as its not going, my 2014 was a strange one and it seems possibly the camera has been retrofitted as lots of joined wires.

I did tidy up previous gunk before reinstalling door skin

and did a roller job to push it all flat

Made some "custom" tweeter brackets out of wood and secured jamming the crossovers behind

, also this is where I ran the GPS module for the head unit

charlie_ching · Sep 30, 2023

That head unit looks great, might do something similar!

robo498 · Sep 30, 2023

I have that head unit and yes it sounds great, don't forget to play with the surround sound as it makes a big difference. While you have it all apart consider getting a usb dab+ installed? Any way back to the camera the head unit has 2 lots of cables at the back I can't remember what the names are but maybe you plugged in the camera to the wrong cables on the head unit? It took me 2 goes to get mine working! You can buy a cable from Amazon to plug into the usb cable the it plugs into the factory dash usb ports and makes them work as well.

lerroy · Sep 30, 2023

robo498 said:
I have that head unit and yes it sounds great, don't forget to play with the surround sound as it makes a big difference. While you have it all apart consider getting a usb dab+ installed? Any way back to the camera the head unit has 2 lots of cables at the back I can't remember what the names are but maybe you plugged in the camera to the wrong cables on the head unit? It took me 2 goes to get mine working! You can buy a cable from Amazon to plug into the usb cable the it plugs into the factory dash usb ports and makes them work as well.

Cheers, yeah was playing with sound options yesterday the DSP is actually pretty good

I wasn't sure about DAB didn't want to run another cable and mount to glass if I could avoid and honestly I don't really listen to radio much anyway. but ill do some research my car did have some DAB plugs for Antenna from original antenna might be a way without another thing on windscreen.

The camera is a bit strange, I have the 20 pin connector for power speakers etc all good, then there is a 5 pin connector that kinda does fit the harness that came with but not really the pins don't align. The other strange thing is there are additional wires and fuses spliced into original loom so I'm under impression somethings been added. Ill have to work out what's going on from original Panasonic loom and see.
The only thing that worked on the JDM old head unit was the camera hahah.

My car didn't have the USB under the dash connected to head unit they were just for power. I bought a USB recessed plug that's mounted flush in gear tunnel storage for the single idoing USB and i put the other two in the glove box

My idoing seems different to whats on the web also, allot skinnier and different arrangement for plugs

lerroy · Sep 30, 2023

Ok got it all sorted

the spliced wires that were confusing me were the JDM toll reader thingo, i removed all all good

I still couldn't get the 5 pin connection to fit into the idoing unit well, seemed to bend pins
instead i just choped the oem headunits plug and spliced the idoing camera input into 12+/Ground and used the RCA

still wouldn't switch when reverse was selected so identified and additional (i think) 6 pin plug with pink/green and purple wires
quick search on google said these were CAN wires and purple was reverse, i tested with voltmeter and worked. I spliced into idoing head unit Brown and black wire labelled "BACK" and now shows camera when reverse selected

stock loom left, chopped oem headunit plug that i tapped into

I doing camera connector spliced into oem plug for camera

Purple reverse wire tapped into idoing brown wire for Back or reverse trigger

Only problem is better screen shows the camera is not great quality, wonder if easy swap to upgraded model ?

These are my stock DAB antenna connectors anyone have a way i can utilise them ?

robo498 · Oct 1, 2023

Nice, working and all happy! Also try "agama car launcher", great front end for the unit and you can customise it.

Robsyuk · Oct 3, 2023

Do you know if the idoing unit has a plug for an under seat sub

lerroy · Oct 3, 2023

Robsyuk said:
Do you know if the idoing unit has a plug for an under seat sub

It has a loom that has a sub out as well as the rest of the line level outs for front, rear speakers etc to use external amp

You will just need to get power and ground to the under seat sub (most have auto sense trigger so no need to amp trigger)

lerroy · Oct 14, 2023

big weekend lots of bits arrived...

Below are links to products

I started with simple install of rear under spoiler, just needed 2 plastic clips and double sided tape, finishes off the STI kit

Painted the window sills/jams not sure what to call them, annoyed me that they didn't go all the way to the back window. I was going to mask but found they can be removed "fairly" easily, just be really careful with the fragile clips. I used plasti-dip just ion case ever want to return.

Next on the cards was improving the C light, painting inside the headlights black and the fog surrounds and installing the new grill. All of these relied on removal of the front bumper. Many many clips and screws later it was all off. I think the majority are for the STI lip, which I could have left most.

I removed the old grill installed the new just a few screws, removed the fog surrounds and pried the chrome off, on reflection I should have just left on masked and painted. the clips are very fragile and i broke a could have had to contact adhesive in place and will order a replacement.

I used a heat gun to pull apart the headlights (with help of my father) the gunk is sticky but it comes off fairly easily there are also a few screws.

These are the upgraded c-lights from liberal / Vision, the led unit is allot larger as you can see stock on the right. It has improved and its much brighter looks like I screwed up I found two screws leftover for headlight assembly what an idiot gonna have to pull apart next weekend and fix should sort out issues ~~but its not really uniform color and one headlight has a slight color change, this is probably the led diffuser though~~~~. Pretty easy install though direct swap~~

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I painted the headlight surrounds with a few coats and left 24 hours. I cleaned the lights and covers and wore gloves to not get any fingerprints. replaced the headlight sealant with Butyl tape I got on trade me. Heated it up with heat gun so it was easier to put back together and made sure all clips clicked in

Pretty happy with end results look more aggressive now

last item installed was the upgraded mirror LEDs from IIlumo in AUS

Easy install and big improvement over stock

Here's a before and after video

jarocki · Oct 16, 2023

I think what is more impressive with all that great work is your amazing garage set up

Lerroy's 2014 JDM VMG (NZ)

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