Ever since I started driving, I’ve wanted a Subaru WRX. Living in Nevada where it usually snows often, not only would the car be a great utility, but it’d be extremely fun and sporty. For financial reasons, I had to settle with the family’s old ’96 Subaru Outback. I was less than thrilled. “Great, a station wagon.” “That car barely runs!” These were just a few thought running through my head at the time. Regardless, it was still a car, and still a Subaru (if it isn’t obvious, I’m obsessed with Subaru). When Michael got his WRX, that only fueled my desire for my own even more. Realistically though, that was impossible, so I settled for the next best thing: make the car I had the best it could possibly be. The first major project was getting a hood scoop. Sporty, aggressive, and even functional, a hood scoop would put me on the path to a more performance look. Lucky for me, Subaru makes a model of Outback (technically the Legacy Outback for my model year) that already had a scoop. I just needed to get one. A new hood would cost me upwards of $500 from the Subaru factory, but I knew I could do better. I hit all the car scrapyards around, looking for an old hood to call my own. I finally found one off of a black 1999 Outback in Nebraska. This car had seen better days, but other than a few hail dings and the color mismatch, the hood seemed fine. I picked it up for a measly $60 and change. Astronomically better than the $500+ option from Subaru. Work began with sanding off all the old paint and filling the dents.

While a trivial task, it was time consuming and working around poor weather and family schedules meant this stage of the refurbishment took almost a week. Next came paint. As I was out of town and without my car, Michael kindly broke into my car (read: borrowed my keys) and took pictures of the paint code of my Outback. Luckily, my Uncle knew a guy, so I got a sweet discount on paint. A job that would usually cost upwards of $400 (red paint is generally the most expensive) cost me $250.

Needless to say, I will not be buying a red car in the near future. With the red hood looking like new, I got to painting the scoop insert with a can of basic factory black-grey metallic from a local car shop.

Getting the hood back to Nevada was an adventure, and I wish I took pictures, but it basically involved a ninteen year old Subaru hood strapped to the top of a newer Subaru SUV and trekking along I-80 for twenty-one hours. Despite a few small dings and smudges in the clear, the hood came out great. I expect a fresh coat of wax to take most of the blemishes right out.