Our Homie Dean - A Car Dad

Being a car enthusiast has a different meaning to everyone, but in most all cases it involves some fun stories shared with friends or family. For many it is a hobby that was passed down father to son or Mother to Daughter etc, well that chain has to continue right? 

Dean is a perfect example of our "Formative" lifestyle with his "Learn to do it myself" attitude, and the fact that he most times he has his son DJ right there in the garage with him! Dean was able to take a one fender bender away from a scrap yard Subaru and turn it into a clean, well built and enjoyable car for him and his fam to enjoy!

Mod list: (Dean Turned his "Mod List" into more of a story)  I traded a 500 pit bike I built from the ground up for the wagon. When I first picked up the wagon the entire front clip was missing fenders radio support and all. The kid I trade the pit bike for hit a deer with it. It was classified as totaled. I ordered a JDM front clip from Used jdm engines in Maryland to get the process started.

I removed all the rust stuff left from the wreck including about 12 inch of frame rail. And welded the JDM radar support to the car and put the front end back together. Repaired all badly damage and rust to repeat the entire car the factory Aspen white.

After enhanced inspection I ordered coilovers, rotiform BLQ, fresh rubbers. Replaced the clutch flywheel with exedy pro kit. Also did the the axles motor and trans mounts. Drilled slotted rotors while the motor was out. Found a discontinued produce front lip and added 3 inches to each end since the lip was only made for a sedan. Made the lip completely bolt one no need for double sided tape. Designed my own front splitter, and read diffuser from eighth inch laser cut aluminum.

Favorite Mods: My favorite mods would be the roof rack to carry around my son DJ's wagon to shows and my front splitter and rear diffuser since no one else has another one like it.

What made you build your Subaru: Main reason I built the Subaru was due to the investment I could make from trading a 500 dollar pit bike for a car. Also the car had to be spotless to pass enhanced inspection so gave me a reason to respray the whole car and start from scratch with a basically brand new looking 02 all original car.

Any Future Plans: Future plans are to find a stock wrx motor to swap in. Nothing big I just want a reliable stock turbo for long drives and turbo noises. I'm working on making my own harnesses to make the heated wrx functional since my car was not equipped with them. Also plan to swap rear drums with wrx disc brakes. (Since I wrote this Dean has rebuilt his motor... so there is that)

Favorite Memories Involving the car: Favorite memories are long cruises and going to car meets and shows with my family. DJ loves the car and loves to going fast around turns and up and down hill. So any windy back road he is laughing and smiling instantly becomes another favorite memory. (I'm not crying, you're crying)

Any big challenges with the car: Most challenging moment was doing the body work. Somebody resprayed the car at some point in time with cheap paint. So when I tried to sand it smooth the paint would never feather out and would just chop. Next thing you know the entire car had to sanded smooth before Paint.

Favorite Events: Favorite car shows are definitely the Junk food meets. They combine my deep love for food trucks and cars all in one place. The Reid menzer meet was the best by far due to having my local skate park right beside the show to shred in between looking at cars.

How did you hear about Formative: I learned about Formative for the first time by passing a  slammed mk5 black Jetta on market street with a Formative banner. After looking on face book found out an old friend on mine Brenden (that's me fellas) was a co founder so I filled out my application and hoped for the best

What does a "Formative" llifestyle mean to you: A Formative lifestyle to me means leaving a positive influence on the ones around you not only by what you say but what you do. Every single person is different and their car reflects that. If you talk so badly about a persons car you talk bad about the person which is not always fair. That person might no be a 20 year veteran in the car scene but a newly involved car enthusiasts just trying to learn. It's hard to learn in today's world because people are so quick to put you on blast instead of pointing out an issue or flaw and helping them learn from that. Formative =  strong positive influence something people never forget. (F'in preach my guy, preach!)