Well she's alive and running!
First up is the Invidia Q300 catback,
Fitment isn't quite perfect though. Had to remove the heat shield around the driveshaft support bracket and even then the flex section is mere mm from that bracket so will probably rub when moving. May end up getting the flex section cut out and a straight piece put in its place, or might even just try an extended midpipe hanger to see if that can bring it down a touch without messing with the tip height.
Also purchased the Grimmspeed adaptor for 3inch midpipes to stock downpipes which allows the stock donut gasket to be reused. Quality is spot on as expected from Grimmspeed, but have now realised with that installed it spaces the catback out enough that the top half of the mufflers now make contact with the under body where the end of the stock muffler space ends. Have now removed that, wasn't any way for it to work cleanly, tried using a flat gasket but the difference in pipe size caused it to leak like a sieve even at idle. Have ended up just using the stock donut gasket squashed real tightly into the 3.0" catback pipe, obviously the contact area is extremely small so think it may end up leaking at some point down the track.
Other than that its just as awesome as I was expecting it to be. Also got the STI prings installed a few weeks back but i'll give it a few weeks of actual driving before taking any pics of them so they have a chance to settle into their final height.
Front mount is semi completed now too, it runs, but need to still make some proper pipe supports and paint the piping. Also want to get most, if not all the engine bay covers fitting again, even if some trimming is required.
And of course the Grimmspeed intake courtesy of Legacydan, intake temps seem to get quite high with it so think i'll make some sort of duct to feed it slightly better, but fit and finish are spot on.
With the huge decrease in restriction with both the intake and exhaust she's now making all kinds of dirty noises, some I like, some I don't. Getting a shit tonne of wastegate flutter noise from the 3-port which is bearable but there's also considerable 'wooshing' which i'm still not sure whether to be worried about or not. Sorta sounds like a leak but all the joins are tight and have pressurised it and not come up with any obvious leaks. May be just the pipework filling up, maybe even just from the 180 degree off the turbo.