57 replies to this topic

[TheLoyale]

Yeah those are some good pics! Nice bucks as well.

[l75eya]

Looks like an awesome trip, and congratulations on the hitching of you two! Looked like an awesome ceremony. Also:

I Effin' LOVE sheetz. Italian MTO..the *best*.

[AdventureSubaru]

Impreza is due for a little rust work. Typical of this area, the rear wheel wells are rusting their way out. There's been at least one prior bondo fix, but it's failed and is coming through again.



This followed us home from a trip to Madison. Dig & Save is just about the coolest thrift store out there. Most clothing and small items are purchased (get this) - By the pound! How cool is that?

Anyway, this little welder was sitting there, needing a home and having no one to love it. And it being the Christmas season, my heart swelled with festive spirit as I read the price tag - $25. Obviously there was no testing it in the store, but I plugged it in and flipped the switch and it hummed and had a little green light that came on. Took that as a good sign.

Got it home and hooked it up in the basement. Took some researching. Wasn't thrilled that it's Chicago electric, but was pretty happy that after finding a manual online and fiddling with the dials (A LOT) that it actually made a half decent weld. Probably only useful for light metal welding, but still, it can hopefully help with some sheet metal until I've saved up for the Millermatic 140 that I've been dying for since spring.

So for $25. I'm pretty happy with it. If you're ever in Madison and searching for random tools, clothes whatever, look that place up.

[AdventureSubaru]

Doing an alignment soon. Anyone know if I can use stock camber bolts from the front to align the rear wheels?

Got a nice upgrade for my front seats. The original cloth ones are a little flat for some of the long bumpy trips we take.

Found these on Craigslist last night. The guy didn't even know what they were from.



So I'm going to be spending part of my afternoon swapping these in. Has all the power stuff for the drivers side, but seeing as I am going for lightweight for a smaller car, I'm thinking I'm just going to swap the Impreza mount over and keep them both manually adjusted.

[AdventureSubaru]

Here's the start of the day. Got the old cloth seats. They actually weren't that bad. A rip in the drivers side and they needed a good wash. Just not super comfy for those long trips.





Drivers seat was the challenge. The Baja had power seats. Impreza had manual. I wanted to stick with manual for ease of use and weight. There was no easy swapping over between the frames so I had to tear in and swap a number of pieces. Fingers were crossed that it would all interchange.



Got the lower seat pads off each one.



Impreza recline and bracket now on the Baja seat.



had to switch the metal frame pieces between the two as well. Here's the difference at the start. The mounting bolt holes are different in the front between the two.



Here are the two pans compared. You cans see the Baja had a spring setup whereas the Impreza was entirely foam filled.



Couldn't swap over the spring setup to the impreza pan without welding so I took a serrated knife and cut the foam bottom out of the Impreza pad.



Here's the pad and pan together with the Baja cover and pad. All fit rather neatly. Had to cut about two inches of the plastic clipping tabs away to avoid interfering with one of the mounting bolts.



Also had to make a small hole in the leather to allow another mounting bolt.



All together now. Baja seat on Impreza seat rails and reclining mechanism.



Installed in the car. The seats are so nice that I'm inspired to actually vacuum the interior of the car now. Need to find a way to ditch the tan floor mats sometime too.

Really happy with how they turned out.

[987687]

Why didn't you just bolt the baja seats in? Did they sit too high?

[AdventureSubaru]

They sat fine. Drivers was a power seat and I wanted manual. Turned into a bit of a project to get there though.

Passenger seat is all Baja. Just dropped right in and bolted down.

[xbeerd]

damn dude, $25 for a welder.. cant beat that even if its a cheapie.