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I got a 2009 Outback special edition instead. Only 95,000 miles on it. It spent 2016-2025 in Arizona and before that in Colorado. Pretty much rust free. I drove it home to Fairbanks, Alaska.

Busy workweek this week - but I got some really wonderful weather today and took the opportunity to get the next notable step dealt with - making the threaded mounting points for the impreza diff subframe. Also before I get too far into it, a protip/safety tip: if someone finds themselves recreating this, or if I decide to do it again - make sure you're using plain, non-galvanized tubing. I'm sure someone has spotted that already and was kind enough to keep their yap shut about it 😅 I used what I have on hand and looking back at it the prep work involved to safely weld this stuff with my setup quickly wiped out any minor cash savings I made by not just going to buy another stick of tubing. I'm sure I don't have to go into details about the dangers of working with galvanized material, but it's worth repeating that Zinc is bad for you in gaseous form and if you're gonna encounter it to take the proper safety precautions. With that out of the way - the photo essay goods: After everything was tacked up and nominally square - I clamped the new frame in its place on top of the bushings, and marked the first hole location for the threaded inserts ( M16 nuts I'm welding in), then center punched and drilled out the hole. I had access to weld the outer half of the nut since it's pretty close to the end of the tube and I used a technique i learned involving some clever placement of smaller access holes to get the inside faces of the nuts fused in. Like the other channels, this will all get boxed in and closed up when i'm happy with the fitment. After this I continued marking and drilling one hole at a time, using the Impreza subframe as a jig to make sure things ended up where they needed to be. I also drilled these holes slightly oversize so that I have a little wiggle room in their placement. Their final positions were dictated with tacks on the welder and then fully welded off of the impreza subframe so as not to melt or damage the bushings. After the new weldment and sheet metal subframe were temporarily assembled together, I put the diff back in it, put it on the transmission jack and then bolted the diff to the front mounts under the car. The original holes and features made for a really handy reference mark and wouldn't you know it, things came out super even. So even in fact, I couldn't help but loosely bolt the lateral links in, prop the trailing arm up, and lean the coilovers (not pictured) up in there without any bolts to get an idea of how things are going to sit. I can almost see it on the ground again! (It'll still be a while). I don't know if I'll be able to narrow the rear wheelbase quite as much as I'd have originally liked, though with a quick google having a slightly wider rear track isn't uncommon and can actually help with certain handling characteristics. I might have to flare my rear fenders, as I do not think I'm going to be able to reduce the rear width the full 9" (4.5" on each side) or so I originally measured without some pretty significant clearancing wizardry beween subframe and coil. I'll have a better plan of attack here once I've got everything semi-permanently affixed to the frame but either way what this is telling me is that I'll probably need to refrain from fully welding in this frame modification until I've got the suspension completely located. I'm also eyeballing putting in a set of rear discs rather than these drums, as I'm not a huge fan of drum brakes and well... I'm already really in the weeds so why not just do it from the ground up? Might get a little more in on this over the weekend, but I'll be playing that by ear. Until the next one! -M

A leaky injector will leak regardless of being plugging in electrically or not from what I understand. It’s worn injector components or grit that holds the injector open allowing the residual fuel pressure to leak out. You could bench test this easily enough. Build up pressure with an external efi pump, shut it off and watch for leaks with a cup under the injector to catch any fuel (this will give you an idea of how much is leaking too). Also check the injector wires to ensure there’s no current keeping the injector open after engine shut down. That would be a long shot but anything is possible.

Great choice, the turbo's with age are highly problematic. Gas turbo's in general are be design more complex and don't age well. The turbo's fail, replacement turbo's often aren't good quality, any overheating or low oil situation quickly plants the seeds for catastrophic block failure. And by this age it's not uncommon for one to see oil or overheating issues at somepoint in the past.

Your biggest potential (though unlikey on a car this new) issue will be trying to get the ball joint out of the knuckle. It will all depend on how much rust/salt that thing has seen. The guys out west and down south don't have to worry about that and can pop ball joints all day long. The ball joint just pops out. Up here....sometimes they pop out, sometimes they don't. I've ripped t(metal shards and all) the ball joint shaft right through the actual ball itself which was left rust welded into the knuckle, then you're spending a lot of time chiseling/drilling to get the remnant of the ball joint outer casing separated from the knuckle housing and you'll need to replace the ball joint. Good chance a 2018 isn't that bad and comes right out...but if you ever do experience a rusty ball joint you will curse everyone who says "oh just pop the ball joint out" and realize they often live down south/west or are dealer guys only working on new cars under warranty. Are the current axles bad, these newer axles often run a lot of miles without issues and almost never fail. An aftermarket axle may very well fail before the originals with 200,000 miles. In rust prone areas many of us avoid the ball joint and just undo the lower strut mount bolts to replace an axle. The top bolt impacts camber, so you mark the HEAD (not the nut) of the bolt relative to the knuckle housing and make sure you install it exactly where it was before you did the work. EA81, EA82, ER27's are all front parking brakes, so yeah nothing newer than 1994!

I used Lemforder 3015501 boots. I just replaced them a month ago so I cannot attest to their durability. They did feel and appear to be of OEM quality. They withstood my manhandling when installing (IYKYK) without cracking or tearing.

If that device on the dryer is good it sounds like you have a bad contact - or not the correct amount of refrigerant in the system. You should have two electrical devices in the system - a low pressure switch and and high pressure switch. Either of these will disable the system to protect it from damage when the gas pressures aren’t correct/within an operational range.

I owned an 1100 FF-1 from '77-81, and did all the repairs and maintenance myself. Mine was completely stock and everything worked perfectly. i can verify a few things from personal experience... The brake system was A-OK with DOT-3 brake fluid as was the Star and 360 models before. The dual radiator system worked great, and that was in Southern Lousiana and Central Arkansas in the Summer. At speed (above 30 or so), the fan would never have to run even on the hottest days. On cold days, there were times when it took a long time for the cabin to warm up though. The stock wheels were narrower (by 1/2 inch) than the later Leone models after '74. I currently have a '73 wagon that came with those same narrow wheels, but later models were 1/2" wider. The narrow wheels are very light, and combined with the in-board brake drums, the front torsion bar suspension, and the steering geometry, the FF-1 was the most fun car to drive of all the cars I've ever owned (and I'm not kidding). There is so little unsprung weight on a stock FF-1 that it literally "floats" over obstacles, and it was almost effortless to steer the car as well. The turning radius never failed to impress me. I could turn completely around in spaces that would be challenging for a large motorcycle! Great looking FF-1 Jamie! I'll keep my eye open for parts in the event you want to return more things back to stock. Subaru had nothing to be embarassed about the design of that car!