3eyedwagon

I agree with your point on this. If you don't know the history of the vehicle, it is always best to assume the worst. I'd treat it like it has been mostly buffed off. I've done this to a few older rigs where the clearcoat had started getting hazy. You can even pull it off on paint jobs where the clear coat is peeling. It's more difficult, but it is doable. I would find someone who knows what they are doing, and has experience doing something like this before. Even if you have to remove the clear, you can lightly sand the color coat, and shoot from there. It sounds like you are just going to scuff the clear, get the haze out of it, then re-shoot a new clear over it. It should work just fine. I'd go no coarser than 1200 grit for a job like that though. Any more, and it will show through like a turd in a punchbowl. Be sure to find out what the stock paint system is for that particular vehicle. I have never messed with painting Subs, so I have no idea what to tell you there. Just be sure to be very careful with what paint system you use to refinish it. Not all clearcoat systems are compatible, and even though your paint has had years to cure; incompatibility could cause a chemical reaction, and ruin any work you have done. This is where an expert is a must. Good luck!

Oh come on! That's the only way I can get a tan around here in the winter!!!

It looks like nice work. I'm a big fan of ingenuity. And if it works for the guy, who the heck am I?

Whatever ammount of lift you are doing, be sure to match the same dimension with the shocks. I messed around with this a bit on the shocks I made. I made a set 1" shorter than my lift to act as limiting straps, I did this as I had heard of the problems EA81s had with breaking rear axles with the tire completely dropped. They worked fine, however, they did bottom out under compression. Aside from it being annoying; I'm sure it was very tough on the stock mounting. So, in my opinion, if you are doing a 4" lift; be sure to do 4" extension on your stock shocks. If you go too long, you will allow more rear suspension flex, and probably break axles with the suspension dropped/flexed out. If you go to short; you will experience the bottoming out that I did.

Looks like 10lbs of ***** in a 5lb bag to me! But then again; a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!!

Considering some of these pictures in the deep water are in the daylight, and other more desperate ones are taken after dark, I have to ask; Was it a long day of wheeling???

The upright connectors between the two pipes can count in most situations. If the total flat surface area of the uprights in betwixt:rolleyes:, and the "flat" surface of the round tube makes 4 inches in height, you would be all legit. At least that's how a bunch of my police buddies, and I read/interpreted it. That was a good portion of my inspiration for the design of my front bumper. It is a tube bumper. BUT the uprights, and flat plate (even smaller sections of it than this) still count as "a technically flat surface". It's all really about interpretation of the law I guess. If a cop wants to hose ya, he's gonna hose ya.

Just to clarify for everyone; This guy is talking about a rear ea81 shock setup. Just figured I'd clarify before this turned into an EA82 post that is full of useless info to this guy....

If you are looking for Ipod, and Bluetooth interface capabilities; make sure the internal hardware, and software are made by Parrot. They make THE BEST Bluetooth stuff on the market, and their internals are found in all high-end Bluetooth capable players. I would however suggest you steer clear of actual Parrot brand in car decks. I have one I bought, and installed in my Roadmaster. The Bluetooth, and Ipod interface are some of the best I've seen, but the rest of the deck is junk. The rare times I try to play a CD, or MP3 CD, things go horribly wrong. My biggest suggestion would be to stay with the top brands (IE: Alpine, JVC, Panasonic, Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony, etc.), and buy an upper escellion piece. Pretty much all of the companies have both really horrible stuff (grey line crap manufactured to be sold at Wally World), and really top notch stuff that sells only in reputable local shops. Just find something you like the controls of, because that's what you are going to deal with the most. But be sure it is a good brand, and if it's $119 bucks installed at Best Buy: it probably isn't going to last as long as a slightly different model that cost alot more!

Yeah. The auto darks are hard to beat. I have had some real good luck with the cheapo "Astro" brand ones. It is a mass produced auto darkening solar powered welding helmet that Astro Tools just puts their name on. You can find the same exacts helmets under a multitude of names. You can pick them up for $80 now. I have two of them that I've had for over 4 years. They don't take any batterys, like some of the more expensive Autoshades do, and I've found them to be every bit as durable. Plus, it just doesn't make sense to me to have to turn a welding helmet on, and replace batteries when they run dead.....

Sorry man, never seen the setup of which you speak. I can totally understand why you want to do this, keeping it low budget and all. I'm a big fan of that kind of stuff. I would honestly look into the kind of setup I described, it was really simple. Basically it is the same idea, just welded rather than bolted. And if you already have a decent pair of stock shocks lying there, you may as well use them! Once you do go for new shocks though, mine were only like $45 for the pair at NAPA. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I'm not sure what gen you are speaking of, but by reading your bio I'm going to assume you are talking about an EA81 rear shock setup. For a temporary set of shocks on the rear of my EA81 wagon, I took the stock shocks, and ground off the upper mounting loop. The stockers were welded lightly, and some careful grinding took the top loop right off. Be careful if you do this, don't grind too deep or aggressively as you could damage the shock. I then cleaned, and dressed both pieces to prepare them for welding. I then cut 2 pieces of (one for each shock) 1/4" walled 1" diameter pipe 4" in length (for a 4" lift), and cleaned them on each end. I fish mouthed one end of the 1" pipe for the stock shocks upper loop to mate better to the 1" pipe. I then tacked everything in place, and gave it the roll test to make sure stuff was straight. When you weld the top piece onto the pipe it will get hot, and the rubber bushing will catch fire, so be ready to quench it frequently. The shocks worked fine, and I had only planned on using them temporarily. They made a couple of wheeling trips, and I never had any problem with them. I think OneEye still has them on a lifted wagon if I'm not mistaken. I eventually bought some aftermarket ones I ordered by dimension from the shock book. I think most all shocks anyone has found to use from other sources have required light fabrication to get them to work. Mostly just a redrill of the upper mounting holes. I believe the popular setup for a 4" lift is a set from a Toyota LandLoser. I'm not sure what mine are as I ordered them by dimension.

a little zzz and some and all of the sudden OH DANG!!! and I was like:

So when you gonna EJ that *&%$*%?

Ummmmm. Thanks?

It rains "just a bit" where I live, and I've made it my whole life without AWD. While AWD is nice, in the end, it isn't a necessity by any means. I could see justifying it in a place that gets snow 9 months out of the year, like maybe Alaska. However, to most of the 48 states, AWD is hardly a necessity. If someone can't drive a RWD or FWD vehicle in the wet, they probably shouldn't have a license!! As for the whole Darwinism aspect, if that holds true; around 90+% of people in the greater Seattle area should be killed in fatality car wrecks any time now, as most of the cars driving up, and down I-5 every day aren't AWD.

I forgot to add: Dude, if your name means what I think it means...... that is awesome. If by some chance it doesn't; I apologize if I have offended you. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Well done. Well done. I haytz it when all my stuffs is brokud and it dont werks rights.

Be sure to let me know where you guys decide on. By that I guess I mean just post it up here. It's a long haul from up here, but if I can con Jeff into it; I may be game. Would be nice to meet some of you guys!

If they went back to in/out 4wd, it would be one of the best idea they've had in years. Hi/Lo would be even better, with a similar style to the old miter box T-cases. It would be a great idea. I just REALLY hope that 17%, or whatever the magic number is, doesn't bring the good percentage down by trying to ride coat tails, and take the "good stuff".

If they aren't going to do AWD; At least it's right wheel drive. That's about all it's got going for it. I guess Subaru will have to drop the "AWD is ALL we DO" statement out of their advertisements. Also, That thing has a LONNNNNG way to go before it makes it to production. I really hope some of the ugly gets knocked off of it before then. It kinda looks like something designed by............ Toyota. Oh yeah, and a streamlined pile of bum puke. But mostly a Toyota.

yeah. 88.8, I just hit the wrong button and didn't feel like changing it.

Yeah. But they are a PITA to find. Didn't they only come on the US Ski Team wagons?

Sorry Bucky, The title led me to believe this was something totally different, and now that I know it isn't; I won't be able to attend.... Sorry. An obscure fetish joke was just way too easy there. And I'll take any bad joke I can get my hands on, ask OneEye! If I were in the area, I'd totally help ya take stuff apart though!!

Different, but it looks real good man. I like it, it looks like you are ready to tackle the Baja. Just one thing for future reference; Clean the heck outta that stock sheetmetal before you weld anything else to it. That bumper is only as good as the point it is mounted to, and you coulda done some pretty good welds if you had cleaned that metal real good.