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StormChaseTV

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Posts posted by StormChaseTV

  1. UPDATE I guess I broke the rules with my acronym and suggestive mention of 8" hailstones and your mothers. Basically, if you want to follow this build, check this thread. If I can't make wiener jokes, I'm not using your forum, simple as that. Delete the thread, ban me, send me a PM about being immature, whatever. let the :Flame:ing begin. PAAAAAAAYCE.

     

    Sorry about that. My biggest problems in life come from trying too hard to be funny. Hi. I'm Mike. I am a professional storm chaser, and I drive a subaru. Specifically, she's a worn out 05 2.5rs wagon, totaled by softball hail and a half-blind elderly woman with no insurance. I would love to tell you more about the wagon. However, to truly understand this, you must look into the past...

     

    Severe Hail Intercept Team

     

    It all started back in 2008, year of our lord. We came up with the acronym after a few hours of smoking drugs and killing cops on GTA San Andreas. It was just a joke at first, but then we realized we had seen over 50 tornadoes, and only seen baseball hail 2 or 3 times. Finding the big hail on purpose is harder than finding the tornado. That, and we missed quite a few tubes because we didn't want to bust out any windows. Sometimes you have to punch through the hail to get to the sweetspot...

     

    51810pano.jpg

     

    172840_112767695464388_7276176_o.jpg

     

    So we decided to use the acronym and build a roof-rack that fully protected the windshield, and even a little protection on the sides and rear... The Tahoe became the S.H.I.T. A lot of the chaser community thought it was fun, we even had a cameo on the Discovery Channel show...

     

     

    Severe Hail Intercept Team 2.0

     

    I just kind of fell into this whole Subaru thing. I know a skateboarder dude in Tulsa with an old lifted wagon, I've always been intrigued by rally stuff, and one day I just decided to check it out. Some googling and forum surfing turned into craigslist surfing. That night I found a 94 lego wagon with low miles for a good price. So I bought the wagon with every intention of bedlining the whole thing, building a huge hail rack, and doing the Forester strut/spring lift. However, storm season snuck up on me, and I chose to chase in my granny wagon with no hail cage and no lift. She did very well, averaging 27mpg, 28k miles(mostly chasing) since January, assisting me with the 30 tornadoes in 2011. Here are some highlights:

     

    IMG00567-20110201-1136.jpg

     

    shatsnow.jpg

    one of the early February blizzards in Tulsa

     

    pano423.jpg

    INCREDIBLE supercell structure 4-22-2011 Gainesville, TX

     

    EIMG_5611.jpg

    awesome tube near Abilene, TX 4-24-2011

     

    pei3ont.jpg

    Piedmont, OK EF5, Falcon Lake addition. This was a rough day for me. Watched the mile wide beast cross Waterloo a couple miles in front of me. First on scene, a minute behind the tornado. Being there and helping before fire/ems is quite a sobering experience. This day I found a 2 year old baby boy clinging to life after being tossed 200ft from his home with his 3 year old brother and 4 year old sister. That's a story for another day...

     

    IMG_1339.jpg

    Rare Osage County, OK tube in the hills. 7-18-2011

     

    IMG_0067ed.jpg

    Surprise sunset lightning June 2011

     

    Severe Hail Intercept Team 2.1

     

    The old leggy wagon treated me well, and took the beating like a champ. With the extra weight in the back, she didn't handle the slippery mud roads too well. Also may have been something wrong with the awd. Anyways, I ended up swapping the tranny/rear diff. into a 97 impreza L sedan. I took her on a few chases, and she handled the mud and abuse like a champion. Here are some highlights:

     

    pani2fb.jpg

    Nice supercell structure, NW OK September 17, 2011

     

    7.jpg

    8.jpg

    November 7, 2011 AMAZING tornadoes near Snyder, OK

     

    http://youtu.be/ivt0Kzb4Bk4

     

    Severe Hail Intercept Team 2.2

     

    I started a new job back in March. As I pulled in, I noticed a gorgeous silver 05 2.5rs wagon, completely smashed by hail. I loved it so much I shot a few pictures. I got inside and found out it belonged to a friend of mine, and was damaged by the May 16, 2010 NW OKC prolific hail event, which I chased. I begged him to sell me the car, and he said he would once he gets financially stable enough to buy a new truck... November 10th I got the email I had been waiting for all year. He was ready to sell her.

     

    005.jpg

    baseballs

     

    MUDDiN.jpg

    mud test passed

     

    roo.jpg

    lightbarz

     

     

     

    I have some big plans for the 05 rs wagon. Always use protection. My goal is to make the wagon capable of safely taking world record hail-stones(8"). I also decided a simple exo-cage would be neat-o. Not so much to protect us from rolling, but for falling trees/power poles. I started off wanting to do a sturdy tube bumper front and back, and a roof-rack that protects the windshield from the big hail. We were in lower Manhattan for Hurricane Sandy, and it's a miracle none of the trees fell onto our rental car. Every time there is a fairly significant wind event anywhere that isn't the Great Plains, someone dies in a car from a falling tree. I've also had many near-miss run-ins with downed power poles at night. It would add some peace-of-mind, as well as look pretty sick. I like attention, and a lifted impreza wagon with an exo-cage and a weather station on the roof would do the trick.

     

    phase 1:

    install all red panels(I want my own hail dents)

    forester suspension lift

    tires

    front tube bumper

     

    phase 2:

    rear tube bumper

    roof rack w/pneumatic windshield guard

    polycarbonate door glass.

    simple exo-cage

    white Line X the entire body?

     

    Phase 1 starts this weekend. I found an 04 forester today at the pull-it-yourself-@sshole salvage yard. I'm going to wrestle the struts and trailing arm brackets out tomorrow, get new front axles, and git-r-dun. I pretty much never follow through with plans. Don't be surprised if I don't update this thread hahaha.....hah....

    • Like 1
  2. I bought a 97 impreza L that had been sitting for a while. I noticed a small tick, and a small oil leak on the front seal, and had planned on doing the whole oil pump/timing belt deal. NOW there's a worse leak on the back side, that drips down onto the exhaust. It drips much worse than the front seal. I probably lose about half a quart a week. Where is it coming from? IMAG0362.jpg

  3. I bought a 97 impreza L sedan. The ************monkey failed to mention a few things, including the key not matching the doors, since he swapped the OG ignition with something else. So The only key I have starts the car, and I can't lock my doors. However, I'm about to strip my old 94 Lego and I was wondering if I could swap the ignition and locks and just use that key. I checked Opposedforces.com and couldn't find anything involving the ignition. Thanks!

  4. Ok glad I didn't cause any more damage. It's getting spark, runs fine when cold. When it reaches operating temp, it starts sputtering and bogging down. If I give it gas, it dies, and then eventually won't start again until it cools off (it's 110 outside, hasn't started since 11am). I'm sure it will start here in a few hours when the sun goes down. After searching this forum with the symptoms, I decided to throw the sensor at it. No dice. I also may not have purged the air out of the cooling system correctly, but I can't re-do that until it starts. I'm taking it to a shop nearby tomorrow to have them do the obdII freeze frame to see what exactly is happening once it reached operating temp. Thanks guys.

  5. I bought a 97 impreza L sedan, and had my 94 lego tranny swapped into it. It's all good. After driving for a few minutes, it starts sputtering like it's out of gas. It's not out of gas, and after some research decided to try the coolant temp sensor. It wasn't throwing a code, so I threw a part at it. After plugging in the new sensor, I guess I didn't reconnect one of the hoses, and started the car. it ran for a few then sputtered and died again. I found the hose, put it back where it is supposed to be, and the car wont start. Here is a pic of the hose...

    hose.jpg

    When I took it off, coolant leaked a little bit, and that's all i know about it. What damage could I have caused by running it with this hose disconnected?

     

    Thanks!

  6. Heres what I have been thinking about doing to my 94 legacy wagon: OB struts/springs up front, forester on the back(kill the buttsag) with your 2" spacers on top. Would I have to add any steering linkage or do any dicking with anything else?

  7. SoobNoob here. I have a 94 legacy wagon, and I need to get 'er off the ground. Looks like something my grandma would drive. I've been thinking about doing the forester strut lift. I want to get as high as I can get without having to wongleflute around with too much. What are my options?

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