MorganM

Just make sure where your main crossmembers bolt to the unibody is still sound and your sub frames are still solid. It's really just sick how rusty my wagon is but I do not feel unsafe at all. She is still solid !_! I noticed the 'rusty winter beater' portion of your post. That's key here. Youre obviously not going to go buy a new mint body to lift nor spend the money and wasted time repairing the rust. Lift that thing UP. When you go offroading in her you wont feel bad at all about coming down on a big rock or bumping into that tree. If you feel safe in it on the road right now it's really not THAT much of a difference lifted. I'm more worried about ball joints and axles than my rusty unibody. Rage it

they are econo-jap-boxes; what did you expect? major aftermarket companies don't make stuff for them becuase they are disposable cars. they will only live on through our 'do it yourself' mentality.

Gotta love the Wal-Mart tire selection! I have Liberator ATs on my wagon right now. Got them from wally world for $56/tire; dismount, mount, balance and install and it was $220 for all 4 tires. As far as smallest mud tires you can find some pretty mean M+S rated tires. There are plenty of generic offshoots out there. Have to do some hunting around and find a real aggressive treaded M+S. Especially in an R13 size; good luck hunting for those. If you are gonna get seriouse about tires you should also get seriouse about rims. Bump upto a 14" atleast and the flood gate of options for tires will be unleashed. 15" is even more easy to find tires for. This gets you into the light truck / suv range and the options are limitless. You can get Super Swampers as small as 27". Those Kumho MTs ru4x4ever has there are sick too and only 27".

what holds the bolt/screw in tight is the fact that the head is seated firmly to the surface you are bolting into. Cut the head off and all the tension is released. As long as teh threads are not rusted it will turn freely and come right on out.

Yeah I was just ribbing yas; still a Subaru in my book! I think the solid rear was the step in the next, and right direction. Can't wait to see one with solid axles all around!

Drill the head off and you'll get it out easily. Get a bit that's a little smaller than the head of the screw/bolt. Drill untill the head pops off or disinegrates. Should be easy to get out then. Good luck and go slow

Is that warranty void the moment you leave the "road" ?

HEY that's not a Subaru! So when is a solid front coming in??

Sounds like the consensus is custom bumpers. Thanks for the input guys. Ya really sucks that you cant weld up some really nice hooks but as Nutto noted. They cant certify all the welds but you can look at the head of a bolt and know right away what grade it is. Thank the lawyers on this one Nuto: The parks are Gilbert and Spider Lake. There is also Dresser and Trolhogin that are closer but I dunno if their tech inspections are quite as strict. Since the DNR runs Gilbert and Spider Lake you can bet they are way more strict. No welded hooks and ONLY spark arester mufflers to name a couple examples :-\

HAIL

Isnt EVERYONE HERE A MEMBER YET of the Midwest 4WD Association? hint hint ( I know you are McBrat) Dresser might be a bit much, I agree. What do yall got in Iowa? ORV parks of any kind? Any private land agreements we could utilize? What about around Okaboji or the quad cities? That's not very far of a hike from south MN or western WI. Unfortuntly I moved from IA before I could drive or even cared about offroading. I'm willing to drive out to IA or WI for a weekend of midwest subaru'n. I know driving upto Solana (about an hour north of the twin cities... so about 4 hours from Des Moines) is a bit far. The only other 2 ORV parks I know about are WAY up north in the iron range so thats out of the question. I'll keep looking for something in sothern MN if Solana is too much of a drive. Peace

I'm dig'n it man, way to go Daytime pics really did it some justice. How about some shots of cross camber? Stuff the front left and rear right! That would look even more sick Gone trail testing in her yet? 'Cuz she looks ready!

*unnecessary data removed* Whats so wrong with the other Brat that it MUST be towed? If you could repair up that other Brat so she is driveable and chance the trip in her and the other Brat under their own power. Instead of towing one that doesnt run and blowing up the one towing leaving you with 2 broken Brats on the side of the road. If it cant get there under it's own power you might rethink how bad it really needs to get there

Looks like you need to cary a bailing bucket for recovery gear! Neat pic

I listed some neat places in MN / WI Any of those suit your fancy? I'm kinda partial to the state forest trails. I bet they would be good fun in a Subaru and we'd be helping preserve offroad trails for future use. Other wise the DNR is just going to close what we dont inventory and atleast request to keep! Dresser would be great too. Sounds like AUG 27-28 is gonna be an 800+ person event. Dunno how well a stock Subaru would do out there but like I said there are bypass trails for everything if stuff is too crazy. It would definatly put a modified Subaru to the test !_!

Reverse does not have a syncronizer. It's VERY easy to grind going into it and really not a big deal. Note what SubaSkeet has said about shifting into it. She's gonna be cranking getting into reverse if the idle is high (when the engine is cold) if you are moving at all (even rolling slightly) or just doing it too quikly and not letting it 'slip' in. Wouldnt worry too much about it

All that fancy stereo crap is killing your trap speed yo Enough talking, do it!

... or just go buy a dang $5 "turn in tool" for brake calipers. It's a funny looking cube of metal that snaps right onto a socket driver. Normally I say 'forget the stupid special tool' but really this isnt that special and any parts store worth its weight in salt will have one.

That's a turbo not a super charger Ask your self why you are repairing the rust. Will all this work yield a result worth the time, money and effort? Your options are to cut it out and weld in new metal then paint. Cut and sand off what you can and putty it all back up, then sand and paint. I just sanded off what I could and painted right over it. There really was no point for me to repair the rust. It will just come back.

Rice county of Minnesota has CLOSED Roy's Playground untill their list of demands are met and they say Roy can open it back up. The demands are high and so far not a lot has been done. I knew about it earlier but I wanted to go to the last 2 Minnesota 4WD Association meetings to get factual updates on the situation. Looks like a comitee is beeing set up amoung 3 ATV enthisiast groups in the Faribuolt area in Rice county to try and get Roy's back open. Was hoping to hear dates of planned action at lastnights meeting but it sounds like they are still in the rally up and brain storm phase... For those who are still interested in doing some midwest offroading let's pick a place I guess Here is what I was thinking but feel free to post where you want to go and we'll vote on it. Aug 27-28 is a big offroading day at Dresser in Wisconsin. It's just north of the twin cities right accross the river near St. Croix WI. I asked the guy putting on the event about the terrain and he said I'd do fine out there and there are bypass trails for EVERY run. There is a junkyard in WI between New Richmond and Somerset. They allow you to DRIVE in and all around. We could do a day of junkyarding and subaru sacavging !_! Lots of sand and a turbo subarus We could also go to a state forest. For now state forests are still open to ORV usage so long as we abide by the rules. I am signed up for the DNR Inventory and Recatagorization Project under the MN4WD Association to inventory 2 state forests just north of the twin cities. Basicly we'd just go offroading all day and inventory the trails that we'd want to keep. BOTTOM LINE: Do you still wanna plan a day of midwest offroading? Where do YOU want to go? What weekend works best for YOU? Peace

A lot of offroad parks around here have saftey checks now. Big deal is real tow hooks. They can not be welded on. They must be bolted on with at LEAST grade 5 bolts. I could weld on metal and a bracket but at the end of the day the tow hooks MUST be bolted on. Is it time for custom bumpers with tow hooks? What have you guys done for seriouse recovery points? Thx !_!

Sounds like FUN TO ME!

It's IN the mail I put it in yesterday on my lunch break. Will get picked up today at 11 and hopefully to you by friday.

Maybe the cable isnt interfacing the speedo guage itself properly? Might be 'slipping' now and then giving you that jumpiness. Since you know how far off it is I say drive on soldier

It's officially a subaru now How much oil are you consuming from this leak? Keep it topped off !_! I check mine every time I fill up the gas.