Mike W

Hey Austin, what I like is that it's different and you're freakin fearless about doing weird stuff. Screamin yellow wheels, rattlecan custom paint, ABS roof rack, gray bumper... Dang dude, that's bold, whacked insanity. (offhanded compliment I think) Anyways, on the bumper, what if you deleted the vintage pushbar and instead fab a new one out of that smaller tubing you used for the bumper. I'm thinking like come off of the crossmember, forward to the radiator support and then angle inboard up to those light/winch mount tubes you have sticking out front. And what if you angled off the ends of the bumper tubes with another tube coming up at an angle to of protect the corner lamps. And under it all a tough skid plate backed up by 1" tube for real oil pan protection. And lastly, install air fittings to use it as a reservoir for on-board-air. The gray paint... I'll give it the thumbs up but I'd hit the radiator support and unibody with some flat black (or just cut it off and put the radiator elsewhere.)

I say if you seal up the disty with silicone or with a rubber glove over it, use a disty cap with the vacume fitting and a snorkle hose breather to let the water vapor escape.

Thanks. Guess I overlooked the obvious. Nuthin but big sizes available at the moment.

Hey I was just wondering how to find the discounted Swamper "blems" that were mentioned earlier. I didn't see them on the Interco website, so who sells the blems and what are the blemishes... just cosmetic imperfections or functional defects?

Just this morning I was laying under my Hatch admiring the damage I did two weekends ago and was thinking about how I should attach rock sliders even though there ain't much left to protect. Now both sides of my car are so fubared that the doors barely shut and certainly won't seal anymore. Those rocker panels are fragile and smoosh like pop cans. My point being, I think Andy's on the right track...better to pro-actively add a little weight rather than taco your unibody and rockers like I've done. Hey Rob, since I haven't seen you in three years or so and sure haven't seen this camo Hatch, howsabout posting a pic showing how the rock sliders are mounted. I'm guessing the car is sub-framed and the sliders are welded to that, but I'd still like to see how it's done. Thanks.

Man I hated seeing those photos...scary. Especially considering that I have had a few close brushes with endo-ing in my Hatch. Just a couple weeks ago I didn't make it over the top of a super steep hill climb and when backing down it the rear wheels dropped into a hole and stopped the car suddenly. I nearly soiled myself when the front wheels lifted off the ground momentarily and I thought the car was going over backwards. Guess the roll cage needs to be put back on the to-do list. A few years ago I was toying with the idea of using a pre-fabbed six point cage made for VW bugs. I test fit it and found that it was a perfect fit for Hatchbacks. The wall thickness is thinner than SCCA requires but with added gussets etc, one of these cheapo cages would should hold up for rollovers.

Thanks, I appreciate the info. I might be changing to the OB springs when I get some time.

So how do you like the ride with the Outback springs? Is it kinda stiff in a harsh way, or just a bit more firm? The car looks good in that flat black. And it's good to see a fresh design in a brush guard.

Here's one guy's out the hood and up the pillar exhaust. Pics were taken at WCSS4(?)

I'm running stock tires on my car and it doesn't look lifted. It's slightly higher than it was with air suspension in "up" mode. I'll try to post a pic later. Slightly stiffer springs might be a good thing, worth considering.

Outback struts do work on '90-'94 Legacies. For my '93, I ordered KYB's for a '97 Outback and used standard '93 Legacy springs. That produced about 1.5" of lift. To get more lift you could use Outback springs, but I believe they are stiffer and would result in a harsh ride. Plus there would be more angle on the axles.

I was curious how that front suspension and stuff worked, so I searched and found more pics on Pirate4x4. http://www.pirate4x4.com/gallery/urocsupercrawl2005tech/aar http://www.pirate4x4.com/gallery/urocsupercrawl2005tech/aas http://www.pirate4x4.com/gallery/urocsupercrawl2005tech/aat http://www.pirate4x4.com/gallery/urocsupercrawl2005tech/aau http://www.pirate4x4.com/gallery/urocsupercrawl2005tech/aav And here's the main article the pics come from.

That is kind of interesting mounting the engine and trans on top of the axle instead of up in the frame/body. Wonder what transaxle and transfercase was used? Looks back heavy...wonder how it climbs? Any more pics and info floating around? How about action shots of that Sidewinder buggy with the high hp engine? Last photos I saw of it they were just rolling it out of the shop and flexing it with a forklift.

Yeah the FJ60 Landcruiser shocks stretch pretty long and will probably work. But you'll need to swap over your old top mounting bar. Lube it up and cram it through the rubber bushing. I think Chevy Chevelle shocks will also probably work with 6" of lift. The top mounts for Chevelle shocks are almost a direct bolt up...you need to slot the bolt holes since the Subaru holes are spaced a bit wider. You can also check the length and style of mounts the Gabrial or Monroe websites.

An amazing number of guys have found that oven cleaner removes even the most stuborn caked and baked on grease. They've also found that it tends to remove paint from valve covers and whatever else it gets on and can even etch into aluminum. In other words oven cleaner not recommended on cars. Plain old Dawn dish soap and/or Simple Green (or dollar store generic) works pretty well when combined with your pressure washer.

'93 Leg wagon, OB struts with stock Legacy springs....No

EJ Pro: Quieter, more noise proofing. EA81 Pro: that hard to describe "good vibe." Sort of like that associated with air cooled VWs.

Size counts for a lot. I chose an old Hatchback for my silly experiment because it was narrow and short. Old Soobs slip down overgrown trails, go around obstacles and turn around in places that a newer car, or Jeep for that matter, might need a chainsaw to do. "stylin' and more recognizable as a subaru" I guess that's a matter of personal taste. In Seattle there's nothing more run-of-the-mill than newer Subarus. I have considered using a 2003 OBS for an offroad car. It had been rolled but was mechanically sound...just seriously beat to heck. I was thinking of cutting off the body and putting an '80-'84 style wagon body onto the OBS pan and running gear. Would have been cool to have an almost brand new car but license it as an old one. And it would have been work grafting the stuff together, building frame, cage, etc.

If there's any chance that the car came from out east or the ocean, poke around with a screwdrive or ice pick. I almost bought one wagon that looked great but was entirely held together with bondo. What made me suspicious was the amount of surface corrosion on the engine and the fact that the seller was a surfer dude. This should be really fun watching what you do with a Subaru! Please keep us posted.

Well I knew what the H4 conversion housings were. I installed similar ones in my Hatchback around the time of WCSS2. So what brand are they, where'd ya' get 'em, and what did they cost? I've been running 80/100watt bulbs from JCWhitney with no trouble and I never even got around to wiring relays and bigger wires. When I say no trouble, I mean they don't seem to blind folks, no cop trouble, and no melted wires...yet. Amazing improvement over stock. Surprising this isn't one of the more popular mods. Only drawback to these things is I remember selling a set of the smaller H4 housings to Zap and he took them swimming in the deep end of some swamp and got muck inside them. So I guess siliconing the boots on might be a good idea if you're going deep.

Hey there Geoffrey, nice looking set of lamps. So what kind of bulbs did you put in them?

I like the bumpers and even the grill but I'd prefer all the trim to be blacked out rather than chrome. And the wheels, I guess they go with the chrome theme but they kind of draw your eye away from the car itself. Lose the scoop and stuff a front mount intercooler under the bumper. No side skirts/ground effects? So how much power would a 13b setup like that make? Would that weigh less than an EJ20T?

Any progress? Hey I'll add my condolences. Looks like it was an exceptionally nice wagon and in that condition very rare nowadays. I've had two '83 wagons get rearended by Jeep Cherokees. Some sort of vehicular magnetism? Anyways, maybe someone has already posted this, but there's a nice looking '83 GL wagon on Craigslist that might help as a comp. '83 GL $1800

Wow they sure have a lot of Utah over there. Some of those pics on pages 9 & 10 ought to be nominated for "best offroad photo." Just need to photoshop out the pesky RainRovers.

Over on the Offroad Subaru forum, they're talking about Detroit TrueTrac diffs. Need to get 50 orders at $1000 a pop. Given that problem of stubs shearing off on R160s, I was toying with the idea of going big on my next project if it ever happens. Was gonna use R200 diffs with ARBs if I won the lottery or maybe spool for ghettofab. Thinking Nissan hubs and axles to go with 'em. I'd try to have the axle or outer stub be the sacrificial "fuse" that pops rather than the diff or driveline. Or howsabout that aluminum housing Dana, cheap lockers and custom axles? Do those long travel porsche axles mate up with any locking Audi diffs?