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I once bought a body shop to learn the tricks of the trade. We used to finish everything out with a Tide wash and then rinse with water. Worked for us. Almost any shop you use will have a final wash as part of the paint price. Frankly if they don't want to do it over there is no reason for them to trust you. Keep WD 40 as far away from the car as you can as it or similar products will cause fish eyes. Aything with silicon is a horror. Here in CA we have new rules that make the shops cut down on priming. This is why you should bring the car in as close to ready to shoot as possible. Many productions shops just sand rough areas to avoid priming. Get a good paint book and follow the steps in there as close asd you can. Treat your painter well ( I brought them soccer T shirts as many painters are Mexican in CA and soccer is so big there). My cars got far more attention for this. In general block sand only with as much surface area as possible. Go to a good auto painting supply company and ask for advice and the correct materials. Feather the edges of any damaged area and prime and resand. You can feel much with your hand that you cannot see, but will come out in the paint. I have had fine luck with metallics. the paint on my Jeep is several years old and looks pretty good.

choice of words.....

to drive a car that rolls over when it has a flat anyway, no matter what caused it. If you check Ebay today you will see my Jeep for sale. I think in SF traffic the Forester is a heck of a lot safer car to drive. I hope if my Forester has a flat it will just allow me to roll to a stop with the rubber side still down.

of how tough a subie could be this may be it. The good part is that differentials are designed to compensate For the difference in wheel speed caused by going around corners. there is an excellent chance that this car will survive this unscathed. I look forward to the answer.

diameter? All tires should be replaced together on a 4WD like this. I am sure someone will give you exact specs, but the diameter must be veryyyyyy close.

can you search the archives here?

I might not go as far as he would on an old Subaru. the oly cars I have stripped were classic Jags, XK 120 -140 and TR3s. They had several layers of paint worth the effort. Just sand down to smooth, prime if possible and resand. Wash it all in Tide and go for it.

Sure sounds like alarm behavior.

several occaisions. I have painted them my self too, but I just don't spray as well or have the best equipement. If you strip it yourself and do the body work you can come out with a great job. they just don't take time to take off trim or really detail it in a production shop. My Jeep had that done and you can see the 10 year old paint on Ebay right now. Earl uses good paint becuase he needs too! the ideal situation is to doo one coat, find the flaws and do another coat. But do you need a show job on a 97 Subaru?

did not own or work on VWs in the 60s and 70s. Those suckers pulled rocker studs on the late 40 HP. They dropped valves on the shrouded number three cylinder blocked by the oil cooler. The flywheels fell off regularly (often poor maintence), but becuse they were attached by one big nut and four pins. As the HP was increased they got worse and worse. Guys these subies need a heck of a lot of maintence compared to some other engines. It seems the 2.2 were definately better but even the late 2.5 is no cherry. The list of stuff I have had to replace on mine runs to just under $4,000. Now I am pickier than some of you as an ex mechanic I know, and the car does have nearly 100,000 miles. But this is the first car I have owned other than a VW that practically needed an engine restoration at this mileage. How long is it going to take Subaru to fix the oil pump and make the water pump tougher? It seems to have taken them six years to get the 2.5 to hold a head gasket and do we need to mention the clutch?

on your current plugs and wires?

there are many possibilities here. For my Forester I am running Michellins since they came on it and I have been pretty happy with them. I run Interstate batteries in all my cars because they tned to be at least as powerful as stock and are easily available and inexpensive. I run the largest battery I can get in the battery tray. If you lose an alternator you can often still get home if you have enough battery. Starting in poor conditions is also improved. I bet we will have a lot of tire opinions here.

but wheel spacers are commonly used in raceing. Since a lot of folks race Subies I assume they would be available. They are much cheaper than a custom wheel. Although I have done many mods like this I don't reccomend the practice unless you have seen someone else spend thier money and the results were favorable. The reason is that you change the geometry when you change the offset. You are putting a different load on the wheel bearings and axles. Results I have seen from this were extreme tire edge wear, shot wheel bearings, and broken ujoints. Stuff like this is commonly done on 4 wheel drive pickups and Jeeps.

I have a Clarion from my 99 Forester you can have if you pay for shipping. It was skipping and seems to be dirty so I am sure it needs a tune up.

other skip!

99 Forester, but they were in there for head gaskets, defective clutch, and the usual stuff so I had it done for insurance. The leak was very small. I got no help from Subaru on any of this stuff, but I am the second owner and it was an old car.wh GM a few years a go they replaced and engine for me under the same circumstances. I hope Subaru learns something about warranty work from thier new connection with GM.

an improperly adjusted ring and pinion. Do you have a friend that has a similar car to try to see if your car is normal? I have a Forester and I am in San Mateo if you are around here.

There a re some things that I can easily understand, such as pulling the wrong drain plug. But that seems truly stupid.

gound it for a moment with the key on. If the wiring and guage are ok it will go up on the guage. Do not do this too long as it is a direct short and can damage the guage. Just until you see it move. If you are in a rust belt state it is common for it to be either the ground on the tank on corrosion on the connection to the sender. Out here in CA it is nealy always the sender unless you live near the ocean.

and so much of this depends on the mechanic's training. I worked on commercial vehicles for many years and still have to resort to the manual and actually find anything I wish to work on in the subie. Clutch slave on top of the engine???? You pull the air box to find it???? A whole lot of folks in Jiffy Lubes have minimal training and are recieving low wages. In my area most seem to have minimal English skills which must make thier training more difficult. When I was a kid working in garages if it had not been for the manuals I would have been up the creek. At least at the dealer or independent Subie place you get someone who has some familiarity with your car. I have a good friend who owns a chain of Speedy Oil places. When I took my Mercedes to one of her places the next time I tried to raise the hood the seconday latch was gone. They are plastic and pop out when you release the hood. An untrained employee pulled it the wrong way. I just ordered another and replaced it myself, but that was the last quick oil chnage experience I have had.

Thanks again. By the way with rebate the Sony was $139, and the bass is already adjusted better than I had with the Clarion.

and thanks to Hocrest a bin, not a blocking plate. I don't have it optimised yet so I will reserve judgement. The Clarion was optimised for the car, but right out of the box the Sony tuner is not quite as good on FM and it is short of bass. I will probably fool with it for a week or so before I decide, but it seems the Clarion was not a bad unit. The Clarion CD player was very dirty, so perhaps just cleaning it would have helped the skipping but the Sony CD works great. One point should be that I was right about a double DIN being easy to replace with a single DIN unit. When folks tell you that you have to buy a special expensive double DIN they are flat wrong.

Glad to hear you are up and running.

I have gotten so used to the piston slap I forgot it. Only when it is cold, and the only time I really hear it is in the parking garage at work with the windows down. On start up at home the insulation makes it hard to hear. The slap does not seem to hurt anything and my engine still acts pretty normal. You should note that I am an ex mechanic and these folks warned me about the head gasket issue, and I still did not spot the exterior coolent leak for a week because it was so small. The reason I bought a 99 was to get the phase two engine on advice from this board. I have still poured a ton of money into mine to bring all the stuff Subuaru should have gotten right up to the latest fixes. I planned on this when I bought the car and the fact that it is fun to drive makes up for it to me. Because it was a 99 I could afford to pay cash and have no payments. After that I have been spending a bit on it monthly to get it where I like it. Off to buy a Sony explode now to fix the CD problem. Best of luck to you and GF.

That is one that I will definately use.