Slowly but surely upgrading the Brighton to a real legacy. It's got Outback struts, a tachometer out of an L, a cigarette lighter out of another legacy, and soon a maplight from an outback, and 15" subaru alloys, which I got 4 w/center caps for $50.

 

I'm working on the leather seats, I could get a set for $100, with Outback embroidered on them... With the height ajust and whatnot.... But mabe that's a bit too classy for the car.

Don't forget to swap the rear brakes to disc

Don't forget cruise control.

+ turbo

To me, a Brighton is like a track cycle*, only what's basic and essential.

I'm already sad about the fact that my next Subary will probably impose electricaly operated windows on me. But that's years away.

I added a tach though. I think that's essential and should never be left out.

Poll: How many drivers here perfer real basic cars?

* And dont tell me track cycles have no brakes nor gear change : my comparison is "mutatis mutandi" :cool:

I like it's basicness, especially the manual windows and locks. The only real thing I don't like about the manual windows is it difficult to open/close the assenger window while driving.

 

Your project sounds good. I have a '96 brighton and am working on similar changes. I knew nothing about Subaru's (esp trim levels) when I bought it except it had AWD and was well rated for reliability. Plus I could use a CD player.

Don't forget to swap the rear brakes to disc

 

Working on it;)

Slowly but surely upgrading the Brighton to a real legacy. It's got Outback struts, a tachometer out of an L, a cigarette lighter out of another legacy, and soon a maplight from an outback, and 15" subaru alloys, which I got 4 w/center caps for $50.

 

I'm working on the leather seats, I could get a set for $100, with Outback embroidered on them... With the height ajust and whatnot.... But mabe that's a bit too classy for the car.

 

What year? I've been deBrightonizing our '00 Legacy since purchase in .01 (with already 99,750 miles on it).

 

So far - Map light, lighted mirror sunvisors, WRX alloys and decent tires, Outback struts/springs, cruise, remote starter. We already had power windows. Haven't bothered with a tach, since the car is an automatic, and then I would lose our clock! Ditto rear discs, it's The Pretty One's carr, and she doesn't drive haed enough to warrant the trouble.

 

Left to dos is bedlinering it below the rubstrip and mudflaps. That.s about it. As for the rest, I'm on the KISAS bandwagon. I can live without power mirrors, and I HATE power door locks, especially when they lock you in at 5 mph.

 

The upholstery is OK as is, and all the other fancy stuff is just a repair waiting to happen in my book of simplicity.

Leather sucks. Although, I do believe the leather seats are more comfortable than the others in the first couple gens. Thats pretty fancy with the outback logo in them, must be custom. I don't think outbacks have the logos stiched in....mine doesn't.

I love the leather seats in my 97 Limited Outback. The leather seats came with the limited package, are very comfortable, and do have the Outback logo on them. The leather is nice because of how much abuse it can take. Ive split stuff all over them, been on them while wet, and numerous other abuses, but after I wipe them off they look good as new.

 

From my personal experience, I would say to jump on them for that price.

The car is being shipped to the crusher tomorrow, should I just pull the seats and put them on Layaway?

If you want new seats, and you can get both front and rear for 100$ I would try and get them. Truly, its probably the one thing I enjoy most about the interior of my car.

Poll: How many drivers here perfer real basic cars?

 

Right here. Crank windows and seats with levers FTW

Prefer manual stuff, but needed the tach,cruize, ant tweeter upgrade . Powerlocks would be nice, they just can't figure out how to lock my doors:mad:. I wouldn't mind the 97-0x GT rims.

The seats have manual raise and lower:brow:

The bun warmers are electric though.

Tweeter upgrade makes a big differnce, I did it to my mom's outback. Took them out of a stripped outback, they took the seats, the radio, all the exterior lights, but left the tweeters.

We put the outback rims I gave my dad for christmas on today. I bought the rims, he bought the tires, $260 for 4, lifetime rotation, 60k warranty. Nice M+S rated all seasons.

 

It looks nice. More ground clearance than my mom's outback, because the brighton doesn't have the subframe drop to match the outback struts I put on. The bumpers are also better, higher approach and departure angles.

 

I cut out the rear door panels to put in the speaker grills. Takes about 3/4 an hour to cut out the holes and drill the screw holes. The grills looked origional when I was finished though. They may not match the rest of the interior perfecly, but who would notice?

When pulling rear speakers from a car in the j/y, get the 6 little plastic inserts that the speaker buckets screw into to hold them into the door. I didn't notice them, so I'm going back in the morning to get them. The wiring is already in place for the speakers in the rear doors. All you have to do is cut the vapor barrier in the door, cut the hole in the door panel and put the grills on, and put the screw inserts into the door and screw everything togther. Simple mod, big improvement.

 

I'll put some pictures of the car up tommorow afternoon.

I had the car in over the pit today, so I took some measurements.

9.5" to the crossmember

9" to the two frame pieces under the floorpans.

8.5" to the second cat in the middle of the car, which is the lowest point.

 

Not bad for a Brighton.

 

I'm putting in maplights and an EA82 skidplate under it next.

The only electric thing I really want for my Brighton - heated mirrors. Might waste some time in spring on this.

Hey, 91Loyale--got any pix of the Unbrighton you can post?

Pix:

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That's a 95 legacy Brighton with Outback struts + Outback wheels and tires. The snow makes it look lower, when you're in another car and see it, you can tell it's higher than normal. The car it's compared against is the 1998 Outback that I rebuilt for my mom.

Maplights out of a 97 outback went in easy. The holes and captured nuts for the two anchoring bolts are in the sheetmetal of the brighton. I didn't want to take off the A-pillar trim to install the wire, so I spliced it into the 12v feed to the overhead dome light. Put everything back together, and it looks as good as it did in the donor car.

 

I put on the skidplate off of a EA82 on it tonight. Drilled 3 holes in the leading edge, and filed out the rear two slots to fit the mounting points on the Brighton. 5 8x1.25 bolts, a few washers, and a couple of nuts later, it's on solid.

Heh, mine is lowered about as much as yours is lifted. I wonder who's gonna have to replace half-shafts first

As for questions about alignment, after swapping struts, the car does need to be re-alligned.

 

The two 19mm bolts that hold the bottom of the strut to the steering knucklecontrol the front camber. The upper on is a cam bolt, depending how it's rotated, it changes the camber.

 

Lifting a car also changes how far the steering knucke is from the steering rack. This will change the front toe on the car.

 

Get a 4wheel alignment for the car. Tell them to align it to a 98 outback spec if it's a 95-99 legacy, or to stock specs if it's a 90-94 legacy. There is enough adjustment for it to be perfectly alligned even with the taller struts.

Hi 91Loyale

What about the speedo error when install the outback wheels/tires? Shold I swap the speedometer/gauge cluster,or I can just swap out the VSS sensor on the trany on the 96 to 98 legecy outback?

Thanks for the help!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for questions about alignment, after swapping struts, the car does need to be re-alligned.

 

The two 19mm bolts that hold the bottom of the strut to the steering knucklecontrol the front camber. The upper on is a cam bolt, depending how it's rotated, it changes the camber.

 

Lifting a car also changes how far the steering knucke is from the steering rack. This will change the front toe on the car.

 

Get a 4wheel alignment for the car. Tell them to align it to a 98 outback spec if it's a 95-99 legacy, or to stock specs if it's a 90-94 legacy. There is enough adjustment for it to be perfectly alligned even with the taller struts.

Legacy spedo's seem to run 5mph high, ex. road speed is 55, indicated speed is 60

 

Outback spedo's seem to run 2mph low, ex road speed is 55, indicated speed is 53.

 

When you put on outback wheels and tires, your spedo will read 2mph low. Nothing to worry about.