Subafreak

Just gonna stick with the STi stuff for now. It works.

Thats a lot of far moving around!

Oh. Ok. What part of ct?

Lol. Well my welder, fabricater has officially moved on so I'm haveing to do all the work myself now so I'm afraid you missed out on that oppertunity. And......I would not subject myself to doing this again. If I had to put a motivational price on even thinking about takeing on this prodject again it would be upwards of the $10g range! I can't wait to get it done, part because I want to drive it! The other part because I want some free time back! Also I don't live in SC?

Another busy weekend. Finally finished up the front cross-member, boxed in all the control arm mounts and added support to the motor and steering rack mounts. I covered it all in silver POR-15 so hopefully it stays nice and rust free for several years. While I was waiting for it to dry I resealed my power steering rack. The seals had started leaking years ago. I also swapped on the SVX inner and outer tie rods, they screw right onto a Legacy rack if anyone is wondering. It's kinda hard to tell from the picture but the SVX rods are considerably beefier than the Legacy ones. Everything all cleaned up and reinstalled. I also welded on all the mounts for the skid plates. It's gonna be made out of 1/4 inch aluminum plate and will be structural to tieing the whole front end together from underneath. Kinda like the horse shoe hoops on the newer cars. The angled brakets at the front with the bolts in them is where the skid plate from the front bumper down with bolt. All the bolts along the bottom, the ones at the inner edges of the control arm mounts and the ones under the front diff are where the lower skid plate will bolt to.

I never knew they made 4WD sentras too! Sweet! And I see it Paul. I'd be more concerned with the 3 or 4 Hr. ride to get out there than the off-road part it's self. It does sound like fun though.

What is a provent 200? This car is more set up right than many of the cars I've seen that came with that drive train from the factory! Lol. Great work on packaging it all together.

Thank you. Yes the sheet metal is doubled up and folded around most of the edges, spot welded and double seam welded in areas and seam sealed with a heavy duty seam sealer / panel bond material. I want it to last for a long time! The sound deadening material I just kinda came apon at the rite moment. I had not intended to use any but just last week one of my co-workers was given 3 large rolls of it from a friend of his. He gave me one of the rolls and I realized I had the perfect use for it. As for the t-case, I do plan on adding a wrap around skid plate to it, kinda like this one. It makes the t-case stronger and ties all the mounts together. I might eve just get that one and modify it to better fit my needs. I may also add another skid plate to the body of the car for further protection depending on how I feel about the security of that set up.

On the old GLs didn't the 2wds not have the indent for the rear diff? Or was that the second gens? Either way I'm sure it increased the fuel capacity a bit.

Well the really heavy angle iron peice is what the t-case mounts are attached to. I reinforced all the unibody around where it is welded to and now all the new floor material is welded to it and both sides of the double layer around the tranny tunnel, focusing around strong points like the seat belt and seat anchores. I'm not sure of the exact thickness of all the metal I used, but it is all very solid now. This weekend I treated all the t-case brakets and new floor board with POR-15. Here you can get a look at the t-case brakets. I seam sealed all the joints for extra measure and then recovered everything in sound deadening material. Carpet going back in and a look at the e-brake in place along with where the sammi t-case shifter boot goes. With it all pretty much back together. The t-case shifter works perfect right there. I can shift it through all ranges without interfering with the e-brake. With the drivers seat at the high position it sits level with the raised passenger seat, so it doesn't appear out of place or weird. So all and all it feels good to have the interior back together and no more giant hole in the floor. Getting one step closer every week.

Tried to get a pic if how low the t-case hangs from a level side veiw but the dark does not provide good pictures. It's hard to see but that's the best I could do at the moment. I finished getting the new floor welded in tonight. I had to raise the pass seat about an inch to give the t-case enough room. You can see the blocks I had to weld in to securely raise it and I had to modify the rear mounting point on the inside rail. A veiw from the drivers side. Here it is all welded up. I build a frame around it with some angle iron and welded some heavier metal strips across the top for the e-brake to bolt to. You cam also see in a few pics of where the t-case shifter will be now. A much better position that where I had it in the wagon. So this weekend I plan to get it and the floor all treated with POR-15 and lay down some new sound deadening material, them I can get the interior back together.

Ugh! Less than 3 months to get my car finished! This could be a close one.

I would say it's pretty flat. Probably about 2 to 3 inches below the floor pan. I will have to get a good side shot of it to show the clearance.

That is serious! A 1,000 years from now that bed will still exsist! You got me thinking about doing something like this to my legacy. Well maybe after I smash the rear window out or roll it. Lol.

Thank you, thank you. Started working on getting the big hole in the floor from where I put the t-case patched up and getting the t-case shifter where I want it. Sorry no exciting new pics yet. Tomorow maybe.

That one worked. Nice shots......of subies doing what they should be doing! I gotta get back out there one of these days. There seems to be so much more to that place than what I thought.

Damn. I can't seem to get that link to work. :/

Thank you. Sometime I feel like I'm getting carried away with all the extra fab work on this version. Lol. But! This weekend set a new milestone. Got my new lift struts installed. Built the new lower control arms to use the SVX spindles and ball joint. Basicly just cut the ends off and welded and plated them to the legacy control arms. So with that part finally done.......it's sits level again! Getting excited now!

Wow! Did you enhance those photos or just happen to have perfect conditions for those shots? Amazing!

From the rear struts I assume? It's possible you may need a spacer on the rear strut shaft to take up some space with the top hat. It's been awile but I believe I had to do the same on my legacy.

Very clean! It doesn't even look like it needs restored.

Lol. Priceless! Hopefully it will stay running good for awile now.

Got my new lift struts done today. Started by cutting the bottom part off the SVX struts. I removed the insert from the STi rear strut and cut the old mounting points off. Then welded the two together. Here it is with the strut insert bolted back in and painted. That is the old lift strut in the left. I also modified the spring perch and top hat to use a jeep wrangler front coil spring. I may have to cut some coils off to adjust the ride hight later on. Old and new fully assembled. Next project is to modify the lower control arms to use the Svx ball joints.

Taste like chicken! Valiant effort sir.

Nice wheeling shots! I'm feeling the itch.