SmashedGlass

I still have all of the OEM padding for behind the rear panels and under the cargo carpeting. May put in a rubber cargo matting with a padded backing glued to it, and have the factory carpet made removable with snaps so I can swap back to full carpet if I feel like it.

I mean up front, passenger compartment carpet. I'm probably going with a rubberized floor liner for the cargo area in mine.

Going to black your carpet too?

I assume some of the parts are still fairly wet in the pics? I hope it fades back to a satin/flat sheen when dry.

Continuing on with the color-change, blacked-out theme, bit the bullet and burned up my last can and a half (give or take) of the vinyl and fabric dye on the carpet. Brushed in while still damp, then vacuumed off again once dry. Looks surprisingly good with just that can and a half (+/-). Whereas before it was that odd bluish mid-gray faded and stained up by the PO with who knows what (whatever it was, nothing could remove it from the carpet....) after the initial session with the satin black dye it looks like a slightly faded black and the stains are no longer visible. I think some of the faded look it has with the dye now comes from the fade that was already present in the OEM color. We'll see, I need to restock on the Dupli V&F and then I'll give it another cans worth. Things to note: brushing it in is vital to get it down into the nap, and when done that way one doesn't get the 'crusty' problem that I've read about on some....lesser forums, as done by lesser peoples. Also, once dry (only takes about ten minutes, I gave it an hour) no color rubs off onto hands, clothes/cloths, or when licked by tongue. Okay, I made that last one up. Maybe.

Yes, post pics John, but we also need a durability test after it cures for awhile, aka chuck something hard and angular against it and see how it holds.

Looking for opinions, preferably from people who have actual first-hand knowledge, on putting a coating on the cargo area panels of the car. I've pretty much finished out the rest of the interior pieces to my '88 wagon using Duplicolor Vinyl and Fabric coating, and with the proper prep it seems to be working very well. But I have concerns over using it in my cargo area as those panels will often take quite a beating from...well, "cargo". And though what I've done already using DV&F is fairly durable, I know that it won't stand up to really rough treatment. I'm mulling over whether to spray the plastic paneling behind the rear seats (and from the window line down) with something like either bed liner, or maybe bumper & trim coating. Anyone used these kind of products in a high-abuse area? And before anyone mentions it, Plastidip has been ruled out right off the bat--already seen that it is NOT durable.

<---half-seriously entertaining the idea of selling you his non-turbo wagon for you to swap everything into.

Tis, indeed, your u-joints. I went through this same problem just before moving from Colorado to yuc....I mean loverly Florida. Only mine was more like someone swinging a hammer at my tranny when I would put her into reverse, lol. My joints were shot, bought new ones from Advance and then found a nearby driveline shop to install them. I think I paid $50 to have the old pressed out, new ones put in, lubed, and the whole assembly balanced, even. Dead quiet now.

I'm familiar with Jezek's threads on the LED lights and what not. All his photos show is the mode panel, he doesn't trace them down and show where they connect. Of course, wouldn't expect him to if his thread is about light bulbs

Take item #12 in the following picture off the strut assembly, flip it, reinstall on strut. Simple. Use spring/strut compressors, obviously.

Yes, the short hoses on the mode panel are numbered, as are the sections of hose at each component. The issue on mine is that I tagged them as I pulled the plastic hoses out at the mode panel, but now, tracing each tagged hose to it's end at each component, my tag #'s do not match up to the hose #'s at the component.....leading me to believe the PO had pulled the panel at some point and plugged them back up wrong. But the numbers on the component ends, if matched to the hoses on the mode panel, also do not match up to the few diagrams I've found. I did find another old post where (I believe) the poster found that his hoses were routed the same way as mine are numbered, which leads me to believe.........THE FSM IS INCORRECT?!? As a note, rupart, that FSM available online is only the engine and transmission section, AFAIK.

^^^^ what he said, only I don't think, I'm certain.

The best "performance" mod for these cars is proper maintenance, with the proper OEM parts whenever possible. I wouldn't sink my money into any more expensive a/m products that purport to raise power.

Could you scan the relevant pages from that '88 FSM for me?

In the process of reassembling the interior of Lé Sube, and I'm a bit confused by something I noticed with my HVAC vacuum lines. I was careful to tag them before removing them from the mode panel but now I see that the numbers on my tags do not match the numbers printed on the hoses at their component ends; perhaps the PO switched them around and I failed to figure this out before hand? So, what I would like is for anyone who has access to a late model GL (with a/c) that is disassembled enough, to trace the four lines from the mode panel to where they terminate at their components. This is what I am looking at, on my '88 wagon, with all four lines currently disconnected from the mode panel, going by the numbers printed on the rubber hosing at the component ends: #1 plugs into the servo on the blower housing #2 plugs into the upper servo on left side core housing (servo angled @45 deg) #3 plugs into the lower servo on left side core housing (horizontal servo) #4(not numbered) runs to the upper left firewall and then to the vac canister in engine bay. The way they were apparently connected at the panel when I pulled it and tagged them: #1 hose was tagged as and plugged in at #4 on mode panel? #3 hose was tagged as and plugged in at #1 on mode panel? #2 hose tagged as #2, and unnumbered line to firewall left untagged. Thank you in advance if anyone can help me on this.

The XT is different from the Leone/Loyale, but should be similar and just as simple to remove. Try to find the most current edition of the Haynes "Subaru 1600 & 1800" repair manual, it supposedly now also includes the XT family, but my copy (printed way back in '98) for some reason doesn't have a single page mentioning the XT.....go figure. The diagrams in it will be a big help in figuring out how not to break anything. Also, the following forum is XT-specific and you may get some good pointers on there: http://subaruxt.com/forum/

Put now blackened dash back in today. Bit of a pain by ones self, when trying to be 'careful'....

I'm up in Ocala, and I could definitely salvage some things off of it.

I'd go new on the shoes too.

Why not just purchase a new pair of wheel cylinders? They're about $11/ea at places like Autozone, Advance, etc. and then you would not only have good new components (not having to waddle through possibly getting more of the incorrect rebuild parts) but you would know for certain what you have installed on your car.

Yeah, things-to-do just keep piling up now. It's so bad (or good?) now that I can't begin putting anything back into the car until certain things are finished in a certain order. NOTHING can go back in, now, until I reupholster the headliner....so I can put back in the A-pillar trim.....so I can put the dash back in.....etc, etc, etc.

Small update on the situation: my friend who has access to a Subaru-rich parts yard environment has gone back and gotten me another connector, one which is good. But here's the rub: he went through pulling THREE (or more) of them on this trip in order to find ONE that was not burnt. It occurs far too often IMO to not be some sort of faulty design in the system.

After routing in my custom harness for the Gentex-177 mirror, I figured "why not remove the last vestiges of anything in my car" so pulled out the heater core and housing for an S&R. Will now be ordering new hoses, those suckers would not come off the nipples. So they had an unfortunate run-in with a mad slasher. Housing is currently down to component parts soaking down with some disinfectant and degreaser, to get the traces of rodent vacations out of it, and when dry will be put back together with all new foam seals, just like the blower housing.

Thanks for the info, but it's now a moot point......I've moved to running all of the wiring for the mirror through the firewall in one neat harness bundle, and will probably tap into the radiator fan relay. I already had to run the wires for the temp sensor that way, so it made more sense to just run all of them into the engine bay and keep it very neat and tidy.