BEECHBM69

Thank you GD for the outstanding info/ writeup. Here's my version. Not quite as neat with the bracing in the back, but I used what was there with minimal fuss. A little bending and drilling two holes. I probably could have cut the wings off but didn't go through the trouble. The ash tray bracket had to be etched for clearance. Bl/Y stripe is switched hot. Black is ground on the stock plug. I didn't want to cut anything so went this route. I used a fuse tap on the clock fuse for constant power. The finished product. Somebody had a switch in the panel to the right, I intend to put a switch there for radio operation with out the key in. I also didn't have an aluminum plate....... And in case anybody was wondering what is under the plastic in a hatchback, here's your free look. Other observations: Driver's side front is some oddball size. As GD pointed out, 3.5s will work great. I used a 4" with minimal fanfare bolted in the same way. The passenger side appears to be a true 4x6. Don't know what it would hurt to mix and match sizes, but just FYI. The rears are 4", but the opening is a little bigger. 5.25's would probably fit with minimal effort. Anyway, thanks again for the good info, and here's a bump to the top for anybody else searching. Dan

Got some new tunage. Thanks to GD and others for a point in the right direction. Dan

Unless you misrepresented what had been done to the car, the onus is on him, not you. The only way to "know" if something has been done is to do it yourself. Otherwise it's a roll of the dice to drive 150 miles right off the bat. Dan

Rockauto has them on the website anyway. Dan

Just out of curiosity, how much taller is the base of these seats relative to stock? I'm 6'3 and already too close to the roof..... Dan

Thanks dude. It took me a couple of months, but it was worth it. I was going to wait until I got the badges and trim back on it, but I just couldn't contain myself Dan

I took this: And made it look like this: I'll post more later. I gotta go drive it. Dan

Damn that's a nice car. Is it safe to say it was garage kept most of it's life? I have the same interior and yours doesn't suffer from the same fading and sun damage mine has. I wish we had cars that nice out this way. Dan

Drums for sure not, struts and shocks I'm not sure about, but someone will be along shortly who is. Dan

If you read through some of the other posts on the subject, EA81 axles do not take well to being stressed. You have to lift everything pretty much the same to maintain the stock axle geometry. Dan

It sounds like classic symptoms of a warped rotor. I don't know you would be able to see it with the naked eye, but you can certainly tell if they are scorched or gouged. Dan

Try this thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110637&highlight=5+lug+swap Lots of good info. There are others, try your search in the same forum as that thread and you will probably come up with more stuff. Hope that helps. Dan

Not sure where you found some 16.5's that are five lug, most of those were 8 lug for 3/4 or 1 ton trucks. Not to mention 16.5 inch tires are all but discontinued in favor of 16, 17, and beyond. Cheap and dirty is to find a set of six lug rims and drill the rims out. Next easiest would be the six lug hub mod. Most involved is the five lug swap. You can do a search and find more information than you can read in a day on all three subjects. Stoke the fire, get a beverage and get comfortable. Dan

Just a word of advice, getting mad and calling someone else's intellect into question pretty much insures you won't get a lot of help. Everything you've asked for is in the posts that I linked for you in your other thread. It's a lot easier for you to go read it, than for someone to retype it. No offense, just simple logic. Dan

When you are looking at the forum, there will be a "search this forum" button. Click on it and type in "EA81 Lift" in quotation marks, it will bring up six or seven threads to get you started. Here's a link, but it may expire after a certain time. LINK Dan

You can go here:MIATA and plug in numbers to get a pretty good idea of what equals what. Dan

Since they covered the first part, I'll tackle this tidbit. You probably can tow a smaller tent camper, like the ones motorcycles tow. On anything other than flat land, even that may be taxing the limits. The weight of an empty car trailer big enough to put a Miata on would probably be more than you want to pull, and putting a car on it is completely out of the question. I've seen it done with a dolly, but I don't know that I would want to do that either with a stock unit. Dan

Thanks for the input. I think I'm going to go check it out this morning. If the rust situation isn't out of hand, I'll probably jump on it. I'll start at half of what he's asking and see what happens. I'm currently working on restoring my hatch, so any major work would have to wait until spring. Thanks again, Dan BTW, it's good to see another Soob enthusiast somewhere within my own state!

Craigslist I've been looking for something to replace my worn out DD Toyota. I'm thinking this is a good candidate. My question, is the 1st, 3rd, 5th trans issue likely shifter bushings? I did a search and didn't come up with anything remotely like this, so I figured these things don't generally fail on a catastrophic level. Even if the trans is toast, a D/R swap is certainly an easy answer. Thanks for any input. Dan

No lift, but some people are interested in what fits without one, so here are 205/70/14s, with no lift, no bashing, and an ever so slight rub on the fender at full lock compressed suspension. 195/75/14s don't rub at all. The wheels are off of an older Dodge D50 (I think.) Dan

Sweet! Thanks for the info guys. Once I get them back on this time, I don't see any reason for me to ever take them off, barring some unforeseen carnage. I'll keep you posted as to my progress. Thanks again, Dan

I did a cursory search and didn't turn up anything of value. If this is covered I do apologize. I recently stripped my hatch for the paintshop. I discovered that the tail light gaskets are very dry rotted and pretty much disintegrated in my hand. I have a pretty good idea this is going to be a "make it myself" type replacement part, which begs the question: What are you guys cutting your gaskets from for this type of thing, and where would I find it? Thanks in advance for your help. Dan

Stripped the little man down for body work and paint. Obviously the PO didn't go through the trouble. Going back to the original color too.

If you're hell bent on doing it, you can go with something like this: TENT TRAILER You can probably build something on one of those cheapy small trailer frames at Harbor Freight as well. We've had heated discussions about overloaded towing on a truck forum I frequent, and the consensus is: If you want to tow more than your rig can handle, buy a bigger rig. The chances of something happening increase exponentially, and your insurance may not pay if it's proven you were negligent with your load. Not worth rolling that dice. Dan

Hatteras Island Surf Trip!