jmoss5723

I just realized how OLD I sound. I think I'm becoming my father... I'm always a supporter of making your car what you want it. I'm sure I've done mods that make people shake their heads at me. In this instance, I think maybe I care more than I should about preserving a very nice (but, realistically, unimportant) car that is being daily driven anyways. It's not what I would've done with the car, but, after all, it is not my car. Have fun with it!

Coordinating shipping to get items from the same warehouse can be a little bit frustrating. My shipping prices from them are usually just a few bucks and even with the shipping cost it is so much cheaper than buying from anywhere else. Plus the time I spend coordinating warehouses in my living room is time I'm not spending in line at the store, or waiting at traffic lights on the way there. And the 10% that I get off of every order generally offsets the shipping cost anyway.

The thread is pretty well derailed now, so I'll just stay for the ride! I pretty much only buy from Advance if I have NO other choice. Even with their discounts, they're WAY more expensive than Rock Auto, they don't seem to have as many different brand options as I'd like, and it drives me nuts when I need something like a caliper bracket and they only have complete calipers. Don't get me wrong. For picking up stuff for an oil change, or a part that I need right now, I'll always go to Advance, but overall I'm not that impressed. Plus, I hate going in there and they all act like they know more than me (and I wish they did!), but they are so often wrong or believe the computer over me when I know exactly which parts I put on my car and I'm yes I know that it is not the stock part. My bottom line is that Advance is nice to have right down the road when I need something today, but if it can wait, I'll always ship it in from somewhere else that is cheaper, has more options, and lets me pick what I need with no hassle or condescending.

A good tip for anyone tackling this or other brake line replacements: Buy online! If you look hard enough you might be able to find this stuff even cheaper, but I got this 25' roll of copper nickel alloy brake line with 15 fittings on amazon for $40 including shipping, which beats the heck out of the closest comparison at Advance for $75!

I REALLY liked this car stock, but the black grill is a nice look. The fender flares and wheels look absurd! OP, it's your car and no one's opinion really matters except yours, but I think it is a shame to take this pristine, museum quality car and slowly make it into something silly.

I have an annoying issue - My car was made for and originally sold by Subaru Canada. The original owner lived in Canada before moving to the US. In the past when I've called SOA, they tell me I'm SOL unless I can get help from Subaru Canada. One time Subaru Canada paid for recall work at a US dealership, which was nice. I called them today to see if they could help me with my brake lines and they basically said that it was not covered under the recall and very unapologetically let me know that there was nothing they could (would) do. They suggested I take it to a dealership and see if they'd help me out. I'll just fix it myself.

This seems like a pretty common issue on the oldest of the "New Gen" cars, and one they've issued a recall for on the newer ones. This little 4 way connector and its associated lines rust out BAD and leak. This isn't my picture, but it shows the part. Mine actually looks worse! This is where the hard lines exit the cabin under the rear seat and go off to the right and left rear wheels. It seem like everyone cuts the old lines off inside the cabin and couples new lines onto the old ones to keep the couplings in out of the elements (like it should have been from the factory...) I'm wondering if there is a good write up that I haven't been able to track down myself for repairing this. If not, maybe I'll have to make one. I wish I knew approximately how much brake line to buy at least. Anyone have any idea, or am I going to have to tear the car apart and figure it out for myself?

While changing the rear brake pads on my Forester, I discovered an oil-covered strut and was faced with the fact that I could no longer live in denial of the faint clunking from the rear I knew I should've just changed the struts last fall when I did the lift spacers... So now I'm buying left and right rear struts and of course I'm buying the KYB Excel-G (GR-2) struts that everyone seems to love so much. But when I looked at buying new mounts (because I figure if the struts are blowing out, the mounts are probably getting pretty beat, too) I noticed that on Rock Auto the KYB mounts are twice the price of the Monroe brand mounts. I'm wondering if it matters which I get. Are the KYBs twice as good? The Moog ones are the same price as KYB, so that's a consideration. If I save myself the money and get the Monroes will there really be a difference? Bottom line: Which brand strut mount should I buy and why? Ordinarily I'd just buy the KYBs and be happy, but with brake pads on the Outback and Forester already this month, closing on a new house in a few weeks, and a new baby on the way, I'm pinching my pennies a little tighter than usual.

This is what I needed to hear. Thanks guys. I do love this car. And it is so one of a kind. I'd be a moron to sell it. Now the next real consideration is that I might sell my Forester, buy a 90s Outback, Legacy, or Forester with a blown engine for a $1000 or less, put an EJ22 in it, and put the profits into the house. But that is a matter for a different thread...

I'm toying with the idea of selling the Ski Wagon I just put an offer on a house and I'm going the closing process. I have no money to put into the ski wagon for the next year or so, as all the cash will be going to fixing up the house. I have almost nothing tied up in the ski wagon and in it's current state probably isn't worth all that much, except to an enthusiast, which there are none of in Western PA. I'm only thinking about selling it because the idea of letting it sit for another year while I do nothing with it breaks my heart. So guys, I'm hoping that you to talk me into keeping it, but if anyone is interested in it, I'll entertain offers.

I'm thinking I'll just extend the shocks like this: http://www.subarubrat.com/easyshock.htm

If only there was a way to tag my kids in this thread...

My bumpers are almost finished. They are taking me forever. I hate them. And while I almost never say this, I should have just paid to have them made. This is my first attempt at fabricating something that needs to be aesthetically pleasing and it has been a nightmare. I can make a good weld, but it is the cutting and shaping that is giving me the trouble. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist? If there were any EA81 cars around here, I'd try to sell these to recoup my costs and get something nicer built by a pro. I'll put photos up once they're all finished.

Yes. That's a big part of why I am doing the lift in the rear. I was just starting to think about it without poking my head under the car because it is over in my dad's garage at the moment. Turns out that I asked a dumb question! Thank you for a definitive answer.

So far that is one for the diff drop and one against the diff drop. Anybody else? Anyone have specific experience driving their EA81 with the torsion bar dropped and shocks lengthened, but no diff drop? I'm leaning pretty strongly toward dropping the diff 2 inches with everything else, but I've still got time until I need to make the decision.

I currently have a 2 inch lift on the front of my BRAT and the rear torsion bar cranked up. I'm thinking about putting the tension on the torsion bar back where it belongs and putting lift blocks in the rear to match the front. With only a 2 inch lift, do I need to drop the differential? I like the idea of keeping the diff a little higher up, but if I do not drop it, will I over-extend my axles when my suspension is fully extended? Will I be putting too much pressure on the CVs? Or will it not matter, since the rear spends 95% of it's time coasting along in FWD, and doesn't steer either?

I know I gave my two cents earlier, but I'd buy a gen1 OBW in a second if it had documented services of the HGs and TB. The limited trim in those models is pretty nice, too. If you could even find one with a bad HG or blown engine, you could swap it, or do the HG service yourself. That could get you a pretty nice car for pretty little money.

http://imgur.com/iOvlQT4 I used brackets like these for the bottom of mine. I drilled holes in the middle, painted them black, and attached them with sheet metal screws. Good luck with the tops. Mines an 84, so I had upper brackets.

If you have the seats, just measure how wide they are side by side. You will also know how far front to back from the seats. For height, make it as short as you can. The factory frame makes any passenger over about 5 feet tall ride with their head above the cab. If really necessary, I can measure mine tomorrow when I work on my bumpers, but you'd be better off building to the seats than trying to copy the frame.

Turns out the siren is pretty high frequency. The warble sounds just like an ambulance and the steady tone is the same but just steady instead of pulsing. Now I have to figure out what to do with it. I can't NOT use it for something

Is that brush guard bolted on, or just wrapped around the bumper. I picked one up a few years ago and lost a few brackets that I KNOW were used to bolt it to the car somehow. I'm certain because i unbolted it from the previous BRAT myself and still have the bolts, but I cannot for the life of me remember where I put the brackets or what they bolted to. I brought it up on the forum a while back and everyone said they just had theirs on the bumper as a snug fit with no bolts.

It turns out that I am bad at keeping this thread updated. I do too much stuff at once and don't take enough pictures. I got my jump seats in with big washers and bolts. It was really no big deal. They seem solid, are removable, and look good. Here is the bed after stripping: And here it is all finished: I have both bumpers off and new bumpers halfway fabricated. Hopefully finishing fab this weekend. Things are moving slowly. Wife, baby, work... In other news, I found a 12V siren in the basement. It has a steady tone and a warble tone. I haven't heard it yet, but if the steady tone doesn't sound so much like a siren that people will think I'm an ambulance, I might use it as a BRAT horn. It is 115dB at 10 feet. Hella Supertones are 118dB at 2 meters. So I get the idea that it is loud.

I'm buying a 93 legacy junk car. For an EJ swap into my BRAT, I'm pulling the following: Engine Motor Mounts Wiring Harness Power steering lines Air box ECU Exhaust Is there anything else that I should be pulling for the EJ swap? And I'm thinking this one is a "No," but is there any random stuff I should pull that is good for mods or fixes in an EA car? Any thoughts are appreciated. I'm also planning on pulling all of the stuff necessary for a 5 speed swap into my brother in law's auto Impreza.

I can get a few free axles from a 93 legacy if I need them. I have a bad aftermarket axle on the Forester and I'd rather rebuild OEM than put another crappy aftermarket reman on. So can I put CV axles from a 1993 Legacy into my 2004 Forester? I'm pretty sure they're a different length, but figured I would ask. If not, can I rebuild the joints from the 93 axles on the shafts from the Forester?

I moved the thread to Subaru Retrofitting >>http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/153571-parts-for-ej-swap-plus-some/ Moderators, feel free to delete this one.