jmoss5723

This car is so hot. I need to own one eventually.

Bed liner is in! Pics coming tonight or tomorrow. Tonight I will re-install my roll bar since I got new hardware for it at lunch today. I cannot for the life of me figure out what I did with the old hardware after removing the roll bar for bed repairs last fall... Next step is jump seat installation. I'm looking for input on a few different options: 1) Drill straight through the frame and bolt them down. I like this option because I can weld the nuts to the bottom of the bed and easily remove the seats from the top side when necessary. My question thought, is this: is the tubing of the frame strong enough to hold up to this? Seems pretty thin... 2)Use U-bolts over the frame and bolt it down. This seems annoying because I'd have to crawl underneath the car if I want to remove the seats, but I don't have to drill through the wimpy jump seat frame. 3) Other options...? I want it to be strong and safe (as safe as seats in a truck bed can be...). The seat belts have sturdy mounting points, so do I really need the seats to be that tough? Keep in mind that I will not have anyone in these seats on the highway. Just cruising 25mph or less in town and maybe for some light wheeling. I picked up the steel for my winch bumper! I got (1) 60" piece and (2) 18" pieces of 5" C-channel to make up the main piece of the bumper. Mounts will be 3" C-channel attached to the stock mounting points. Stock mounting points will be beefed up with .25" plate welded along the unibody frame rail. Hopefully I have time to get it all fabricated this weekend.

Pinch the window gusset by the side mirrors. Put vinyl tubing in the weather stripping. Problem solved! There are lots of threads on this topic. A little searching will tell you all you need to know.

The shot of the undercarriage makes it seem like it's just crossmember lift blocks, strut toppers, etc. Not exactly rocket science. Many members here have done the same thing in their garages. It's a cool car with what looks like a reasonably well-built 10.5" lift, but it isn't NASA technology. Refuses to tell you? Just look under the car...? And what if you see another mechanic? Is he going to come and uninstall your lift? Color me confused.

I'm looking at a Forester with a bad tranny. I might buy it and swap in a new transmission, but I'm not sure what models and years interchange directly. The car is an automatic 1998 Forester. I know some have 8 bolts and some have 4, right? And some starters have one bolt and some have 2? There is probably already a thread discussing this, but I can't find one. Help!

As others have said, they're basically identical except for the taillight color and the shape of the front end. I think the 03-05 Foresters look way better than the 06-08. I love my 04 XS. Assuming they are in similar condition, I would take the 05. Its cheaper, nicer trim level, and looks better! On either one, though, find out about the timing belt, pulleys, water pump, and head gasket changes. Edit: Where do you live? I paid around $7500 for my 2004 XS 3 years ago at a dealer and it had less than 100k on the clock and was in beautiful condition inside and out. You might be getting had. Maybe other can chime in on value.

Go look at the How to Lift Your Impreza sticky thread in the offroad section. Its the same for your legacy.

Junkyard! You just pound them out with a BFH. I guess you could probably use a bolt if you weld it in. Right?

If you replace the pad on the top of the dash, I'd be interested in buying yours if its not super cracked.

Seafoam the engine and try to see if any smoke comes out of the suspected leak points.

I got the patches welded into the bed of the BRAT. The MIG set up with 75 Argon/25 CO2 and the thinnest wire the welder would push worked WAY better. After welding them in, I did a tiny bit of Bondo and hit it all with primer. On Tuesday I stripped all of the rest of the old bedliner out with Aircraft stripper. That stuff is terrifying. If you drip that anywhere you don't want it, too bad. The paint will be gone. So needless to say, It worked very quickly and easily and was 100x better than using the angle grinder with a wire wheel. I removed all of the bedliner on the sides and bottom of the bed. I just passed the wire wheel over the back of the cab because it was not peeling off nearly so badly and I am puttin ghte jump seats back in anyways, so the chance of that bedliner getting beat up seems pretty slim. My plan to further prep the surface for the new liner is to wipe the whole bed down with lacquer thinner a few times to make sure there are no residues or dust. Then I'm going to get a high density foam roller cover and roll this goop in there! Now if this stinking cold snap would break, I could get out and finish this project. I can't very well paint it if the temperature is below freezing.

Low mileage is preferred, but if the engine good, it's good. Right? $150 is way cheaper than what this seller is asking. Low mileage isn't worth that much to me. I think I'll pass on this one.

I'd like to eventually do an EJ swap on my BRAT. For now, the EA81 runs like a champ with no leaks, smoke, or issues of any sort. But eventually, I'd like to get a little bit more power and a little bit less carburetor. There is an EJ18 available locally. Seller says it has 27k miles. It is out of a 96 impreza. So what's it worth? If I can get it for a fair price, I'll just buy it and hang on to it until I'm ready to swap. Or should I hold out for a 2.2 that I pull from a car with verifiable miles and a wiring harness?

If you just want to keep that tranny as a spare, is there any chance you'd want to sell the shift linkages? I got a D/R 5spd for the Ski Wagon Project, but it came with no linkages. If you'd consider selling those parts, shoot me a PM. It would help me immensely. I really need to get the bad tranny swapped out.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/147931-headers-anyone/?hl=%2Bunequal+%2Bheaders+%2Bea81&do=findComment&comment=1241388

I'm curious to see what you end up needing to do in terms of extending various hoses and lines. My wife has asked me to lift her outback (I know. I picked a winner ) and because she drives it everyday I'm hoping to have minimal down time. In order to get it done in just 1 or 2 days, I've been dying for a complete list of what you have to do. I'm good on the lift blocks, but I know there will be 100 things I didn't think of if I just dive in. I would be so grateful if you keep track of what needs to be lengthened (hoses, brake lines, etc.)

Perhaps "tonneau"?

These? http://www.ebay.com/itm/4pcs-Universal-Silicon-Constant-Velocity-CV-Boot-Joint-Kit-Replacement-/230910153051?hash=item35c351515b&vxp=mtr

What boots are those and where do I get them? They look WAY better than the boots that come on the axles, stock or reman. I need to start using those on all of my cars.

If you end up not needing those bumper brackets that I sent to you, let me know I'm not 100% sure yet, but it has occurred to me that it might be easier to beef up the original brackets than it would be to fabricate all new ones. And that badge looks NICE. In fact, all of the paint on that car looks nice. I'm bummed that it was pouring rain when I was at your place last summer and I didn't get a chance to look that car over more closely.

They're just aimed too high. I need to line up on a wall again and re-aim them lower. As far as which lights come on when, my outer lights come on for low beams and all 4 come on for high beams. But I've been wondering what the stock configuration is. Should it be low=outer and high=inner, or high=all 4?

WHAT?! That's insane. I would like to hope that we could trust parts stores more than this. What a f@#king rip off!

Things sound VERY promising here! This is good since my dad in looking into getting a Baja, and while my parents are now empty nesters, they still seem to end up loading the car full of their kids and their kids' kids pretty often. And yes, Jay is looking more and more like Paula Deen with a big chin everyday.

I got the parts to use shielding gas with my welder. I'll try to set it all up in the next few days and hopefully it makes the difference that I'm looking for. In other news, I replaced the headlights on the BRAT. I had bought very nice halogen replacements for all 4 lights on a closeout a year or so ago and put them on the shelf. I needed to fix some non-functioning adjusters so that I could get my headlights to point the right way, so I figured I might as well put the new lights in while I had it all apart. After replacing the lights and setting all of the adjustments right, I drove away and found my lights were pointing too high! Apparently I wasn't sitting level when I adjusted them, or something. I'll retry another night...

Replaced the headlights on my BRAT. I bought very nice halogen replacements for all 4 lights on a closeout a year or so ago and put them on the shelf. I needed to fix some non-functioning adjusters so that I could get my headlights to point the right way, so I figured I might as well put the new lights in while I had it all apart. After replacing the lights and setting all of the adjustments right, I drove away and found my lights were pointing too high! Apparently I wasn't sitting level when I adjusted them, or something. I'll retry another night.