miatapasta

Here you go. Finished product. I moved the fairlead 3/4" closer so it fits flush with the bumper, and added a trim piece out of a scrap piece of diamond stamped aluminum.

Hey man, thanks for the comments. I can see myself with a welder in a couple of years. I'll keep that in mind. It would make some under bracing easier, but so far I've had good luck with nuts & bolts. Necessity breeds ingenuity and all that, I suppose. As for the tires, the AT ones came with the car. I'm waiting on them to wear out before I swap out for something better. Finally, I do have the winch fairlead mounted. Keep in mind this is a rough draft version. It needs some fine tuning, but the idea is there. Could probably benefit from some more bracing. I'd also like it moved closer to the winch by about 1". Perhaps a trim plate out of diamond plated steel would look nice to finish it all off. That being said, it does work quite nicely. I haven't put a real load on it but I tugged my brother's car up the driveway and the cable doesn't rub on anything.

Don't worry. All bolts are grade 8. There are four bolts holding each side down: two on top, one up front, and one on the bottom. At least one bolt on each side is the OEM bolt that used to hold the factory bumper piece on. Although I'm not sure about size, each bolt head and nut is 14mm. The pics don't show the complete setup as they're in progress photos. Once everything is mounted, I'm going to disassemble it all, rust proof the factory frame bits, and have it all welded together at my local shop.

I think you guys will find this useful. I started mounting the winch up today. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/161507-2000-ob-off-roaddaily-duty-wagon/?do=findComment&comment=1345244

So I've been working on a winch mount for the rear. It's been kinda tricky but I'm glad it's panning out. I first removed the stock hard plastic bumper. I then was left with two pieces of the frame protruding outwards where the plastic originally mounted. Then I was able to mount two 4 foot pieces of 1/4" thick angle iron, tying the two pieces of the frame together. Mind you, this is a 100% bolt on application as I don't own a welder. Each side gets four bolts tying the angle irons to the frame. Two of the bolts are the original mounting points, and two are ones I drilled out. The pics don't show them, but you know. Then you just bolt on the mounting plate, and then the winch goes on top of it all. So the winch is actually mounted at an angle; it's technically facing downwards. It's just the only way I could have installed it. Therefore I do need to fab up a way to mount the roller fairlead, but it'll be easy (I already know what I need to do). Next up: wiring - just wanted to show that I used grommets to protect the heavy gauge wire from shorting out on the unibody frame. I have not finished running all the wiring to the front where the battery is yet. I stopped after breaching the spare tire well. At this point, I decided that I'm just going to give up and return it back to normal. I removed the winch and put the stock bumper back on. Ha ha, just kidding. If you look closer you'd see the flap I made to access the winch. I really like how that turned out! It fits perfectly under the bumper. All you'll see when it's finished is the fairlead and hook. It flips right on up when you need to access it. It's not done yet, but I'm past the halfway point. Until next time!

I had thought about a trailer hitch mount. Thanks for the idea. I was wondering what your opinions are on this too. I was looking at the spare tire well as a possible place to mount it. Practically it's nice because it's concealed, safe, and out of the rain. Functionally though I was wondering about the strength of the metal plating that makes up the tire well. Alternatively, I know the rear bumper is plastic, but with reinforcements I can see it pulling me out of level ground soft mud. Heck, we pulled it out of a ravine with a wheel off the ground with a storebought ratchet strap and 3rd grade comparable knots. Could be the availability heuristic, though. If there are any other ideas, please toss them up.

I haven't been able to get there and inspect it myself, but thanks for the heads up. What's your opinion on winches on the front bumper? I've looked at that pretty extensively and from what I can gather, it looks pretty stout.

Thanks man. I put together about 75 extra feet tree saver straps, snatch blocks, and extra line. Should have no problem with the trails I ride.

Scott, glad to hear you've got the same one as me. JP, you're right. Every time I've gotten stuck, it's the end of the line for me. It is my daily as well as my toy, and if I get stuck in the future, the last place I want to go is forward, ha! It'll be mounted to the rear bumper. Most of the trails I travel are wooded areas with trees aplenty. I actually picked up the 5000 lb HF winch yesterday. I coupled it with a Drillmaster angle grinder and they tossed in a free hook LED light. $187 total. I'm going to take off the bumper cover this weekend and see what the metal support bar looks like. The winch came with a mounting plate too.

Yep, stuck with the opens I fear. I need to stop thinking this thing is a Jeep. Heh

For what it's worth, this is a pretty impressive video. HF winch pulls out a Deuce. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig7s2N9EZps That being said, I've been looking at winching videos all day. From what I've seen on YouTube, the HF winches can pull some serious weight. However, what I'm seeing a lot of them being used for is pulling huge rigs out of really deep stuff. That's not what I'm using my OBW for. I have gotten it stuck twice now, and neither time was as extreme as needing to be pulled through some exotic muck trail on some famous land. Once I got high centered, and another was me in a ditch on three wheels. I believe that a 5,000 lb rated rear mount winch with a pulley system (doubles to 10k) will be enough for me to get out of what I find myself in. I want my winch to be a tool used to pull me backwards out of trouble, not forwards and deeper into something else. If I'm stuck, I want to turn around. For me, getting stuck is a sign I need to take my two open differentials mounted to a station wagon to some milder terrain, LOL!

Hey guys, love them or hate them, Harbor Freight is doing another one of their sales. In my experience, they allow you to stack coupons in the store but not online. I was able to price a 5,000 lb Badland winch, a Drillmaster angle grinder, and a free LED light for $190. Anyone ever have any experience with a Badland winch? Their reviews on Amazon mention that they are not massive duty winches, but get the job done nonetheless. Is 5,000 lbs enough for a 2000 OBW, given that the wagon is only 3,500 lbs and will have the car's engine assisting it?

I've been doing a lot of research since posting, and it appears that really I'm stuck with the open diffs. Sure, one could weld it, but the point of this car is to be a daily driver with off road capabilities when needed. I could also go LSD, but they appear to have been all worn out at this point. If I'm wrong, let me know, but otherwise I've since abandoned the idea.

How often does your car see the street? Mine is 90% street duty, but there is access to many trails by my house even if I decide to turn off the road on a whim. That being said, I think I've pretty much turned against the idea.

Not an older Subaru like you guys have (I like those better personally), but here's my 00 OBW. I just cut all the excess off and made a small plate to protect the exposed wires and coolant lines.

Hey, guys. I know that welding a differential is not a great thing to do to an axle that drives a car. Trust me, people weld and blow diffs on Miatas all the time, so I've seen the bad side effects. But I had an idea last night and I wanted your input on it. Let's say I do the switch mod that lets me lock the center diff on the 4EAT. This way I can manually control the 50/50 torque split. That's cool and all, but I still have the stock open diffs. So to add on to that idea, I also know that you can install a fuse to convert the car to FWD. My question/point of this thread is: If I welded the rear open diff and only used FWD on the street, with no power to the rear axles, would I still encounter the negative side effects of welded diffs (wheel hop, CV stress, etc?) I'm assuming yes, but wanted to make sure. In a perfect world, I would have two switches: one that shuts off power to the rear diff for normal street driving. This would save the rear welded diff strictly for off road use. I would also have another switch for the center diff, allowing the 50/50 torque split to be more effectively used in the rear. If I am way off, or this is just a crazy notion, feel free to let me know.

Yeah, but for $1600 I'll take a rusty car over a $3000 model. I'd rather rag out this one and save the pristine models for other folks. Oh yeah, so I finished up the pallet basket yesterday. (Well, almost finished. I need to loom the wires up top and add some mesh around the pallet to make it a true basket.) So I tried to find a way to run the wires without drilling the roof. I wanted to route it through one of the 'humps' that bolt the OEM rack to the roof. However, this would be near impossible without pulling down half of the headliner to get to the one bolt, so I drilled away. I superglued a washer on to the hole so the rough edges wouldn't damage the wires. (I didn't want to use a rubber grommet because it would interfere with the silicone waterproofing.) I then used this stuff called Amazing Goop to waterproof it. (This stuff really is cool. It's malleable like silicone, but dries like a silicone/epoxy blend). I didn't photo where I ran the wires, but it goes under the headliner, down the passenger side weather stripping to the door hinges, then passes through the fender & over the wheel well into the engine bay where I spliced into the connector for the OEM fog lights. There is a button in the cabin that Subaru used to control the fog lights, but it is now used to switch on/off these aux lights. They aren't on when oncoming traffic is present, of course. Here's a route of where the wires run, for the curious. I couldn't find a route through the firewall. And then...bam! It is obscene how much light gets thrown! I have four spots on top, two of which are angled to the corners. The sides house two 6.5" flood lights. Then the grille has the 20" flood/spot combo light bar. They are all wired to the same circuit. While driving, I have a complete 180* field of view. I also have those 4" lights in the back, so when reversing, I have full on 360*. Of course, the side lights don't do much for street driving, but for off road, these are indispensable for doing U-turns when in a field or on a trail. Some of the trails I ride at night have me making sharp turns, so it's really nice to have that peripheral view, especially since (as I have learned) there are some nasty ditches and ruts hidden in the tall grass... So in a nutshell, is it ugly like a pallet bolted to the top of a station wagon? Oh yeah. Does it serve a greater purpose? Yep. Greater weight capacity and night time visibility. Do I like it? Yeah! Was it free? Nope, I have $20 sunk into a set of lights. Everything else was already available though. (I suppose if you tried real hard, you can spend $60 on it, and most of that is lighting.) Hope this inspires somebody!

So this brings us to today, 12/5/16. I've had the wagon about 3 months at this point. As mentioned, the DIY roof basket so far. I have sunk exactly $0 into this. All lights, materials, metal, hardware, etc. I either cannibalized off other pieces, picked up for free, or already had laying around. If you're interested in such a project, here's what I'm doing. We start with the plastic pallet. My friend manages a grocery store and let me grab one of the pallets from behind the store. So you want to cut out the center cross pieces. There is actually a piece of square metal bar that runs through one of the pieces. I used a hacksaw to cut it out and managed to save a solid 4 foot piece. Save it for later as you will use it to mount your spot lights on. Here you see the plates I made to cover the cross beam cutouts. All of the flat plating material you see in this project is called Polymetal. It is the same stuff they make the oversized "lot for sale" signs out of. Next, I chose to mount some side lights. They are 6.5" flood lights. These will be good for peripherals. I mounted them to a square of Polymetal, and then screwed the metal plate into the pallet itself. Next up, I made the wind faring. Again, Polymetal. It is actually set up to be hinged in case I need to pass a long object through the basket. This way the faring can move out of the way. Lights, wiring, faring. You can also see the stainless steel U-bolts I'm using as a mounting solution. Test fit so far. Rear view. Then you want to paint the wind faring. I actually am going to cover it with a "Subaru rally" decal I found online for cheap that is originally designed as a windshield banner. (The vinyl decal doubles as a cover for all the old screw holes in the Polymetal wind faring). You'll also notice that I cut the bottom edge to contour to the roof. And this is where I've left off. It still isn't mounted yet. The basket will house a shovel and a hi-lift jack for recovery purposes. It should have a higher weight limit than OEM because I've removed the factory adjustable crossbars, which had a pretty weak mounting system to begin with. I have four spot beams to add to the front and I still need to run all the wiring, but it's starting to take its final shape. I'll update later when I have more done. It's been a fun project and you can't beat free!

So. First major repair down. The backstory: I was going through a field with some tall grass. The grass hid a ravine, and so... Yeah, live and learn I guess. When in doubt, walk it out... So anyways, my friend came and pulled me out with his 700 ft/lbs man truck. When we got it out, the AT oil temp light was flashing. Ran the code via some crazy secret handshake and it gave me code 75: line pressure duty solenoid. Turns out the car was resting on the trans pan and it dented inward, damaging a solenoid. I'll spare you the details but be glad the Miata community is so well-researched and documented. There is little detail about messed up Subaru transmissions. Pulling the pan off was interesting. Ever been inside an auto transmission? This was my first time. $90 later and I was back to normal. The price is steep for a little solenoid, but it beats $900 in parts/labor. Side note: Turns out I'm very allergic to ATF. Good thing to know. This is very itchy. It'll be a rough week. It's also on my other arm, legs, torso, forehead...everywhere! Just ordered a 2" lift kit, the max you can go without adjusting the other suspension components. 3" and up you start cracking subframes and etc, or so I've read. And I thought this was supposed to be a cheap car... Apparently this is a 2" lift. Obviously it has bigger wheels and tires, but this is the potential it has. Also, I'm making a DIY roof basket out of a plastic pallet. Can't beat free. Here's the Jeep I got the idea from.

Had to test out the new angles on the local dirt pile. It did not disappoint, and the cut bumper proved itself mighty worthy on the steep slopes. I wish I had some better trails to ride around here besides a utility line and a construction pit. IG collage Ascent Notice the big dirt piles that would have mauled the original bumper. Big pile under the front. I do enjoy the better angles it's capable of. So I think the only thing left to do is a 2" lift and some AT tires. Turns out I can indeed do a 2" lift with spacers on top of the shocks without horribly messing up the geometry. The AT tires should give me 3" extra of clearance total combined with the spacers. This thread is probably going to become a repository of semi-cool (to me) off roading pictures as I explore nature around my town. Don't mind me. The cut bumper is really proving to be a great advantage. Found a dried up creek at the end of a new trail. I'm starting to love getting outdoors and exploring. Favorite picture of the day.

I also got it all muddy and added crazy lights! We'll start with the reverse lights. These are 4" LED bars bolted to a piece of aluminum bar stock. The bar/bracket itself is bolted to the license plate holes. The license plate is then bolted on top of the bar and hides the wires behind. Then my friend and I found a trail with a bit of a muddy section. That's where all the dirt in the pics comes from, actually. Now, the PO I think had hit something: The grille was cracked, the hood dented, and bumper cracked. I think my trail riding further exacerbated the bumper so I wound up taking a page from my inner ricer and zip-stitched it back together. It...kinda actually looks good. Rugged, even? (Can a station wagon be called rugged?) The fog lights never worked, so I replaced those with LED units and yellow vinyl. Of course, I had to get a ridiculous 20" light bar too! And MAN, what a difference it makes at night. I need to snap a pic of the output but it is unbelievable. What aren't pictured (and not very exciting) are the two door speakers I installed up front (the DS one wasn't working) and the tape deck AUX cord adapter thing. one last pic of the full factory bumper. You can see how it's been beat up on the lower part. In fact, the smooth all-season tires have failed me less than the overhanging bumper has. So yeah, I really like the way it looks - but of course it is much more functional too. Look at how much more of an angle I can go with. Really all I did was follow the body lines and cut it all off with a jigsaw. I painted all of the underbody stuff with regular matte black paint. Blends in nicely. I think I might be able to retrofit a push bar/brush guard up front now that the frame is exposed and easy to access. On the other hand, the frame is a unibody structure, so any smash the bar takes translates to the entire frame of the car. I also swapped out my 20" light bar for a 24" curved model. I sold my old 20" to my neighbor who's putting it on his canoe, so win-win. Love the way it follows the curve of the car. It's actually a perfect match. Other than that, just some random stickers here and there. 219,000 miles and counting. Rear end

As you can tell, I come from the world of Miatas and personally own a 1990 NA model with a MP62 SC, coilovers, upholstery, etc etc. You can see it here. http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/89-roadster-projects/184033-reemergence-miatapastas-new-beginnings.html So, anyways, the story is that the shop that built my Miata motor, Track Minded Performance in Atlanta, also dabbles in Subarus. The shop owner texted me about one he was selling, and a few weeks later he delivered it to my driveway. Little bit of rust in the fenders, but it's easily accessible and nothing some POR 15 can't fix. 218,000 miles with a new timing belt/water pump. Within minutes of getting the key, I was already testing out the AWD. It was actually a pretty steep incline on some sandy soil to get here, so I was impressed. Then again, I'm coming from a Miata on coilovers, so I don't know if I should be, lol. Window looks off track, but that's actually how it rolls down. Kinda weird looking. Lo and behold, the 200 acres behind my house has some utility trails and whatnot. The neighbors filled me in on how to find them. They're avid dirtbikers. I haven't really explored much. You can't really tell in the above pic, but I bought some spray on bedliner and covered the ugly tan lower bumper pieces. I also painted the OEM wheels bronze. Looks so much better. I'll grab a pic sometime. It also served its purpose quite nicely when hauling lumber today. (I'm building a dining room table.) I tell you, after exclusively driving a NA Miata for 7 years, this is a whole other world. I almost contemplated making it my exclusive project and really going nuts with the off road thing, but I can't turn my back on my Miata. Plus the Subaru has an insane amount of rust in some places (it was an Ohio car originally, turns out). Ah well. I'll drive it til the wheels fall off.

So this project isn't done at all yet, but I wanted to introduce myself and show off what I've been working on lately. For my Miata I tend to use quality parts mixed with DIY, but for my off road/daily driver OBW I wanted to keep it as cheap as possible to allocate more funds into the Miata build. Please let me know if you have any comments or criticisms. This certainly won't be a high weight loading basket, but this pallet is WAY overbuilt and can handle hundreds of pounds. The shortcoming is actually the Subaru's roof rails themselves. So, as mentioned, the DIY roof basket so far. I have sunk exactly $0 into this. All lights, materials, metal, hardware, etc. I either cannibalized off other pieces, picked up for free, or already had laying around. If you're interested in such a project, here's what I'm doing. We start with the plastic pallet. My friend manages a grocery store and let me grab one of the pallets from behind the store. So you want to cut out the center cross pieces. There is actually a piece of square metal bar that runs through one of the pieces. I used a hacksaw to cut it out and managed to save a solid 4 foot piece. Save it for later as you will use it to mount your spot lights on. Here you see the plates I made to cover the cross beam cutouts. All of the flat plating material you see in this project is called Polymetal. It is the same stuff they make the oversized "lot for sale" signs out of. Next, I chose to mount some side lights. They are 6.5" flood lights. These will be good for peripherals. I mounted them to a square of Polymetal, and then screwed the metal plate into the pallet itself. Next up, I made the wind faring. Again, Polymetal. It is actually set up to be hinged in case I need to pass a long object through the basket. This way the faring can move out of the way. Lights, wiring, faring. You can also see the stainless steel U-bolts I'm using as a mounting solution. Test fit so far. Rear view. Then you want to paint the wind faring. I actually am going to cover it with a "Subaru rally" decal I found online for cheap that is originally designed as a windshield banner. (The vinyl decal doubles as a cover for all the old screw holes in the Polymetal wind faring). You'll also notice that I cut the bottom edge to contour to the roof. And this is where I've left off. It still isn't mounted yet. The basket will house a shovel and a hi-lift jack for recovery purposes. It should have a higher weight limit than OEM because I've removed the factory adjustable crossbars, which had a pretty weak mounting system to begin with. I have four spot beams to add to the front and I still need to run all the wiring, but it's starting to take its final shape. I'll update later when I have more done. It's been a fun project and you can't beat free!

Hey guys, as my name suggests, I come from the world of Miatas. Currently own a 1990 model with a 1.8 motor swap, MP62 supercharger, coilover suspension, etc etc etc. Check out its build here sometimes if you're interested. http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/89-roadster-projects/184033-reemergence-miatapastas-new-beginnings.html I recently bought a 2000 OBW, 218,000 miles with new alternator, timing belt, water pump, etc. So far I've changed the line pressure duty solenoid in the trans, changed the oil, and have started to address some rust issues. I told myself I'd never mod it. But...yeah. For reference, it was completely stock when I bought it. Mods now include a 20" light bar up front, 2x 6.5" side flood lights, 2x 4" backup lights, rhino liner on the beige lower trim, new door speakers, tape deck aux cord, cut bumper for better approach angle, roof basket I made myself, and some more I'm sure I'm forgetting. Plenty of mud and stickers have been applied as well, ha. A 2 inch lift is in the mail. After 9 years of DDing an autocross-lowered Miata, I have been loving the ground clearance and there just happen to be trails in my backyard, so win-win. I'll be sticking around the off road section mostly. See you guys around.