slammo

Yeah the light wiring harness/plug seems 100% worth it, better to do that all in your own garage rather than having to wing it on the road. Plus, magnetic trailer lights would be one less thing to carry. Turns out taking a stock-height Subaru off road can be pretty hard on the skid plate. Glad I wasn't trying to keep up with the long travel cars all weekend haha. Looking forward to getting mine put together soon-ish.

Rear bumper looks sturdy, is that the same color as the front bumper? Would be really nice to have a way to use the towed vehicle's brakes when flat towing, but any solution I can come up with gets too complicated too quickly. Skid plate on my stock-height car definitely took a beating, will have to post pics later.

Weekend was a blast, glad we could make it happen! My daily definitely has a few more dents and scratches than it used to, but well worth it! It's been too long since I've taken a Subaru off road.

True on plating; might be able to save some weight by doing a flanged bolted connection rather than the tube connectors

Luckily the tin foil spare tire wells are pretty malleable. I believe stock fuel pumps have a check valve. 56 lb empty sure gives me pause about using that donut tank but I am interested to see how it works out for you. We'll have to keep looking for something lighter weight that fits there. Forester bracing looks functional; look forward to seeing how much of a difference that makes both with strut tower longevity and chassis twist. Might be worth putting the removable cross-brace lower; directly between the strut towers rather than above the tophats, so that the seat backs can go in the original positions. Love how you fit the front diagonals around the seats.

Save those ABS sensors for me lol

Ceramic coating the headers would have the biggest benefit of reducing heat in the engine compartment No comment on the color choice I picked up an aftermarket rear plate light for my impreza, will let you know how that goes

Good video, that was a fun trip.

Love seeing this come along, as K said everything looks improved compared to the previous cars. The trans crossmember and front skid plate integration in particular looks great and should really add some beef to the front end. Can't wait to get mine together and go wheeling again!

One of the subtle changes Subaru made from the first through third gen Imprezas was tying in the strut towers to the cowl/firewall. First gen Impreza: 2nd gen Impreza: Couldn't find a good pic of a 3rd gen Impreza engine bay, so here's a bad pic instead: It may be worth welding in some sheet metal as a brace there so you add support to both sides of the strut towers. Would be worth doing while the engine is out; just have to avoid the fuel and brake lines that run through there.

Wonder if the R160 difference correlates to the one-bolt versus five-bolt design? (photos from Torq Locker's website) Knuckle mockup looks great, super excited for that! Hopefully the trailing arm dog leg doesn't cause any issues, that's not a lot of clearance to the wheel lol.

Making the knuckles out of aluminum would be justifiable especially given that so many modern production cars have aluminum knuckles, but better safe than sorry for now. These are overbuilt for the application and that's fine with me. FWIW keyboard experts have argued about unblocking hood vents for years. I think you'll be fine to remove them since a little rain coming in through the hood won't be out of the ordinary for what you'll be doing with this car.

Billet knuckle looks great. It's come a long way!

I understand why it is where it is, but that would look a lot better with the whole horizontal beam moved up so it only sits a quarter inch below the fenders, lights, and grille. Attach the beam to the top of the frame inserts, rather than the front? 😉

Just my opinion, I think you should do the 6MT/R180 swap first and drive the car with the 2.2 and low range for a while before tearing it apart for the 3.6. Can you share a pic of the new bumper with the hood down and the grille in place?