slammo

The HiPer strut design accounts for some steering geometry correction, but it will do nothing to address the strut bending issue that is arguably the biggest problem with adding track width. I for one am glad you did inverted struts; maybe a thick shaft would be "good enough" but I wouldn't trust it for heavy use. I think there's good reason that any rally suspension uses an inverted design, as well as the other manufacturers that have entered the long travel Subaru market (Flatout, Gorilla, etc). I'm really looking forward to having this setup on my car.

Sano switch panel. Yes, starting with a rust free body and reinforcing it before it starts breaking seems like a great strategy. Do you think you'll put the electric jacks in the new build? Seems like a lot of weight for little gain.

10.75 V still sounds pretty low. I had a similar issue in an 03 Outback where a starter worked on the bench but not in-car; it turned out to be several inches of wire in the leads to the starter were corroded. Replaced the leads and it worked great.

Cannot wait to experience this thing again. With a 6 speed and voodoo it is going to be unstoppable.

Sounds like a blast, wish I could have gone!

Lights below the headlights would have the same potential to contact the headlights as having steel there. If you cut the plastic bumper cover to fit, I think it would have enough give to be a non-issue. The plastic bumper might overhang the metal bumper though; not sure what to use in that case. More example pictures of cut bumpers because they look sweet: As for lights, I'd put them in the grille area and cut out the grille to make them fit. Purely aesthetic reason. Although if you could fit a super-long light bar between the lights and bumper that was the full width of the bumper, that would look pretty sick too. My vote for paint would be black rattle-can bedliner. Black because it's low key - I think gold would stand out and look really out of place, and if you use body color it will really highlight the gap between the bumper and body in a bad way. Rattle-can bedliner is inexpensive and easy, the texture will hide any imperfections, and when it gets scratched it's easy to touch up. Either color without texture will show off any dents or unevenness in the flat sections.

Looks sweet! Any plans to fill the vertical gap between the bumper and the fenders/headlight trim/grille? Pic example with cut bumper.

I'm shocked that they don't have more plunge than the OEM and good aftermarket axles. Isn't that 90% of the point of ball spline axles? I understand that removing the plunge requirements from the inner CV can allow more angle out of that CV; I guess your test will tell if it makes a difference. Curious how much material will be gone from the crossmember and control arm.

Would a leakdown test on your 99 H6 potentially show you where the cylinder pressure is escaping into the crankcase?

First off I want to say thank you to Pontoontodd and B for letting J and myself ride shotgun in this race. Our introduction to desert racing was definitely an experience for the books! I've been collecting my thoughts from last weekend to share here. The course was crazy rough. It was easily just as challenging as the Ozark trails we were riding on in April, but done at twice the speed. The small embedded rocks Pontoontodd was describing earlier basically felt like very abrupt washboards and were brutal at any speed. Several of the hill climbs might as well have been driving up a staircase, and they were steep, blind, and rough coming down the other side as well. I'd agree that the average Subaru with a lift and skid plates probably could have made it through the course, but it would have taken 4x the time and several of the climbs would have required a lot of momentum. Plastic bumpers would not survive haha. On that note, I disagree that a stock civic could drive it. Probably half to three fourths of the course's length would have been drivable by an average stock economy car, but they would not be able to negotiate the tougher stuff without modification or damage. I think we were lucky to only damage one tire and one wheel throughout the event. That your car held up for 3 1/2 laps and beat many more dedicated builds is a testament to the chassis and suspension modifications you've made. Most of the field of entrants was dedicated race machinery, and I only know of one other vehicle that was still street registered. I only took a couple photos and video of the weekend, almost all of which was during prerunning. Here are my brief video clips: Closing thoughts: For a lot of "typical" car enthusiasts, horsepower is addictive. Once they get some, they just need more and more and more. I'm pretty sure that in this crowd, suspension travel is the same way - you can never have enough, and you're always wanting more no matter how much you already have. It's a shame that there aren't more long travel options for Subarus, but I'm glad that yours are available and out there to show people what can be done.

Would it be any easier to make an adaptor for where the bearing assembly bolts to the hub? 07 outback front: 07 outback rear:

You may want to put the original brakes back on the white outback if you're going to be towing more. You can find 15" wheels that clear them or use wheel spacers with OEM 15s, or try the caliper grinding trick.

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The 02-07 Impreza has a similar brace, commonly known as a U-brace. It would be a great easy place to attach a full-coverage front skidplate.

Oh, that makes sense. Some of the rods may be adjustable, or maybe there's too much play in an end. It sounds like the lock or latch isn't fully disengaging.

I don't know about the HVAC; I bet you could rig up a way to use the heater box from a first or second gen impreza (full manual or full electronic control, respectively). I've heard they don't bolt in behind the dash at least, but I don't know of anyone who's tried. As for the hatch, you probably have a bunch of rust in the handle mechanism. I dealt with that issue on every rust belt hatch I had. Replace the handle and the piece where the license plate lights are with one that's not rusty and it'll be night and day. A little lube on the new one will make it even better.

Will you maintain AWD in both high and low range? Also, are you integrating a DCCD with the six speed?

Hasn't been legalized here yet.

I love this picture. It feels very Cowabunga

Wow! Remind me not to relocate my exhaust. Do you have a sheetmetal heat shield between the muffler and chassis like there is in the stock application? Those are a pain when they rattle, squeak, and catch on things but in this case it sounds like it would be worth it.

Wow that rust is terrible. I know it'd be a lot of work to swap the cage over, but you can find rust free Outbacks with mechanical issues for just a few hundred bucks.

Nice work, that should better react the bending load on the front chassis rails and hopefully help your chassis fatigue issues. It's a shame the 2nd gen Legacy didn't come with the U-shaped subframe brace like the GD Impreza did.

Looks great, looking forward to seeing the new setup. It's so much nicer to work on and drive cars that aren't rusty, so I'm sure you're glad to have switched vehicles.

I've been putting a lot of thought toward this too. Any real truck starts off with a body-on-frame construction which solves what seems to be the biggest issue your build has faced, which is the finite service life of certain parts of the unibody. Then there's a wider selection of more powerful and/or reliable engines and transmissions, huge amounts of aftermarket support, readily available locking differentials and heavy duty axles, the list goes on. The two biggest downsides I can see are higher weight and initial price. The weight can seem substantial but I think it comes down to more heavy duty construction in all the components, and is proportionally smaller when you consider fully loaded vehicles. The price, well I guess that's why I still don't have one. Subarus are by nature low budget off roaders. They do ride and handle better than body-on-frame options, and make sense for 90% of people who just want to get to the next camping/hiking/skiing/canoeing/adventure location and aren't trying to find the toughest terrain their cars can handle. It seems like most people who get too serious into driving off-road run into the inherent limitations of the platform and often decide to switch. That's not to say you can't get around them - brace the chassis, swap in a 6cyl or turbo engine and STi 6-speed, use long-travel struts, etc - but it very quickly stops being cost effective. As for me, I think I'll continue driving the wheels off my Impreza as long as it lasts. The car will always be a compromise - the 2.2 won't win any races, the stock Forester struts are far from ideal, the chassis is starting to fatigue, the first gear isn't low enough, etc etc - but for the total of $2000 that I've spent purchasing, fixing, and modifying the car, it's hard to beat. I can't personally justify spending more on something that at the end of the day amounts to a toy at this point in my life, so I'll make the most of it for what it is. Just my opinion ¯\_(ツ)_/¯