Subarutex

Assuming you are meaning straightening those blocks, I'll explain how I did it the 4 times before I decided to make the skids. Remove the 2 bolts going through the block. Remove the block. Take the stock bolt (use the stock one, so you don't have to take off the lower plate, the less you remove the faster it goes), and thread it into the nut. It was my findings that what bent was the capture nut of these bolting locations and a tiny bit of material around it. So by threading a bolt into the nut (without the block) you are able to bend the capture nut back into place. I just did it by hand. There should have been enough play in the third major bolt that it did not bend, just the front two. So reassembly should be relatively easy. Slide block into place and reinsert longer hardware. At this step it may be beneficial to loosen the third bolt a tiny bit to give slack to the lower plate to help line up the front block. Hope that helps!

Yes, i'm in.

My first time out with the Hatch Patrol I bent those same blocks. After bending and straightening them a handful of times, I decided to try and fix it. I got together with a fabricator friend (same guy who made my bumper) and we came up with this solution: This is the best picture I have of it at the moment, i'll get soem more if needed. This piece started life as a pice of aluminium channel. The open space between the sides was a touch larger than the width of that block. First think we did was drill the 3 holes that are in the bottom plate, as this piece was goign to replace it. Once we got those drilled and it bolted in, we took measurements on where to cut the sides and to bend it. We then cut the sides off (as seen above) and bent it accordingly so that we had a nice flap to bolt to the floor. We then drilled 2 holes in this flap for the bolts to go through the floor. On the inside we used a small rectangel of aluminium to act as a washer plate for these bolts. I now affectionaly call these my Custom Side Skids. At this same time we thru-bolted a lot of the major suspension components using threaded rod, and large washers made out of aluminium (really 4"x4" square/round pieces) for the inside of the body. There were 4 major spots we thru-bolted. On the front trailing arm plates we did the block that also supports the tranny crossmember. In the back we did the major one through the round thing with the rubber bushings. Let me know if you need pictures of any of this, I will do my best to get them!

Wowsers. Good job on that block WJM! My old block just had cylinder wall damage... scoring and such. The wagon is looking really sick, I love it.

How much did that cost on that side of the country? I think over here I would be looking at $150 for the first hour...

I honestly doubt I'm going to get around to getting the wagon ready. It seems as of late I have no time for my cars :-/ Have fun everyone.

Garner, I would shoot for an inside diameter of 1 1/4 - 1 3/8. Also, where are the too pipes merging? Also, one might think to make the pipe after the merger larger, but I would do jus the opposite, a touch smaller, this will help accelerate the exhaust pulses into the turbo. I really need to get a welder and get to work learning. I think its completely awesome you have these talents and are doing neat things with them.

Haha, i just happen to be on break at work. Hooray for DSL on the break room computer!

I have dimensions and stuff from my RX. I'm slowly converting the pictures over to vector designs, so that they can be cut in vinyl. I had planned to offer these repro's to the public at about $100 for the full set. However, they would not include gradients (where the decal fades from light blue to dark blue). The price would be much higher if gradients were to be used, and for that matter more prone to fade like the originals. If you have serious interest, i'll get some made up. Because of the lack of serious interest, and the fact that i won't be repainting my RX for quite sometime has made me lazy and slow to finish this project.

Hey! Thats me! My '86 wagon has a 3" BYB body lift. You can get them in the US here: www.ozified.com. A guy named PK Davis manufactures the BYB lifts for us americans. BYB is originally australian. My front sway bar is still connected. The wheels are 14" Peugeut Steel wheels w/ 28" TSL super swampers. I can't recall how wide they are off hand...I'm thinking 6".

That looks good bud, to me a bit better than the TWE. I would have gone with smaller dia. piping though, as I would want super quick spool up. Not going to worry too much about super insane 120+ cruising speeds.

I'd love to go... however, I'd have to take the Wagon, not the RX. RX is too low and no snow tires. I'd also be the slow one in the group with the wagon... lacking EJ power, and less than ideal TSL's in the snow.

Faster than yours.

I have had no problems with my Fel Pro gaskets on both engines I've had in the RX.

Actually Caboobaroo, you'll have a lot of trouble replacing that with new glass. When some drunk through a beer bottle through mine I called all over. Multiple places told me that they could get one (1!!!) and that would have come southern cali. Best of luck to ya!

Danbob's wagon is muffler less. He just put in a straight pipe to replace it. Not loud at all. Has a good bauble to it when he's on it.

If expanded wheel choices are what you are after, remachining just the hubs will be fine. However, I have found there is sooo much potential whan you change the front end over to that of an impreza. Huge aftermarkets exist for performance struts, springs, brakes... Also with the Impreza front knuckle you gain a better bearing system, so they are less likely to wear out like on the EA82. I would look at making custom lower control arms for the front that match the XT6 ones. Also provide in the kit a new rear hub and backing plate (or caliper spacer). As these are really the hard to find parts. The parts that *need* to be XT6.

Redline in my RX box. Shifts like butter.

I'm on my second trans. I've done some stupid ****... 4 wheel dry pavement burnouts, launching in 4low drag racing, etc... Although, it wasn't a gear failure, the shift rod "froze up" Couldn't get it to move in and out.

Woot!! I see a couple other cars from people in my team. I'm part of a show team called Project One. See the website here: http://www.prjct1.com/ Direct link to my pic: http://kube93.com/timages/photo/KUBE-FM_477_199.jpg Here are some other cars in my crew: Ivan in his STi: http://kube93.com/timages/photo/KUBE-FM_477_193.jpg Sweet Honda with engine swap (h22 i think): http://kube93.com/timages/photo/KUBE-FM_477_201.jpg Our Prez Armin's WRX: http://kube93.com/timages/photo/KUBE-FM_477_192.jpg

So if you were building a show wagon with a lift... would you bling it with anodized aluminium lift blocks? or powder coated steel blocks?

Hahaha.... Maybe if I hadn't skipped mine i'd be able to detect it better WSU fo' life... GO COUGS!

Dammit Jay. Be at my house at 9. Just remember, if you ride with me, you help push!

Plan is to leave my house about 9 maybe before to be at the Pit by 10. Since i'm taking a non-offroader with me, and I have to plan around him aswell this is due to change. For our purposes we'll be up there probally till early afternoon 2ish i spose, then we gotta be back here at the very latest 4. Those that need it have my cellphone number. Here's to a good trip!

MorganM: First, i'd like to apologize for my brash words. I can't say I always agree with you, but you are right, there are others that have done far more to get under my skin. I posted this to be discussed, I wasn't really concerned with people agreeing or disagreeing with what I think of the car. From your comments, I felt I had to defend/prove what I thought to you. Being a person that doesn't like confrontation and arguing, I immediately got deffensive. I flat out missed the sarcasm my first times through. I will be the first to admit that my sarcasm detecter has been out of batteries for quite some time. Rice or not... its still an auto RX with a metal wing on it. I think a first for a lot of people to see. I'm going to leave it at that. Again, I apologize for my words against you.