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The many adventures of Fern the impreza.


tron
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  • 2 months later...

:Flame:

i liked the thick aluminum idea for a skid as the roads are salted often and this sucker is light!

Paul at primitive racing is great. I got this plate and rear dif guard from him.

The front skid was cut and bent by my friend tyson at parks offroad here in Mt shasta.

 

We cut off some of the sides and bent the plate in 2 places, then bent up the sides.

Its 3/16 5052 airplane grade aluminum

in research we found not to heat with the bend so we just used a press bender for the 2 main bends, then we bent up the corners using the custom bed of one of his wheelers and some clamps.

:Flame:

Had the heatshields removed all the way and put in a small glasspack behind a magnaflow cat with magnaflow muffler. took all the rattle out of the 1.8.

She sounds mild, nice n low but not loud.

 

studs on 205/75/15s

ebrake needed new pads is all... all good now.

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next is:

2.2 under 70,000, mud rat front bumper, sliders(all the way back over the rear mounts),viper 5000lb winch,roof basket w/(hi-lift,tire,shovel mount) AT grabbers 225/75/15s:D

Edited by tron
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yes there are 2 holes one for drain and one for filter. I needed to shave out a bit of one side of drain hole so the plug would freely clear.
here is the original:
1993%20-%2001%20impreza.JPG
I had to cut down the sides to where i wanted to bend it because of the cool kinks!!

it has access holes in it like this one
IMG_0061.jpg


The rear is 3/16 5052 airplane grade aluminum as well. :brow:

Its nice to know its there as a slider and it looks cool when your following me.
:cool: :-p

Edited by tron
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i like how boxy it is :-p
I have done some other small things...
MoMo Grippy pedals for my snowy boots.
IMG_2551_zps5d9b0f7d.jpg
I drilled and mounted the clutch and brake pedal then removed the gas pedal assembly.
Drilled and mounted the pedal on top of the existing plastic pedal.
I like them and i use the tabs for heel toe down shifting.

Got some blue led foot lights and dome lights... I love it because at night the snow glows blue when i open my door! :D
IMG_2559_zps253b77fa.jpg
IMG_2557_zps1f44d078.jpg
IMG_2560_zpsfc263db2.jpg

Edited by tron
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I love the blue lights so much. 
It has snowed 3 ft. Im having so much fun just parking in lots with snow to
My doors! :D

The pedals are so nice with my snow boots on!
Many subaru drivers of all ages smile at my Fern and I. :D

Edited by tron
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Not a huge fan of blue LEDs, they kinda hurt my eyes. LOVE red lights, though. My parents' Audi A6 has red LEDs backlighting in the entire instrument cluster, dash, radio, and heater controls. Is so pleasant on those long drives at night.

 

I do have a 500-pack of red LEDs off of eBay I was gonna use for my LED tail light conversion, maybe I'll rewire some into my dash and dome lights! :D

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:grin:just swapped out the hex bolts provided with the skid plate to grade 8.8 button head Allen bolts. The hex heads stuck out way too much and could snag on things.

When i go through deep snow the hex heads would leave 2 distinct trails in the snow!

"A lifted subaru too, dark blue.... so hurry down the chimney tonight!" LOL

Edited by tron
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Just got back from alignment...

Wow was she screwy!

The shop got it really straight!

On to skid plate fabrication....:Flame:

 

So a question,

 

My camber is off all the way around and I'm just starting to notice a bit of wear on the outside of my tires.

 

Was the shop able to do your alignment with stock bolts or did you have to get aftermarket camber bolts? Mine doesn't have a body lift but I have the Forester strut/spring setup that should put the difference between body and suspension similar to yours. Sorry for the hijack, just saw that you had recently aligned a lift Impreza too.

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So a question,

 

My camber is off all the way around and I'm just starting to notice a bit of wear on the outside of my tires.

 

Was the shop able to do your alignment with stock bolts or did you have to get aftermarket camber bolts? Mine doesn't have a body lift but I have the Forester strut/spring setup that should put the difference between body and suspension similar to yours. Sorry for the hijack, just saw that you had recently aligned a lift Impreza too.

 

Easy way is to round out the strut mount holes, get some big washers, and bolt it back up with more camber.

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So a question,

 

My camber is off all the way around and I'm just starting to notice a bit of wear on the outside of my tires.

 

Was the shop able to do your alignment with stock bolts or did you have to get aftermarket camber bolts? Mine doesn't have a body lift but I have the Forester strut/spring setup that should put the difference between body and suspension similar to yours. Sorry for the hijack, just saw that you had recently aligned a lift Impreza too.

 

yes i bought ingalls camber bolts for the rear, the front already had stock camber bolts that adjusted far enough.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Has not snowed in about 2 weeks yet ice and snow still here. At the park the tennis courts have snow to the top of the nets!

So the drive i park in has some icy snow bumps and in these bumps i began to notice a clang ping sound coming from right rear......

It was the ebrake cable holder for the right side. It was just hanging there so i went to the other side and that one was bolted on.

Removed the left side bolt and got a similar one from napa.

Bolted it back on both sides, no more clingy clang!:D

 

Head Trauma Inc. front bumper in the plans now.....:brow:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Its been warming up here. Snow is almost all melted in town so i drove up the mountain with fritz (border/lab) to see what i could see..
Picture020_zpsbf509735.jpg

This is what i decided to go through.
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We went a bit in on the lower road, fritz ran around marking bushes while I took some pics of fern and the snowy path we drove.
Picture007_zpsd61e9c35.jpg

This is just the first thaw.. apparently the snow will dump here again soon and much more then earlier this year.

The 205/75/15 (27in) snow tires are teaching me the balance between tire size and engine strength. I got her with low tread 235s (29in) and the old 1.8 was trying too hard IMO. After driving on and offroad in the same places i did with the larger tires and not noticing too much difference in height ive decided that a 215/75/15 mud tire will be on after the winter. I also plan on a 2.2 motor when this dies so with some (28in) she will crawl and haul when needed.
Axle stub\CV breakage is something id like to keep to a minimum yet I still need some tire height.

Edited by tron
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Id love 29s but, its only an inch.  an inch less shouldent make that much difrence in me getting over things. It will however make a difrence in less broken axles/stubs on the trail and add abit more power. Scott is a vet at wheelin these and has seen alot, he sugested 26.5-27s. Mainly so I can momentum through instead of trying to "crawl and snap". I plan on doing a ballance of both momentum and articulation. I also plan to have fun.

Edited by tron
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sorry no pics of this area. :rolleyes:

When I got the car there was no pad spacing the trans bottom and Xmember bar.

If I went foreward abruptly I would hear a loud "PING!" :huh:

I replaced 2 ea81 transmission mounts/bushings that were soft as gum,

then got a piece of tire from a bud at the tire shop by my house.

I cut a strip to fit between the xmember and the trans. (not too fun) <_<

Then I used 2 strong hose clamps to keep the tire piece in place on the Xmember.

I still need new engine mounts, yet there was a great change after these additions. ^_^

Edited by tron
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Went to the same trail/road yesterday. Its great that its 5min from my house!

This time i had a friend riding with me so we went way further and deeper in the snow..blazing a fresh trail.

I learned more about momentem and floating in the softer snow.

It was so fun.

1st gear 4low, the exhaust just rumbeling, hanging out the door to watch the wheels hover.

I felt like I was in a boat just riding the soft snow.

If my rpms got low she would bog to a stop and sink up front.

Then I just pulled back a bit and would gently power up the sunken wheel marks like ramps and just boat on!

I felt the front start to hop on some streaches of deep snow, I would just peel back on the throttle abit till she stopped shuddering.

It was great fun. going to bring a video camera next time!

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  • 4 weeks later...

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