What did you do to improve your soobie today

ScubyRoo · Post by **ScubyRoo** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:05 pm

nachaluva wrote:Lol, I thought maybe you had a folder lol

Yep next week sounds good. I'll def need a hand, just not sure how to do it...

Folder mmmm.... I looked up a few ideas this morning and might make one to help in the panel work to cover my rear bar. They're pretty simple and I saw some nice examples on the web. I have a few techniques I'm testing out today to see if I can do it without a folder, we'll see. I love the fabrication the Subie Boys have done and the idea of doing everything by hand appeals to me.

wombataaron · Post by **wombataaron** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:38 pm

Did 2 small camping mods in the last 2 days, mounted this rechargable fluro to the rear tailgate, sits on 2 cup hooks:

Puts out an awesome amount of light, not sure how long the charge lasts for and its only 240V chargable, but for $20 from the reject shop im not complaining.

Also made another camping part for the car today, one ive needed to do for a long time, i made a mosquito net for the rear so i can sleep with the boot open on warm nights, bought a cone shaped net and tied fishing line to 4 points on the bottom, 2 of the points have line and sinker attached and run along the side of the car and go over the rear tyres into the tread grooves to hold the net in place but have enough slack when the net is lifted that they dont fall out of the tread on the tyres.
The other 2 lines are on the back to keep the net down at the tailgate, access to the car is easy as lifting the net and getting in, there is no way the mozzies can get in now.

Bradenrm · Post by **Bradenrm** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:53 pm

steptoe wrote:beware the defensive driving confidence - it's in the media at present, being criticised for young 'uns - accident rate goes up stat wise for those having done it. Same results a few years back on company reps that also did course - gave them too much confidence out there on our crappy roads - stack rate increased too !

Good luck on driving test, still a test ?

thanks for that

yeah passed no worries.

I agree r.e. your comments on defensive driving courses, however those are probably more applicable to courses which focus on the vehicle itself. This course focussed on basically teaching us to refine our observation skills and where to look, e.t.c. to avoid situations which would call on us to push a vehicle to its limit. The basic idea is we can practice these skills every day, but emergency braking and lane changes, not so much.

Though I'm very conscious of the fact that I am NOT invincible (actually...I spend a lot of time on the bike, and you get a fair idea of how mortal you are in traffic) and it's NOT just harmless fun out there-you mess up, people can die. With that in mind, I'll keep my fun to the Geelong Motorsports Club

and do my utmost to be a safe driver on the roads.

On the license testing...it is a bit of a farce really. You are allowed 2 critical errors-things like rolling through a stop sign count as such. I guess the testing does focus on the drivers observation and judgement a fair bit, but probably a little bit too much on things like "Your front left wheel was touching the solid white line by 25mm"

Which, consequently was the only mark I dropped...but she totally missed me being so nervous I grabbed 5th instead of 3rd. Testing needs improvement for sure, on the whole but it's not the total joke I think it can be made out to be.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:35 am

Aaron, your pic #2 solved my comment on pic#1

240V recharge should be easy solved with a small inverter ~ $50

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:44 am

Noice wombataaron! I love your fly screened-boot idea.

I had a look in front of my radiator,
to see if there's anything I could remove to get more air flow...
I'm thinking I might be able to get more air cutting out a large hole
(50+mm dia?) in the front bumper on either side of the licence plate.

I'm also thinking that sometime I might want to make
"sway-bar disconnects" for quick adjustments for trails.

Thinking about front guard modifications for bigger tyres, after seeing Luke82's rig.

wombataaron · Post by **wombataaron** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:40 am

2nd Hand Yank wrote:Noice wombataaron! I love your fly screened-boot idea.

I had a look in front of my radiator,
to see if there's anything I could remove to get more air flow...
I'm thinking I might be able to get more air cutting out a large hole
(50+mm dia?) in the front bumper on either side of the licence plate.

I'm also thinking that sometime I might want to make
"sway-bar disconnects" for quick adjustments for trails.

Thinking about front guard modifications for bigger tyres, after seeing Luke82's rig.

How would one go about making sway bar disconnects for a 3rd gen outback? Also what is a swaybar haha

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Davidov · Post by **Davidov** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 11:47 am

wombataaron wrote:How would one go about making sway bar disconnects for a 3rd gen outback? Also what is a swaybar haha

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The swaybar is the bar that runs from endlinks on the inside of each wheel across the underside of the car. It is very important as it is what lessens body roll. Thicker/better quality swaybar = less body roll/ improved handling.

Disconnecting a swaybar can be beneficial offroad as it will increase wheel travel (articulation). A quick disconnect just means they can be disconnected with ease without the need for spanners and ratchets etc to un bolt them.

Unfortunately for outbacks theres very little point as disconnecting a swaybar will net perhaps 1" more articulation, possibly less for lifted outbacks.

Post by **Alex** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:04 pm

pointless to make a swaybar disconnect for subarus, and as davidov said, its even more pointless for a lifted car. Youll probably find the strut will top-out first.

alex

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:58 pm

2nd Hand Yank wrote:
I had a look in front of my radiator,
to see if there's anything I could remove to get more air flow...
I'm thinking I might be able to get more air cutting out a large hole
(50+mm dia?) in the front bumper on either side of the licence plate.

No need - never had an issue in even in 46C heat high revs/slow speed sand work if everything else is ok.

Someone will be along presently with Homer Simpsons' 'speed holes'

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:36 am

wombataaron wrote:How would one go about making sway bar disconnects for a 3rd gen outback? Also what is a swaybar haha

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I might not be using the right terminology,
but a bar with spring tension ability that connects left and right wheels,
for the purpose of flatter cornering... at the expense of wheel articulation.

Another thing I thought of:

If depature angles are not normally critical,
I was thinking making a custom trailer hitch with integrated under-boot spare tyre mount would be a good idea.
I have heaps of clearance under my boot as it is,
and to make an under-boot tyre mount more practical,
cut out the storage recess, extend the flat boot floor
and maybe add a custom tube rear bumper for extra under-boot tyre room.

taza · Post by **taza** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:12 am

2nd Hand Yank wrote:Another thing I thought of:

If depature angles are not normally critical,
I was thinking making a custom trailer hitch with integrated under-boot spare tyre mount would be a good idea.
I have heaps of clearance under my boot as it is,
and to make an under-boot tyre mount more practical,
cut out the storage recess, extend the flat boot floor
and maybe add a custom tube rear bumper for extra under-boot tyre room.

Already thought about this. The thing is that if you are stuck or bogged and need to access your spare you can't get to it. This is the number one main reason why most people who offroad thier landcruisers put a rear tyre carrier on.

Just my 2 cents worth though.
Taza

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:56 am

2nd Hand Yank wrote:If depature angles are not normally critical,
I was thinking making a custom trailer hitch with integrated under-boot spare tyre mount would be a good idea.
I have heaps of clearance under my boot as it is,
and to make an under-boot tyre mount more practical,
cut out the storage recess, extend the flat boot floor
and maybe add a custom tube rear bumper for extra under-boot tyre room.

For your L series or other's subarus?

I personally don't see the point in having the wheel under the vehicle - it's always covered in crap when you want it and if Murphy has his way you'll be dressed up to your 9's without access to RACV or the like.

If you're wanting to go with this on the L series you're fuel tank will be in the way for the tyre... There's not a lot of room under there!

If it's for another subaru to save your insurance you'll probably have to get it engineered as that tub would have more strength than a flat piece of steel in relation to the structure around it.

Plus what Taza said makes a lot of sense too - I've never thought about that because I've not had to!

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:23 pm

Installed Bosch GT40-R ignition coil, new dizzy rotor and points.

First start up afterwards I didn't even hear it crank over it just started! must have been first rotation on the starter and it fired right up. Acceleration is nice and smooth now

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:12 pm

I've had 8.8mm leads installed and iridium plugs. I dont have a choke on the weber. two pumps of the throttle and it always starts first pop!!!

Unless the engine is hot. Then it cranks for about 3 seconds before start. I can tell you guys that it is a vast improvement over the VW...in every way!

Jerrad · Post by **Jerrad** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 10:04 pm

Well I did my 1st MODS! I installed my GME 3100 radio and driving lights! Im really not liking my driving lights so I might have to make another light bar or something. The light bar I bought is flimsy and shakes as only secure on the plastics. I made a plate for behind the bar behind the plastic but it lifts the plastics. The light bar also isnt high enough and it leave the back of my lights pushing hard into the plastic and still cant seem to get them high enough! so something else to come...
Ill have a write up and picys posted soon.

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:28 am

Decided to find what the knock in the r/h front end was which developed during the Two Rocks cruise last Sunday, bounced up & down on the roo bar and bang bang bang so I lay on the ground and pulled the car up and down while feeling everything under there, after a while I found it was a broken weld on the bottom of one of my sway bar links, I have the metal STI ones fitted and we had lengthened them by an inch or so by cutting them in half, placing a metal tube over them and welding it to each end with a mig, all I had home was a little $72 arc welder I bought a few months ago so I figured I'd give it a go in place, I managed to get two nice big blobs of chicken poo on and it seems to have held so I guess it was worth buying after all.

taza · Post by **taza** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:00 am

More so unimprove my Subie today...

Went for a little offroad today with a few guys with other subies in Perth.

We all got some damage but i think mine ended the worse

Ripped a fender liner out (first time and yet ive done thousands of km of sand driving), broke the rear bumper, ripped off the whole f***ing nudgebar and my spotties.

Then to top off all the darn cosmetics(which i wasn't really worried about) I got bogged in some soft sand, tried to reverse and BANG! reverse keeps popping out, I can use it barely at all and when I start the car theres a clunk sound. Im thinking gearbox mount??
Goes in the gear fine and you can come off the clutch just pops into neutral when you put any pressure on from the accellerator.

And truth be told I am actually going much easier on the car, even offroad I wasn't going as hard as the others.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:21 am

Got a mate that picked up two airbags at the Ballarat swap meet recently for $10 each.

Gotta be careful though. The Boss ones I ahd on Tweety leaked. The pedders ones dont. The pedders ones have the abg going all the way under the steel lower plate, the Boss ones stopp at the rim of the plate where they leak.

the pedders ones cost a gold nugget.

purp · Post by **purp** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:37 pm

Today I created a Sig. And drove through some pretty deep water, but that was in the city.... ;/

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:37 pm

purp wrote:Today I created a Sig. And drove through some pretty deep water, but that was in the city.... ;/

Love the middle pic....