What’s everyone up to these days?

[El_Freddo]

With the recent short burst of activity from some old forum members that have been quiet, what is everyone up to these days?
And most importantly, what sort of wheels, Subaru or not, are you calling your ride these days?


I’ll start off - Mrs El_Freddo and I are finally settled in Bendigo where we’ve aimed to be for a number of years now. This was after moving from Shepparton, to Sunbury (2hrs apart), to Bendigo a year later (1.25ish hrs apart); after the first year in that house we moved again to our current location. We’re playing family but we both keep their digital foot print very small. There are two photos of my family members on the forum, one is the whole family at the time.

I’m still crusing and off-roading Ruby Scoo, not offroad often enough ;( and she’s needing some attention - new shafts would be a great start!
Redback is in the shed for some tidying up and a windscreen replacement that was the catalyst for the whole thing.

Other than that I’m still nutting out the RS build between everything else. I’m in a car club now so club rego will be sorted once she’s on the road.

That’s about it in a nutshell! I’ll be looking forward to read other’s updates.

Cheers

Bennie

[TOONGA]

A few changes for me semi- retired now on my wifes orders ( I did ask for it in writing and got punched)

PJ and Jetcar are gone, PJ is still on the road Jetcar was scrapped by the buyer.
I still have Nannadan who just got a 3rd eye. see here for a quick write up viewtopic.php?f=83&t=49680

TOONGA

[Silverbullet]

Silly me got myself into a Uni degree (started beginning of last year) and still working 30 hours a week so free time is precious little Spare money for hobbies is markedly down as well

Daily still drive an 05' Lib sedan, 2.5 n/a so nothing special. It looks nice and is comfortable though I haven't done any mods on it, previous owner has stiffened up suspension/bigger rear sway bar. Still got the old Brum, although the rego ran out a couple of weeks ago, see above about spare money I only really use it for dump runs, beekeeping duties and firewood collecting. It is getting very old and crotchety and the old man connecting the battery backwards didn't help. The (blue) bullet family wagon is still unfinished, spends most of its time under a car cover wrapped in blankets. The work needed on the interior was really bumming me out and I'm still missing 2 of 3 switches in the gearbox.

[El_Freddo]

Send us a PM Sam, I’m about to strip an MY box for a few parts, switches are not one of them. Even if you’re going to L series box they might do the job.

Uni degree sounds interesting. At least you can keep chipping away at the wagon under cover. Only one of my projects gets shed space

The end game will be your mint wagon - it’ll be a real head turner!

Cheers

Bennie

[Subyroo]

I have moved further south in the SE corner of QLD and built a brand new home, the last home we built new also but after 13 yrs things were on the verge of needing repairs or replacement, so we palmed it off.

In 2013 we swapped the Forester over with our daughter and traded her 2005 Mazda 6 in on a new 2103 Orchid White 2.4L Honda 4WD CRV VTi-S, then we updated to a 2016 2.4L Modern Steel 4WD VTi-S which we still have. No big problems with either CRV, first one had a slight whine in the gearbox around 27 - 30km/h under normal acceleration, which Honda fixed with new gearbox. The seat cushion in the 2016 began to sag, Honda fixed that with a completely new seat, so we can't complain about Honda honouring their Warranty.

Family wise, wife & I are healthy except for some arthritis in our knees, plus I have had Carpal Tunnel Release operation on both hands, LH in Feb 2018 and RH this year in March, hasn't made me a better golfer though.

Other than the above we try to relax as much as we can, I play golf twice a week and my wife plays Mahjong with a group of 42 other women.
We also look after the 2 Grandsons 3 afternoons a week after school.
Who said Retirement was all about traveling and cruising?, doesn't happen unless you don't want to experience and be a part of your Grandkids growing up.

[Cliff R]

I'm still here.
Still in Muswellbrook NSW.
Still have the 82 Touring wagon chipping away at keeping it going.
Dream of retirement every day, with this being in single digits now, but don't know if this is 1 to 10 or 1 to 5 years.
Health issues like tenosinovitis on both wrists (comes and goes) and bursitis in one shoulder at the moment (god knows what caused this) remind me that I am getting older but is causing me to put off a gearbox and clutch replacement on the wagon.
With our 4 teenage kids getting older more time is going their way (normal for any parent) but work is intense and this is sucking the life blood out of me.
Have to attack rust coming back into the roof of the wagon where I took those pesky Subaru screw on roof racks off a few years ago but would prefer warmer weather to do this unless I get motivated to do this sooner or I am forced to do something if things get worse.
Will be looking for a good, working EA81 dual range 4 speed gearbox in the near future, preferably somewhere near Newcastle or the Hunter Valley NSW to save travelling/freight.
Will try to pull back from "life" and check back into the forum more often.

[El_Freddo]

Sounds like things are happening Cliff!

I hope you get onto that rust in the roof. Bloody stuff, it's a pain in the arse! And all the best with the gearbox

Cheers

Bennie

[Bantum]

Hi Bennie -

I've been doing volunteer work at 'the Edge' mostly ( SQL Brisbane City ) & haven't been on here for ages ...
Got a few minor ongoing projects with the Brumby ( not registered atm ) & am looking for a garage spot so that I can go to work on it.
That and rounds of medical issues are taking up most of my time.

Ciao, Bantum ...

[El_Freddo]

Bantum - great to see you back on the forum!! *shakes fist at bookface*

I hope the medical issues come to a healthy end for you sooner rather than later!

And you’ll get there with your brumby! I’ve now dragged the RS through 4 house moves. It’s still not even close to being ready to move under its own power, but one day I hope it happens!

Keep fighting the good fight mate. I look forward to your updates as you post them

Cheers

Bennie

[wagonist]

Still in Sydney. Still got the project rust free touring wagon shell I bought 15 years ago and still haven't finished!!!

Recently sold my Caldina and drive around in a 99 Corolla.

been trying to find time to get the JDM import turbo touring wagon to a point where it could be registered, but keep spending time trying to fix the Corolla. I supposed what do you expect when you buy a car from a damaged vehicle auction and then crash it again...

I know not many peeps from Sydney on here, but I'm trying to find a blue slip guy who'll go over the JDM import. Problem is it doesn't have an Aus compliance plate and the JDM one has also been removed... Was previously registered in Vic (I've been maintaining the 8 year old rego label on the windscreen to prove it). Qld would happily pass it based on that, but the privately owned NSW inspection places are more circumspect

[steptoe]

Shees, I am in !!

Still in a Brumby with the Virtual in the shed, two tanks of juice a year

Brumby is B3 as Tambox likes to call things. B2 sits with EJ20 and EJ 5MT with dress making pins and chalk lines all over the place , though I wanna fit my mongrel EA82 back into her since I worked out how to err..open her lungs up a bit more ...the same induction stuff LPG I am running in B3

B3 got all the fruit B1 was supposed to get in 2006. B1 went to scrap/ rust yard nearly three years ago. I love AWD behind my EA82T

Retired because my body said so ..I got lots of time to waste such as project I finished today - separate 13.7 V supply for rear indicators on trailer LEDs, punched power from disused fuel pump plug, pair of relays and a cut out switch to save relay click to only when trailer is connected.

B2 and 3 do not have enough volts to drive LED on trailer blink circuit

[steptoe]

Virtual? Try Vortex

[steptoe]

Wagonist, is the JDM beast factory no mods? Call the tech standards guys 1300.137.302 and tell them your predicament and ask the procedure they expect the AUVIS inspector to take

[Bumpty]

This cat is still knee deep in the litter tray of subys.

[Suby Spanner]

Wife and I work way to hard.

The 2014 Impreza kicks along nicely, we took it up to Flinders Ranges/Wilpena Pound the other week. I figured we'd do some gravel roads. Not listening to what she was banging on about, I just drove where she pointed... Well, we ended up doing Parachilna gorge. LOL. I wouldn't do it in a corolla. The impreza did well. It's now 70,000km on it, ran into trouble with the front diff last service, pulling the drain plug thread out the case, and rounding the hex on the fill port... ARgh.. I ordered new plugs which are o ring seal type, but the original were alloy washer type... so I guess I'm not the first to have trouble.

Haven't touched my brumby in way too long.

Keep looking at first gen outbacks with way to much fondness... I reckon I'll get a manual beater at some stage... That'd go nice in the brumby when I beat the outback body to hard right???

I always said if the BRZ had good brakes I'd get one... well the idiots brought out the Ts STI version... yeah it's got brembos on it... But then the wife really wants an STI impreza....

But before all that happens gotta find us a place with some garaging and a decent house... Much harder than I expected in the city. Oh well, everything happens for a reason they say.

[wagonist]

Wagonist, is the JDM beast factory no mods? Call the tech standards guys 1300.137.302 and tell them your predicament and ask the procedure they expect the AUVIS inspector to take

It's had the airbag shocks swapped out for normal ones.
I've also got 4x114.3 redrilled hubs fitted, but I have another standard set of hubs I could swap out if it helped the case.

Everything else is as Subaru Japan intended. Funny though that it's got rear discs on a wagon, but the extra bump stops are missing. Been meaning to get a set of arms plus the stops off a wreck, but keep forgetting

Thanks for the head up. Will give it a try.

[Gannon]

Well I dont come here often as I dont do much fiddling with my car these days

My time is mostly consumed by my electrical business, 3 boys aged 8, 6 and 3, doing renos to the house to accommodate the kids.

My RX is still a work in progress. I have managed to start it on the Speeduio ecu but have to finish the radiator so I can let it run and tune it.

Lately I have been helping a mate build a Falcon rally car for the WRC/ARC round near here. Once the rally is over I will get back into my car.

Hopefuly over christmas I will have it driving around the yard.

[RSR 555]

I'm still kicking around, trying to keep stress and heart rate in check. Most of the car collection is gone and I really miss some of the good times we had during the Guyph days. I've been taking lots of holidays and the last one to Steep Point was just what the doctor ordered. I'd post up a picture but there is no paperclip thingie (or is there another way to do this?)

[Subyroo]

You have to Host the picture on somewhere like https://imgur.com/ or some other FREE hosting site, copy the link they provide and then click on the 9th Icon above (between asterisk & link icons) which will give you this (img]then paste the link here[/img] between the [img] tags.

P.S. Sorry if it sounds like I'm trying to teach you how to suck eggs.