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Ok, so after a 4am wakeup, I ended up in frozen Newcastle and finally got to see my car.

So damn nice. Although some kinks to iron out, I am completely sold on this car. Huge thanks to everyone for the advice. The forums and the 'search' tool have been my friend as well.

When the car was bought, it was a very standard L Series. 1 owner, regularly serviced. I'm lucky enough to have a father that owns a tyre/mechanical service store. Usually a shame he's 800kms away, but in this case, with him snapping up the car of a regular customer, it's worked out great. Dads place has done regular services for the car for 6 years. New CV joints, alternator and radiator are in the last few months as the car was maintained, rather than fixed when it broke.

Here it is, as purchased.



Roof racks (Rola with Subaru stickers)
Towball and Bullbar

I haven't modded a Subi before, but after a lot of reading through the forums I made a few requests straight off.

14" Sunnies, painted matt black. (2 coats of black and 1 clear, baked 2 pack were done)
Mild All Terrains in 70 profile.
Cut the 1 small piece of rust out and spray.
Suitable exhaust to have a quiet idle and cruise, but subi note under heavy right foot.
Darkest legal tint.
Lifted as possible. (Ended up with custom King Springs. They were going to have to make some anyway as they didn't have any in that size).
Fix as many of the 'not urgent' issues as possible.

What I arrived to find was this.



I was expecting Nangkang tyres as we'd spoken about it but ended up with Maxxis. The price was good They were relatively quiet through the trip back to Brisbane today, and when we stopped in at Gloucester I had a little muddy incline opportunity at a mates farm and was bloody impressed. Sure it wasn't anything like the videos I've seen you guys doing on here but I'm not expecting to need to do much more than what it handled with ease today.



The exhaust ended up being a 2" through, with a light sports muffler at the end and a 2" tip in a matt black. Leaving the canons to the naval vessels.



That's the one. I didn't expect to be this taken so quickly, but there you are. Absolutely love it.



Still to come:
Get heater working.
CD Player (AWA Tape Deck isn't doing it for me).
Suction noise to investigate from somewhere (looks like it could be some sort of pollution control at the intake).
The dreaded ticking tappets.
Tachometer (small aftermarket unit. Possibly some other gauges as appropriate. Can we ever have too many things to watch?)
Fix padding on drivers seat. (or new seats?)
Check timing, as it seems a bit advanced.
I know it's not a small list and there will be more to come, but it doesn't take away from what's there right now. A fantastic 4x4 wagon for camping/shooting/fishing trips and more!

Time for bed. Will post about the trip from Newcastle to Brisbane tomorrow, with some questions and observations.

A big thanks to the Subaru 4wd Club of Queensland guys, and people helping out on these forums. It's so much less daunting, knowing questions, tips, drive days and general Subi fun are always around.

Comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome.

Looking awesome mate, have not seen many with black painted rims, was gonna do it myself at least now i know they look the part too...

Good stuff

The Body work is really clean i wish someone in Nairobi could do body works well... hehe

sweet ride dude. good choice on the king springs, mine has these, and handle real well, if a little firm. but thats good. does good jumps. how many $$ if u dont mind asking?

The guy was asking $3k, but we got it for $2K. Put $1k down for the mods in advance and haven't had a bill yet for the rest. New gas struts for the rear door, exhaust, tyres, rims (and paint), rust (and paint), window tint. I know I wont get change, but I'm not expecting the remainder to be too big either.

looking nice mate. good to hear you're happy with it.

Thanks Matt. Yeah very happy.

My biggest concern was the missus. As a Supra fan, I wasn't sure the L Series was going to cut through her bias. (Wagons are for mums and old people).

Rang her 4 blocks from home and told her to wait outside. A little right foot up the hill and the smile on her face as I pulled into the driveway was priceless. Apparently, it looks hot, sound hot and she wants to go camping this coming weekend. (But it's going to be full clean, and vacuum and a few cruises to get used to how it runs around town).

Nothing makes me happier, than knowing SHE loves the car too. Makes spending a little more cash on it easy as well

talked to you at the suby meeting last week. glad you have got your car at long last and its looking good there to mate.

Its good the other harf loves the car as well and wonts to go camping, thats of to a good start.

Now you will have to join the Suby club and come out with us some time, have a look at the club link on this forum, there is some good stuff coming up that would you will have some fun on.

Hope to see you out on some tracks soon and good luck with your "to do list".

Rik.

Hey Rik, yeah it was a hell of a weekend. It didn't miss a beat in 14 hours of mostly driving, just fuel stops and food breaks.

I'm hoping to get to the Club Birthday Weekend but I've sent a PM to Jan to check it's ok. Haven't joined up as a member yet, but will be next meeting. (and hoping the club house will be warmer than last time )

Looks very straight!
Will you be putting any lift blocks under the body?

Bumpty wrote:Looks very straight!
Will you be putting any lift blocks under the body?

Sounds like this little mod wouldn't be hard to pass by the missus along with a few others in the future.

When offroading with others don't be afraid of getting the car stuck to see what it can do - more than half the time it will surprise you by not getting stuck unless your doing something that is obviously stupid.

Also, in regards to creek crossings if you ever attempt one, the air intake duct is just behind the right hand side front bumper indicator... Something that can catch people out as they hydrolock their donk.

Have fun in your L mate, look after her and she'll look after you

Cheers

Bennie

Headed to the Subi Queenslands 30th Birthday bash today, got a few of my questions and problems sorted thanks to the body of knowledge there.

That combined with pretty much any spare amount of time dedicated to cleaning or improving the car in it's first fortnight has put a decent dent into the list.

Original "Still to come:"
Get heater working.
With some help from a few of the lads, we've figured the heater unit under the dash is done. Apparently it's a pig of a job, but I'll be sourcing one and getting it replaced. It's good to be forwarned about how painful it'll be. If anyone has an L series heater unit (or one that will work) feel free to throw me a PM.

CD Player (AWA Tape Deck isn't doing it for me).
Replaced this last weekend. Bought a Pioneer headunit for under $190 that has USB, and AUX inputs. Very happy. Got matching 6" speakers as well. Lots of mucking around, but I did the electricals myself so I'd know how it was done. Dremelling the doors for a good fit was a bit daunting, but it worked pretty well.
http://www.aussiebushcraft.com/rori/stereo_02.jpg <--- speakers
http://www.aussiebushcraft.com/rori/stereo_04.jpg <--- headunit
I've made a 90degree angled USB plug which sits just 4mm out from the headunit. Otherwise I was going to break a USB key, or the unit changing gears.

Suction noise to investigate from somewhere (looks like it could be some sort of pollution control at the intake).
Not a problem. Working normally.

The dreaded ticking tappets.
Got really noisy again Saturday morning, but after shopping for 20mins, it hasn't made a tick since. Hoping the changed oil/filter is finally settled in.

Tachometer
I'm handy enough with solder/wiring/powerdrill to do this myself, but I'd love some advice on wiring options, or best way to go about it.

Fix padding on drivers seat. (or new seats?)
Nothing done yet. Need to get the seat covers off and assess.

Check timing, as it seems a bit advanced.
Suby Wan Kenobi had a timing light, and tools. By the time I had the wheel out of the way and on the ground, it was fixed. Was at 12deg, and is now at the expected 8deg. Thanks again Dave.

---
The internal clean saw me finding cards dated 1998, and coins even the banks wont take. Just too much caked on crap. I'm not sure she ever had a complete clean. The rear seat had a cover over it, such that you couldn't lift the lower section of the rear seat. I doubt it had ever happened.

As for lift blocks, they'll be the next major mod excluding anything unexpected happening. Want to do a run or 2 with the Brisbane boys and also see how often the missus wants to go camping first. Depending on how that all goes will give me a time frame for the lift kit.
---

So the revised list is now.

-Tacho
-Heater
-Seat
-(NEW) Sunvisors. Falling apart, and don't stay up. Is the recommended option to replace with aftermarket, wrecker spares, or repair myself?

Would love to hear any advice on these people have.

hey ror,

didnt have a real good look at the the car this weekend but she looks like a pretty neat wagon, didnt even realise it only had a spring lift!!!

should do what you want it to do no troubles at all!!

bryan

Good to meet you ror and put a face to the name.

hey mate. couldnt find those spares for you my old man must have moved them somewhere. I will ask him.

did find a driveshaft for you though. will let you know when the other bits turn up

Thanks VV.

No great rush with them either. There's always later.