Well, after selling my pride and joy back in 2014, it was time to get another Forry.
Life has changed a bit over the last year, with the arrival of our first child in Jan. This gave me perfect fodder to purchase another Forester!! Safety, reliability, comfort, familiarity.......you know how the hard sell goes!!
After much searching around I came across a Forester, XT Luxury, 2007, Auto with just 65k on the dial!! And for around the $14k mark too!! And the best thing, it was the exact same Champagne colour my old Forry was!! Classic!! It was meant to be.
And so began my Suby Lift quest.
Here's a pic of her when I took possession of her with 25cm (10") standard height:
The previous owner had plans to do the typical Suby thing - slam her on her ass and soop her up with a crazy big-arse exhaust, but his situation changed and I rescued her before that botched surgery!!! He had already put an STi Intercooler scoop and STi grill on the front and Plasti Dipped the rims which is a nice touch.
After my last Suby, I had a fair idea on the lift setup I was looking for. Get some height, but nothing too silly, just enough to inspire for confidence.
So after purchasing some King 20mm lifted springs, KYB Struts and 1" body lift blocks from Subtle Solutions, it was off to the "chop shop" to get them installed. I also invested in some 1" Trailing Arm spacers too. After lifting my previous Suby and seeing how dicky the rear wheel looked in the wheel arch, I decided to get the spacers.
After with increase height to 31cm (12"):
I also needed 2 new Camber bolts too to get the wheel alignment right.
Next was to get rid of that hideous rear muffler and to give her a little Suby purrrr. So, off to the "chop shop" again to get an oval "sports" exhaust fitted, night and tightly up in the muffler well.
Before........yuck!!!
After.......just right!
Getting the muffler sorted is a must for any Suby lift project, the old one is just crazy bad.
The final step was tyres. I'm not doing anything crazy in this car, however I'll be driving a bit in the snow, so I needed some AT tyres to inspire confidence.
I had BFG ATs on my old car and they were amazing tyres, but I was using the car heavily off road then. I also didn't want to spend the $300 per tyre!!
I searched for a while to come up with the perfect size that would give me more lift, but not rub too much as full lock. I had purchased a second hand set of 15" rims, which the intention of putting the off road tyres on them, but after comparing tyre sizes, tyre wall depths and overall lift, keeping the 17" rims on was the best solution for the job.
I finally came up with the Yokohama Geo-Lander ATs 225/60/17. Bob Jane had a special on to buy 3 and get the 4th free. Winner!!!
Before:
After......tough!!!
And a lift up to 33cm (13")!!
The ride is surprisingly softer now that there are some bigger and squisher tyres on her.
So my project lifter the car 8cm (3") and total spend inc labour was around the $2k mark, which I think is quite ok.
Learned anything? Next time I would get the 2" Trailing Arm spacers. The wheel still sits a little to the front of the arch. I'd also get the mid muffler removed from the exhaust under the car, to give her a little more purrrr.
What's next?? Well, a bash plate is needed as well as I might experiment with a bit of Plasti Dipping!!
Stay tuned!!