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Ari's POS Lifted Outback Daily

45K views 504 replies 16 participants last post by  jkp 
#1 · (Edited)
I didn't think I would ever feel like a journal for this car would be justifiable or needed, but seeing as it has been taking over my other journal this is probably a good idea.

Actually, this isn't a good idea... Now I kinda miss the way the car was before I messed it up lol


Anyway, I bought this thing back in 2009 or something. It is a 1996 Impreza Outback 2.2l manual, had about 200k miles on it at the time and probably has atleast 60k more now. It was bone stock and unmolested, pretty clean for what it was. I was only 15 yo at the time and wouldn't get my license for two more years, but I got it for cheap since it didn't run to well and the previous owner kinda gave up on it. But after replacing the MAF sensor the car was all good. Tbh, I didn't know anything about Subarus, I even disliked the Imprezas alot because "everybody has them and they all look the same" or something along those lines. Little did I know how much they would grow on me. But after replacing the MAF sensor the car was all good.

This is what it looked like when I got it, excuse the pic quality... I only had a 2mp cellphone camera and some childish photoshop edits




A while after I got the car the headgaskets blew. After fixing them the car started having overheating issues shortly after, me and my dad thought we might have messed up during the gasket install or something and decided that the car wasnt worth putting more work/money into so I drove it like that for a year or two after getting my license. Ended up finally completely ruining the engine by letting it overheat to much/to often, only to realise the issue was a bad radiator... By then I liked the car way to much to let it go, and despite having to add coolant to it regularly all that time it had served me well. So, I bought a cheap ej22 replacement engine and got it running again. Since then it has been doing good.

And now for the visual part. Shortly before I got my license I bought a wrecked 99 Impreza turbo (basicly a wrecked shell with no driveline), orginally intended to use parts from it to make the Outback cooler but then that thing turned into a project car... To get that done I had to buy a parts car for teardown. So, the Outback got facelift headlights, grille and hood. I felt like that helped the look a little.






Very soon I swapped out the crappy oem seats for some really comfy 1st gen Legacy ones, made such a difference to the whole car! After that followed some dumbass teenager mods such as cut springs and diy front spats out of a wrecked bumper. To be fair though, it looked alright. Looking through these pics makes my kinda miss that look... And it was pretty clean at that time too





Then came the matte black hood, I was so happy with the car like that



And here is a random pic with the 17" wheels that were to go on my GC which was done by then



One winter I messed up the pre facelift bumper by parking on a hill of snow, it was 3 wheelin and all lol.





I replaced it with a facelift L bumper of one of my parts cars





Even being lowered, this thing was awesome in snow! Obviously, I did get it stuck every now and then but I always had a shovel in the car and managed to get it loose by myself most of the time







After some times getting into trouble for it being to low I ended up doing the right thing and install un cutted springs again





At this point, the car was way to multicoloured for my opinion so I decided I wanted to change the colour. I guess I could say it wasnt really a good decision but I decided to paint it with a paint roller... Somewhere around this time I put stock springs back in so it would be usable during winter. I also happened to get free trunk wings from a buddy of mine, those really did do some good










Now, this looked good at first but since the paint didn't have a clearcoat, and I didn't put one on obviously since I used paintrollers, this shiny clean look didn't last long. And by now the whole thing is peeling pretty badly and so on.

Having fun in the snow




Next mod was a custom bash bar/light bar. Really enjoyed making this















Then I mounted these xenon fogs my dad had laying around the shop
















I've had so much fun with this thing over the years... Managed to get stuck once (more often actually but you know) and almost slid into a ditch full of knee deep muddy water lol




Aaaand, now we´re catching up. This brings us to this fall. I started wanting to lift the car, took the 15´s off and borrowed some WRX wheels from my blobeye to start with. Also threw on a spare v6 grille I had since a fat goose broke the other one... These two pics show how shitty the paint is, looks good wet, not so much when its dry...






Also here are a few pics from this winter before the lift





As for tires for the car, I had my mind pretty set on the Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs, mostly for the aggresive thread and the fact that they were pretty cheap'ish too. Ahead of me was some fab work and more waiting on parts than I assumed...




I borrowed these old worn out tires to test fit and try to realise what needed to be done to fit them






And then the new ones showed up.














I decided to run them studless to have the option of using them during the summer too. Instead I had them "micro cutted", which are alot of really fine cuts across the thread to give better grip and cooling to the tire, supposedly it also makes them quieter and what not.










Then the fabrication started. I made my own 3" tophat spacers with camber adjustability







































Welded both front tubes shut and threaded the holes. I know the welds arent 10/10 but they definetaly should do. The worse one is the first one...










Grinded to be flat




And then test fitted on the bottom plate in the car to see which way the holes need to face




And tacked together for now





Next up, bolted top and bottom plates together and aligned them properly by measuring at each bolt. Then I drilled the top plate through the tube to have the adjustment holes at the right place
























I realise the welds could be better but I'm pretty sure they'll hold just fine














Test fitting to see wich way the adjustment needs to face




Final steps




And "all" done!















Completely finished at this point




Then came the actual install. Had some near misses with the rears, had to trim the bolts a little bit




Both sway bars are out, didn't bother to do some fabricating to get them to fit so I run the car without them. Doesnt feel half bad at all. I wouldn't even choose to have them in if I could honestly






Looked like shit, rear camber is way off, front is good surprisingly, rear tires are way front in the wheelwell and its quite alot higher in the rear... I couldn't mount the tires at that time cause I only had 25mm spacers which I thougth would do, but the rear needed way more for the tires not to hit the spring perch.

So to sum up the lift, 3" camber adjustable custom tophat spacers ontop of alloy 3/4" spacers without a subframe drop. 3 3/4" in total.











Shortly after I made trailing arm spacers and mounted them, got the wheel about half an inch back in the wheel well














I then remembered I had a tire pressure monitor system that I got for my birthday a few months back. I always kinda wanted to use it with the new setup. There was one sorta "flaw" about it and that is that the sensors mount on the outside and use a nut to secure them. That means I couldn't really add or let out air without having to grab tools and spend some time on it. So, I bought some extra valves that have threads on them. I drilled and tapped for two extra valves in each wheel. One to permanently mount the sensors on and another that is only closed off with a cap to make letting air out easier.














Aaaaaand now finally, actually mounting the tires! I used two 25mm spacers in the rear and two 15mm in the front. Orginally only bought a set of 25mm and thought it would do. When I realised it didn´t I ordered a set of 15mm and planned on running a total of 40mm all around. That didn't work in the rear so I needed all 25mm to be used in the rear...






At this point stuff finally got interesting!






















Some cutting/hammering/welding needed...
































But the outcome was well worth it. As of now, the fenderwork still isnt done yet but the car is driveable and in 90% everyday scenarios rub free










I then swapped in a dual range tranny from a partscar I had. It's got the same 3.90 ratio I had already. Didn't take many pics during the job tho...

Removing from the parts car



New clutch installed



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And then that dual range goodness!






Also, after removing the fender liners I had water issues....



And fixed with the intake piping from the white donor






Making more room in the front



Before



After




And first proper test with the dual range, which happens to bring us up to date










I also have some stuff in the mail. Gonna be mounting two work lights on the roof on each side and one under the top wing for reverse light.






The lateral links are already here and will hopefully be installed soon so I can finish my wheel alignment which currently consists of alot of positive rear camber...

 

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#229 ·
Sadly no, still a good day. Super nice weather and a good place to hike, prolly walked like 15km. Went with my gf's brother and their dad, we took home 5 rock ptarmigans. I only saw one group of birds which never really came into range for me (also I'm not even a good shot[emoji28])

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#232 ·
Really was. Also noticed a few truck tracks over the mountain. There wasn't to much snow and the little that was there was completely frozen, so it made for a good and rather easy path to follow. Would have loved to drive up there...

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#237 ·
As in the roof ruff? Maybe when I make a tube bumper, maybe I'll just get a lightbar for the roof or some, idk. Haven't planned anything. But the fogs are scary exposable down there for sure...

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#238 ·
Got the snow I asked for, we're having a bit of a storm...





Also I managed to get stuck already cause I'm a dumbass. 5 meters from the shop at home though so we just grabbed the next car with a hitch and pulled it out





Also, my airfilter got clogged after the car standing outside in the storm and driving 45km. An open snorkel apperantly isn't a good idea... Need to prevent this from happening somehow, was thinking about putting frogszkin in the opening of the snorkel, but I guess that would also just get covered and clogged...

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#240 ·
Fair point... I probably still need to cover it when I park the car, which I am doing now. Also, running on 3 cyls currently, a spark plug cable gave up and I'm not at home... Hoping someone in town has a spare one so I can swap it out

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#242 ·
Adventures for sure. A guy in town allowed me to borrow a spark plug cable from his Legacy. Car ran fine, I reversed the snorkel intake to try and keep the snow out. I drive around a bit and then head back home. Couldn't see shit for the most part, and halfway home car started running like shit again and would barely make any power. I thought the spark cables were unhooked or some and stopped to check, they seemed fine, checked air filter, seemed fine. Drove about 20km back home like that. Got stuck once, when looking at a stationary car for a second and hit a snowdrift at a low speed while looking off the road. Said car pulled me out and I managed to get home. The road around the shop and barn had some serious snow, surprised the pos pulled through while barely running... Turns out the snorkel got clogged on the way, but the filter wasn't when I pulled over. Seems like snorkel is a no no for winter

Good times!





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#245 ·
I feel like when you press print to many times cause nothing is happening and then when it finally prints you get 30 copies. I've been asking for snow for ever and now everything is going under[emoji23]

Yesterday around 12:00




This morning at about 9:00



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#248 · (Edited)
We're doing good. Installed frogszkin in the snorkel intake and so far I haven't had an issue, its still getting stuffed as you can see, but the car still runs alright. Weather has gotten alot better but its still snowing. Temp has come up above 0 so the snow is super slippery, got stuck backing into that unplowed parking space earlier. I kinda knew I would but still got a little more stuck than I intended, lol. Pic is after I shoveled the space and got the car unstuck.

Also, the fogs are growing on me


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#250 ·
Same. I need to wire them to a switch and be able to switch between using them with high beams vs low beams. Haven't been able to use them to much with all that snowfall since they're direct connected to the highs now

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#252 ·
I have yet to do that, connecting to the headlights was the quickest way and I am impatient, lol. Also, if you have (additional non oem) fog lights here they are only allowed to work with the high beams, otherwise they'll fail you in the inspection iirc. Not that I'm not gonna be connecting them so they'll work with low beams or park lights too

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