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The BattleWagon -- Mud's Outback

154425 Views 761 Replies 62 Participants Last post by  abacall
12
On the road again... lifted, loud, and angrier than ever.

Car: MY'00 Outback (Base) 4EAT w/premium sound + Rear limited-slip differential (oddball option on the car)
Purchase Date: 8/14/2000
Purchase Location: Bremerton, WA
Mileage: 176,000, and counting (updated 1/5/12)

Mods: Updated 1/5/12

**Engine and Trans**
-Full 3" intake setup w/torque box mod, snorkel coming soon
-Borla replica UEL header, ported/polished
-Gutted stock catpipe
-Custom stainless 2.25" catback tucked into trans tunnel, glasspack muffler
-Painted stock intake mani wrinkle black
-Valve covers and injector guards shot in gloss black
-Ported/Gasket matched intake manifold
-Gasket matched and shaved heads (higher C/R)
-Gates Racing Timing Belt
-FelPro PermaTorque MLS head gaskets
-NGK Iridium Plugs
-Injectors cleaned, tested to new condition
-STI GroupN engine mounts
-Fully rebuilt 4EAT w/mods
-Centre diff lock switch
-Radiator fan shutoff switch (coming w/snorkel)
-Prosport Oil Pressure Gauge
-Prosport Oil Temperature Gauge
-Prosport Water Temperature Gauge
-Scangauge II displaying TPS, Water Temp, IAT, and Bat. Voltage
-Air conditioning delete (including condenser, etc)
-Shell Rotella T6 5W-40 engine oil
-Wix 51365 Oil Filter
-Subaru ATF-HP auto trans fluid
-Subaru OEM 4EAT filter

**Suspension and Rolling Stock**
-KYB GR-2 Struts
-Subaru OEM Subaru Baja front springs and Subtle Solutions spacers (+2" lift)
-RalliTEK Heavy Duty Rear Springs (+2" lift)
-Custom Alignment
-Axxis Ultimate Ceramic brake pads
-225-60-16 General Alitmax HP's on stock 10-spoke alloys
-Full size spare, roof mounted

**Interior/Exterior and lighting**
-MY'04 FXT 4EAT leather shift knob
-Pioneer DEH-P6000UB Head Unit
-Custom single DIN toggle switch panel
-RoadBlockR sound deadening in the hatch
-All weather front floor mats
-Subaru A/W rear floor mats
-Custom aluminum front skid plate
-Thule crossbars
-cheap Swagman bike rack
-DRL delete + GE Tungsram Selective Yellow H1 lowbeams
-Trailer hitch + various balls/hooks for towing/offroading
-Front tow hook cover removed, hook painted red


TABLE OF CONTENTS:


-The story, and the first detail job (You are HERE *big red dot*)

-Hawkeye WRX rim's (just a photoshop...)

-'04 FXT 4EAT Leather Shift Knob

-Comparison with '09 Outback, and Foglight rockguards removed

-Mystery box arrives, and what's inside

-HomeDepot hybrid CAI (for MAP Subbies)

-First pic with the new suspension setup, I say good-bye to the car for a few months

-Adding some more parts to the MOD box!

-I'm not a parts-whore... I swear...

-It's BACK!

-Permatex Headlight Restoration

-Custom Lightbar installed

-'07 FSXT 6CD Changer

-Borla Replica header installed

-Link to my Hella wiring mess, and Bbottomley's helpful expertise

-Just some more pics!

-Magnaflow muffler painted, ready for catback install!

-Soundclip of new stainless catback

-Got some SNOW!

-RoadBlockR Sound Deadening

- Protection for the dangly bits...

-Bad news :(

-Axxis Ultimate Ceramic brake pads

-eBay Swagman Bike Rack installed

-Trip to Paris Landing State Park, BattleWagon turns 150k miles young

-Spring Cleaning, and undercoating! :smile:

-Finished up the Pioneer install, painted my shifter surround

-Got tint!

-Subtle Solutions front lift installed

-Couple pics from the alignment shop

-Ordered the new engine

-Scangauge II installed

-Starting the engine replacement!

-Finished pics!

-Murphy's law... I get torque bind and a failed transmission clutch pack, as well as a new throttle position sensor.

-The TuRD... my transportation while the Scooby is in the shop!

-All fixed up, showing off the new shoes!

-A loose wire leads to another trip to a different dealer, and a tow truck along the way.

-GE Tungsram Gold (Selective-Yellow) Low Beam Bulbs

- DIY Intake V2... 3 inch, modded airbox!

- Painted my 'new' spare set of wheels.








[story snipped to save space... shoot me PM for details... lol)



First mod... resonator deletes! Eventually I will get a different tube to replace the piece between the scoop and the airbox, but for now, it adds a little more growl. I neatly sealed off the holes with electrical tape. Ghetto-tastic.

Before:



After:




Next, I removed the silly piece of plastic that Subaru put in front of the intake scoop to deflect air away from it.





Now, for my first appearance mod. This may not seem like a mod, but it certainly made a difference in the way the car looks. The paint's clearcoat was contaminated with all sorts of stuff, from old wax buildup to waterspots to ground in road grime, you name it. It gave the car an odd grey-ish tint. :huh:

Today I was determined to remove the aforementioned 'tint', and make her shine again.

First step was removing the bug deflector, and doing a two-bucket wash. Here's what it looked like after that:


Then, I claybarred the entire car. The clay took out most of the surface stuff that was left behind, but the paint still felt rough to the touch. So I broke out the Griot's/Porter Cable buffer and Meguiar's Swirl X for a test spot. Here's a pic of the spot:


After verifying that the method worked, I started working my way across the hood. Here you can see that the right edge of the hood is whiter than the rest. :icon_razz: I love seeing progress being made.


After that, I added a coat of Meguiars Gold Class wax for protection. I'll follow up with another coat of NXT 2.0 Tech Wax once I get some at the store later. Then I moved on to the interior... sorry, no before pics, just an after:


I <3 big gauges...


After pics of the exterior (total time invested: 12 hours):










More to come, I have some fun stuff in mind. :biggrin:
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:lol:
Make the same pic with a crappy camera and you will get blur effect :biggrin:
Or just a little adjustment before shooting.
Fail really fast photochop I did because I hate not having blur on rolling shots haha. I'll do a better one later.
Lol! I can shoot you an email with the high-res ones if you want. Less grain to deal with (is mostly caused by resizing to 1024x638 and resharpening). Just text me the addy. We'll have to work on getting some better ones at some point. :rock:

I already washed the car... there were some serious bugs on the front by the time we arrived here. :lol: Washing a car on concrete is AMAZING. OMG.
Lol! I can shoot you an email with the high-res ones if you want. Less grain to deal with (is mostly caused by resizing to 1024x638 and resharpening). Just text me the addy. We'll have to work on getting some better ones at some point. :rock:

I already washed the car... there were some serious bugs on the front by the time we arrived here. :lol: Washing a car on concrete is AMAZING. OMG.
haha na its fine. I was just messin with it.

But for serious, we need to do a detail/photoshoot day/weekend (you can definitely crash here if you want) sometime this summer.
So, I ordered something large today.
Wow! :icon_cool:
Now that looks "sweet"! :cool:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]
Wow! :icon_cool:

Should be here in a couple weeks! :smile:
Should be here in a couple weeks! :smile:
What?! I thought that was your new engine & you were doing a photo shoot before the installation! :lol:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]
To tell you the truth, I stopped having alignments done to my vehicles after a bad alignment experience on a vehicle (nonSubaru) way back. :frown: Was the alignment shop local or a National chain? :confused:

Bobby...
Just gotta go someplace where the people know what they are doing :biggrin:
if you are using an slr or dslr camera, you have settings you can adjust to get the look you want in the blurred background. just set it to the manual mode, close your f-stop to 5.6 or something pretty small, and turn your shutter speed down to 1/60-1/125 or something. that's a pretty good one to use in good daylight and it opens your shutter longer so that if you have a moving shot, it's all blurry unless there's something still in the frame, like...a moving car!

i have to ask...why the new engine? i haven't really been keeping up with your journal very well sorry :(
He needed to do a rebuild anyway but his dad ponied up for a new engine. Leaving Zach with a project engine :woohoo: It was a DSLR but we didn't have time to setup because we were just goofin around. We are doing a better shoot sometime this summer.
Well, I'm gathering my parts and supplies for the big swap. I need to call CCR later and see what's up with the car's new heart. It was supposed to ship today.

I've got coolant (+conditioner), oil, some RTV, a new header -> cat gasket, my new STI Group N engine mounts, the left front CV half shaft (on the way) and a Scangauge II (also on the way). The engine itself comes with an installation gasket set, and already has new OEM sparkplugs, and even an OEM oil filter. I think I have everything. If anyone can think of anything else, chime in.

If the engine does not ship out today, it will be Wednesday next week before I can start on the car. :frown: The hobby shop has some funky hours.
What about throwing a set of Iridium spark plugs in while the engine is out. It would be so easy & they'll last twice as long as the stock spark plugs! :cool:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]
^ahhh... but they should already be installed. I asked for them as an upgrade! :wink:

Among other upgrades (STI crank, rods... mmhmmmmmm). lol
^^ It sounds like you're good to go! :cool:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]
Zach,
I thought about you this weekend when I drove up to West TN to visit the folks. I spent some time down in Decatur county on Sunday (big thriving metropolis of Bible Hill, TN) and actually say a white and gold Outback just as I got on I-40 headed back to Georgia on Sunday. Glad to see you're doing good on the wagon. :biggrin:
Woohoo!

Well, the teardown will be pushed to Sunday, it appears. The engine won't arrive until Wednesday.
Pictures, must have lots & lots of pictures! :cool:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]
Scangauge II installed. :cool: Thanks to Bobby sending me a link from eBay, I picked it up for a cool ~$40 off the usual price. I believe this one is a refurbished model, but it looks brand new. No scratches or any signs of wear.

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