Dan's $600 dollar 2002 Legacy GT Limited Sedan

[2point5GT_Dan]

Back story on what the event was and to flesh out how important it is.

 

The event is a regularity rally, or a time speed distance rally. While I do stage rally, the old school rallying evolved from more of point to point navigation/endurance events. This event is all about navigating and maintaining a consistent average speed. The full description is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regularity_rally

 

This event is in Vermont. and it goes from 3pm to 3am. Broken up into three sections with each section having a different type of route notes.

 

The event is put together by John Buffum. He has been doing rally for years and is one of the most winningest American rally drivers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Buffum

 

John plans this event every year and it is on some of the most back woods rural roads in Vermont in the middle of winter. The notes are BRUTAL and designed to trick you up. The first section is down right sadistic. The second is a map section which if you do your book keeping well is easy. The third is just tulip notes and designed to be more of a higher pace on the most abandoned snowy roads.

 

This is THE event to do. Any idiot can do a rallycross, cage a car and enter an event and drive a stage rally at 35mph and finish, but doing this winter event and not getting lost and finishing a 12 hour event is insane. The speeds aren't as crazy as stage rally, but the insanity is all the same.

 

We got to the Inn / rally HQ and found a friend:

 

 

They made a new thing this year. If you find all the check points you get a little plaque. That is good because I think time is stupid due to how terrible the navigation tricky directions are and it turns into a mathematicians race. So I just go to hoon and bang around in the snow. This year we had a goal.

 

Here is the full video, the written event is below:

 

 

First leg sucked ass because the navigation directions are always trying to trick you and we got lost a lot but managed to find all the check points.

 

It snowed all weekend. After the first leg we had 15 minutes or so at McDonalds.

 

 

Every time I'd turn you'd hear the tires scraping the snow off the inner wheel wells.

 

On section two we were trucking along having no issues with the map. We start hearing a rattling sound on decel.

 

Going up a hill.

 

"dude do you have it to the floor"

 

"yes"

 

*car gets slower and slower*

 

What the ****, why do we have no power. We do the rest of section 2 with the car only reving to 2.5 to 3kish. We finish out the section burbling along in 4th.

 

We decided to limp it to the last break area which was a trucker rest stop and tear open the exhaust to check to see if the cat broke up.

 

We get the car in the air and the header to cat section undone. Start the car up and WOT next to the rest stop and look the car revs again. Jake gets the rest of the cat section out and we find this:

 

 

We punched that ****** out, put it back together, and gassed up; leaving the rest stop 13 minutes late. We hauled ass through section 3 and passed some people trying to make up time. We finished out leg 3 with plenty of power.

 

Found all the check points and got this:

 

 

Jake did awesome navigating and dealing with the exhaust issues. We made it.

 

Car at the end of the night:

 

 

[derp]

Wagon is best!

[RumbleRumble]

I wana do that. I know I can't do rally or build a fast car but this is down my alley. Maybe next year my car will be worthy of being able to finish.

[2point5GT_Dan]

If you are seriously interested, I definitely suggest getting some experience at a different TSD that is less brutal than the winter challenge.

 

NER.org (new england region of the SCCA) has other events, autox, rallyx, etc. There are definitely options that arent car breakers but still get you out there actually doing something with a car besides standing around in parking lots with bros.

 

http://www.ner.org/roadrally-schedule/

[2point5GT_Dan]

Haven't done much with the wagon, just DD duties. Got the summer setup going:

 

 

 

 

[2point5GT_Dan]

Now that the warm weather is here and I need to get the car sorted out after beating on it all winter and deferring all maintenance....

 

Now back to our regularly rusty subaru schedule.

 

Decided to tackle the wagon subframe because I am so tired of pressing the gas and waiting 3 seconds for the whole ass end to spool up.

 

I've got a set of whiteline trailing arm bushings, whiteline diff bushings, and a subframe from california.

 

I've previously had a go at doing just the trailing arm bushings. The problem is on the 03/04 legacys and outbacks, they added a bracket from the railing arm mount to the front of the rear subframe. This is all good and grand until you had to take that shit off and live in New England. I broke off one of the subframe bolts trying to get in they and said **** THAT and left it broken off as a stub. No change from the rear, it was fine. Drove all winter with it like that.

 

Now it's time to unfuck it. I bought the harbor freight 3/4 earthquake and we got some bigger lines. LET ME ****** TELL YOU BUB THIS SHIT IS THE CATS ASS.

 

 

So it backed the bolt out so violently and quickly it stuck the gun to the floor. The adjuster is on the back. I had to manually crank the bolt and socket back in.

 

Hell yeah:

 

 

(you can tell what I antiseized previously.

 

Almost out:

 

 

The inner arm has the bolt just cut off because I have new bushings and bolts for those, and part of the whole reason I'm doing this, the toe bolts are also frozen...

 

The little cock sucker nut bolt combo in the lower left is also frozen to the bushing sleeve. I can't get the bolt out until I get that freed up, which should be interesting.

 

 

Sub-frame out. No holes but its definitely flakey and I'm sure the flaked off material made some of the mounts more flimsy.

 

To do in the next post I have to:

 

Press in whiteline diff bushings

change trailing arm bushings

resolve stiffener bracket bolt being broken off

resolve driver rear arm being frozen up to the outer bushing sleeve

replace rear inner bushings

[2point5GT_Dan]

When we last left our hero, the evil subframe had been removed.

 

Morning was working on getting the old trailing arm bushings out and get the diff bushings in.

 

A new character has joined the party.

 

You unlocked Jake.

Traits:

Flat rate

Right tool for the right job

Jinxed

 

Jake brought a better air chisel than the craftsman we had. Along with a two jaw press/puller thing, the old trailing arm bushings were knocked out in two seconds. A little filing and the new ones were in.

 

Next up was getting the stuck subframe stub that Jake and I raced on in February. Some creativeness with the bolt bucket and welder:

 

 

Old bushings for the trailing arm were ******* garbage. The sleeve for them was gone:

 

 

The rear arms needed the old bushings torched out (along with portions of the old subframe) because the toe bolt was frozen to them. New bushings were pressed in:

 

 

New cali subframe covered in chassis saver and will be getting filled with 5 cans of eastwood internal frame coating.

 

 

Remember how the subframe bolt came out?

 

Click this then read below:

https://youtu.be/PjZuxAWb8a8?t=4m5s

 

Battle unibody bolt hole for subframe vs Jake:

 

Unibody uses Rust. It is super effective.

Jake uses re-threader.

Unibody rust resists.

Jake's trait of bad luck procs.

Re-treader critical fails.

defeat fanfare.wav

 

So Jake spent the next few hours drilling out the broken re-treader and scraping out the remains of it. Turns out his set was made of cheese. In the future only new Irwin taps go into my cars unibody with the crapsman tap set on everything else.

 

PRESS ON REGARDLESS.

 

Three hours later the new subframe was bolted in. After Jake left I welded up the chassis bracing on the trailing arm brackets that had broken off along with getting all the trailing arms, bracing, and various control arms in.

 

The only thing left to do was drill out the last ******* bolt in the knuckle sleeve that was cut off earlier to get the arm out to press the new bushing in.

 

I used all of the drill bits from the cobalt set I got my dad. They worked great until about 3/4 of the way through in which they'd dull and just say **** you.

 

Proceed to drill out the broken off bolt 80% of the way. Used the drill doctor on the dulled bit to get through the last 20%....

 

 

Swept the garage and drove home:

 

 

Rear suspension is tighter. Much better throttle and brake response. I wont lose stoplight races to camrys anymore.

 

To do list.

 

Replace front top hats.

Reinstall rear sway bar.

Replace front endlinks.

Alignment.

[2point5GT_Dan]

Fresh front top hats installed on the front wagon struts.

 

 

Minimal driveline slop now.

[2point5GT_Dan]

I got endlinks for the rear sway bar to reinstall that, along with new bolts and bushings for the rear links as one of them I drilled out the old bolt crooked. Along with the OTC tool Jake showed up with that I said I NEED THIS and I got my own.

 

 

Yeah that wasn't good.

 

Using a press tool that was originally for the mustang rear axle bushings and a subaru head bolt, the old bushing came out.

 

 

 

At some point I stripped the threads out of the one nut I could find that would thread onto a subaru head bolt. I used this OTC tool I got for most of the job anyway.

 

 

One side done.

 

awww yissss

 

 

Lets go over to the other side:

 

 

Lets smash out the old center sleeve so we can get in there and really mess this bushing up:

 

 

Ok now lets slide the bushing out of the knuckle a little bit so we know it isn't completely seized in:

 

 

After that it's sawzall to make a relief cut in the metal sleeve and then punch it out with either the press tool or air hammer (air hammer faster once it's freed up)

 

 

Use the OTC tool and some of the metal press kit pieces to press in the new one:

 

 

Done.

 

Reinstall rear swaybar and admire the rust on the chassis.

 

This was much much much faster than my old way of light the bushing on fire, let it burn, and push the sleeve out, then relief cut and air chisel the outer sleeve out. Each side was like 15 minutes.

 

Get your own OTC press ****** upper tool here:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/171810952602?lpid=82&chn=ps

 

Maxmimum motorsports press kit, we stripped the bolt after 4 uses on the mustang, need to get some more nuts for subaru head bolts to replace it, as I have roughly 50 of them.

 

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/Rear-Upper-Control-Arm-Bushing-Tool-P190.aspx

[2point5GT_Dan]

[SilentCool]

Great work! I like what you have done with this wagon.

[2point5GT_Dan]

Doing Recce over a couple hundred rally stages this summer took its tole. Front right balljoint died.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wyaCLfERFU]Bad Subaru ball joint - YouTube[/ame]

 

Got the pinch bolt out without snapping it.

 

 

Used plenty of heat and it comes out after cranking it in and out.

 

Filled the back of it in September full of spares for the rallysprint:

 

 

Managed to jump the RS a few times and get 2nd in class:

 

 

Later that month the exhaust started rattling. Took the cat back off and noticed something was rattling in one of the resonators:

 

 

Problem solved:

 

 

Poopweld it back closed while fighting the welder the whole way:

 

 

Also had a coolant leak, it was the hard metal crossoverline that had a pinhole. Replaced it.

 

 

 

[2point5GT_Dan]

Opted to do the front right ball joint before winter, along with the tie rod ends. I want to get everything sorted and align it before it gets cold.

 

Pinch bolt out without breaking it again:

 

 

Socket was gross, had to chip out a lot of rust.

 

 

While the knuckle was out, there was a bit of play in it. Always wanted to bring wheel bearings in house instead of outsourcing them.

 

 

 

 

 

Nice and cleaned up:

 

 

Back on the car:

 

 

Painted my winter wheels dark bronze and got an alignment:

 

 

Ready for the winter season, don't have to touch anything.

[JJay03]

Nice work.

I know it feels good to get that pinch bolt out without snapping it. I had to use a torch on mine also. I got a harbor freight 20ton press that I use to do ball joints similar to yours. They can be a pita sometimes especially the rear bearings when you dont want to bend the backing plate.

I sandblasted my knuckles and baked them with caliper paint.

[2point5GT_Dan]

Just did 4 ball joint pinch bolts today for various spare knuckle projects for all the cars.

 

While it was 55 degrees, I figured I might as well fix the dead fog otherwise I'll never do it.

 

 

No plastic back cover + redneck wiring, yeah no wonder it didn't work. I grabbed the full fog assembly from my spare bumper cover and threw it in. Now have both working fogs. The projectors on the 03+04s are NICE compared to the mediocre 00-02.

[2point5GT_Dan]

 

Twinning:

 

 

Dirt roads make it ugly quick:

 

 

Replaced the cat to header gasket that we reused from last year:

 

 

And took the harbor freight lights out of the grill in favor of a chinazon light bar:

 

 

Had to hack the grill to shit to make it fit, but it's way better at lighting up the roads.

 

 

Winter Challenge in two weeks.

[2point5GT_Dan]

[2point5GT_Dan]

Long time no post.

 

Another year running the vermont winter challenge in febraury.

 

 

It was cold:

 

 

Then a week later I drove it to PA to codrive for a rally.

 

 

 

On the way back it was low on oil, blowing oil out the exhaust on acceleration. Got to mass and we put 4qts in it. Made it home and drove it for a month topping it off. 1qt of oil every 100 miles. That got annoying and was more expensive than gas so I finally swapped in a 2.2 I got off a buddy for cheap. Screw 2.5s.

 

 

Swap happened in May.

 

 

 

Got it back together at 1am but had to go back in to swap the cam and crank gears as the triggers didnt match (I should have known this before putting it in).

 

 

Swapped the summer shoesies on:

 

 

Drove back to PA to crew at STPR:

 

 

Got a free utility trailer to fix up:

 

 

More shuttling parts around:

 

 

[2point5GT_Dan]

I also picked up a 1000 dollar WRX to fix up. Runs and drives, was overheating. A lot of the coolant hoses were leaking so they were replaced. I'm now going through it repairing any rust, painting the shell, and replacing all the suspension and bushings. Once that's done the legacy comes off the road for much needed spa treatment.

 

 

Resealed the motor:

 

 

Heated leather Saabaru seats along with door cards.

 

 

It's freshly undercoated and I have replaced everything up to the rear seats.

 

 

Currently have the whole back end out for new sedan width suspension and painting the shell. I have to repair some broken off captive nuts and do a lot of other little things before I start DDing it.

[2point5GT_Dan]

And we've done three rally events this summer:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We blew reverse trying to pull out a stuck porsche 911 out of the woods. Finished the event using only forward gears and threw in the spare gearbox the next weekend. Will be tearing down the old box over the winter. Good times.

[derp]

I've missed this thread.

[Books]

Just read through the entire thread.... I've never felt so inspired