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I was pleasantly surprised, myself. I was ready for the wrinkling one to be "good enough", perhaps hit it with a hair dryer to try tightening up the vinyl, and the silly thing does it all by itself. Still not sure why, but I'll take it! I can say that I need a whole lot more practice with upholstery. It's tougher than it looks, and I tend to get messy with glues and such to begin with.
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Jun 18, 2019 00:09
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Had a few minutes the other night, so I attached all the bits to the panel (arm rest is just sitting in place.) I'm exceedingly happy with this. There's just one spot at the top of the flat panel where the fabric pulled so that just a tiny bit of the hardboard is showing, but I can live with that (and hit it with a marker to hide it a bit. Guess I should put it on the car now. Padding for the other panel is on the way.
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Jun 20, 2019 18:50
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That's some absolutely fantastic work, well done!
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Jun 20, 2019 20:55
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meltie posted:That's some absolutely fantastic work, well done! Thanks! I seriously didn't expect it to come out this well. I mean, you can see the picture how it looked when I finished for the night.  *That* was what I was expecting. Now lets see if I can do it again on the passenger door. If I'm honest, I should have done that one first, in case I messed up, shouldn't I? edit: the only things I can think of for why it worked this way was that the glue was a little "hot" and caused the vinyl to shrink up a bit as it cured, or something similar to the foam, letting it expand more as the glue dried. Either way, worked in my favor. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jun 20, 2019 |
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Jun 20, 2019 23:39
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Had some time after work, so it's time to slap that sucker in the car, and get it out of my garage. But first, a modicum of sound deadener:  Did the same on the passenger door while I had the materials out (no pic - looks the same, only reversed) Aaaaaaaaa, boom!  Thankfully, I did my work well (test fits and such before committing to full upholstery), and had no trouble aligning all the panel clips and stuff. It took a little working to get the metal top piece to slide in correctly around the mirror/a-pillar, but ended up OK. It took a little fiddling to get all the clips in the panel, because the hardboard is a tiny bit thicker than the original card, but got it done. I'm really happy with this. The upholstery is still a bit shabby (it looks better in the picture than it really is, but it's not really bad), with some discoloration and wear that I can't do anything about, but overall, it's 100% better with an intact backer board behind it. Padding for the passenger side is on the way, so I get to do all this again, but probably not this weekend. Already full, as tends to happen. edit: there's no inside window sweeper on this side, so I need to source that. It attaches to the upper door panel.
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Jun 21, 2019 17:00
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drat man, that looks factory fresh.
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Jun 21, 2019 17:07
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Lot better than I thought it would, for sure. Like I said, a bit rattier in person, but a massive improvement in what it was. It didn't look terrible when I got it, but the top piece was barely connected to the card, because it had gotten wet at some time and crumbled. Same thing on the passenger side, but in different spots. Beyond the passenger panel, I need to figure out where all my AC refrigerant went. I pulled a vacuum on it yesterday and it didn't take 1o minutes for it to be back to atmo. When I pulled the high side gauge coupler off of the fitting, it hissed at me, so there's one leak (valve core.) The cap seals somewhat, but probably not enough in this case. I can't see anywhere else it may be leaking (I have dye in the system), so either that's it, it's in the evaporator box inside, or I don't have enough dye in the lines. I'm in TX - I can't drive this thing without AC, and I put too much effort into putting it back together to not keep it working. Oh, and I need to plastic-weld a piece on the center console cover. After that, I'm pretty much done as far as I plan to take it.
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Jun 21, 2019 18:34
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Good thing - new project incoming, if everything goes well. Well, not really a project, but it will probably need some basic maintenance and such. Hopefully about to become a Scooby owner ('03 Outback H6 3.0). It should replace either the P71 Crown Vic or my wife's Kia Spectra5. I'm not sure which I'd rather lose, since I like them both for different reasons. The Kia is a 5-speed manual, and reasonably small and fun, and being a hatchback will swallow some cargo, and the Crown Vic is my big V8 couch. I love it, but it's just so fricking huge! The trick is that the Subaru is in another state, two states over.
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Jun 21, 2019 18:46
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Darchangel posted:The trick is that the Subaru is in another state Liquid? 
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Jun 21, 2019 18:59
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Not yet. But if it stays in AZ too much longer, it's a possibility, given climate change.
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Jun 21, 2019 19:04
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GJ on the door cards, btw
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Jun 21, 2019 19:05
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Dagen H posted:GJ on the door cards, btw Thanks!
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Jun 21, 2019 19:39
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that looks  perfect
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Jun 21, 2019 21:59
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sneakyfrog posted:that looks Thanks! I replaced the high-side schrader valve on the car, and charged it Saturday morning. It worked for the hour I drove it. We'll see if it holds. I thought I smelled refrigerant in the car, so I bet it won't. I'm thinking the leak is in the evaporator case, if there is one. I did put more dye in it while I had the valve out. Rest of the weekend was taken up with honey-dos (helped my mother in law replace her gazebo canopies that got destroyed by the hail a little while ago - in high-80s heat with 100000% humidity. Ugh.)
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Jun 24, 2019 21:47
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AC still worked this past weekend - took the Corolla out to our annual RX-7 BBQ, since it's the closest thing I have to a running RX-7. 45-degF outlet temps on the highway. Creeps up pretty quickly at stoplights, but revving it up to about 1500 RPM mitigates that. Not sure if it's lack of airflow, or RPMs, or both. I've got a universal electric fan I think I can fit on with the mechanical still there to use as an auxiliary for the AC, so might try that. Cruise control continues to work. The car handled a 50-mile round trip drive at highway speed with no problem. It's slow as balls to get there, but will do 70-80 MPH easily. Did not get to tha passenger door panel, but did get the foam I needed in, so will do that soon, then refurb a couple pieces of interior plastic, then get to work on selling the AE86 (buy it, please)and rebuilding my RX-7. On the house front, finished up the back door besides painting. This involved making big holes in my brand new $300 door. Marked it out:  No going back now:   Definitely in for the full tour now:  Doggo is unsure:   Fully installed:  I elected for the "Ruff Weather" version with double flaps, with tinted flaps. Once I got Jude to go through it a few times, I removed the panel with doggy door I had fitted to the sliding glass door, and locked that door closed. That part was amusing, since the frame of the sliding door seems to have racked a bit over the years. There was a 1/2" gap at the top of the latching side when the bottom was against the stop. I ended up measuring and cutting a 1x2 to wedge the door against the frame evenly all the way up. Also serves as the closure/lock. I think I may be able to adjust the rollers on the slider to rotate it enough, but this was easier, and I don't plan to use the door much in the future. File under ghetto but works. Now I guess I need to start planning out emptying that room and tearing out the drywall. Whee!
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Jul 1, 2019 21:51
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Hey Jude
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Jul 1, 2019 21:58
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Darchangel posted:That part was amusing, since the frame of the sliding door seems to have racked a bit over the years. There was a 1/2" gap at the top of the latching side when the bottom was against the stop. I ended up measuring and cutting a 1x2 to wedge the door against the frame evenly all the way up. Also serves as the closure/lock. Genius, I should have done that at my old apartment. I had the exact same issue with my sliding door.
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Jul 2, 2019 16:08
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Dagen H posted:Hey Jude Yep. Can't say we didn't consider that when naming him.  STR posted:Genius, I should have done that at my old apartment. I had the exact same issue with my sliding door. I have a pin up at the top that I could have used (and also one at the bottom) but I actually shattered the original stationary glass preciously while drilling the receiving hole for the pins, and really didn't want to do that again, so: a stick. Tried and true. I posted that I attended our more-or-less annual Rotary Barbecue/Picnic on Sunday, but didn't post any pics. I only took a few of the couple of cars that really interested me. Attendance was smallish, but enough folks to be fun. It's usually earlier in the year when it's cooler, but it rained forever this Spring. Here's an overall taken by the event organizer:  Yes, all of us own rotaries, but not all of them run, natch. You can see my shitbox Corolla between the Protege5 and the Mazda3. So this car was interesting:  First, note that it has 5-lug Series 5 convertible BBS rims. That's because it has an FC front crossmember and suspension, so it can have this:   That is a Renesis/MSPRE from an RX-8. First one in an FB I've ever seen. It's running the stock ECU, but still has the original FB gauge cluster as well. Runs really good. It's nicely done, as far as build quality, but the original builder (not the current owner) was not concerned with making it pretty. The current owner will be tweaking a few things, and blowing it apart to clean and paint all the stuff that wasn't cleaned and/or left unpainted (mostly stuff you can't see in the picture - welded bits and chassis mods to accommodate the FC crossmember.) This car I liked simply because its a very clean, lightly modified '79.   I should have gotten pictures of the red first-gen that was there - it was very clean, and didn't end up in the overall picture.
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Jul 2, 2019 18:01
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That blue '79 
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Jul 2, 2019 18:18
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I know, right? My favorite (factory) color, too. I hope mine looks that good at some point (though it will stay the original red.)
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Jul 2, 2019 19:13
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Wibla posted:That blue '79  So clean and pretty! I still lust for an untouched FD, but lol at ever finding one.
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Jul 3, 2019 01:44
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Chris Knight posted:
I would probably settle for a lightly modded one - hopefully just reliability mods like silicone hoses and aluminum surge tank - if I thought I could fit in one/afford one. Maybe a quality single turbo conversion. A member of our little RX-7 group found a *completely stock* '93 a couple years ago and bought it. It was a wonder to behold, and so quiet!
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Jul 3, 2019 19:12
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Chris Knight posted:
Get one that's been touched by the spyder on this very forum.
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Jul 3, 2019 21:38
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Suburban Dad posted:Get one that's been touched by the spyder on this very forum. Agreed. You can trust that you will at least know what’s wrong with it, in detail, if he doesn’t fix it already. So, if you’re in the chat thread, you probably already know I’m buying another goon’s ‘03 Scooby Outback for $600. The catch is that it’s in Arizona and I’m not. To that end, I will be flying from DFW to PHX Friday night (cheap flights on Spirit are late night), picking it up Saturday morning, and driving 1000 miles. Actually, it’s worse than that. The wife wanted to come, and bring my teenage daughter, and make a family trip out of it. OK by me. It increases the cost of the trip significantly, but I’m not counting that toward the cost of the car. We plan to hit the Petrified Forrest, the Very Large Array, White Sands, and some stuff in Alamogordo, stay the night there, then head across to Roswell and home. I think Pie Town is in there just because it’s on the way. 1300 miles, something like 19 hours of driving, in a new to me car. Whee! Hope I don’t die out in the desert somewhere.
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Jul 4, 2019 20:05
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Survived meeting goon Morethanjake32 in Mesa, AZ. Acquired Subaru - was as described (a+, would buy again). Currently about 700 miles into the journey back to Dallas, in Roswell, NM. 479 miles to go. The car is running great, there are a few things to take care of, none of which were a surprise. Overall very good condition, and it’s a very well-optioned car. Drives fine, stops OK. Is a bit gutless, which I was warned about. Premium fuel helped. 22 and 24 MPG so far. It needs struts - rears are a bit soft - and definitely needs a bushing or something on the left front. It pulls to the left under braking and likes to make a knocking noise then as well. Sounds like the rear lower control arm bushing is toast to me. Some other small stuff, but no major problem or anything that makes it undrivable. More words and pictures after we get back.
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Jul 7, 2019 21:38
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At the White Sands National Monument:
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Jul 7, 2019 21:41
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Darchangel posted:At the White Sands National Monument: Darchangel posted:Survived meeting goon Morethanjake32 in Mesa, AZ. Acquired Subaru - was as described (a+, would buy again). And I also survived my first meeting with a goon. Glad it’s doing ok on your desert trek! “Gerty” looks good out there in the sand! Hopefully no surprises, I remembered I also left a Rob Zombie cd in the car so hope your family likes that sort of thing. I don’t need it back btw, everything here is digital now.
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Jul 7, 2019 22:20
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morethanjake32 posted:And I also survived my first meeting with a goon. Glad it’s doing ok on your desert trek! Did you? I fired up the stereo briefly on the trip, but didn't investigate much, since I knew we'd be moving to much to keep a radio station. Cool. Going to have to replace the head unit or add some sort of input to it, though - I can't go without my phone connected. And like you said, there is definitely a blown speaker when I listened to the radio on the way into work this morning. It's cool that it has a Mcintosh stereo system. I didn't know that Subaru had those. Ironically, we went to the desert, and got rained on multiple times. It was in the 60s in the Painted Desert, White Sands, and Alamogordo, 70s most everywhere else besides Mesa, which was fine for me. Pretty as a get out. Definitely enjoyed the views and watching the landscape change along the way. Wish we'd had more time to see more stuff, but them's some huge distances out there. I don't know if the car's ECU learns, or if I just beat it into submission, but it seems to have gotten peppier with me caning it the whole way. When we first got in, it shift up through the gears way to quickly, completely missing the power band, and then hated to downshift, which is mostly what gave it the "gutless" impression, I think. Using the cruise control, it was much less hesitant to downshift to get up hills, and eventually, it was more responsive to doing so with the pedal, too. The engine seems to pick up a lot of oomph around 4500 RPM, and the trans wasn't letting it get there a lot of the time. Hardly ever got anywhere near the 6000 RPM redline. It's better now. Check engine light came on some time Saturday - I was warned about that, and will check it out later. Car still ran and drove fine. Ditto for the "VDC" light. Temp never varied once warmed up, despite cruising at 75 MPH a lot of the time, 85 once in TX (75 MPH speed limit in rural areas.) No weird noises. Little wind noise from the frameless windows at higher speeds, but still quieter than my AE86 at, well, any speed above 0. Needs more exhaust noise - I read that Subaru put a lot of effort into making it not sound like a Subaru for some reason. There's a weird valve on the muffler, for example. Ride was actually pretty good until it came to dips and the like, and then the soft rear showed up and bounced off of the bump stops. Great cargo space even with the rear seats up. Cosmetically good - I'd say very good for age and mileage, really. Some wear on the front seat leather, cracking but not through. Small tears in the leather on the driver's door pull. That seems like really thin, soft leather for the application. Love the leather and wood steering wheel. Little bit of peeling on the varnish on the top of the wheel, feels like (haven't actually looked at it yet.) Interior very intact. I didn't notice any other rips or tears other than the door pull. Small hole in the console under the handbrake - it looks like there was an alarm LED at one time, or maybe a switch or button. No big deal. Carpets are "normal" dirty. The retainer for the driver's floor mat has pulled out of the carpet, again not a big deal. The pop-out cup holder in the rear of the center console (for the rear seats) has a broken hinge and is no longer functional. I can fix or replace that. The automatic dimming rearview mirror seems to be broken, and is a bit wobbly. Widow tint on the driver's front door is peeling, so I'll need to replace that. I'm sure I'll find other issues, but so far it's only normal small stuff that I would expect from any used car. It's solid, and has a lot of fancy options I've not had on a car before. More importantly, pretty much everything works, and the AC is cold. I mean, it has a heated area on the windshield for the windshield wipers, heated seats, front and rear moonroofs, digital automatic HVAC, power mirrors, locks, mirrors, and driver seat, keyless entry, the aforementioned Mcintosh 6-disk in dash changer stereo with separates in the front doors and a woofer in the cargo area, leather seats, leather-and-wood steering wheel, auto-dimming rearview mirror with compass, On Star (no idea if that will still work), Vehicle Dynamic Control, and probably more I haven't found. I like it. Start mileage:  Actually, I forgot to record it and reset the trip odometer until about 20-30 miles in... At the Painted Desert:    Yeah, it was cloud and trying to rain, so we didn't get the full effect. Still beautiful. A little less dark, but still cloudy the next day at White Sands National Monument:    As I said, it was in the 60s, and quite pleasant. The sand makes everything eerily quiet. I need to find time to go get it inspected, since it's never been registered/inspected in TX, then I can transfer the title and register it. Hopefully this week. I'm also gong to have to get a front plate mount, since TX requires front plates. Now, how much were lift kits for Outbacks? edit: Forgot the end mileage:  edit 2: Google Maps shows that the drive should have been about 1230 miles. We detoured and doubled back a little when we missed stuff, but, huh. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jul 8, 2019 |
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Jul 8, 2019 17:33
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A few pics from the trip. Painted Desert:       Route 66 ran through the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert at one time:    Facing East. Those telephone poles mark the path it used to take. Interstate 40 is off to the right in this picture.  Facing west, I-40 is to the left. Someone left a Studebaker there:  A double rainbow somewhere between the Petrified Forest and Alamogordo:  White Sands National Monument. The sand is white, and there's a lot:    A place I didn't get to eat in Roswell:  Because they closed at 2 and it was 1:51. An amazing number of local restaurants closed at 2, or weren't even open on Sundays. I finally found something that wasn't a national chain, (Farley's) and we ate there. This was at Farley's:  Sorry about the back-lighting. I should have gotten another shot from the other side. This thing clearly spent some time buried in a field. All the alloy castings were rough and pitted. I mean, look at that front drum! IT was all like that. Looks like they pulled it out, media blasted it, and polished it. Kinda neat, since it was really beyond repair. We unfortunately did not make it to Pie Town nor the Very Large Array before dark. If I'd have realized that was going to happen I could have saved some time getting to Alamogordo by using the Interstate and going through Albuquerque. As it was, it was very dark, and very lonely driving across those state roads after 9 PM. I was worried I'd run out of fuel at a couple points, and we had a time finding food, since those rural towns all apparently roll up the sidewalks after sunset. We made it to Alamogordo about midnight, got up at 8, and made it home about 11 PM (local - lost an hour to the time zone, and on Saturday lost an hour to DST, since AZ doesn't do DST.)
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Jul 8, 2019 18:12
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Darchangel posted:A few pics from the trip. The hole under the e brake had a aux jack there at one time. There is a rocker switch by the drivers right leg that used to toggle a fm transmitter that the previous owner had installed. Originally it was an apple 30 pin connector, and I swapped that out for something that had a 3.5 mm jack input instead. Then about 5 years ago I was getting interference from the transmitter even when switched off so I think I pulled the whole thing, maybe, there might still be some of the guts under the center console? I can’t remember. Also- beware the switch on the steering column - you should pull the manual, but from what I remember it keeps the parking lights on constant even if you have the stalk turned to off.
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Jul 9, 2019 03:35
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WHY DID YOU WARN HIM ABOUT THE SWITCH?! Every Subaru owner has to learn that one the hard way. That looks like a hell of a nice car, especially for the price. I might have to consider an Outback for my next car; I had no idea they could be optioned so heavily. Does the H6 have a head gasket appetite like some other engines? And Darchangel, no, the OnStar system will not work. That era OnStar ran on AMPS; the first digital ones started around 05 and relied on Verizon CDMA. The current OnStar lineup relies on AT&T LTE. Owners of the CDMA versions are going to be poo poo out of luck at the end of this year; Verizon is shutting down CDMA, and they're no longer activating any CDMA devices. I think the CDMA OnStar systems can still be activated (GM certainly keeps spamming me to turn mine back on), but even if GM can turn it back on, there won't be a network for it to connect to in less than 6 months.
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Jul 9, 2019 06:04
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morethanjake32 posted:The hole under the e brake had a aux jack there at one time. There is a rocker switch by the drivers right leg that used to toggle a fm transmitter that the previous owner had installed. Originally it was an apple 30 pin connector, and I swapped that out for something that had a 3.5 mm jack input instead. Then about 5 years ago I was getting interference from the transmitter even when switched off so I think I pulled the whole thing, maybe, there might still be some of the guts under the center console? I can’t remember. You left the switch, and a few wires, that's all. I realized the hole must have been for the aux jack when I noted that one of the wires referenced an iPod connector, and that the switch on the side of the console would have been for that. Also, I wondered about the Parking Light switch while we were traveling, and had my wife look it up in the owner's manual (thanks for leaving that, BTW!) (also, NYAH! STR.) Interesting way to handle it. I didn't think the OnStar would work, since that was right around the time of the switch to digital. Just means I can rip all that crap out. Here in just a minute, you'll see why I know hate it thoroughly. So, getting into that! First off, checked and cleared the MIL. Code was P0174 - System Too Lean.  I will have to look into that if it comes back. Hopefully it'll stay away until after I get it inspected this weekend, so I can do that, and get it registered and transferred on Monday. I jacked her up after work to take a look at that wandering wheel. Underside is pretty clean. A little grease and oil, but nothing excessive and no drips. Replaced one screw in the wheel well holding the undertray on.  Poking around with a prybar, I think I may have found the issue:  Video. Click to play.  Surprisingly, the other side is fine, and the other bushing on this (left, US driver's) side is fine. I ordered a bushing, and all four struts (Monroe Quick-struts - springs and all. Here's hoping that their rear springs are up to "Outback" duty. I saw some other strut/spring combos getting bad reviews for sagging almost instantly) today. Should be in next week. Dirty stuff done, lets see about this radio. I'm getting an ERR 2 on the built-in 6-disc changer, which is a changer mech error. Pretty much set on replacing the head and either interfacing with or bypassing/replacing the McIntosh (Clation) amp. I've already ordered replacement component speakers for the front, since at least one of the woofers is blown - likely disintegrated foam. I did find out that re-foam kits are made for the McIntosh-specific speakers, for like $20, if I want to keep them, though I also learned that they're 8-ohm speakers, which is weird. Anyway, lets get this radio out. Consider it a trial run for replacing it. Looked fairly simple. Trim comes off easily.  Here's those abandoned wires:  The mass of red wires go to this switch:  Connected to the cigarette lighter power leads:  While under the dash I noticed this:   Guess I'll have to figure out what that is. I had to take the bit of trim with the vents on it loose, because on top of that stack of components is the cell radio for the OnStar, making the stack taller than the opening!  Also had to undo the cables to it to get this far. All of the cables are just barely long enough, and all the connectors were very tight. More on that in a second. This would have been very much easier if all of this hadn't been stacked and attached to one. single. bracket. Also hindering pulling this stuff out very far was this feed tube for in-cabin air temp sensing for the automatic HVAC. It was also tough to detach. In fact, I elected to unscrew the AC head from the bracket first.  You can see that the screws are out and the AC head is already shifted rearward in the bracket. The cell radio:  It's a mess of wires back there:   See those two red and blue GM-looking connectors? Those motherfuckers. gently caress. Them.  They cannot re removed by hand. They are in those receptacles tighter than a hummingbird's twat. I had to hold the release clips and pry the plugs out with a nylon trim tool. Of course they were for the OnStar computer.  Lookit that poo poo, the sockets are metal! Everything out - the after  Model number for the head unit:  Plugs on the butt:  Connector next to the antenna socket is the standard Subaru radio plug, except this head unit has no on-board amplifier. Round 13-pin DIN plug carries 4-channel line-level and turn-on signal to the amp under the passenger seat. Next plug, I'm not sure, but it was being used. Square one on the end is supposedly Clarion's buss system for CD changers and such. It should be possible to add an input using that, but, eh. I've got a pile of those $10 Blaupunkt radios from a while back (they're still only $15 last time I checked) and will eventually upgrade to a double-DIN CarPlay, I think. I'm a big dummy, and didn't get any pics of the guts of the changer, because it was getting late and I was getting tired, but the platters for the CDs were all out of whack. I pulled it apart enough to extract the two CDs that were in there, but neither was the promised Rob Zombie CD:  I have no idea who these people are. I put it all back together, better than it was, actually. It still didn't work, but I had to try. That's another reason to replace it. I didn't make it any worse. Radio still works fine. I have the speakers and wiring harness adapters on the way, and a 13-pin DIN female plug to wire up the amp to RCAs with. If that doesn't work for whatever reason, I have an older 4-channel amp handy. STR posted:That looks like a hell of a nice car, especially for the price. I might have to consider an Outback for my next car; I had no idea they could be optioned so heavily. Does the H6 have a head gasket appetite like some other engines? I need to find out if it has the optional LSD in the rear diff. That would make my day complete. The EZ30 is a new design - it shares nothing with the EJs other than basic layout, and seems to have avoided the pitfalls of that series. It has a timing chain, and reportedly does not eat head gaskets. This is the engine Mighty Car Mods turbocharged in Super Gramps (which was a Liberty, aka Legacy, wagon, though not an Outback.) Subaru managed to make the EZ30 a six that's barely longer than the 2.5L 4-banger. They sound pretty good uncorked, too. Not unsurprisingly, they sound reminiscent of a 911. You can bet I'll be experimenting with that. I did learn from the manual that the transmission does indeed learn from your driving. Guess that's why it's shifting a lot more... usefully, now.
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Jul 11, 2019 00:48
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Ok- my notes: I have never before seen the first cd- no clue one that one- hopefully it’s not like the ring where you listen to it and you die in 7 days. The second cd is the wife’s Mumford and sons- think upbeat folk with lots of banjos. The clip under the steering column is something that the dealer we bought it from added as a “ security system” and wanted us to pay $500.00 for. I said no and they lift it as is. I never traced the wires so assume typical dealer clip splices at best.
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Jul 11, 2019 02:56
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Also- I am dumb- the 1st cd is the zombie cd- it’s the alternate title for The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser
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Jul 11, 2019 03:02
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Rob zombie has the best album names.  Edit: Mumford is good for what it is. I'd give it a listen.
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Jul 11, 2019 13:16
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morethanjake32 posted:Also- I am dumb- the 1st cd is the zombie cd- it’s the alternate title for The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser Somehow I have never heard of that one. Will listen. I’ll give the Mumford one a try - I like a wide variety of stuff. I’ll most likely rip out the “security system”. The only thing I trust cheesy dealer poo poo like that to do is fail and prevent the car from staring. I have a K9 actual alarm I can put in if I feel the need. May not, since it already has keyless. Just driving the thing for now, to see if anything else shakes out, and enjoying the AMAZING AC. I’m really impressed by how much cold air this thing produces. It’s right up there if not surpassing my cop car.
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Jul 11, 2019 23:09
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I forgot to note that I got the thing to start bringing the rear around in a u-turn I take daily, but in the rain yesterday. Until the VDC stepped in and did it's job. Nice to know it works, but I wish I'd have remembered to turn it off. I've been driving a FWD for long enough that I forgot about regularly drifting that turn when it was wet. I mean, I had the start of a four-wheel drift going...
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Jul 12, 2019 00:35
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Funnily enough, we talk about Mumford and Sons, and how I've never heard them, and the local alternative station plays one of their songs on my way home. Not bad. The new speakers and adapter plugs I odered cam in yesterday, so of course I had to put those in. The frapping stock speakers are really irritating. Bought these things:  $40 on Sonic Electronix. Reviews were mixed there, pretty good on Crutchfield. They certainly couldn't be worse than broken factory speakers. Door panel was fairly easy to remove. There's a Subaru technical documents resource online that came in handy. A lot of the stuff requires a subscription, but a decent amount does not, include an instruction sheet for installing upgraded speakers that came in handy. That info is probably in the Factory Service Manual as well, which is also thankfully available from enthusiast sites. Nice to see that the Subaru fandom lives up to us Mazda fanboys in that respect. There was one connector that I *could not* get to release. Of all things, this bitch:  That's the light at the bottom of the door panel (I need to remember to put an LED panel in there...) So I cut it, and later put 1/4" quick connects on it. Everything else came apart as it was supposed to. Uh, yeah, that speaker is done:  Where the foam isn't missing, it's not connected to the cone. Also, I now see why they refer to this as an "11-speaker" system. Coaxials in each door, high-mounted tweeters in the front doors, and the "subwoofer" in the rear. Aforementioned tweeter:  The only crossover is a capacitor on the tweeter, and the tweeter is just paralleled off of the main speaker. Mounting is neat. It just plugs into the sockets where the flat trim piece would go if it didn't have tweeters, then a grille piece plugs into the tweeter mount. On the down side, that means I have to use the OEM tweeter mount if I want to use the grille, or fabricobble up something else. Main speaker cam out easily enough with three screws. The speaker is mounted to an adapter, which should make mounting the new speaker easier. New versus old:  The Cerwin-Vegas have rubber surrounds and polymer cones. Should last longer, but not a guarantee. The OEM front door speakers in my wife's Kia were polymer/rubber, and sounded pretty drat good, but she (we) cranked them enough that the rubber separated from the cone. No tears, so I should be able to glue them back together at some point with the appropriate adhesive. I just replaced them for now. The CV speaker fit the mounting adapter just fine:  Now for the tweeter. New v. old:  Turns out the McIntosh tweeter is screwed to the mount, and the wiring and such goes wit the tweeter.  So I just unscrewed it, and double-side taped the Cerwin-Vega tweeter in.  It took a few layers, since I had the thin body-part mounting tape, but no problem. I found a spot on the door under the armrest where the crossover could live on the dry side of the door:  There was even a convenient clip on the panel mounting post there to hold the wiring! So I bought adapters to just plug into the speaker wiring, right? Somehow Metra managed to screw that up. They seem to have forgotten that connectors like this have a retainer clip. Now, I understand that they made these to fit a variety of manufacturers using the "T" style plugs, but they didn't put any sort of provision *at all* for a retainer clip, so the clip would just sort of get shoved in there, and in my case, basically force the plug back apart from tension.  Note the indentation for the clip in the OEM plug at the top of the "T". So out comes the Dremel to see if I can do *something*:   That proved to be enough to catch the tab and keep them together. I have no idea if the Scosche version would be any better. That accomplished, I routed all the wires, and started bolting things back together: Woof:  Tweet:  Whole door:  It all tested out fine, so the door panel went back on:  Oof, need to clean that a bit more. That light tan just *sucks up* dirt, and is deeply textured, making it tough to clean. As you can see, it was dark - this was about 9:30-10:00, so one door is as far as I got. I'll do the other one tonight. This side sounds great! I'm happy with this purchase so far. From what I've read, the amp has no problem handling 4-ohm loads, despite the OEM stuff being 8-ohm. Didn't explode on the way to work, so thumbs up! I guess I'll need to take a look at the rear doors, too.
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Jul 12, 2019 16:42
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As expected, installed the passenger-side speaker Friday after work. Also as expected, it went a lot faster. Old speaker was just as dickered on that side:  All better:  Also bought a cargo net on eBay for $12. Need to find a cargo mat. I'd like an OEM one. They're a bit pricey, but they have the nice raised edges to keep wet stuff in the mat, as opposed to the cut-to-fit ones. morethanjake will notice that the water they provided just in case is still in the car... I do appreciate that gesture, my man. As I mentioned previously, at least one Subaru forum (https://www.subaruoutback.org/) is proving useful. They had a handy thread on wind noise from around the side mirror area. Turns out that, due to the frameless windows, the "gusset" there gets spread, and gaps a bit in such a way as to create significant wind noise above 65-70 MPH. We lived with that all the way to Texas... (it's still not terrible inside the cabin, just noisier than it should be.) Previous fixes are apparent;y periodically squezing that weather stip closed with thi window down, or replacing it entirely, but some enterprising individual discovered that run-of-the-mill door edge guard strips close the gap and change the profile enough that the window noise is practically gone. For $10, I'll give that a try. The stuff in question:  The "truck/SUV" version just includes a longer roll of the material. Mucho overkill in my case - you only need like a foot - 18" at most.  There's even a bit of tacky adhesive at the bottom of the groove to hold it in place. Installed:  It extends about an inch inside the door. Sure enough, there was almost no noise on our drive to Weatherford, TX for the annual Parker County Peach festival (shut up, I like peaches - and it's my hometown. And my parents live there, so visited a bit, too.) The same forum was also helpful in figuring out a replacement auto dimming rearview mirror. After successfully getting the Outback inspected Sunday morning, I headed out to the wrecking yard to see what I could find in the way of rearview mirrors. Turns out there are basically two manufacturers that make and sell mirrors to the OEMS (Donnelly and Gentex), so there is a lot of interchangeability. Donnelly's like to fail, and that's of course what is in the Outback. It's permanently stuck in "dim", even without power (they are electrochromic.) I was on the lookout for a Gentx with compass and Homelink. I could live without the compass if need be. They're fairly cheap on eBay, but I wanted to see what I could find. Turns out they get ganked pretty quick, at least from my favorite yard. Lots of dangling plugs. Either that, or the car had been picked up by forklift through the windshield, and that entire chunk of windshield was missing... I found one in a 2004 Prius with no compass, and quite a few that were just the auto-dim, no compass or Homelink in Toyotas, and a bunch in Cadillacs that had OnStar (which I was wildly uninterested in.) I finally ran across a 2004 Infiniti M45 that had exactly what I was looking for. A Gentex 313, with homelink and compass. For the princely sum of $5, I got it and 4 power sockets (because wow, this thing needs more outlets):   Nissan wires theirs slightly differently from the standard wiring, and this one also had a couple extra wires related to controlling auto dimming side mirrors as well. Ignition and ground wires are the same, but the +12V battery wire is missing from the plug. Nissan/Infiniti uses another position on the plug for constant power. I suspect the mirror would use the normal pin position if there was one, but it took a bit of research, because I didn't want to blow up the mirror. You wouldn't think that constant power would actually be needed, but I discovered that the Homelink is powered off of it, rather than the switched connection. At first, I was worried that the Homelink was broken, but hooking that one wire up made it work. Guess I could just hook that to the switched lead as well if I don't want it active with the key off. The electrochromic action is neat, and the compass appears to work. I taught the Homelink my remote and programmed it to the opener successful, so it's a go as soon as the camlock to wedge mount adapter shows up from Amazon, and I do a little wire splicing. Rather than take my big garden cart to the wrecking yard, I commandeered my daughter's wagon (she's 17 now - I don't think she cares any more.) It made it about 3' into the yard before the front wheels gave up:  The rear wheels aren't much better... Yeah, it's been outside for a long time. I just kept going, and it wore down to the hubs and kept rolling, albeit with massive hot rod rake. After I got home:  Guess I'll be getting some new wheels for that. The bushing for the control arm actually showed up on Saturday, so I tackled that after getting back from the wreckers, since it was relatively mild (read: less than 90F, and overcast). That turned out to be an easy job, praise Immortan. A chunk of rubber fell out when I pulled the bushing off. Here's the old and busted:  This thing is supposed to be hydroelastic, so... I guess all the goo went away? The rubber was cracked all the way around the center tube, so it was just sort of floating in there. Old v. New:   Where it came from:  See what I mean about easy? Two 19mm holding it to the chassis, one 22mm nut holding the bushing to the control arm. Slides off. The only difficulty was that the 22mm is torqued to 147 lb. ft., and the two 19mm are torqued to 180(!) lb. ft. My torque wrench only goes to 160, so they got that, plus a couple grunts. New bushing in place:  Test drive revealed a lack of clunking/knocking noises, and a similar lack of attempting to turn left under braking. Mission accomplished! Emboldened by this success, I moved to removing the ball mount from the receiver hitch so I can use it for a bike rack or cargo basket in the future. I'd like to say here: I'm very disappointed that the only hitches available are Class II. Not because I need to tow bigger things, but because a whole lot of the accessories are designed for the 2" receiver (including my cargo basket), and I hate the adapter things. At any rate, morethanjake said he never had the key for the locking receiver pin, so it's time to cut that thing off.   It was a Master lock, and one of the few things to rust on the car... It also was a whole lot easier to cut than I expected. A 4" cutting wheel sliced right through it, no problem.  It took a bit of hammering to get the ball mount out. It's a tight fit to begin with that'swhatshesaid and there was a little rust in there from, well, always being installed. It took a bit of WD-40, PB B'laster and scrubbing with a wire brush to get it so the ball mount can be installed and removed without a hammer, but it does so now. Yay! While I was under there, a few pictures of the rear chassis:   Bonus: it already has the OEM optional diff guard back there! So what can anyone tell me about the goiter on the muffler:    I hear it's a contraption to make the car sound less like a Subaru, and that's a thing I don't want. I threw the ball mount in the poo poo-tray in the spare tire well:  morethanjake left me some handy stuff as well. The shovel and the thermal blanket appear to be leftovers from the Outback's life in Washington. The trouble light does work, BTW, but is terribly dated in this age of super-bright LEDs. It can be powered by, I believe, 6 "C" cells, or an included 12V cable. I tested it on the 12V plug in the back:  That is in the jack pocket:  Spare tire is in good shape and aired up, even:  I can't tell you how much I appreciate having all the tools and accessories. That poo poo just tickles my (mild) OCD so much. *One* of the struts showed up on Saturday:  Rock auto is so dang weird. The other three are scheduled to show up on Thursday, so hopefully next weekend those will get installed. I plan to register it tomorrow (Tuesday). I don't have to be at work until 9 AM, and the DMV opens at 8, more-or-less on the way. I was in and out when I did the Crown Vic, because I read the rules and have all my ducks in order. I think I've got all the paperwork I need. Guess we'll see tomorrow!
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Jul 15, 2019 20:54
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I used those quickstruts on my wife's armada and they worked great.
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Jul 15, 2019 21:01
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