Fly's 2002 Forester

See first post for updated pic

From this weekend's hike. We had about 30 kms of dirt roads (and at the end, it was more like a trail than an actual road) to reach the hiking trail's start.

Not enough mud for my liking, but it was cool! I ruined the plastic skidguard (I intended to replace it with a metal skidplate anyway) and bended a bit the lightbar but it went great overall.

Altough I had a small unplanned drifting session when we were getting back... and it ended in the woods :/

I did not post it before, so here it is... Last october, I had an "accidental drift session" that ended up in the trees. Thankfully, they were small trees, and only damaged the passenger door & pillar. Everyone was OK and there is no critical damage. Still, that's at least 1000$ worth of body repairs... (Sorry for the crappy pic, when it happenned my mind wasn't really set on being an artist :lol: )



I realise I posted it already in the offroad pics thread, but deserves to be in my journal too, as it shows well the roof basket & projectors, mudflaps and lightbar. It was taken last january.

Projects/plans

Current
- Getting all the info needed to have a bullbar done (and getting it done :lol: )
- Arranging sleep area in the back (curtains, mattres, scrims, etc)

Short term (this summer)
- Wiring the two Hella 500s on the bullbar
- Wiring the 4 basket spots with quick detach wiring (so I can easily remove the basket)
- Strut lift (still have to decide what I get, 1in, 2in or anything in between) (Probably Primitive, I'm not sure I trust the local guy who did some and has no idea what "offset" is)
- LED upgrade for cabin lightning
- Skidplate & diffguard (Probably Primitive)

Mid term (hopefully before the end of the year)
- Fan cut-off switch
- (Maybe) Sway bar QD (I suck at doing/understanding that kind of stuff, but I'll eventually put the time I need!)

Long term (indefinite time frame)
- Finding out a solution to carry fuel and water jerricans
- Replacing windscreen (cracked due to the wiper defreezer)
- 2nd set of wheels with A/T tires


-------------


And Taza, I hate you, your journal gives me ideas I never would've thought about, and due to my limited ability to do stuff myself (I just suck at this, lol) , it's gonna cost me a lot! :lol:

Alight so, on a thrilling saturday night with nothing to do... Right now, I'd be using that by myself, but getting a larger mattress and putting gear on the front seats, or in front of the folded seats, or on the roof baskets (not shown on these pics) wouldn't be hard at all.


The mattress doesn't go all the way, but... my feet don't really care, lol. As I'm only 5'6 I can fit easily without having to get the seat all the way to the front. When I sit on the mattress, the box is at perfect height to be used as a table for a laptop, take notes, study maps... etc.



...with the sleeping bag:



These Plano boxes fit great in the back, with room to spare. The mattress is tucked between the boxes and the seat, the window covers and scrim are under the rubber mat.



What the window covers look like from the outside... as you can see, I've got some inspiration from that Trakka Forry.



My DIY'ed bugnet. Top & bottom are magnetic, right is tucked between the passenger window. I just need to find a way to secure it at the front since there's no metal... Probably an elastic around the mirror.

Just ordered a Primitive Racing "Full rally armor" (3/16 skidplate and diff cover), as well as a 1.25 front and 1.5 rear lift! Woohoo!

Although that means my craptastic aluminium lightbar won't fit with the skidplate, and I don't have the cash to get a custom bullbar built the way I want it... I guess I'll have to mount the Hellas on the grille for now.

^ I like the fly screen that goes over your drivers window! Might have to do that for myself

Do you have any pics of the damage of your car from the accident?

The second fly screen is much better than that "prototype" one^^ Just make sure your magnet is strong enough! Will post more pics soon.

Since my ligthbar is dead, I gotta make some clamps to get my driving lights back on until I can afford a real bullbar...

taza said:

^ I like the fly screen that goes over your drivers window! Might have to do that for myself

Click to expand...

K-Mart - about $8 for a pair to fit my windows (they come in different sizes)

taza said:

Do you have any pics of the damage of your car from the accident?

Click to expand...

I'll try to take new ones, these aren't very good. They were taken right when I got back home back in october.

I went thru the trees forward and sideways. Left side doesn't have anything, but the plastic furniture, mudflap got ripped off, as well as the underside got dented (as you can see) by a huge rock. The door pillar was recessed, as well as both passenger-side doors were dented, the front one being unable to close properly because of the recessed pillar. Surprisingly, the bumper had a few scratches, but nothing more!



A close up on the door when closed (as you can see, it didn't close well)... I could somehow manage to close it by getting the window down, closing the door, then getting the window up. Works when I'm alone, but when I had friends in the car... it was a huge hassle.




All I got repaired was the damage underside (it was rusting like crazy) and I got the door to close, as well as the plastic glued on.

Most superficial damage on the door is still there as it would've cost me twice the price... I'll just get a paint pen to cover where the paint went off (not much, I was lucky on that!) then wax the whole car. It will still be visible, but at least it'll prevent the whole thing from rusting too much.

I was looking for various stuff so I partially removed the interior trim... Most of the metal seemed like new, except that, right above the wheel well:



I have a hard time understanding how it could have done this there, while everything around it is pristine... Thankfully it doesn't go all the way thru to the outside, although the interior wall is ... a hole.

Woot! After some small mods, I figured how I could keep it with the skidplate, so no need for another mounting method! That bar slightly reduces approach angle as it does not follow the bumper's curve as much as the RallyeInnovation one, but for less than half the price, I guess that's a tradeoff I can live with...

So I drilled two holes to add fogs to the bottom. Now I just gotta wire all these lights to the two seat heater switches I grabbed (I will design a fitting sticker to replace the seat pictogram on these switches). Should look much cleaner and more streamlined with the car's design than using the crappy Hella switches.

Fly said:

I have a hard time understanding how it could have done this there, while everything around it is pristine... Thankfully it doesn't go all the way thru to the outside.

Click to expand...

That rust looks nasty! Maybe there's a leak somewhere?

Fly said:

So I drilled two holes to add fogs to the bottom.

Click to expand...

Looks good - may be a bit vunerable!

The lights & light bar looks great Fly, but like Kevin said, they may be a little vunerable.

Regards
Mr Turbo

Well would you have any suggestions to make it a bit better?

I'm still looking to get an actual bullbar some time down the road, this is an interim solution. I may be able to get it built this fall, else I don't know exactly when... but I still want one

Crappy pic (I don't have my camera... my dad took it with him on vacation :lol to show the lightbar with lights, and the lights on the roof basket. I'm thinking of swapping that basket for something lower profile... that one, although it works well, had a large profile and is quite blocky, which doesn't go very well with the SF's small size. Plus it doesn't cover the whole roof's lenght. I might go with a Rola (with extension) or similar.

Typical forest road. That one ain't too bad... and it's a good thing since I don't have any underbody protection on at the moment: lift kit and Primitive underbody armor should be coming in by the end of the week

Why do you need so many lights ?

Those on the basket are only there when I'm going in the backcountry, I remove the basket for daily use.

I don't think I really have to explain the use of those on the lightbar... As for the basket, two are aimed a bit on the sides of the road to help see wildlife before they try to kill themselves (in other words, to get a wider field of view) and the two others are to reach above uneven terrain (on forest roads/trails, these are never used on the road)... Ever noticed that since your headlights are lower than your eyes, this creates a "black hole" when driving at night anywhere that's not flat? (see the professionnal artwork attached) That's the main reason, although it also helps be seen by other vehicles (again when going thru hills, which means 99% of the trails here in Quebec.

Back from the post office....

Oooohhhhh?








YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Looks like someone's going to have a busy w-end :ebiggrin:

Regards
Mr Turbo