Blinky the 97 SF forester

Been a little while since I've had to time (or extra $$) to do more work outfitting my forester. But theres some mods and extras in the near future so I've started my thread to keep track of it all.

heres blinky

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Rear wheel carrier is in the works atm, and repainting the roof in white plastidip. other than that I'm looking at making a rear storage system and strut lift.
 
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Well i did get the idea off your setup :ebiggrin: , Going back to working on running some power to the boot today.
 
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Right, looked over Blinky and made some plan's for the short term. Not in any particular order. I'll try and document how i do the 12volt wiring, I wont bother with the others there's a lot of how to do's on here for those already.


  • 2" strut lift, and trailing arm spacers.
  • Finish rear wheel carrier / bike carrier.
  • Snorkel,diff breathers, waterproofing.
  • 12v power in rear.
Future plans are Storage system, dual bat, possibly winch, talking to a supplier about getting a 6000 lb with synthetic rope if the price is right. What do you guys think? should I prioritise anything over the others?
 
Strut lift 1st, lol :biggrin:

Make sure you connect the trailing arm brackets together...

Do you have a good sump guard? Driving lights/lightbar?
 
Well Blinky isn't exactly stock, been through the high country and snowy without too many troubles and of course the wombat. he's got raised kings, bigger a/t's , lightforce 170's, 2 1/4" catback, crossbred sump guard / rear diff guard (sump gaurd had to be fit with the angle grinder to fit the headers) bendix off road brake pads, which i'm thinking about going back to normal pads they chew out the rotors too much. and some radios and wiring crap in the cab :lol: , lift is mainly for carrying capacity, i haven't had any clearance issues with a bit of careful choice of line.

I'll grab a vlsd if one comes up at a good price as well, was going to stuff around with an r200 locker, and r180 diff conversion, but talking to bendigo arb they don't think it'll fit the subaru r180 housing as the r180 nissan front housing has a much higher oil capacity.
 
Pushing wiring through the firewall, new 12volt to the rear thick enough gauge so there is little to no voltage drop, fixed up some wiring for the cb and radio, put in some wiring for a sub. Not finished just yet, need to pull up the edges of the carpet to get to the cable runs, power up d/s and audio up p/s.

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No place for the sub until finish the rear bar though :( , and holidays / xmas is starting to get in the way of that. 2" strut lift blocks have been tack welded and sent to be professionally welded for free! which is awsome as i dont need to use half a bag of electrodes doing it and i doubt my mig would have the duty cycle for doing that much 5mm plate.

Trip to the otways in the new year as well!.

Anyone want to head up to look around the tracks north of heathcote before xmas? been thinking of checking out the camp sites up there for a little while now.
 
Strut blocks came back in the same state as they left, tack welded. My friends shop didn't have time before christmas shut down, not going to complain paid projects come first which is understandable. So they are in the shed I'll weld them up myself when i get a chance.

A lot of servicing was done as well, Best to keep blinky on the road and healthy before modifying him more. New oil/filter/plugs went in and blinky is running a little smoother and my economy is better. New air filter isn't in yet I'll wait until my snorkel is on. New fuel filter (which is a 50,000k item on the sf) is there and waiting with all new rad hoses, coolant and thermostat.

New rear struts and bump stops are in the future, Hopefully before my strut lift go's in, I bent a rear last year replaced it and then bent the other rear. I'm going to give ultima shocks a go, then oem if I have problems again. I'm reluctant to put in SG shocks with 60mm rear strut blocks, my a/t's fit and any bigger a tyre is just going to gear up the car reducing my engines/low ranges performance.

Most importantly, my first aid kit has gotten an update and re stock, added some eye wash and burn cream as that was all used.

Should get around to painting the roof as well...
 
Blinky is certainly getting some TLC :monkeydance:

Love the wiring you're doing & you'll love the lift. Are you doing rear trailing arm blocks as well?

You could still do SG rear struts for a little extra clearance plus some nice forward rake. I wouldnt worry bout the extra CV angle as the rears dont have much angle to begin with, its the fronts that are a worry. Be interested how the Ultima struts go.

Look forward to some before/after pics :poke:
 
NachaLuva said:
You could still do SG rear struts for a little extra clearance plus some nice forward rake. I wouldnt worry bout the extra CV angle as the rears dont have much angle to begin with, its the fronts that are a worry. Be interested how the Ultima struts go.
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I'm doing trailing arm spacers as well, 60mm rear blocks and raised springs might be pushing the geometry a little much. I still want to have alright on road handling. I'm not so worried about clearance as camber/rake/toe going to far from factory.

Have you got any item how much rear offset i should put on the rear blocks, I've zero atm as i was planing on putting in camber bolts, but if i can fit offset i may as well?
 
I'm running 65mm blocks in the rear, with raised springs and SG struts. Been like that for over a year with no problems.
I am also running 29" tyres and have about half a metre of clearance under the rear diff.
Wouldn't trade it for anything. I'd highly recommend it.

Up front is standard 50mm blocks, raised springs and the oversize tyres.

I have recently changed my inner CV boots front and back to lifted hilux boots as reinsurance.

With upgraded front and rear swaybars my body roll isn't that bad, the car sits very planted to the road.
 
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But what have you done to keep the wheel alignment taza?
 
Thanks, it's not the cv's im worried about. CV's are suppose to be manufactured to run 100% duty cycle at full extension, boots not so much. I like my handling with as little change as possible.
 
The lift kit is nearing completion should be painting it tonight.

in other news almost bought a corolla ke3X coupe but the dam thing's roof was full of rust.
 
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Black, and see my post in the main forum, it's no longer getting finished tonight :(

If i can use my trigger finger tomorrow i'll finish it, tomorrow and fit it wednesday

Fronts are done and painted.
 
So after a good trip to the doctor this morning, i got out without stitches or a tetanus shot (although the doctor said they probably would of stitched up my finger if i went in last night.

Front spacers have the final coat of paint!
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Took a look at the rear panel and worked out placement, Not sure on the analog meter it was a spare i had. I think i'll be getting a combined voltage/amperage gauge, with volts to 2 decimal place (12.05vlt is 50% discharge for my battery)

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Little cleaning up to go and some wood filler, I might even use it as a template and cut some alloy/plastic composite i've got.

And heres a meerkat

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Now I've got to take my younger sister for a driving lesson, so everyone pray i return.
 
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