Gen 1 Subaru Light Bar and Lights

65bellett

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Joined
Jul 14, 2013
Messages
20
Hi guys I have been racking my brains for a month or two now trying to work out what I wanted to do in regards to driving lights on my old Lib wagon. I initially wanted to put a fiberglass light pod on the bonnet but could not find any thing suitable so in desperation I went through my scrap metal bucket and started cutting and grinding. I am not sure that I like what I have come up with but at least now I have plenty of light and I haven't drilled any holes in the car.








I have not yet wired in the lights as I want a neat factory look under the bonnet. I am heading to Pick a Part tomorrow for a walk around and hopefully I will find a factory (Any factory) relay box that I can mount behind the driver side headlight. Maybe I have been playing with old cars for to long but I really like it when you can add an accessory and not have it look out of place. Don't the 4 driving lights on the front of the car look like they could have been put there by Subaru :rotfl:

I am quite interested to see what you guys think and would love to hear and see pics of what other people have done.
 
Now, mate ...

Isn't that a bit over the top? Looks like a spider :rotfl:

BTW, One of the cars I learned to drive in is in the piccy. Actually, it was a 1964 Bellett. Terrific car, specially for its era. I still have fond memories of driving it.

It's owner, the instructor, gave me serious lessons in skid control etc. He reckoned that if he didn't teach me to drive properly, I would be dead in a year - his words as closely as I can remember them all these years later.

He had just got out of being in a body cast for about 12 months after an accident involving his car and a semi-trailer. I guess it made him even more safety conscious than usual. Anyway, I appreciated both his concern, and the first class "advanced" driving instruction he gave me!

For those of the era, the original Jindalee bridge over the Brisbane River had just been completed, but ended in a muddy paddock on what would become the Jindalee/Mt Ommaney side of the river. Excellent for the above lessons.
 
Cheers for the feed back guys. I popped to Pick a Part yesterday afternnon and arrived at the same time as the rain so after a quick look around and getting drowned I lost enthusiasm and just went home. Will have another crack tomorrow and hopefully not return empty handed.

Ratbag you were a lucky man to start your driving career in such a fine automobile. All I got was a KJ Laser.
 
^ Actually, I started my driving career in an ex-US army C49 Jeep when I was about 12-13 y.o. Don't worry, it was on a very large piece of private land - around 56,000 acres + plus surrounding private land totalling around 250,000 acres. I also learned to drive the station ute ('62 Holden); 10 ton truck; tractor; motor bike.

Formal lessons were to start some years later ... Drove a variety of cars over a huge number of lessons for the time, when about 5-7 were the norm. I had over 40! Not that I was a slow learner. I could already drive before formal driving lessons started. But I did learn in about 6 different vehicles, one of which was the Bellett.

However, my driving was probably somewhat idiosyncratic :raz: :lol: :rotfl: - The Jeep I initially learned on had no brakes. I mean NONE! The brake lines weren't even connected at the wheels. It had a prop shaft handbrake that required a toolbox and about an hour to release. To stop, I would double de-clutch into first (no synchro ... ), then gently slip it into reverse, and ease the clutch out. Once stopped, the Jeep would just stay where it was, as the land is mostly dead flat around Cunnamulla.

BTW, agree about the Laser. Don't mean to be rude or insulting, but it was nearly as much a POS as its predecessor, the Ford Escort ... :( :(. At least the Laser was based on a far better design paradigm, regardless of how badly the build quality.
 
Jeepers Ratbag. You have to be careful knocking the old Escort. I won't tell any one but you never know who will be listening :lol:

Well I had a bit more of a productive day today but I am still not finished. I got to Pick a Part and the weather was playing ball but it was very slim pickings on the Subaru side of things. I managed to get a A/T manual switch that I was able to repurpose as an on off switch for the driving lights and then run the wire down through the grommet that covers the clutch pedal hole. I really wanted a rear demister rear fog light switch but was that will have to wait until I can find one. While making the hole for the A/T switch to go in I got a bit carried away and missed the mark it will do for the moment. As far as my relay box is concerned I was quite lucky. I found my self a flashy fused ABS relay box out of a Saab 9000 that looks the part. My only minor complaint is it has Saab written on the top but I will have a go at getting rid of that or covering it with a sticker at some stage. Tomorrow I will finish the wiring and I should be able to get to the fun part of using my lights.


The butchered switch panel:cry:

What I was after

 
Now I just need a couple of cups of Coffee and some tunes and I will sort this lot out. I am sure there are people you can pay to do this :lol:
 
Well I managed to get the job finished today. The fused relay box I got off the Saab needed a fair bit of fiddling with as one of the relays in it had all of it's pins in different places to a standard relay. So after an hour or two of soldering and heat shrinking I managed to get it finished.



Once I had it all sorted on the bench it was an easy job to chuck it into the car and get it all hooked up. I was going to loom wrap the wires but noticed a lot of my loom is wrapped in electrical tape so I did the same and it sort of blends in. Now all I have to do is wait for it to get dark and get out there and aim the lights.

 
Well guys I have probably bored you all to death by now with my little project but I am going to keep on going :lol:

I took the car for a quick squirt out the back of my house for a bit of a light aiming session and they are not to bad. The light bar has a bit of a wobble when you hit a pot hole that I am not really happy about but I am sure I can fix that. The pencil beam Oscars at the top have a really tight pattern that throws a nice big hot spot in the centre of the road and the Marchal' at the bottom are giving a nice spread. At the moment the Marchal' only have 65w bulbs in them so I might put a pair of 100w bulbs in them so they are not so drowned out by the Oscar'. I wouldn't even mind throwing a HID kit in the headlights for a bit of extra oomph but I will do a bit of research first.

Below are some shots I took with my phone from the drivers seat. First pic is low beam, Second is High Beam with out driving lights and the third pic is the entire shooting match.



 
The light look quite good where they're mounted in my opinion :)
Looking at the last (3rd) pic, they seem to throw a decent amount of light too :)

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Well done, 65B.

Agree with Mr T, they seem to throw some very useful light around the place :biggrin:.

Glad you're pleased with them :ebiggrin:. Always a nice feeling after all that work.
 
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