The BattleWagon... a photojournal

[MudRunner]

First off... the basics.

Car: MY'00 Outback (Base) 4EAT w/premium sound
Purchase Date: 8/14/2000
Purchase Location: Bremerton, WA
Mileage: 137,500, and counting

Before I took possesion:

My stepmother (who wasn't my stepmother at the time) purchased this as her first ever new car while stationed in Washington as a US Navy nurse. The big factor in the purchase of the car was her puppy, Sydney. There needed to be plenty of room in the back for her to get up, turn around, and lay down, and still have room for luggage in the trunk, and the OB did it perfectly. In 2002 she married my father, and I got my first ride in a Subaru. I was 11 or so, and I was fascinated by it... the ingenious way it was designed, how everything worked, and the way it tore down beaches and gravel roads effortlessly. I was hooked!

After they got married my dad bought her a new Volvo XC70 , putting the Subie out of the garage and in the driveway, and it became relegated to 'beater duty' (hence my calling it the Battle Wagon). Since it battled the Beltway every day, I figured it was a good name. When I got my license, I drove it whenever I was at their house visiting, and did my best to take care of it while I was there. The poor thing was so neglected.

Fast Forward to today... my dad promised me a 5spd 2004/5 Forester XT (my dream car... lol) when I got accepted into college, and to his great displeasure, I got accepted exactly two weeks later (about a month ago). I sent him link after link after link to ads on SF.org, but he wouldn't buy, and still won't. So, my stepmom (I just call her mom... lol) has been kind enough to GIVE me the Outback until I can afford a Forester sometime later. She knows how much I love it, and that I will take care of it. I'm very happy to have it, since it is the car that turned me on to Subarus in the first place.

So, on to the beginning of its life with me! I have plenty (tons) of plans for it, obviously the cheap stuff comes first, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. The first thing that happened was the headgaskets, and it got home from that 'expedinture' last week. My wonderful mother covered that for me.

First mod... resonator deletes! Eventually I will get a different tube to replace the piece between the scoop and the airbox, but for now, it adds a little more growl. I neatly sealed off the holes with electrical tape.

Before:



After:




Next, I removed the silly piece of plastic that Subaru put in front of the intake scoop to deflect air away from it. I'm actually planning on fabbing a piece of metal to DIRECT fresh air towards it from the top corner of the grill.





Now, for my first appearance mod. This may not seem like a mod, but it certainly made a difference in the way the car looks. The paint's clearcoat was contaminated with all sorts of stuff, from old wax buildup to waterspots to ground in road grime, you name it. It gave the car an odd grey-ish tint. :huh:

Today I was determined to remove the aforementioned 'tint', and make her shine again.

First step was removing the bug deflector, and doing a two-bucket wash. Here's what it looked like after that:


Then, I claybarred the entire car. The clay took out most of the surface stuff that was left behind, but the paint still felt rough to the touch. So I broke out the Griot's/Porter Cable buffer and Meguiar's Swirl X for a test spot. Here's a pic of the spot:


After verifying that the method worked, I started working my way across the hood. Here you can see that the right edge of the hood is whiter than the rest. :icon_razz: I love seeing progress being made.


After that, I added a coat of Meguiars Gold Class wax for protection. I'll follow up with another coat of NXT 2.0 Tech Wax once I get some at the store later. Then I moved on to the interior... sorry, no before pics, just an after:


I <3 big gauges...


After pics of the exterior (total time invested: 12 hours):








More to come, I have some fun stuff in mind!

[Brucey]

I'd leave that little flap, it keeps rain out of the intake plumbing. Water bad.

But it looks great! I sometimes wonder how people keep their cars looking so clean with so much age/mileage.

[MudRunner]

^ Forgot to add that I drilled little holes in the bottom of the intake scoop to drain water if it makes it in there. It shouldn't be too big a deal, since there's still plenty of places for it to exit (like the hole where the resonator was, etc).

Thanks for the compliment! It's in great shape for being almost ten years old, I think.

[Brucey]

It might already be 10 years old. Mine has a sticker saying it was made in 5/99 on it.

Check yours! It's on the inside of the drivers door. Buy it a cake.

Edit: Just rechecked. Says 11/99, I guess some of the parts was made early? I know i've seen 5/99 on it. Hmmm

[MudRunner]

I actually bought my stepdad's Forester a cake when it turned 1. I wish I had taken a picture... my family thinks I'm insane. That's okay though, because I am!

I'll have a look in the morning... it's pouring down rain out there now (Murphy's Law...). At least the wax appears to be working well. lol

[bikerboy]

Looks great! Yours looks a lot like mine, same year, same paint scheme, except that mine is a Limited model. I really need to rotary buff the exterior on mine as well...

[MudRunner]

My sister got bored today and 'shopped some WRX wheels on there for me.

Yes or No? I want them.

[The_Lizard]

On my 98, the hood scoop led to nothing, it was just ornamentation. I removed the baffle on the underside of the hood but it served more as a hot-air vent than an intake. The 96 has no scoop.

[GTBaker]

What does removing the baffle do?

[Neversummer]

Originally posted by MudRunner
My sister got bored today and 'shopped some WRX wheels on there for me.

Yes or No? I want them.

Those Rex wheels look awesome. First time I've seen them on a OB. They flow really well with the rest of the car imho.

Nice thread btw!