2006 Subaru Baja (Turbo) 206k+ miles for $400

This thread is not helping my desire to own a Baja... 

Thanks y'all. For a car I bought on a whim that I didn't need nor particularly liked when I saw them parked along the street over the years, I really love this little thing! It keeps getting better and better and it really is a very good daily for my lifestyle. It's not going to be a great challenge car, but it'll be a fun challenge car because it'll just work versus having to fight through the challenge to keep it running.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

...because it'll just work versus having to fight through the challenge to keep it running.

You have some confidence!

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

Dusterbd13-michael said:

...because it'll just work versus having to fight through the challenge to keep it running.

You have some confidence!

Delusional optimism 

Signed up for an autocross next weekend. We'll see how this pig does!

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I find it ironic that the wheels which are my least favorite on a corvette look so damn good on a subie. It ain't right, but by golly it looks good!

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Which autocross?

Central Carolina scca at zmax.

Absolute RIOT. car is way easier to drive than the neon or miata, and im way faster and more consistent in it. The turbo lag was a bit tough to deal with though. 

Marcus Luttrell? The Lone Survivor?

Regulated hooning.  Nice.

Previous total: 1514.86

Car: 400

Trans mount: 35.35

Trans filter: 5.79

Rear trans seal: 3.99

Trans fluid: 23

Exhaust: 100

Stereo harness: 6

Storage cubby: 25

25.51 swaybar

My half of the Parts car: 225

Rock auto order: 304.90

Nicopp: 15

Brake Unions:5.00

Exhaust gaskets: 31.59

Gauges and pillar pod (had) 20 fmv

Silicone Hose kit: 42.31

Rustoleum: 9.98

Throttle body gasket: 6.99

11.46 30.25 45.99 25.29 28.90 31.63 for various PCV and breather hoses (173.52 total)

Valve cover gasket 16.30

Pcv valve 34.99

2005 Wrx intercooler, airbox, and reusable air filter: 20

Misc shop supplies line item (zip ties, push pins, rtv, grease, hose clamps, etc that I have floating around and just grab without thinking about it) :20

THIS UPDATE

Remove b9 swaybar -25.51

Remove trans mount: 35.35

Sold catback portion of exhaust for 100

Whiteline diff inserts: 39.88

3 inch turndown: 10.99

Half of 3 inch mandrel exhaust kit: 54

Used 3 inch thrush muffler from swap meet 15

Coil plug 3.50

C4 corvette 17x9.5 wheels 100

5x100 to 5x4.75 adapters: 82.50

Mount and balance the tires steve gave me for the parts car carcass: 40

Paint silver on vette wheels: 20

New total: 1719.87

Everything takes time, or money. Or time and money. Its a proportional thing. The more time you have to spend on something, the less money you’ll generally need to invest and vice versa.

Anyway, when we left off, I had the timing belt off and wqs on to reassembly and a million other tasks. I got the new belt on and all the marks lined up right on the first shot, thanks to having everything out of the way. Glad I did that, as I’m not sure I could have done it properly otherwise.

20240123_180932 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I went ahead and got the nicopp oil pressure gauge line run, as well as the boost gauge tube. Then, rolled it outside and sprayed it down with aluminum brightener and scrubbed it the best i could to remove oxidation, staining, and grime. It worked adequately at best. But, looks better than it did. Not sure if a few more applications and some more effort would have made it better or not, but…

20240126_071806 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240126_165049 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Next, I fixed the tube between the MAF and the turbo tube. It was previously repaired with a fernco fitting when I bought the car. I cleaned it all up, cut a piece of 2.5 aluminum tubing from a scrap CAI tube, then softened the rubber tube in the microwave for abut 30 seconds to make it stretch enough to fit over the aluminum. Slathered everything in rtv, then the outside of the seam between the two halves (no picture). Fixed!

20240128_111021 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240128_084344 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I proceeded to button up the engine bay, and then spend a solid week diagnosing a no crank. I tore it all down a couple of times trying to figure out what went wrong. Ultimately diagnosed to the common ground for the injectors pulling out of the connector behind the battery. That was a stressful time. I thought I screwed up the belt and fragged the engine.

20240131_072057 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

In the process of diagnosing the no start, I broke an ignition coil connector. Cheapest way to fix was to order a four pack on amazon, de-pin the replacement and reuse the plastics on the broken one in the car. Fixed.

20240131_174000 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Regardless, it ran! Leak free, and really good. Passed smoke test with flying colors, none to be found anywhere. No good reason for the lean code it now has that I can find, but I keep looking. It also has amazing oil pressure.

20240131_191855 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I went on to reassemble the front end. When pulling it apart, all the fog light mounting bolts broke off in the bumper beam. I had planned to use hella 500s in there, but they don’t fit. So I drilled out the broken bolts, and put nutserts in their place.

 20240201_175811 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240201_175840 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Cleaned up the core support and bumper beam from where they had a munch pf surface rust, hit with rust reformer and top coated with satin black. did the wheel wells too. Looks good enough for me!

20240126_195303 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240202_071125 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I then moved onto suspension. I replaced the legacy GT springs with the baja springs, as the rear end was sitting on the tires. According to the internet, the bja springs are significantly stiffer anyway, so other than sitting higher than I wanted it’s a win. The rears still rub over big transitions, so the height thing isn’t too horrible. I also put the b9 tribeca front sway bar in, but it bound up on the lower control arms, broke a sway bar end link, and generally caused more problems for me. So I pulled it off.

The corvette 17x9.5 wheels fit ok. They’re adapted using a 1 inch spacer, and sitting on nearly dead 275/40/17 kumhos that I traded the gt carcass for. They are flush with the outside of the body, which means they rub under a lot of compression. 8.5s would honestly be a better choice I think. But my god, they look good. I took the wheels to work, and sandblasted the peeling and damaged original paint off of them before having my buddy art shoot them in silver base clear for $20. He was already spraying a car for a car lot, so the silver was already in the gun. No idea what silver he used. I sanded the lips to 800 grit, and hit them with some aluminum polish. Good enough.

20231216_143722 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240104_095005 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I took it on the shakedown run, which wound up to be a 200 mile day and cemented why this little thing is great for my daily. In the bed of this is 3 mopar a body fenders, 2 exterior doors, a pair of duster door guts, and a bunch of other parts. It swallowed it all with ease and comfort.

20240203_163804 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

After the test drive, I did a nut and bolt check, alignment, and added whiteline diff insert bushings to repair the completely destroyed diff bushings that I discovered on the test drive.

20240210_101558 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

This weekend, I took it to zmax for a shakedown autocross. I ran it in XB, as that’s the magnets I had. Locally, that’s a catchall class for us. To put it bluntly, this car is a HOOT. Its also way easier to drive than the miata or neon were. I’m already more competitive in it than I ever was in those cars, and its been over a year since I’ve been on track. I’m chuffed. It was a big course, and most of the fast guys in all cases were in the low 50s to high 40s, but I’m obviously not one of them.

20240224_093018 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Screenshot_20240226_070837_Facebook by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Screenshot_20240226_061035_Facebook by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

On the way home from the autocross, the exhaust failed at the rotted flanges. I knew it was coming, so I had been amassing parts. The MRB exhaust for a forester I had bought went to a forester xt buddy of mine. I bought a 3 inch mandrel and tube kit, a 15 used swap meet flowmaster knockoff, and a turndown. Ill just make my own. Its not rocket surgery!

Screenshot_20240226_103612_Amazon Shopping by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Screenshot_20240226_103627_Amazon Shopping by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Until next time my friends

Exhaust is done.sounds good!

How long until the challenge? And I got to pull 40 plus hour weeks until then? And I'm out of town on the weekends? Yeah I'll get this E36 M3 done. It's what I do.

To do list:

Nut and bolt check

Bleed brakes

Ps leak

Change belts back

Alignment 

Remove spare and jack and dd stuff

Swap stero back

Detail

Install inner fenders

Make build book

Finalize budget sheet

Print receipts 

Make livery

Wax car so stickers come off

Not too bad. I have part of today, part of next sunday, and time i should be sleeping. 

my challenge team adopted a helper 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

my challenge team adopted a helper 

Have you taught him to say "Sawblades for life, maing!"

Those wheels look fantastic on there!

I'll be on 6/12's till end of month, but I'm rooting for ya!

what is actual date of challenge?

In reply to 03Panther :

First full weekend of April. 7th?

Nut and bolt check, belts swapped, spare/jack/dd stuff out, ps leak fixed, inner fenders reinstalled, and caster fixed. Rear end alignment done, front went berkeleyey so i quit for the day.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Yep. Found it right after!

job in St Lucie will end between 4/1 and 4/6. My last at off will be 4/5. But might have one in nc starts between 4/1 and 4/8. 
IF im out on 5, start next on 8, I'll make it!    
IF...

and they'll prolly tell me, on 4th 

challenge prep continues. Budgets finalized. First round of detailing done. Flyids checked. Build book started.

Note to future me: 1 full coil front should be 2.5 inch drop. Tear should be 3.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

The truck most americans need vs the ones they think they need

Patrick said:

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

The truck most americans need vs the ones they think they need

You read my mind