Replacing a very sad Subaru antenna

One of the few problems with my Subaru when it came from Japan was a broken roof antenna. This antenna got even more broken after an unfortunate incident with a low garage door. Ebay provided a replacement, but the replacement needed some modification to get it to fit on the car.

Full disclosure: this is definitely a KLUDGE. As I started this project, I had the best of intentions and a sketchy plan. It works, but… just!

I'm so sick of looking at my neighbours

I live in one of those neighbourhoods where every house was built with a very similar plan, with only minor changes from house to house. My next-door neighbour’s place was built by taking the floor plan or our house and mirroring it. This had the consequence of lining up our big kitchen window with their big kitchen window, with a few small feet of space in between.

At first this wasn’t a problem. They kept their blinds closed 24/7, and we enjoyed the sunlight through our window. Suddenly, that changed. Their blinds were open, and we had a war on our hands. We couldn’t close our blinds or we would lose. They apparently felt the same.

The final blow in this war was dealt by my neighbour, or more specifically, his exposed buttocks. They were all skinny and hairy and poking out from under a hockey jersey. War over. You win, Lorne. You win.

Wiring the trailer harness

In the last installment, I put a Curt trailer hitch on my Subaru. To finish that up I would need to add a wiring harness to operate the trailer lights.

Getting hitched... or... My car can do anything!

Since picking up my Subaru in August, it has proven that it is perfect for:

• long road trips
• daily driving
• autocrossing
• rallycrossing
• carrying lots of stuff

To increase that incredible utility just a little bit more, I decided to also turn it into a pickup truck.

Let's try this again: Subaru mud flaps, Ver 2.0

As I discovered at the start of the snowy season, $18 Ikea mud flaps don’t hold up to cold and gravel:

I set out to re-make them in something a bit more durable.

K&N air filter for the Subaru

My car came from Japan with the notorious HKS Mushroom filter. Although it supposedly flows air without much restriction, it also flows engine-damaging debris without much restriction! It might keep out pebbles and small birds, but it allows everything else to pass right through. Here is the offending piece:

Straightening a bent steel wheel

After having a bit of fun on a twisty gravel road, I came home to find this:

I’m not even sure how I got it. I guess 16-inch steelies with 50-series tires aren’t meant for gravel roads!

Subaru rear strut brace

One of the downsides of a wagon compared to an Impreza sedan is that that big booty tends to be much more flexible. A rear strut brace should stiffen up some of that flexiness.

This install can be done in as little as 10 minutes, or it can take an hour or two if you’re finicky like me.

Subaru brake pads, caliper paint, and master cylinder bleeding

This began as a simple replacement of brake pads, but was made into more of a project by a few setbacks and the addition of paint.

Courteous driving, chapter 1

Living close to a double-turn lane without a curved line drawn in the intersection often leaves me vexed. You can only educate people with your horn so much before graphical intervention becomes necessary.

Painting the rusty steel wheels for winter

I know - every post seems to be about the new Subaru. Well, it’s new and I’m positively enamored with it and it needs a few things. One of those things is acceptable winter wheels! I had a set of old, rusty, black 16" steelies from the girlfriend’s old Cavalier, and they would do nicely for the winter once cleaned up and painted.

In the spotlight: Subaru auxiliary lighting

Continuing toward the goal of giving sunburns to roadside moose, it’s time to add the spotlights to the Subaru.

It's getting cold! Subaru block heater install

The weather outside is frightful. I don’t think it gets like this in Japan, and though Subaru decided that block heaters would be standard equipment for Canada, this car isn’t from Canada.

It needs one of these:

$18 mud flaps

As the Starks say, “winter’s coming…”. With winter comes messy roads, so some mud flaps are in order.

Subaru auxiliary lighting - foglights!

When I first removed the fog light covers from the Subaru I was disappointed to find no actual fog lights underneath. This, the first stage of auxiliary lighting upgrades, sets out to fix that.

Audio upgrade - replacing the front Subaru speakers

One thing that has been bothering me since buying the Subaru is a slightly buzzy front driver’s side speaker. I found a set of replacement speakers at Pick n Pull last time I was there that would do nicely.

Downpipe replacement: modifying the new pipe

While swapping out the old, rusty downpipe on the WRX STi I discovered that Subaru, in all their trickery, decided to make a small change to the exhaust oxygen sensor in the different years and models of their otherwise-ubiquitous turbo engine.

Note in this pic how there is an opening in the old pipe for an oxygen sensor, and none in the new pipe!

A bit o’ grinding and a spot o’ welding should cure this.

Downpipe replacement: removal

Continuing with the replacement of the downpipe in the 1996 STi, today I got to the removal.

To get this rusty piece off…

…was not high on the “Let’s make this easy!” list for the Subaru engineers in 1996.

The tinworm strikes

One of the first projects due on the new WRX STi was to take care of that terrible exhaust leak.

What you see here is the downpipe - or at least what was left of it after the car arrived in Canada. The downpipe takes the hot exhaust gases from the turbocharger, runs them through a catalytic converter, and then connects to the long exhaust pipe that runs under the body of the car. At least that’s what it is supposed to do. In this state, it takes the exhaust from the turbocharger and converts it directly into noise.

A New Addition

No, not the dog. That’s Farley, and he’s not new. Although he certainly acts new.

Please welcome to the Fixbroke family o’ projects my new-to-me and new-to-Canada 1996 Subaru Impreza WRX STi Version 3 wagon! (that’s definitely a mouthful)

This trusty steed comes via Japan, and accordingly, is steered from the right hand side. It takes a little getting used to - and yes, the pedals are still laid out with clutch on the left and gas on the right. The shift pattern still has first gear in the top left spot. The only thing that is really different is that the wiper and turn signal stalks are reversed, so that anyone unfamiliar with the car WILL turn on the wipers the first time they try to turn right.

The WRX STi is a car that is now available at your local Subaru dealer, but imagine a time back before the internet was big, way back in 1996 - Subaru sold Imprezas on our shores, but not in the WRX or STi trim. The STi added a whole bucketload of horsepower (280 hp on paper, 300 hp in reality) via a turbocharged 2.0 L flat 4-cylinder engine. It added limited slip differentials, a short-shifting close-ratio 5-speed gearbox, special suspension, seats, and body reinforcements. I’m sure they added even more than that, but I can tell already I’m losing the interest of the less techically-inclined. Suffice it to say, it’s a rally car with a wagon back.

The first order of business is new fluids. New oil for the engine, differential, and gearbox.

Look for a lot more on this car in future installments!

The Ascot gets a new monocle

Well, not a new monocle, really. But check out the new look:

The new bracketry lowers the gauge cluster and cleans up the tall profile a little bit. Compare this to how it used to be (excuse the scale, but I can’t seem to find any other pictures of the bike!):



A small change, perhaps, but I really like it.

I’m a bit on the fence about the new short exhaust, but I’ll give it some time to see what I think.

Here are the newly-fabricated, freshly-painted pieces for the Ascot’s aesthetic upgrade. They are hung on wires suspended from a piece of twine, which makes painting all sides much easier than laying them down flat on newspaper. They are painted with brushed-on Tremclad enamel paint, which is cheap and durable. Spray paint is definitely easier for complex and tube parts like these, but hey - brushing is cheap and I had a can of paint kicking around already!

From left to right, the pieces are:

headlight bracket

warning light bracket

instrument cluster/turn signal bracket

(not for the Ascot) magnetic spotlight holder

turndown exhaust tip (painted in BBQ spray paint for heat durability)

Another continuing project is my 1983 Honda VT500 Ascot. The Ascot has seen both a replacement engine AND frame, and lives on thanks to the donated parts of other bikes.

It is currently receiving some aesthetic upgrades to the headlight and instrument cluster, lowering its tall/skinny/awkwardness into a more low and sleek profile.

Allow me to introduce one of my continuing projects. Here is my 1987 Suzuki Samurai, or as he is better known: Samuel.

Sammy has been out of commission for a while, receiving a new engine, suspension, and countless other upgrades. He currently sits in the garage, patiently waiting for the Golf at left to be sold off, making room on the insurance policy.

Welcome to fixbroke

As I look around at all the little DIY projects I seem to be constantly involved in, it occurs to me that this information may be of use to some!

In these entries I hope to keep track of the little things that keep me occupied - the repair and modification projects for home and moto.

There will be moments of zen, and there will be moments of kludge. Some things will work and some things won’t. There will be things for you to point and laugh at, and (hopefully) there will be things to learn from and be inspired by.

Oh, I’m also really cheap! Everything here will be done with minimal investment of money - for better or for worse.

Welcome!