133 replies to this topic

[El_Freddo]

This is how Redback sits at the moment with ten days until my planned departure.



Not a good feeling atm! I feel very behind with only this weekend to get big stuff done and next weekend to finalise and pack.

I wrote out a list of things I need to do and it’s LOOOONG

I’m hoping to chip away at them after work during the week. The scorpion rims look amazing with tyres but naked without the scorpion logo sticker - they’re in the wings of being sorted. Fingers are crossed on this one!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Ok ok, I can’t help myself with more pics!

Bullbar “resto” - wanted to keep all of my stickers but the chopped fingers were too intricate to tape off and sand around so it died with the rest of the original paint I got the bar with. He’s a picture essay of the process that took way longer than it did to write out this post:



The bullbar took two cans of Raptor General use paint - then I found several areas I missed so I needed another can and I reckon I got an awesome finish that was far more consistent. Brake and hub parts copped some paint too. Calipers done, no sneaky pics of them yet; and I gave the headlight backing covers/plates a lock of paint as they would look quite average with that fresh bar work! Another picture essay of the above:



All parts are home now. I couldn’t have done that paint work without access to an AC controlled room to use at work in this current weather.

Tomorrow - Saturday - the refit and fix of the huge list I’ve got goes ahead full tilt!

And I’ve got my UHF mount to fit up that I’m quite excited about as I think it’s really neat. More on that later!

Then trip prep and we’re off..! Getting nervous and excited too, it’s a mixed bag!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Well we’ve missed our departure time after dinner as Redback Brumby is still on stands having her brakes refitted and rear end converted to discs from an L series RX turbo.

Bullbar needs to be fitted out with lights etc and then fitted or vice versa, not sure which way we’ll go on that one yet. Then it’s the final finish off, round the block road test, pack and we’re off!

Can’t wait!

Yesterday there was a frosty westerly wind that got the better of me by the end of the day. I was exhausted and admitted defeat. I didn’t go back out to work after dinner as planned, instead I had a shower and went to bed. Today was almost the longest day at work!

Back to it now

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Were officially rolling!



^ Had to stop at Deni to get this iconic photo location! So much better to do when the carpark is empty! Looks awesome facing the camera rather than getting a bum pic.

Currently camped in a town called Barmedman in NSW. Tomorrow northern Sydney area to visit Boxer Beauty. Well go via Bilpin and check out Shields Orchard while were there.

Brumby is going well, got a couple of small things to sort out, biggest one being my pencil beam driving light not working.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

We made it - came in through the Blue Mountains, visited Bilpin, camped at Mt Wilson, caught up with Sean at his Boxer Beauty HQ and did the drive over our nations big coat hanger.



Brumby didn’t miss a beat. Had several small issues, one being wheel nuts coming loose as we entered Richmond coming off the Blue Mountain area. Dunno how that happened but it was caught early and sorted.

Caught up with a bunch of Brumbys and early Leone sedans at Boxer Beauty later in the day too.

Now for the big event tomorrow! It’ll be an awesome event!

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

Can't wait to see your photos, glad to hear she made it there with minimal issues as well! Would love to get to this event in the future!

[El_Freddo]

You should get on it Ben!! Awesome event and I enjoy dropping my nugget in the show and shine! Its interesting to see how your vehicle is received by the general public when youre hanging around!


Ok, finally! Here are the rest of the build pics - in collage!



^ L series interior light mod - its a HUGE upgrade over the stock unit (my original didnt want to work but when it did, it wasnt worth the effort!); now I can see stuff in the cab - and I havent installed an LED unit in there yet either! I also have to locate the cover, Ive got it somewhere though as I grabbed it when I grabbed the rear discs from a converted wagon at M&Ds.

The L series interior light is also responsible for holding up the new roof mounted UHF radio. Im very stoked how this turned out! No new holes or screws added to the brumby for this one. Inspired by my roof mounted UHF radio setup in Ruby Scoo. Everything is reversible back to stock quite easily.

The other two pics are a before and after of some wiring tidy up under the dashboard. I also replaced a plug that was melted due to experiencing some high resistance joints.

Brake work and painting:



I forgot to photograph the front brake transformation so I did it with the rear instead - where I also forgot to take a pic of the drum fitted, anyway, you get the idea! Much better setup over the drums. Also new braided lines fitted everywhere. Brakes are AMAZING now! Scorpions fitted with their sticker, completing the look theyre known for (and this owner was seriously missing the little black sticker!).

Smaller touches that make a huge difference:



Top pics - the faded decals. Bottom pics - painted up decals using a set of paint pens from office works. Im not set on the red colour that the pen came out with but it looks far better than what it was before anything was done to the mud flaps. The front ones were painted in white over the Subaru logo. They look mint too! No pics of those though

Bullbar fitment and were off:



With the bullbar paint up, fitted and the front mounted chopped sticker refitted; side badges and mud flaps painted up, Redback Brumby is looking awesome. Its amazing what a couple of small details can do to distract from other bodywork features!
And we were finally off, second stop (after a servo) was the Deniliquin Ute on a Pole.

We made it to Barmedman to camp the night near their mineral springs pool. Neat little spot. Got rained on during the night, we were mostly dry, but got 95% of our stuff fully dried out before we left.



Then it was continuing on our way. Parked up brumby in Cowra, a couple of laps of Bathurst/Mt Panorama - worth the effort, Ive got a new found respect for the race and the drivers! And a Bunnings thats retrofitted into an old building in Lithgow - something I didnt know they did, I found it interesting!



We had to swing by Shields Orchard this time since we had time to find it! At this time of year theyre closed because its not Apple season, but we snapped a pic out the front of their place with their main sign.

Then on to camp at Mt Wilson, pretty good camp ground, but felt like we couldve been anywhere really - we were hoping for a real vibe of being in the Blue Mountains - really we couldve been camping on Mt Macedon.

Next day we were off to Boxer Beauty to pick up some stickers - particularly the scorpion rim stickers to finish them off. Then off to cut a lap over the Sydney Harbour Bridge - aka our nations big coat hanger. Following this we buzzed around the Sydney CBD followed by parking at the harbour to snap a few pics like this one from earlier in the thread:



Ripper!

Then the big day. I wont flood this thread with pics from the day, Ill drop the link to that later. I will share these poser pics though!







On the Sunday we legged it home from the hotel same as last year. We headed up over the mountains and took a longer than anticipated detour to Evans Lookout. Well worth the effort!

We changed a bit of our route and went through Young and Urana rather than Grenfell and Narrandera. Good drive and possibly less hills but unsure about this.



We spied a brumby in Deni so grabbed some pics with that on our way past, then continued home. We arrived a bit after 9pm. My navigator held on but lost out 40mins before we made it home.

Awesome trip! Brumby ran mint the whole time. Issues we had:
- driving light wiring at the cab switch came off the back of the switch, sorted that by pulling the wiring and joining them together.
- pencil beam driving light, blown globe. Was working prior to paint work done on the rear covers.
- rear wheel nuts on the right decided theyd try to take a holiday on our way down the Sydney side of the Blue Mountains. I thought it was a rear wheel bearing issue. Easy fix, not an issue since (and I checked all nuts).
- no other issues I can remember, the brumby just ran like clockwork!

The plan now is to get the EJ turbo conversion sorted for next years Subinats25 8-)

Thats it for now!

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

Yeah, I really should Bennie, but its one of those things that sort of goes by the wayside when there's babies and toddlers around unfortunately.
New mods look amazing, I especially like the 4 wheel discs. Thats a substantial upgrade right there, and keeping 4x100 is good too. Saves a lot of extra expense of wheels etc. The finer touches of logos and badges is great as well.
All in all, looks like you had a great trip, have to say I'm a little jelly to be honest!
Glad the issues were minor, and easily fixed, although the wheel nuts are a little scary...

If you need any oddball OEM parts or wiring for your conversion, you know where to ask.

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

Thanks Ben, I think I’m pretty sorted for the wiring in my conversion. I am keeping an eye out for an intake manifold with sensors for a 2000 bugeye WRX with the EJ205. Not a priority but something I’m keeping on the radar if one comes up cheap enough. I have the engine wiring, just not the intake and sensors.

I can understand being a bit jelly, one reason why it’s awesome when ppl share their road trips on forums - for us to live vicariously through!! And I get the whole kids thing, I left my wife with more kids than the average family, and took the helpful one with me…

I looked at the big camera the other day, got some top pics on that device that I’ll have to get uploaded and shared.

Talking about pics, this happened last week:




This is Sunnie the Brumby - the first one in our family way back in 2008 from memory. This is my Mother Inlaw’s Brumby. It was attracting too much attention sitting at her place. Plan is to get some issues sorted and put it on club rego.

After sitting around for over five years, Sunnie fired up after I chucked some start ya bastard down its throat - and she kept on running on her old fuel! It even got me to the servo a bit over a km up the road. Ran perfectly. And she got me the next 40+kms home without so much as a hiccup. The only issue I had was not being able to get the passenger’s power window to go up until I got home (I did a power window conversion on it years ago. This is also earmarked for Redback).

That’s it for now other than doing a tip run for Redback…

Cheers

Bennie

[Barbbachello]

Just FYI a 2000 WRX is a GC8 and very different to a 2001 GD WRX

A complete GD WRX 205 intake manifold wont be hard to find or overly expensive. Id highly suggest a set of OEM STI TGV deletes. TGVs suck

[El_Freddo]

Just FYI a 2000 WRX is a GC8 and very different to a 2001 GD WRX

Ooh good call to keep in mind! The donor vehicle is stamped 11/00 on the VIN plate and is definitely a GD. I can share the VIN with you if you wanted to check it out further.

A complete GD WRX 205 intake manifold wont be hard to find or overly expensive. Id highly suggest a set of OEM STI TGV deletes. TGVs suck

Do you know/have the part numbers to share? And is this a new manifold with longer runners or just a set of tube spacers to replace the TGVs?

I was wondering about deleting these doing the DIY method but also thought I’d leave them for now until they stuff up. Probably best to sort them out while the intake is off the engine again (soon… -ish).

Cheers

Bennie

[Barbbachello]

11/00 will be MY01. Model year change is around June the year before

Its simply the TGV castings with none of the machining done for the motors and sensors. Factory on the Australian 2L STI's and JDM v7. For v8 and v9 they went to the one piece intake manifold like I put on, but they start at about $500 for the manifold alone and needs a bunch of other little things changed. Not worth it for your goals

Come to think of it I have a set in my shed lol, and a spare manifold top, and some various bits and pieces like a throttle body and stuff

[El_Freddo]

Ill be keen on that intake manifold at some point Barbs. I need to watch my coin expenditure atm as we adjust to our new rates that tripled recently. Not much fun there.

In other news, Redback Brumby is still cruising along. I too her to the Boort Ag and Truck show, slipped her into the ute show and shine. Redback was the only Brumby present which I found surprising. Too many jacked up tradies utes these days. Hiluxes and Naravras we a dime a dozen. The good old Landcrusier ute was out numbered even though theyre a common farmers choice of ute these days. Several Holden Kingswood utes and a one tonner were there. And this awesome little mighty boy stole the show when it arrived:



From memory over 140 trucks attended the main event! Pretty awesome to see them all in one space, LOADS of polishing and detailing going on!



Barbs, next turbo setup for your fridge??



I heard about compound turbo setups but didnt know they were actually in use. Im still getting my head around it all as it must work otherwise they wouldnt build them like this.

On the way out of Boort, we passed through some patches of tiny flying bugs. I didnt think much of it until we pulled over and I saw this. Look at that fluffy texture. Poor buggers!



After the Boort Ag and Truck show, the following weekend we took Redback out to watch the Mt Tarrengower historic hill climb races in Maldon. Well worth the effort with some cool and crazy cars right from the vintage all the way up to the cut off build year which I think is 1979.

This coming weekend Im hoping to drop Redback into the Inglewood Alive show and shine. They shut down the Main Street of Inglewood (Calder Highway) for this town event. Its pretty awesome!

Cheers

Bennie

[Barbbachello]

Barbs, next turbo setup for your fridge??

Dont tempt me with a good time

Ill cobble together what ive got of manifold bits and send you a pm and we can talk coin. Not after big dollars for it. Just gonna sit on my shelf otherwise