166 replies to this topic

[allpaw4]

G'day all. Now that the ball is well and truly rolling on this little project, I figured I'd better let some peeps in on the new project.

After some discussions with the wife on new cars, we came to a couple of conclusions:
One, 4wd utes are too damned expensive for anything half decent on the secondhand market,
Two, we can't afford a new one until we've paid off her car,
And three, she doesn't like my current rust bucket, so I can basically get what I want, without spending the earth.

Thought about it for a while, and settled on another gen3, but a wagon for more space so I can carry more shite.

After having zero luck on the H4 2.5 litres lately, and not wanting to spend the money on a turbo unit, figured a H6 would be the go. Was going to just get an outback, but after talking to the guys, decided on H6 swapping a liberty.

Found a liberty wagon on Facebook marketplace a few hours away from me for cheap, and commandeered Chris to help me go get it. Drove it home on a permit and all was good.
Found a cheap H6 outback in Sydney that I got Taj to go look at for me, and pulled the trigger on that one. Then got Luke and Andrew to actually pick it up and hold it for me while I sorted out how to get it. Covid made life a lot harder, as I'd need a negative test to get on a plane. Ended up having the lads drive to Albury and meet me and Chris to hand over keys etc over a counter meal at one of the pubs. Long arse drive for all involved, but it was good. Absolute champions for helping me out.

And here we are. I now have an 03 H6 outback, and an 01 silver GX safety edition wagon. Pics will come once I manage to get to a PC so I can upload decent photos. H6 has 330 thou on it, and the liberty has 390 thou. Outhouse has been looked after really well.

Next step is to get the liberty roadworthy'd and registered. Theres a few litte things that it'll need like some new headlights and a gearshift linkage for the manual, as it's loose as all hell. Put it in 5th and it looks like it's in 1st. There's probably 80 or 100mm play in the gearstick. It rubs the top corner of the dash trim getting it into 1st. You get 4th more often than you get 2nd. Shit like that.

Once this is done, it's time for swapsies. There's going to be some fruit put on this as well. For starters, the 401 bonnet and scoop will be put on. I've got 3 rattle cans of 01G premium silver coming, as well as 3 cans of clear to go over it. Scoop needs paint, as well as side skirts from the current daily, the bump strips on the doors (as this thing is a GX, they're black), plus the 401 front bar that just got shipped from Japan a few days ago. There's a fair few touch ups that will be needed too, as there's chips all over the front, including the A pillars. Managed to pick up Nick's blue black leather stuff out of his GTB, so I'll do some mixing and matching to put his passenger leather on my driver's seat, and clean up my passenger seat. Will put the best door cards on between my B4 set and his GTB ones. Also have the proper reclining split fold wagon seats in blue/black now as well! And they have the cargo nets!
Black carpet and dash from my RX will go into this as well. Need to find some wagon black trims and carpet for the rear of the wagon eventually, but I'll get there. No pics until I can get to a PC and upload and link them all. Going to pick up Chris' wagon as well in a month or so, so a lot of fruit will come off that and go onto the wagon. Bilstiens and front 316mm brakes, Prova muffler and mid pipe will be made to fit, and a few other little niceties.

Watch this space ladies and gents!

[allpaw4]

I really should post up some photos, but that involves actually taking them... Silver lib had a massive clean up done in the engine bay, and along the driveline. Used a full 20l drum of brake cleaner. Got rid of all the oil sheen from previous leaks etc. Went from oil stained to just a dusty look. Interior was cleaned by the previous owner. Has a typical farmer look to it, dust has gotten into everything. However, besides the dust, it looks like this thing has done half the kms that it has. It's CLEAN.
Shifter linkage needed to be changed for roady, as it was proper flogged out. But. She passed. Didn't really have too many doubts on it TBH, but it's nice that it got through without too any major issues being picked up.
Needed to swap the exhausts over from Chris' old outback, as the rear muffler on this one had rusted out on the side seam. All in all, not bad.

It's now booked in for rego... Then the fun begins.

Once again, sorry for the lack of pics, but this is more about just fixing the problems before the swapsies happening later.

[El_Freddo]

Pics would be good

Awesome that it had small issues for the roady. Let us know what we’re up for on the rego front in 2022. I have one coming up next month... I love my cars but paying for rego is not so loved!

Always exciting getting a new car on the road!

Cheers

Bennie

[RX25SE]

No pics, so dont understand what's happening....

[Barbbachello]

+1 pics or ban

[timslib]

I'll grab pics for you lot. He's a bit slack I reckon.

[allpaw4]

Yeah yeah you lot. I get to it. I've been a bit busy, and uploading photos to here is a little more difficult than just bashing send.

But anyways. Got registered today, and I got VicRoads to reissue the old B4 plates to it. So it now has jap style plates.

Been trying to organise a few guys to come up for a helping hand to put the driveline out of the outback into this, so I'll post up some pics once everything happens. This car is going to be the mix and match of parts from 4 different cars once I'm done with it. Will explain all once the shenanigans are completed.
To say I can't wait is an understatement...

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

Good stuff Ben! Did you own the old B4 plates to get it registered with or is there something I’m missing here with reissuing old rego plates?

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

Yea, I owned the plates from the B4, so they just re-issued them to the wagon. You have to be the owner of them in the vicroads system for them to be able to re-issue

[El_Freddo]

Ah yeah same as my Brumby - rego “BRUM3Y”

One reason why it’s not on club plates already...

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

We are currently balls deep in the swap. Been flat out over the last 2 and a bit days. Shed has been bloody hot to work in, but we're getting there. Outback has been stripped and pushed out of the shed and the outback loom is 90% into the GX. Diff has been swapped, suspension and brakes have been swapped. Interior is slowly coming back together. RX has been moved into the shed last night ready for a few things to be transferred.

Haven't taken many photos, but I do have a couple to post up. There will be no such thing as a guide or anything else silly like that. This has been a mission.

Anyways, we're back into it today.

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

Didnt get flooded out Ben? Working on wet cars?? We can swim in the humidity over here atm!!

Swaps like these are a mission these days, makes the MY and L series look like childs play!

Cheers

Bennie

[RX25SE]

Props for working in this heat Ben! You must have been sweating your arse off!!

 

Love to see some pics....... hint, hint.

[allpaw4]

Hahaha, you can say that again Jase! I ended up with a splotchy rash over my face because I was wiping the sweat off so much. It sucked.

Humidity was an absolute prick. Though the wind was good when it showed up. We didn't get flooded out, but it was a bit hit and miss with the torrential rain we got trying to keep it out of the shed. I'll get pics happening soon. Been too busy either trying to get it working, or getting parts for it.

Something to note for anyone doing the conversion, swap EVERYTHING. And take photos of things like fuel lines. Remember the immobiliser will screw you over unless you change the controller and the chip in the outback key. And of all the possible issues, the shifter cable between the auto box and the shifter needs to be swapped. An outback one is about 10mm too long, preventing you from getting park or reverse. I just picked up a liberty one today, to be fitted later this week. Small things that can make life hard.

Anyways, I'll get some photos uploaded later this week once I've got her running. Being we flogged bits off the B4/RX like dash, fuel pump and some other parts, I need to take the wife's car to work. Can't keep this up.

Pretty impressed with what we got done to be honest. Went from 2 complete running cars on Wednesday evening to one completely stripped and the other running, albeit not quite finished off on Saturday afternoon. Sat evening the lads all went to Melbourne, and I had a break, spent the night with Kaitlin. Sunday was spent headed down to Geelong for the shifter linkage and a lunch date.

Next post will be soon!

Cheers,
Ben

[RX25SE]

That sounds like an epic couple of days! Hope you get it all sorted soon.

[allpaw4]

Sorry, I should say. It runs. It just needs completing before I worry about posting up pics.

[El_Freddo]

Mate you worked through THE PEAK of the humidity for 2022! That’s a huge effort in that sort of weather when we’re more accustomed to dry heat. Kudos!

Was Geelong good?

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

Spent a little more time in the shed this afternoon, both front inner and outer guards are on and the shifter cable has been swapped. I can now get park and reverse! Kinda useful that bit...
And some other great news, the 401 bar has hit Melbourne! Now I just need to sort out getting it!
In two minds about the roof liner (I have all the bits to make it black). Either do it before it all goes in, or do it at a more leisurely pace on one of my spares and swap them later on. Still undecided on that one.

Still no pics yet, once I've got it on the road again I'll worry about an update. Wife wanted to spend some time this afternoon, so I did that rather than go back out after dinner.

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Geelong wasn't bad. Haven't been to a pick and payless before, but have been to U pull it in Adelaide. This is much nicer! Concrete to lay on and everything is way better organised. Picked up some more baby stuff while we were there, so it wasn't a completely car related trip. Lunch date went well also.

The humidity was a prick. Made life a lot harder.

Anyways, hope everyone is doing all right!

[Barbbachello]

Get the normal head liner back in and do the black stuff later. Less rush so youll do a better job