My SH Subaru Forester

[offroad.GX]

This is my SH Subaru Forester Limited. So far I've taken it up to Mt. Shasta, all over the Sierra Nevadas, Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, Zion Nat'l Park, the Mohave Desert, Big Sur, and more. I try to post at least a couple photos from every trip I take on Instagram, my username is offroad.foz

Here are some before and after photos:


Suspension:
SubieLiftOZ 2/2.5" lift kit
Method 502 VT-Spec wheels 15x7 ET15
General Grabber AT2 tires 215/75-15
KYB Excel-G struts
SPC adjustable rear control arms
STi aluminum front lower control arms
Rallitek adjustable sway bar end links
Kartboy diff lockout bushings
SPT front strut brace
rear sway bar removed

Engine/Drivetrain:
Torqmasters rear locker
Custom intake snorkel
Magnaflow mufflers
Rear diff breather extension

Exterior/Protection:
Stellar Built Trailerblazer front bumper with full size winch mount
Stellar Built Cascade rear bumper with spare tire carrier and Rotopax mount
Primitive engine skid plate
Primitive diff skid plate
Rotopax 2.5gal fuel can & 2gal water can
ARB awning
OEM fender flares
Suma Performance wide angle heated mirrors with integrated LED turn signals
OEM Sport mesh grill
JDM 'F' grill badge
Rally Armor UR mud flaps
WellVisors window visors
Yakima roof rack
Tyger cargo basket
'F' rear badge overlay
Color-matched door handles from GR WRX
Hella Supertone horns (painted black)

Lighting:
Morimoto D2S 5.0 HID retrofit
Profile Prism demon eyes
Nilight 22" LED light bar
LED front and rear turn signals, reverse lights, license plate lights & parking lights
OEM red footwell illumination kit
Turn signals integrated in door mirrors
Custom LED glove box light
LED dome, cargo, and door lights
Changed blue overhead, cupholder & cubby LEDs to red

Communications:
Midland 75-822 4w CB radio
Midland MXT115 Micromobile 15w GMRS/FRS radio
Midland X-Talker T71 GMRS/FRS 2-way radios (pair)
Baofeng UV-82HP ham radio

Tools & Recovery Gear:
Warn VR8-S winch
Factor55 1.0 Fairlead
Factor55 Flat Splicer
USActionTrax recovery tracks
ARB 30' 17k snatch strap, 8' 30k tree saver, 30' 30k tow strap
Rhino 18k D-ring shackles & 18k snatch block
Hand tool kits (sockets, drivers, wrenches, pliers, mallet, etc.)
Boulder Tools rapid tire deflator
Viair 88P portable air compressor
Fiskars 28" axe
Bully Tools D-grip shovel
First-aid kit
Tire repair kit

Interior & Electronics:
Touring gauge cluster
Pioneer AVIC headunit with Bluetooth, CarPlay, nav, etc.
Pioneer 10" 300w subwoofer/amp combo
Axxess steering wheel control interface
OEM console USB/Aux hub
Homelink/autodim/compass display rear view mirror
ADF Molle storage rack (Fire extinguisher, first aid kit & tire repair kit mounted to rack)
C&C Car Worx sun visors with illuminated vanity mirrors
Ventel aluminum pedals
Weathertech front & rear floor mats
Weathertech cargo mat
OEM cargo cover
Custom bed platform (rear seats removed for more storage)
Custom hatch release button in cab

To Do:
Viper alarm & remote start
Rallitek sport rear springs
SubiWorks aluminum transmission pan
Hayden transmission cooler
'12-'13 passenger seat (height adjustable)
Center diff lock switch
Firestik bumper mounted antenna
Torque Solutions rear diff insert kit

 

[Baipin]

Great to see another Foz on here! I have a '18 FXT, my friend has an '07 - but I love 'em all!

 

[Wawa Skittletits]

Welcome to Overland Bould @bflan2001! We follow each other on IG so I recognized your Forester right away. Glad to see you and your great build here. Please feel free to introduce yourself in the Subaru Registry thread, link is in my sig.

 

[JCWages]

Very cool build!

 

[Overland_Mitsu]

Wow! Great looking rig mate! I really like the rear carrier. Thanks for sharing man

 

[offroad.GX]

Progress on the new front bumper:

 

[Welding Goats]

That’s a good looking rig... Oh the adventures you must being having!

 

[offroad.GX]

Another one I stole from Stellar's Instagram page:

 

[SGForry]

That´s a good looking Foz!!
Well done!
Like to see the finished Stellar bumper,,,will keep an eye on it.

 

[tyleromyah]

Very cool man! Ive reached out to stellar and full force, but have a friend closer that is starting up his fab shop again so ill prob go to him. I have very specific rear bumper plans so hopefully we can make it happen come spring time. Wish all us foz guys lived close together haha. We have an 07 xt. Same handle on ig as well.

 

[offroad.GX]

Thanks guys! It should be done any day now, I'll post some pictures.

Stellar does awesome work but Idaho is quite a drive. I'm sure you could find a good fabricator closer. Now's the time to do it, they tend to get pretty busy in the spring.

 

[tyleromyah]

Thanks guys! It should be done any day now, I'll post some pictures.

Stellar does awesome work but Idaho is quite a drive. I'm sure you could find a good fabricator closer. Now's the time to do it, they tend to get pretty busy in the spring.

Well we are from the Sacramento area, so it would be a trip "home" as well to see family/friends out there. I want CBI to build em but they can't even keep up with their toyota line haha!

 

[offroad.GX]

Front bumper is done! The only other thing left to do is wire up the lightbar and find a cap for the bottom of the airbox.

Picked up from Stellar:


Back home after removing the white plastic reservoirs and tucking some electrical components:

 

[Overland_Mitsu]

Looking good! I had to remove my windshield wiper reservoir too. I’d like to fab up a basic small one to keep the glass clean.

 

[offroad.GX]

Looking good! I had to remove my windshield wiper reservoir too. I’d like to fab up a basic small one to keep the glass clean.

I bought a universal reservoir from Amazon that fits perfectly in the space between my headlight and the battery. It was only 25 bucks and after figuring out the mounting and swapping the motors, it was plug and play!

edit:

Here's a more detailed rundown of what I did with the washer fluid reservoir. After removing the stock reservoir, I swapped the motor that the new reservoir came with for the stock motor, since they happened to be the same shape and configuration and I knew the OEM pump would be better. The only difference was the electrical connection, and to fit the larger OEM connector I had to heat up the reservoir and massage it a bit. That's the dark smudge you can see in the second picture. Once the new reservoir was assembled with the old pump, I just used the hardware that came with the new reservoir to secure it to the battery mount. Then I rerouted the OEM wires and fluid lines, filled up the tank and checked for leaks. The only tricky part was getting enough slack in the OEM wires to fit the new location, but I really wanted to avoid cutting the harness. In the end I was able to tuck everything cleanly, and out of harm's way.

 

[Overland_Mitsu]

I bought a universal reservoir from Amazon that fits perfectly in the space between my headlight and the battery. It was only 25 bucks and after figuring out the mounting and swapping the motors, it was plug and play! Cheap too, I think it was 25 bucks.

Oh sweet! I’ll have to look into that. Just have to find the pump motor now [emoji848]

 

[offroad.GX]

Oh sweet! I’ll have to look into that. Just have to find the pump motor now [emoji848]

It comes with a motor but if you use it you’ll have to cut and splice a couple wires. I was able to avoid that by swapping in my stock motor.

 

[offroad.GX]

For the passenger side, I removed the stock intake resonator and sealed up the hole using a 2" ABS pipe cap. I used RTV to seal it up, and two self-tapping screws to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. I didn't get any pictures of the process but here's the final result. Not the prettiest but it'll work.

 

[offroad.GX]

The next project on the list (aside from the bed and getting everything ready for my road trip in a couple weeks) is figuring out the best way to handle the mud and dirt coming into my cab from the air vents behind the rear bumper. The vents had to be trimmed for the new bumper to fit which left them more exposed, and without any rear mud flaps they're getting way too much mud and crap thrown at them. Originally I was just going to seal them up with aluminum tape, but after researching the benefits of having them I decided to figure out a way to keep them functional. I'm thinking a combination of some kind of filter at the vents, and also figuring out a way to get some rear mud flaps on since I really don't want to be the guy throwing rocks 100 yards behind him after coming off a trail.

 

[JCWages]

Can you stuff the vents with aquarium filter sponge to help block larger particles? Combined with a shield that blocks dirt and mud flung directly at the openings may help. It's cheap to try anyway. It comes in many sizes, shapes and pore sizes so you could even try layering it with larger to smaller pore sizes. Obviously you'll have to clean them occassionally.

Examples