914 WRX Build Options

[waltonsm]

Had a chance to get out and put a couple hundred miles on the current configuration this weekend. Perfect day for no top and heat. Seems to be working well so far.

[waltonsm]

Now that it got cold in Seattle, I decided it was time to continue the suspension work..

When planning the road/safari modes I had planned originally to extend the control arms .5 to 1.5 inches to get the camber where I want it for different applications. This requires new upper strut mounts to make work easily, or fabricating camber boxes. I decided I can get the safari or track camber with stock strut mounts, and road camber with KW adjustable mono balls and track camber with either. I would also need the long turbo tie rods and play with my bump steer adjustment.

Another big part of this was replacing my worn poly bronze bushings. I decided to go back to rubber, 914 rubber. Planning to swap the rears back to rubber after christmas.

Several pics of my process below, but apparently didn’t document any of the bushing swap because it was time sensitive as they are cooling off. I mostly followed Ian Karrs video.

Below is cutting and mock-up to determine to go with 0.75” extension for both road and off-road application. Doesn’t affect scrub radius here really, so mostly just managing clearances and camber.

[waltonsm]

Continuing with the control arm extension..

[sb914]

So bad ass .
Looks perfect in my driveway. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

[ValcoOscar]

For years I've thought about building a Safari 914 but I sold the project to fund my LSV8914.

After seeing this in person at WCR2022, I want one, so I'm converting my Suby ERZ30 914 to a milder version of this car. Expect to have on the road by Spring 2023 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Working with Elephant racing on suspension

Oscar

[tygaboy]

This one is my current favorite 914. I'd love to take a swing at building a Safari but I can't imagine anything better than this one.

@Waltonsm - you've ticked all the boxes and are clearly inspiring others! Well done, sir! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

I have a few acres behind the Red Barn (the water isn't there at this point). How about you road trip down and we set up a track! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[waltonsm]

For years I've thought about building a Safari 914 but I sold the project to fund my LSV8914.

After seeing this in person at WCR2022, I want one, so I'm converting my Suby ERZ30 914 to a milder version of this car. Expect to have on the road by Spring 2023 :beer2:

Working with Elephant racing on suspension

Oscar

Awesome :)

I looked a bit at the elephant setup too, but don't remember any discussion of managing camber, so I am curious what their approach is, maybe just not as high either? Do they use custom shocks in the rear? I will consider a different rear shock in the future now that I know what the geometry is.

I still want to be able to go back to road mode in a day, so different shock/spring assemblies would be a better solution for me instead of swapping upper mounts and springs.

[Root_Werks]

Very smart to add the extra metal. Very unique 914!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[waltonsm]

This one is my current favorite 914. I'd love to take a swing at building a Safari but I can't imagine anything better than this one.

@Waltonsm - you've ticked all the boxes and are clearly inspiring others! Well done, sir! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

I have a few acres behind the Red Barn (the water isn't there at this point). How about you road trip down and we set up a track! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

I happy to inspire some stalled or new projects and am looking forward to seeing more safari cars around (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Hopefully I can capture all the gaps I found in internet documentation while trying to make this work, and provide some of the rationale along the way so it can be improved on.

Just checked out the route to the barn.. that would be quite a detour on my Seattle to Tahoe trip this summer, but if I get enough friends committed for different legs of the journey, I might be able to do it! However, I was planning to be 4 inches off the ground with road tires (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) although I might be convinced otherwise.

[ValcoOscar]

I happy to inspire some stalled or new projects and am looking forward to seeing more safari cars around (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


You have....this was my dream 5 years ago


But this is my current EZ30 914 project with a pending mild Safari lift.
Metal flares coming....



I'm naming this project "SUFARI"

Oscar

[RKramden]

@waltonsm
So impressive! I couldn’t begin to imagine the things you have already fabricated.
I am working on an outlaw-ish 914-6 and would love to see any pics or materials used in putting a headlight in the turn signal…thinks

[RKramden]

That would be “thanks”.

[waltonsm]

@waltonsm
So impressive! I couldn’t begin to imagine the things you have already fabricated.
I am working on an outlaw-ish 914-6 and would love to see any pics or materials used in putting a headlight in the turn signal…thinks

Turns out this is one of the least documented areas for me too. I will have to take more pictures when I get back after Christmas. But to get started, I found the smallest LED projectors I could find, below. One is aimed as a high beam, and one as a low beam in each side. I used a small hole saw to cut holes in the back of the turn signal bucket for them to pass through, and then I drilled holes in the sides to mount the stainless brackets I made.

The brackets were made from .030ish laser cut stainless, and then I bent them on the vise and welded some adjuster nuts/jack screws on. The provide the aiming degree of freedom needed.

I have a dozen ideas on how to redo/improve this in the future, but it is low on my list.

As we know, pictures (of the assembly) are worth everything, so you will have to use your imagination for a few days (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[waltonsm]

Turns out I found some photos from when I finally added the high beams.. bought everything initially, but ran out of time the first time around.

This will make more sense now. You can see the jack screws through the nut to hold the assemblies to the car. And the other bolts are for the pivot and lock for aiming up and down.

The fog lights are aimed about with my low beams. The high beams are daytime running lights I think. Bc Subaru body computer.

When low beams are on, I have fog and low beam, when high beams are on I have all three. Plenty of light and throw.

[RKramden]

Perfect, thank you so much.
One question, it looks like you started with a clear turn signal lens and ended up with glass. I am leaning towards glass. What did you use (thick, tempered, laminated)? I know older headlights probably were nothing more than heat strengthed and they would break, but they were also convex and had some ribbing which might have helped with strength.

[RKramden]

Sorry, I thought of one other question. I see you have a LED turn signal bulb. Is this visible when the lights are on or do the lights turn off on the side the turn signal is flashing like I have noticed on some new cars?

[waltonsm]

Sorry, I thought of one other question. I see you have a LED turn signal bulb. Is this visible when the lights are on or do the lights turn off on the side the turn signal is flashing like I have noticed on some new cars?

I started with the clear lens. Attempted polishing it, didn’t work. I sprayed clear on them and that help reduce scattering. The scattering reduced the throw and made everything near field too bright. I currently have 1/4 acrylic on there that I also laser cut I think, but a router template would be more that sufficient to make from
Wood and fair smooth.

I used a round over bit too, but this is all temporary for now, but I will likely leave it as acrylic long term. Optically clear and cheap to work with. You can get scratch resistant acrylic and polycarbonate too.

The turn signal needs the scattering to be easier to see, so in later pictures you may see that I have scuffed a frame/ring around the perimeter using fine sandpaper where the projector doesn’t pass through (they have awesome cutoff too for bright lights that don’t bother oncoming traffic too much). I am going to scuff the bottom similar the two color turn signal lenses soon.

I also like the idea of alternating with the headlight like new cars. I don’t have it wired that way, but it would be pretty simple to add a circuit into the harness to make that happen. Maybe in the future (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[RKramden]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Happy Holidays…..

[waltonsm]

I have gotten a few questions about the steering column work, and unfortunately I haven’t found pictures of the final welded assembly, but when I am in there again I will take some new ones.

My goal was to use the Subaru steering wheel and controls (and maybe in the future a traction control systems that uses yaw angle and steering angle inputs…)

To do this I needed to meld the 914 column and wrx column. The below pic has them side by side.





The wrx steering shaft is really long, has a collapsible section instead of some u joints. But is does have splined ends, an ignition lock, and bearing surfaces. So this can work. I cut both shafts, ground to a v groove, welded, and sleeved them together. The joint between the two shafts is about where the red line is. This was to get the steering wheel at the distance I wanted it from the dash. The wheel height is adjustable by shimming the mount down with spacers. More on that later. Clocking is important as there are missing splines that ensure positive clocking with the u joints for most consistent final input/output rates, and this needs to line up pretty closely with the ignition lock if you want the steering wheel to lock near centered.



As far as the bearings and column goes I used the outboard (steering wheel side) bearing still in the wrx column assembly.



Then after cutting the column off ( I used 8 inches or so), I had to find a bearing that was a press fit into the inboard end of the column and also fit the inboard piece of the 914 steering shaft.



Unfortunately at the moment I don’t remember what that bearing was. I bought half a dozen 5-10 dollar bearings, and one of them ended up working well. I may have shrink welded the column to fit tight.

For the final assembly fit, I made a flat plate similar to the 914 column mount, using this as a template. I shimmed it down here I the angle and height I wanted and bolted it in (with the column clamped to it and the linkages all assembled to make sure I hadn’t screwed something up) with everything located I added four heavy tacks to attach my new steering shaft and column to the new mount plate. Note I also moved the steering axis toward the centerline of the car slightly as I moved my seats an inch or two closer to centerline to get more clearance from my door bars. It took me a couple days of head scratching before I figured out the steering column is definitely not parallel to the centerline of the car from the factory.

I left it tacked for a bit while I worked other stuff, but eventually came back and fillet welded the column to the mount plate.

As a side note, because I have an obdii car with immobilizer, I wanted to keep the ignition lock/rfid antenna. This requires the ecu, body computer, and dash/controller. So I also disassembled the dash and the board with all the servos/blinky lights/gauges etc. lives in the center tunnel. I could have easily reused the flat assembly and installed in the location of the factory gauges if I wasn’t already committed to my aftermarket gauge plan.





It’s been a while, and apparently this step was poorly documented by me, but happy to try to answer more questions.

[waltonsm]

I got a few questions on fender install recently, so I figured I’d add a few photos of my process. I knew the look I wanted, but it took lots of iteration.

I spent a lot of time fairing the fiberglass to uniform thickness, and rebuilt some of the edges of the flares to ensure they would lay flush on the fenders. After fairing for fit, and for the seam line I wanted I painted and prepped for mounting tape. I used permanent mounting tape, 3/4” wide I think, cleaned, etched, then the tape, then install.

There were a few areas that needed some additional pull force/point load though. I knew the fenders would move some after cutting, but they moved again some in my final trim of another inch or so after all the fairing and fitting work.

For the areas I needed to help, I used click bond studs and fender washers.