You’ll all be happy to know that I returned the angle grinder about 45 minutes ago.

Unused.

I’m still debating this.  Trust me, you’re not as sick of this as I am.  This post is mainly a chance for me to dump my thoughts and clear my mind. Sorry. You can skip right past it.

• Take the wheels back to the junk yard.
  • Deal with the scary, gruff men working there in their Carhartts and swearing loudly across the customer-filled office.
  • Pay a $43 restocking fee just to have them take the wheels back.
  • Get the rest of my money refunded as Yard Credit that can only be spent with them.
  • Hope they have a set of 16” wheels that will fit.
  • Pay for those 16” wheels, if they have them, with the yard credit, as well as the extra cost out of my pocket, which will surely be well over $100.
  • Buy four 16” snow tires to put on these new wheels and accept the fact that four 16” snows will cost me $130 more than four 15” snows would have cost me.
  • When all is said and done, this mistake will have cost me nearly $400, plus the cost of tires (~$400), bringing me to a grand total of nearly $800 just for some freaking snow tires.
• Grind my front brake calipers
  • Keep the wheels I bought.
  • Keep the $20 grinder I bought.
  • Spend a couple hours grinding down the metal on the calipers.
  • Buy four 15” snow tires and have them mounted on the Forester wheels.
  • Be happy for 4 months until I have to spend another $500 on decent summer tires in April.
• Craigslist
  • Try to sell these 15” Forester wheels on Craigslist to recoup at least some of my money.  If I could get $100-$150 for them, it’d be cash in my pocket rather than credit to a junk yard.
  • Buy 16” snows to have mounted on my existing wheels.
  • Spend the next several months searching for used 16” wheels on craigslist.

It’s not like I’ve got my heart set on this, though I do really enjoy tinkering with my car.

Tonight I spent ~$20 on the grinder and the discs and tomorrow I’d have to spend about $15 on caliper paint and at this rate I’m almost up to the $43 it would cost me to just return them…

Plan B is to keep my current alloys and have 16” snows mounted on them and then when summer rolls around, buy a set of used 16” ‘02-‘04 WRX rims (they look very nice on 2nd Gen Outbacks) and a set of decent summer rubber.

Comments are enabled. Let me hear it.

Remind me to delete these posts and blow up the worldwide google cache when I crash and the insurance company starts researching to figure out what happened to my calipers.

Also, Jack is not kidding about the power slide in the nursing home parking lot in order to turn around to go eat at Perkins. A few other roflchestarians can vouch for the truth of this statement.

indefensible:

steelopus:

(Moral of the story: even a Subaru Outback nerd with 5764 posts on an Outback forum can make a noob mistake but only a Subaru Outback nerd with 5764 posts on an Outback forum will be daring enough to grind away solid metal from the parts of his car that are used for stopping.)

To recap:

You’re attacking the brake assembly (a highly sensitive and delicate system which is subjected to enormous stress and heat) with an angle grinder in order to save back of the couch money?

Do you have people who will visit you in hospital? Because I’m only sending flowers.

I never said it was a good idea.  I should add that it’s been done before with great success, though not by me personally.

redcloud:

What I want to know is, what effect is this going to have on your ability to power slide through the snow in front of nursing homes?

Truthfully? The 15s will be lighter, narrower, and higher-profile - all of which should lend to better sliding.  But let’s not kid ourselves: this is an underpowered Outback, not an overpowered Impreza, so any sliding I do will need to be assisted by a generous layer of hardpack snow or ice.