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Jessekrs123's 1984 Subaru BRAT


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Or a jerk motion. :lol:

Go kid , go!! Is your dad part of the F & S gang? Where did he work? We're old school CT Subaru people too. Nevermind the nay sayers and check out the work done by board member "ettev" - a.k.a. Mike in PA.

You're on the same track. Don't loose momentum. "ctsuba" - Charlie - has lots of parts too. He's in Salem CT or thereabouts.
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Or a jerk motion. :lol:

 

Go kid , go!! Is your dad part of the F & S gang? Where did he work? We're old school CT Subaru people too. Nevermind the nay sayers and check out the work done by board member "ettev" - a.k.a. Mike in PA.

 

You're on the same track. Don't loose momentum. "ctsuba" - Charlie - has lots of parts too. He's in Salem CT or thereabouts.

 

Nahh, I don't think so. My dad and a few of his buddies would just throw their old Subarus around and fix them up whenever they needed to.

 

 

Wow, thanks for that Moosens. I will certainly take a good look through those threads and see someone else's project.

 

On the other hand...

 

Despite how annoying this rainy weather has been, it has helped me to discover a few new oil leaks.

 

I've found old oil (black) coming from the screw on the oil pressure sending unit showed here:

100_0759.jpg

 

And I've also found new oil (golden) coming from this seam that connects the oil filter to the block. I ran the engine and watched it gather at this seam. It is not collecting from anywhere above, it is most certainly seeping through this crease shown below:

100_0760.jpg

 

I will be looking through my dealer repair manuals and part booklets that I acquired (Thanks a lot to my friends at the parts department) too see if there is any gaskets or anything that seals these parts off.

 

But if anyone could chime in and save me some time that would be great too.

 

Thanks.

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Im curious...

 

Post back on here with your findings about the rockers you get from Mill Supply.

 

I almost ordered the same ones a couple years back. The pic on the webpage is EA81... but the years (85-94) say EA82.

 

Also, do you have any pics of where the rear torsion bar mounts to the rear subframe? Ive had a few suprises in that area. :eek:

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When I got out of work today, I had decided to tackle my leaking oil pump. I cleaned off the area around the pump sо I could pinpoint exactly where it was leaking. Ran the car and it turned out that it was leaking from the top of oil pump where it meets the block.

 

Took off my alternator belt and removed the crank pulley. This is pretty easy being in gear with a large pair of pliers to hold the pulley, and a nice breaker bar. One tough push and the bolt becomes nice and loose.

 

100_0767.jpg

 

I then went ahead and disconnected the pressure sender and removed the four bolts from the oil pump. With a few light taps, the pump came right out and very little oil followed to my surprise. I removed the gasket from the block and then assessed the o-rings on the pump. There was a good amount of oil collected around the oil pump assembly, so I'm guessing that the paper gasket finally crapped out.

 

There is one o-ring on the outside of the pump. This o-ring was in pretty good shape, still somewhat bendy.

 

After taking the pump apart, there are 2 o-rings. One along the by-pass valve spring and one around the gearing of the pump. Both of these o-rings were brittle and stiff and broke into little pieces.

 

100_0761.jpg

 

Took out all of the old o-rings, cleaned off the o-ring area and replaced them with the new ones. Cleaned off the mating surface of the oil pump to the block and set the new gasket there. This gasket was just cheap paper, but it has done the job well so far.

 

Here is a picture of the inside of the block. I took it as a reference to reset the gearing on the oil pump so it would slide in no problems:

100_0768.jpg

 

Bolted on the oil pump nice and good, reconnected the pressure sender, bolted the crank pulley back on and tightened up my alternator belt. I will be needing a new drive belt for that as well, this one is cracking up.

 

Started up the car, oil pressure was good to go. Waited and watched the oil pump for leaks until the car got up to operating temp triggering the fan. No oil leakage anywhere so now the oil pump is nicely sealed and ready to roll.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to make it to this Wednesday's meet with the BRAT. Everything is ready to go except for the bill of sale. I mailed it out early this week to the previous owner, but I have not gotten it back yet so that is the only thing holding this back from hitting the road.

 

Still waiting on the rocker panels. Looking for sheet metal so I can weld up the interior and get it all back together.

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Where and when is there a meet on Wed.?

 

It's a local Subaru meet in Waterbury CT. Every Wednesday night 7 pm @ Planet Fitness off of Wolcott Street. The cops kicked us out last week so I believe this week we will be in the parking lot right across the street from Planet Fitness.

 

If you're in the area and would like to come, feel free to.

 

Here is the CTSubie thread if you are more interested. The last few meets have turned out really well, almost 30 cars!

http://www.ctsubie.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24782

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Could not find that thread. Your link got me to sign up though. I looked around the Events forum and looked over everything quickly .... but I'll catch up with you guys soon.

 

Alright sounds good. Looking forward to seeing you at the meets which are heavily dominated by newer Imprezas. It'll be nice to see some old potential there. Right now my 1993 Legacy is the oldest car there.

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Oh no no no no no .... old ....potential ??? :lol:

 

How about old PROVEN :banana: ????

 

:) So where is that thread located? I just want to make sure you guys make it the same place - sans cops.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1T4ADSA_enUS349US349&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=planet+fitness+wolcott+st.+Waterbury&fb=1&gl=us&hq=planet+fitness&hnear=0x89e7c0dd3a7f8381:0x89b9b5a4c9c4c7e9,Wolcott+St,+Waterbury,+CT&cid=0,0,14250404298329916666&ei=x6_jTfuoM4LY0QHl7uyVBw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQnwIwAA

 

That's the place , right?

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Oh no no no no no .... old ....potential ??? :lol:

 

How about old PROVEN :banana: ????

 

:) So where is that thread located? I just want to make sure you guys make it the same place - sans cops.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1T4ADSA_enUS349US349&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=planet+fitness+wolcott+st.+Waterbury&fb=1&gl=us&hq=planet+fitness&hnear=0x89e7c0dd3a7f8381:0x89b9b5a4c9c4c7e9,Wolcott+St,+Waterbury,+CT&cid=0,0,14250404298329916666&ei=x6_jTfuoM4LY0QHl7uyVBw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQnwIwAA

 

That's the place , right?

 

Hahaha, it will be nice to see your proven old potential there. Yes, that is the place, only we will not be meeting in the Planet Fitness parking lot, we will be at the parking lot right across the street next to the Auto Zone.

 

It'll be nice to meet you there. I'll be the short kid with long hair. I'm sure the guys will be more than excited to see your BRAT. Some of them haven't even seen one in person haha.

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Hahaha, it will be nice to see your proven old potential there. Yes, that is the place, only we will not be meeting in the Planet Fitness parking lot, we will be at the parking lot right across the street next to the Auto Zone.

 

It'll be nice to meet you there. I'll be the short kid with long hair. I'm sure the guys will be more than excited to see your BRAT. Some of them haven't even seen one in person haha.

 

 

I've got a '78 4WD wagon , but currently no Brat. 7PM Wed. I migth have a baseball game to go to. But We'll see.

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I've got a '78 4WD wagon , but currently no Brat. 7PM Wed. I migth have a baseball game to go to. But We'll see.

 

Oh, haha my bad. I made the assumption you had a BRAT. If you can make it that would be great. I usually don't get there until about 7:30 because I get out of work at 7 but we usually stick around until like 9, then we go to Wendy's and hang out for another 1-2 hours.

 

It will be really cool to see your 78 wagon. My father used to have one way way back in the day.

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Just got off the phone with Hagerty Classic Car Insurance and I have some ridiculously good news.

 

The car will only cost $150 a year to insure it (It's main use will be pleasure with limited amount of miles per year). I will probably only drive it to Subaru meets and a little pleasure driving here and there.

 

The car will be covered up to $8,000 after the first year it is registered!!! No deductible or anything!

 

So I will certainly not be spending $7,000 to get it in great shape because I will be doing most of the work myself. I'm thinking that the most money I will spend on it is to have the dents removed and resprayed professionally, which at that shouldn't cost an insane amount of money.

 

I am going to keep it the same color because I really like this color. So in terms of respraying it, only the outside will be done because it will all remain the same color, and the interior certainly does not need to be sanded down and resprayed as most of it will be covered by interior carpet and whatnot, and it will all be the same color.

 

Get new BRAT decals, even though the one's on it currently are in good shape, they certainly won't be there after the respray. Get all new trim pieces which I'm sure I'll be nickeled and dimed for.

 

But before all of that I need to weld in new interior panels, front frame rails, rocker panels, reinforce rear shock towers and weld in new panels where all of the rust exists on the outside of the car.

 

I'm getting very ahead of myself...

 

I just need to receive my filled out bill of sale and this thing will be ready to rock the streets.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Damn, it has certainly been a while since I have posted up. I've been getting a lot of overtime at work + school so things have been a little crazy throughout the past few weeks, leaving me little time to work on the BRAT.

 

I've gotten a little done though.

 

My father brought home some possible frame rail replacements. He is an insulator so he has access to materials. I'm not sure if these things will hold, but I'm sure they will hold a lot better than the rusty rails that are on the car right now.

100_0774.jpg

 

Moved the BRAT out of the already Subaru crowded driveway because I haven't been able to do anything with it lately so this is where she currently resides.

100_0777.jpg

 

Parked under some trees so of course some bird shat on my flawless T-Tops.

100_0778.jpg

 

I felt like taking some pictures on this beautiful day and decided to snap a few pictures of the car.

100_0780.jpg

100_0781.jpg

100_0787.jpg

 

I got in contact with a sandblasting place in Thomaston, and they said that they can sandblast and paint my rims for $35 each + supplies which doesn't sound like a bad deal. I might just have them sandblast them for $20 a piece and paint them myself, but we'll see how that plays out.

 

Still waiting on rocker panels from Mill Supply Inc... I should give them a call and see what the wait is all about. I ordered these things a good month ago.

 

And still waiting on the bill of sale... I talked to the kid last week and he informed me that the mail carrier retrieved the envelope with no bill of sale in it, so he said he would mail it out when he had the chance. That was over a week ago...

 

Oh yes, and to top it all off, Hagerty suddenly decided not to cover me anymore because I am only 18. They said they want to wait until I turn 20 to give me coverage so now I have to find a new insurance company. Eff me for being young right?

 

No progress yet really. Just waiting on parts, and documents.

 

Stuff has been busy.

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Still waiting on rocker panels from Mill Supply Inc... I should give them a call and see what the wait is all about. I ordered these things a good month ago.

 

Mine took a long time to come in, I almost though they were not going to come in. I feel like they may only run those parts a few times a year and wait until they have enough orders before they rerun the parts if that makes sense.

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Mine took a long time to come in, I almost though they were not going to come in. I feel like they may only run those parts a few times a year and wait until they have enough orders before they rerun the parts if that makes sense.

 

Oh, OK, that's good to know. They said they wouldn't bill me until they ship them out so once I see an e-mail with a receipt or something, I'll know when to expect them.

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I got my bill of sale in the mail yesterday, so I now have all of the documentation I need to call it my car. Hopefully I will be able to get it registered this weekend and get it out on the road!

 

Also got my rocker panels from Mill Supply this morning. They are for a 4 door wagon, so they will need to be cut length-wise obviously, which is not a problem. They are also a little fatter than the current rockers on my BRAT, but other than that they match up pretty well.

 

100_0889.jpg

 

Hoping to get this thing on the road this weekend so I can drive it around and get it to my father's buddy's house where he has a welder. Apparently my father used to have a welder but he sold it. Oh well, if worst comes to worst, I'll buy a welder and make a whole bunch of awesome stuff for this thing.

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Way to keep at it! Good luck with the welding. No time for Wed. night meetings lately. You guys still getting together?

 

Yes, we still get together every Wednesday. The past few weeks it has been rainy though, so we've met up at the Brass Mill's Center parking garage, went inside to the food court to hang out for a little while then hung out in the parking garage.

 

Just keep up with the thread on CTSubie and you should be fine. Hopefully I will be able to bring it to the meet on Wednesday and maybe even see you there if the weather permits.

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Oh yeah , the CT Subie thing ... kinda forgot about it but I'll check back there.

 

Be sure to look over Mike in PA's thread that I gave the link to. You're going to be doing much the same if you really want to get a few years out of it.

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Oh yeah , the CT Subie thing ... kinda forgot about it but I'll check back there.

 

Be sure to look over Mike in PA's thread that I gave the link to. You're going to be doing much the same if you really want to get a few years out of it.

 

Will do, thanks a lot moosens.

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Ugh...

 

Upon driving the BRAT today then parking it, I found that I am hemorrhaging oil from the oil pressure sender. It is dripping once every second from the screw, my father says that this was pretty common and that all that needs to be done is to put some high pressure sealant around the screw and torque it back in nice and tight.

 

If anyone can chime in on this please help me out. I don't want to drive it with oil leaking this badly.

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