410 replies to this topic

[1982gl4]

I'll have to look into it. I have a few cars around I may be able to find something. I already have the dash speakers mounted, which are kind of a pain. And today because of the hack job left by the P.O. I made a new stereo surround. I still have to cut out the hole for the stereo itself, but it's coming out good so far. I'll be flocking it when it's done.

Edited by 1982gl4, 04 January 2012 - 03:59 PM.

[bigjimd]

Yowza you are a flocking wizard. Great project!

[1982gl4]

Yeah I've taken a liking to the stuff. It does wonders.
On to some pics of todays work.




Flocked it


Got my compass wired in and working. I need to calibrate it still, but I have to drive the car in order to do that.

[Virrdog]

I don't remember exactly from doing mine a while back... but I am pretty sure I just put some 6.5" speakers into the front and rear and just called it a day. I still have the factory speaker fabric in front of the speakers up front (barely) with a hole in the plastic grill cut out so the tweeters can protrude (into the fabric). Don't remember needing to do much in the back, but the rear speakers I put in were much shallower than the old school Infinity Kappas I put up front.

I also ran new 12 gauge wires to all the speakers and have them amped. That was a fun job... But now the car is completely amplified and my head unit has an option to turn off its internal amplifier, pretty cool to blast a cd as loud as you want and when you eject it, it's not all hot (for the very rare times I listen to cds, hello USB!)

[6 Star]

Cant wait to see this thing finished! All this work you are putting into it, it looks great.
Are you gonna leave it fwd?

[Crazyeights]

Sorry if this is already in the thread, but what equipment are you using for the sheet metal welds? They look great.

[1982gl4]

I don't remember exactly from doing mine a while back... but I am pretty sure I just put some 6.5" speakers into the front and rear and just called it a day. I still have the factory speaker fabric in front of the speakers up front (barely) with a hole in the plastic grill cut out so the tweeters can protrude (into the fabric). Don't remember needing to do much in the back, but the rear speakers I put in were much shallower than the old school Infinity Kappas I put up front.

I also ran new 12 gauge wires to all the speakers and have them amped. That was a fun job... But now the car is completely amplified and my head unit has an option to turn off its internal amplifier, pretty cool to blast a cd as loud as you want and when you eject it, it's not all hot (for the very rare times I listen to cds, hello USB!)

I'm just going for a decent stereo in this (better than stock) I have my legacy that's getting all the really nice stuff. Problem with the ea81's the front speakers are in the dash (so they have to be small I have new 4" in there), and the rear are in the rear doors. with the rear windows down the mechanism hits the speakers (so those also have to be small) I just want to hear it. I picked up the headunit for free, so I'm sticking with that has aux, but no usb which I'm also a big fan of! I haven't actually hooked it up yet, that will be tomorrow. I have a few speakers around that I'm going to try in the rear. Worse comes to worse 6x9's in boxes in the hatch area!!!

Cant wait to see this thing finished! All this work you are putting into it, it looks great.
Are you gonna leave it fwd?

Thank you! It'll be fwd.... I'm thinking of a possible 2.2 swap someday, but I want to get my brat up and running before I start another one of those. My main goal so far is keeping it pretty light and economical.

[1982gl4]

Sorry if this is already in the thread, but what equipment are you using for the sheet metal welds? They look great.

Thanks and I'm using an old Miller welder, and some skills :cool: (actually I haven't been welding all that long, I guess I just have a knack for it)My dad got the old welder from work when they got a couple newer ones. Se have used it on a ton of projects over the years. This year it had some issues, so we replaced the gun, and a couple other bits, and It has never worked better. I love it. Out of all the tools in our garage I would never get it up. This is the best pic I have of it right now. The thing has been bullet proof.

[Virrdog]

Problem with the ea81's the front speakers are in the dash (so they have to be small I have new 4" in there), and the rear are in the rear doors.

Aahhh, ea81. Oops. Did not realize that. Yeah, I remember the dash speakers from my Brat days.

[1982gl4]

So the body work is done, with the exception of three places that I need to sand down which I will be doing next weekend along with priming it. Here's how it looks (the same just with less paint)


This is one of the hardest places I had to fix, there was a dent in the body line, It's not 100% perfect but it's about as good as it's going to get, as I'm very sick of bondo.


This door has been a PITA, every time I fill one dent another shows up. I don't understand.


I also got all the jams prepped today, and removed the remaining window seals/door jam seals. I'm going to try and order a rear window gasket as mine is garbage, last I heard there was like 3 left in the country, so I'll keep my fingers crossed I can still get one, but I won't take mine out until I know for sure that I can get one.

And a shot of my finished radio console. I scratched it a bit on the way in, so I'll have to touch it up a bit, but over all I'm pretty pleased with it.
[/IMG]

[1982gl4]

Updates!!!
Body work is done, it has now been taped off. I have removed the two windows with bad seals for painting ( I have good used window seals on the way!) I got to use my block sanding kit, and I have no idea how I've gone this long with out them doing body work. Wow what a difference.







Thanks to my dad's ingenious our garage is staying a toasty 75* (this runs off from our outdoor furnace)

[zdriver123]

where did you find that compass? that is awesome!

[1982gl4]

They are pretty rare this one came out of a forester with a special trim level (look for one with a brush guard), but some came in RS25's as well. I now have two of them. One of them is in my legacy. And they are awesome.

[zdriver123]

If you ever find another one i would totally buy one!

[1982gl4]

Primer tomorrow in the morning. I'm pretty excited. After that I'll spend a day next weekend blocking it, and then we will shoot the final color.

[Virrdog]

Awesome, then I can bring my wagon down for you to do.

[1982gl4]

Awesome, then I can bring my wagon down for you to do.

I have more projects to come after this one up on the list:
My Brat First and above all the rest (i need to get it back on the street!)
1972 Beetle convertible (fix and sell project)
1963 chevy I'm helping a friend with (more body work)
I'd like to fix my 4x4 ea81 wagon (new body)
My Goliath....

So needless to say, I have more than enough on my todo it list :cool:

As of today It's primed!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks really good too a good dose of block sanding it will be ready for paint!

[Yo'J]

Nice! You got some talent, boss! What color have you decided on? If if were a 4wd, Id say white, but being a street only car I'd give other colors heavy consideration.

[1982gl4]

Haha thanks, my dad does the spraying, but everything else is all me I'm leaning toward white because it looks very nice on these older ones, and it's super easy to paint, and have come out well. On the other hand, I think a silver, or a dark grey metallic would look very nice as well, but both a much harder to paint. I don't want another blue car really, my brat and wrx are both blue so I kind of want to leave that out of the picture. If it had the grey, or tan interior, I could choose any color I wanted. The blue is killing me.

[Crazyeights]

White with the "Ski Team" graphics package would be great! I think someone on here has a NOS set, perhaps they could be duplicated!

[6 Star]

^^^ +1!!

So what if its fwd. :cool:
Make it nostalgic.

[1982gl4]

I'm not sure if I could cover it with stickers after all the body work that I've done It would look cool, but being FWD I don't think I could bring myself to do it. I plan on getting some factory vinyls remade for the bottom of the doors.

[1982gl4]

New paint tomorrow, I think yes. I also got a rear window gasket in the mail this week, and a new windshield and gasket on the way. All the glass work will be done sometime this week after paint :cool: I'll post pics up don't you worry.

[zukiru]

[1982gl4]

So far today I have sanded the primer, painted my pillars, put rock guard on, and taped off a couple more things before final paint this afternoon

Pics so far!









Wait for the next update....