The Desert Fox. My `84 DL Wagon

[AdventureSubaru]

Car looks good. That's really solid for a midwest car! Glad to see you're taking the necessary steps to ensure that this car lasts a long time.

 

And intrigued to see what's coming from Colorado.

[l75eya]

I reiterate the above comments and admire the integrity of that vehicle. Looks great.

 

I always find it intriguing to look at the crumple zone design on the inner fenders on the body of the car. If you've seen Ben, our 93 Loyale, you'll know that his crumple zones were put to the work, and the design really does work 100 percent as it is intended to. Minimal energy transfer to the occupant in the vehicle, and the front of the car just crumples right at that spot.

 

Here's to TDF never having to have it's crumple zones used though, of course!!!

[Mechanical_misfit]

Ahh yes, I saw your thread on Ben. I had a Loyale similar to him for a while. It was actually a pretty clean car. I named it Whitey, and pimped it out with some badgeing from an old Maytag dryer. It really was a great car until my girl friend at the time smashed it exactly as what happened to Ben. They do hold up well in those aspects. I sure hope I don't get any first hand experience with TDF though. :cool:

[Mechanical_misfit]

More progress. I must apologize if it seems like I'm skipping around a bit. I'm not in a huge yank for time with this, and I am a little bit ADD.

 

 

Pulled the rear end apart to find little to no rust!

 

 

I also removed the rear fender flairs and mud flaps. This side has a bit of surface rust. :-\

 

 

I'm thinking of putting this hood scoop on. Any thoughts?

 

 

I work in a powder coating shop as a painter. I'm not really a big fan of this job. I deal with a lot of brain dead alcoholics and the management there is running the place in to the ground. The plus side is, I can powder coat anything I want though! Here's the factory skid plate after acid dipping it to remove the old paint.

 

 

And here it is after coating it with "Stormy Gray" This stuff is pretty heavy duty, so I figured it would work well under the car. I also wanted some contrast under the front end. I was going to go white to match the wheels, but maybe the gray wont look so bad if the engine leaks any oil on it.

 

 

Just as I was getting home today, Fedex showed up with my new EMPI axles from rock auto. I also got a small Sunpro tach from Amazon.com, along with an 8 ball shift nob.

 

I should be getting the metal I need for the rockers either tomorrow or Friday. Still waiting on a few sweet parts from Ebay and that big ticket item I mentioned earlier. I get my W2 tomorrow from work as well, so once I get my tax returns I'll be able to throw a little bit more money at this thing.

 

I also may be moving next month, and it will be to a house with a small garage. This would really be huge for me. I've been working on TDF in my grandma's garage because I don't have one at my current house. Its a 20 mile round trip every time I want to work on TDF, and that's the main reason this isn't going as quickly as I would like. I hope the move works out. Fingers crossed.

[1982gl4]

That thing is solid compared to most that I have started with. That skid plate looks really great, a good color choice too.

 

Keep at it!

[Kevint143]

Nice! We are trying to move into a house with a garage next month too. It will help with the BRAT progress! Can't wait to see your rig all set up

[Mechanical_misfit]

So I did a bit of welding yesterday. I had planned to do more today, but I'm side tracked with another project. I'm lucky to be working in a garage, but there is no heat here. I might be buying a turbo heater next week and that should make this easier. I'll have a bunch of pics to share later.

[TomRhere]

Mmmmm! Powder coating, nice...

 

Having a garage to work in is nice. Having heat in that garage is even better. Especially with the wind and low temps we had here yesterday.

 

Keep up the good work!!

[Mechanical_misfit]

So some small updates. 

 

I had to finish up the floors and put the car back together without doing the rockers. Everything is sealed up pretty well, and your feet no longer get wet when driving! My Oldsmobile took a crap, so it was up to TDF to get me by until then. I wasn't too upset about it, because the snow had been melting, but we just got more of it. Ohh well, if it rusts any more, I'll just be patching it up once I complete the move to my new house. 

 

We drove TDF Friday night, to Mt. Pleasent for a punk/Grind show. It was pretty cool. We found out about half way there that the heater wasn't cutting it though, So I taped up the grill and all the hood seams and cowl vents. That gave us a little bit of warmth. Good thing we were bundled up! 

 

 

Before the trip, I finally installed the tape deck that THE SUCKER KING sent me from CO. It works great, and thanks again for the hook up man! I also installed a $2 8 ball shift knob, and finally got to listen to COURTESY SPIT's tape in TDF. 

 

 

This is what the wheels looked like the next morning after the trip. 

 

 

and after a day of cruising around with a friend. We had to make a 40 mile trip for some tires for her Impreza. It was fun sliding around in the snow. I met up with the local old school Subaru Guru. He has been out of the EA game for a while, but used to deal with tons of them. His jaw dropped when he saw TDF. That felt good. I know he's seen a ton of them, and to see the look on his face made me feel like I'm not doing a totally bad job fixing this old girl up. 

 

 

This Lil Fox is a long way from the desert

[TomRhere]

It can snow in the desert, just not real often.

 

I hate having to rush repairs, done it to many times.

[MilesFox]

I would vote no for the hoodscoop for 2 reasons:

 

1. it compromises the original paint/decal aesthetic

 

2. It wont look right against the contours of the hood with the ridge in the middle. you may want to chop out the middle of an impreza or legacy hood and graft it together to look right.

 

3. it would be fibbing about what's under the hood.

 

this is my opinion, but each his own. I like to see original examples in great shape stay original.

[Mechanical_misfit]

Yeah, I don't think the hood scoop will be happening haha. I do have a smashed Impreza hood here to cut the middle out of for the next project. 

 

Would anyone have any experience with why my heat sucks? It just blows luke warm at best. Seems like all the controls are working. The fan works as it should. I've noticed no smells of coolant. when running down the road at 55mph, temperature gauge stays about 1/4 of the way up. Could some one have taken the thermostat out to fix an over heating issue? I've come across that before with a few of my old Loyales, but don't have as much experience with the ea81

Edited February 17, 2013 by Mechanical_misfit

[TomRhere]

On the heat issue, there's a few probabilities.

 

Clogged heater core;

with heat and fan both on hi, feel the heater hoses under the hood. Should not be a great temp differance, one cooler to the touch yes, but not a great amount cooler. Could swap hoses around to backflush core. May help.

 

T-stat;

yep, like you said, someone could have pulled it, or it's stuck open.

 

Heater bypass valve;

it could be bad, not opening to allow coolant thru the core.

control cable off/disconnected.

 

If it is the core, plan on a long day to swap it out. Dash needs pulled to do it correctly.

There is/was a write-up to replace it without pulling dash. In the "Old USRM" if I remembers right. Did that on the Black '82 BRAT.

Edited February 17, 2013 by TomRhere

[MilesFox]

You could try reversing the hoses the the heater core to see if that backflushes any debris, then flush out the system. Or take the hoses off and route a garden hose through it backwatrds to flush it out.

 

Definitely check to see if the thermostat is present. Being from the midwest, i could imagine some old-timer redneck technology may have been employed at one point or another. No offense to old-timers or rednecks, but that kind of general automotive knowledge must be thrown out the window when it comes to subarus.

 

Tom knows what i am talkng about being experienced in both realms.

 

As far as the hood goes, i would say you could make an attempt at it if you had a spare hood to chop up while preserving the original one.

[TomRhere]

quote milesfox

 

Tom knows what i am talkng about being experienced in both realms.

 

end quote.

 

Yeps, I be your runofthemillold-timer redneck. Done quite a bit of "redneck errornering umm er engineering" in my days.

Not to much into that whole "here, hold my beer and watch this" stuff though. I'll hang onto my beer and watch the other guy/gal do the antics.

Edited February 17, 2013 by TomRhere

[Kevint143]

that last photo is way rad!

[Mechanical_misfit]

 

Drove to lake Michigan to unwind.

[O.C.D.]

Ok, real lightning?  Can't tell.  Cool pic though.

[Mechanical_misfit]

Totally fake haha. I was just bored. Doing a bunch of mechanical repairs this weekend. Stay tuned!

[Mechanical_misfit]

Some how I managed to strip the right front hub today. So I ended up FINALLY installing the EMPI axles. Admittedly the old hub stripped during a lot of tire smoke. I was cruising out on some back roads near a friends place when it happened. I was able to dig up a new hub I had stashed. Not sure why the axle nut decided to back off like it did.

 

Anyway, New axles are in and it feels lighter in its feet. The steering feels smoother. It looks like I may need new outer tie rods. Maybe an inner as well because I think its slightly bent.

 

I ordered new rear brake shoes and a hardware kit. I plan on bleeding the entire system aswell. I think one of the adjusters may be bad because you kinda have to pump the brakes a bit if you wanna stop in a hurry.

 

I have every intention to drive this thing from Michigan to WCSS this year, but there's no way it will make it in its current sketchy condition. I still have so much work to do.

[Mechanical_misfit]

This weekend was productive.

 

Got the rear brakes done, and working. The pedal had been a little spungy, but not as bad as some junker loyales I've driven in the past. Much to my suprise though, when I took the drums off, everything fell out. The springs were broken on both sides. It's weird that I never heard any grinding. This thing stops so much better now. I still wouldn't mind swapping to rear discs though.

 

I also managed to install new rear shocks. The old ones looked like the originals. I then found that 19mm bolt under the rear seat, and cranked up the rear end. Over all the ride is much better! I also like the increased rake. The fronts are up all the way as well, so it should be a little smoother in the dunes this season.

 

Next weekend I'm going to change the trans gear oil, and the rear diff. I had originally thought my trans was leaking but after further inspection, it looks like it could be my oil pan and rear main seal. This thing is pretty nasty underneath, between engine oil, and having had two blown inner axle boots. I've got lots of cleaning to do.

[1982gl4]

Good progress! I can't wait to get home and start working on mine over the next few weekends! 

[tdodge41]

TDF rode great on the two tracks. Was a total blast. Cant wait to get back to some wrenchin'.

[Mechanical_misfit]

I scored big time today! Drove three hours to pick up four like new 205/60/13 Cooper Cobras. Also got three other raised white letter tires in the same size. All for $95. Four have some sweet rx7 alloys on them, so hopefully I can make some cash selling those. I'm pretty stoked to have my tires checked off the list. The current baldies are cooked!

[1982gl4]

Damn, good score. I loved my cobras! They are pretty done now, good thing I'm going five lug or I wouldn't know what to get for tires.