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1984 Brat Project


jmoss5723
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I should have done this a year or so ago, but I just never got around to it. So here it is now.

 

This is my little project. My brother, my dad, and I picked it up a few years ago. Originally from Arizona, it is fairly rust-free. It came with a 5 speed dual range transmission, a newer EA81 engine, the original engine, and a mountain of parts under that camper shell. The parts mountain included new-in-box weber, every piece of trim imaginable, roof glass (though this is a hardtop), crossmembers, alternator, roll bar, the list goes on and on.

 

The car runs great and has given me no problems at all. I have put some miles on it using it as a diaily driver for a while and it ahs made several multi-hour trips. 

 

Since purchasing the car, I have put on a 2 inch lift, installed the roll bar, put on 15 inch pugs with 205/70/15 tires. The tires will require a slight trim behind the the front wheels.

 

I have been accumulating parts since purchasing the car. I paid $60 bucks to strip every part I could from another 84 brat that was going to scrap. The only things I couldn't take were the engine/tranny and the body panels. I have a steering column, radio, door seals, MORE roof glass and seals, door parts, wheels, trim, 2 sets of jump seats with headrests, factory brushguard, on and on.

 

Next on the list of upgrades is an adjustment to the lift to correct the camber and installation of all of the following: weber, factory brushguard, jump seats, fog lights, and one CV axle.

 

Let me know what you think!

 

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Hey! You're not too far from me. Got a friend in Pitt. and would love to check out your BRAT one day when I'm in town. It looks great with those tires on there, also rare to see a hard-top. Most seem to be T-Tops.

And, if you ever want to sell it.. =P haha

Nice rig!

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nice 84! especially for over there....

 

I like the wind deflector on the topper. I have a 84 BRAT project as well...but its for sale now due to the 78 I picked up. 

 

How is it that everyone finds pugs except for ME ?

Nice Brat.   I need one!  Or should I say... I want one!

I got one for ya, cheap.

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How is it that everyone finds pugs except for ME ?

Nice Brat.   I need one!  Or should I say... I want one!

Just be vigilant. I hunt Craigslist like its my job, and watch on here as well. I ended up buying mine from a member who lives a few hours away. Well worth the drive!!

 

 

Hey! You're not too far from me. Got a friend in Pitt. and would love to check out your BRAT one day when I'm in town. It looks great with those tires on there, also rare to see a hard-top. Most seem to be T-Tops.

 

And, if you ever want to sell it.. =P haha

 

Nice rig!

 

I recently posted a list of about 10 brats for sale in PA, most of them out east near philly and york. You can find the post in the ebay/craigslist forum. some of them are really nice looking! http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/137342-pennsylvania-brats-10-or-so/

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Keep an eye out on Peugeot boards as well. I found 5 steelies for $125.00 that way. The alloys are valued far more in the Pug world than the steelies, so owners are tending to hold onto them more and the prices are going up faster. Constant vigilance is the way.

Edited by bendecker
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  • 1 year later...

So this thread has been pretty quiet for a while. The car basically sat for about year while I moved 2 hours away, had a baby, and had no time to fix the few things it needed to pass a PA safety inspection.

 

Since then I have: moved back, adjusted to fatherhood, and picked up a bunch of spare time.

Recent work on the car in the last month includes the following:

  • New rockers welded on to replace the old ones that had rotted off from the inside out.
  • Minor camber adjustment on the lift and a wheel alignment. Rolls nicely and tires seem to be wearing well so far.
  • New front brake rotors and pads

I'll put some pics up in the next few days to show it off.

 

The current to-do list includes

  • New bed liner. The cheap crap I rolled on didn't last AT ALL.
  • Install my cleaned up jump seats
  • Install brushguard
  • Finish a tiny bit of fiberglass work in front of the rear driver's side wheel
  • Possibly swap in some seats from my brother's 99 OBW after we swap heated seats into his car.
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I guess before I do much else, I should fix the intermittent short that makes it need a jump or rolling start about 50% of the time.

 

Oh and yesterday while driving I popped apart some portion of the shift linkage trying to cram it into 1st gear from 2nd before I came to a complete stop. I think I have some part of the linkage over-extended. When I did the lift, I used spacers to drop all of the front crossmembers, but I only dropped the shifter 1 inch. It never gave me any issues before now, but who knows. I've only put maybe 75-100 miles on it since finishing the lift.

 

Fortunately, I was about block from the house and despite my shifter flopping around I managed to find 4th, which is better than neutral, but just barely. I've never taken the turn into my uphill driveway so fast in my life! And the clutch was not really happy with my efforts to balance the excessive speed and not stall the car out.  I parked it and haven't had time to crawl under it yet. We'll see what I find this weekend, probably.

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So I crawled under the Brat tonight for long enough to find the problem.

 

The ball on the end of the shift lever popped out of the socket in the linkage. I tried to stuff it back in there without taking anything apart. It didn't work (big surprise). And I found another issue that I'm not totally sure what to do with while I was under there.

 

The linkage problem is in this piece here. The shifter popped out of the the half sphere that is in the middle of the picture.

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The circular spot at the top of the part is where the shifter goes in. Notice how the plate there is lifted up?yMSqi4X.jpg

 

 

I'm missing a nut here. I think this is where the problem started.

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The plan from here is take it all apart, clean it up and paint it, then put it back together and replace the missing nut. Hopefully that solves the problem.

 

BUT... I found another problem. The cube-ish block of rubber near the end of this piece is coming off! It is all cracked and peeling off of the metal. Anyone have a good idea on how to fix it? I'm afraid that if I just use some epoxy, it'll just crack further in. Should I just drill through it and put in a bolt to hold stuff together?cN9e8hQ.jpg

 

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i sandblasted and painted all of the parts of that linkage, greased up that pocket, put blue loctite on all of the bolts and put it back together. Everything works and looks good! Then i realized i forgot to put that stupid little rubber boot on it :banghead:

 

I didn't have the heart (or time) to tear it all apart again to put it on. Maybe tonight.

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The shift linkage is put back together. With all the parts this time, too!

 

I installed a relay into my ignition circuit. The problem that I thought was an intermittent grounding was actually just too much resistance in the old circuitry. I wired a relay that the ignition activates so that power goes directly to the starter instead of through the whole ignition circuit. Starts every time now.

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I also started tearing into the bed a little bit. I'm removing all of the peeling DIY bedliner and redoing it. I have to address a little bit of rust, too  :(

 

Here is what I'm starting with:

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  • 7 months later...

Spring has sprung and it is time to get to work on my cars before I have any more kids...

 

This weekend and the next I will be patching the rust in the rear wheel wells, finishing the bed liner, reinstalling my roll bar, fabricating a new front bumper, and MAYBE installing the jump seats.

 

I have a solid plan in place for everything but the bumper. So far the Ski Wagon's 81/82 chrome 4wd style bumper has been removed and sent off to TheLoyale for his coupe, The BRAT's year-correct bumper is getting cleaned up and installed on the Ski Wagon, and a new bumper needs to get fabbed for the BRAT.

 

I'm thinking the following:

  • Stock bumper mounting location
  • Simple single beam that wraps around the front fenders very much like the stock bumper
  • Material will be steel C-channel
  • Hitch receiver for a winch (Moderately sized ATV winch. Nothing crazy.)
  • I'll use some plate to beef up the mounting points on the unibody so that I will hopefully not rip them out.

So now my question is this: what thickness steel should I use for this? I want it to be tough enough, but I'm hoping it won't weigh a million pounds. I'm thinking that 1/4" is heftier than necessary. I'd certainly tear the car apart before the bumper, right? So I'm leaning towards 3/16", but can I safely go thinner?

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F#$@ welding. After doing some cutting in the wheel wells in the bed, I was ready to weld on some patches. I went to weld them in and instead of adding any metal, I'm just burning away everything. I can't seem to set the welder to a low enough power to not torch the material. I've always been awful at welding anyway.

 

Now I'm kind of at a loss.

Edited by jmoss5723
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