My UK Subaru Brat (MV)

Pneuma · December 7, 2015

Hey,

Ive been lurking around this forum for a while but never really thought about starting a thread until now. So here it goes.

Well this is a bit of a departure from my car comfort zone as I'm pretty much a honda boy through and through.
This is slightly different, so let me explain.

Back in the 80's my grandad and uncle used to own a Subaru dealership, this was way before the impreza hit the car scene.
So
the cars Subaru sold were mainly practical vehicles, as a kid I spent
alot of time around the garage......my dad is also in the trade so time
spent around cars in general was pretty much normal.

Anyway, skip
forward to now. I randomly had a dream about one of the cars that I saw
alot of back in the day. So onto ebay I went out of curiosity and
behold I found the car! It's not the one I've ended up with but it
sparked the search.
So yesterday after a 400 odd mile round trip I
have my hands on my new project, and for me a huge piece of nostalgia
that's close to the heart.

There is a load of content to post, so i'll do it bit by bit.

This is the picture from the advert with the awful box on the back and even nastier stickers

As soon as I got back that thing was off!

I've had the pick up for about a year now. It's pretty different now and i hope you guys like it

Cheers.

Chris.

Pneuma · December 7, 2015

Despite the truckman top looking crap, it's been a bit of blessing in
disguise as it's really saved the bed from rotting out over the years.
In fact the whole car was in really good condition overall thanks to the old dear who had it before had it undersealed yearly.

of
course there is the usual rot in a few places. The wings were shot, as
was the front valance. the rear arches needed some bits cutting out. But
nothing major.

The first thing to happen was removing all the bits i didn't intend on keeping.

Rear bumper pods and tow bar got the boot.

Before.

After.

Bullbars also went.

Removed the rear number plate cage while i was there.

Fubared wings. and arch rot.

Pneuma · December 7, 2015

Decided to go 'full retard' and strip all the paint off to see if there was anything else lurking under the paint. all was good. Plus i liked
knowing that there isn't any rust underneath after a fresh paint job.

Started welding in new metal too.

As you will see with the next picture i went high with the cut as i need the clearance for the wheels. Plus Bolt on drift arches are going on.
Also in this picture i flipped the stock wheels to see what a bit of poke looked like.

The next thing i started to tackle was how to lower the car. Obviously aftermarket parts are non existent.
So lots of research and improvising was needed for the front.

Fortunately i found some KYB shocks on American ebay, these were perfect as they
are much stronger than stock and can put up with being run low.

After speaking with a guy in the states he informed me that 5th-6th generation coilover sleeves fitted.
So this happened.

I managed to find a set that had a softer spring rate as most of the civic ones were fairly stiff.
In and down.

The rear on the other hand was way trickier. In practise its very simple as its just a case of clocking the torsion bar. But years of
water ingress meant that it wasn't so easy.

Sooooo, the whole rear end had to come out.

This is the end that needed to come off.

A ten ton press and lots of heat finally got them unstuck. I manged to get replacements from the states.

The back finally dropped. with a touch of natural camber too.

Pneuma · December 7, 2015

Parts started turning up pretty quick. New fiberglass wings, bolt on arches and wing mounted mirrors (stock ones flushed obviously)

With arches.

With the new mirrors.

Pneuma · December 7, 2015

Next up were changing the wheels. Now the standard pcd is so bizarre,
4x140! So as you can guess there isn't anything out there at all.
So a cool trick all the offroad guys do is knock out two opposing studs.
This allows a 6x139 wheel to fit on.....then mark and drill new stud
holes. Then fit new studs!

This opens up a whole world of wheel choices.

I'm pretty happy with the wheels i have but I'm always on the look out for
some old school J 6 studs wheels. So if anyone has any or know of any
please let me know!

These turned up. 15x8 et-22

Test fit.

Test fit with the bolt ons.

Then i couldn't contain myself and got two tyres to see what it would really look like!

And my personal favorite. (note the filled holes from the bumper pods)

Pneuma · December 13, 2015

Due to the stock exhaust being absolutely horrid i wanted to change it up. Originally i was just going to weld a new tip onto the stock one,
but my buddy kindly gifted me his old backbox off his old jetta for me
to play with.

Not my style, so i had a play.

Before.

Started chopping it up.

So using a combination of the two exhausts i welding up this thing.

First two sections.

All together.

Painted.

Fitted.

Tweeked.

backinbrat · December 14, 2015

Looking forward to seeing those coil overs on mine

Pneuma · December 15, 2015

Looking forward to seeing those coil overs on mine

haha! Soon Tom, Soon!

BulldogBlitz · December 17, 2015

Looking good!

Pneuma · December 17, 2015

Another issue that i had to overcome/improvise with was the front camber. When i lowered it there wasn't any camber at all. The wheels
were bolt upright. Not the kind of thing that's wanted here.

So i found some blank camber plates off ebay.

Drilled to fit as the diameter was too small to use the stock mount holes.

On the shocks.

On the car.

Pretty pleased with how it all worked out.

myhilo · December 17, 2015

New fiberglass wings, for a brat?? Haven't heard of these, any details on source would be appreciated.

Parts started turning up pretty quick. New fiberglass wings, bolt on arches and wing mounted mirrors (stock ones flushed obviously)

With arches.

With the new mirrors.