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Third times the charm.


1982gl4
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This is my third ea81 wagon, and by far the nicest. I picked it up from the original owner here in Vermont (she and the car original came from New York) They had a summer home here, and the car was used here in the summer for the majority of its life due to the ability to make it up the very steep and muddy hill they used to live on. The car came into the shop I work at about a year ago needing some exhaust work. I about S* bricks when I saw it. I can't remember the last time I saw an ea81 other than in my driveway especially one this nice, or even still on the road. Anyway I preformed the repair, and informed her I would be interested in it if she ever choose to sell it, not pushing in anyway because I didn't need another project. About six months go buy I end up selling my other ea81 wagon (the cali wagon, a few of you may remember that build)  and she called me about a week later saying she was moving back to New York, and asked If I would be interested in the car, and here we are. Plans are to keep it mostly stock with some drivability and performance modifications. 

 

picking it up 

 
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first fill up 
 
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the interior on this car is ridiculously clean. 
 
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low milage of course 
 
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And a couple drive way shots to finish it off. 
 
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And that brings us to now. to be a solid driver for me it needs a little help. The carb is crap as always. theres some exhaust work that needs to be done, and the trans is a little grindy into third and forth, this is lower on the list, I have several transmissions, but with these four speeds I could be taking all of them apart to make one, so i may try to source a five speed dr, but they are super scarce up here. 
 
So far I have deleted all the emissions and the factory carb. 
 
stock
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goodbye garbage 
 
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I installed the correct jets into this weber and installed it along with new manifold gaskets (all the bolts came out!) 
 
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and this is complete now, but I made the factory air box fit over the weber, welded in a new bottom so it looks stock with the hood open. 
 
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Tomorrow my dad is trailering it to work so I can build a new exhaust from the engine back. 

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Very nice score bud!!

 

Nice job with the Weber. That will give you acceptable performance.

 

I sure would love to find a non-rusted EA81 wagon. Had an 82 many years ago and sure miss it. The styling just seems to get more appealing with age.

 

What kind of exhaust are you building, stock, or something more interesting?

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Is that rust or dirt in the seam behind the spare tyre?

 

If it's rust (doubtful looking at the rest of the vehicle), get on to it as it'll work it's way right through that whole seam from left to right. Once it really gets a hold it's super difficult to sort out.

 

Cheers

 

Bennie

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Is that rust or dirt in the seam behind the spare tyre?

 

If it's rust (doubtful looking at the rest of the vehicle), get on to it as it'll work it's way right through that whole seam from left to right. Once it really gets a hold it's super difficult to sort out.

 

Cheers

 

Bennie

 

Theres a small amount of rust there, I will be taking care of it after I take care of some more pressing issues. 

 

I finished the exhaust this weekend. I went from the engine back with 2 inch stainless, with a center flex joint added, a center glass pack, and a 2 1/4 magniflow muffler. It sounds like a subaru that is for sure, its very quiet cruising, but sounds decent when you get on it. It woke it up a lot over the factory restricted exhaust, and the crap carburetor.  

 

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I didn't have the rear muffler at this point, so this is where I stopped on friday. I went home to find my new muffler there, came back to work on Saturday and finished it up, along with change some fluids, and adjusted the carb some.  I still have a little more to do, but is running very well. I ended up putting over 150 miles on it this weekend. Up next I need to fix some of the drivetrain issues. Lf cv joint makes noise occasionally, the clutch is pretty grabby, and the trans is pretty weak, but seems better after the fluid change.
 
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  • 2 months later...

Gutted a parts brat I had about a week ago. Although the brat had about 2x the milage the transmission actually worked surprisingly well. No grinds, and no slop in the shifter, amazing for a 4 speed. So I installed that in this along with new transmission mounts last week. I also have working ac now, which has been amazing with the heat we have had here this summer. We don't typically get 90* plus weather here and this ac has been keeping up with it. Other than that I've just been driving it and enjoying it. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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