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Because of the broken crossmember, the car was never going to become road legal. I searched far and wide for one, and even contacted a Subaru dealer in the USA. No one could help me unfortunately, until a parts car suddenly appeared. This was a 1988, and had a lot of issues, but the rear crossmember was (mostly) good. I bought the car, and hauled it back home. The Toyota HiAce is known for being severly underpowered with only 90 hp, but luckily the L-series is pretty light! After some minor repair work and sandblasting, the crossmember was good to go. Suddenly the first major problem was gone, and my confidence grew. The old one was welded with an angle iron, and looked like this: Junk The new one was only damaged in this end: I sand blasted it looking for other surprises, but found none. Helper kitty inspected the work, and he looked happy. A piece of exhaust pipe fitted pretty good inside the "tube", and was welded in. The weld looks terrible, but I got better at it at the end. First rust primer... ...and then a couple of coats of rim/wheel paint. From a distance, it looks almost new.

Hello! I've been a lurker here for almost three years wanting to make a post about my project, but have never gotten around to it. Until now. In december 2014 I bought this blue 1986 Subaru L-series from an old man here in my area (Sunnfjord, Norway). He was the second owner, and bought it from the original owner when he became too old to drive. The second owner took good care of the car, but only to the mechanical side of things. As we all know, these cars like to rust. Western Norway is very wet, and the average rainfall in my area is 2,2 meters (or 6.5 feet). And so there was rust, and lots of it. So bad in fact that the rear crossmember had rusted from the inside and snapped. This was welded back again, so the car was drivable when I bought it. Luckily, the other rust damage was concentrated mostly to the rear, and under the windshield. It wasn't until summer of 2016 I started working on these issues. Many hours of cutting and welding went into this. I have a lot of pictures of the process, and I am going to share them here so you can follow along on the project. You can see the ceiling of the garage through the bodywork in this shot.

There is only one world - Brat wins out either way, with an EJ the world is better Cheers Bennie

I drove it home from work which is a fairly short commute. 5-10 min. About a mile from my house it started acting up again. All the same symptoms. I have another SG Forester that I pulled the alternator and battery out of. I first started by swapping the alternator and leaving the battery. The current battery had a full charge still. But even with the alternator swapped it won't crank strong enough to start. So I also swapped the battery too. It started right up. I drove it around for like 5-10 min. Got it plenty warm. No issues. I parked it in my driveway for 10 min. And got back in and drove around again. No issues. So at this point it's either the battery or the alternator. My plan is to drive it around for the next couple of days and make sure it wasn't a fluke. If I don't have any issues. I'll A/B test the alternator and battery and see which one causes the symptoms to return and replace that piece. Luckily these are easily accessible parts on Subarus. Thanks again for your input. I'll check back in to let you know what ends up being the culprit.

The only thing I can think of is to get some sheets of flexible foam (I used ones for a bed when camping) it's usually yellow of blue. Maybe try to find some thinner sections, cut it the desired shape and maybe try glueing it to the metal? Then for the outside you could try applying some vinyl from maybe a fabric store, with a glue or maybe sew it on before you glue the foam to the metal? I've not done this myself and this is all I can think of off the top of my head. You could always try finding one in a scrapyard and taking out some door cards, but good luck finding a coupe. Custom door cards aren't unheard of though.

Not in a wagon from at least 86 through 93 powered by an EA82 engine. Outside of these years, I don't have first hand experience. But inside of them, and I would expect anything with an EA82 engine, would be the same. The dash must be removed to get the box with the heater system and core out. Once that assembly is out, the heater core can be removed from it.

I love my Brat and it is a daily driver, now that it's running again. Usually just me, but wife goes with me on occasion but she isn't fond of the "tractor" ride. I can haul a little and get lots of attention and thumbs up when driving around town. I have seen one other Brat in town of 200,000+, but not lately. There are a few others around, but the Brat is not very common.

was the fuel pump for sure. Runs like a champ now.

Hey guys, Joined about a month ago after having bought an EA81 hatch. Because of my rekindled love of old Subaru's I joined some facebook groups and happened to find this 86 Brat for sale. I've basically wanted to own a Brat forever, so I couldnt resist. So far I have resealed the oil pump and installed a new front crank seal, fixed the fan blower motor, installed a new dist cap and rotor, and put the original wheels back on with new trim rings. Planning to do the oil pan and valve cover gaskets maybe this weekend. I'd like to add jump seats at some point but otherwise Ill keep it stock. I have the original window sticker which is pretty cool. It has no rot and almost no rust, which is amazing since its always been in VA and PA. Interior is original and in excellent shape. Paint is original too. Only has 80k on the odo and runs great. Gets alot of attention and someone already offered to buy it, but Im keeping it.

Thanks for this great tip! I too have lost lots of little miscellaneous bits and bobs all over the place.

Rooster2, Sorry to disappoint you but its not as easy as a simple plug and play. You will require the wiring harness to the unit, the GPS antenna and its wiring to the nav unit, as well as the wiring through the steering column and the steering wheel with the voice command switches. Parts of the dash will need disassembly, as will the steering column, the steering wheel and the headliner. Its all doable if you get a donor car, and have the time and patience it will take. Add to that the cost of the update to the navigation system to 2019, which at present is about $150 US for the appropriate disc, and no guarantee the system will work until its all installed, and if it doesn't .... what then? A portable Garmin is a far better/cheaper alternative ... and its updateable every year free of charge.

I would not attempt changing over. You would need the ecm and the harness. Non turbo 2.5 would be sohc Smoke out the exhaust sounds more like your turbo than head gaskets.

my friends are constantly riding in the back of mine, i've only ridden in them once since im usually the driver, it was actually quite enjoyable and relaxing going 65mph down the highway, it does get awkward staring at someone at a redlight though. in Texas you're allowed to ride in the bed of a pickup as long as it's below 40mph, so pretty much not the highway, i've had 3 different police vehicles trail behind me when i have my friends in the back, they stare hard, follow for a few minutes, then break away, not sure really why, twice on the highway and once on surface streets... the brat is a "pickup truck" in other countries but not a "pickup truck" in the U.S. due to the title saying passenger vehicle thanks to the extra 2 seats. and yes, they have lap belts in the back, mine have been jammed since the day i got it, so they're just decoration, but you're probably suppose to be buckled in due to the fact that it's considered passenger vehicle and the vehicle came with belts originally, it's a 2door car with 2 seats in the back, with a wall inbetween, with the seats facing the wrong way like a 60's Volvo, and then there's no roof, even though thats the least of my worries.... the headrest is more of a backrest, the rollbar is a nice comfortable headrest for breaking your skull open, and relaxing your head to the side introduces you to some healthy slamming onto your skull. im sure one day i'll get pulled over and i'll have to explain to the judge that this is how the car left the dealership.

Please read this before upgrading your forward lighting: Thinking of converting your halogen headlamps to HID or LED?

I'd jack up the front end and see if you can rotate the wheel while someone holds the other. You could have a bad cv joint, totally disconnected.