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Yes, that's me! I got into a pretty tight spot many moons ago when I still had that car and had to let it go. I still regret selling it, as it was a pretty special one. It stayed local for a while but last I heard it was heading out West and living an interesting life. This is the first old Subie I've had since then, what, close to 7 or 8 years ago now. Once I signed back in here all the memories of that time came back, and I haven't forgotten your generosity back then. Seeing your username totally brought me back. It was great meeting you, and hopefully I'll make it up there again! Everyone, I appreciate the input. I'm feeling a little better about it after reading your replies. I mounted new tires to replace the dry-rotted units it came with along with getting an alignment done, and I took it up a couple hours north to some wrenching friends of mine and to give it a more thorough looking at and toss about on the windy roads up there. While the rust is definitely very bad the car is proving to be totally worth saving, as it really does run and drive nicely. The suspension is surprisingly spry. Idosubaru, I'm probably going your route - friends of mine who are more skilled than I fell in love with it and want to help attack the rust. We're going to team up and patch it up structurally as best we can, and then I'll do my best to maintain it and keep it clean afterwards. She'll never be mint, but we can probably get it to the point where I can use it as intended for as long as I can. I think the car could be quite efficient while doing what I want it to do, I just need to tinker with the Weber carb it has, seems to run a little rich. I am maybe getting about 200ish miles per 8.5 gallons, hard to be totally accurate as the speedo/odo don't work even with a new speedo cable, haha. Here are a couple more flattering shots of the little beast. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3

*Install new Subaru timing belt and lower cogged idler at a bare minimum. Takes an hour, parts are roughly $125. $400-$800 at a dealer or $200-$500 at a local shop. Even if they have "a new timing belt" I still always install a new Subaru belt and lower idler. Because they usually don't change that idler which is prone to fail and aftermarket belts are known to fail early. They bend valves if the belt breaks. That is all I'd want to ensure before a long road trip and moving. Ideally the following are checked or considered or addressed as well: Brakes - clean and regrease the slides with Sil Glyde or some other high performance grease. If you're headed east this would be wise too as that higher end grease performs better in our salty/chemically treated winter garbage out east. Check the drive belt and battery connections and age. Clean and tigthen battery posts and connections. Spark plugs, wires, PCV valve, air fitler - general tune up stuff. Use stock NGK plugs only and Subaru or NGK wires and Subaru pcv valve. Very easy job on that vehicle. In the end a bad wire or plug will just give you a check engine light that's benign (you can keep driving) and you fix it when youi have time - so it's not a big deal or worry of a stranding situation. Not the case. There are two distinctive EJ22's for this discussion. The 99-01 EJ22's are not the same as the earlier subaru fan favorites of 1990-1998 EJ22's which were one of the best engines Subaru ever made. So that's why there's incorrect, or conflicting, statements. The 99-01 EJ22 heads are essentially Phase II EJ25 heads - the valves and springs are identical and even have the same Subaru part number, and the heads themselves are identical except for the exhaust ports. It's not like earlier Ej22's where the heads were completely different designs from the EJ25 and shared no parts. These are, by design, the same head molds, just tweaked for different exhaust ports. I'd still recommend getting it if it passes other assessment/requirements, but be aware of a few things when you look at it or in the future as an active owner of that vehicle. If they have the original manufacturer installed headgaskets from the factory they are prone to external leaks. Usually oil and it usually gets worse very slowly over a long period of time. You can wait and plan a repair for 10's of thousands of miles or just ignore it if you're not worried about drips here and there. The good news is this is of zero consequence for reliability. The bad news is it could have leaked/be leaking or have been repaired. 1. I'd be looking for signs of repair and who did it or if a Subaru gasket was used. 2. I'd be looking for signs of cleaning - squeaky clean, as if to remove lots of oil. Or clean in some areas and saturated in areas that are hard to clean. That would be a sign it's currently leaking and was cleaned up for sale. 3. It has no signs of leaks at all now or in the past and you just drive the thing 100,000 more miles - which is a very likely scenario.

Yeah, there will always be the ones that get away. Thanks for the advice, I'll try not to become an alcoholic, heh