Mike Kamm

Good stuff Paul. I like trading rust horror stories. I've been on the Tercel4wd.com forum and most everyone there is from the west coast. Us northeastern enthusiasts have to battle much more rust than they do.

I know that's probably much more than you ever wanted to know about my Sentra, but rust is a very popular subject with me. I like to think I am staying ahead of it, but we all know better. :-p

Fast forward to January 2012, and my regular annual rust maintenance program continues. Different corner of the car each season. As soon as I see holes, no matter how small, I get right down to business. The doors I can let go longer, but anything on the chassis gets repaired immediately.

So all was well and I enjoyed the car for many seasons of ice racing and winter rallies and then guess what happened? No surprise, it started to rust. As usual it just seemed like a few bubbles in the paint, but then after some poking and digging....... Left side. Right side. I kept cutting back until clean metal was found. Rebuilding the inner structure. Remember this is a jacking point for this car. Replacing the outer skin. Panels aligned and prepped for final welding. Back in shape and ready for more winter fun. But as we all know, more of this will be needed again. It's just a matter of time. [This was in 2008]

Although my wagon is 11 years newer than yours Paul, it still needed rust repairs. Here's the quick story on my '89 Sentra. I got the car for $50 back in '99 or so. It was wrecked and was in a barn for five years getting coated in Pigeon poop and looked like this: In this condition and with 150-k miles on it, surely the next stop would be the junkyard right? I mean, what fool would try to bring a car like this back into shape? Well, I figured the price was right and 4WD Sentras don't grow on trees. So I jumped in with both feet. I had a friend saw off everything ahead of the shock towers with a his gas powered cut off wheel. I secured another wagon as a doner parts car for the project and did the same to it. Then I grafted on the straight front clip. I was able to source the correct colored front end parts from local salvage yards so I did not even have to paint the car! Here's how it looked after many months of work.

I have some family down there and have toured a few the sandy fire access roads once. Good fun. Found it. Cool! Haven't seen one of those in years! Us salt belt northeasterners that still drive these classic 4wd compacts definitely pay our dues. How does the saying go, "If it was easy, everyone would be doing it." :-p

Awesome. I hope you can join us. We'd love to have "Magpie" come up for the run! We'll be meeting in West Sand Lake, NY to start the tour.

Excellent Paul. I've never seen your '78 4wd wagon. Looking forward to it. Are there pics anywhere on the forum?

Just got home from a 12 hour day and am pleasantly surprised to see all of the new interest here. Awesome. I have an email list I use to streamline info exchanges and communicate with everyone at once. Please send me a note to mikek (at] icerace[dot) com and I will add you to my list and inform you with all of the meet details. If any of you have walkie-talkies, bring them. We can all set them to the same channel and communicate on the trails. For you guys coming from further away, no need to get up really early and such. We could meet at 10:00 or even 11:00 am or so. It's the weekend, we want to relax and enjoy. Mike

That would be a bonus of you could join us! So far we have a Nissan, a Honda, and three Suzukis, but no Subarus yet.

Update: I have postponed the event one week and we will now be having it on Sunday, December 2nd. Who knows, we might even get some snow by then.

I finished up freshening the rear suspension on my wagon and spent this beautiful day [60+ degrees] in the forest scouting more roads for the 25th. Some of them had remanants from Hurricane Sandy..... it was a good outing again today. With the newly discovered roads the upcoming meet will be even more fun now. Also looking forward to running this route after the first snowfall of the year.

You're welcome moosens. Our plan is to also bring a lunch along and take some pictures of our group's cars out on the trails. Yes just outside of Albany. Do you know of any members here that are near the Capital District of NY, in western MA or VT?

I am looking for members here from the northeast who would like to join us for some "soft roading." That's mild off roading that a stock 4WD compact can handle. Mostly just dirt fire access and seasonal back roads. I would like to get a few compact 4WD cars together for such activities. I have put together a few routes in my spare time and have a small group of like minded enthusiasts lined up to go along, including my 4WD Sentra wagon, a 4WD Civic wagon and two Suzuki SX4's. Boy it would be great to get a classic Suby in the mix as well! We're not into mud bogging. Just challenging routes where you have to pay attention to stay damage free, but not beyond the capabilities of a compact 4WD car. There are a few streams that flow across the road to make it interesting. That boulder is about five times the size of the car! If this looks like fun let me know. We're looking to head out for our first ever 4WD compact car tour coming up on Sunday, Nov.25th.

I agree. This is one of the best threads ever!

Thank you Leeroy. I think I will buy some of that product and use it on the '81 Datsun 210 I am rebuilding. I like the fact that it doesn't dry [and crack] like cheap tar based undercoating. Mike

Thanks for the update. I've managed to break a few used windshields in my time also. I only have about a 60% sucess rate in moving used windshields from one car to another. What is waxoyl? It appears to be like undercoating? Does it dry and harden or does it stay sticky?

Hello moosens, Glad to see the interest. I didn't post about it this year because I've never gotten anyone from here out to a race yet. But anyway, yes A.M.E.C. will be racing tomorrow on Lake Algonquin in Wells , NY. Although the club hasn't done any specific Historic Class ice races in the last few years, there's no reason anyone couldn't bring their street driven old school Subaru out to run in the Street Legal class. Although coming out and competing at an ice race is very easy to do, there are a few things needed in order to pass tech. Bascially, each car has to have four studless winter tires [blizzaks are the mainstay], a small fire extinguisher mounted in the car with a metal strap [not a plastic kitchen strap like WalMart sells], and a set of nicely contrasting numbers on all four sides of the car. Full A.M.E.C. rules can be found HERE. Our schedule is: *Sat Jan. 29 & Sun. Jan. 30, 2011 - - - Tupper Lake , ny *Sunday February 6, 2011 - - - Lake Algonquin, Wells, NY *Sunday February 13, 2011 - - - Summit Lake, NY *Sat Feb. 19 & Sun. Feb. 20, 2011 - - - Lake George,NY *Sun. Feb. 27, 2011 - - - Caroga Lake, NY These are all weather dependant, so always verify whether the races are on by going to www.icerace.com before you leave the house. Mike

I haven't seen the ad, but he told me in person that he wants $5,500 for it. I hope it stays around here and doesn't go to the west coast. Mike

You're wecome. I was at work and in my haste did not think to ask for an underhood shot. Mike Oh, by the way, it's a 73 model. I edited my original post title.

There is a really sweet 1400 GL near me in Rensselaer, NY. I saw it again at a Hemmings cruise in Bennington, VT this summer and met the owner. He stopped by at the shop I work at yesterday and I took these pics. Only 61-k and check out the factory tach too! You just don't ever see these cars any more!

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!...... On October 24th the P.S.C.C. will be holding Rallycross event #2 at Greig's Farm in Red Hook, NY. Registration is now open at MotorsportReg.com. Mike

Subscribing as well. Looks like it will be a fun restoration to keep an eye on. You're off to a great start. Keep up the good work. Mike

Thanks Moosens, They had a bigger show [300 cars I'm told] in CT two weekends ago. I wasn't aware of that one, but will try to keep you guys informed in the future. Bridgeport is in CT yes? Mike

Apologies for not posting the ad for this before the fact. I was wishing very badly to see some old school Subarus yesterday and then when there weren't any, thought of you guys this morning. Just a note to say I wish some of you in the NY/NJ/CT area would have participated in yesterday's NY Rollaz Club Old School Japanese car show at Yonkers Raceway in NY. I brought my '77 Datsun B210 there and had a great time. As usual, there wasn't a single Subaru in attendance. Here's a glimpse of what the show was about. NY Rollaz's first annual Old School Car Show was held at the Empire City Casino, Yonkers Raceway. All-Japanese car shows used to be only on the West coast [where most of the old Japanese survivor cars are] but that is changing. There are some great cars in the northeast too, and here is a sprinkling of them. This was the ONLY Honda in the show. Where are all of the old Hondas I asked? One guy said "the kids tore them all up!" More pics can be found HERE. Congratulations to the NY Rollaz club as they held a very well organized and fun event. Are there any members here that live in the northeast and have driveable old shool Subies? Cheers, Mike