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bbbs53

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About bbbs53

  • Birthday 07/28/1953

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Sequim, Washington
  • Interests
    Machinist, Tamiya cars, Engineer, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Occupation
    Engineer
  • Biography
    1982 GL Brat
  • Vehicles
    1982 Brat GL

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USMB is life!

USMB is life! (4/11)

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  1. After 6 years of sitting, mine is in the garage for a total restoration. Pulled off the hood and started digging. First off I need to pull the trans and do the clutch and cover etc. Since it has a 5 speed, it will need an EA-82 set. I bought all of the parts years ago and now it is just a matter of getting them installed. Due to being close to the beach in Washington, I have some rusted fasteners, but none in the body. I have a Weber for it and it already has the rear disc brake conversion. Since it is an '82, it has power steering, brakes and air, all of which will be put right. The "third eye" and switch are in and it is getting a "roo bar" I had sent from Australia, all aluminum. I am going to install the 14" Pug rims that now have my studs on them, not necessary at the coast. Most of the expendables are getting done, shocks, brakes, struts, rotors and a new windshield and rubber. About the only thing I haven't found in this mess is the new T-tops I have, somewhere. The old rubber is, well, old rubber. Once the mechanicals are finished it will go back to black with the gold and red stripes. I figure all of this will take the rest of the winter. I scored a new set of bed surround chrome about 10 years back. This is a San Diego truck I bought from a fellow member on here in '03. No rust. I do need to find the EA-82 interior shift cover parts and the steering column covers. I toyed with swapping engines, but after compression checking, no need. The dash has a crack, naturally, and will need some repair, outside of that the interior is fairly nice. After 13 years and a lot of miles before I parked it, it is going to get the treatment it deserves. I did spring the driver door hinges in a minor snow incident when the door came open when it was being pulled out. I have a new top hinge and will make the bottom one work. I am really glad I don't have to find these parts now, seems they are getting hard to come by. Once finished, it probably won't see much use, my Z3 is my daily driver. I am going to do it because one just doesn't see '82's anymore and this one is worthy of the work. I haven't posted in a very long time. I have some fenders and other gen 1 Brat parts and a couple of sets of alloy wheels and a host of gen 2 stuff. Once I am finished, it will all be available. Since I am now retired, I can take my time and do it right. I will start adding pics in a few days. I did restore my last gen 1 I bought in Sumner from Ken and hauled back to Idaho. It now lives in Kansas. It still has the WCSS5 plate from '03 on the glove box. Like me it's a bit faded, but still there. It ran when I shut it down just fine and I suspect it will fire right up. Looking forward to getting her back in shape.
  2. Having been around a lot of acetone and having it get on a lot of surfaces, like paint, it would take a pretty convincing double blind study before I would consider mixing it into my gas tank. I have seen it disolve plastic, swell fuel lines and paint gun air bleed lines, and the last time I looked my filters had plastic housings. Another way to put this is, if it really inproved milage to the claimed levels, there would be hundreds if not thousands of people trying it. I googled it and found very little evidence to support the reported claims. I also wonder how long it really remains in the fuel tank with vapor control without evaporating, it is several times more volitle than fuel, which is why it is such a good paint solvent. This is besides the fact that it is extremly toxic, much more so than fuel is, which is no picnic either, but does not have the same skin penetrating effect in such a short amount of time. Like toluene and several volitles, it has deletorious effects on the liver and kidneys, not to mention very small amounts can produce marked central nervous system problems and they are not temporary. It is also risky to store and spilling it in your garage in a lot smaller amount than gas can cause a fire when the old hot water heater kicks on. It would be great if it did work, but I am going to need to see some data to support the claims.
  3. Acetone is really hard on rubber and other surfaces. It also has a bad habit of evaporating very quickly, not to mention is very flammable, more so than fuel is. If you spill it, it can react with certain clear coats and paints. It isn't that cheap either at 8+ dollars, at least here, a gallon, so the fuel savings would be small if any. I would leave it for cleaning paint guns and thinning and leave it out of my fuel tank.
  4. Google it and find the cheapest one. I found one for under a hundred delivered. I have put too much oil in a car and had the same results! It was good oil to boot! LOL!!! I Imagine that yours is plugged or if not, and this is what makes the feel test not easy, restricted. It could still feel hot and not be doing its job. My heater core felt hot to the touch, real hot, but wasn't putting out any heat. Then when I changed it using the cut the hole in the side of the box trick, the valve was leaking miserably. I kept it as a souviner. I now have a truck that barely turns on the fan and puts out enough heat to run you out of the cab. There is something about all alloy engines that makes a sludge that plugs cores and radiators. Sooner or later if you keep running these cars, you are going to run into the problem. I have changed cores on 3 Brats and Radiators on 2. The radiator guy here in town won't touch them because they come back mad that it didn't fix them. Best of luck on getting the old girl to fly!
  5. When I bought my '82 Brat in San Diego, I had to drive it back to almost Canada. I started up the Grapevine, it started to overheat. This was just after sun-up. I hot wired both fans, since it has AC, and it helped keep it just under red line. I babied it back to north Idaho by driving all night and not durring the heat of the day. There were several other interesting things that happened like a rear cv going out, but I digress. As soon as I got it home, I looked at the very spot you are looking at. The consenses at the time was the radiator was bad, they are not the best design and for a car that will do 300,000, they don't go that far. I replaced it and it has never gone over a third, or to the lower range line, where it stays. The really good part is, they can be had for under a hundred dollars. A junk yard radiator is just that, junk. I don't know how well your heater works, mine needed a core, another common problem, it was almost the price of the radiator. Now for the part that stinks, the valve for the heater core is a Subaru only part, and they are not to well designed. I have yet to see an older one that wasn't leaking from the back of the valve. They are more than the cost of the radiator. My money is on the radiator being the cause of the heating problem. However, running it hot for all that time is beginning to sound like other damage has occured, the smoking etc. And in my part of the world, there is no such thing as a good 400.00 dollar Subaru. The time to look into problems with an alloy engine is at there first sign, or trouble is waiting around the corner. Best of luck, what part of BC are you in? I am down near Creston. Parts a plenty, just ask.
  6. You are most certainly excused, only a clarification. At the time, the other post wasn't on. I am really glad the old guys will be well represented. Someone has to drive this old junk! LOL, B
  7. Hi Corky, I meant Brats and see there is another one planning. 2 years ago my 80 was the lone wolf. I hope they all make it, there arent a heck of a lot of them left. I sold both '80s and they are still going strong, but neither will ever be restored. The Q Brat has the best sheet metal I have ever seen on one except for a certain 81 that is gone. There isn't a speck of rust anywhere and now it lives indoors and gets driven just enough to keep the battery up and the seals wet. See you then!
  8. Hi Ken, he was asking about the parts car for my '82. It was a Wisconsin car, so the body is toast, but everything else is good with only 78,000 on it. I have it stashed way off the hiway, but a lot of Brat freaks see it. Looks like I have a driver for the '78, so it will probably be the only Gen. 1 there. We are looking forward to it and I doubt that Donald will show his face again, Bradd
  9. I aint puttin my shiny new black paint in that mud, but I might come and watch the rest of you dip. On one condition, there aint no foxes allowed! And I don't mean the female type either. Shelton is a great place for those of you that have never been there, just far enough from the city and not too far out in the sticks. See ya in July. May even bring the restored '78 Brat, looks like new Ken.
  10. I don't necessarly agree that the EA82 is a better engine, especially for a hatch. In order to swap it, you would need to swap its wiring as well. Then you get timing belts and a host of other fine upgrades that really don't make it worth the effort. The EA 71/81 series of engines were great for their time, they are getting dated, but many went a huge amount of miles, I have one of each with over 200,00 and going strong. It would be a lot easier in this case to figure out what is wrong with the disty and fix it rather than hack a part that someone else may need to get their ride going. The pickup is a good place to start, but there are a lot of variables to look at. It has been my experience that throwing parts at something until you get the right combination to make it work is not the most efficent way to get to the bottom of the problem. Most mechanics can fix the simpler things on an older Sub and if the owner is not a wrench and not willing to learn, then maybe he would be better off finding someone that knows what they are doing. Most of the "old timers" here learned by doing things and living with the results. As mentioned I still run both engines and have learned how to keep them going. It is getting increasingly harder to find parts. My '77 Brat had better not break anything, and the '82, which gets roaded daily has to have its own parts car for spares, another plan of action that seems to be a must if you are going to run one every day. Most around these parts would kill for what I am using for a parts car. Bottom line, at last, fix the problem, don't create a new one.
  11. For those of you to young to know, it's an Elvis joke. Donald and company met us in Troy Montana and are in the process of returning east in the Traswagon. I wish I had a tape of it, it was like a really bad b movie. Anyway, it is no longer in my posscesion, and on it's way home to Butler. May they have a safe and lucky trip home.
  12. Beauty, nice work. Love the color and the effect. Cant wait to see it finished!
  13. As usual, Jerry is right. One piece is the way to go. The 5 speed will get you to 70 at about 3500 rpm. It makes hi-way speed much more tolerable. Much quieter also. You will actually be able to hear your radio at speed. The dual range part works fine, but have Jerry make you a conversion kit for the shifter. Then you can run all the stock console stuff instead of the several mickey mouse ways to try and deal with the problem. It is a great mod for 4 speed rigs, some day we will be out of 5 speeds though.
  14. If you have access to even a cheap welder, go get a stick of stud plus. Weld a nut to the broken bolt and turn out with a wrench when it cools. It does 2 things for you, expands and cools the stuck threads, gives you something to put a wrench on without re-pulling the flywheel. If the engine is out, it is a snap either way. Good luck.
  15. Very well may be so. Bad assumption on my part to think an 86 is an EA-81. Part of the time warp us Brat guys get into. Having gone through similar circumstances not too long ago, I would have done anything to get out of removing the heater. Seems that the last time I looked at the Loyale, the hoses seemed to go into the back of the heater from the firewall. But it is a much newer car than mine, so I didn't think too much about it, except to figure out how to put the vent or cold air door back into operation. Didn't make the heater work any better, but at least it slowed the breeze down. My apologies if I got your hopes up. On checking the numbers, they seem to still have the same core, but after the early 80 Brat adventure, I wouldn't trust that either. Thanks for the heads up Skip.
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