Subafreak

Things are working out pretty good with the kids and stuff, well as well as it can under the curcumstances. Thank you. As for the source.....what source? I informed the general of what i was doing with those wheels and he told me that when i get it done to bring it by and he would buy it from! I felt like asking him "why? So you can stick it in a storage container never to be seem again?" lol.

Thats funny....I also live in Canterbury.

Yeah, thats what i was thinking, but the 73' and earlier bumpers are very thin. I was thinking that the later 4WD bumpers would look good. Still have the same shape but alot lighter without the impact crap in them. Just gonna find a strait set. I will have to see how well the wheels clean up, if they really need restoring i will do them how i want becouse either way they would need redone and it's not like i would be destroying the original finnish or anything.

Shhh. Dont let the guy im buying them from know that! Well how rare are they? I mean if someone wants to give me like $5 grand for them i will leave them alone, otherwise i will probly destroy them to my likeing.

Gonna be going with these wheels. Get the lips polished back up and the mesh part powder coated black. I know there only 13"s but i like em and think they will look cool on this little orange thing.

Thank you, it is a very good starting point. The plan is sorta a resto-mod thing. I want a nice summer cruiser with a cool vintage look and reliable enough to take trips in if i want. I will have to investigate that dash idea. I wonder how much it would cost to get it redone? It's a very small dash!

I hate to say it but i kinda like the look of the back of the car with no bumper.....but there would be alot of stuff to fill in to make it look really good, plus the back of the car is already a bit shorter than the front, so this will also be an area i will need to make a desicion on and perhaps check out some other style bumpers....

So first order of buisiness was to get it running. Blew out the fuel line to the tank, put some gas in it, smacked the carb with a hammer and it fired right up. Runs pretty good too, with the exception of what sounds like a rod knock But it runs, the tranny shifts tighter than most 90's Legacies! Clutch is strong, steering is tight and the brake pedal goes right to the floor! Well since i have to keep it running and mobile untill the bodyshop gets redone im gonna concentraite on getting everything else set up the way i want it before stripping it down to get it painted. So i started messing around with one of the first things that visually bothered me about the car.. this..... Saftey bumpers. Huge, heavy, and sticking a foot out in front of the car. So i was thinking this would look a bit better... May just set up the stock bumpers closer to the body, or try to find some from another model that would look good.

The interior is not as bad as it looks, just needs a little cleaning up and a dash........my oh my...what to do about that dash?

Some more shots as i try to figure out how to use my camera.....

Well finally got the 74 outta pugatory and back to my place to begin it's resurection. Gotta thank Paul for hooking me up with this increadibly clean classic...and Charlie for keeping it outta the weather for awile Well here are a few current condition pics....enjoy.

I was looking at that car on craigs list....$500 is a pretty good deal. So what do you do for a parking brake if you swap in Legacy brakes up front?

Is that the dash out of that 80' brat we picked up awile ago? What is the rest of the interior out of?

What the heck! How does one stumble across an FF1 kicking around a construction site in Boston? And why couldnt i find it? I say save it, no matter what. If you can get it save it. Even if there is anything left of it, it's worth it for the community in genral.

How the heck are the Legacy control arms weak? I havent bent any of mine yet and that thing gets wheeled hard!!!

I suspect H6 wagon front springs from 2000 to 2004 and 90 to 99 4wd wagon rear springs.

Do you plan on makeing it AWD? OR just just keeping it FWD? As for lifting the front the 97 to 99 outback struts are a great cheapest easy way to lift the front, as for the rear you would have to make a strut top spacer as the outback rear struts are about the same length as the 2WD rear struts.

Funny i had been tossing this same idea around in my head. As i have the BRAT, the motor and the tranny. It would take some extensive modifiying, but would be hella fun. I was thinking of doing a RWD only version that would kill tires all day, being able to move the motor back far enough to still use a front mount radiator. If i were to do an AWD version i would probly mount the radiator right to the tail gate and make a fancy luvered gate for it to breath thru. You would need to modifiy the front frame rails so much it might be easier to build a tube front end. Also may want to use at least XT6 suspension and brakes on it but i'm not sure how much wider that would make the track of the BRAT. Maybe able to get away with some of those fender flares for a cool vintage racer look. Havnt really done any serious research of the idea, just pictures in my head. Would be a really awsome prodject thoe.

Heck, i drove my second BRAT, the 77' with no pass window and no heat through all six winter months 50 mile round trip to work and back. It was all back roads but the thing ran great and i could go two weeks on a tank of gas. I need to fill my Legacy up twice a week for the same distance. Eh, really need to one of my BRATs back together and i plan on useing it as a daily.

Wow, that is some really nice work. Very clean, very pro. Br great to see this thing in action......Lets go wheeling!!!!!!

Dont forget the steering shaft.

What the????? Wow! That is just......Wow! I dont even know what to think of that.

Well if you run an EA82 turbo tranny you can use any Legacy, Imprezza, SVX, WRX, Forester front axle up untill the years they started doing the internal axle stub thing. But that gives you alot of options, all you need to do is use the matching spindal. I would recomend against the STI stuff and most of us dont want to run 18" wheels are pay to replace a set of Brembo pads. The SVX brakes will fit a 15" wheel if you find the right one and will stop like hell. Also the SVX spindals use a ball joint desing where the shaft bolts through the spindal and the ball joint bolts to the control arm with 3 bolts, making it easy to mount them to a custom control arm. And with the wider front track you can use the bolt on camber adjustable EJ style struts with a little custom upper strut mounting plates.

Well we're a pretty crafty bunch so there are alot of cheap posibilities. Just think that every evolving generation of Subarus usually got longer and stronger axle shafts....well longer anyway Most notably the svx being one of the widest Subarus ever made and not being to hard to find parts for. Also the STI being about the same width. The Tribeca obviously is very wide with some beefy axels but not cheap or easy to come by yet. Most of these axle upgrades will involve having to change the spindals but if we're talking about custom building control arms anyway, why not?

Yeah, thats basicly the same as the STI struts. I just want to get them together so you can see the differance from the fronts to the rear.