GoldDiggerRoo

If I'm not mistaken, the "little black cylinder" is just a vent..

I think Andrew is just jinxed. I drove the Brat for several months and 6k with no problems, he drives it for 20 min and it breaks down. Maybe I should wait and bring his Brat up to the show and then on home from there... don't think my gen 1 goodness is going to be ready in time.

We have an EA81 auto hatch, nice car if on it had a better drivetrain.

Are you getting a check engine light? Also, do a search for "coolant temp sensor" Not saying that's what it is, but those are the typical symptoms, if you are getting a CEL a code check should reveal it pretty quickly.

Check the battery connections first though, this has happened to me hundreds of times..... for me it come from having less batteries than cars

Clean your battery terminals and cable ends, also chage your battery if you can. I know from laziness that if the cable ends aren't on good and tightend down it'll do that exact thing, seem fine and give a click when you go to turn it over. The jump start would likely have no effect, since you're still not getting a good connection. You might just want to go ahead and replace the cable ends anyhow, it costs like $5 and takes 10 minutes. The dim lights could be coming from a bad alternator, but I'd check the battery and connections first. Besides, it's easy to rule out the simple stuff before you start taking apart the colum or dash.

There is one there... guess you have dibs...

Yeah, not much in the way of good bady parts, but plenty of good glass (esp. 1st Gen Brat and hatch non a/c), decent trim and chassis parts. It's a shame the Brats are rusted to bits, some look like they could easily been kept on the road before they went in the yard to soak in the muck and mire. It's gonna take me a long time to get all the mud out of the floors in my hatch. Lot of cars on their side and top, interesting stuff, like a Brat with a screen door hook latch installed to hold the drivers door shut....

Wow, I was right for once!

Unless the OP is wanting to swap an EA82 into a GEN 1 car (which is what they have) with an EA81, then I believe it is too wide. I could be wrong, but I think I remember it that way, correct me if I'm wrong. So anyway, just for the sake of asking.... what car is the swap in?

Not sure about the rear discs but they do hit significantly on the front calipers, I had a set on my forst EA82 wagon and I had to do quite a bit of grinding on the calipers to get them to fit. There are however EA82 wagon wheels out there, which require no grinding. Their spokes come out further before turning inward, thus clearing the calipers. I have a set on my hatch, which I'd gladly trade for EA81's. Bad pic, but you can tell the difference between them and the EA81's

The scrap price is not much for old subarus because of weight. A guy I used to know would take cars to the crusher, he'd have to remove the gas tank and the tires and wheels. I gave him two EA81 wagons once, I think he got around $40 for the pair... he was rather pissed. As for the junkyards, few around here keep whole cars for sale, two I know of actually, and I really only know of one or two years that will let you look around a take stuff off yourself.... a lot won't let you in the back.

I haven't autox'ed an older sube.....yet, that'll come this spring/summer... but I did autox my RS, had fun... out ran several WRX's. It's worth getting out and doing for sure.

Props to the maroon subes

Is it windy there? I know my hatch is extremely effected by the wind, even from other vehicles at that speed.

I had a chance to play with the choke over the weekend. When the car is not running the choke is off, as soon as you start it the choke goes half on. I disconnected the electric going to it with no effect. So I decided to pull off the butterfly, which had virtually no effect on the high idle. After prodding around a little more I found a rod that goes from the choke down to the throttle linkage, it was this that was keeping the throttle hung open, so I disconnected it. The car idles like it should now and runs great, although I do think I need to adjust the throttle cable.... the gas pedal does pretty much nothing unless it's more than half way down now. I guess I'll just fiddle with it until I can do a Webber swap. Best of all, I averaged 30mpg on my last tank.... big step up from the 18 I was getting on the tank before!

I don't doubt it, I've used some of their engine paints and wrinkle finish in the past, has worked well for me, though I don't see any interior paints on their website

I know here in Virginia that yards are *supposed to* send in the title of a car when they get it as "junked" to the state, after that it can never be registered in this state again under that vin number. I once bought a '70 Dodge Charger R/T from a junkyard and went thru that whole hassle. I just ran the car with vin/tags from a junked Charger I had. The car was sold to a guy in PA and it is now registered with it's orginal VIN there. It's stupid, I called the main DMV, State Police... didn't matter, if the car was 100% perfect, it still couldn't be brought back from the dead with it's orginal VIN.

They're a pretty standard part, your local parts store should have something that'll work, you'ld never get old ones out in one piece anyhow. They're usually in the HELP! or lighting sections.

The VHT may have actually been what I used on the Volare I did, I may have a can of the white still around. I'll have to check and see.

The console has the most sun damage, the rest of it has white spots from impacts or pressure being put on them, no real way to get that out I know of.

Gonna try and make it, who knows what I'll be driving..... hatch or gen 1 goodness

After having had most of the interior out of my hatch thus far, I've realized that pretty much all of the grey plastic parts are pretty sun damaged, in great shape... but riddled with bleached out sun spots. Trying to repalce all of this stuff would be crazy so I think I'm going to do everything except for the perfect padded part of the dash in black. I did the inside of a car I had several years back black and white with the spray stuff you get at advance auto, I sold the car so I have no idea about the longevity of this stuff. I won't be doing the seats, but pretty much everything else. My primary concern is the vinyl door panels, the hard plastic stuff should do well with the Krylon made for plastic. Does anyone have long term experience with this stuff on vinyl or have any recomendations of products to use? How about prep? I figured a good wipe down with thinner would do...... Can you tell this patch of warm weather has got me jazzed to fix the hatch?! Here's the car I did before, the black turned out okay, the white was a PITA to do (cover up the old)

Exactly, the trick is finding the well kept N/A Ea82 car (I.E. avoid the dirt cheap ones). But the boards sure are littered with a lot more EA82 problem questions than EA81.... and the EA81 problems usually are cheaper to fix. How much do you have to spend? If you've got a couple grand to throw around, since you're looking for a commuter I'd be looking more toward the early/mid '90's Impreza wagons, I've seen plenty of those go between the $2k-$3k range. Awful nice cars for the money

So as I was driving around today I saw a new Gen 1 Brat. I was so excited, this thing was in primo shape except for a dented door, no rust at all. Silver with the stripe, quad headlight with what looked like vintage orange fog lights on top of the bumper, no bed seats. I've never seen this thing before, it's only the second gen 1 I've even seen in person that I didn't own. Honestly I doubt the guy knew what he had, he didn't even give my hatch a second glance. I fear that it'll be torn to bits in the next few years, that's what usually happens around here. Someone will stumble onto a mint car, have no idea what it is and proceed to drive it into the ground, saw a mint '68 GTX a guy got from his mother go that very way; passed it going down the road one day with a ladder sticking out the side window.... Anyway, I was so excited, I had to share with someone, you guys are the only one who would understand.