Bratenstein

Since you can sell cars for $100 or more to a junk yard, I would be kind of concerned too. Maybe he tried a scam to sell it that didn't work, and now he just wants to dump it on someone else. If the papers were in order, I would say take it; but given the shady details, I say steering clear was the safe action.

And the police will stop you based upon what the car looks like, not what is under the hood!

Thanks for both replies, that is the guidance I needed to move forward!

Based upon numerous claims of success, I have been working on drilling my hubs out for six lugs. My Brat has been on jack stands for two weeks because I seem to have trouble getting this to work. How do I get the front hubs off? Does the outer part with the lugs come off separate from the disk brake rotor? I removed the castle nut and the four bolts, but I am not sure whether I should try to pull the hub separately from the rotor, or remove the whole assembly. When I drilled out the rear hubs, there are "ribs" on the inside that make it hard to seat the new lug bolts. I assume others have encountered and solved this problem. Is there something simple I am missing? It appears that a 9/16" drill bit works perfectly for making the holes. If I figure this out, I will post my methods.

Thanks for the explanations. Now to find the right intake manifold...

You did a great job of thinking this April Fool's announcement out. It has the ring of legitamacy!

I just got the adapter that I ordered for my Weber carb from redline. It is rectangular with four bolt holes on top and bottom. My "1982 EA81" intake manifold has two bolts for the carb and they don't appear to match up at all. Does anyone know where I went wrong? I got the manifold off an engine that was in the front clip of a Brat, but it was in such bad condition that I can't say for sure if it was really a 1982 as the seller said. Maybe I got the wrong adapter (OHV was what I ordered, maybe it should have been OHC?) Could I somehow have the intake from another engine? Thanks for any guidance!

I have painted a VW bug, a Karman Ghia, and a Toyota Corolla (and a motor cycle) when I was a teen-ager. Other than being a teen-ager, the problems I had were: not enough surface preparation, sorry masking, and my dad's cheap equipment. I have learned a lot, although not enough to have it professionally done . Yeah, I got all excited about color-changing paint before I found out how expensive it is. I'll admit I would feel squeamish doing it myself, especially if it will take three quarts! There is an alternative--Dupli-color Mirage spray paint, sold at fine Walmarts everywhere. Tonight I am going to buy a kit and paint my motorcycle helmet. I will post the results when I get it done for all to see. I figure if it works, I could buy a dozen kits at $20 each and do an Earl Scheib job for about the price of an Earl Scheib job. I could always sand it off and repaint it, right?

Way to go!

So far, the only "decent" price I have found for prismatic paint is on www.eastwood.com. They carry the venerable House of Kolor line, and Kameleon is a mere $526.99 a quart. I was thinking I would need 2 quarts if I don't paint the bed (following the experience above). The rest of the chemicals would be several hundred more. Definitely a job for a good HVLP spray gun unless I want to imagine dollar bills fluttering away in the wind. House of Kolor and Sherwin-Williams seem to be the only brands I can get on-line prices for (SW was $400 a pint). I wonder where the on-line retailers are for Dupont, PPG, and BASF? Subaru has a reputation for lousy paint (at least in recent years), so I was expecting to have to remove everything down to the metal. Would aircraft remover be a good choice? I have done three bad paint jobs on cars, but I have to get this right if I am going to do it.

I am going to repaint my Brat, and I am wondering about... 1. What kind of paint is the factory paint so I can choose the right primer sealer, base coat, and paint process. 2. Has anyone used prismatic paint (e.g. DuPont Chromalusion, PPG Harlequin, BASF ExtremeTM, or House of Kolor's paints) to paint their soob? 3. Does anyone else love their soob enough to pay more for the paint than the car is worth? 4. How many quarts of liquid worth its weight in gold (no joke) does a Brat need? I can skip the bed because I am doing that with spray in bedliner, so it seems like this is a smallish paint job. I didn't see any threads on painting, so I figure it might be nice to discuss it as a break from "Help, my engine is making funny noises!"

What's the real name of that "Guaranteed to pass" stuff? I need it for two of my cars.

Yeah, I have some penetrating oil soaking on the edges. I suspect it will do no good. I will try prying them off tonight. I guess nothing but force is going to break the seal since the whole point of using RTV is to make them stick no matter what.

Well, I did consider that, but I thought there were only two. But I will go check again to avoid making a fool of myself .

The valve covers on the EA81 engine I am rebuilding are stuck on really tight. Repeating beatings with a rubber mallet won't budge them. I tried using the 2x4 and hammer, but still stuck. I suppose someone put on some great gasket sealer once upon a time. Any suggestions for how to break them loose without wrecking the covers?