the_bard

I figure it's possible (anything's possible, given enough time, money, and determination), but I was wondering if anybody had done it before. I've become addicted to power windows... most of the time, I'm driving alone, and it's so nice to be able to roll down that front passenger side door window without leaning over. Bad safety hazard, right here. Sometimes I want to feel the wind on both sides of my face (natural A/C is so much better than artificial), and sometimes I just want to blare my music (get sick and tired of listening to someone blare their rap music... it's nice to roll down that window and blast some Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels, Hank Jr.,... you get the point). I imagine all I would have to do is dismantle my current Loyale, piece by piece, preferably documenting and taking pictures of each wire and part I remove, then replicating the assembly in the new Loyale. Probably not easy, since I'll probably have to run wiring (doubt Subaru was nice enough to install the wiring for me), or at the very worst, drill mounting holes (or find some way to mount brackets, that sort of thing) for the motors and what not. I'm gonna have to find new door panels, too... the ones out of my current Loyale will work, but they're grey... the new one is blue. 'Course, if I can swap out the bottom cushions on the front seats (might be possible, may not, haven't looked in detail yet), I could take the door panels off my current one, and have a two tone interior. If I do end up doing this, I'll take the documentation and pictures and write up a USRM article.

If these things are still around in a few months, I might be interested in 'em. Wouldn't mind sending a bit of finder's fee along, too. Gotta get the cars in one piece first, though.

What I show up for depends on where I end up after May, and at what stage my project's at. I hope to have everything together at the end of March, by the latest. The car probably won't be what I want it to be until a year or two down the road (gotta spread the spending of cash out a bit, otherwise the wife will kill me, newlyweds or not ). Even if I don't have it lifted, or the bumpers exchanged, or the brushguard installed, etc., I'd still like to show up.

Hmmm... makes me wonder how bad shipping would be from Maine to Albany, NY...

That's awesome. I can deal with sheetmetal for the time being... found out there's a guy down at work who dirt races, and he might have a connection to someone with a mig welder. If not, I might just try that drill, rivet, bondo, prime, paint trick in the USRM, depending on how bad it is. If the car structurally is good, I'm happy ;o).

I'm just worried about time constraints, at this point... at most, I'll probably have a week or so to get the chassis, pull everything out of my Loyale, do any work I want to do while I've got it apart, then put it back together. Depending on what happens after my wife graduates in May, I might be able to have time to pull the engine/tranny again during late summer, so I could set priorities.

If I've got the time, I'll probably get in there and clean the lifters out, too.

Alrighty... looks like this time, my project will actually have a hope of starting off (and being completed). Basically, because of the help Meeky Moose gave me, (Awesome guy, btw... if he ever needs a personal recommendation, he's got it from me), I've found a Loyale chassis that's relatively rust free (at least to NY standards). So what I plan on doing is pulling my engine & drivetrain (right 'til the rear half of the driveshaft, or rear diff, depending on what Meeky Moose has taken for his project) out of my Loyale, and slapping it into the new chassis, along with all the related parts I need. At some point along this, obviously, I'm going to have the engine and the tranny outside of the car, where it should be a lot easier to work on things. My engine & drivetrain has 226k miles on her, though, so I figured I may as well get some important stuff done while I've got it out. First thing I plan on picking up is a FSM, so I've got a better clue about what I'm doing when I'm doing it, and not trying to figure the proper way of doing it while I'm doing it. After that, I plan on doing the following: 1. Normal tune-up stuiff. Plugs, spark plug wires, filters, etc. 2. Oil pump replacement. I suppose I could pull it, see how bad the pump is, and possibly reseal it, but I'd feel better with a brand new pump in there. Just to be safe, ya know? 3. Clutch. May as well, since I've got everything apart, and I'll eventually have to replace it anyhow. No clue when it was last replaced. But should I replace just the clutch disk, or pick up a clutch set (Disc, Pressure Plate, Throw-out Bearing, Pilot Bearing/Bushing & Alignment Tool; according to PartsAmerica.com)? That clutch set's rather expensive, though... five times more than just the clutch itself. 4. Rear main seal... got it apart, may as well... heard if you're doing the clutch, may as well get this out of the way also. 5. Timing belts. No clue when these were last done. 6. Accessory belts. 7. Gonna pull off the oil pan, and see what crud/build-up I can clean out of it... gonna reseal it, too. 8. Gonna have to replace the exhaust studs, too, when I pull the exhaust off. They're really bad. Anything else I'm missing, that I ought to get done while it's out? Does anybody have any opinions on sources for parts? I'm gonna do a bit of searching online regardless, but I'm open to suggestions. Once I've got a game plan, I can start planning how much money I'm going to need for parts and how much time I'm going to need to get all this done.

Try pressing the buttons on the clock... see what happens then. The clock in my Loyale turns on or brightens when I press on the buttons... heard somewhere that it has something to do with the circuit board solders becoming fatigued, and pressing the buttons flexes the board, reconnecting the solder connections. Try looking at this ... there's quite a few other threads on the subject.

I figure I'm going to call around to a couple places tomorrow... see if it'll be cheaper for them to put new glass in or pull the glass out of the old wagon. Just to see how much they're asking *grumble*

So the window is the same... life is good (got your PM before I checked this thread, Meeky Moose). I love the sound of that rust, or lack thereof. Finally, I'll have a car that I can get ahead of the rust for a while... at least feel like I'm doing something to combat it, at least (gotta order some POR-15, too). By the way... was that 5-10 years VA rust, or 5-10 years NY rust? . Seems to occur almost overnight here... Ok... went out and took a good look at my Loyale, in the dark, took a few pictures... and came to the conclusion that I have absolutely no clue whether it's glued in or rubberset. Judging from northguy's post, though, I'm gonna guess that that the Loyale glass is tempered. At which point it's probably glued in, right? At that point, then, I'd want to cut the glass out, using northguy's utility knife technique. At which point I find a source for the new "moulding" (I heard somebody mention JC Whitney before), and install it in the new Loyale. That sound right?

I second the diamond plate dash... looks sweet. Whenever I finally get myself a wagon lifted, I want to throw in a programmable speedo... while I'm pulling the dash, I sure wouldn't mind doing a bit of research on that diamond plate. It looks *good*.

Thanks, Shawn... never heard of Carlisle before.

Been seeing a lot of meets & greets planned for the rest of the country lately, so it got me wondering what those of us in the northeastern part of the country are planning/thinking. Assuming my current plans go through (so far, my track record isn't so hot... they change every other hour it seems), I should have a vehicle I'm proud enough about to get to one of these meets. It may not be quite offroad-worthy just then, but it'll still be worth it to get out and meet some of y'all.

I'm in Albany, NY right now... got family back home just outside of Elmira, NY. Not really close, I know, but it could be worse

Chrikey. My Loyale's sitting on the street right now, tank on empty... always takes about 11.5 gallons to fill it from the empty mark, too. The idiot light never comes on, though... I may have never run it fully out of gas before, but I figured I was close. Heck... another 4 gallons of gas might still be in there? Wow. If the left front halfshaft wasn't still clicking, and I had that rescue gallon, I might just go for it... *sigh*

So I think I may have finally found a replacement for my Loyal(e) Subie. Hopefully, at least... things are going rather well so far. If things work out, though, I'm going to need to replace the driver's side rearmost window in it. The vehicle itself is an EA82 wagon. I should find out the year tomorrow. I've got a good replacement window in my Loyale right now. I did a few searches on window replacement, but most of them seemed to concentrate on the windshield. So I figured I'd throw out these questions: 1. The wagon should be late '80's... will the body style be close enough to my Loyale to swap that rear window into it? 2. Is the recommended removal procedure the same as a windshield? I.E.: run a strip of small strong wire through the rubber "gasket", attach handles to both ends, and "cut" through the "gasket" all the way around the window? 3. If I use the above method, where can I pick up a replacement "gasket"? I tried searching around on a few automotive parts stores online, to no avail. 4. What's the easiest way to get it back in there, without calling the glass tech's? I'm stubborn, this car's gonna be my baby, and I hate to have someone else working on it. Thanks once again, and cross your fingers for luck for me, if'n you don't mind

I can get you some pics of the mounts on most if not all of the mounts on my Loyale, if that'll help you. Tuesday, if it's warm, I plan on getting underneath it to swap out that left front halfshaft & check out the rust. If it's cold, I'm just going to check out the rust. No reason I can't get pics then...

I've decided to keep my Loyale (not surprising, due to lack of interest, lack of buyers, and my overwhelming "sentimental-ness"... I just really don't want to get rid of her). So one of the major things I want to fix is the shocks/struts/springs issue. The car rides at what I believe is a normal height, and doesn't appear to sink an abnormal amount on any corner when I stand on it. When I step off, however, that corner bounces a few times more than once . So I ought to be alright by picking up new shocks/struts, right? Or do I need to replace the springs, too? Anybody have any recommendations for the shocks/struts? Never mind... just caught Torxxx's earlier post on the subject.

Good luck!

That's alright... I think Troy's got one of the biggest gang/durg problems for being what amounts to a tiny city. I personally haven't had any problems with 'em... as long as you don't visit certain sections of town at certain times (like midnight... duh...), and you show respect (not fear), they don't give you any trouble. Mostly it's with another gang, or over drugs. Nasty stuff. I'd rather not live in a city again, anyhow... I'm not sure I can stand suburbia. If I can see my neighbor, they're too close...

I second this one... there's a situation coming up that might require some "jiggling." I was going to go the more permanent route, by swapping dashes...

It looks like a fancy sports car. That's the impression I get at least. Now if I was interested in a fancy sports car, I might be attracted to it (well... actually, I am attracted to it, and I'm attracted to fancy sports cars, but my repulsion to the speeding tickets I'd pick up in one of these is higher. Not to mention the repulsion my wallet creates when thinking about the price of one of these, or the repulsion created by thought of owning one and having someone fenderbend it in some parking lot somewhere...end rant). Where was I? Anyhow, I love the look of my Loyale. It's something that people look at, and think "Man, that's ugly." Because ugly is something that I can take off-road, and not worry about denting, boogering, or scratching. That only adds to the ugliness factor. People don't seem to want to run into ugly cars, either. Once I get it lifted, then homemade bumpers, roofrack, skidplates, and brushguards put on (not to mention extra lighting), it's "solid-ugly." Which just intensifies that feeling that it was meant to go places other cars are not (especially station wagons), and that this is not a car that you want to mess with (or the owner).

I believe she was looking around Anchorage... at least, that's where her friend is from. From what she's said earlier today, though, the job is an old posting, and it was filled when she called. She's posted up on Monster.com, and we did flag Alaska as somewhere we'd be willing to move to. I don't know how much searching she's done up there, but she hasn't said anything else about it yet, which means she's not excited about it. I'm not too worried about how modern the place is... I do tend to be a bit of a hermit ;o). As long as I've got a place I can go for parts, and a decent internet connection, I'll be happy. I'm not liking the mentioning of crime & gangs, though. I've got a bit too much redneck in me... I don't put up with someone breaking into my car or house. Got a tendency to get involved when I see it happening to someone else, too. Not a good idea when you're my size ;o), so I try to stay away from situations like that. Politics, huh? I'm not sure I know how wierd politics could get in a larger city like Anchorage, but I have a feeling I know about the smaller towns, at least to a degree. Check out Oswegatchie, NY sometime in mapquest ;o). I'll agree with you, completely... I don't want to get involved in the politics of a small and isolated town. We'll have to see what sort of offers she gets, and go from there...

Last time I was down at Wal-Mart, they had some stuff called Fog-X... supposed to work on the inside of the car, to keep the windows from fogging up **. It was sitting right next to the Rain-X, on the same end cap display. ** - Remind me to pick this stuff up in twenty or thirty years when I have teenagers...