I have just hit the BRAT lottery. This car is extremely clean. Everything is still intact on it, down to the original carpet in the bed. The rust is purely cosmetic and one or two very minor dents. There are a few spots on the bottom that are bent from someone that does not know how to use a jack. The odometer reads 84,000 but I have no reason to believe that it has turned over even once. The best part is I paid less for the entire car than the jump seats are worth alone. $400. I plan on holding on to this beauty and using it as my daily driver.
I drove it for about a two weeks before it died on me. It overheated and was spewing white smoke after running flawlessly since I fixed the fuel issue and new clutch two weeks earlier. I haven't had a chance to really get into it but from first glance I can tell the water pump is shot and I'm guessing head gaskets because of the white smoke. The good news is I have a friend that has an ea 82 with 35,000 miles for an amazing deal and also an ea 81 for probably less than the 82. I'm not sure of the years on either or the miles on the 81. After reading through a few threads here I can tell that the 82 is going to take quite a bit of work to fit into this car, so I am deciding on whether I rebuild the original 71 or buy the 81.
I have a few questions that I am sure have been answered already in other threads but I am asking again.
Will the 81 "bolt on" without any mods if I keep my original tranny? And if not, what do I need to modify?
Also if someone could point my in the right direction for some new seats that can be easily fit into the car.
I will post some pictures soon.