I'm looking at getting a 78 or 79 DL for a very FREE price. Its a 4 door 5 speed FWD car in brown. It looks to be mostly rust free. The thing is its been sitting for 9 years. I'm not a complete noob to cars (rebuilt the motor out of a 1990 Supra Turbo) but I have never monkeyed with a carb. It ran and drove fine when it was parked but hasn't moved since. I know all the fluids, tires, and probably belts will be shot but I'm wondering if there is other things that will need to be replaced on these. I've heard that the carb may need to be rebuilt just from sitting. Also if trying to get it started before changing the oil/coolant would be a terrible idea.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

I would drain the gas (subaru was smart there is a drain plug) and put some fresh gas in there. Unhook the fuel line from the car after having given it a oil change. Put a good battery in and feed that fuel line into a beer bottle or the like and crank it over a bit until clean gas (not yellowish) comes out the line. Then hook the line back up and give it a go. It might just start. Probably will run like poo without a rebuild but it will probably run. Then the list of things to do would be...

 

-Flush coolant system

-fuel filter

-carb rebuild or just slap a weber on it

-go through the brakes

 

I could go on and on. Basically your going to want to do everything to it since its been sitting for so long. I just did something similar with a vw rabbit i rescued. It had been sitting for around 10 years. I had to drain the gas and ended up putting a new fuel injection unit on it along with a fresh filter. Also had to replace a section of rotted out fuel line. Then she fired right up with fresh gas.