January 10, 201016 yr The plastic gaskets between my mirrors and the doors were badly cracked after all these years, so I created some reproductions from cast urethane rubber! You can see all the pics here: 1981 Subaru Brat Restoration Tips and Tricks And a picture of the final product: I'm now looking into reproducing the front parking light gaskets, but my originals are in horrible shape (anyone have some decent ones...?). These will be a beast and may require having an injection mold machined. If so, anyone up for a group buy, or should I just squirt in some urethane caulking and call it a day? (shudder the thought...) On the easier end, I'm doing a reproduction of the shift knob for the 4wd. Mine broke a long time ago and, after a ton of searching, I got a pretty good one off of Ebay to use as a model. It's not perfect (threads are stripped out), but that's easily fixed when making the mold. I'll post pics when it's done as well. For some reason, Subaru molded the knobs hollow (I'm going to make the new one a solid piece) and it's amazing mine held up as long as it did. As always, I hope this helps someone. -Ben
January 11, 201016 yr Author I put them on the Brat and realized that I would have preferred a less obvious hole on the bottom for water (live and learn), so I'm molding a new set today. If anyone needs a set, let me know. -Ben
January 11, 201016 yr Gaskets look good, I would if I had a set of side mirrors! My brat never came with any and not high on my priority list to find some. Was thinking of doing 'Z' style on front fender anyways...
January 11, 201016 yr Author Gaskets look good, I would if I had a set of side mirrors! My brat never came with any and not high on my priority list to find some. Was thinking of doing 'Z' style on front fender anyways... Our local feed store broke one of mine off with a miss-tossed bale of hay. It was a pain to find a replacement. I thought about doing another style as well, but finally came across an original in good shape. Re-purposing parts from other cars has a lot of appeal. Gen1 parts get really hard to find in Southern California.
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