Hey Soobie land!

 

My 86' DR/4WD GL Wagon has it turns out serious rot in the subframe rails where the floor curves up into the firewall and front sub-frame. It will need some serious welding. I'm in Central New Jersey and I was hoping someone who has had this work done could recommend someone to fix this. I'd really like to save this car it's my first Subaru and I'm getting a kick out of how different it is.

 

I just had a left CV replace, and the cam belt had jumped a tooth and that's been fixed, still lots to do BUT, until I address the subframe rails issue, I don't want to sink another cent into it.

 

Cheers,

G.

Buy stainless sheet from a welding/metals shop and you will NEVER have to face rust in that area again.

My '92 Loyale has some pretty good rust on the frame rails, just behind the engine. The rear of the vehicle isn't in great shape either... it's really starting to go.

 

I don't have a mig welder (though an accessible arc welder is a three hour drive away... and I might have a friend who's father has a mig welder), so a major cutting and welding operation is out of the question.

 

I hopefully will be solving this by picking up a chassis that has some rust on the fenders and behind the rear wheels, and that's it. I can replace the fenders, and hopefully catch up to the rust behind the rear wheels, and keep up with the rest of the underbody, preventing rust as much as possible.

 

That's not the perfect solution, but from what I've heard, getting someone to cut & weld it for me would be expensive. A mig welder & some practice would be my optimum solution, but I don't have the cash nor the storage space for one right now.

Gareth, I thought of another suggestion for a cheap fix. Go to a tech school that teaches autobody and let your car be their practice. That would be much cheaper than an autobody shop and it would be done under the supervision of an instructor so it should be done right. Other than this and what we already talked about, I am out of ideas. Boz

Drive it down here to Texas, go to the Pick'n' Pull and buy one with a good body/toasted engine/tranny.. spend the weekend with a local board member and swap the good stuff from the rustbucket into the yard car.. guaranteed to have no rust... Then have your old rustbucket hauled off to the yard.. a fun weekend, a few hundred bucks and you are good for another 10-20 nasty salty east coast winters.

Yeah, Then spend more money trying to title it because it was salvaged plus add in gas, hotels, meals. Yeah, You'd be making out like a bandit! J/K Besides, When I was in Tx, I saw maybe 3 subarus in about a total of 8 different yards.

They aren't too terribly hard to find as long as you don't need a Turbo Car.. those are a pain in the rump roast to find.

I know of a real clean EA81T wagon in a wichita falls junkyard.

for the back fenders I went to a yard with a sawzall and got them to hook me up with power, and I cut out the rear quarters of a mint wagon. The quarters are lying at my house now, ready for me to cut out the old ones and braize the new ones in (no mig, my arc blows holes) I'll just leave a lip around the area to be replaced so that the new fender overlaps, then I'll braize the new fenders together, and pound down the high spots. Then it gets a nice layer of bondo.

Cheapest fix - get another car - use that one for parts. EA82's are so damn common that doing extensive rust repair is a waste of time. If it's really that rusty, then likely it's not worth more than a couple hundred in parts..... do you really want to spend that kind of effort on a car worth less than your shirt?

 

GD

Another option is ....

this company sells frame "caps"

for our gen Subarus

 

You take them to a body shop and have them weld them in.

Removing the carpet might be a wise idea

 

Hope this helps

Subaru body parts

Hey people,

Gonna look into the "frame cap" idea and failing that I'll look into Stainless steel and the Vocational School. If anyone near NJ. has a Solid GL Wagon that I could do an engine on, or more accurately get my mechanic to do, (Don't scream at me, I live in an apartment!!!) That might be a better deal than doing the frame work.

 

Cheers,

Gareth