Finally! After 7 long years of nagging at the 93-year-old neighbor's son to sell me the '82 Brat GL, we got it. Unfortunately, now that it has sat there for so long and hasn't even been started for three years, it needs some tlc. It was in very good condition when he first parked it there. The heavy snow two years ago broke both mirrors off, rust from our wonderful Utah salt, sun damage to the interior, lacquered fuel, etc. It has just under 86,000 miles on it and we will be the third owners. Everything is stock for the time being. We haven't really had to do much yet. Cleaned the fuel tank and lines, fuel filters, new plugs & wires, cap & rotor, and other minor things. Finally had to pull the carburetor apart to get it running. Has a few rust spots and the exhaust is rusted completely so I guess we will start there. I am not real impressed with the carter-weber carb so I will work on talking my husband into letting me do something different when we get the exhaust done. Any ideas? Also, I have the "cylops eye" but it doesn't seem to work. Not sure since I haven't pulled it apart yet but I think the motor is probably seized. Is there a relay to it somewhere? If anybody has any ideas on fixing that, I would be grateful. I have been checking this site out for last couple of weeks and I just wanted to say "THANK YOU!" for all the information. It was all extremely helpful.

 

http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u495/Beckybrat82/Facebook/Wall%20Photos/277923_473745869310874_571522637_o.jpg

Edited August 10, 201213 yr by Becky

I am a gen 1 Brat owner so I cannot add to the Cyclops thoughts.

 

Just wanted to say that you seem to have found a great Gen 2 Brat. Looks to be a good beginning!

 

Welcome to this awesome forum!

nice brat !

Thats a looker! Welcome to the board! Yes there is a relay Im not sure where, and the switch itself can break out the back. I've heard the relay is a common failure.

Edited August 17, 201213 yr by Yo'J

more pics:popcorn: ok u just made me jealous but my 85's going to be awesome once i get it back together and primed and painted bright red like factory nice to see u saved it looks like u need the roll bar and brush guard still with lights and winch:D i just bought the cyclopse, grill, bezals and tail lights for $150 need to work on wireing but once i get things sorted i might be able to help u with it, if u haven't got the factory service manual yet i highly recommend it

my brats thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=133905

Welcome to the board and nice Brat!

I'd say your nagging paid off!

So I jjust started school again and haven't had time to do much. Got it back from the exhaust shop. They put in a new exhaust front to back. I fixed the cyclops. You were right. The back had broken out of the switch. I replaced the door jamb switches so the dome light is working again. The radio wasn't working so I found the fuse and replaced it and replaced the speaker. It runs great once it gets warm. I think I want to put a different carb in it next but that might have to wait a couple of months.

That is awesome that you found a cyclops with the grill intact. I can't wait to see pics when you get it painted. I will probably get a service manual at some point but, so far, I haven't really needed one yet. I have gotten a lot of good advice from all of you and it is really in good shape so I haven't had to replace or fix a lot.

Sorry, I haven't been real good at updating. Besides working on the brat, my daughter wrecked her car 2 days after my insurance expired and I wasn't told. So we have been rebuilding her car, as well. We also got the insurance renewed! Not to mention Calculus, Engineering Computing, and a very disorganized English professor. Anyway, here is where we are...So far we have replaced the exhaust and cat. We replaced the fuel pump twice. We drained all the gas out, dropped the tank and cleaned it, and blew out the lines but there must have still been a lot of junk left because it stopped working and had to be replaced again. We did some maintenance such as plugs, wires, cap and rotor. We also took the carb apart and cleaned it. It ran okay for a while but the gasket on the accelerator pump was toast and it has the good ol' Carter-Weber 1-bbl so we couldn't get parts for it. I took it to a couple of carb shops here in Salt Lake area but they couldn't help us. I waited for my husband to go to New York for a job and tore it all apart again . I found some parts from other carb kits, a hack saw, and some marine epoxy putty and put it back together. Changed the spark plugs again due to it running too rich. It runs better than ever. We took it on the freeway and it does 65 without issue. We did push it to 70 but it started getting scary. Even passed emissions and safety! The 4-wheel-drive works great as far as I can tell. We haven't had a chance to really try it out yet. Sorry, I didn't take any pics but I will get some more posted asap. I think we are going to leave it as is for now. I would like to do some body work eventually though. There are a couple of dents on the driver's side and hood as well as some cancer in the bed on the passenger's side and I am not really attached to the "aztec gold" paint.

That is a very nice looking Brat.

The '82 is my favorite Brat because it is different (slightly) than all the other years.

Looks like yours is in almost collector condition, I wouldn't repaint it or mod too much. Just my bias on this model. :-p

 

We have a '82 DL Brat we are restoring.

 

 

Cheers.

Thanks! I have really enjoyed this car. The fact that it had less than 85,000 miles was a plus. If I could have talked the neighbor's kids into selling it sooner it would have saved me alot of headache though. Sitting in the weather and salt for 7 years took it's toll. Had to replace both side mirrors because the weight of a really bad winter a couple years back broke them off. The exhaust was completely rusted. The fuel system was full of bad gas and who knows what else. We haven't done any modifications because we feel the same way about keeping it stock(husband won't even put a decent stereo in it unless I can find a replacement part for the console so he doesn't have to cut anything). Future plans include reupholstering the vinyl part of the seats. I really like the red and brown plaid and hoping I can save that part. Fixing the dents and repairing the spots in the bed where the rust went through. I'll try really hard not to change the color when we have to repaint but can't make any promises. I really like it in red! . I saw the work you did on the '85. Is the '82 new? Looks like it's in really good shape too.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned replacing the original carb with a true Weber (32/36 DGAV). It's a fairly easy conversion and will run scads better than the carter weber that's in there now. Lots of write-ups on here for that; new cost is around $250 for the kit; used have shown up on the Board for $100 to $200.

Check out local emissions codes first; the Weber is cleaner than the original for emissions, but local laws (like in California) require original equipment and not aftermarket.

 

Another easy conversion is the rear disk upgrade. Worth the time and effort to hunt the junkyards for the parts and do it.

 

Also, try to establish a value for your Brat now with your insurance company. I have a letter from my insurance where they accepted my valuation of $6000 for our '84. Better to have a firm number now before any damage occurs than to find with an insurance adjuster who totals your car out for $500 (trust me, I've been there and done that).

 

Best of luck with your fine looking Brat.

I second the weber swap idea, I'm going to go that route on my '85 and the '82 we have already has one.

 

The '82 has been in my family slightly longer than my '85.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=133190

 

I didn't want to do any cutting either when I installed my stereo so I just found another console I didn't mind hacking up. Junkyards are your friend.

Heres what models will have the console you need:

wagon: 1980-1984

sedan: same

coupe: same

Brat: 1982-1987

hatchback: 1980-1989

 

I just spliced the old harness in with the new one, was kinda unavoidable. :-\

Just left lots of room in case I wanted to go back, but my '85 was already missing a radio and a lot of other stuff when I got it so I'm not concerned as much about it staying pure.