March 21, 201412 yr Hello everyone! My automotive colleague and I just picked up this sweet little ride. We'll be posting again with more updates soon!
March 21, 201412 yr Author We found the car high up in the Rocky Mountains outside of Ft. Collins, CO. We're from Wisconsin, so we'll be driving it back. I'm a VW guy, and my friend is a Honda guy. We both thought this car is really cool, and we wanted to learn more about these old Subarus. Plus, we paid $480 for it. I'll get some more pictures and an update once we've gotten it back to WI.
March 21, 201412 yr No way! This is the one from stove prairie? In the add didn't the guy say 3rd and 4th gears were out of it?
March 21, 201412 yr Author No way! This is the one from stove prairie? In the add didn't the guy say 3rd and 4th gears were out of it? It seemed that way. Then I drove it home and found the missing gears.
March 22, 201412 yr It seemed that way. Then I drove it home and found the missing gears. That is amazing! I really was gearing up to get it haha, I though no one is going to buy that thing if its tranny is bad and wait and offer him $300. Since you're heading back to Wisconsin, how did you hear about it? I live in Cheyenne which is an hour north of Foco so im always on that craigslist lurking around like a creep!
March 24, 201412 yr Author Thanks everyone! We made it back safe, and the car ran great! That is amazing! I really was gearing up to get it haha, I though no one is going to buy that thing if its tranny is bad and wait and offer him $300. Since you're heading back to Wisconsin, how did you hear about it? I live in Cheyenne which is an hour north of Foco so im always on that craigslist lurking around like a creep! They didn't really know what was wrong with it, it was just an old car that was sitting around. The shifter ball joint thing is totally worn out, which makes it really hard to find any gears. We are looking into moving to Fort Collins, and were in town checking out some neighborhoods. We couldn't help but craigslist binge, and we honestly got really lucky. Nice! How was the trip back? I'd love to hitchhike out west and drive one back. The trip back was a breeze. The more the car gets driven, the more it comes back to life. It was used to haul firewood up and down a mountain for years, so an "Italian tuneup" has done it wonders. It shifts much easier, and got better mileage every tank. Again, we are very lucky. Third gear is still a bit elusive, but my co-owner is taking a community college class on rebuilding manual transmissions this semester, so he has the perfect project for class! I've done this sort of car recovery before. I bought an '85 VW Quantum in Virginia for $600 and drove it back to Wisconsin (14 hours each way), and I also picked up an '83 Quantum Coupe in Ohio for $700 and made it home. All these cars were on craigslist forever, and I finally gave in and made the leap of faith. Fun stuff! More updates and pictures soon. Thanks everyone!
March 24, 201412 yr Author Found some pictures of the car when we got it back to Fort Collins. And here's my friend, check out that smile!
March 25, 201412 yr WANT!!! I had one that we bought in the '80s with about 30k miles on it. It went to 210k miles on the original engine, transmission and clutch before I was begrudgingly convinced to get rid of it for something "safer". I've regretted it ever since! Nice score
March 25, 201412 yr Author An italian tune up? I've never heard of such a thing, what is that? Haha It's where you have a car that runs, but not great, so you take it on the highway at 75mph for 14 hours, and blast all the carbon deposits and gunk out of the entire engine. We changed the engine oil and filter before we left CO, along with the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. We also ran fuel injector cleaner through a few tanks on the way back. It runs much smoother now.
March 25, 201412 yr Haha that's fantastic, how great is it that the "italian" part can be changed to whatever type of people you want?
March 26, 201412 yr Author Some pictures from the drive back. It was snowing in FoCo when we left, and it was snowing almost all the way through Nebraska. And here's my Quantum, after following the Soobie for 250 miles of snow: Enjoy!
March 27, 201412 yr I love that you bought a $500 i mean $480 car and drove it all the way from colorado to wisconsin! It's quite epic haha. Those EA81s are incredible engines that's for sure, great pics!
March 27, 201412 yr I love that you bought a $500 i mean $480 car and drove it all the way from colorado to wisconsin! It's quite epic haha. Those EA81s are incredible engines that's for sure, great pics!
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