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79 Brat in Vegas


lvsarge
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Ha ha yeah this should be fun... Socket should be here tomorrow (I do not own any 3/4 drive sockets)

 

I did try to heat the nut up a few times and hit it with my impact. No luck.

 

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Oh and here's that bearing video I made that never got posted previously

 

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And here's me making more work for myself... Driver's side, rear wheel well. I need to get this stupid socket before I end up cutting up the whole truck out of boredom.

 

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Sarge, the offer still stands to use the 1/2 impact wrench (345-ft lbs). and I have a regular 1/2 36mm socket. and a 32mm socket for those aftermarket nuts. I had an issue just like yours and the impact from my work, did the job. I have no problem bringing over, just let me know. I'm free Friday after 5;00pm. and Sun early before the SuperBowl.

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Every thing i have had has come off with a impact. But sometimes i have to use a 3/4 to get them off. I had to break loose the drain plug on a 5 speed d/r a couple days ago with a 25 inch breaker bar and a 4 foot cheater bar since it just wouldn't budge. Have you tried putting a cheater bar on it and standing/jumping on it?

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My 25" bar snapped. Hence why I got the 40".

 

Superpoo, Thanks again. I'd consider Friday (today) but my wife is actually having a bunco party and there's going to be an overwhelming amount of estrogen in the house, so I am vacating the premises tonight.

 

Sundays are sketchy for me.. Early is usually not a good time for me, either. Maybe next week if I haven't cracked it by then?

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So, my CV joint was looking really nasty due to a torn boot, and there was debris in the joint, so I tossed the axle and am waiting for my new one to get here. I also picked up a new caliper due to a torn dust boot and less than desirable abrasion marks on the cylinder walls. Couple more days and I should have it on the ground again. Then I make the decision to finish the interior or move on to the rear wheels.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Haven't updated this thread in weeks... again...

 

Well, that's because I'm waiting. Perpetually waiting. If waiting to work on your car were an olympic sport.... well, you guys know the rest.

 

Here's what I'm waiting on currently:

 

Passenger side front axle

Flex fiber Plastic welding rod

Passenger side caliper

 

The axle got "lost" and I had another one sent to me. So it's been about 3.5 weeks just for that. I rebuilt the knuckle with new bearings. Once I get the axle and caliper I can finish up and put it all on the ground again.

 

The welding rod is to finish repairing my dashboard. I will be able to put everything back together with the exception of carpet and seats... trying to find originals or something that I like better than what I have (84 GL's). Anyway, some pictures with captions for fun.

 

A snap shot as I was repainting my badge.

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Mucky and gross. As I disassembled the passenger side front end I noticed that I had a fancy break line leak somewhere along the way. Previous owner maybe, I hadn't noticed anything on that side but there's a lot of bubbled paint and grime around the brake line areas.

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Testing the seals. It was hard to tell if they were cracked or not under all that grime. I yanked em anyway since I had new ones.

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More yuck

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And here's why I'm getting a new axle. The inside was very contaminated. I chucked it before I even took a picture.

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As it sits currently.

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So I'm also repairing my dash as I previously said. It was really cracked. I took a die grinder with a grinding tip on it and beveled out all of the cracks so I can fill and resurface when I get that rod I'm waiting on. I'll let you all know how THAT goes..

 

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Oh yeah, hey. That steering wheel that I was refinishing? My first attempt, I'd give it an 8/10. Looks great from about 2 feet out, but if you were to closely inspect you'd see some imperfections. Good enough for now. I'll get picky later when I can drive.

 

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And that's where I'm at. More to come (hopefully sooner than later....)

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Same as the driver's side... New ball joint, tie rod end, rotor, pads, wheel bearings. But also with a new axle and caliper on this side.

 

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I've got my fiberglass-plastic rods and I'm working on the dash now. I've also welded in the holes for the mirrors on my door. I've ordered new mirrors and we'll see how it all turns out. More to come as I have the time.

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I'm not wanting to glass the whole dash. Just filling in the cracks. I would like to retain the padding feel to the dash. I'm following a procedure documented by someone else and will report back on how it goes. Basically it's:

 

Fill in the cracks

Sand down high spots

Use padded dash filler

Re-texture

Prime

Paint

Seal

 

I've got about 3 hours into just filling cracks right now. Since some of my cracks go over the factory speaker holes I will need to re-drill parts of it as well, and I am going to touch up and re-finish some of the rotted plastic trim vents on the dash as well.

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  • 1 month later...

Hey again guys. So I've been travelling a lot for work as of late, and we just got a new puppy (a red heeler-mix), so my free time has been just about nil. I've collaborated some pictures to share, but I'm still not on the road yet. Soon. I hope. It really depends on if the pup will let me sleep at all. :wacko:

 

We'll start things off with a new steering column trim I purchased from a member here. You can see my old one was hacked up pretty good. I did sand the old one thinking I was just going to re-use it (and therefore repaint it), but I'm going to go with the newer, longer trim :)

 

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Also, my buddy in town bought a first gen BRAT too, and decided he wanted some fancy seats for it. I was looking for a set of originals, and I got his. Aside from the center insert being tattered, these things are in really good shape. I will not reupholster these immediately, but it is on my list. I just want to get driving first

 

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Speaking of which, if anyone has a use for GL wagon seats (I think these are from an 84?) I've got these sitting around. They're in really good shape and what my BRAT came with. Send me a message we can work something out :)

 

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The previous owner had the radiator supported by one bolt. The radiator that went in the car wasn't OE, obviously, so I drilled it out and made it so I could get both bolts in there.

 

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Some of the keen observers may have seen that I pulled the door mirrors from the vehicle in previous pictures. This is mainly due to the horrible aftermarket, and HUGE mirrors the previous owner put on. They were cheap, the plastic was cracking, and worst of all, they were fricken ugly. Now, I've always loved the almost useless, but extremely sweet looking fender mirrors on old datsuns, so I went with a datsun style mirror and installed them on the BRAT. I think they turned out pretty sweet, but you all can be the judge (or judge me for it :unsure:).

 

Took down the paint, and welded in some itty bitty pieces of metal. Just have to control the heat and go slow.

 

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All welded up with a fresh coat of primer just to protect it for now. I'll come back to this later, and will eventually be painting the whole vehicle. Someday...

 

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New mirrors!

 

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Just playing around... Not final position. I wanted to see what it looked like.

 

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Size comparison to my old, humongoid, crappy door mirrors.

 

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Ok show time, for real. Measured 4 times to make sure we were even steven on both sides I even ran a chalk line across the top to make sure it all looked square with the front. Let's DO THIS!

 

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Primer the metal on the inside... No rust No no rust.

 

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Alright, so here's my game plan to get back on the road. I still have the interior out so this is what needs to happen:

 

1) Finish repairing my dashboard. I can't put anything back together until this is done.

 

2) Carpet is ordered. I also dry-iced the sound deadener. Once carpet gets in, lay new underlayment and install carpet.

 

3) Get new coolant hoses made. This is tricky as the hose place is only open til 4pm Mon-Fri. I'll have to find a way to get there during the week.

 

4) Add fluids. And cross fingers. :)

Edited by lvsarge
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  • 2 months later...

Hey guys. Haven't updated this in a long while, sorry about that. Work has been very demanding and finding even just a little time to work on this has been challenging. I don't have any pictures to share, but I do have this:

 

Motor is running! I had some problems with the distributor and fuel delivery. Once I got both sorted it fired right up. So the engine is running and man it sounds awesome. Maybe it just sounds that way because I haven't heard it in so long. If any of you recall the timing on this was *supposed* to be 8deg BTDC and I was running somewhere around 22deg BTDC. Way too advanced. I couldn't get it to idle  properly around recommended spec, and it was misfiring, hence the engine tear down. Well, since tearing apart the motor and reassembling it, I am now running at 8deg BTDC! Super stoked!

So right now the brat is on jack stands, and I need to finish welding a couple more body pieces up (just finished the doors last night), fill it with brake fluid, fill the trans, and re-install the interior, and I'm ready to rock. smile.png

Edited by lvsarge
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  • 2 weeks later...

No, not really. Sorry. Since my last post I welded in the holes on the driver side door, cleaned the brake reservoirs and accessible parts of the master cylinder. I need to bleed the brakes but haven't had anyone to help me. Not to mention my wife has been keeping me busy with house projects, and I will be going on vacation soon. Might not be able to get to this until August but I will post and significant progress I make.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hey guys. Just got back from a cross country road trip. I was up in Subaru country, driving north to Idaho, and then making our way east to Wisconsin with various stops along the way. So I've been busy. Anyway, some more updates in the pipe across multiple cars. Here goes:

 

First off, on my trip to Wisconsin my father in law surprised me with a coat rack I thought it was pretty awesome :)

 

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And then I suppose I can move on to this guy:

 

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That's not my motor, first off. It's a friend's whose oil pickup went bad on it and was able to catch it in time before doing too much damage on it. Anyhow, his cam bolts were stuck on the Cylinder 1/3 side, so I went to his house with my welder and welded some wrenches to the bolts and managed to back them out that way. Why I'm telling you this? Well this guy's a detailer, so as a gesture of thanks he polished up my Sti something fierce! Love when I can get that kind of treatment to the car, so thought I would brag a little about it. Looks amazing and feels like silk! :)

 

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OK ok... this is my brat thread. Sorry.

 

So I went to bleed the brakes on the old girl and as soon as I got to the rear drums and cracked the bleeder, fluid just oozed out of the cylinder. Bad cylinder. Had to get some new parts, and of course the brake drums were a pain in the rump roast to get off. I didn't want to rent a puller so I hooked up some wrenches and some testicular fortitude:

 

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Eww..

 

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Got the cylinder replaced and bled the system, all is fine with brakes (I hope). So far so good. Also did a little work on the interior. Laid some dynamat over the floors and threw some carpet down. This stuff is going to be temporary until I can do some carpet I like/want.

 

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Also, remember when I said I was repairing my dash? Yes that's still ongoing too. I did finally goop in some filler... and I unfortunately overdid it. So I've a lot of sanding ahead of me. Anway here's where I'm at with it right now. I used a die grinder to knock out all the cracks and get them down solid foam. I then filled the cracks with fiberglass/plastic filler rod as so:

 

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Then cleaned up the dash and began to fill:

 

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I tried to do it mostly in one pass, I should have done thinner coats with more sanding. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine. Anyhow, I've about a quarter of it sanded down to where it needs to be I'll post the rest of the repair when I get it finished.

 

And now I reveal to you, the addition to my garage. I actually got this right before I left town, and haven't had a chance to really dig in. It's just been leaking tranny fluid all over my garage. But believe me when I tell you that this thing is beautiful. The body is 100% straight and 0% rust. I haven't made and plans for it yet, but I had to have it for the price. I will take more pictures of this too when I can get some more room in the garage. But enough of me yammering. Here she is the day I picked her up:

 

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And finally the garage :)

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm having problems with the blue brat, and keeping it running. It's a real rough start and I'm spitting tons of fuel. If I get it to idle, I'm pour smoke out from unburnt fuel. I am going to change the jets on the carb soon to see if that helps. When I got the car from Carson City, I never rejetted it. But they are a few thousand feet higher than here in Vegas. It's been so darned hot here I haven't had any desire to work in the garage. So I'll get to it when I can.

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So, my CV joint was looking really nasty due to a torn boot, and there was debris in the joint, so I tossed the axle and am waiting for my new one to get here. I also picked up a new caliper due to a torn dust boot and less than desirable abrasion marks on the cylinder walls. Couple more days and I should have it on the ground again. Then I make the decision to finish the interior or move on to the rear wheels.

Where did you get the axle from? I need to replace front passenger axle and steering knuckle on a 81 Brat. Thanks

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