Hey guys, I will at some point this year be getting my self a (87?)Subaru brat in trade for working on my buddies GL, now this brat is pretty rough, so it will never be a show piece again, but I want to make it a practical, all around fun car/truck? I will be putting in a EJ18, or EJ22, but what I want more is to swap in a complete sub frame from a GF6, so I can have more options when it comes to struts, and so I can have 5X100 wheels fit it, like my Impreza, which I already have 4 sets of wheels for. I totally understand that this may take A lot of work, but I'm not worried about that, I want to use this a project so when I do a solid Axle swap on my '96 Explorer, I will be comfortable with welding, and custom fabrication. What I want to know is if anybody has done something similar to this? I kind of have this thing in my head of badass coilover hoops coming through the bed, with it being slightly lifted(the strut towers are literally gone). 

 

Let me know what you think, any input would be great, I am really excited to finally be able to have a older Subaru, even if it will be a unconventional build, lol.

 

Thanks, Harold.

It's been done.

 

 

If you're doing a lift, the front isn't too bad, as the basic design is similar. You pretty much just have to make mounts for the rear of the front control arms. The engine crossmember and strut top lift blocks have to accomodate the wider EJ parts. But that's about it.

 

 

The rear is a whole different animal. The suspension design is as different as it could be. Every mount (crossmember, trailing arm, upper strut) will have to be fabricated. The Brat gas tank will be in the way (You'll either have to modify it, or start over, maybe not with enough lift). You'll have to build strut towers for it, as the brat just has shocks. A guy in the UK did it probably 5 years ago, and it was a huge undertaking. And his fabrication in the bed area was pretty ugly, IMO.