I just pulled the next wreck into the garage. It's another Loyale wagon, and I'm going to build it into something for my 15 year old. It has a good interior and that's about it. The engine is shot and I have another hanging in the garage to replace it. It's a blank slate, so I'm open to any and all suggestions, so help me build one for the kid!!

 

Jerry

Does your Kid like off-road?

Or are we talking on-road...

Just need some background info for the process to begin:confused:

 

I'm thinking a first car as a lifted off-road looking Subie would be the rage!:cool:

Make it a BRAT, once you go BRAT you never go back!!!!!!!!!!

The off road look would be good. Where the heck would I start? A brat would look pretty good, but what I have is a Loyale and I'm stickin' to it. He'll have to learn to live with four doors. I have about a grand to spend on it. I think that it's worth about two hundred right now!!

EJ22T swap

teach him to weld. welding opens up a world of options. I think that superbrat was saying you should turn the wagon into a brat, aka weld the back doors shut and chop the top.

Not get too mad when he/she wipes out a row of mailboxes with it.

I think he'd do well with it bone stock.. Take it from me, kids don't need a lot of power until they learn to control notalotta power :-P Also, when he wants to upgrade, you can make a father/son project out of putting a lift in it, etc..

 

Also better to get what you have running good before you start doing upgrades...

My suggestion would be, walk him through installing the engine himself. Stand there and point and say "do this" "do that" and answer questions, but let him do the work..

 

My mom taught me how to teach, because she used to have a dickens of a time with the "new" computers at work (this was years ago, we worked at the same vet's office) and I had an annoying tendency to butt in and do what she wanted me to help her with.. she yelled at me to just tell her how to do it, so she would learn how to do it next time.

 

You might want to go through the trouble of doing things like matching the ports of the intake manifold to the head, and the throttle body to the manifold, etc.. again just for learning experience.. even though there is VERY LITTLE to be gained from doing all that, by all accounts.. (hearsay warning, *I* don't have experience telling me that, just reading from others)

 

You might want to snag an alternator from a late 80s Nissan Maxima (90 amp) to install in there and teach him the nuances of retrofitting other parts onto the car; I mean, basically I am saying teach him how to build his own car out of junk. Even if he grows up to have money to pay people to do these things, it makes for a well balanced man. Not ALL American Males are Tim Taylor, after all... SOME of us actually DO know what we are doing, but we are *certainly* a dying breed.

 

Of course, "tricking out" your 1990 loyale is an exercise in polishing a turd, but its also an exercise in taking pride in your work, and doing work you can trust implicitly. Subarus make for GREAT learning cars... but I have to agree that Junior needs to learn how to control no power before he gets lots of power.

 

My first car: 1992 Geo Storm Hunchback... Fugly, but I loved it to death because I could drive it to its fullest capacities without getting dangerous. I went from THAT, to my '75 280Z, in one short year. I like to think I was ready

For shame on Honda sucks . I really do know what you mean though, and I was going stock on the motor anyway. Just looking for some cool looks (does that make sense) and not so much power. The older brother wrecked his four times last winter, so I'm way ahead of you on the power issue. I just finished putting a new front on that one. :-\

 

What the heck is an EJ22T anyway?? Sounds like the cartrige no. on my printer. I think maybe I'm grinning too much. :grin: :grin:

 

Jerry

EJ22T = Turbo Engine from the 91-94 Turbo Legacy. 160hp.

I like the older checkerboard style front grill; you could *possibly* look into retrofitting a quad headlight style front clip on it, and use dual low/high beams on one pair and then use the other pair as driving/fog lights.. maybe even amber ones. Since you are in Alaska anyhow, the whole "light monster" look could be easily cultivated.. this would make the alternator upgrade I mentioned an even better idea. Add a slight lift and some wider tires, and you give your son a nice, high visibility, safe vehicle. Is it a 4wd?

 

Also, I dunno what the car LOOKS like, but have you ever read about doing a roller paint job on a car? search for "foam roller" or "krylon" or, best yet, if YOU can remember the canadian name for Krylon enamel paint (the kind that comes in a can, not spraypaint) use THAT as a search term. You can get this stuff, thin it out about 50/50 with mineral spirits, and use high density foam rollers to roll it onto the car.. the trick is to use just enough mineral spirits to get the paint to "lay down" in a meniscus of sorts as you roll it on. You let it dry overnight, wetsand in the morning, and do 5-8 coats using increasingly fine grades of sandpaper. You can do one panel at a time, and in the end if you sand it and buff it out you wind up with (supposedly) a high gloss finish, that is extremely durable as well. It SOUNDS really cool, and it makes for a paint job under $100 with all materials included.. as long as there isnt major body work to be done.

 

Really, the possibilities are endless. if you paint you could go with a two tone job, and he could ultimately plan on putting an engine with some real oomph in it if you two REALLY get into things... but THAT all depends on his interest level. The "cool factor" of these cars is subjective to say the least; and I don't think anyone here would REALLY think THAT much less of a 15 year old young man who didn't LOVE his subaru... We might not think he is all there in the head but we wouldn't say anything mean :-p

Since you already have a Loyale, then changing the body does not make much sence. Start with the Loyale. First thing I'd do is add a mild lift while the motor is out. Since you have a motor. Use that motor. Then I'd remove any rust and undercoat the underside and use bedliner on the interior floor. Then add a nice Camo paint job via spray can. This makes touch up painting much easier. When the motor is in and the body is finished, I'd add slightly larger tires on Pugs.

 

You'd have an inexpensive one of a kind ride any kid would be proud to drive to school!

The rig is a four wheel drive. I want to put a lift kit in it, and am hoping someone knows where to get a good one. The paint job is now dark gray metalic, and pretty rough around the edges but no rust.

OOooOOOoooOO!! dark grey metallic??

 

Look into battleship style camo, they use dark greys and blues all the time (well, they DID back when battleships were the "in" thing)

 

Crash bars, lights, tires!! I can help you with some details on that alternator swap if you are interested, and I did a through write up on relays thats now in the USMB that should help if you install megawatts of light on the thing.

 

Give the kid some tunes, too.. and get him on here! what this thread needs is some links and photos of what others have done, and lets see what he wants his car to be. this is FUN, I wish my car were worthy of modding at all!

Slap a digi dash in it..... My friends all think that the digi is so freaking amazing........ Yeah I guess I think its bad rump roast also.