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My 73' Coupe Restoration


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Yeah, I am pretty happy with it so far. The rockers also seem very solid. So far no surprises. Only rust is what I already knew was there. It would seem that Subaru was very stingy with the seam sealer, as that is where most of the issues are. You have any pics of your old coupe Paul? I'd love to see some! Now I need to find a Subaru dealer that would be willing (and able)to see if any of the parts I need are still available. (fingers crossed)

 

Mark

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Yeah, I am pretty happy with it so far. The rockers also seem very solid. So far no surprises. Only rust is what I already knew was there. It would seem that Subaru was very stingy with the seam sealer, as that is where most of the issues are. You have any pics of your old coupe Paul? I'd love to see some! Now I need to find a Subaru dealer that would be willing (and able)to see if any of the parts I need are still available. (fingers crossed)

 

Mark

 

 

I'll have to dig up some pics when I have more time. Not too many though,unfortunately. Got those fenders off yet? Check for the foam strip and they used for sound deadening,I thing. It acted as a sponge and the tops of the fenders rust through even in dry climates. Check under the cowl too. Take t out and clean all that out,make sure water drains the way its supposed to etc....

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No issues with the fenders at all. Very solid. And the cowl area is in great shape also, probably due to the fact the drains were not blocked. I have a bit of time while I wait for the temp to come down (it's a hot one today!) so I figure as good a time as any to post up some progress from the last couple days.

Cleaned up the engine

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Installed the new clutch with a freshly resurfaced flywheel

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Painted the valve covers, pulleys, alt brackets, and oil fill tube. Adjusted the valves while I was at it. They were pretty loose.

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New rotors on sandblasted and painted hubs

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I have got both inner fenders sanblasted so far and have started the engine bay.

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And finally, the color of choice. Think I'll stand out in a crowd? :lol: I believe it's a 74' or 75' stock Subaru color.

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Time to hydrate and get back to blasting. Oh joy. :rolleyes:

Mark

Edited by Datsunrides
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You are going to have this car finished before I even get mine painted :-\

 

I HIGHLY doubt that. I am only doing this much to it due to the fact I had to pull the motor to replace the clutch and I had a free spot on the side of the house since my 72' Toyota Corolla 2dr. wagon is over at the fabricators having some sheet metal patches installed that are too much for me to easily do at home. Once that comes home, the subie goes on the back burner, hopefully with the whole front suspension redone so I don't have to pull it apart again. Once I get the wagon complete, it will be full speed ahead! :banana: Oh, and it doesn't really matter if I were to finish it before you. You will still end up with a WAY cooler (and rarer) car.

 

Mark

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Well, I guess I need to amend my "cowl area is in great shape" statement. While doing some more blasting this evening, I uncovered someones attempt at a repair right at the seam where the horizontal "shelf" meets the vertical firewall. It is pretty much centered around the plate where the spare tire would sit. The "repair" seems to have been some sort of material similar to fiberglass. Anyhow, I started grinding out the spot welds that hold the tire mount to the shelf to see the extents of the grot. BTW, where in the heck were they expecting that thing to go? Must be 20+ spot weld holding it down! :eek:

 

Mark

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Got the tire plate thingy off and the news is not good. :( The area underneath the very rear part of the plate is gone. I can see the inside of the car from under the hood! :eek: Hoping for some better news, I cut some of the grot out to access the area under the cowl and initially it looked good, until I started poking around. Turns out that part is completely rusted thru also. I guess I will have to pull the dash out and see just how far the rust has gone. If it's not much worse than what I see now, I will probably go ahead and fix it when I get a chance. If it's worse, it may mean the end of the car as a driver. :( Well, this sure throws a wrench in the plan for a quick turnaround. RUST SUCKS!

 

Mark

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First, the carnage.

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The commentary,

This is a sad day. So I pull the dash and heater out, and it does not look too bad so far. Then I notice some rust above the steering column/ brake brace. I pull that piece out and the sound deadner above it and my heart sank. It is pretty much eaten thru to the shelf under the hood. Note that this is not in the cowl area. At this point, between not being able to so far find/get a lot of the parts I would need to restore this car to my expectations, and the amount/difficulty of work it would take to properly repair the rust, I think I am leaning toward either parting the car out or selling it to someone who might be willing to tackle the repairs. It's a shame as the rest of the rust I know of is minor in scope and very easily repaired. I think the part that makes this such a downer is that it's not THAT hard to fix, so to speak, it's that all the repairs (cutting/welding/grinding) would have to be upside down, and those that have done it know that it is no fun at all. I'll probably do some more cutting over the weekend before I condemn it to parts car status so we'll see what direction I go in a couple days.

Mark

Edited by Datsunrides
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I think you should press forth with the restoration, even if it has to sit on the backburner for a while, these cars aren't very common...

 

However, IF you do decide to sell it, I have a particular interest in this car and with the shape it is in it would be PERFECT for what I want to do to it (think G-Machine/Pro-touring but on a smaller, less-powerful scale)

 

If it comes to that ;)

 

-Bill

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I managed to cut out the rusty parts under the cowl/shelf areas over the weekend and I think I will be able to fix it easier than I had initially thought. Before I start to explain, some pics of the weekend progress, since I know you all love pics.

Sandblasting complete! (well, at least the area where I was working)

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Overall, the underside is pretty solid. I did find a little more rust on the left front corner of the front crossmember and a couple small pinholes in the drivers floorpan. There is also a bit of rust in the lower part of the drivers wheelwell. The floorpan/wheelwell rust was known to me, but I did not know about the crossmember. Not very bad, but there. I will deal with those after I fix the cowl. Now for some more pics.

Sandblasted areas in epoxy primer! :banana:

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So, then I decided I want A/C in the car, and there is no time like the present to get it done, so my car now has A/C! :lol:

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Now, here is the plan of attack to repair the grot. The area is made up of 3 separate pieces of sheetmetal. What I plan to do is first bend up the piece that will go from the vertical area above the shelf to the shelf itself. Next will be the piece that forms the cowl and goes to the shelf. Finally will be the shelf itself. What I am hoping will be a huge timesaver is using an automotive panel bonding adhesive. I will make the new metal a little oversize and basically epoxy it in place. This will be done on all the areas that will not be seem in the finished product. The shelf area will be the only part actually welded in. We'll see how it goes.

Mark

Edited by Datsunrides
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  • 3 weeks later...

Made some progress on the rust repairs. After taking a closer look at what needed to be fixed, I decided against the panel adhesive. I just felt with the curves and such that it would be almost as much work as welding in new metal, so I am going to weld the new metal in. (yay) Here are the pics of the progress.

1st layer of new metal fabbed up. This goes from under the dash to the firewall and forms the bottom of the cowl.

 


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Welded in.

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2nd layer of new metal fabbed up. This forms the vertical part of the cowl area and separates the cowl from the underhood area.

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And welded in.

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I still need to fab up the top plate for this section and work on filling in the center part with new metal. I hope to make a good dent in that tomorrow. I am still comtemplating whether I want to rebuild the tire well area (difficult) or simply weld a flat piece across the area (easy) and call it good. Probably will go with the easy option as I won't run a spare under the hood anyways and would look "cleaner" this way. If anyone reading this happens to have any NOS control arm and/or sway bar bushings collecting dust, please let me know as I will hopefully have the rust exorcised shortly then in color and I'd like to replace these parts while I have it apart.

Mark

Edited by Datsunrides
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Excellent! I just have to say it is good to know you have decided to continue with the restoration, and I am really grateful you have posted pics.

 

My '74 coupe is rusted out in the same area and I have always wanted to see photos before attempting the job myself. Could never quite work out how the two metal panels worked together, if you know what I mean. Photos make it very clear! And not so intimidating...

 

My coupe is rust free except for that area (bad compared to yours :-\) and is the reason I brought a rust free '74 sedan (Currently my daily driver - I love it! :grin:).

 

One of these days I will fix the coupe - keep the photos coming!

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  • 2 months later...

Been a while since I had a chance to work on the old girl, but did manage to get some stuff done over thanksgiving. Did nothing to the car itself, but managed to sandblast, epoxy prime, and paint a bunch of the parts I removed from the front of the car. I hope to finish up the rust repairs and spray down the undercoating before the end of the year. I'd like to get the color in the engine compartment down, but it looks like I will have to wait until spring, as it does get "cold" in cali (well, cold enough that I can't paint), :eek: Still am looking for parts, so if anyone hears/finds something, I'm all ears!

 

Mark

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just finished finalizing a deal to buy another coupe to use for parts to restore this one. This car has most the parts I need for mine, and seem to be in decent shape, or at the very least much better than what I currently have. I will have to travel about 1500 miles to get it, but what are you going to do when these things are as hard to find as they are? I am planning to drive to Oklahoma over christmas to pick it up and bring it home. Good news also is anybody else searching for coupe parts is I will be parting it out. Some must die for others to live.

Mark

Edited by Datsunrides
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What happens if the one your going to get is beyond clean to the point its leaps and bounds cleaner than what you already started? Would there be changing of direction to use the one you have stripped down now as a parts car for that one or are you too far along now to go back?

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Man that's some determination to get a parts car. I thought myself driving 4 hours to get a parts car was fanatic but you are determined. Cool! :grin: Good luck with it.



Well, these cars, let alone parts, just don't seem to turn up at all. You gotta do what you gotta do to play the game. :lol:

What are your plans for the parts car after you have removed what you want? Does it have a title? How rusty is it? I might be interested in buying the leftover vehicle from you, let me know!

-Bill



Since I don't personally plan to put it on the road, I'm only getting a bill of sale. There has been some interest in buying the car from me after I pull what I need so I will ask if it would be a big deal to try and get a title for it. I really won't know the extents of the rust until I pick it up. I was told it does have rust, but can't really see it in the pics I got, so hopefully it's minor.

What happens if the one your going to get is beyond clean to the point its leaps and bounds cleaner than what you already started? Would there be changing of direction to use the one you have stripped down now as a parts car for that one or are you too far along now to go back?



If this one ends up cleaner than what I have, it will be a no brainer to use it instead of the one I started. I must admit the thing that sent me over the top to go and fetch this one is the Dealer (I assume) A/C! :banana: This will make adding A/C much easier than going the universal aftermarket approach I was planning. I know these old systems don't really work well compared to modern, but period correct is cool in my book. (+ I still have 20 lbs or so of R12!)

Mark Edited by Datsunrides
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