July 22, 201411 yr Finally a Subaru showed up at the Tear a Part junkyard. Spent 200 in parts today to freshen up the old Brat. Got grill, headlight bezels, turn signals etc, all the Black trim along the doors, various bits for the interior. Pulled the strut and wheel bearing assembly(?) as one and will replace the one I broke the bolt in the collar when I bought new struts as soon as I get the new ball joint from Amazon . Shot the new grill with Plastic Dip, turned out way better than my rattle can jobs of the past. Now just have another 20 hours of body work and Ill be ready to paint the old girl. Also cleaned out my HVLP gun since it was full of crap from the assembly, teflon taped all the connections that leak on the Harbor Freight guns. I will be repainting the bumpers once I get off the 5 layers of hand brushed tractor paint that the PO did. I think I have been bothered for almost a year on how crappy the car looks, but once I get the new parts installed, should make driving it a lot more enjoyable. The rebuilt carb I bought from National is running worse than the carb I rebuilt last fall, will have to see if I may have left some vacuum hoses off or something simple. I am excited to drive the Brat again, it has been sitting for almost a month just moving to in and out of the garage while working on the body. Have a super night! B.
July 22, 201411 yr Just finished the headache of getting all the emissions codes cleared so I can get Lola('92 Loyale) registered. Had to replace the purge and EGR solenoids and the EGR valve. Swapped the existing Bosch Platinum plugs (in the car when I bought it) to NGK Copper+ and threw some new wires on as well. The car seems to like the NGK's a lot better than the Bosch's. Next step is a new cap and rotor, and front axles....
July 23, 201411 yr Good thought on the plastic dip for the bumpers, Im gonna shoot the bumpers with the HVLP just because it will be so much quicker and I already bought the quart of paint. I finally got around to figuring out the idle problem with the rebuilt carb, I sprayed carb cleaner at the base of the carb and the idle smooth out so I checked the carb mounting nuts and all of them were loose, was able to tighten three of the four, but one is stripped, won't tighten and cant get the nut off, guess I will be cutting that off tomorrow. Any thoughts on where to pick up the studs for the carb base? Last time around ended up finding the right thread pitch at Home Depot but had to cut down to match the length. I am kind of relieved because I really didnt want to ship the rebuilt carb back and wait two or three weeks to get another one. Also installed the junkyard speedo bezel trim with the headlight and wiper switch. The old one had a nice crack from when I replaced the dead speedo last fall. Should get the ball joint from Amazon tomorrow and then I can attach the strut and wheel bearing housing and finally start driving the Brat again. 3 miles in a month is pretty pathetic. Edited July 23, 201411 yr by mcmillonbe
July 23, 201411 yr The car seems to like the NGK's a lot better than the Bosch's. Yup, our Subies prefer NGKs over most of the other brands out there.
July 24, 201411 yr The woodie 'executive estate' LOB wagon passed emissions today after installing a $100 knock sensor. I also wasted 2/3 if a roll of $15 dollar window tint, because i cut it the wrong side for the quarter window from the outside before install.
July 25, 201411 yr Got the oil pump and new Subaru water pump installed into UNO today. Puting the intake back together and will install it, the rear main sea, flywheel and pressure plate tomorrow. Then sat the timing belts and motor mounts. Engine should be back in car sat evening with first startup on Sunday. Edited July 25, 201411 yr by MR_Loyale
July 25, 201411 yr picked up hardwood flooring for the back of the executive estate wagon, 2.5% window tint, and wood burl look floor mats. I deceided to go with the darker walnut woodgrain for the exterior to contrast the cold lower portion of the car. I promise pics after today.
July 27, 201411 yr Got the clutch fork and release bearing carrier installed. Had to do some sanding on the shaft because there was some sealant in between the halves and that oblonged it enough to make the carrier travel stiff. The transmission cable is hooked up and it awaits an engine. Installed the intake on the engine, hoses clamps and a bunch of little crap here and there. Tonight I will put on the flywheel, cluthc and plate. Then the belts, engine mounts and cam covers. My neighbor volunteered to help me grunt and cuss and swear while jiggling the engine to the transmission. Then after hoses, connectors, radiator, fan and fluids are added, it should be ready for startup. It is starting to look like a real engine. Edited July 27, 201411 yr by MR_Loyale
July 27, 201411 yr '84 Subaru Brat. Did some exploration on the rusted rocker panels, they need to be replaced very soon (next month). Mounted a side side step on the driver side. Removed the removable panels from the bed, stripped them, sanded them, applied primer to them... applying bed liner to them tomorrow. Also vacuumed out the debris in the space between the bed and the rear fenders. Hope I will be able to find a shop that can cut out the old rusted rockers and weld in the new ones for cheap; that is in my August budget and should be the last major repair work needing to be done. Rest from there on out will be technically upgrades.
July 27, 201411 yr Miles, we need pictures! Cleaned the contacts of the TPS plug, as for some reason I was getting Code 31 after the A/C shop converted my R12 to R134a. No idea what prompted the code, they didn't touch any of that stuff, but it's cleared and has stayed gone for two days now. A/C works pretty damn well - oddly enough, the shop where I had it done had a guy who knew a thing or two about the old Subaru's, way down here in c. Florida - except for the fact I have to jump power to the compressor via the relay wires. For the moment it's temporarily on a toggle switch until I can sort it out. But DAMN is it nice to finally have air when it's in the 90's with swamp-rump roast-inducing humidity!
July 27, 201411 yr Replaced headliner after diy upholstering since oem material started sagging a bit in Subaru Loyale Stw. Most timeconsuming part in whole process was to find bolt holes in sunvisors clips, for 1st try whole thing turned to be ok and next time gonna remember not to use so much glue.
July 27, 201411 yr Today i did the driver side CV rebuild. Edited July 27, 201411 yr by JuhaKankkunen
July 27, 201411 yr ^ Hey you, the poster above this, yeah you. I think you have one of the coolest names on the board.
July 28, 201411 yr All cleaned up. http--,,--// http--,,--// Recently replaced: ball joints tie rod ends brakes all 'round replaced broken Y pipe alignment and cleaned cleaned cleaned!
July 28, 201411 yr A few more http--,,--// http--,,--// Bra hasn't been on for awhile so the fit is a little off 'till it stretches out.
July 28, 201411 yr Can't have too many pics, but i'm gonna try! http--,,--// http--,,--// Oh yeah, I also Plasti-Dip the front and back bumpers.
July 28, 201411 yr This: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/147991-birdmobile-under-the-hood-photos-for-opus/
July 28, 201411 yr Slowly creeping towards the finish line. Installed new exhaust studs on Uno's engine. Since it was on the stand, I just flipped it rather than wait until it was in the car and crawl on my back. Finally bolted in the bling too. After the bling is installed, we do not handle the engine without a clean pair of surgical gloves. I have come to realize that when you detail every bit, cleaning rust and coating etc, it takes a hell of a lot longer than you planned. Edited July 28, 201411 yr by MR_Loyale
July 29, 201411 yr I know this is probably supposed to be for mechanicery and customising, etc, but I just thought that I would post that I finally took my Brat out for some fairly serious off-roading. Being that I will be fixing this one up for street and looking nice, I will probably not be able to do it again, but will have to stick to tamer roads once I start paintingit, etc. Took a friend out to the mountains for some camping, went exploring, found a dirt road that got real bad with deep hard/dry mud ruts all over, and had to take it slow, but it performed just as casually as I remember they do. The road we ended up on had clearly been unused in probably years, as there were old dead bushes that had overgrown the road crossing more than half the roads width before they eventuallly died, dried out, and now were grey with age and weather, etc. We went places nobody in thier right mind would go, as is the true spirit of what Brats do so well. The body got all scratched up, but not nearly as bad as it sounded as we pushed through all the hard, dry, dead thickets and such. I will miss doing that, but its more than compensation that I drive one of the coolest vehicles in town even as it is, before I have done much with its look, and for the fun and joy I have driving it around.
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