The Beast I Drive

Hey, thats actually in better shape body wise than mine was... Nice! Mine as some pretty bad body rot, but it ran good and I have one of the few 4 speeds that still works like it should! Those are XT6 seats I believe, sporty! Nice score man -Bill

+1 for a good NATO fuel can, I get them at the Surplus stores, for like 20 bucks, they dont leak I keep one in all my subes -Bill

I used no gasket on the rear cover, I just made a thin bead of RTV. I didnt replace the axle stub seals, cuz I didnt have the patience to wait 10 days for them to come at the Dealership, and the old ones didnt leak, so I just used them... I didnt mess with the front seal cuz I didnt take the pinion shaft out There's no gasket under the plates that hold the axles stud seals, just the shimms, make sure you get it setup correctly so you dont eat all the gears off the ring and pinion... -Bill

That or just find you a good 5 speed D/R, its a far superior transmission design, plus it has lower low-range gears (1.59 instead of 1.4) If you stick with the 4 speed, do replace the trans mounts, it makes it like a totally different car! From what it sounds like though, you need a new tranny... So I would swap in a 5 speed. Bratsrus1 makes a crossmember/linkage kit that makes swapping in a 5 speed a bolt-in swap with little or no fab needed, and can be done in a couple hours. You can use a 2 piece drive shaft from a EA82 wagon and make mounts on the body for the carrier bearing, or just get a new 1 piece driveline made, cuz the 5 speed is quite a bit shorter than the 4 speed. -Bill

Sounds a lot like my Brat when I got it -Bill

Nice! A black one! -Bill

there's actually like 5 or 6 stages of Black Gloss, Semi-Gloss, Satin, Semi-flat, Flat, Ultra-flat In that order -Bill

The exhaust is about 75% done right now, I have it built from the headers to the back of the cab so far, all thats left is to put on the 12" cherry Bombs and hook the pipes into the stacks Im still waiting on my new exhaust bends from Summit, but I got impatient, so I cobbled together what I have now from the leftovers I had when I did the exhaust on the Beast, and some mufflers that used to be on bratsrus1's yellow HatchBrat. Its a lot better now than it was, I can here the worn out lifters ticking again Im going to put the short Cherry Bombs on where the pipes end now, behind the mufflers, so that should take away the metalic sound I get from these mufflers. The X-pipe makes a world of difference, before I lifted it I had completely seperate pipes (no crossover at all) and It had no low-end. Now I have my low end power back It accelerates much better now, and the idle smoothed out alot too. It doesnt sound as cool when I lay on the gas, but it has more power and runs better, so Im happy. -Bill

there is no way it would cost you 1200 bucks to replace the Headgaskets yourself. If you do all the work, and replace only the HG and the other gaskets GD lined out (no rear reason to do a full re-seal if youre on a budget) then you arent looking at more than 250 bucks for those. In all, if your car just has a blown headgasket, you can probalbly fix it yourself for well under $500. Will it be a perfect, leak-free squeaky clean uber-shiny supermotor? No, but it will run and get you back on the road as fast and cheap as possible. -Bill

Do a search. You will find a LOT of information on the subject. BTW I also make lift kits -Bill

Those arent the ones, the ones you want might not be in the Chilton... -Bill

Before you take off the panel, look on the bottom of the doors, there may be a bolt head and a slot in the door, if so, then you wont have to take off the panel i dont think... -Bill

Well mine's running great... for now... It would be cool for this to be a shakedown deal for my Brat, first time offroad for it, or something... But Im sure Ill be Offroading it before this happens in one way or another -Bill

There should be a nut near the bottom of each corner when you take off the door panel, and a stud with a slot in it. Its kinda tricky, but Ive done it on my EA81 Brat and my mom's Gen 1 Brat. -Bill

The windows can be adjusted to press harder against the seals IIRC, I know the EA81 and Gen 1 cars are like that, I would imagine the EA82's would be the same. Ill have to look at one of my parts cars to make sure -Bill

Looin good man, I can't wait to see this thing in action! Should be pretty awesome! -Bill

Which is complete crap, makes it damn near impossible for someone like me to get into a decent one -Bill

Sweet, would look pretty awesome with a lift... -Bill

I love those things But I got lazy, and just happened to have a 5-million-or-so pack of regular black zip ties... Eventually when I re-wire it, no wires will cross the front at all, and no part of the harnes will go any lower than the top of the headlights. Any wires that need to cross the engine bay will be re-routed under the dash and out the passenger side. I did this once to a Wagon I have (unfinished project) and its a lot of work, but its worth it for the clean look and not having to worry about wires getting wet on water crossings and deep mudholes -Bill

The reason I have the stacks set so high is becasue I plan on building a high roll bar and putting 4" offroad lights on it. When I do that, the stacks will be level with the top of the lights, and it will all get evened out... As far as going higher, I might do a 6" later on if a combination of parts Im dreaming of works like it should, but the final plan for this is a 10" lift, full subframe and cage, bed mounted radiator, 5 speed D/R married to an old Chevy truck 4-speed married to a Nissan T-case, fully custom independent A arm front suspension set to Gen 3 track width, full custom A-arm rear independent suspension with horizantal coilovers in the bed, all-wheel steering, 4.444 diffs, 32/11.50 R15 tires on Black NASCAR-style Chevy rims, and either a dual weber'd 2.5 with 2.2 heads and hot cams, or a tripple-carb'd EZ30 or EG33 if I can find one for a steal... ...So yeah, this is just an intermediate stage right now...... -Bill

whoa, a Standard Coupe! Never seen one of those before, just the standard Hatchbacks..... Cool, is it 4wd? -Bill

I feel squished when I drive the Beast compared to driving this, idk it seems like there is more room in the Brat than there is in the Gen 3's, at least around the driver anyway... At any rate, it all clears so it works for me -Bill

I got a lot done today, rebuilt the radiator support, finished the front bumper, mounted/wired my foglights, and setup my PB start setup -Bill

Yes, Buy it now! Of course, try to haggle him down to 400 or so... But Get it! -Bill

Im only 5' 7", and there is a lot more room in a Gen 2 Brat than in my Gen 1 Brats, I checked to make sure my leg wouldnt be bumping any switches, and it clears everything with plenty of room to spare. Pluse it really is the only place I had room to put them..... -Bill