1982gl4

A lot more work done today. I took the xt6 rear brakes off, and swapped on the legacy backing plates. It was pretty easy, I just drilled some new holes after centering the backing plate. I'm using 91 legacy turbo rear brakes as I have some left over after my legacy 4pot/2 pot swap. I was happy to see that the back spacing for the caliper is perfect, installed my new e-brake cables, and used the e-brake stuff left over from the turbo as well. Tomorrow I should be able to hook up the e-brake inside just have to drill some holes and take a handle out of one of my legacy parts cars. I also started building my rear coilovers today. That went very well. I took some old 4wd ea82 struts I had kicking around and put sleeves on them. This is temporary until I get some newer wrx coils to swap in, but I'm just getting everything lined up and it will let me drive it for a while! So far I have to move the lower shock mount, and build a new top mount, not sure if I'm going to modify the brat, or the strut top, hoping to tackle that tomorrow as well. cooling fan relay new rubber! e-brake rotor in place I had to modify the area around where the backing plate mounts in order for it to fit properly Drilling new holes, unfortunately they are very close to the old ones, I had to weld on washers in a few spots

I have been working on this a ton the last few days, finishing up the wring so far. Tonight I hooked up the alternator, cooling fans, and I have the tach working now. Checked the obdII codes, I have the typical evap, and fuel temp ones. I also have some I excepted as the cooling fans and rear 02 sensor are not hooked up. Purchased new tires for this to put on the enkies, this weekend i'm hoping to swap legacy rear brakes on so I can have an e-brake, and parts to make rear coilovers have been purchased until I suck it up and buy a full set, but this will do for now. It should be back on the road soon!

Long time no update, haven't been working on this much, basically just driving the heck out of it! I found a set of 2005 wrx seats and swapped them in, I'm working on a way to lower them, but haven't had much luck. I'll post more as I finish that up and have so decent photos of the project. Right now i have them sitting about half an inch lower than they normally do, but thats not enough for me. The plan was to have them reupholstered to match the stock ones, but after I did a lot of work to a friends car they seem to want to back out of the deal now..... I'm also have some issues with the center diff I'm thinking, It is binding a low speeds combined with sharp corners. I'm wondering if my DCCD pro was programed for a normal tps vs reverse. I was thinking that that my cause this. Anyway here are a few photos.

Thanks! I need to spend some time cleaning it, but it is looking rather good these days! It doesn't surprise me that some of the rubber bushings and such are failing on these cars, they are getting up there in age! Luckily there are parts still available!

Thanks man, I still have a long way to go, but its nice to be living here now. In recent news I need to do some work to this. The rf cv shaft is not healthy. I'm hoping I can make it into work today with it, and I can swap it out tonight. I purchased one the other day, just haven't had time to change it. There are a few other things, but that is the most important right now.

Today was a pretty successful day. This morning I got to work on the wagon, checked it all over, everything looks good after sitting all winter. It started up no problem, and is running great as always. I got it on the lift to change the oil, and swap in my new shift bushing, the bushing was a bit of a challenge, as the bolt tried to break off in the floor. Nothing a little hot wrench (torch) action couldn't fix. I tried some new oil for it this time around. Brad Penn, I have been using it in my aircooled stuff, and they seem to love it, so I figured it was worth a shot in this. After that was done, I washed it added a new sticker, and proceeded to load all of my belongings into it and drive it to my new place which I officially moved into today! Here are some photos of the day. In the shop Broken shift bushing Green oil New sticker How much can you fit in an 84 wagon? In my new garage

Got a part in for this today, A new shift linkage mount. It broke at the end of last year, it will be nice to drive this again without the shifter trying to fall out the bottom of the car. I also gathered up everything to service it, I'll be going over everything, and getting it ready for summer hopefully this weekend, but I am moving in this weekend so that may limit my car time. I had a crazy idea for front struts while working on a rabbit this week at work. They use strut cartridges and housings. The top mount is similar to a ea81, and the lower mounts are really close to a legacy. I could always cut and weld them as well because I can take the cartridge out to modify the lower sections of the housings. Now I just need to find some. I have some messages out to my VW friends!

I actually set some time aside the last couple of days to work on this a bit. I did a couple of things that I had been wanting to do all winter, but just couldn't come up with the time. Now that is starting to get nice out up here, the pressure is on to get some things done so I can enjoy it this summer. I swapped the wrx peddles I had over, this was a very easy conversion. The clutch and break peddle pads just swapped over, and the accelerator peddle had to be modified a little. I had to cut the top side of the peddle bracket, and grind it down a bit to accept the legacy throttle cable, but it was only about 2min of work. I also wired up the dccdpro. I didn't like the connectors that it came with, so I went and looked for something that would work better. I found a connector that fit perfectly for the dccd manual button. A heated seat switch connector for a 2002 outback fit perfect. The control knob, I wasn't so lucky. I found one that I made fit, but its not 100% perfect. Other than that the install was very strait forward, I have yet to try it, but I do like having those extra switches in my center console! Connectors Switches placed next to the e-brake

So I haven't done much with this the last few months, but the other night I decided I need to get it ready for summer, as its almost here. Pushed it out of its hibernation spot and started working on the dccd controller install, I had a spare seatbelt housing in my black legacy, so I pulled that out, and sketchily gutted the seatbelts. When they say do not remove that cover they mean it. The springs are crazy strong! Anyway after the seatbelts were gutted, i took the shell, and welded it together and made a bracket to hold the controller firmly in place. I don't have pics right now, but I will make sure to upload them in the next couple updates. I went to radio shake the other night as well, and picked up the last few things I needed in install it. More to come soon!

So I was noticing some noises coming from the rear of this car. Figured it was a strut as I have been traviling a lot of really, really rough dirt roads, going back and forth between my parents place, and the place I recently purchased. So I put it on the lift the other day to check it over. Turns out the sway bolts had loosened and fallen out of the body. It wore one of my links down, and ruined the threads in the body. I had to take the filler neck out and rethread the body, but everything seems to be ok for now. I have a lot of work to do after the Turbo comes out for the summer. I need to paint the rear hatch again... and touch up some other rust popping up here and there. I also need to replace or weld my header it has a hole in it, unfortunately it is on top of one of the pipes, so I need to remove it to weld it. Right now I'm just trying to make it to the end of the winter so I can start to fix this thing.... In front of the new place. Don't worry I have a garage.

That looks damn good! You may have said, but I couldn't find it, what size tires are you running? They look awesome on there.

Some end of the year photos I never got around to posting.

Some end of the year photos I never got around to posting. The car is now in a heated shop for the winter. I haven't touched it since it was put there. Too many other things going on in my life to get to the five lug swap, I have most of the parts now, just not the time to install them. As soon as warm, salt free weather comes around this will be back to daily duty just as it is. The five lug may happen next year at this point. I have to get my datsun done and a 74 westy after that.

I haven't updated this in a long time, so far this year I have done a 4 wheel brake job, new rotors and pads, due to rust. Two years is about all I get out of them as the car doesn't see much action during the summer. All the paint has fallen off the hatch for the 4th time, and I need to repaint it. For now I just hit it with some fluid film to keep the metal from rusting, it seems to be holding up. I also had the header crack last week, and had to weld that where the flange to the cat is welded to the end of the header. I replaced the flex pipe again, this time I used a pipe joint, as they hold up better in my experience. The door seals are falling off both front doors, and it refuses to start sometimes, I need to add a relay to the signal wire. I really need to spend some time on this, and bring it back to 100%. It is still very solid, and holding up well to the rust, I just need to find some free time to work on it. My other projects (datsun, one of my VW's, and my first home purchase) are take up a lot of time.

This thing is so clean. I wish I could find j-tin around here in this condition. At least it gives me a chance to see more of the country as I go to get them, and bring them back! Both of my legacys are having that starting issue, I really need to get around to adding a relay to both of them (oddly enough they are both auto, to manual swaps) and on occasion they like not to start. Jump starting my winter beater with a screw driver is getting old, it has been in the negatives the last week and its not getting any warmer... I have never owned an ea82t, but always found them intriguing, hope the test come back with good results!

My fwd wagon, came with a complete set key, chain and the box. Pretty amazing it stayed together after all of these years.

Thanks, I've done a few sets now I'm getting decent at it. You live in the land of rust free cars, hopefully you would be able to find one a bit more solid than I can out here No problem, I have a couple more pics, but you have seen most of the ones I took as I was putting the car together, and thanks! It took a long time to get the car the way I wanted it, I still have some other plans for it, but my other projects are getting in the way right now, as the wagon is together and drivable.

Yes, unbolt the motor mounts, and the pitch stopper, and jack the engine up. I usually use a floor jack with a rubber pad, or something so I don't damage the oil pan (Be carful not to jack it up too far, and pop the cv's apart) You will be able to jack it up and slid it around some that will give you enough room. I usually have to leave the bolts in the head while taking them in and out as well, there are a few you can put in after, but the majority of them have to go in and out with the heads

I don't see why you couldn't. I usually try to leave as much of the factory (solid) metal as I can when doing a repair. My car was a bit worse off than yours, so I had to go up higher, but I did not use the whole rocker as you can see in the pics. Also they are a bit short in the front, but they do match up pretty well with the factory ones. If they are too rusty up front, you can just add a small section with the metal you have left over. I also had to make a back side to the rockers, and connect them to the floor, otherwise I had a big hole on the back side.

Brightons are kind of odd beast. I've had two over the years, one impreza, and one legacy. The legacy had no tach, no right mirror, crank windows, no rear wiper, and only only had front speakers. I ended up using that car for an ej swap, as the harnesses is a bit simpler than the higher optioned cars. The impreza I drove for a while, that one was a 1.8 awd, no tach, no right mirror, crank windows. As odd as it sounds I actually work on a brighton with leather. Its a 98 or so, I have never seen another car like it. No tach, crank windows. The door cards and seats are matching leather, and they have not been swapped as they are factory crank window door cards, and have not been altered in anyway.

The actual radiator support is different as well. I went the other way quads to single rounds. I found a car in a junkyard and hacked the radiator support up so I could weld it on to my car. You probably could just cut holes in the support for the harness to get to the back of the lights, but I'm not 100% sure if the buckets would sit correctly after bolting them on to the single headlight radiator support.

I had no plans to ever do one. This is a car I sold two years ago to a friend, and it is still in good shape so It was kind of stupid to give up on it. So far it really hasn't been that bad to do. It only took me about 1.5 hours to get the dash out. Pretty simple, just time consuming.

I just took one apart today it is a relay, it mounts up by the windshield on one of the studs that come out of the fire wall. I think it is on the ac condenser box, but I could be wrong, but with the wiring the length it is, it should only go to one of them. I can tell you tomorrow for certain, I was thinking it looked like a pain to change if it ever went bad as I was taking things apart. I may relocate it to somewhere more accessible.

Started changing a heater core in a 92 legacy today, I have the dash out, tomorrow I'll pull the core housing and then I'll be waiting for parts.

On your side of the country they should come out fine (I buy most of my cars out your way because they are so rust free!) It was just a general warning as it does happen. If you aren't changing the calipers you shouldn't have to bleed them. If you are changing them the new calipers will come with new bleeders and they will come out totally fine. Some pad sets will come with new shims, others do not. I try to clean up the stock ones a lot of the time and reuse them because they tend to fit a bit better, but aftermarket ones will work fine if yours are worn/rusted/broken. I usually put a little anti-seize between the pads and shims just to keep everything moving over time. New brake products won't have asbestos in them, it was banned sometimes in the early late 80's 90's I think. Cheeper pads tend to leave more dust as the wear, better quality ones do not. If your pad is gone like the tech said, you probably will need a caliper. If the pad is missing and the piston of the caliper is making contact with the rotor, just replace the caliper as it will wear down the piston, and the are likely to leak after. If the pad is still there, even just the metal back of it, your caliper could be ok as long as the piston goes back as i stated above.