1982gl4

On to step two of my trial and error dash repair. I sanded everything down. Looks like it will be a good base. These are they only two tools I've used so far. A "cheese grater" and some 80 grit sand paper.

My flocking came in so I started on the dash. I first sanded it down with a grinder getting the high spots down Next came the foam to fix the giant crack.

Awesome, I'd be putting wrx seats in my wagon if I hadn't found those recaros for practically nothing. I was also a little worried I may not have enough headroom with the added hight from those seats. I'm interested to see how they look in there!

Today I wrapped my headliner, and por15ed the front fenders, valence, edges of all the doors, inner front fenders. The headliner came out pretty good for my fist one. I just hope the glue holds up!

took it to Boston and back. did great 25 mpg down there and back (not bad for the way I drive ) Today I swapped out my dead wipers for some new Bosch ones, man what a difference once you get past the sticker shock

Fixed my window frame today. I also picked up some fabric to recover my headliner in. Should add a unique touch to it

This is going to be so awesome.

Thanks! I haven't been a fan of the snake skins as well, especially when they are attached to a live snake (only had one of those so far!)

Worked on this a lot today. Mostly fixing a rear quarter I messed up while doing the metal work. I accidentally made it like this... and it was driving my crazy so I cut it and welded a new lip on it and made it look like this. I then removed the front valence and started removing the huge dent, and some rust. Headliner was taken out. I'm going to recover that because it's really dirty, and the color has faded quite a bit. I think I may redo it in plaid, depends what I can find for fabric I guess.

I just cleaned behind one of my fenders at the beginning of the summer when I replaced it, it had equally as much behind it as yours did. I just did the other one about a month ago when i oil undercoated my car. I made sure to undercoat behind the fenders at the same time. I've seen what that debris can do, before you know it you will have no fenders to clean out behind. You reminded me that my wipers are garbage. I think I'm going to go out and try those Bosch ones for a change!

The old work Loyal My dad and I had around we used as a plow rig, and also to get wood out, you could fit about half a cord in the back A Gl I picked up for a dollar, it had the original window sticker (near 14K ) still in it, and every option know to man on it. My old off road brat before it met it's demise in the form of a jump, and then breaking in half. And the coolest part of my 82 wagon

Thank you, it has been rather time consuming Tonight the flocking has been ordered. I'm interested to see what I can do with a cracked dash. Anything will be an improvement over what's there now. I'm also did some body work today. I plan on doing a lot tomorrow. I hope to have this painted in the next few weeks

Ahh the joy of rust. I see them this bad on a day to day basis. Usually the slides on the calipers freeze so they can't travel. Or the pads rust into the calier bracket alloying them not to move. This leads to the rear disc rusting due to them not being used. When this happens on a customers car (I work at a small auto repair shop) We replace both rotors and pads. Check the calipers by making sure the piston slides back easily and the slides move freely, and check the dust boot for any rips. Also while you have the rear discs off check your e-brake shoes/hardware mine fell off on my 92 and started making some pretty strange noises . The caliper bracket will also need a good cleaning around where the pads sit along with the anti rattle clips (the little clips around the end of the pads), I use air tools, but a file will do just fine, it will just take a bit longer. A warning. Sometimes (pretty often where I live) the caliper bracket bolts will rust and need heating to be removed. Otherwise they snap off, and getting them out of the bracket is no fun....

+1 on stripping teeth off the belt, my old volvo do that, the belt was perfectly tight, and looked good, but had no teeth to turn it.

Good to hear that!!!

Spent the other day cleaning the garage, I still have a bunch left to do . Sanded the car a little. But found a great product to fix my cracked dash! It's the same stuff used on WRC dashes. Here's a thread I found on how to install it. http://zilvia.net/f/tech-talk/254699-how-flock-dashboard-give-suede-look.html I'm not sure how bondo will hold up to a dash. I may try to find something else to seal up the cracks like foam or something. And here's the site for the Flocking. http://www.donjer.com/ I also ordered a new windshield, and window seal for it today. Spent the last few hours taking the windshield and Dash out today. I'm glad I did. It's a mess behind the dash and needs to be cleaned badly. I also found some more rust around the windshield that needs to be fixed. Anyway here are some pics of the process. This is the 7th snake skin I have found in this car so far :spin: Dash out Tonight I will be ordering the flocking. I can't wait to fix this. The dash drove me crazy in this with that huge crack.

I don't have an ea82, so the milage may very a bit. But with my ea81 I get about 24-27 with my weber. It's a carb more aimed at performance then fuel economy. A good hitachi will get better milage than a weber. But I agree 100% with Idasho. Drivability is 100% improved and it's an easier carb to deal with on a daily driving basis, and my mpg's went way up over my old worn stock carb.

I'd go for an old 2.2 they are really good engines. Early legacies can be found for cheep all rusted out, but still running great. Rear tubs tend to take it hard on these older ones. I was glad they were good on my 84. Looks like some very good repairs!

Another one of my wagon A cool shot of my wagon (resealing engine) and my brat in the middle of the EJ swap this summer. And a cool shot of my newest undertaking

I agree with hatchsub on this. All of my ea81's have needed rocker replacement. My newest project I actually have pics of the process. That rear shelf causes all that dirt/salt/moister to sit there causing it to rust that leads to that stuff into the rockers, before you know it your rockers look like this. I've used replacement panels from an ea82 (they are a little short but work with some modification) Then on the back side you have to do something like this to seal it up After that is all done, you can then fix where the problem started. These are pics of my best repair yet. My last one lasted about 5 years, and did far worse of a job with fitting them to the car, and I didn't seal them up nearly as well as these. Now i've gone to the extent of welding my floor patches top and bottom, along with por-15ing the floor top and bottom.

They didn't used to be They ea81's are getting pretty rare. I have a couple as daily drivers, but they are getting a bit outdated. Welcome the fiat looks very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes

I can't answer your cv question, but I have fitted XT-6 control arms to my brat, which are basically the same as ea82 from my understanding? anyway here's a link, it's not all that bad if you have access to a welder and don't mind some fab work. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=118612&highlight=project+success With the XT6 control arms the front was much wider than the rear. I have 1 1/4th wheel adaptors in the rear (which are a bit wide) to make up for it.

I have an 82 gl ea81 and keep wrenches and sockets in the common sizes on the car for around town along with some screwdrivers and such, and something to loosens and tighten the lug nuts that's a bit better than the stock lug wrench. A can of wd40 or something because my throttle linkage likes to freeze up once and a while. I also added a full size spare to my car. On longer trips I carry a spare alt/water pump belt. I've parted a few of these cars out so I have some extras lying around. I usually bring my spare alternator, along with a spare distributor because those are some of the more common fail points and are easy enough to swap out. Some extra oil and gear fluid just to be on the safe side. Some extra wiring and fuses incase I need to bypass or jump something. A booster pack or spare battery as well. And that's about all I've ever brought, even in the most extreme cases. I have a weber conversion so the carb has not been an issue. There's really not much to go wrong on the older ones. I've had really good luck with my ea81's (except my brat which vapor locked all the time... but that's another story) I've only had to use the spare parts brought along on other's cars, or fixing a loose fitting or something on my own.

Sounds like an eventful trip. Glad it made it. Gives me hope for when I buy one of these from far away from here.

Wow this brings back some memories. My dad had one for a company truck about 10 years ago. It started life as a U-haul. When we got it, it had no back bed and it would do burnouts like no one's business We sold it a while after putting a wooden bed on it. They funny thing is the truck survived our New England winters, and now resides about 10 miles away from our home. Great trucks. I'm glad to see one in good condition, and that's being taken care of still.