TajMan

My brother had one just like that, and I re-painted it white.. except his was manual 5-speed. I actually didn't know they made that 1st gen legacy sedan turbo available with both automatic and manual..

another Brat in the bed? JK, bed wasn't even overloaded in that pic just funny haha that's how I was raised, an occasional short trip even majorly overloading a vehicle's weight capacity is OK - go slow watch listen be careful

I don't think you have to guess much about "toyota" or who made them. The cars were very much a joint venture between toyota and subaru engineers to come to the basis of what both(all 3 actually) cars are now). Subaru was having a really hard time designing a car that wasn't AWD, but eventually they realized that for the goals of this small/light sports car the engine HAD to be mounted low and far enough back that front axles the way Subaru does them were not an option.. Team of Subaru and Toyota engineers designing the car. After the main chassis and engine (a Subaru boxer) were completed, yes the respective companies finished up things like styling and suspension spring-rates to their liking. Car company collaborations nothing new, remember the Saabaru? That was a complete Subaru Impreza, sold 05 and 06 as a Saab 9-2X.

I just replaced a clutch cable for my customer's car an '85 Brat, got one from rockauto.com for like $16, however it didn't fix his problem of extremely hard pedal effort.. so it looks like his pressure plate is causing the issue- he'll have to deal with it until he is ready to pay for a full clutch job.

Nobody mentioned the VW G-lader supercharger off the 1.8 G60 engine!! its unique, its cool, its appropriate for the engine size. It can be run with inlet and outlet tubes (doesn't need to be mounted to an intake manifold etc) and can run with an intercooler if you wish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-Lader (I owned a couple Corrado G60's in the past, I've rebuild that supercharger before. I recommend rebuild be left to a G-lader professional. Only downside, supercharger should be rebuilt every ~30-40K miles probably)

Haha! Love the custom decals from B & R Sign & Design! now I want them on another old subaru

I guess I am. what is the desert fox? ya you can send me your project car probably

and the work continues after that last paint job, I'm painting this red '85 Brat for my buddy Zeth a fireman down in happy valley UT. I'll also re-do his exhaust, brakes, clutch cable, etc so he has a better all around restored stock car, its very nice rust-free 130K miles. (and that's my buddy Mike's '49 Plymouth there, cool car)

I've talked to the new owner who has had multiple people chase him down on the road until they finally catch him in parking lots etc just to ask about the car all excited, and then people wanting to know if I have any more Brats for sale! haha I love it, glad it draws the attention

NICE clean build I hope it does and want to know if it stays so clean, or if it develops the beginning of slow oil leaks/seepage through seals/gaskets. I completely re-gasketed two different ea81 engines before re-installation (new valve cover g's (2), new oil pan g, crankshaft front and rear main seals).. but after installed and running again, there was already immediately oil seepage/slow leaking which stared to occur. A lot of which I just chalked up to old engine/seal designs from the 70's being not quite up to par..

Thanks for all the kind words guys. It feels like for the past long while its been more people that can't understand why I would spend my time the way I do, and less people that have an appreciation and understanding of what I'm doing. I wish I even had all the pics of the steel repair! I am telling you though, everything was finished/boxed up/sealed off everywhere. A finished product makes all the difference for others understanding now. Not sure, VERY VERY possible. This car had many owners, was probably around the rocky mountains and in the west more. I had a family friend once realize that this was the Brat who a friend of his, some hippie chick, used to own and had all kinds of crazy times in over 15 years previous..

LOOK AT THE ACTUAL COLOR ONLY SEEN IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT, RANGE ROVER BAROLO BLACK PEARL! UNDERBODY RUST FIXED AND COATED AND TRUCK BED LINER OVER EVERYWHERE, ALL DONE UP! Thanks Pooparu (B&R Sign & Design) for the reproduction Brat decals

Yes, I drove the car with a mustache bumper for a time, I still have that bumper I made.. It had 'speed holes' in the fenders for awhile, then the kid who wanted to buy it wished for them to patched back up, ha! video of rust repair welding up bottom of door: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v608/TajMan/83%20Subaru%20Brat/?action=view&current=e16vid.mp4

I did it, one of the experiences of my life. I can't say it was easy, but it's finished and I learned a lot. Here are the pics, start to finish, what began as a quick business car to flip turned in to a personal car that I loved and of course a love/hate relationship. More towards the end of all this, a buddy wanted me to acquire his '86 Brat which I converted with a 5-speed DR trans and I ended up selling that car before I completed and got rid of this old '83! (which had actually been sold first) Both Brats underwent almost complete mechanical swaps/rebuilds in the end. I drove this '83 Brat on three transmissions and two engines: a bad auto trans, an '81 single-range 4-speed manual w/ small clutch (put about 25K miles on that), and an '84 dual-range 4-speed manual w/ large clutch. I sorted through the pics so they are generally chronological, mostly.. I could have taken many more pics of many more steps, but I was focused and taking things just one step at a time. In hindsight, nobody should ever try what I did on a car so gone of such little value, the thing was swiss cheese for real... Originally I got the car free basically, in the end what did I make $2/hr for all my labor? haha But love is what makes a Subaru, and some experiences can't be matched At first was going to sell it, then for a long time it was a personal car of mine I thought I needed to keep, then I acquired the '86 Brat and was going to sell this one again, then the kid who found me and wanted to buy this contracted me to finish the body/paint work and basically finish everything before I gave him the car back.. so in the end I completed the full start to finish of the project all on my own, only some help from a mechanic friend a little at times i was going mechanical swaps/wiring. Not All Who Wander Are Lost - by J. R. R. Tolkien was a sticker on the original tailgate of this original old Brat which had over 20 owners I think who had put it through a lot over the years!

nice ya I sold my Brat with that custom gem top already, ha! I'll have to buy another some day if its rust-free enough and stick a WRX motor/trans in it, cool old cars..

Just had horrible luck with an autozone duralast rebuild, I've got a new duralast gold coming now that is supposed to be 100% new, we will see. I think it was my passenger's side which needs it anyway, but when I installed the rebuilt unit on the driver's side barely...it clicked like MAD even when going in a straight line! I was shocked and appalled, even after expecting it to be 'bad'... it was REALLY bad

I've seen many issues, with 1-piece and 2-piece, had 2-piece center section welded up to my body, etc... 1-piece is back in now, and I believe it has a U-joint going bad on one end, I'll see if I can still replace that today, I have a new buyer from this forum coming for the car today.. What is ridiculous I'm surprised nobody mentioned before, is that its very easy to alter the angle of the rear diff in the direction I wanted, just by stacking some large washers(19mm nuts) on the two ends of the bar mounted transversely which is bolted to the back of the rear diff. Move those two mounting points down, the front of rear diff that driveshaft mounts to then angles up slightly. If you don't have enough movement yet with 3 large washers, then you could unbolt those 2 brackets from the body under the bed, and also add washers/maybe longer bolts which mount those brackets to the body..

I'm still trying to fix my 5-speed driveshaft woes, and I have both a 2-piece driveshaft and a custom new 1-piece driveshaft! In an '86 Brat. The 1-piece had issues, because the angle seemed slightly altered and so the rear diff was not quite parallel with the tail shaft of the transmission. Possibly if I was able to alter the mounting points of the rear diff, I could fix problem by tilting it's angle and securing in a new position? With the 2-piece driveshaft, I'm having some of the same problem, noise from U-joint harmonics at different speeds I think. Problem with my 2-piece is I had to mount the center section not-quite-in-line more off at a steeper approach/departure an angle from the center section (my just-fabb'd exhaust was in the way). So, I need to cut-out a center section of my exhaust, change the driveshaft center mounting to a more centralized location, then re-weld my exhaust together in some space that is available. I think this will fix my driveshaft noise/vibration issues.

Yeah it looks like he could have a door on the right side above the rear wheel, and an electric step that comes down when you open the door that's a cool project, you've seen this build before correct?: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=955676 ^one of my favorite automotive/etc build threads of all time, and a similar camper idea to what you're building

AWESOME thread I have a spare '83 ea81 sitting in my storage shed I want to build later, most likely in a performance sense for boost with lower CR pistons for 200HP+ regular tune! I love the old ea81, even if it needs a standalone EFI setup and boost to be great, I love it in ways so much more than the later ea82 and EJ timing-belt engines that followed.. I've had the experience in 4 different Brats, multiple engines & engine swaps, 4 and 5 speed manual transmissions, stock or Weber carbs, 3-4 different and custom built exhaust setups with different characteristics.. taking ALL the abuse possible for over 30K miles in the past year+. Freaking tanks. the ea81: rebuild it, love it, it's special, it's a little airplane

exhaust hangers cause a vibration in body from exhaust, I'm going to fix that.. besides that there is a slight driveshaft issue sometimes still, which means at the same time I fix the exhaust hangers I'm going to cut the center section of my exhaust out, fix driveshaft center mounting for an even more centered location, then afterward I'll fix all those slight bends in the middle of my exhaust with a new straight section of piping..

Problem seems mostly pretty much fixed with this 2-piece driveshaft and current position of center-section mounting. There are still times between 60-65mph off-throttle that I can feel the beginnings of a faint vibration similar to before but nowhere near as bad as the past at times.. I'd call it 99.9% fixed, and know the things required to perfect it to feel like a 'completely stock car always'...

Its so hard to get any good pics of driveshaft angles, I don't have a lift.. .. but the point is- no extreme angles! Stock car height stock mounting, driveshaft only longer causing slight difference from 4spd angles. my name on the driveshaft built by six states difficult to adjust anything.. sooo I just bought a '94 Loyale 2-piece driveshaft for $50 and I'm going to see how easily I can weld some mounts for the center section and give that a try instead