Jessekrs123

Damn, it has certainly been a while since I have posted up. I've been getting a lot of overtime at work + school so things have been a little crazy throughout the past few weeks, leaving me little time to work on the BRAT. I've gotten a little done though. My father brought home some possible frame rail replacements. He is an insulator so he has access to materials. I'm not sure if these things will hold, but I'm sure they will hold a lot better than the rusty rails that are on the car right now. Moved the BRAT out of the already Subaru crowded driveway because I haven't been able to do anything with it lately so this is where she currently resides. Parked under some trees so of course some bird shat on my flawless T-Tops. I felt like taking some pictures on this beautiful day and decided to snap a few pictures of the car. I got in contact with a sandblasting place in Thomaston, and they said that they can sandblast and paint my rims for $35 each + supplies which doesn't sound like a bad deal. I might just have them sandblast them for $20 a piece and paint them myself, but we'll see how that plays out. Still waiting on rocker panels from Mill Supply Inc... I should give them a call and see what the wait is all about. I ordered these things a good month ago. And still waiting on the bill of sale... I talked to the kid last week and he informed me that the mail carrier retrieved the envelope with no bill of sale in it, so he said he would mail it out when he had the chance. That was over a week ago... Oh yes, and to top it all off, Hagerty suddenly decided not to cover me anymore because I am only 18. They said they want to wait until I turn 20 to give me coverage so now I have to find a new insurance company. Eff me for being young right? No progress yet really. Just waiting on parts, and documents. Stuff has been busy.

Just got off the phone with Hagerty Classic Car Insurance and I have some ridiculously good news. The car will only cost $150 a year to insure it (It's main use will be pleasure with limited amount of miles per year). I will probably only drive it to Subaru meets and a little pleasure driving here and there. The car will be covered up to $8,000 after the first year it is registered!!! No deductible or anything! So I will certainly not be spending $7,000 to get it in great shape because I will be doing most of the work myself. I'm thinking that the most money I will spend on it is to have the dents removed and resprayed professionally, which at that shouldn't cost an insane amount of money. I am going to keep it the same color because I really like this color. So in terms of respraying it, only the outside will be done because it will all remain the same color, and the interior certainly does not need to be sanded down and resprayed as most of it will be covered by interior carpet and whatnot, and it will all be the same color. Get new BRAT decals, even though the one's on it currently are in good shape, they certainly won't be there after the respray. Get all new trim pieces which I'm sure I'll be nickeled and dimed for. But before all of that I need to weld in new interior panels, front frame rails, rocker panels, reinforce rear shock towers and weld in new panels where all of the rust exists on the outside of the car. I'm getting very ahead of myself... I just need to receive my filled out bill of sale and this thing will be ready to rock the streets.

Oh, haha my bad. I made the assumption you had a BRAT. If you can make it that would be great. I usually don't get there until about 7:30 because I get out of work at 7 but we usually stick around until like 9, then we go to Wendy's and hang out for another 1-2 hours. It will be really cool to see your 78 wagon. My father used to have one way way back in the day.

Hahaha, it will be nice to see your proven old potential there. Yes, that is the place, only we will not be meeting in the Planet Fitness parking lot, we will be at the parking lot right across the street next to the Auto Zone. It'll be nice to meet you there. I'll be the short kid with long hair. I'm sure the guys will be more than excited to see your BRAT. Some of them haven't even seen one in person haha.

Alright sounds good. Looking forward to seeing you at the meets which are heavily dominated by newer Imprezas. It'll be nice to see some old potential there. Right now my 1993 Legacy is the oldest car there.

It's a local Subaru meet in Waterbury CT. Every Wednesday night 7 pm @ Planet Fitness off of Wolcott Street. The cops kicked us out last week so I believe this week we will be in the parking lot right across the street from Planet Fitness. If you're in the area and would like to come, feel free to. Here is the CTSubie thread if you are more interested. The last few meets have turned out really well, almost 30 cars! http://www.ctsubie.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24782

When I got out of work today, I had decided to tackle my leaking oil pump. I cleaned off the area around the pump sо I could pinpoint exactly where it was leaking. Ran the car and it turned out that it was leaking from the top of oil pump where it meets the block. Took off my alternator belt and removed the crank pulley. This is pretty easy being in gear with a large pair of pliers to hold the pulley, and a nice breaker bar. One tough push and the bolt becomes nice and loose. I then went ahead and disconnected the pressure sender and removed the four bolts from the oil pump. With a few light taps, the pump came right out and very little oil followed to my surprise. I removed the gasket from the block and then assessed the o-rings on the pump. There was a good amount of oil collected around the oil pump assembly, so I'm guessing that the paper gasket finally crapped out. There is one o-ring on the outside of the pump. This o-ring was in pretty good shape, still somewhat bendy. After taking the pump apart, there are 2 o-rings. One along the by-pass valve spring and one around the gearing of the pump. Both of these o-rings were brittle and stiff and broke into little pieces. Took out all of the old o-rings, cleaned off the o-ring area and replaced them with the new ones. Cleaned off the mating surface of the oil pump to the block and set the new gasket there. This gasket was just cheap paper, but it has done the job well so far. Here is a picture of the inside of the block. I took it as a reference to reset the gearing on the oil pump so it would slide in no problems: Bolted on the oil pump nice and good, reconnected the pressure sender, bolted the crank pulley back on and tightened up my alternator belt. I will be needing a new drive belt for that as well, this one is cracking up. Started up the car, oil pressure was good to go. Waited and watched the oil pump for leaks until the car got up to operating temp triggering the fan. No oil leakage anywhere so now the oil pump is nicely sealed and ready to roll. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to make it to this Wednesday's meet with the BRAT. Everything is ready to go except for the bill of sale. I mailed it out early this week to the previous owner, but I have not gotten it back yet so that is the only thing holding this back from hitting the road. Still waiting on the rocker panels. Looking for sheet metal so I can weld up the interior and get it all back together.

Nahh, I don't think so. My dad and a few of his buddies would just throw their old Subarus around and fix them up whenever they needed to. Wow, thanks for that Moosens. I will certainly take a good look through those threads and see someone else's project. On the other hand... Despite how annoying this rainy weather has been, it has helped me to discover a few new oil leaks. I've found old oil (black) coming from the screw on the oil pressure sending unit showed here: And I've also found new oil (golden) coming from this seam that connects the oil filter to the block. I ran the engine and watched it gather at this seam. It is not collecting from anywhere above, it is most certainly seeping through this crease shown below: I will be looking through my dealer repair manuals and part booklets that I acquired (Thanks a lot to my friends at the parts department) too see if there is any gaskets or anything that seals these parts off. But if anyone could chime in and save me some time that would be great too. Thanks.

Wow your BRAT looks spectacular. It is identical to mine minus the rust, dents, missing trim pieces, black bed liner, lift, front bar and wagon wheels.

I just picked up a 1984 BRAT with 62,000 miles, very very little rust and all it needed was a fuel pump. I bought it for $600. $600 seems to me too much for a BRAT with a rough body and a shot engine.

Yeap, just waiting on the rockers and some sheet metal so I can weld up the interior and put it all back together. And yes, no EA82s. Definitely not as reliable as the 81s and 71s.

I actually found a company that makes rocker panels for the older Subarus. Mill Supply Inc. has rocker panels that are for the older wagons, but the bodys are all very similar with eachother, so all I have to do is cut off the rear quarter and everything should fit in very nicely. Even if they aren't identical, they should be close enough. I just ordered those so once those come in, the old quarter panels will come out and the new ones welded in. Still looking for some good sheet metal for the cab floor. Nothing really new since I got the car running. The gas gauge does infact work, I'm thinking that the float got stuck after sitting so long so it just needed some new gas in there to get it moving so now all of my gauges work. Also the passenger's side front blinker bulb is on it's way out so I will be replacing that.

Moar...

Changed out the radiator hoses and coolant yesterday. Now I'm on the lookout for some sheet metal and maybe some rocker panels if I can find them. If not, I'll have to make a stencil and send it to an auto body shop, or fab it up myself. Compression test will be done when I change out the spark plugs, just to be sure. Anyways, I haven't had any new pics of the car, but my father did find a lot of pics of him and his friends' old Subarus, so I'll put them here for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

Replaced the second fuel filter, oil filter and changed out the oil on this rainy day. Luckily there was enough room in my garage to peek the BRAT's head in so it wasn't too bad. I will be getting new radiator hoses tomorrow and installing those along with some new coolant. Finished school today so now it's just BRAT and work. Then I will be assessing the interior rust and rocker panels so I can fix that, get the interior all back together and get this beast on the road. I will deal with the outer body rust after the interior rust is removed and interior put back together. I'm also looking for jumpseats with the seatbelts. If anyone has them and wants to get rid of them let me know. I have to be able to haul around more than 1 person, especially with summer coming up.

IT LIVESSSSSS MWUHAHAHAHAHA Got out of school this morning at like 7:00. Went to NAPA to pick up the fuel filters, the kid only ordered one but at least the one that came in was for the fuel pump and not the one in the engine bay. Then I headed up to the Subaru dealer and got the fuel pump. Headed back home, hooked up all of the fuel lines and the new fuel filter and connected the fuel pump. Had to keep turning it over for a good minute to get everything primed and ready to go. Then it started. I had to sit on the gas for a little while to cycle through all the old gas but after about 2 minutes it started running smoothly. Oil pressure gauge works, coolant temp gauge works, gas gauge does not work though, I'll look a little more into that. Cooling fans also work, heater blower works. Here is a video of me driving it around : Next step will be a complete fluid changeout. New oil, oil filter and coolant. The car stayed cool, but the coolant smells like a dirty lady. The transmission works beautifully. Every gear works, hi/low 4WD works. Shifter bushings are shot, but it shifts in and out of gear wonderfully. So excited!!! :banana:

Figured I would throw this in as well, while on the subject of old Subarus. When my father was younger, him and his friend who was a 19 year Subaru tech would buy old Subarus (back then they were only a few years old), reinforce them, fix them up to run and beat the living snot out of them. My father told me he would jump them all day, hardly ever smashed oil pans or bent up the radiator. They would flip them over numerous times, flip them back onto the wheels and flip it again. They purposely tried to kill these engines, and he said that you just couldn't kill them no matter what you did. Here are just a picture of a few. If I were to ballpark it, they had well over 10 Subarus that they had fun with. And when they finally stopped running, they left them in the woods. Here is an old hatch jumping: And if you look in the background there is an old coupe: He has more pictures, and when he comes across them in the basement, I'll post them here.

Oh yeah, and I cannot forget the wagon wheels that came with the car. These will be sandblasted and painted white. I spent a lot of time yesterday cleaning the remainder of the interior. I also spent 2 hours scrubbing down the blue air cleaner cover to try to take all of the rust out. It was slowly removed and I didn't even get it all off, but to my surprise the rust was slowly being scrubbed away. I ordered a new fuel pump today and I will be replacing all of the fluids. I'm sure once I get it running well I will come across more things to address.

Assessed all of the rust yesterday. For what it is this thing doesn't have much rust at all. Passenger's side rocker and door: Passenger's side foot well: Tailgate with working latch : Driver's side rocker and door: Driver's side foot well: And the worst rust IMO, rear wheel wells and bed: All of the rust will be removed and new panels welded in. The rust in the rear wheel wells will be removed and the rear shock towers will be reinforced.

The rocker panels are in great shape. It is just surface rust, no gaping holes. There is significant rust elsewhere though, I will have in depth pictures of rust tomorrow when I get a chance.

Spent about 5 hours today taking all of the interior apart. I removed everything except the dashboard. Chiseled out some of the sound deadening material to expose some of the rust that existed. Here are some pics. Put the spare tire back onto the spare tire bracket in the engine bay. Also check out those new battery terminals. The old battery terminals actually wore out this morning so the new ones were needed. The interior with almost everything gone. Milk crate seat. Assessed the fuel pump today. I ended up snapping 2 of the 3 bolts that hold the splash guard and mount the fuel pump. To those of you who do not know, the older fuel pumps were not even located in the fuel tank, but they are located outside of the fuel tank. Jumped the pump with 12 volts and it just popped. No pumping or anything so I will be getting a new fuel pump and filters this week. More to come...

Just bought this BRAT for $600. Pretty good condition for what it is, very minimal rust. Only 62,000 miles. It needs a fuel pump, some new shifter bushings, and some TLC but other than that it's a great car. Spent around 6 hours scrubbing the car down and getting it nice and clean. It had been sitting for around 3 years, and there began to grow algae or something around the body. Here are some before and after pics: Before: After: The previous owner began to switch the tan interior over to blue, but I've decided to keep it tan so I am refitting everything with the tan bits that came with the car. Quick video of the car running temporarily on some gas I poured into the carb: I cannot wait to get this thing running well and track down the original owner to transfer over the title.

I am a frequent member on NASIOC, bbs.legacycentral, and ctsubie. I'd figured I'd sign up here as well. I own a 1993 Subaru Legacy FWD 5 Speed. I love older Subarus, anything made before 1994 is good. I am actually looking for an L series as a spare car while I source an SVX to swap the EG33 into my Legacy. Anyone who lives in the North East who want to get rid of their EA series, let me know. Preferably a stick shift. Thanks.