Seahag1978

Another good source is to look on the web for used books. They go really cheap... even for the GOOD manuals. Find the actual title and author... the IBSN really narrows the search... you can find them for cents on the dollar.

My delusionary thinking is that they all have a specific purpose that not one can fill all your needs One for summer, one for winter, and one that has enough room for 4 people or lock up lots of shopping bags out of the weather!

I kept driving it until it really made itself known. The noise was never a click but like a drum roll. We spoke to edrach regarding another matter and he suggested that it was probably the axle since they do some strange things. It was the axle, it felt ok when it came out, but it fixed the noise.

The wheels ARE ready to fall off, and quite frankly, so is everything else! I have and will drive anything, but even this beast is beyond my even my sense of safety. I have 3 Gen2 toppers. They won't fit Gen1. Sorry. There is a salvagable gas filler door... who needed that? It's painted camo.

Good... nope, no skips or misses... exhaust smells a bit strong. Brought tears to my eyes. Every nut, bolt will be salvaged that isn't toast. This "habit" needs as much fuel as it can get <shrug>. I love my Brats (the 4 wheeled ones anyhow) j/k!

How old is he? Looks pretty detailed.

That's what I do... keep sanding it back and respraying the bed where it failed. A bit of a PITA but it always looks good

So... we got this Gen2 Brat given to us, gratis. It's a "genuine" parts car painted camo... I like the paint job. Anyway, it sat for 5 years and with 2 gallons of fresh gas, it fired right up. It drove onto the trailer, in 4WD due to 2 flat rear tires. It idles and drives great despite of the flat tires. The frame is complete toast, body isn't worth saving, mayyyybe the hood. It has some very good interior parts in tan, a nice bull bar, roll bar, high top cap and a second low topper. Now, my question is... the odometer reads 173k. do you think it would it be worth pulling the engine and tranny? My feelings are that if it sat for that long and started and runs, then keep it.

Sorry, but I can't imagine prepping a whole car for that process. One tiny pinhole and water gets in... then that stuff comes off in sheets. Trust me. Didn't do the whole car... just the bed. One speck of wax, shiny paint. Sometimes even a really hot day in strong sun. Done. Not to mention keeping it looking even slightly acceptable. Don't do it... I would rattle can it before that.

Glad to here that, John's always been a great guy in my book.

Hmmm... I do have some hesitation too, and when I'm in 4th and romp on it it goes nowhere. Do you have a picture of the grounding fix? Thanks!

I'm having the opposite problem... starts out nice then sometimes drops to around 6-8. Comes back up with gas. Noticed at the onset that the radio gave a big buzz at the driver's speaker, then stopped. Voltage seems normal again... speaker is ok.

It was DONE at 4:00 pm the next day... all that plushness... the velour and new carpet... I feel like I'm driving "I Dream of Jeannie's bottle! Oh yeah! I can hear the new CD player/stereo (in the modified console) with the help of the sound deadening material, yup, it really works. It's all very nice... smells really good too. Pics soon!

I had a post in the Wanted Classifieds a while back. I think you told me you had 2 types, a T and two wires. The switch on mine is snapped and the light is on all the time. I guess it's the T type... PM me a price with shipping to 01970. Thanks!

Yup, I remember you telling me that before... I actually put on my reading glasses while working. If I don't put them on, everything's just perfect as long as I stay within arm's length... beyond that things get real ugly. My eyes have "TMB Syndrome" (Too Many Birthdays)

That sounds very cool! Details...

LOL! I don't know jack about the mechanics of a car... well, a lot more than I did a couple of years ago. Oh, before I forget, we finally uncovered the 4WD switch it has a plunger and two plastic connectors. When looking straight into the open part of the plug, it's shaped like a T. Make sense?

POR15 is pricey but if it protects as well as it claims, then it's well worth it. The undercarriage may be toast but now Tim has some pretty ambitious ideas bouncing around in his head for this car involving a Jeep? When he decides to do something it gets done before his head hits the pillow that night. A daily occurence around here. Some jobs take a little longer. Makes me crazy, he never stops...it's gotta be the Big Slam Mountain Dews. '86's interior was done as of 4:15 this afternoon. It was just gutted yesterday morning.

"?? .?HatchMonster]I'm going to be the voice of reason from someone who has been there. It will take you 100's of hours to fix that rust. What we can see is bad. What we can't see is going to be worse. With the work-hours lost you could afford to ship a rust free AZ or CA brat many times over, and this one will never be as clean or original. That said, it's a beautiful car. The body is straight which is a plus... and I would probably do it if I were in your position. BUT it can really only ever be a "good enough" resto. That's just the nature of a NE car. Rust through every weld seem. POR15 is your friend. Good Luck Time is always on our side. We spend 100's of hours between us, on the cars now. It's a cheap hobby. We're not the vacationing cruise types, nor fashion plates, nor do we go to the movies or even out to dinner. When we finish the '86 we'll take closer eyeball under the '84. Buy stock in POR-15!

I would think it's fine. You may want to take it to a paint store and ask them to put it on the shaker machine to make sure everything's remixed well.

Nice looking wagon... don't you just hate it when stuff is missing? Best of luck with it!

I just posted the undercarriage shots. It looks sooooo bad in the pictures. Surface rust can scare the bejezzus out of people. You have to knock and stab... like a dentist... youch! There is far worse than surface rust... this is the crunchy, flaky stuff. The jack-pods (outriggers) are toast, moustache bars bolts snapped on one side from the potholes when we hit them, it was chained down on the trailer by it. The exhaust was sitting on the floor of the trailer and the tail pipe is somewhere on the road. We MAY very well find some more serious problems once we dig deeper, but I think it's all fixable. The main frame looks pretty clean. Soooo... now judge.

Ok, this Brat was on eBay a while ago. Well, it had such a dismal description that it looked like a perfect candidate for the many parts I needed for my '86 project. Hood, doors, trim, bumpers, roll bar, seats. Things that would have cost a small fortune to ship. We rented a ya'll Haul and headed to PA to retrieve it. When we arrived 7 hours later, we looked at it and decided on the spot that it was no parts car. We had had several conversations before bidding and told him that the parts were going to the '86... he sent 25 pictures but without touching, tapping, and banging, it can look pretty grim when you see heavy undercarriage rust. The parts that are rusted are easily replaced... mostly bolt on stuff. I told the owner I wouldn't be able to cut this baby apart. He actually hugged me and had a tear in his eye. It made him glad we weren't going to hack into it and it would be totally restored to original. THIS is the Brat that will be nut for nut, bolt for bolt. Original. So see my gallery (link below) and see if you agree that this car deserves total true restoration.

Hmmm... Catch-22... I would never PAY someone to detail my cars, but I would never DO someone else's car for that rate, too much work. I hate car washes and have an extreme fear of them, I can't even be a passenger. Palms sweat... shortness of breath. I have someone else to take them through just for the undercarriage wash. When they come back out, they are always still nasty and I make the owner let the car go through again.

Paul, Tim has fiberglass repro fenders on his Ford F-1, one fender is as big as my whole cab! When we ordered them, we also needed to get all the installation hardware to go along with them. No rubber washers were needed, but if I remember correctly, it took 136 nuts and bolts for the 4 fenders, and I think they're stainless steel. Now, that could be due to the fact that there are so many bolts involved and the stress is evenly distributed throughout the units. Subes only have a few so I imagine it wouldn't hurt to put them on as long as it doesn't create a slight space between the fender and a reinforcing part, like a solid, straight run of metal. Better it lay flat in that case, or it will spider crack with any expansion, contraction or impact. A single area where it just touches one part might be good insurance against vibration injuries. For instance, where the bumper attaches to the fender on an '8x. One more word of warning. Painting them is a bear... the static is ungodly, it will attract a speck of dust 3 miles down the road and then it'll call all its buddies. They don't rust, but even after the paint dries, they attract every particle of dust around... they do look nice though.