Subaruist

Oh, I would love to... Aside from the issue that many garages donot like customers in the work area due to damnable liability concerns, which this mechanic may or may not have, I doubt he would want me 'helping' him, and I would not want to distract him, as I probably would with one odd question after another. I am leaving it to his care and letting him do his thing.I am giving him my trust that he is a Subaru man and knows better than most mechanics what and how to do. I did ask him about the issue of turning my back rims around to face outward, for the Mag Wheel look. As I suspected, it does not do serious immediate harm. It will shorten the life of my rear bearings, and would likely take a couple years to start becoming a problem. At some pointI may want to change out those bearings anyway, as it is an older vehicle. I alsowonder that if it were an off-roader,and I put lift kits in, larger rims, and big mudder tires on it, that too would change and likely increase torque and wear, etc. on those bearings. IfI keep a light load in the back and this is going to be driven on the street and not off-roaded, then it will not be aproblem any time in the near future I think.

You are ever so full of answers,you should have the member's title "Guru" or something, lol...

As I write, my Brat is finally at the mechanic's, whith a whole day dedcated to fixing it up. I have also dedicated several hundred dollars to making this happen. I feel comfortable and confident with the local mechanic, He is primarily a Subary mechanic, and I have seen more older Subarus at his place getting serviced then I have seen on the street. He gave me reasonable prices. I am not even nervous about this or the money I am spending on it. I am only apprehensive in hoping that things work out as planned, and that it will be done by the end of the day. I feel the same as if a family pet were at the Veteranarians' office. EDIT / UPDATE: Got a call from the mechanic once he got into the clutch job... He says we opened up a real can of worms here... ( Uh oh... ) He gives me a list of everything that is horribly wrong - basically EVERYTHING. ( UH OH ) Everything inside the clutch compartment is a complete disaster ( OH NO !!! ) He will even have to re-machine the flywheel ( OH CRAP !!! ) He doesn't know how it has held together at all in this condition ( OH $#%@ !!! ) The extra parts needed are hard to find ( Snif.... ) He's going to have to keep it until at least monday or tuesday to finish it now ( OH GOD !!! ) - But its only going to cost me about another $25 ( I'M SO HAPPY !!! ) I LOVE OLD SUBARUS !!!

I see what you are saying,but it seems that what I have been saying is getting lost in translation or something. When this little nightare of mine started, I just wanted slighhtly bigger tires, That's all. - and that became the problem. I did consider every idea and suggestion, believe me, over and over again, for months now. If I was building an off-roader, this would have been much easier and quicker and likely wouldhave been done some time ago. This particular Brat is 'my baby', its my mechanical love of a lifetime. Regradless of the details and parts of how I arrive at the final design and look, I know what I want, and believe it or not, I know what the hell I am doing. The question has been how to make that happen. If adapter plates were the answer, they wouldalready be in the mail coming to me. I was at one point two breaths away from buying new 14 inch 6 lug rims and having them drilled. The simple truth is that I don't need rims, the rims I have willwork fine. What I need are the right tires, as I keep saying. As far as availability, yes, they are morte than available. I have three different retailers so far with them ready to send if I so decide, I found them on Amazon, as did '84 Bruiser' also, I have found them on Ebay, etc. I know I can get them, there is no queston or issue on that. Now that I have a set of good tires to carry me for the time beingI can take my time and decide exactly which size to get and find a good price on them, while in the mean time, I put a priority on repairs. I just needed and wanted bigger tires, and when I could not find them,it was a problem for me. I knew there must be specialty tires out there, so I held out, and I have found them.Problem solved.I don't need to invest in this, that, and the other thing and/or start making unnecessary modifications, etc. I really don't see why people cannot understand such a simple thing.

No offense intended to Mr. Pooparu, who is obviously pleasing people, but you guys have not seen what I am planning. I am going to be doing my own over-the-top custom design. I doubt I would be any real competition for Mr. Pooparu, as mine would probably and necessarily cost much more. I'm only asking two thngs here... #1: Is there a way to post an MS Word document, as opposed to posting a dozen or more pictures of fonts? #2: I will then be asking for opinions on the fonts I am looking at, and asking if anyone has fonts they think would be better. Surely there is no harm in this? I would say that there is no harm in a little competition, but what Mr. Pooparu is offering is very reasonably priced, and what I would be offering would likely be really cool, but pretty expensive. I'm gonna be making at least one kind for myself anyway, so I would like the input and opinion in any case. - So does anyone have a really cool font that would be perfect for a new kind of BRAT decal ???

Great idea!

What a coincidence, I have found tha same ! I have a post regarding a list of rims that will fit on older Subarus where I have toiled over the nightmare of getting what I need for a "STREET" look Brat. I wanted a "STREET" look, and wated to stay away from any off-road look. I did not want to drill holes in 6 lug rims, as that wouldnot look good for a 'street' look, I did not want anything more than a 14 inch rim, again, because I want a street look, not off road, and did not want to have to get an overall lift kit. I did not feel right drilling and adding lugs to my hubs, no matter what assurances there are that it would be safe. I did not want aluminum rims, so Peugeot rims were out, because steel puegeot rims look like crap. I did not feel right about adapters, aside from the fact that they would be tyet another additional cost to tires and rims, not to mention shipping from austrailia. I really did not want to have to get rimas at all, because the ones I have are good enough and could be painted up to look great, and what I really needed was slightly larger TIRES. After struggling with this in every way, and getting all kinds of grief from a couple people who thought I was just being difficult, I spottted a picture, like so:... Which gave me a lead. I searched out the words on those tires and found the same as you mentioned, and two or three others from same company (Maxxis), and further inqueries lead me to also find similar tires with the brand "Milestar" I believe both brands have sizes 175/80/13 and 185/80/13. Thus, finally, despite the difficulties and nay-sayers, I found my answer !!! I now have THREE, - no, FOUR choices: I can settle for the very affordable, yet somewhat mediocre 185/70/13's, or spend the bucks for what I REALLY want, and get either 175/80/13's or 185/80/13's, but this last weekend I found a deal on a set of nearly new, good quality 175/70/13's, which I am running now for $75. I couldn't pass them up. So now I can take my time finding a deal on the larger tires I really want, upto a year or more at the extremes, and in the mean time start getting my tires changed with the ones I just got and having the rims sand-blasted and painted up to look real cool. I will probably do something easy for painting the rims that can easily be repaired if/when a tire ship scratches them up mounting the bugger tires. Likely some cool looking metallic Blue spray paint I have noticed. The 185/80/13's are probably about an inch two big (radius) to fit into my spare tire space under the hood. Howver, one of the guys mentioned something in passing that might be a reral option. They suggested that the only way to fit such size of tire in there would be to keep it flat, thus reducing its diameter, and maybe they meant that it could be fit/deformed into there as well. - I did try to find that suggestion to give him the credit for his idea, but was unsucessful. Since I have a really good old-fashioned trucker's 12v air pump, I could consider keeping the spare flat, and inflating it if its needed. Further, I am considering maybe installing a ratcheting tie-down, bolted securely into the spare area so that I could, if I had to, pull the tire in and away from the carb vacuum parts and oil filler spout, as well as being another way to secure the spare, although not necessary. The only real serious down side to this I can think of is that (1) If the bead broke on the spare, that could be a real problem once I needed to inflate the spare, and (2) Ratcheting in the spare to squeeze it away from the carb and filler tube would slightly deform the shape of the tire over time, which may or may not be any issue in the end. If at all possibe, I do want to keep my spare in the space intended for it under the hood.

Hey - Why aren;t you answering my messages man? I have money for you....

So... No interest whatsoever in my post about BRAT decals? I am going to be putting a lot of work and time into this, not to mention putting my own dollars into the first ones. If I can get some useful input, and I use the font or idea that someone provides other than my own, I would be happy to send them such decal(s) at my cost. I have an MS Word 2000 document that has a list of samples of fonts that could be used for the BRAT decal, and would welcome any fonts that you guys think would be better, and could add to the document - if someone can tell me how I can somehow post it. I will likely be doing one version as a copy of the original, but I also want to do something a little different. So far, from the little homework I have done, I am guessing that a really good BRAT decal - that is a good quality "Car safe", Metallic and/or reflective would cost me between $75 and $125. For selling such, I would likely add shipping and maybe only $20 for my efforts and time, etc. I think my Brat is definitely worth it, isn't yours? Gimme some input guys.... Thanks

Tonight I will be doing some graphics work, Designing a new "BRAT" decals for just behind the cab, to replace the original, and "Hot Wheels" decals for over the rear wheels, on both sides. Once work is complete, I will be able to have these custom decals available for sale as well to us Subaru Fanatics, They will not be cheap to say the least, in fact probably rather pricey, not due to greed on my part, but due to the actual cost. But if its worth it to me, it might be worth it to others. I want to get some feedback on what font might be best for the "BRAT" decals. I could go with the original, which I will as one version at some point, but I would like to maybe do something a little unique. The letters will have the same slant and such. There will be at at least as an option, for the decals to be made reflective. and/or metallic. How can I add a MS Word document to this post, so others can give opinions on what font to use, or to include one they may have as an alternate?

Drove to Grants Pass and got a deal on a set of only slightly used tires, same size as I have now. If you are not familiar with my struggle with the whole Larger wheels/rims/adapters/drilling holes in rims/drillingand adding lugs to my hubs/etc nightmare, I finally found my answer. I don't need todo any of that. I found larger than usual tires that wil go onto my good 'ole sturdy 4 X 140mm steel star/poke/whatever Subaru rims. Maxis or Milestar !75/80R13's and 185/80/R13's. This is really what I wanted in the first place.. The wholepoint to getting larger rims is to get bigger tires/wheels, and for some, getting bigger overall off-roading wheels and/or to maybe have a better selection of tires. My Brat is going to be 'Street', So I didn't want the off-road look at all I have a bald spare that sudenly no longer holds air, and one tires' tread is starting to separate, so it was becoming a shorter-term priority. I did not want to rush getting the good tires until I had other necessary repairs done, and had a chance to get my rims sand blasted and painted. Found an ad for a set of basically new 175/70R13's with the whiskers still on them for only $75, so I jumped on it. I will replace/re-mount 2 or 3 of them at first ( 2 Rear and spare ) and work in getting them sandblasted and painted, then the last two.They will look good and last me more than long enough to get everything else done and then find the best deal on my bigger fatter tires at my conenvience.

About the top picture of the Brat, I think you are right. But otherwise, check the stats - I got 2 out of 3 of those tire pics/ads straight from the Maxxis company site. They DO EXIST. The tires below the picture are all for 13 inch rims !!! YES !!! I just got an email: "Hi Jay, The best fitting tire for what you’re looking for would be the 175/80R13 Milestar ½” Whitewall for $66 each – In-Stock. "

I found a possible lead on something, and the picture below has more than one answer for what I want to do: This guy has 4 lug rims, but those tires are not the standard 3 sizes that every tire shop keeps telling me is all there is. I KNOW there are other tires out there, whether specialty or offroad, etc. I did a search based on the name/words printed on those tires, and could not find any so far that are 13" wheels. Maybe this guy modified his rims in such away that they look like stock rims still ?, or maybe such tires for 13" rims really exist ? These tires look fairly knobby/offroad, but they look cool.They would be a middle ground that would still look good enough on a street rig... UPDATE; Ah- HA!!! Ah.... HAA !!! Ah... HA HA-HA !!!! THIS means I have a CHOICE !!! I don't have to worry about rims, or adapters, or drilling holes in anything !!! I can use my stock, sturdy 13" steel rims, and dress them up !!! No cost for modifying work !!! No cost for Adapters and shipping !!! No cost for more/new rims !!! I can either get fairly mediocre but very afordable almost stock tires, slightly bigger than what I have now, that will likely fit in my spare tire space under the hood, or for around twice or three times as much money I can get REALLY COOL TIRES !!! - OH! I feel SO much better now !!!

It seems like you are just joking, but if otherwise, please lighten up, give the other guy the benefit of the doubt, and hey, its HIS vehicle, and its entirely up to him what he needs, wants or prefers. Who wants to spend half ther bank account on rims if they are not sure that they won't regret it, eh? I see no reason why any rims should cost more than $200 unless they are the downright coolest things since Elvis or something.

No, its not everybody, its just you and one other smartmouth. There is a list of people on here who can point out where I am wrong about something, who are right and can explain it with intelligence, who have something positive to contribute, and whom I repect, but you add nothing of value, have no ideas, and have nothing positive to add, you are just running your mouth (keyboard) and talking crap for no good reason, All you are doing is being a jerk. YOU and your attitude are the problem here so just shut up and go do something productive with yourself if you have nothing of value to contribute. Go pull wings of flies or somethng you damned troll.

Option #9: Buy new good looking 14" x 6 lug rims and have them drilled. Option #10: Buy new good looking 14" x 6 lug rims, have them drilled, and have rings made that the lugs can go through, that cover the lug holes, or maybe have such seemlessly welded on or something.

This ridiculous crap just never ends... I did NOT criticise what anybody else has done, I am critical of what will e done on MY vehicle. Re-drilling 6 lug rims works great for off-roading. It does NOT look so great for a street lool, and looks hokey. I amnot going to be a car-show prize seeker, but just try thatat a car show andsee what is said about it - the same that I say about it,because it is reality. You are being just another person taking advantage of a cheap excuse to give me crap. Its not repectable, and I don't respect it. It seems that when I explain something, make my point, people ignore what I wrote about it, and then criticise me when I point it out. You do your vehicle any way you want, and by damn I willdo my vehicle how I want. don't go giving me crap just because you see some opportunity and cheap excuse to. Go troll somewhere else...

By the way, NICE RIMS !!! I resist getting aluminum 13" rims, but if I had to, those are among the best looking Subaru rims I have seen ! Simple but cool.

One again, you mis-state the obvious... You ignore what I have plainly already explained, and then criticise me in ignorance of it. "Why do you ask for help and then not use it?" BECAUSE I WANT TO DO THINGS RIGHT !!! #1: Because I do not want to screw with my hubs, re-drilling holes in old hubs. or spending hundreds of dollars in the end on doing that "right", which it would not necessarily be right to do anyway, and which wouldbe in addition to the cost of rims and tires. #2: Drilling holes in rims looks SLOPPY for what will be a nice STREET look. People might not care if they want an off-roader, but for a STREET look, it looks Backyard-mechanic jerry-rigged SLOPPY. They also create additional cost of rims and tires. #3: Adapters are not reliable enough as far as I am concerned, they add SIGNIFICANTLY to the cost, not to mention shipping from Austrailia, and for those who say not to turn my rims backwards, those adapters would offset the rims out almost as much anyway, so much for that. #4: Peugeot rims, the ones I would have to use, are apparently not made any more, are usually aluminum, which is obviously not as strong as steel, and which I have less trust in, most don;tlook all that wonderful, the steel ones look like crap, and again, they too add significantly to the cost, and are also hard to find. I need to replace my tires sometime in the near future. #5: Unfortunately, although it was not suggested, and was a curiosity of my own, I could get Trailer tires that are EXACTLY the size I want, and acordingto what I have found,would look GREAT. However, people say theyare bad in handling if not dangerous. My objection, which seems to have no effect in English language where your continued critiques are concerned are with people essentially claiming that this is an easy tosolve problem WHICH IT IS NOT, and make like I am just making aproblem where one does not exist,or that I am maybe being too fussy, and should just take the SLOPPY backyard mechanic approach to my wheels, which WILL NOT LOOK GOOD ON A STREET LOOK. For what I need to do, the problem is NOT an easy one ! Thus my difficulty. I do not give up easily, so aside from a month or two before I ever posted something in this forum, I checked things out on my own.When I did not find the easy answer, I posted, and looked for any answers I did not previously find, and evaluated the couple that popped up. It has now been almost three months, The tread is beginning to separate on one of my wheels, and I need to come upwith a solution that I will not later regret, and hate myself for doing, and If I followed some of the advice given, that is EXACTLY what would happen. I am doing every possible internet search I can think of and exhausting every possible idea, alternative and option before I make my decision and start making it happen. So unless you have a good idea that nobody else has come up with, GET OF MY FREAKIN' BACK AND STOP CRITICIZING !!!

- Get a Brat and you won't have to worry about it, lol... In all the Brats I owned and all the times I drove them, only a handful of times did I ever even put one into 4WD, and then only as a precaution. - There's reasons why some of us are Brat fanatics ! lol...

Funny, I'm not saying you are wrong, but back in my earlier Subrau Brat off-roading days, I turned the back wheels and never noticed any difference whatsoever in how it drove or handled under any circumstances. Regarding the bearings, I dunno.

First, right up front, I am getting damned tired of people criticising my not wanting to do a SLOPPY improvised job. If you like it and want it, you do it to YOUR vehicle. I am putting a lot of time, aggravation, and money into things, and if I HAVE TO improvise, I will, but if that, I want to make it look good. The more I think about it, the less I like drilling holes in rims. It looks CRAPPY for what will be a nice street rig. It may not matter for an off-road rig, but if I am going to put so much into it, I may as well do it as right as I can. Gloyale Gloyale - You mention: "14" nissan and Mazda rims are around all over the place.....most in stamped steel.....but some in chrome too. I just picked up a set of 15" mazda steel rims, shallow offset, flat center.......for $35 bucks for the set." Are you saying they will bolt onto my 140mm X 4 rims without drilling? Sounds like they are 5 lug that would bolt onto more modern Subarus? I have heard all about getting the rear end to a whatever so I can have 5 lug hubs and disk brakes, but that does nothing for the front end. Not many people are re-drilling thier front hubs for 5 lugs. And that also requires screwing with things and likely welding stuff together. For everyone else who keeps making like this is simple, easy, and I'm just not with it - There is nothing I can write here that is not deservedly insulting about such ignorance and nonsense. As of yesterday, there are a whopping TWO alegedly good (older) Subaru mechanics in my vicinity, and only one of them do I have reason to trust. He is always backed up with work, and not the type to do things sideways. There is no big 2nd Gen subaru crowd in my area, and so far I have seen and heard of only a small handful of Brats for a hundred miles - that's just the way it is. Eugene is practically Subaru Paradise, and Washington State as wellmaybe, but not necessarily here, and they are too far for a casual drive to get parts. Central California is even farther. If there was a Dual-Carb Super-charged EA81 engine in California I could afford, You bet I will drive half-way through California to get it. But I am not going to be stupid enough to spend $800 and drive 800 miles just to get some decent wheels ! I will find a better way! I have been searching the forum and craigslist and the internet for anything available in rims and options, over and over again. If this was easy, it would have already been done, dammit! In a way, I am glad it has been taking this long, because as I said, the more I think about it the less I like the idea of drilling ANYTHING where my Wheels are concerned. What really pisses me off is that the best and easiest answer is to just put slightly larger tires on my perfectly good rims and dress them up, and the fact that the whole damned world doesn't seem to have much of anything for my 13" rims is the REAL problem. Dammit, alI I freakin' need are some 185/75/13's and everything is great. But NOO00ooo, the whole damned tire and auto industry has some big stick up thier butt about 13 inch rims. I am half tempted to get 185/70/13's and just live with it, but that will not give me the look I want. I am damn well not going to screw with my hubs, and that's all there is to that, period. You know, when I have some way-out idea, and one of the guys on here bursts my bubble and tells me it it won't work, that's one thing, but when people make like its easy simple and I am just making a problem where one does not exist, that is BULL ! If anyone has that kind of opinion, just keep your freakin' opinion to yourself ! I may do some wild things, but I do not want to go SLOPPY just to solve a problem if I don't absolutely have to.

.

Ordered some bits for my contuned repair/fix up. The way I see it, if I have to fix something, why not improve things while I am at it, right? So I ordered a set of three DPDT / Center off switches: These are my personal favorite kind of switches if found affordable, as you can do so much with them. You can use them as a simple on/off switsh, or control one way or another up to 4 different things with them. For my present purposes, I will be using one for my Aux. Driving lights: One side of the 'ON' will be for two lights only, the other 'ON' will be for all four lights, and of course center will be 'OFF' for them all. I am debating if I want to do similar with the electric radiator cooling fans. The mickey-mouse repairs and wiring of the previous owners (Sorry MIckey, didn't mean to insult you) Has both fans on all the time. I assume that at least one of them is probably supposed to be triggered by temperature. Right now, it's getting colder in Oregon, and I simply do not need two radiator cooling fans running when I am trying to get my Brat to warm up. With this kind of switch, I can have one, both, or neither fan on. I will have to watch the temp guage of course once the Brat is warmed up and I am sitting still idling for a while. May not be critical, not sure, as I am used to the improvised way I was runnning my cooling system before I finally got the last coolant leak fixed. The little coolant hose that goes from the intake manifold to the base of the Carb was the culprit, so until I could fix it, I left the coolant level at about half the radiator capacity. On the good side, the Brat warmed up faster in the morning, but on the bad side, when I diconnected one fan and was idling after being warmed up, the Brat would get hotter than I would prefer. Some day, one down the list of repairs, will come re-doing the nightmarish rats nest of wiring that the previous owners Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumberer did to this poor abused masterpeice of engineering I drive, which will be involved, and either painful, expensive, or both. In the mean time, I plan to bolt a piece of the right size aluminum angle to the ridge under the Driver's seat for additional switches and such, as it seems to be otherwise unused space, and handy enough to get at while driving. It would also be a good place to put a couple of superbrite LEDs to shine across the floor, and that would be handy for any small thing dropped there. Otherwise, the space under the seats has been effectively reserved for an Audio amp under one, and maybe a slightly illegal CB/Ham booster under the other, both mounted with military grade or better shock mounting. Maybe a couple of rumble Bass woofers or heavy-duty Bass transducers if space permits, lol.

Oops - I thought you just had a piece of channel there, which looked pretty easy - I guess there is more to it than that? Absurd thought # 46-H: Could I replace my... -'A Frame' or engine mount crossmember in a similar manner? I have a small oil leak that I suspect is from the oil pan gasket, and found the bolts were a little loose, but cannot get to the rear bolts on it. Doingsomething like that might make things more accessible, andmight play into my futire exhaust replacement. If so,I would definitely have to get a hood scoop, as my present tiny little after-market air cleaner's stud and wing nut have been banging against the underside of my hood a bit.