TheSubaruJunkie

Damn I miss this car. Let me know if you ever want to sell it!

LOL Jeremy!

Maybe if you own a brat with 2500 original miles on it.

Nice photo.... ....of it PARKED!????? Show it doing its thing!

I want to know who these people are bidding on BaT? They are insane!! I mean take this for an example: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1994-toyota-4runner/ current bid $6,200 for a 3.0 4Runner with 138k miles??? That thing is maybe worth $3000 AT MOST! And thats while its currently running and driving. Not very long from now that motor will be trash. lol Anyhow, $46K for a Gen1 Brat is absolutely ridiculous. I call B.S.

Thanks! Yeah I really like the way the gold rims look with the red too. And now that I tinted my fog lights it just looks so proper!

The stuff you used at the car shows was just some sort of restoring agent that brought back the shine in dull plastic. The stuff I used is an actual black dye (that will turn your clothing black I found out). It appears to have still dyed the plastic a darker color. Im going to pressure wash it all off and see if it took care of the fading that I was concerned about.

Well this sucks! I just took the car to get washed and it pretty much destroyed the dye job I did yesterday. Damnit.

I will have to see what I can do. It burns a little oil and makes my wife sick. So no way she's gonna want to sit in this car for 12 hours.

Since I was preparing the bumper for the dye, I thought it would be a good opportunity to pull the fog lights and restore them. I also picked up some yellow rvinyl tint off ebay and took some time to tint the fog lights. Here's a before & after shot of the fog lights on the restoration: and here's a shot of one light tinted vs the clear: The tinting process is not terribly difficult. I am not a perfectionist and ended up with a few tiny bubbles. But from a distance you would never be able to tell. I think the yellow fog lights compliment the gold rims.

Well I spent the majority of yesterday with Rosey in the garage. I picked up some "Forever Black" bumper and trim dye off amazon so I could restore all the faded plastic cladding. I didn't really want to go full black, but there didn't seem to be any other options. And I didn't feel like masking and painting, so this seemed like the simplest solution. For reference here are a few before closeup shots of the main eye-sores: Here's a comparison shot I took during the process: And a close up of how well it covered the faded ripples on the rear bumper: Side shot of the finished project: The entire job didn't take more than 3 hours. I made sure to wash all the plastic with warm soapy water and then dry it with a towel. Then let it sit for a few minutes (80f california sun) to fully dry before pulling the car into the garage and getting to work. One bottle seemed to be more than enough. I probably have enough left in the bottle to do a follow-up coat in a few area's where I got sloppy. Near the end of the job, the foam brush included with the kit began to get floppy and lost a lot of its support. This made it difficult to apply even coats and on a few of the last panels you can see brush strokes. I will be getting another sponge style brush and re-apply a coat in these area's some other day. For now I am pretty satisfied with the results.

Yeah 16" is so 2002, but you cant beat the ride comfort. Plus tires are still $90ea for high performance 215's.

I removed the cross bars from the roof. It looks so much better now, except for all the faded trim. That is next on my list!

Beauty Shot

Spent a couple hours in the garage today and slapped in the new suspension. Wow what a huge improvement!!! Mostly because my old rear struts were completely blown. With these new struts and springs Rosey is planted firmly to the ground! Here's a before During & after shot Now she looks proper!

They got quite a bit of curb rash and some chipping on the surface of a couple of the rims. I wont feel bad sanding and painting them.

I spent the weekend replacing my stereo. I took the android head unit out of my Sequoia and began transferring it to Rosey. The head unit is slightly over sized and I knew I would have to remove the center console to enlarge the opening. However I didn't know what a huge pain it would be to get console apart with the heater controls in my way! I ended up having to remove the entire glove box, and also the lower panel from the drivers side in order to locate and remove the heater control cables. Next I had to take my dremel to it and begin trimming away. But in the end it was worth it! Next thing I need to do is replace the door speakers because they are awful! The rear passenger door speaker doesnt even work so that has to get replaced as well. But at least now I have some tunes. And I can tell how far off my speedo is with the new tires.

HEY DAVE!!! Yeah been a long time for sure. I agree, Im not sure the gold will stick around. Look forward to seeing the rims in black as soon as I clean enough room for the garage to tear everything down. p.s. That Camry has been in our family for going on 6 years now and the only bit of maintenance i have had to do was a brake job and annual oil changes. Plus my wife drives 80+ miles a day for her commute and that car gets us 37mpg

Well I can't believe it but I found new rims. Not only did I find some bad rump roast subaru rims, but I found my favorite rims Subaru has EVER made! The 5 spoke alloys from '98-'00 RS and JDM WRX's. These were sold to me as JDM WRX rims, but im not sure if they are USDM or not. It would have been nice if they were the silver version and not gold, but for the price I can not be picky. Especially since they have a matching set of tires that still have plenty of tread. And are also 100% perfectly balanced! I don't know. The gold is kind of growing on me. But I am thinking I will probably paint the rims black once I repaint the trim.

So first thing first, these headlights! I had to do something about them and quick. Part of me wanted to just drop $140 on eBay and get some brand new ones. But my wife kept asking me to clear her headlights and I figure this was as good a time as any to do hers and tackle mine. So I went to Harbor Freight and picked up their $13 headlight restore kit with the drill attachment & assortment of sand paper with the sponge attachment too. Then I went to Auto Zone and grabbed some Meguiar's plastic polish and a bottle of their plastic sealer as well. The process actually wasn't terribly difficult and the results were amazing. Here is a comparison shot I took after doing just one headlight: And a close-up of the headlight. Its as good as new again! And here's a pic of both our cars after I finished. The entire job took only about 90 minutes and that was for both cars. I applied a coat of the sealant and then gave it 15minutes to dry, then applied another coat. I also found the suspension I needed. Front & rear struts/springs from a '04 WRX Sedan. I was hoping I could find suspension from a WRX Wagon, I am hoping the sedan springs are not too soft.

Hello everybody meet Rosey! She is my trust family helper which I purchased to get my children safely to school and back and also assist in hauling groceries. With the occasional family road trip scattered in between. It will replace my 2002 Toyota Sequoia which is great at hauling a trailer but not so great at city fuel mileage. I was able to sell my old bucket 1995 Legacy (which never did me wrong) and pool together some tax return money to pick up this gem: She has 206,000 miles, is a 5spd and has been pretty well taken care of her whole life. Now its my turn to have my way with her First thing first, these rims have to go. They were resprayed and are now flaking badly. Plus the tires dont even match so thats a big no-no! Next is the suspension... the current rear struts are blown. And I need to do something about all of that wheel gap, so some WRX suspension is in the works. Other than that, I want to touch up the exterior with a headlight restoration & repaint the bumpers and plastic cladding.

I gave up on this project. After realizing the front seats and carpet has to come out, it was just too much hassle for a little extra 'bling'. This car isnt a performance car and the rear drums are more than enough to stop me

So I was speaking to a friend of mine who has done this before, and he said on his trans he just removed the bolt holding the u-Joint to the transmission side... instead of removing the double spring pin & "Y" piece. I might try this method as it sounds a lot easier than removing 2 roll pins. I also found this replacement joint: http://turninconcepts.com/driveline/tic-5mt-linkage-update.html its a little out of my budget at the moment, and im not even sure it will work. Im sure i have a centering spring on mine, i will know more when I get under the car and take it out. Im sure all I need are new bushings, and don't feel like emptying my wallet... besides, im still not sure exactly which bushings will work in my '95, i have not found any definitive information on the differences between models and years. But im going to continue searching.

My drums are bad, they are making a grinding noise when I apply brakes and i can hear them dragging when I release the brake pedal. They are horribly rusted and an extreme eyesore. Right now they are hiding behind a set of steel rims with stock hubcaps in no better shape than the brakes are. Before I ever looked at the car, I assumed it had rear disc's an I ordered a full set of rotors & pads for front & rear. I would like to use these rotors and pads... and im hoping maybe I can find a set of low mileage rear hubs with good bearings Oh, and i also bought a set of alloy rims and no way I want to see rear drums behind my fresh alloys!!

Thanks a million!! That nasioc thread is exactly what I needed. Ive been reading that there are several different changes made to this part across model years, so I am hoping a guide like this will help me track down the correct parts. I forgot SubyLuvr changed his name... that explains why nothing came up. gdudik, i did not run a carfax or anything, but my car is white, has no ABS and rear drum brakes but power windows... and a salvage title. Don't think its going to end up being your stolen sube. Sorry to hear about your misfortune.