DV-523

It's been a minute since I've got to do much on the Subarus, Work has been absolutely nuts this summer, and now fall. I work in the sports apparel industry, so fall is typically busy for us, but this has been the most busy fall we've ever had. it's good! But it is nice to go home sometimes too. Anyway, Here's the update of the progress I've made over the last few months. I've got the the new battery tray and corner welded onto the car, Sanded, coated with rust converter and primed.(I'll need to get some photos of this) This is the first time I've done any rust repair on a vehicle from the 80's, and I was blown away by how thin the sheet metal is on these cars. It made it pretty difficult to weld back together without blowing a bunch of holes. I wound up having to use the lowest setting on the welder and stitching it together with a bunch of tacs. it's not going to win any beauty contests, but it is on, and can hold my 200lb self, so I think we'll be ok. Then since the head gaskets are blown on the new engine, I decided to pull the engine, and put in the engine from the old car, which I've already done head gaskets on while I rework the new one. While the engine is out, I'm going to take the chance to clean the engine bay and tackle all the surface rust I can find. Hopefully the next update comes a little quicker than this one did!

I've got the corner cut off the donor car now. Mocked it up in the new loyale, and I'm pretty happy with fitment. Bolt holes and such are lining up where they need to. Just getting started grinding out the rust around the area and will repaint before I weld it in. I'm thinking I'll put the fender, headlight, and the little strip above the bumper in to line everything up perfect before I tack it in place. We'll see if it works.

And here are the photos of the donor. My old Loyale. Nearly ready to make cuts on it. Just need to remove the hood latch cable and the bumper, wiring harness, and the horn. Also, despite the horrendous frame rust on my old loyale, the body panels are in excellent shape. so as I get a bit farther with the new Loyale, and know what I'm not going to need. I'll likely start parting out what I can. I'd rather see it used than scrapped. At the moment, I'm thinking of hanging on to the engine and trans (I like the idea of having spares), but I don't have a lot of storage space, so we'll see what I wind up doing.

Got to work on it again this weekend. I've finished removing the rust and damaged areas of the car. ready to weld a new corner on. I'll be using the drivers side corner from my previous Loyale since it is miraculously in good enough shape. Here are the photos!

Rain delay today. I'll have to try again tomorrow. Thanks azdave! There is precious little rust on the car which I'm pretty excited about.

And here we are as it sits tonight. Wiring harness, AC Lines, Cables, Coolant overflow lines, everything has been evacuated from the front drivers side corner. Hope to start cutting tomorrow!

I was really impressed with the condition of the radiator. Only slightly overinflated. I guess a couple cylinders may have taken on part time jobs as compressors since the head gaskets have taken a vacation. Pretty sick balloon anyway.

I've been bit. I love these little wagons. Rust killed my first one, so I bought another broken Loyale, and I'm trying to Frankenstein together the best little Loyale I can get. I was too excited to take pictures of the wagon when I first got it home, so the best I've got is this little video My wife made after I pulled it into the driveway. You can see my son and I are already at work dissasembling it... https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6i58VwuP_d/?igsh=cG9rY2IxZmZuMWg5 The car had been wrecked, but the front end on my old one is still in pretty good shape so I figured I'd just swap the body panels over and call it good, But I guess I can't do things the easy way. and now I'm cutting, welding, sanding, and repainting every spot of rust I can find on the thing. Here are some photos of the damage to the fender support and core support. Not terrible, but I will be replacing it. The battery tray has rotten away, so that's coming out as well.

Thanks for the encouragement and advice idosubaru and Moonsens. I'll be pressing forward and doing a lot of digging through the forums I'm sure. Moonsens, I agree, swapping the trans is in the dream, however, I know the trans from my old GL is in rough shape. I'll need to do my research on how rebuildable they are, or if the parts are even available.

I have some sad news. Unfortunately, my wagon is being taken off the road.😔 I moved out east to Ohio, and the amount of salt they dump on the road has dealt a killing blow to the GL. The rear wheel well as well as unibody frame that runs along the pinch weld is thin enough you can push holes in it with your fingers so I'm going to be retiring the car. On a happier note, I bought another White Loyale! This one's a 92 instead of an 89, and has a pushbutton instead of the dual range transmission, and a few other minor differences. It had been wrecked, but the damage was minor. It's originally a California car, so there is next to no rust on the car anywhere which I am VERY excited about and it's even had an underbody spray done to it. I'm making sure the paint is perfect top to bottom before I go anywhere in this car out here. one big drawback is that this car did not come with a title. looks like it's not been registered for some time, so I'm going to be trying to re-title it, but I'm not looking forward to all that paperwork. I've never done anything like that before, so any advice from someone who has gone through that process would be appreciated. Anyway, I'll try to get pictures here soon.

You know, that's a good question. Last time I tried to take the rear wheels off they were rusted on to well, so I've just let them lie for a while. I'll check it out tonight and let you know what I find though! Turns out they're rear drums. too bad, but They'll do the job.

and some more project Pictures

Here's some of the Project Pictures

Hello Everyone! I'm pretty new here. Just bought an 89 GL in Idaho last year and it has quickly clawed it's way up the list of favorite vehicles. It's a 5 speed manual 4wd version and I love it. It's previous owner wasn't willing to put much into it, but with a little work it's turning into quite the strong runner. Thus far I've done head gaskets on it, valve cover gaskets, New thermostat, replaced the radiator, and the hoses, new windshield, and some rust repair around the windshield, as well as replaced the flooring on the interior with a heavy duty vinyl (Which was far too thick, Next time, I'm going to look for a much more flexible option.). Up next are the brakes! They started squealing today and one of the rotors is warped, so I figured I might as well redo all 4 corners. I also have some significant rust repair to do on the rear quarters. But all in all, it's coming along quite nicely!

We'll, For everyone wondering what was wrong, I've solved the mystery. The plug wires were pulled too far back on the distributor side and not making contact. I need a new distributor cap now... I melted one of the terminals a bit from electricity arcing every once in a while I guess, but it runs now! Thank you for all your help!