subarubrat

The problem isn't so much the parking brake size, but the actual suspension layout, the WRX uses struts in the rear so the rear hub looks allot like the front hub. The Baja uses a multilink suspension that places a large steel vertical hub carrier right where the bracket needs to be. I have a set of STi rear hubs with backing plates and it may be more trouble than it is worth to cut those off and then see if they align before welding them on, might just be easier to fab one up. But since I need the truck for the winter it will be a spring project, right now it stops WAY better than stock with STi fronts and EBC reds in the rear.

Did anyone ever follow up and make a .STL model of these? If not, would anyone be interested in designing it if I mailed them a good sample?

After badges, tail lights etc. Doing the headlight buckets and radiator this week, maybe even the engine if I get the mounts in time.

It is home from the body shop and being re-assembled! The paint is flawless and looks amazing, I bet the body is straighter than it was from the factory as well.

Beautiful engine too! Where did you find the Magnaflow?

Wonderful work so far! I though the car show pic was pretty funny. There is a cars and coffee that I go to and there is everything from turn of the (last) century cars, lots of pre war stuff, all the way up to the latest exotics. I took my 82 Brat before tearing it down for the paint and such and it was a huge hit! Lot of "I haven't seen one of these in years!" and "Can I sit in the back?"

Two pics of it in the parking lot at work today. The performance is amazing, as fast as my STi was with some of the first mods like a turbo back 3in, tune, and such, so a bit more punch than a stock STi even with the larger tires!

I got a NOS one, found after much hunting.

A neighbor of mine has a BRZ and the other day he took my ZL1 for a drive and I drove his BRZ. My immediate impression was that it handled as good as it looks but was WAY underpowered. I can see why a huge percentage of owners and potential owners are all asking for the same thing, more power. So why would Subaru release this new "STi" BRZ with the wheels, aero etc. but deny the one thing that buyers wanted? The two best ideas we had was that Subaru didn't have the room to spare in their MPG/ emissions averages, or that perhaps Subaru and Toyota had some sort of contractual agreement that Subaru would not offer forced induction? A short but nice response from Road and Track http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a7961/2015-subaru-brz-series-blue/

My neighbor had a funny one. He was at a dealer and saw a smashed Honda S2000 and ended up getting the thing for just a few hundred and it was fixable, needed and A pillar and windshield, front fenders and hood, and a rear suspension link (low speed roll over). He decides to part it out instead of fixing it and wants to see if it starts so he installs a battery and tries to turn it over but not much happens. Correctly assuming that the cylinders may be full of oil from when the car was upside down he pulled the plugs and turned the motor over with the starter. The mixture of oil and water that was ejected from the plug holes was like a pressure washer of flith that coated his entire garage. Then for part 2 he puts the plugs in and started it up which created an incredible smoke screen that filled the cauldesac for about 10 min until it started burning off. After that the motor ran great and was probably fine.

Yep, got the decals about a year ago. Also found NOS name plates and a few other goodies.

It is supposed to be dropped off at my house on the 30th and I will start putting it back together asap. Maybe I can sneak in some drive time before the roads get salted and it is locked away for the winter. As amazing as BRATs are off-road I think this one will never see a wet or salty road again. They are just getting too rare and in an other 10 or 20 years how many will be left?

NO, I like to not be crushed! Their lifts are a death trap, weak locking and cheap cylinders. The one I have is the Bend Pak and it is safe and solid.

I think yours wins for access! I use THIS

Normally I have mixed feelings on solid axle swaps, but this is great! Next stop, lift and 44"s right?

I finished up some details last night; pitch rod mount, rear wheel well trimming, refilled the coolant, re-installed the intercooler and took it for a spin around the cauldesac and it feels very solid. The STi front brakes are on but I ran into a glitch on the rears so they are stock for now. The issue is the hub carrier is present exactly where the adapter bracket for the Brembo needs to go, that part is not present on a WRX which is what the adapter is intended for. So Brembo rears are not a bolt on. I am going to have to pull the hubs and fabricate a caliper mount so that will likely get bumped to the end of the project. Next up is front wheel well mods and then drop it at the exhaust shop to get a 3in to the tail bent up.

Yep, that was what I thought..... After months of promising me progress any moment the body shop FINALLY got my truck into the queue. I visited it the other day and it is through the primer, the body looks straighter than it did new! I am guessing late this month or early Nov and I will have it home so I can drop the new engine into it that has been on my bench for a freaking year! I will grab pics when I drop by to check up on it again.

This is a must watch!

Sure, but there are tons of videos that go into detail and give you the visuals, it might be more help than my description: http://www.dipyourcar.com/Videos-and-Guides.html The short version is that you clean the car and remove wax, then mask windows, lights etc. and spray about 5 layers of thinned plasti-dip like material onto the car. Lasts about 4 years and you can peel and respray when you like. $200~$300 to do a car if you have a spray gun. It started off as just ordinary plastidip like you use for tool grips but now it is a huge range of specialized products.

Rock auto had within the last year some of the bearings and pads. As for wheels and tires, unless you want to stay all original, I would suggest doing the 6 lug conversion that you can do yourself or buy finished hubs from any number of sellers. That lets you use a huge selection of wheels intended for the Toyota pickups which in turn gets you into 14 and 15 inch wheels allowing you a large selection of tires.

Just sprayed the truck in flat black, wow it looks great!

Haven't driven it to test full lock under travel yet, but it looks good. I can dial in more height on the coilovers and can do the same re-profile of that inner rear corner that I did on the other lifted Baja so I have plenty of wiggle room. Funny thing though, of all the work done the one question asked by anyone is do they rub. the only thing holding up progress now is waiting on the stupid caliper paint, I overhauled these 04 calipers and no point in assembling the brakes until they are painted since it is easier to paint off the truck. Speaking of paint, I decided to do a matte black dip job, if you scratch it you can peel it off and respray, should be perfect for slinging gravel. The dip kit arrived and I will be prepping the truck and painting it as soon as I get the brakes finished up. If you haven't seen this system it is a really neat process. You can do some interesting finishes, a bunch if videos can be found here: http://www.dipyourcar.com/Videos-and-Guides.html

On to the brakes, an interesting project for sure. The fronts are STI 2004 rotors with STi Brembo calipers and Hawk brake pads. The rears shot the cost up a bit, caliper adapter brackets and special DBA rotors that have the STi outer diameter and the WRX(Baja) parking brake with adapters upped the total swap from $1600 t0 about $2200 but stopping this thing as fast as it goes is important.

Naturally not one SVX cable known to man out there, I'll find one though. Pics show it to be a strong likely match. I posted some pics in the readers rides area of the Baja with the new lift and tires. Can't wait to wrap up the details and run this thing!

Finally some progress to report. I had been sitting on the lift and suspension waiting till closer to the predicted time that the 255/55/18 KO2 tires would be available and started in on the lift last week. Much to my surprise the tires showed up as in stock at tirerack about 2 days ago and they showed up today! As it sits now the 5in lift is installed and coil overs are set to the same height as stock, I can adjust about 1.5 in up or 1.5 in down from how it sits now. The big metal bits of the lift are in and if all goes well I should have the various hoses and linkages etc all done this week. Then I have to sort out the intercooler and an air plenum for it, so maybe drive it next next week after the exhaust is done too? Then it is STi brakes, tube bumper, and then a dip job. The engine was finished about 2 months ago.