1982gl4 Posted August 16, 2013 Share Posted August 16, 2013 Picked this up about five miles from my house wednesday night, which is pretty amazing considering I haven't seen a brat in the last two years up here. Paid 350 for it, and it's pretty rotten underneath as they all are up here, but it's good in the important areas for what I plan on doing with it. The rear suspension is still solid, and the strut towers aren't rotted out yet, along with the shock towers in the rear. Floors and rockers are no good, but I should be able to do something with that. This is a really oddly optioned brat, it's a GL with no t-tops, and it is an auto.... It only has 84k on the clock, and it seems to run very well. Right now the trans pan is rotted out, so I can move it, but only for a very short time before it runs out. I plan to replace my nissan off roader with this. So I'll be lifting it either 2 or 4 inch not sure which yet. I have 27" mud kings for it on Peugeot wheels. I'm going to weld some floors in so i don't fall out of it, and replace the rockers with square stock and then attach rock sliders to those. Skid plates made from old street signs the state garage gave me. And probably put in a five speed D/R I have around, because I don't think I'll be able to stand then auto. I'll probably make some custom bumpers front and rear, and that should be about it. Progress is going to be slow, as I don't have a ton of time, and I don't want to spend much money on it. But is should be a great light wheeler when I'm done. Pics It really looks pretty decent for one around here. And then you look underneath, some one patched it, but it was not a good job at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O.C.D. Posted August 16, 2013 Share Posted August 16, 2013 No bad at all for the $$$ I still chuckle when I think of offroading one of these. In Colorado we have trails that are SUV capable and then we have 4WD trails. Either I am naive or these must really be good offroad because the 4WD trails would eat these up. Why do you all love to wheel these? Are they pretty capable with a lift and larger tires? Doesn't that just bog these motors? Not trying to be a jerk just wanted to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BratRod Posted August 16, 2013 Share Posted August 16, 2013 Very nice! I, too, just picked up a brat optioned like yours. (GL hardtop Automatic)Rusted the same way, too. I'll be sticking with the automatic, (once I find a replacement) but will eventually swap it out. Looks like a great starting point. From your other build, you're very capable of putting this back into DD condition, easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1982gl4 Posted August 17, 2013 Author Share Posted August 17, 2013 No bad at all for the $$$ I still chuckle when I think of offroading one of these. In Colorado we have trails that are SUV capable and then we have 4WD trails. Either I am naive or these must really be good offroad because the 4WD trails would eat these up. Why do you all love to wheel these? Are they pretty capable with a lift and larger tires? Doesn't that just bog these motors? Not trying to be a jerk just wanted to know. For the price I couldn't say no. As far as how they do off road, they are pretty capable. I mean there are better/easier things to modify for offroading. As far as a light 4x4 I think they do pretty well. But I really enjoy wheeling old subarus, not something everyone does, and the major thing for me, is that I have parts. I can take one of these out in the woods give it hell, break something, and not care because I have two parts cars, and two sheds filled with parts. For me it is economical I guess. We don't have insane off road trails here either, most of it is pretty light. There are some challenging places, but for the most part I'm using the trails around my property. Very nice! I, too, just picked up a brat optioned like yours. (GL hardtop Automatic)Rusted the same way, too. I'll be sticking with the automatic, (once I find a replacement) but will eventually swap it out. Looks like a great starting point. From your other build, you're very capable of putting this back into DD condition, easily. Sweet! They are a bit of an odd ball, my sister dubbed this one "The Black Sheep" tonight due to it's color, and odd options. Not sure that it will ever be road legal again, but I would like to fix the floors and rust, and besides that I really don't see much wrong with it. So I guess it could happen. I've always wanted to lift one of these, as this one isn't in great shape, it seems like a good starting point as I won't feel bad if I give it a dent or two. Tonight I brought it into the garage to see if I could do anything about the transmission pan. Turns out I could. It was rusted on the back side, so i welded in a new section on the back side. I then siliconed over the top of it with ultra grey. In the a.m. I'll put some new atf in it and take it for a very loud drive. (Yay for open y-pipes...) Feels nice to have two brats in the garage again. I got a harness for the other one out of a legacy, so I may get back to that fairly soon. I'm sick of standalone and want it to run... I also welded the hood back on the black one, it's nice that it opens and shuts now instead of catching on the cowl and bending.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1982gl4 Posted August 17, 2013 Author Share Posted August 17, 2013 Well looks like my trans pan fix is going to work, nothing is leaking yet. Fingers crossed it stays that way until I swap in a D/R. I took it for a few mile drive this morning up and down the road, and then up into the field. It did well for very bald tires. Everything seems to work with the exception of the wipers which I need to figure out, I've had them not work before on an ea81, usually it ends up being a bad ground. I guess next I'll be building a lift, and then welding everything up. So I need to figure out what to oder for steel. Couple of pics from this morning. And the new tires, they have a bit of dry rot between tread, but will be perfect for this. Almost new tread too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bratman18 Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Nice. Had an '84 GL BRAT, auto, no fun tops on it, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1982gl4 Posted August 18, 2013 Author Share Posted August 18, 2013 (edited) Haha I don't know how sweet or nice it is, but it should get the job done once I weld it up. Today I took it out for a test run in stock form. I actually like the auto I have to say, you just hold it to the floor until it goes, and no clutch to deal with... Anyway all was going well until I skidded over a stump coming down one of the trails on my property. This ripped the mustache bar out of the floor, and hit the gas tank enough to separate the two halves of it at the seem. So now that is leaking. Kind of sucks, but it's not really a big deal just some more welding that needs to be done. Everything needs to come out for the lift anyway... As far as the gas tank goes, I'm going to get a boat tank for it, or something of similar nature. Pic of carnage. You can see the tank leaking, and the CV at an odd angle... Edited August 18, 2013 by 1982gl4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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