RustyBrat Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 today i brought both my doors in the shop and attacked them with a wire wheel to get all the rust off, then took an orbital sander and took all the paint off that wanted to come off, blew them off with the air hose, hand sanded them to give them texture, blew them off really well, taped up the handles, keyholes, and gaps where the paint could get onto the window at the top, and painted them! ran out of time though had other things to do, so one door is done with the green paint, i just have to do the black stripe, the other door has the primer coats on it and is ready for green tomorrow morning! i'll have those doors back on tomorrow afternoon, then on saturday im pulling the engine/trans from the wagon and putting it in the brat, and vise versa! wish me luck! hahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BratRod Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Sounds like a fun weekend! Good luck, and post lots of pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 oh i'll post as many pictures as i can! i just hope it goes fairly easy, which it should seeing as the engines and transmissions are the same, but you know... Newtons law... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BratRod Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Newton never had a Subaru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 maybe not! but it sure seems to apply thus far! haha everything i try to do, i end up having to do a bunch of other things before i can get to my original thing! but thats alright, its all fun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 today was a good day got both doors completely painted and back on the brat, started her up (had to jump it, played with the headlights too much ) and drover her down to my buddy's shop. got the shop all warmed up and dove in! pulled the struts out, pulled the axles off the transmission, drained and removed the radiator, drained the transmission, pulled the driveline, unhooked everything to the engine, unbolted the engine and transmission mounts and yanked her out with the cherry picker! the engine is currently sitting on the floor of the shop, tomorrow im going to bolt tires back on the brat and roll it out of the shop, roll the wagon in, take its engine and trans and set them on the floor, take the brats engine and transmission and install them in the wagon, roll the wagon out, roll the brat in and install the wagons engine and transmission into it! maybe i will get it all done tomorrow but maybe it will take me until sunday, we'll see! i have my dad helping me, thats him you see in the pictures, and yes. he is a dork. havent touched the fenders yet, waiting for my cutoff tool to get here! anyway here's some eye candy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 brought the wagon down to the shop, did all the same things, pulled the engine, put the brat engine in the wagon, everything bolted up perfectly. pushed it out of the shop and... no go. it turns over but there is no fire. by this time it was dark so we pushed it back into the shop and i got to looking at both engines, and as it turns out i have to swap coils as well. when we bolted the brat engine into the wagon we noticed we had one plug left over from the wagon's coil, but never thought much of it. well as it turns out that plug goes from the coil... i forget the name, transistor maybe? well anyway from the box beside the coil over to the distributor cap where two wires go under the cap. i guess thats the difference between a 78 and a 79! anyway no big deal i pulled the coil out of the wagon and tomorrow morning i will pull the brats coil and put it in the wagon and vise versa. hopefully that solves the problem! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 so both engines are installed completely! everything is ready to go, except i did not know that a 78 and 79 have different distributors. the 78 has a regular style, the 79 has an electronic. i finally found a thread that tells me how to convert from regular to electronic, so i can at least get the brat running again! the only thing is, i dont know how to convert from electric to regular, so i cant get the wagon running... unless i get another electronic distributor setup, which i probably cant afford. but anyway! im proud that i managed to do this stuff! oh and cleaned up the shop well today, had to scrub the floors with soap for a while... stupid 90 weight. update tomorrow on getting the brat running, i'll take a video or two! anybody have any idea on how to get the wagon running again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 so the brat is RUNNING AGAIN! yaaayyyyy! im pretty excited about that im going to have to find another electronic dizzy for the wagon, but that can wait. i still have lots of parts to steal! next comes the struts, calipers, discs, and shoes. my only mishap during the engine swap was that i pulled a cv joint apart on the brat... so right now it has one axle pulled and is rwd, which sucks. alot. i hate it. all the axles on the wagon are destroyed, and so are all the ones on the brat... so im going to have to buy 4 new axles for the brat. am i correct in saying the front axles are the same as the rear? so the engine and transmission and clutch are all good in the brat now, that makes me happy but the sad fact is, it still drives like crap. im thinking its a combination of one stuck front caliper, two blown struts, reeeaally bad ball joints, no rear shocks, bad axles all around, and the fact that the front inner mounting point for the drivers side rear torsion bar has a broken bolt, and can thus move around as it pleases. im going to weld all the rear lift blocks together and make a sub-frame. i still have a loooong way to go... and no money. but on the bright side, i can get all the parts except ball joints and axles from the wagon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bantum Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 (edited) … am I correct in saying the front axles are the same as the rear … ? Nope - Front is a ‘DOJ’ not the same as rear CV Shaft ... Front : Rear : Cheers, Bantum … Edited January 21, 2014 by Bantum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 Okay thank you! Ive only been able to find front ones... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share Posted January 27, 2014 so its been a few days, ive repaired the valance, kind of. its fixed, but its really ugly. i have no experience with body panel repair and cant get my welder to work properly. but hey its solid anyway. oh and i got the drivers side fender patched, just gonna take a lot of bondo to smooth out... oh well. oh and i got my wagon and brat back up at my shop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 (edited) so the brat is up on jack stands yet again in the process of bracing the rear suspension (sorry no pics yet). and ive got a good set of axles headed my way! also ive started swapping rotors calipers and shoes between the wagon and brat. decided i wanted to paint the valve covers because it was snowing and cold and i wanted to work inside, and i have to say im really glad i did because whoever took the valve covers off last didnt put any gaskets back on, and didnt even tighten them down all the way! the bolts were finger tight. i guess that explains why everything is COVERED in oil. anyway i took some paint stripper and sprayed it on the valve covers, let it sit for 15 minutes or so, and washed it off with hot water. 2 or three repetitions of that and they were clean as can be! then i took sandpaper and got the little rust spots and roughed it all up, primed them (2 coats), and painted them gold. yes, i know, gold. but i like it Edited February 3, 2014 by RustyBrat 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevint143 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Lookin good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 4, 2014 Author Share Posted February 4, 2014 today i swapped the drivers side strut, disc, shoes, and caliper. why i chose the day after the only real snow we have had this year, i dont know. it all went really smoothly for once! really not much to say on this one although the wagon struts are a little different, they seem to have adjustment bolts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 havent gotten much accomplished lately, waiting for the set of axles i bought to be delivered but i did manage to get a stereo for the BRAT! its even half depth so it will fit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 so finally some progress! did what bondo work needed to be done, though i didnt fill the dents, just where i had welded patches on. i pretty much just left the dents there, because i plan on USING this thing off-road, it will see its share of leaning against trees and rocks and scraping through bushes and i just know it will get a ton of dents, so it doesnt really make sense to do all the work to fix the ones it already has! anyway, sanded down the fenders after bondo, 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of paint on each and they are drying, tomorrow i will do the black stripe on each! while i was waiting for the bondo to cure, i took a dremel and cut out the stock location for the radio so it would fit me new one, i think it worked out really well! (barely fit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 got the fenders all finished up and re mounted today. i think they turned out pretty good honestly. re mounted the valance as well. its starting to look like a car again! oh and finished swapping out caliper/disc/struts from the wagon, so im going to be selling that now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sumoco Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Those gold covers a pretty rad man. nothing like throwing some bling on a brat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 I'll bet im the only ea71 with gold valve covers! Hahaha, didnt you know that adds 25hp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Here's a little eye candy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 my feelers... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sumoco Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 (edited) okay now chop your truck and drop that brat body onto it Edited February 12, 2014 by sumoco 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sumoco Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 then paint it gold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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