Pneuma Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Hey,Ive been lurking around this forum for a while but never really thought about starting a thread until now. So here it goes. Well this is a bit of a departure from my car comfort zone as I'm pretty much a honda boy through and through.This is slightly different, so let me explain.Back in the 80's my grandad and uncle used to own a Subaru dealership, this was way before the impreza hit the car scene.Sothe cars Subaru sold were mainly practical vehicles, as a kid I spentalot of time around the garage......my dad is also in the trade so timespent around cars in general was pretty much normal.Anyway, skipforward to now. I randomly had a dream about one of the cars that I sawalot of back in the day. So onto ebay I went out of curiosity andbehold I found the car! It's not the one I've ended up with but itsparked the search.So yesterday after a 400 odd mile round trip Ihave my hands on my new project, and for me a huge piece of nostalgiathat's close to the heart. There is a load of content to post, so i'll do it bit by bit. This is the picture from the advert with the awful box on the back and even nastier stickers As soon as I got back that thing was off! I've had the pick up for about a year now. It's pretty different now and i hope you guys like it Cheers. Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Despite the truckman top looking crap, it's been a bit of blessing indisguise as it's really saved the bed from rotting out over the years.In fact the whole car was in really good condition overall thanks to the old dear who had it before had it undersealed yearly.ofcourse there is the usual rot in a few places. The wings were shot, aswas the front valance. the rear arches needed some bits cutting out. Butnothing major.The first thing to happen was removing all the bits i didn't intend on keeping.Rear bumper pods and tow bar got the boot.Before. After. Bullbars also went. Removed the rear number plate cage while i was there. Fubared wings. and arch rot. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Decided to go 'full retard' and strip all the paint off to see if there was anything else lurking under the paint. all was good. Plus i likedknowing that there isn't any rust underneath after a fresh paint job. Started welding in new metal too. As you will see with the next picture i went high with the cut as i need the clearance for the wheels. Plus Bolt on drift arches are going on.Also in this picture i flipped the stock wheels to see what a bit of poke looked like. The next thing i started to tackle was how to lower the car. Obviously aftermarket parts are non existent.So lots of research and improvising was needed for the front.Fortunately i found some KYB shocks on American ebay, these were perfect as theyare much stronger than stock and can put up with being run low. After speaking with a guy in the states he informed me that 5th-6th generation coilover sleeves fitted.So this happened. I managed to find a set that had a softer spring rate as most of the civic ones were fairly stiff.In and down. The rear on the other hand was way trickier. In practise its very simple as its just a case of clocking the torsion bar. But years ofwater ingress meant that it wasn't so easy.Sooooo, the whole rear end had to come out. This is the end that needed to come off. A ten ton press and lots of heat finally got them unstuck. I manged to get replacements from the states. The back finally dropped. with a touch of natural camber too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Parts started turning up pretty quick. New fiberglass wings, bolt on arches and wing mounted mirrors (stock ones flushed obviously) With arches. With the new mirrors. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Next up were changing the wheels. Now the standard pcd is so bizarre,4x140! So as you can guess there isn't anything out there at all.So a cool trick all the offroad guys do is knock out two opposing studs.This allows a 6x139 wheel to fit on.....then mark and drill new studholes. Then fit new studs!This opens up a whole world of wheel choices.I'm pretty happy with the wheels i have but I'm always on the look out forsome old school J 6 studs wheels. So if anyone has any or know of anyplease let me know!These turned up. 15x8 et-22 Test fit. Test fit with the bolt ons. Then i couldn't contain myself and got two tyres to see what it would really look like! And my personal favorite. (note the filled holes from the bumper pods) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 Due to the stock exhaust being absolutely horrid i wanted to change it up. Originally i was just going to weld a new tip onto the stock one,but my buddy kindly gifted me his old backbox off his old jetta for meto play with.Not my style, so i had a play.Before. Started chopping it up. So using a combination of the two exhausts i welding up this thing.First two sections. All together. Painted. Fitted. Tweeked. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
backinbrat Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Looking forward to seeing those coil overs on mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted December 15, 2015 Author Share Posted December 15, 2015 Looking forward to seeing those coil overs on mine haha! Soon Tom, Soon! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BulldogBlitz Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 Looking good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted December 17, 2015 Author Share Posted December 17, 2015 Another issue that i had to overcome/improvise with was the front camber. When i lowered it there wasn't any camber at all. The wheelswere bolt upright. Not the kind of thing that's wanted here.So i found some blank camber plates off ebay. Drilled to fit as the diameter was too small to use the stock mount holes. On the shocks. On the car. Pretty pleased with how it all worked out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myhilo Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 New fiberglass wings, for a brat?? Haven't heard of these, any details on source would be appreciated. Parts started turning up pretty quick. New fiberglass wings, bolt on arches and wing mounted mirrors (stock ones flushed obviously) With arches. With the new mirrors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 New fiberglass wings, for a brat?? Haven't heard of these, any details on source would be appreciated. Here's the man to talk to. He also makes front valances and tailgate skins. https://www.facebook.com/giles.walker.9?fref=ts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 (edited) A little taste of the colour! And off to the body shop! In the booth for filler primer Edited January 11, 2016 by Pneuma 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted January 26, 2016 Author Share Posted January 26, 2016 So i started vlogging, naturally it's about cars........this car. it's a little rough but i hope you enjoy it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pneuma Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) I did a second episode over the weekend. If anyone wants to fit new headlights to their Brat, then you should check it out Edited February 2, 2016 by Pneuma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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