New to the Subaru scene, any suggestions?

[Skyclad]

My family has been a long time loyal fan to square body chevys. I grew up on them and have been raising my boys on them. Like an echo from my childhood, i hear myself saying to my sons the same thing my dad would tell me....It's gonna cost to much gas, sorry. Then for some reason, we keep making them less efficient. For awhile now I have been talking to the wife about converting all our rigs over to diesel, holy crap thats gonna be pricey. So we have kinda been stuck in this state of idle, not really knowing what direction to go. We are visiting family in Oregon for the holidays and my Dad tells me his co-worker has a car for sale, cheap. My dad currently drives a Jeep with a V8 and only uses it for going to work. He says the guy only wants $300 for it. So we just picked up a 1988 Subaru GL. Body and Interior are perfect. I will admit, this car is ugly...lol Then i started searching about it, found some pictures of the same model and year. They were lifted and had racks and really had a cool look about them. So now im trying to talk the idea into the wife head, the struggle is real. She really enjoys driving around her monster truck suburban, but at 3 miles to the gallon it doesn't get driven often. So with that being said, im ready to start the transformation process. Im currently wrenching on the old man's, then i will be looking to get something for myself. If anybody has any advice, please im all ears. Thanks for reading. Cheers!

[sparkyboy]

Nice find man! Later Gls in good shape are worth around $1500 here believe it or not. Since you already know how to work on cars you will find that the engineering on these cars are very simple, hell you can remove the engine only getting under the car once to disconnect the exhaust, then everything else, including lower trans bolts can be reached over the fenders.

The ea82 engines leave a little to be desired in the hp and torque department, but low gearing helps compensate, and the d/r trans means you have to be doing something crazy to get stuck.

With good maintainance she'll go a long time, and if the engine suffers anything catastrophic you have a great platform for an ej22 swap. I have an 86 GL with the swap and a two inch lift and she is one of my favorite cars. Versatile and 36 mpg with a light foot on the highway.

Keep it up on those chevys though, i grew up on a 77 camaro (first car, owned her for 22 years so far) 77 g10, and a 53 bel air, still have them all along with an e30 bmw that i recently have gotten into.

Cheers man, happy subaruing!

The wife will come around, chicks look good in those cars when you happen to see one once or twice a year haha