dragonwingsubaru Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 im curious if anyony has done the complete job of turning an ea82 into a baja, so you got that little pickup type space in the back?i know there is a member or 2 that has just cut off the back but dont know that there is anybody that has actually boxed everything in and closed it up.also has anyone come up with any ideas about making the 1/2 of hatch left flip down like a regular tailgate? or just the ghetto method of something like deadbolts??? i will most likely be using the rear hatch glass for the rear window, may even design it where it can flip up as well, but that is still up in the air since i want the structural support. wifey is getting me a welder in 2 weeks so i may be starting on this project sooner than later and would appreciate some imput, also i am planning on boxing in the section where the roof will end for extra support, but im wondering if i should also weld in some metal on the bottom as a sorts of frame support since i will be doing some light hauling with it as well, mainly garbage runs and 2 55 gallon containers filled with french fry grease (biodiesel experiment on another car) thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 I know my hatch used to squeek alot, so there is some body twist back theree with the hatch open. Why not just get a brat? nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyewdall Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Why not just get a brat? nipper Because an old brat costs about 3 times as much as a wagon. Of course when you count your time.... Welding is fun though, and I would go for it. It's hard to get good welds on the thin guage sheet metal though -- practice on scrap for a while first to see if you're really up to welding a whole back of a car back together.... What kind of welder? I've got a little 115volt wire feed welder that I've made all kinds of stuff out of. Weld outdoors if possible -- welding used metal (like old cars with paint and such on em) tends to make bad fumes if you're indoors. You can buy hardware hinges and weld them on to make tailgate, etc... I've done this on old pickups. These are usually plated, so really avoid breathing the fumes from welding them. I don't think you really need to reinforce the bed -- I've hauled about 1,000 lbs in my wagon. Couldn't hurt though. I would weld together a roll-bar type thing and I think that'll stiffen it back up as good as the wagon top. Good luck on the biodiesel experiment too BTW. I just got an old Mitsubishi diesel truck that I'm running on biodiesel now, and am working on getting a diesel rabbit running too (or will be when I finally get all the subaru's in my driveway running.....). Zeke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott in Bellingham Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 Heres a shortened one I made in photo shop, if you do it keep us posted with pictures, I would use a mig welder with .030 wire shielded with 75/25 Argon/CO2 , make it as strong or stronger then stock and you will be ok SJR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 ok will anyone hate me if i said i think thats really cute? nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadyirishmen Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 Nipper (I hate you) jj. Anyways, I cut a EA81 up once and made it into a 4 door brat. It looked pretty f"in cool and got a lot of peoples attention. The only problem was that when I would go 80 mph through the hay fields I would jump over a whoop and the rear end would fly way up in the air. I would say for 4 wheeling it's awesome but don't expect baha perfection the weight distribution is completely uneven. Of course you could always move parts to the rear to keep the weight even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonwingsubaru Posted October 7, 2005 Author Share Posted October 7, 2005 well maybe i used the wrong wording when i said baja i was thinking that was what the new car with the bed was called. im probably not gonna be doing all that much offroading with the sooby anymore, i just seem to keep breaking too much crap on it because of it. nipper i dont want a brat, 1 because i dont really care for how they look(no offense to owners of them) and 2 i always like something different anyways. cant remember the brand name i was looking at but it is a 115v wirefeed, unfortunatly it looks like im gonna be waiting a while to do this since i just got laid off today, and told my wife not to get it yet since i wanna make sure my kids have a good christmas first. ill still attempt this project later on if i havent blown the motor in the sooby yet. at least on the plus side i can still do the biodiesel experiment since my dad is funding me for that project. hey zyewdall you running homebrew or buying your biodiesel???might have a few questions in a little while for you if you are running the homebrew. thanks for your replies and sorry it took so long to respond, work had been crazy the last cpl days and apparently i worked my butt off for nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyewdall Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 at least on the plus side i can still do the biodiesel experiment since my dad is funding me for that project. hey zyewdall you running homebrew or buying your biodiesel???might have a few questions in a little while for you if you are running the homebrew. Sorry to hear about the layoff. I'm glad I've got work again, but on the other hand, I had a heck of a lot more free time to tinker with vehicles and other projects last year when I was, well... um.. underemployed. And yes, the new version of the brat like thing is called the baja. Right now I'm buying commercial biodiesel. We've got a Colorado company that is trying to work with farmers to grow feedstock locally. We just got the first crop of locally (about 250 miles away, in SE colorado) grown canola based biodiesel last week at the distributor. Still $3.05/gal, which I thought was bad earlier this summer, but is 30 cents less than diesel now. Eventually, I want to make my own -- just don't have money for building the processor yet. Or I might convert the vehicles to run on straight veggie oil instead. Haven't decided... I've got a Mitsubishi pickup, and a (dissasembled) VW rabbit. I was going to put a VW diesel engine in an EA82 wagon, to have the only biodiesel powered subaru in existence, but finally decided that I just don't have the machine shop for doing that yet. It's not cancelled though, just postponed... Zeke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 gee im sory about the layoff, been there, and still am nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonwingsubaru Posted October 8, 2005 Author Share Posted October 8, 2005 thanks for the support on the layoff guys zyewdall you know its kinda funny but if the vehicle i pick up isnt driveable just runs good i was planning on doing the very same thing in my sooby since my motor is crap in it anyways, btw you can build the processor for $200 or less if you can find a hot water heater and electric pump cheap. luckily my dad is funding my biodiesel project since he wants me to do all the trouble shooting stuff and basically write up every thing he needs to know from my experience. ill get my fuel stuff for free since my wife is a manager at hardees here and the big boss was estatic to have someone haul it off for free instead of having to pay for it to be hauled off. about the only thing ill have to pay for is a little extra electric usage and the catalist for the grease. im talking to a guy right now about getting a diesel rabbit off him so hopefully it will work out so i can get this stuff started. but im really hoping i can find work again soon to get this sooby project going 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott in Bellingham Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 was going to put a VW diesel engine in an EA82 wagon, , but finally decided that I just don't have the machine shop for doing that yet. It's not cancelled though, just postponed... Zeke I have a complete diesel moter and trans I pulled out of a VW Jetta had thoughts of putting moter into offroad ea82 , will the clutch disc enterchange or is the trans input shaft the same spline , ? , has anyone looked into this befor?, I can adapt the housing ok just wondered about conection between the 2 SJR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyewdall Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 I have a complete diesel moter and trans I pulled out of a VW Jettahad thoughts of putting moter into offroad ea82 , will the clutch disc enterchange or is the trans input shaft the same spline , ? , has anyone looked into this befor?, I can adapt the housing ok just wondered about conection between the 2 SJR I had figured out the clutch setup -- it was the adaptor for the subaru bell housing to the VW engine that finally stumped me (for lack of proper tools). What I did for the clutch was take the pressure plate for the VW apart. On the VW the pressure plate bolts to the crankshaft, not the flyweel, and the clutch release fork is actually a shaft that sticks out of the center of the tranny input shaft. Wacko setup that is more like a motorcycle clutch than any other car clutch I know of. Anyway, I then tapped and threaded holes in the subaru flyweel and bolted the VW pressure plate piece to it, the same piece that also bolts to the VW crankshaft. After that, the clutch/starter/etc is easy because you've got a stock subaru flyweel to work with. I never ran it with this on, so I don't know if it would have thrown off the balance, but the concept seemed to work well. I figured the engine has to be tilted over as far as it will go to the passenger side in order to clear the hood -- just like the diesel vanagons have it tilted over. The radiator might need to be moved forward because of the longer length of the VW engine, an since the VW doesn's have a fan on the engine, you might need two electric fans. One snag you do run into with this is you loose your timing marks on the VW engine when you switch flyweels, so you can't time the injector pump any more. I'm sure you could transfer them to the new flywheel if you were careful. If you had a good milling machine and a blank subaru flyweel you could also do it by milling out the pilot bearing hole of the subaru flywheel a little bigger to match the VW crankshaft centering thing, adding a bushing to install the subaru pilot bearing in the VW crankshaft, and drilling the VW bolt pattern on it (6 instead of 8 bolts) and bolt the subaru flywheel directly to the VW crankshaft without the piece of the pressure plate in between. This would save you about and inch and a half of length, which since the engine is already a little too long, would help. It might just barely clear the radiator if you did this. Zeke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonwingsubaru Posted October 8, 2005 Author Share Posted October 8, 2005 hmmmm it sounds like it might be a bit of a pita to adapt it to a subaru setup. may not attempt it unless the vehicle is in completely unrunably condition, however a buddy of mine just told me about a mitsu 4x4 diesel truck for sale with bed and cab damage that im gonna look into in the next day or two, maybe the frame and running gear is all in good shape and i can just go with the full out frame swap i was thinking about doing anyways. btw sorry i hijacked my own thread and got it off topic, the homebrew biodiesel has just been an interest of mine very much lately with these rediculous gas prices back on subject a little though, can i asume since noone has chimed in on successfully doing a complete job that the only way its been done is chopping it off and leaving it that way? the other reason im interested in this is a have already hauled 2 riding mowers and a dirtbike home in the back of my soob(obviously at different times lol) and that was a really fun adventure getting the stuff in. anyone have some thoughts on a truck tailgate that might fit for the most part in the sooby opening? since the space is so small when i get another riding mower next year i wanna be able to have the tailgate be able to withstand the weight of a mower on it, among other things as well. you know if everything falls into place this might be a little unique sooby lol. 4x4, solid axle, biodiesel,baja'd ea82 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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