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Documented: The 1970 FF-1 Project car...


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36 grit is REALLY course. You may be making more work for yourself down the road using a grit like that. Ive done my fair share of body work and have a buddy in the business and he never goes to a courser grit than 80 on cars as far as i know. The reason being you are putting some seriously deep scratches that are going to be hard to fix later. High build primers may hide them for awhile but when it shrinks your bodywork will show through and you wont be happy with it anymore.

I'm not doing detailed work with it, im getting off the stuff I got way to thick.

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Steve, if you want, give me a call and I can help you with your Bondo issues. (425)495-1800. After 7pm is the best!

 

I'll also post up some of the information as well. I just recently talked with Subarutex about Bondo work also. I usually use pretty expensive body filler (Evercoat) but the Bondo brand can work just as well and I found that out recently.

 

The Bondo that comes in the red and white can that uses the red hardener, is meant for filling, not for detailed, final work. Use a rough grit sandpaper on it like you're doing to cut it down. For doing a final coating, use the Bondo Premium something or other. Comes in a black can and uses green hardener. Its applies much smoother and a lot thinner as well. Meant for filling in the roughness from the main filler and is used for small dents and dings. It also sands a lot quicker and a lot smoother then the filler. Typically you use a finer grit paper on it, like 120 grit.

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I'm using Evercoat right now. I'm finding that it sands good using both the coarse and fine grit sand papers. But i'm not experienced with figuring out what the surface is supposed to look like, but i'll take some pics of how i'm doing next weekend when I can work on it again (big time rain storm today, and yesterday I was at work all day).

 

I do have one slight issue, how to sand concave areas?

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Just took my engine/heads/etc. to a machine shop.

 

Basically it looks like it will be cheap to fit the Weber manifold, cheaper than buying another 32/36 carb and running the stock manifold :banana:

 

I just need a better measurement of exactly how much needs to be shaved from the heads...

Edited by Kostamojen
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Alright, it looks like I only need about 1/16" or 2mm shaved from each head... Any experts out there think thats manageable? Is there anything else I should be concerned about when doing this?

 

If its that close couldnt you play around with the bolt holes on the intake and enlarge them a bit as well as port the intake and and head so that the ports line up (so port the inside edge of the intake and the outside edge of the head)? 2mm is a good amount to be shaving of a head. Thats almost .080" shaved off each head. As far as i kno the max u can shave is .050" which is what most aviation EA81 guys are running. Your going to be running into valvetrain issues and custom pushrods and such if you shave that much. Anything can be done with enough money however....

Edited by hatchsub
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  • 2 weeks later...

Please don't get discouraged. You have a good amount of time ahead of you but you've also got plenty of moral support here.

 

Try playing Motorhead and Ramones when working on it. That always makes things go faster. :)

 

But then again,don't worry about speed. Take your time and keep plugging along.

 

Cheers!

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Another thing that might help is getting different sanding blocks. I'm not sure what you're using right now but if you go to your local body and paint store, pick up a set of Dura Blocks. They come in a few different sizes so get the kit. They're kinda spendy but its worth every penny. They have ones that will make sanding the contours of the fenders rear nice. Also get yourself a couple sanding boards, probably 2. One at 6" and one at 12". These are the hard, flat boards with the handles on them and you can either put sticky sanding paper on them or get the kind that require the "HookIt" system. Get the sticky boards, they work just as good and cost less in the long run.

 

 

Also, bodyguys will also tend to use a rag to feel the high and low spots between the metal and their hands. So take a clean rag, put it between your hand and the metal, and keep your hand flat on the metal and you should be able to feel the high and low spots with your fingers. If you're still having issues with high and low spots, get a can of cheap red spraypaint and barely mist it over your current repair area and ge to sanding more. This is called guide coating and should help you see the high and low spots too. Just don't spray on too much cause it'll give you false readings by soaking into the filler.

Edited by Caboobaroo
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I showed the pics to the paint guys...

 

They said get rid of as much of it as I can :-\

 

So i'm going to take most of the heavy stuff completely off. Maybe leave some of the flat areas where I know they can work with. But ya, no good...

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  • 1 month later...

Good news and Bad news...

 

Good news: I'm scheduled to have the car painted in a week or two :)

 

Bad news: I've been test fitting the engine/transmission before its painted to see what I might need to modify, mainly looking to install some sort of pitch rod. Well the pitch rod turns out already has a hole, so no problem there, however...

 

The engine mounts didn't line up, took me awhile to figure out the problem. The bellhousing is wider! The 1400 bellhousing from the dry-sleeve block is the same as the 1600, which means its thicker, about 15mm thicker. This means the engine mounts have to be 15mm farther forwards.

 

I've got two solutions for that, one is to just attach the mounts farther forward moving the engine up (right now the engine mounts are un-assembled because I made custom bushings for them), the other is to use the original thinner bellhousing, which apparently from the 1400 wet-sleeve is only 2mm thicker than the original 1100 bellhousing, HOWEVER that bellhousing will need to be modified to match up to the engine block like that other 1400 bellhousing I had modified to fit awhile back via RenaissanceMan.

 

ALSO, because I used the 1400 rear transmission housing, I had to widen the firewall hole, and the rear transmission mount no longer fits either because of that housing :-\

 

So basically, I have a lot of work to do to even get the motor in the car when its ready...

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Good news and Bad news...

 

Good news: I'm scheduled to have the car painted in a week or two :)

 

Bad news: I've been test fitting the engine/transmission before its painted to see what I might need to modify, mainly looking to install some sort of pitch rod. Well the pitch rod turns out already has a hole, so no problem there, however...

 

The engine mounts didn't line up, took me awhile to figure out the problem. The bellhousing is wider! The 1400 bellhousing from the dry-sleeve block is the same as the 1600, which means its thicker, about 15mm thicker. This means the engine mounts have to be 15mm farther forwards.

 

I've got two solutions for that, one is to just attach the mounts farther forward moving the engine up (right now the engine mounts are un-assembled because I made custom bushings for them), the other is to use the original thinner bellhousing, which apparently from the 1400 wet-sleeve is only 2mm thicker than the original 1100 bellhousing, HOWEVER that bellhousing will need to be modified to match up to the engine block like that other 1400 bellhousing I had modified to fit awhile back via RenaissanceMan.

 

ALSO, because I used the 1400 rear transmission housing, I had to widen the firewall hole, and the rear transmission mount no longer fits either because of that housing :-\

 

So basically, I have a lot of work to do to even get the motor in the car when its ready...

 

if you change the bellhousing thickness that could potentially make your clutch not fit. you've probably sorted it out already... but just thought i'd comment...?

 

I have a bell housing, flywheel, clutch, and motor mounts from a ea71. Perhaps the motor mount plates from the ea71 would solve your problem? I'm pretty sure i still have them. Free for the taking... :)

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if you change the bellhousing thickness that could potentially make your clutch not fit. you've probably sorted it out already... but just thought i'd comment...?

 

I have a bell housing, flywheel, clutch, and motor mounts from a ea71. Perhaps the motor mount plates from the ea71 would solve your problem? I'm pretty sure i still have them. Free for the taking... :)

Motor mounts are totally different on the FF-1.

 

The clutch difference isn't a huge problem, if I use the thinner bellhousing I use the thinner flywheel, if I use the thicker one I use the thicker flywheel. I have both, so no problem there. Although I still have to have the spline swapped from the EA81 clutch to the smaller EA63 clutch...

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I saw this FF-1 wagon on ebay the other day, went and took a look at it today:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1970-Subaru-FF-1-Wagon-/330446584696?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item4cf026bb78

 

Here are the photos:

 

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a383/Kostamojen/FF-1%20Wagon%20El%20Sobrante/

 

ff1wagon13.jpg

ff1wagon24.jpg

ff1wagon7.jpg

 

(Those are just a couple pics, I have 24 in the album)

 

The good:

 

Its an EA62! (1.3l)

Engine runs rather well, little valve noise but runs very smooth. It can be driven no problemo.

It doesn't have any major rust holes that I saw, nothing at all like my car.

The whole chassis doesn't need to be striped down to be repainted.

 

The bad:

 

Lots of dents and dings (mostly fixable) and rust spots around.

Paint is no good, looks like the front of the car was repainted a long time ago (20 years?)

Driver side fender needs work, front valence is missing.

Brakes are leaking, its probably the wheel cylinders in the rear causing it, they are getting replaced soon.

Rear glass is totally busted, exhaust is totally gone.

Interior is in poor shape minus some of the carpet.

All of the rubber mouldings are totally shot, worse than my car.

 

Final Verdict:

 

This is a project car for someone willing to put some time into it. It needs minor dent removal most everywhere, plus major work to the fender and hood, and it needs paint and rust removal to keep it from spreading.

The drivetrain is solid and the brakes have plenty of life left once they are fixed, so it can be driven as it is minus the bodywork and moldings which will fail to keep any water out from what I saw.

 

I'm not interested in it, since I can't afford and don't really want this level of project car. If it had less damage and less bad paint with rust peeping through and moldings that were intact, I would be interested in it since it ran so well and is an EA62 drivetrain. But this one needs some love and effort...

 

BUT it is worth saving. This is not a junker by any means!

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The bidding ended already and if my eyes saw right it did not sell at $1200:confused:. Where was it located and would have been cool to get to have a set. Oh well, at least your smart and realize another project is a bad idea at the moment whereas I keep finding them and dragging them home :grin:.

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No your eyes did not see right. It did sell (1 bid).

 

 

The bidding ended already and if my eyes saw right it did not sell at $1200:confused:. Where was it located and would have been cool to get to have a set. Oh well, at least your smart and realize another project is a bad idea at the moment whereas I keep finding them and dragging them home :grin:.
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