My Brat so far.... (56k go away)

[SubaRX]

So were you getting rid of that tailgate?

[Dynapar]

is that one of those "own your own garage" type of places?we just got one here last year.i kinda wondered what the contract was like.....cheers, brian

 

yeah its a storage condominium thinger. It is my parents and I have managed to somehow persuade them to let me work on the Brat there. :-)

 

So were you getting rid of that tailgate?

 

The tailgate is gone. Northursalia now owns it. I decided that I would be using the Brat entirely for offroading and that a tailgate would most likely get destroyed so I found a good home for it.

[Dynapar]

Big update. There will be much more now that the brat is on the roads.

 

Ok here is the brief of it, ok not really. In order to complete the lift, I needed to extend the struts. The traditional way of doing this is to put a large block on the top of the Strut, something like you can get from SJRLift, BYB, or AA. In theory it would be relatively easy to make a block like this, however by lowering the strut from the top it is supposed to mess up your alignment (wicked positive camber, more than usual) unless the piece is made with a certain bolt offset to correct it. I decided, with much input, to lengthen the bottom of the strut. I originally tried using some steel pipe, but that failed because it is impossible to get pipe with the right size OD. So with a a couple posts on the local boards I was set to have something custom made. Here is what I drew up.

 

 

It doesnt look like much on paper, frankly I wasnt expecting anything near what I received. I would like to interject here that FastMatt from MNSubaru, is the bomb and this would not have been possible without his hard work and time he put into make these for me. So some time, and a big bar of cold rolled steel later..... I had strut extensions that could hold a 747.

 

 

 

 

So here is a before and and after of the strut extensions.

 

 

 

Here is a pic of what it looked like. notice the excessive positive camber. The front drivers side has it the worst. There is a bent trailing arm thinger that I believe is causing this. Probably next time I get the tire off I will try and "straighten" it.

 

 

Here is a closer view of what it looks like.

 

 

That is it for now, but much more has happened and there will be pics. Things such as extending the steering and intake modifications... Also testing ;-)

[Dodge Aries K]

This project is awesome. I like it.

 

The sticker saying the car is equipped for optional a/c makes me laugh

[bratman18]

Those look pretty cool. How snug are the struts in those holes? hopefully pretty snug. How hard were they to make?

[Dynapar]

Those look pretty cool. How snug are the struts in those holes? hopefully pretty snug. How hard were they to make?

 

 

They are VERY VERY snug. I cleaned up the extra dirt/rust on the struts with a wire wheel and I still needed to do MUCH persuading to get the whole thing together. I can now have the front wheels at full downflex and it wont come apart. Thats pretty good. I am still going to put the keeper bolts in, but it isnt a priority as of now.

 

 

I took a pic today: