Red Targa Brumby

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 9:50 pm

Well, it's time to introduce the new member to Bennie's "stable's" family after a long time hunting:

^ It's lived here for a few weeks under a tarp, now been relocated to the shed - Sunnie the Brumby was "moved on" last weekend, finally!

^ The major damage to take care of for RWC

Engine bay, comes with AC

Power steering will be added (a, because I can and b, I love PS now that I've been spoiled with it!):

So it's in the shed now and I'm pretty stoked! This is what I'm chasing a good block for as I reckon the engine is in need of a rebuild, without even trying to start it the dip stick comes out the same as I would imagine it if you dipped it in a container of cream, not kidding!

But I got it at a price I could afford after talking to Mrs El Freddo about it, having a look at it then stalking it for about 6 weeks to see if it was still there

Looking forward to cracking into this and getting it on the road as my daily. Plans? Well, I may have a few and they look like this:

Keep the EA81 but MPFI it, really looking forward to this!
5 speed conversion - after rego "sometime"
Ditch the desert rats for a stock 13 inch set of sunnies
5 poster bullbar - because I might be able to, time will tell
Electric windows might be added at some stage.

I'll leave it here for now, updates will come as needed.

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:17 pm

Nice one! shame about that fender though. Nice little bonus coming with a/c like that, what's the rust situation like? Looks pretty tidy from here.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:47 pm

Silverbullet wrote:Nice one! shame about that fender though. Nice little bonus coming with a/c like that, what's the rust situation like? Looks pretty tidy from here.

Yeah it is a shame about the guard, but in a way it helped knock the price down!

Pretty stoked about AC already being installed, dunno if it works yet, but having it there is a start!

Rust: A bit in the lower RHS corner of the windscreen and some gritty surface rust mainly on the bed of the tray area - a bit of wire wheeling, acid treatment and red oxide should take care of that. I can't see it being a road worthy issue so I'm going to leave it until summer and just try to keep it out of the weather.

Pretty stoked that it's a targa top too. It's an '86 model and shares the same anti pollution gear as Sunnie the Brumby which I found interesting since there's three years between the two.

With a tidy up and a good detailing session this should scrub up very well. I'm just not sure what rims to put on it - finding another set of scorpions at a good price seems too far fetched, but I'd love them if it happened! For the RWC it'll be black sunnies with my snow tyres.

Cheers

Bennie

Post by **Bantum** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:55 pm

Nice find ... :like: ... how much $ for it ?

A good panel beating session should be able to get that dent out ...

Cheers, Bantum ...

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:05 pm

Bantum wrote:Nice find ... :like: ... how much $ for it ?

A good panel beating session should be able to get that dent out ...

Asking $1200 - Dreaming!

Got it for $800 in the end

Panel beating will have it roughly back to it's old shape, but unfortunately it's been backed into by a tray back ute and it's torn the metal!

I had a sneaking suspicion that this unit was involved in an accident - instinct more than anything. Tonight I found that it's confirmed. The driver's door is a replacement - has "subaru genuine item" stickers all over it and when I removed the damaged guard you can see "aftermarket" welding to replace spot welds. Other than that there's no other evidence to suggest anything has been damaged - so I'm confident it is a good repair job and nothing is out of alignment.

Before finding this damage the brumby reads as being a grandpa's car, which the previous owner reckons he purchased from his mate's grandpa - I reckon he did. It's been owned by the guy I purchased from for about two or three years. It's very clean (after I clean out all the dust) and has 238k km on the clock. I'm yet to find out if the speedo works though, time will tell on this one...

Cheers

Bennie

Post by **Bantum** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:22 pm

Not bad for the price ...

You'll be wanting one of these then ...

Ciao, Bantum ...

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:25 pm

Yeah got one at M&D's on a parts bomb - but it's also white. I'm thinking of shaping this one out to what it should be then stitch welding the gash area, then use some sort of putty to clean and smooth over - then very roughly match the colour for RWC - or get a big vinyl bandaid made up to stick over it

Cheers

Bennie

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:08 am

Truly an addict

Nice find well done

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:33 am

Still worth three grand as it stands Bennie. You have masked its number plate - stolen? You did not bother to hide the number plates of the other non featured veehickles !

Stalking seems to be a Subarularia symptom. Subaruitis (the itis bit means pain) is what your partner gets

Rodeo4jake · Post by **Rodeo4jake** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:17 am

I've been waiting for an update on this, definitely worth every bit of $800! I'll be jealous if you find a good 5 poster, I dream of finding an old alloy one for mine.

Cheers Jake

sublime · Post by **sublime** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:37 pm

Nice score El_Freddo! I watched this on Gumtree for some time...

Best part about it IMHO is that there are no holes for the tonneau cover hooks, which means the sides are smooooooth!:D

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:14 pm

Will be following this thread!

Post by **TOONGA** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:10 am

Very nice Bennie

no EJ?

TOONGA

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 7:42 pm

subaruby wrote:Truly an addict

You know it mate!

steptoe wrote:Still worth three grand as it stands Bennie. You have masked its number plate - stolen? You did not bother to hide the number plates of the other non featured veehickles !

I dunno about three grand in this condition, but it is pretty tidy other than the little things that need to be fixed/tinkered with.

Not stolen, just not my plates to show - they're the previous rego plates and I won't be keeping them on the car when it's rego'd with me.

steptoe wrote:Stalking seems to be a Subarularia symptom. Subaruitis (the itis bit means pain) is what your partner gets

Too true! I stalk subi's around town too. I kind of like to think Ruby Scoo gets stalked - but for the right reasons

Rodeo4jake wrote:I'll be jealous if you find a good 5 poster, I dream of finding an old alloy one for mine.

Hopefully I can make you jealous. If I can't find one I'm thinking of knocking one up from a light gauge steel, if braced properly it'll be light and strong, and it'll look awesome!

sublime wrote:Nice score El_Freddo! I watched this on Gumtree for some time...

Me too!!

sublime wrote:Best part about it IMHO is that there are no holes for the tonneau cover hooks, which means the sides are smooooooth!:D

There were holes at some point, I've already checked this out. It looks good though!

TOONGA wrote:no EJ?

Not for some time, I've managed to convince Mrs El Freddo this far so the plan is to improve on two things Mr Fuji built - the EA81 and the MPFI - shove the two together and I reckon you'd have a neat package without the lifter tick or the painful rubber bands.

Just have to nut out a few things... and get it on the road first!

So far I've discovered that the driver's wind regulator is bent which is the issue with the wobbly driver's window. Do you think I can find my spare runner in the stash of gear? Nope, but I have a straight regulator at least

Cheers

Bennie

Rodeo4jake · Post by **Rodeo4jake** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 10:22 am

We have a runner for the window in my shed at home mate. I'll try to figure out if its what you want when I'm there. Wait for the pics to arrive on ya phone Sat or Sunday.

berttus · Post by **berttus** » Fri Aug 02, 2013 5:19 pm

Hi Bennie, saw on your first post you were after a set of original 13s. I have a set under the house which you are welcome to if you want to pick them up. I will need to get under there and check tyre condition but for memory three are good and one is flat(the fifth wheel and other good tyre went under the bonnet which vanished from a train station). They are painted black but as i said if your interested, they are all yours.
Brett

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Aug 03, 2013 11:38 pm

berttus wrote:Hi Bennie, saw on your first post you were after a set of original 13s. I have a set under the house which you are welcome to if you want to pick them up. I will need to get under there and check tyre condition but for memory three are good and one is flat(the fifth wheel and other good tyre went under the bonnet which vanished from a train station). They are painted black but as i said if your interested, they are all yours.
Brett

Thanks mate, I'd be happy to take them off your hands - PM sent

I've stalled on this project at the moment - got a few other things to do on Ruby Scoo and really need an engine before going any further - I don't want to pull it all apart before I know where I'm going on this.

Rear diff will be coming out at some point though, it needs a clean up and I'll drop some new seals in at the same time.

Cheers

Bennie

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:41 pm

Ok, Dad and I did this last Friday... Well, Dad watched me do this:

Then we drained the sump:

And drained the sump some more:

Saturday during the tear down we got even more, I reckon there was a good 14 or so litres of fluid in it!

The rocker arms:

The cylinders, both sides were the same:

^ Mmmm, more "creamy goodness"

We were thinking there was a pretty major head gasket issue, until we removed the driver's side head:

This has been washed down, anyone notice what's missing?

There was a little bit of surface rust on the bores, it wore away well with some 1200 grit emery paper, but one pot has a tiny bit of pitting right at the top of the bore, hopefully it won't be an issue long term!

I'm hoping to get away with a new set of head gaskets, we'll see how that goes. As for all the sludge, I'm going to do this on the cheap - once the head gaskets are on and the engine is back in I'll fill it up with some used crankcase oil and a new filter, run it up to temp (if it starts - that'll be another issue), then drop the oil and filter for more used oil. Do the same, up to temp and drop. From here I'll gauge wether I should go another run with used oil or go for a fresh batch to run it with.

This will also tell me if there's other damage/wear with the engine - once I see it's not blowing smoke I'll be happy!

Also, if you look at the pistons, while not really clear in the images, they look like after market units to me - no fuji/subaru boomerang in a circle like symbol on the faces of these units... So hopefully all is good!

A question for the EA81 gurus out there: The two bolts holding the rocker assembly to the head, are these head bolts that need to be torqued in sequence? If so, how do you head bolt #9 in the sequence? I can't get socket in there to do anything, which means no torque wrench...

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:52 pm

What a mess! Are those two welch plugs completely MIA?

The two bolts for the rocker assembly are two in the torque sequence, this is the cue for Jonno to post the pic of his special ring spanner for nut under the rocker assembly. Alternatively you can do what I did which is buy a cheap socket and grind it away until you can get a turn on the nut (most of the socket will be gone before it fits) I've still got mine and you can only get about 1/16th of a turn before you need to reposition it but it works

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:59 pm

Silverbullet wrote:What a mess! Are those two welch plugs completely MIA?

Nah, only one is MIA:

Silverbullet wrote:The two bolts for the rocker assembly are two in the torque sequence, this is the cue for Jonno to post the pic of his special ring spanner for nut under the rocker assembly. Alternatively you can do what I did which is buy a cheap socket and grind it away until you can get a turn on the nut (most of the socket will be gone before it fits) I've still got mine and you can only get about 1/16th of a turn before you need to reposition it but it works

Brilliant, not. Might have to shave up a socket for my use on this too.

Cheers

Bennie