Subaru Brat WRX.

First job was to get it running, I drained the fuel out which looked like Cola, changed the filter, checked the levels, chucked a battery in it but I had electrical issues.

I mentioned earlier about it sitting in a barn for 10+yrs, well this thing was FULL of mice/rat whatever poo and nests, it stank to high heaven and the little barstewards had done a bit of damage.
A quick dash strip down to see what the story was..



On top of the furry destruction there were also loads of these bloody horrendous things, like muddy nests with dead beetle type things in them, Arrrrgh, out with the Henry Hoover, this is in the heater duct!


I got a quick solder job done on the wiring and she fired up, moves and drives ok, so far so good.

I then gave the inside of the wings a spray with Bilt Hamber before re-fitting.



I spent some time at the back end, a notorious rot spot on these is on the rear shock mount, where all the curse word sticks.
I sikaflexed a couple pieces of Perspex on each side to try and stop this.




While I was there I also bolted on a couple new shocks as the old ones were seized solid and gave the inner arches a spray.




Now, next step was to get the wings bolted on and prep the grille, lights etc.




These things have channels that run along the top on the inner wings, whilst I was kneeling down getting ready to put the wings on I spotted something through the hole in the side of the channel, so I grabbed a pair of long nosed pliers...



Cue me now shitting myself in case I come across the rattily owner when I strip the interior.  

Then onto rip the inside apart, this actually isn't a pic of my truck I forgot to take pics but you get the drift.
I spent hours hoovering thousands of acorn shells, mouse/squirrel/bigfoot poop out of it, it was shocking.



Conveniently as these BRATs were sold in both LHD & RHD flavours swapping everything over wasn't too difficult.







The hardest part was swapping over the heater blower suction hole and ducting.
There is a tin deflection cover welded onto the underside of the scuttle panel, presumably to stop the rain getting in which I had to remove and install along with cutting the hole itself and welding in the duct.



Holes marked for the spot welds for the new deflection plate, forgot to take a pic of it done.



And so back together, it's still untidy at this point and after I took this photo the vinyl mat from the UK truck got a clean and it was put back in, I would have liked to use the carpet out of the US truck but it was too far gone and stinky. I also installed a cheeky little rev counter where the clock was, you can't really see it in that pic because of the reflection.



MX5 heated seats installed, went in surprisingly easy, however I haven't wired them in yet.



After all of this I stripped and bled the brakes, all good, and stuck a couple of tyres on it.
I also fitted a 32/36 weber Because I had to swap the full loom over to the RHD one, I lost the snakes nest of emissions curse word wires that goes to the original US Hitachi carb, rather that try to get it to work, I just stuck the weber on and it seems to run ok.
So, the milestone I mentioned earlier is that it's now ready for an MOT!



I still need to paint the RHD scuttle, sort out a tailgate, I have a rot free one but it's badly dented. I also have a fibreglass skin so I'll manage to do something.
You can get aftermarket tailgates from Australia but as you would imagine the carriage is crazy. So if anybody knows a cheap way to get stuff from Oz let me now, it would be much appreciated.

A pic with the modulars from the old one laid beside it, these will go on soon after its tested.



Oh yeah, then this appeared..



And these 






 

Bookmarked! I had one of these til refently but had to let it go due to the dreaded rust brigade.

from your pictures the body and undercarriage looks brilliant, so how did the tailgate manage to get deleted ! weird

I used Kingstown shipping, based in Hull.
I have to say, they were excellent, I expected it to be a bit of a nightmare but I wouldn’t hesitate with importing something again.

On the tailgate rotting out. The previous owner had a theory that the first owner may have carried fertiliser around on the tailgate with it down but who knows.

I’d love to get one of the new, repro ones from Aus but I just can’t get a reasonable carriage quote.

A couple more things done with it today, wired in and fitted better speakers and a central locking kit with a fob, well chuffed with that. I must have er, tested it about 20 times.

Strangely they were never sold in Japan, apparently it wa a request from the US manager of Subaru to make a truck to sell in the Us. Subsequently it made its way over to the UK.
They still have a huge following in Aus as the Brumby.

love the project! T-top sunroof too!
i had two of these a few years back now, regret getting rid of them and your thread has just persuaded me to have a look around for another!
loads in OZ, there seems to be plenty of the mk1's over there too. many around in the states? see the odd few pics, but i bet they are pretty rare over there? here in the uk they were all farm trucks, so its pretty close to impossible to find one that doesnt need months worth of welding, and fabrication- you cant find any new or patten panels.

Yep, parts are rare. However there’s a guy down south somewhere I know who does fibreglass wings, tailgate skins and a few other bits so at least that’s something if your stuck.
There is usually at least 1 or 2 brats on US eBay. The Mk1 trucks seem more sought after but I do prefer the later ones.