Fat '84 Touring Wagon

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:31 pm

Just a couple of pics of the progress of my Subie. I've only just got into these cars for myself, but have been working on and fabricating parts for them for a few years now. Decided to do a serious "remanufactured" custom job for myself. This one already had power steering, air conditioning, digital dash, electric windows, auto box and a pretty good body.

The body had hidden faults though, so I've cut all rusted sections open and have been fabricating entirely new sections in order to return the body to new condition (with more rust proofing though).

What I'm adding is, central locking, keyless entry, full 6 stud conversion with ventilated discs and 14x7" wheels, full rubber flares, modified front fenders, Pacific Turquoise metallic paint, cruise control, custom made muffler with WRX style exhaust note (already tested prototype on friend's Subie), sill guards/side steps, small built in fridge, DVD/digital TV (mobile set top box) with roof mounted 7" screen, MP3 stereo (no CD to skip), custom front and rear bumpers with towbar (3 different elec sockets installed) and front pushbar (with offset towball for manouvering my caravan), and a few other little extras.

There'll be more info and pics to follow.

BlackMale · Post by **BlackMale** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:40 pm

Sounding like it will be an evil lil machine, good luck with the rest of the build up and look forward to seeing the end result.

highroller · Post by **highroller** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:32 pm

Awesome! Can't wait to see the result

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:13 pm

Oh, forgot to mention... So far I've put in nearly two weeks on this car. most of the fabrication is done now, and have the paint sitting on the shelf in the shed waiting. The stripdown was a quick little learning experience for me, as I'd never actually done much disassembly and reassembly on these before. It had always been done by people I was working with, on their's. So now I know where all the little screws, buttons and gluey bits are for each piece of the interior etc...

Financially, it will be another three weeks before I can put this car on the road (with standard bumpers, no cruise control and no lift kit as yet. Yes, it's getting a lift kit too, of my own manufacture). The work will easily be done on the car in time for Safety Certificate and Rego in three weeks time. Hopefully I'll have plenty of time to fit the leather wheel (late model Sonata) before driving it for the first time. I really don't like the original wheel at all. Oh, the top of the door panels and some of the dash will be getting teal vinyl, with the rest being beige, just to tie it in with the paint colour and make it feel fresher inside.

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:28 am

Ok, time for some progress pics on the work I've been doing on this car. There was not much rust evident, and most of it was only small holes that would normally get treated and filled, but I decided I'm only doing this resto once, so all suspect areas are completely cut open, all signs of rust removed, then new sections made up and fully welded in. This car will be going on the road with a completely renewed body and framing.

Oh, the outside front seat mountings leave a bit to be desired in this model, so I've fabricated a full "tophat" member that replaces that mounting and joins the sill to the tunnel. This will make the front seats very solid and stop any deterioration of the floor in the future, as the weight bared on the seat is supported entirely by the framing instead of the floor.

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:31 am

And this is how the sill/wheel arch area is coming up...

Matatak · Post by **Matatak** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:04 pm

wiked work ur doing
are u painting it blue aswell :)that wuld be wiked lol

L-Raiser · Post by **L-Raiser** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 4:58 pm

....Your lil resto job is looking very nice indeed....do please keep the pics coming....I cant wait to see the end result....

Are you planning any engine upgrades....?

Regards

L-Raiser

riksta · Post by **riksta** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:22 pm

looks like you have a big job ahead of you there, and doing a good job of cutting out the rust...keep the pics coming.

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:19 pm

It's getting painted Pacific Turquoise, which is the Holden Statesman equivalent of Mopar Everglade Green (a Dodge Charger colour). Very similar to a genuine Subie colour, but didn't want the generic shade.

As for the rust repairs, they are far more extensive than what you'd normally do. Usually you'd have someone tack a few bits into the bigger problems and bog them over so you've got a nice paint finish. But the paint is only really there to protect what's underneath, which should all be original steel. To get someone else to do the work (or for someone else to get me to do it) would set you back in the vicinity of $5000, just for the steel work. Then there's the stripping, prepping and painting, reassembly and mechanicals to fork out for too. Good thing for me I'm a professional and don't have to pay myself the $60 an hour (until I send myself the bill).

Because I can, I've engineered a few modifications with this car. The beam under the back of the front seats will make everything very solid and allows for increased crash protection (will still crumple, but will offer more room inside if hit). The front wheel arches were an issue with clearance, due to the bigger wheels and tires, since I'm using 14x7 inch with a wide offset and 235x65 tires. So I sliced a layer out of the footwell/pillar pinchweld and turned it 90 degrees then seam welded it from the inside.

She's only been slowed down over the last week because of continuous rain and flooding here. Back on to it again tomorrow though... The body should be ready for painting in the next couple of days.

Oh, and the last pic is a sister car to mine that we're doing in the same yard at the same time. it's about to get a final coat, then it's just reassembly, apart from the molded steel rear bumper I'm fabricating for it.

rtcb65 · Post by **rtcb65** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 2:46 pm

By the time it is finnished ya head will be that big , ya wont be able to fit in the car.lol.. But mush admit ya doing a great job. And the sister car is coming up rather well. Yes i would say that we all will be back at it tomorrow after a couple of out of yard work.

There are 3 of us that do the rebuilding of the MY's . All of us have some sort of disability. Weather it be physical or mental. So to keep us from going nuts, we do all sort of jobs for people. With out charging anything other than parts . Celtic does the metal work as you all can see, The other person does the spraying and the putty work and i do the sanding . We each have our abilty's that we are best , so by putting them together , we can put a car together quite well. Good enough for us anyway.
Here are a couple of cars done so far.[ATTACH]359[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]360[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]361[/ATTACH]

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:11 pm

The car is back on it's wheels, until i jack the other side up for some minor attention tomorrow. All the blue areas are bits that have been stripped and repaired. There's no filler under any of the blue paint, it's plain treated steel, grinding marks and all...

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 5:50 pm

And here's the latest rusty bits I've been fixing up. First pic is all the bits i cut out of the left sill at the rear. Then is the vacant area where there used to be what appeared to be "car". Now I've started welding in the new bits to replace the other bits that were only bonded in with bog. The original skin isn't too bad, so it'll be cleaned up and welded back in tomorrow.

The outside of this area looked good, as it had been cut out and a new piece seam welded in some time ago. But under that neat job was just a mess of tin and bog, held together with luck. Whoever did the repair knew what they were doing, but were very devious and morally corrupt. This section needs to be strong enough to take a hit and hopefully protect the children in the back seat.

cooloothin · Post by **cooloothin** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:17 pm

sounds like you three could almost turn this into a production line... we'll all hand over our MYs one by one, and gradually blue MYs will take over the countryside...

Matatak · Post by **Matatak** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:21 pm

haha im in to cooloothin
u guys do some great work

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:17 pm

One thing you should know though, "Subaru"s go into the yard, "Blubaru"s come out... All our cars are different shades (so we can tell them apart) of blue. Mine will be car number 6 as far as I know, to come out of that yard with new blue paint... Only one of those wasn't a Subie, but there have been other Subies come out, and a few that've gone in and been dismembered before being hidden in the crawl space under the house. General rule now is, if it ain't blue, it's not to leave the yard until it is...

Matatak · Post by **Matatak** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:25 pm

id still be up if u guys were closer mine culd do with a nice blue tone lol

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:15 pm

I might accidently park my brumby in your backyard for a week or so, and see if it becomes blue...

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:58 pm

Thanks to the recent constant rain and flooding here, I've had to miss out on working on the car, but back into it again now. It's not far from paint and finishing off. We're about to put it right up on it's side tomorrow so we can fill all the seams and gaps under the car (with goop, which is a special technical name for brushable body deadener) before fully spraying the underside with proofcoat and a bit of good old black gloss...

Meanwhile, here's a couple of pics of one of the last bits of fabricating/welding...

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:33 pm

How's the car coming along?

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Fat '84 Touring Wagon

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