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Noll saves a Subaru justy


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I heard about the Subaru Justy a couple years ago, and wanted one ever since. After all what's not to like? Push-button 4x4, inline 3cyl, Subaru, manual, and a fully-loaded weight of 884kg (1950lb). I ended up finding two to purchase 2 years ago for the princely sum of 700$ for the pair, but they were too rusty to save. I decided to keep them around as future parts-cars for when I eventually found a Justy worth saving.

 

Well, two years later, that time has finally come! I've been away for the past couple of months (driving around the world for charity), and found this Justy on Kijiji while I was away. It took the better part of a month to make it mine, due to wildly different time zones due to my trip and the seller preparing to move out of the country, but after returning last week, I drove 850km yesterday to tow it home.

 

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1.2L/3cyl of power:

 

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Unfortunately it has its share of dents and rust, but is still miles better then the other two I have, and is well worth saving. Only rust areas are the fenders, rear hatch, rear quarters, driver's floorpan, rear bumper area, and a couple small spots in the engine bay.

 

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The hatch is unfortunately pretty trashed and has rusted thru behind the weatherseal, but luckily I have a complete good-condition hatch I've been holding onto for the past 2 years.

 

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Rear quarter rust. Looks like wheel arch covers were put on to cover more rust, will need to dig into that and see how bad it really is.

 

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Not sure how the front seat mount got this bad. Probably just going to drill out the spot welds and weld in one of the mounts from my parts-cars if they're in OK shape.

 

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The main floor rust. The other floorpan seems to be completely rust free, happily. Should be a relatively easy job to make some new sections, and I'll hammer out the subframe while I'm at it.

 

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The rear bumper area will need a lot of work; Going to see if my parts-cars are in good shape here, and just cut/weld if so. Lots of little patches to do otherwise.

 

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The parts-cars themselves:

 

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Nice clean spare hatch.

 

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Current plan is just to get the rust sorted, maintenance done (car has sat for a couple years before I bought it), stick a skidplate and some more lights on it, and have a blast this winter. Going to start tearing it apart over the next few days.

 

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Had a little time free, so I took off the rear arch covers.

 

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Looks like they are indeed as bad as I thought. Mmm, crunchy.

 

I'm thinking I have 3 main options to fix them.

 

1. cut back to good metal, misc patches, weld the inner/outer seams together,  paint, and put the covers back on (properly).

2. Cut the arches out of my parts-cars, patch, and weld in.

3. find a car in the junkyard with a similar look and diameter on the front fenders, buy fenders, and cut up/weld in the rear.

 

#2 could be a bit of an issue as the arches on the other 2 cars will need some work too. Also, the parts-cars are 2dr, not 4dr.

 

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Thoughts?

 


Also, behold the most interesting radio delete I've ever seen. Gotta work with what you have, I suppose. I'll make a 3d-printed faceplate to replace that, clean up the wiring, and call it good, as I'd only be using a radio for aux-in anyway.

 

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Got one of the front fenders off (other has a stripped bolt, will sort later), and, as I expected, the inner wings will need some work too. Not as bad as the other 2 cars though. Once It's all done and painted, I'm going to bedliner the whole thing and not put the plastic liner back in, as it's what trapped dirt and caused the rust in the first place.

 

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Got the front bumper off too. It's actually not in that bad shape, I just need to get the plastic cover off and wire wheel/paint the metal bar.

 

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I'm kinda tempted to tube bumper this thing, and the front bodylines lend themselves well to that:

 

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Would probably cut off this sheet metal if so:

 

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I decided to have a look at the rear bumper too. Good news, I got it off. Bad news, I took it off with my hands and no tools/bolts. Going to see if I can cut the rear lower pan/bumper mount section from one of the parts-cars.

 

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The rear lends itself well towards tube bumpers too...

 

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Edited by Noll
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Find a good semi-rust-free AWD in west/southcentral US and use these to build a keeper and a nice parts stash. I had an infatuation with Justys five or six years ago or so. Studied them and visited a guy in Muskogee (Yeah, 'Okie from Muskogee' territory) who was big time into VW air-cooled till they became overly uncommon round here. Then he got Geekish into Subaru. He had a silver two-door Justy AWD with fabric slider sunroof that I seriously drooled over for a bit. It's now one of those 'Damn, I wish I would'a' cars. He's long underground and the cars are long gone. I did snag a 'super survivor' 63 Type 117 'slider sunroof' VW from him fifteen years ago or so. It's long gone too now. One of many I shoulda kept, but wifey says, "Can't keep em all" !!

 

I'm longtime into FIAT so we got some common tastes; what with you and the Lada Niva and all. I love cars !!

Edited by difrangia
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53 minutes ago, difrangia said:

Find a good semi-rust-free AWD in west/southcentral US and use these to build a keeper and a nice parts stash. I had an infatuation with Justys five or six years ago or so. Studied them and visited a guy in Muskogee (Yeah, 'Okie from Muskogee' territory) who was big time into VW air-cooled till they became overly uncommon round here. Then he got Geekish into Subaru. He had a silver two-door Justy AWD with fabric slider sunroof that I seriously drooled over for a bit. It's now one of those 'Damn, I wish I would'a' cars. He's long underground and the cars are long gone. I did snag a 'super survivor' 63 Type 117 'slider sunroof' VW from him fifteen years ago or so. It's long gone too now. One of many I shoulda kept, but wifey says, "Can't keep em all" !!

 

I'm longtime into FIAT so we got some common tastes; what with you and the Lada Niva and all. I love cars !!

 

Yeah, I'd like to get a rust-free car as a starting point at some point (there's one clean one near me for sale, but the guy wants 4.5k for it), but my current budget doesn't allow that, sadly. It was a LOT of looking just to find one in any condition near me. Also, pretty sure my family would kill me if I get any more cars haha. The seller of this car told me that someone's selling a rust-free rally prepped shell for 1000$ in quebec (seller isn't advertising it online apparently), so I'm thinking I will pick that up next spring if it's still around. Till then, I'll make do with I have, and a lot of welding.

 

Very cool, guess that must have been a dealer option? I didn't think any Justys came with a sunroof. and yep, lots of similarities between the Ladas and Fiats! Makes parts availability even easier. Apparently the twin-cam from the fiat spyder bolts right in to most of the old sedans and the nivas, might be another project for me at some point.

 

 

Edited by Noll
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Did a lot of little stuff today. Tires swapped back to the correct cars (front left was from another car as it was flat when I picked up the Justy), figured out what's up with the rear brakes, and made sure my snow tires/wheels will fit.

 

This is why there were no rear brakes. looks like the rear brake cylinders broke at some point, so they were just blocked off and the car was ran with front-wheel brakes only. Nice. The handbrake cables are also missing, so I'll need to grab the assembly off one of the other cars.

 

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I also (mostly) swapped the exhaust for the one off the blue car that was in good shape.

 

I tried to move it onto the driveway for removal, but just succeeded in removing the tow hook and sway bar mount.

 

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Off, and compared to the old one at the top. All one piece welded, leaking, rusty, and had no cat. Pretty sure that's some fence tubing for the middle bit too. The other one is much better.

 

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The "new" exhaust isn't without its flaws though, the main one being that a flange at the front has rusted out. I'm going to being the whole exhaust to a shop and have them weld a new one on, I can't imagine it'd cost much.

 

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and mocked up in the car. Somehow, throughout this whole process, I only snapped one bolt, and it's one of 5 holding the exhaust to the manifold, so I'm not really concerned by it.

 

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6 hours ago, Aibast said:

we had some guys in here but Justy engine into a ZAZ 965 

 

That must be fun! Those things are tiny. Had a mechanic in Uzbekistan (while I was traveling this summer) show me a pic of his that he had restored, looked pretty cool.

 

 

 

Stripped out the carpet, seats, and sound deadening today. Carpet was in pretty bad shape, so it went right into the trash. Unsure if I'll bedliner the floor or put the carpet in from a parts-car.

 

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Driver's side is pretty full of holes, but should mostly be pretty straightforward patches, the ones that butt onto the firewall may be a bit of a pain though. Going to need to snag seat mounts off one of the other cars too.

 

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Passenger side will need a couple tiny patches, but it's in great shape overall:

 

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Also grabbed the radio out of my blue justy, and installed it in this car.

 

What I started with after removing the wood plate and aux-in device-thingy:

 

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Cut out the end of the radio harness as it had been hacked apart by the PO's install of the aux input device.

 

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Cut the same part out of the blue car and spliced it in. All soldered nicely and heatshrinked. No pic of after, but I wrapped it with electrical tape like stock. Bare wire visible is from the factory, assuming it's to split the ground wire into 2.

 

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And all installed. I need to make a block-off plate for the top right hole, and reinstall the ones for the other 2 holes. Also installed the coin storage area from another car as it was missing.

 

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Edited by Noll
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No real work on the car today, but I went and got the ownership officially in my name. It was a Quebec car and I'm in Ontario, so I wasn't sure how registering it in Ont would go, but happy to report I managed to bring the right papers the first time.

 

Next up will be to strip the brake/fuel lines out of the driver's side so i can start work on the floor, and to remove the rear drums to check on the condition of everything in there.

 

I'm also going to go to a junkyard tomorrow to see about getting a new radiator (got dimensions written down), and possibly some fenders from other cars I can cut up to repair my rear arches.

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Rainy junkyard parts-searching today was a success. Found some fenders from a Suzuki Swift that match the rear wheel arch curvature very well, as well as a radiator from a Toyota Tercel. The radiator is about 10cm wider then the stock Justy one, but otherwise dimensions are basically the same, and it should fit pretty well once I  make some custom mounts.

 

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Inlet/outlet are on the correct side:

 

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Width difference:

 

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Swift fender arch vs justy fender. Will need some work to match exactly, but pretty close!

 

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Today was mostly spent collecting more stuff that I'll need for the justy (finally got a torque wrench, and picked up some more cutting discs, paint, etc), but I was able to get the exhaust more-or-less permanently sorted. I bought a section of connecting pipe (1.5"ID to match the exhaust) and a couple clamps to replace the rusted out flange at the main exhaust join. I was just going to bolt it all together, but while welding up a couple pinholes I saw in the rusted section of pipe, I decided to just weld one end of the connecting piece on to simplify things and help reduce leakage.
Turned out pretty OK I think:
 
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And all installed. I'm going to have to remove the exhaust again for the rear bumper area repair, so I didn't bother removing the old gasket-maker stuff from the flange yet.
 
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3 hours ago, 125 CSL said:

Wow that is a lot of rust. I would have already given up and moved on to the next car. Did some looking, could not find one not even in the scrap yards. Good luck on the build.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I would have done the same, except as you mentioned, these are next to impossible to find in any condition, so I have to work with what I have.  I feel like the rear bumper area is going to be the only really PITA repair, the rest are all flat patches for the most part.

 

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More progress today.

 

Stripped the p/s front apron for paint, to get rid of surface rust. Pic is just after rust-converter application, I wiped everything down with brake cleaner before primer/paint.

 

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All done. Need to swap out that headlight for one with a intact seal at some point. Paint isn't perfect (mostly due to not feathering the  edges of the old paint), but It'll work just fine, and that seems to be the theme of this build - "good enough".

 

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Next up was to deal with this bubbling rust at the rear door:

 

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Stripped, primed, and painted. You can see where the rust pockmarked the metal, but again, good enough, the bodywork is a mess anyway. This'll be a fun beater that I'll keep in good mechanical shape but not have to care about door dings, dents, etc. The black I used actually blends pretty well with the door, all things considered.

 

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Similar repair to some rust bubbles in the front drip rail. Super ghetto setup for eliminating overspray on the windows, but it worked.

 

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All done. When the paint has fully cured I'll glue the plastic drip rail back on at the bottom.

 

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Got the front p/s fender off, and hammered out the main dent it had. Did some grinding to expose some surface rust on the top half and the main rust in the arch.

 

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Primed the surface rust areas after removing the rust itself. No pic, but it was also painted black after this.

 

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My next task will be to patch the d/s front apron, and paint it as well. Picked up some weld-thru primer today.

 

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Rear brake bits also arrived today, so I'll be installing that before too long. Will need to rob the ebrake cable off another of the cars too, that'll be fun.

 

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Edited by Noll
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Made some progress today with the front apron repair. Not all fully welded yet, the strip on the  right is just tacked on for now. I've decided that with the amount of welding this car needs, I need to bite the bullet and buy a gas bottle and some .023 wire instead of the .030 flux-core I'm currently using. As-is, it's nearly impossible to get a good spot weld, most (as can be seen in pic) are either too cold or burn right through. I've had the chance to do proper gas welding at a college course I did this past spring, so that makes the decision even easier. Will be picking up a bottle etc over the next couple days.
 
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Cut some bits out of the other justy fenders I have, and after a lot of cutting, grinding, and tacking, have a pair of fenders that are roughly rust-free again. Still a lot of little stuff to do, and I won't fully weld the new bits on until I get the gas bottle, but they look like fenders again which is nice.
 
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Got the rear hatch swapped today. relatively simple for the most part, but running the wires/washer fluid line thru a cavity with no access holes was a pain. Still, it's done now!

 

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While removing the rear seats I found that the rear seatbelt mounts on both sides need work. This occurred when I tried to unbolt the mount on one side. Should be a straightforward repair, but another thing on the list of stuff to do.

 

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Got the car started today. Fired up nicely once I got a functional battery in it, after cranking for a bit. I will need to sort the high idle, as it's currently sitting around 2200rpm. Google told me the location of the idle screw, so that's the next thing to do.

 

 

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Also figured I should make a full to-do list:

 

ENGINE BAY
-clean up wiring, remove errant grounds etc
-fix 4wd wiring
-degrease
-rad mount/swap
-engine bay rust (battery area)
-Valve cover gasket
-change fluids
-strut top mount
 
INTERIOR
-p/s floor minor rust repair
-shifter area rust repair
-driver's floor rust repair
-spare tire well rust repair
-paint
-rear seatbelt mount area repair
- find carpet, put different driver's seat in (possibly just swap seat rails for driver/pass)
-power for fm transmitter, phone, dashcam, etc
-cupholder
-fix trim pieces
-paint bottom of p/s door black
-Swap shifter for working button one
 
EXTERIOR
-front inner arch rust repair
-finish front fenders
-rear arch rust repair
-rear bumper area rust repair
-swap rear bumper from another car
-aluminum cover for fuel pump
-new front wipers
-front fog light mounts and wiring
-under-door rust cleaning
-rear brake rebuild + brake lines 
-parking brake cable install
-check front brakes
-swap tires
-get alignment front/rear
-front bumper turn signals
-remount front bumper
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8 minutes ago, Mattndew76 said:

a Subaru Rusty!!

 

Buddy had one he strapped a T3 turbo on. Had tons of off-road fun in that tin can.

 

Well, this one is definitely living up to that namesake! I bet a turbo would be a blast, kinda pondering adding one myself at some point. For now just going to get the car on the road though haha.

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Today's progress. designed and 3d-printed some inserts for the rear hatch, and installed them. Now I can bolt on a license plate when that time comes. Didn't bother being very careful with the glue as it'll be hidden by the plate and I'll need to take it all apart next spring to do rust repair there as can be seen at the top left.

 

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Also swapped the mirrors for a set off a parts-car. They were both ziptied and taped together, with busted adjuster mechanisms.

 

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Much better.

 

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Got the justy into the garage after doing some organizing. Should be much better for when I start doing gas-shielded MIG, and it's nicely out of the elements for other work too. (yeah, I need to gat back to work on the Lada Niva too, going to use the Justy to practice my welding before I resume that  project).

 

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Dug this out of the engine bay; was being used as a ground lead. Replaced with an actual ground wire off a parts-car.

 

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I'm also going to need to deal with the fact that there's a trailer wiring harness spliced in by the distributor for some reason. Probably going to cut that bit of harness out of a parts-car and solder in like the radio.

 

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Also got some more goodies from Rockauto. Valve cover no longer dripping on hot exhaust will be nice. This is without a doubt the smallest oil filter I've ever seen, can't be much bigger than the one on our riding lawnmower.

 

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Edited by Noll
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