Noll saves a Subaru justy

[bottomwatcher]

I am old enough to remember the TV add for this car. Started with the teenage girl calling her boyfriend and telling him her parents were going out for the evening and he should come visit. The skies opened and he drove up this dirt mountain road in a hurricane to only have the parents open the door and ask what he was doing out on a night like that? Well glad you are up for the heroics to save this car. Good luck.

[Noll]

1 hour ago, bottomwatcher said:

I am old enough to remember the TV add for this car. Started with the teenage girl calling her boyfriend and telling him her parents were going out for the evening and he should come visit. The skies opened and he drove up this dirt mountain road in a hurricane to only have the parents open the door and ask what he was doing out on a night like that? Well glad you are up for the heroics to save this car. Good luck.

 

That's pretty cool! I found a few old commercials about the justy on youtube, but hadn't seen that one.

 

Thanks! Quite a lot of work still to go, but slowly getting there.

[125 CSL]

11 hours ago, bottomwatcher said:

I am old enough to remember the TV add for this car. Started with the teenage girl calling her boyfriend and telling him her parents were going out for the evening and he should come visit. The skies opened and he drove up this dirt mountain road in a hurricane to only have the parents open the door and ask what he was doing out on a night like that? Well glad you are up for the heroics to save this car. Good luck.

 

[Noll]

That is pretty funny, haha.

 

Not a huge amount of actual progress today, but went and got a  bottle of inert welding gas, 0.023 wire, and correct sized tips. After some trial and error, (and figuring out how to properly swap the bus bar to set my welder to gas-welding), everything is working, and very nicely. Plan for tomorrow is to weld up all the stuff I've previously tacked together, change the valve cover gasket, sort some engine-bay electrical stuff, and maybe start welding some new bits if time allows.

[Noll]

Did a lot of wiring today, not so much welding.

 

Started by replacing this frayed headlight harness with one from a parts-car (1st pic is after I began):

 

 

 

 

Then did some repairs to the 4wd vacuum solenoid area, as well as returning the wiring to stock. 4wd works now (can hear the solenoids activate), but the dash light doesn't some on. Will have a look at that at a later date, as I recall there are a couple cut wires under the dash still; might very well be related.

 

 

 

Removed the valve cover to change the gasket. Dowsn't look too gunky all things considered. Not terrible at all.

 

 

 

Back to wiring, I also fixed the distributor's connection to the wiring harness. There was a trailer wiring connector spliced in in place of a normal plug, and the whole thing was in a pretty sorry state.

 

 

 

 

 

Decided to also get the wiring for the extra lights done. Halfway through:

 

 

And working. Cleaned up all the wiring as well, and successfully ran wire to a switch on the dash (replaced the switch that was being used for 4wd, as that's back to stock):

 

 

Next up is to make mounts for the lights on the bumper, and get back to welding.

[Noll]

No welding today, as I've decided to get some .030 wire to see if that helps my cold welds problem (I'm thinking that not powerful welder + changing from flux to gas which is less heat + smaller wire dia. is making it so I can't get enough heat for good penetration even on max welder settings). Was thanksgiving day here in Canada, so couldn't get the wire today.

 

One of the tabs on the p/s turn signal snapped off when I removed it from a parts-car,  so I 3d-printed and glued on a replacement one:

 

 

Got it on, and mocked up the bumper and p/s fender:

 

 

also 3d-printed up a spark plug wire clip for the larger dia wires these wires are:

 

 

And swapped the gearknob for one with a working 4x4 button and wiring. This was a massive pain, as the knob is held in by a split pin. Getting it out of the spare shift lever was no biggie, but removing the one from the in-situ lever took about an hour and a lot of cursing, as much of the impact of the hammer-blows was absorbed by the shift linkages. Still, got it in the end.

 

4x4 works (relays click), but no light on the dash still, so I still need to investigate that.

 

[Noll]

Well, I think I've finally sorted out my welding issues! Got some .030 wire as mentioned above, and was able to try it out just now. Max heat, min wire speed, and good penetration!

 

 

[Noll]

With the newfound ability to properly weld acquired, I did some work on the d/s fender today. properly welded the bits that were previously tacked on:

 

 

I did have a bit of a warpage issue when welding a piece on the front repair, but I hammered it out roughly into the correct shape, and should be able to finish it with a skim coat of body filler. Still have some more grinding of welds to do too, as can be seen.

 

 

 

[Noll]

designed and 3d-printed a blanking plate for the hole in the dash:

 

 

Then my new bluetooth to FM transmitter came in, and it turns out it's perfectly sized for that same spot:

 

 

so I made a v2 of the blanking plate with a mount for the transmitter. Turned out to be a perfect press-fit first time, so that is nice. No in-car pics yet as I need to use the transmitter in my current daily till the justy is done, but you get the idea.

 

 

 

[Noll]

Got most of the d/s floor rust cut out today. Still need to remove the fuel and brake lines to get the last of it by the rocker panel, and ran out of cutting discs when doing the front, so that'll be for another day.

 

Frame rail is in pretty good shape, which is nice.

 

 

 

Small hole by the subframe mounting bolt at the middle-right of the pic, should be a simple fix.

 

 

The rear of the floor desn't have any holes, but the flange where it meets the back wall is pretty haggard. Not sure what I'll do about that yet, as the gas tank is right behind there so I don't want to cut/weld unless I have to. Might get some automotive body ashesive and coat the flange after removing all the rust? That would be more than strong enough.

 

 

I'm thinking I might also invest in a cheap sandblasting setup to get all the rust out of the frame rail and other hard-to reach spots before paint and welding the floor back in over top.