1978 Subaru BRAT

DL GL Pickup truck

4 - Cyl.

Manual

A69L007600

Gasoline

This item sold 1 hour ago.... and 30 minutes after the auction ended, I got a "Sorry, I wanted to pay for it, but I can't" email from the winning bidder. I'm terribly upset, because my family and I are moving to Texas on 1 July. With that, I will arrange for a local friend to assist with delivery/pickup of the vehicle, even after July 1st.The bidder has been reported, legal action has been taken, and is now being investigated internally through eBay. I cannot list their eBay identity because it violates eBay's rules, but I will identify this person, by name, on every Subaru enthusiast website that the car was advertised on, so other sellers can block him, and not have to suffer with the same injustice that I have.My apologies for any inconvenience. The auction is being relisted in the exact same format as before: Greetings Fellow eBayers and Subaru enthusiasts, I bought this 78 Brat approximately 3 years ago on eBay for $1000 from a gentleman in Denver, sight unseen. I’d never so much as even sat in a Brat, much less driven one. The “original” intention was to turn it into a WRX-powered, fire breathing monster, but as what happens with many projects, my interests fell short, and it ended up just turning into a personal goal to get it on the road and drive it, on a budget. I spent 2 years restoring it, and 6 months getting it through Utah state inspections. I did manage to completely document the entire restoration from the day I brought it home though, with pictures of EVERYTHING from the first time I parked it in the garage, the teardown, all the bodywork, the painting, the assembly, etc.. This is far from an “unknown” car, --The build thread is 19 pages long, with over 27,000 views. If you are seriously interested in purchasing the car, I would recommend taking a couple hours to read through the entire thread. I’ll do my best to detail everything as “briefly” as possible in this auction, but all other questions will likely be answered “somewhere” in this thread: http://www.clubwrx.net/forums/engine-modifications/134306971-914ers-project-spoiled-brat-progress-thread.html ^^ I mean it quite literally, I documented EVERYTHING with pictures, no matter how small. You should see my WRX build thread, it was 49 pages last time I checked, and had nearly 50,000 views. I love it, it’s a great little fun car, but my family and I are relocating to Texas on July 1st, and I just found out 2 days ago that the military won’t ship cars unless you are headed overseas. (I’m active duty Air Force – 17 years) For a Brat, the car is impeccable, and would not take much at all to make it show quality. Currently, it is a big hit at cruise nights and local car shows… everyone loves it. I’ve been watching brats sell on eBay for 4 years, and I can only remember one that was nicer, of ANY year, and it sold for over $7000. In fact, this brat is actually in much better shape than the 83 or 84 Brat on display at the Nate Wade Subaru dealership in Salt Lake City. In the meantime, my WRX has consumed about $25,000 of my hard-earned money over the past 6 years I’ve owned it, and it is still my #1 passion. I don’t particularly want to drag this thing behind our Tribeca all the way to Texas, and quite frankly, I almost never drive it, so it seems almost a “burden” to keep it. I’m in the market for another project once I get to Texas, but something BIG I can fit my whole family into, that has A/C. Another Porsche 914 won’t work, but maybe an old Suburban, another 2nd Gen Trans Am? A cool 60’s wagon? Another Subie? I’ve had so many cars, I really don’t know what I want…. It will be fun shopping though. CAR MUST BE PICKED UP BY THE END OF JUNE. WE ARE MOVING TO TEXAS ON JULY 1ST!!!!! Finally – I’ll get to the description. I’ll try to break down the good and the bad, into each area of the car. I take pride in representing what I sell honestly, including the 94 Subaru SVX I sold only a few short months ago to a very happy gentleman. This was a “budget” restoration – I assure you, Chip Foose would be highly disappointed. However, I didn’t have a $150,000 budget and a team of highly-paid professionals, so any Subaru enthusiast would be PROUD to own/drive this thing, as I have been. I cannot so much as stop at a gas station without drawing a crowd of interested spectators. ENGINE: To the best of my knowledge, this is the original 1.6L engine. The odometer reads 36,871, and works perfectly, although it it highly likely 136,XXX... maybe even 236,XXX, you know how these Subarus are!! I have replaced the oil pan gasket and both valve cover gaskets. You can park this on your white carpet. It can sit for WEEKS and wont leak a drop of anything, anywhere. While troubleshooting a persistent overheating problem, I’ve completely flushed the entire cooling system, installed a new thermostat, water pump, dual electric fans with appropriate relays and senders (which work flawlessly), an overflow tank, and a new radiator. Car will idle all day long without overheating now, and the fans kick on and off perfectly. I’ve also purchased a brand new carburetor from National Carburetors for nearly $300 just a few months ago (still under warrantee). Lastly, I welded on a universal catalytic converter just to be “sure” it would pass emissions, which it did with flying colors. It doesn’t like the cold, and gives me a bit of trouble starting after sitting a couple weeks (I don’t drive it very often). Smokes a little for a minute. Once it’s a little warm, no more smoking at all, and it runs great. It starts great the rest of the day even when cold. Only gives me trouble after sitting long periods of time, but it ALWAYS starts, every single time. It was 62hp when it was NEW, so it isn’t exactly a racecar, but will cruise at 70mph all day long without a problem. On deceleration, I get some “poofing”, nothing major – likely a small exhaust leak somewhere, not bad enough to fail inspections though. TRANSMISSION Works perfectly. Clutch engages as it should, no leaks, no funny noises anywhere in the drivetrain. 4WD engages perfectly, and works well. 2nd gear “sometimes” grinds at high rpms if you shift it too hard/fast when it is cold. If you are gentle going into 2nd, it’s fine. Both the tranny and rear diff have fresh fluids, and do not leak a drop. SUSPENSION Works perfectly… bone stock, no problems whatsoever. No funny noises whatsoever. Tires are presentable (50% ish). Wheels are uncurbed and in excellent condition. I just recently replaced both tie rod ends (which had to come from Japan!), as well as the driver side ball joint to pass inspection. Shocks feel good, car tracks straight, and brakes straight. Brakes work as they should, and do not leak at all. INTERIOR I replaced the carpeting, seats, belts, wheel, and completely restored everything. Everything you see is new or restored/modded. I couldn’t reuse the original brown seatbelts, so I installed 4-way harnesses. I’m 5 ft 10, 180 lbs, with a 32 inch waist. If you are bigger, you likely will not fit in them though, and will need to find some OEM seatbelts, or at least some aftermarket “standard” seatbelts (I’ve seen them on eBay numerous times). All the gauges, lights, indicators, horn, heater, defrost, wipers, and wiper squirters, etc work as they should. No radio, no speakers. There was no rust in the floorboards when I bought it – it was almost all in the wheelwells. All the weatherstripping/seals are in excellent shape – You can drive it through an automatic carwash – no problem. The dashboard – is ugly. I’m not an upholsterer, but I tried my hand at recovering the dash in black vinyl, and failed miserably. It looks awful. Lumpy, uneven… just awful. I bought a new carpeted dashmat to cover it. Now it looks “presentable”. It covers the ugly spots nicely, so no one has noticed it yet, but it’s there. EXTERIOR: I had a very talented high school student paint the car in “Hot Rod Black”…. Or “matte black”, in the paint booth at his school. The supplies alone were nearly $400. The paint quality is actually quite good. Very good in fact. No orange peel, no “streakiness”. I’m a perfectionist, and I had the car straight as an arrow when I gave it to him. However, he hand-sanded the entire car, but unfortunately, sanded away all the filler primer I used. You can see where I had to “dig” out the old pinstriping with a sander. It’s not awful, but you can see it if you are within 10 feet of the car, particularly if it is freshly washed. Under the hood, and the doorjams are matte black spraypaint. Everything else (including inside the bed) was painted in the paintbooth professionally with high quality paint/materials/tools. The decals were purchased from a business (cant remember their name) in Oregon if I recall. This car had a lot of rust…. as do all Brats. There is a lot of fiberglass and body filler in this car, particularly around the rear wheelwells, and rocker panels. I used fiberglass for the holes, and premium filler for everything else. Ironically, the frame, floorboards, and engine compartment were nearly rust-free. I did a good job with it, and the bodywork (although not “perfect”) is quite good. The visible areas mentioned above, are from sanding out pinstriping, NOT from a poor, shotty bondo job. There is zero visible rust anywhere on the car. A couple dings, and one small area where someone bumped me with a shopping cart or something (2 inches), both are in the video. No paint chips at all… it’s barely been driven since I finished it. The floor of the bed has been lined, and looks excellent. The glass is excellent – one small chip in the windshield that has been repaired and shouldn’t spread. The rest of the glass is flawless. I scavenged the front brush guard off a junkyard brat, had it sandblasted and powdercoated (not painted), it looks excellent. I scavenged several headlight/taillight lenses from junkyards across America… NONE of them have a single crack, at all, and they all work (really… can you believe it?). The rear bumper is actually new-old-stock. It was sitting on a shelf for 30 years, and is literally a brand new time-capsule from 1978. I have the front bumper, but it is in bad shape (I saved it just in case the inspection guys gave me a hard time). The jumpseats are in great shape, although one of them is missing a handle. I relocated them closer together so it appears that the center handle is being “shared”. The jumpseat headrests are excellent. Summary: As you can see, it is far from perfect, but for a 1st-year Brat… or ANY year Brat for that matter, it is impeccable, and needs very little to be “perfect”. FAR better than every other Brat I’ve seen sell on eBay over the past 4 years (except one that underwent a frame-off rotisserie restoration). In addition, I have “maybe” 200 miles on it since it was finished/registered. I guess my passion was in the build, not necessarily driving it. I’ve been as honest (and long-winded) as possible, because I want to make sure this is the right car for you, and that you will be happy with it. If this listing, or the build thread (don’t forget to read it all) doesn’t answer any questions you have, I will be HAPPY to talk with you over the phone, or even allow you to come see/drive the car. I cannot in good conscience recommend driving ANY 30+ year old car home, but I have no reason to think it wouldn’t make the trip. Personally, I’d just put it on a U-Haul Tow Dolly (as I did coming back from Denver). It is FWD when not in 4WD, so you can tow it with the rear wheels dragging. Legal mumbo-jumbo: Of course, no warrantee is offered or implied. A $1000 deposit is required via paypal within 48 hours of auction close, with the remaining balance due within 7 days via certified cashiers/bank check. The car will be started regularly, but not driven, and will be stored in my climate-controlled garage until you pick it up, or send a carrier to pick it up. It must be picked up by June 30th, as we are moving to TX on July 1st. If you cannot make it, I will put the car into a storage facility of your choice, at your expense, and I will mail you the title. I will help with accommodations as much as possible, please don’t be afraid to ask. My phone number is 801-425-8061. I bought it for $1000. I have “maybe” $2000 more into it since then (it was a budget build), although I have hundreds, if not thousands of hours of labor into it as well, not to mention countless hours on the phone hunting down impossible parts. I think $2500 is a fair starting price, considering the quality of the vehicle, the level of representation you have received, and a completely detailed restoration with all pictures. You would be hard-pressed to find a Brat in this condition, with this level of representation, anywhere in the world. This is a no-reserve auction, so the opening (or highest) bidder will be the new owner. Clear title in hand… ready to be signed over. I sincerely wish everyone the best of luck, as well as happiness with your new car!! Regards, Matt (914er) VIDEO #1 (Exterior & Interior): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXFcnjJaaEw VIDEO #2 (Engine & drive): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO0NqfP-chI On May-25-11 at 17:53:02 PDT, seller added the following information: Based upon an overwhelming interest in the car over the past 24 hours since I listed it, The question has been asked as to why I didn't post pictures of the underside. Truthfully, I don''t have an answer, but I understand - these cars are notorious for having the frames rot out, as well as the floorboards, and completely compromising the structural integrity of the car, particularly the rear suspension. If I were buying it, I would want to see the underside as well. With that, I just recorded Video #3 to include the underside of the engine/transmission floorboards, frame, exhaust, and rear differential. Hopefully this satisfies any curiosities you may have about the structural integrity of this Brat. Thanks to all those interested in the car, and the plethora of emails I've received commending me on my work. Thanks!!!! Video #3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsQJj8i9VHA