I picked up a 1987 Subaru BRAT. For those that don’t know, the Subaru BRAT (Bi-Recreational All-Terrain Vehicle) was pretty popular in its day for being a little truck that. At the time, it had technology not common in most 4WD vehicles. Although there were a good amount of BRAT’s sold, like most Subaru’s, they fell victim to rust.
The Subaru BRAT had one crucial design flaw that made them go to the junk yard well before they had to – rear strut mount welds. The rear struts mounts are welded onto an L shaped bracket that sadly allowed water/salt to sit behind the welds. This in turn rotted the fender wells in the bed. My BRAT is no different. I consider it the most damaged part on the vehicle.
However, that isn’t all the rust. The driver side door has been completely rusted out on the lower corner. A new door is a must. There is also a little frame rot that needs to be replaced. It’s just something that with time and hard work, it can be fixed.
After running into a little bit of a fiasco with the title, I managed to track down the original owner and get the title signed. He told me some history about the truck. It’s been across the U.S. four times, lived most of its life in Mississippi, had the rear chrome piece broke off by kids on Halloween, leaks some oil and just had a new exhaust, catalytic convertor, rotor/distributor and wires put on it before he sold it. The one fender is darker than the rest and he said that’s how he purchased it from the dealer – he guesses it was damaged prior to him getting it.
Sadly, the project has been on hold for the last 6-7 months. I just got married and moved into a house so I now have a place to store and work on the BRAT – under a carport. The first thing I did was checkout the rust and underneath the vehicle – I was surprised that it wasn’t worse. I also dropped a battery in it to check for leaks. After letting it idle for a good 20-30 minutes, I looked under the car – NOTHING. Not as so much as a little drop. I then drove the car back and forth in the parking lot – in and out of 4WD and everything went smoothly. It runs/idle’s great for being a year and a half old gas.
I also wanted to take notice of the oil pressure, RPM’s at idle, and engine temperature before ripping the engine out. While it was running, I rinsed out the engine bay. It had a ton of pine needles, leaves, etc – great for allowing rust to start eating away at the metal. I washed it, but the clear coat is so far gone its beyond help. It will get repainted the original color it was from factory.
Another reason it sat for so long was because I was debating what I wanted to do with it. Drop a WRX drivetrain in it? Lift it and create an off-road beast? After a long 6-7 months thinking about – I decided to pretty much keep it how it was from factory. For one, it’s the cheapest. Two, it’s the easiest. Three, it’s much more badass. It’s not often you see you a BRAT and when you do, it’s usually lifted or it has a STi drivetrain in it so I decided to keep it as it is since 4WD lo and hi works and the engine runs fantastic.
I don’t plan on restoring this to show-room quality but I also don’t plan on driving it every day. If there is a truck show in the area, I’ll enter it to represent Subaru. If there is a Subaru show in the area, I’ll enter it just because I’m sure I’d be the only one and I’m sure a lot of people would ask questions about it.
