Building a 1:1 replica Tamiya Subaru Brat - Update - 16/12/17 Finished? (links now fixed)

[zakspeed 187]

HI all,

Thought it was about time I shared my Brat project. I've had this about 3 years now but other projects have slowed progress somewhat. I'll try and update as and when.

The Tamiya Subaru Brat was based on the model used in the US, in Australia it was known as the Brumby and the in the UK we got the fantastically named MV284.

So thats what we have a 1991 MV284 with a genuine 36,000 miles and was a one owner truck for the majority of it's life. I have been sourcing many parts over the last few years hence why i have been slow and also the reason why I sold a lot of my Tamiyas - if you think Tamiyas are an expensive hobby wait till you start on the 1:1 cars !!! 

P4030128 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

The plan is to build a full on replica of the Tamiya Brat including roll bar and front A bar.

P4030126 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

 

Work has now started so will update as and when, if anyone reads this in the US and can help me with sourcing Brat specific parts please let me know as any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Pumesta 407]

Going to follow this.  It looks pretty clean, certainly the bodywork looks pretty rust free, most of these were abused by farmers and have long since rusted away

[Tamiyabigstuff 831]

Always liked the look of these - pretty rare now - not seen one in ages.

Something of the 'El Camino' look about them.

Well done on finding such a nice example - can't be many left in as good shape as this.

Good luck with the project, will be following this with interest, big fan of vehicles from this era. 

[zakspeed 187]

Just been sorting some more pics out, and thanks for the comments, yes was a rare find and not seen much action. The previous owner used it for shooting pleasant and you can see lots of little dents in the side panels where he I assume throw them over the side after tying them to the load hooks.

Anyways have some pics>>

These are mega rare - genuine new steel wings and lower valance. The wings are the correct US spec and dont have the repeater hole which I am pleased about. Cost a pretty penny but will be worth it and genuine Subaru parts.

P3040020 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

First bit of graft, the wheel arch was a little grotty on the lower edges

PB195488 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

You cant buy any panels or repair bits for these - so everything has to be made by hand. First off the arches, this is double skinned and both inner and outer have been repaired,

PC105574 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PB195490 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC105575 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

On the brat they have a step fitted that drops down, one side is a dummy (thats why they look differant on the Tamiya shell - they even got that detail right) If anyone has these parts let me know or what I may do is just have the decals copied from the reissue sheet and have them enlarged to 1:1 scale.

Then onto the sill which was pretty good but had a small patch from a previous MOT - so cut that off, fabricated a new sill section and butt welded it in place (it's not overlapped)

PB195493 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PB195502 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

 

 

Bit of corrosion on inner tubs to sort next

PB195492 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PB195491 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

And round the tie down (this is the other side of the fuel filler and is a massive mud trap)

PB195492 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

And this is the same bit after I cut it out - big problem though as the inner sections are badly corroded and the only way to access it is to the cut the side panel off. SO watch this space - I need this truck to last so I've no option but to fix it.

PB195500 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Thanks for looking

 

[Pumesta 407]

There are a few of these being broken on Ebay at the moment if you need parts

[mongoose1983 3335]

Hi there Simon!

Nice project you have there.

Here's some 1:1 reference and the original brochure just in case you need some ideas for your Subaru pick-up.

Cheers,

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=92934&sid=23692

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=106153&sid=23692

[GregM 1109]

Cool project - will you lift up the body and widen the track, to replicate the Tamiya look?

cheers GregM

[zakspeed 187]

Thanks for sharing the brochure - in that pic you will see the bumper set up I am after. I've managed to locate 2 brand new Chrome bumpers unfortunatly they are for the saloon as such they have indicator holes in the front and no recess for the rear number plate however i'll have to make do with what i have. In the brochure pic you can also see the end caps with the orange marker lamp (I have new ones of those) just need the connecting piece. I'll post pics up when I can find em !!!

 

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

18 hours ago, mongoose1983 said:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=92934&sid=23692

As soon as 3D-printing technology reaches a certain maturity and parts can be printed with properly smooth surfaces for models, I'd love to have those rearward facing seats on the bed printed (for the Tamiya Brat).

[Pumesta 407]

Is it true Ronald Reagan had one of these  ?

[RushRebel 98]

5 hours ago, Pumesta said:

Is it true Ronald Reagan had one of these  ?

Yes, he used it on his property. I believe it's been restored and sits in his presidential library.

[StrokerBoy 772]

Nice, I spotted one of these in York last week, don't see 'em very often.

[Pumesta 407]

What are you going to do about the twin sunroof

[Crash Cramer 617]

On 11/26/2016 at 1:49 PM, zakspeed said:

HI all,

Thought it was about time I shared my Brat project. I've had this about 3 years now but other projects have slowed progress somewhat. I'll try and update as and when.

The Tamiya Subaru Brat was based on the model used in the US, in Australia it was known as the Brumby and the in the UK we got the fantastically named MV284.

So thats what we have a 1991 MV284 with a genuine 36,000 miles and was a one owner truck for the majority of it's life. I have been sourcing many parts over the last few years hence why i have been slow and also the reason why I sold a lot of my Tamiyas - if you think Tamiyas are an expensive hobby wait till you start on the 1:1 cars !!! 

 

The plan is to build a full on replica of the Tamiya Brat including roll bar and front A bar.

Work has now started so will update as and when, if anyone reads this in the US and can help me with sourcing Brat specific parts please let me know as any help would be greatly appreciated.

1991 year model, YOU LUCKY FOLKS, they seemed to vanish into the vapors in 1984 or such here in the US. I figure if ANYONE has some bits and pieces and knowledge of where the parts might be found, it would be SubaruBratJunkie, but he has taken up flying, so I will contact him and see if he might be of assistance. If ever I stumble upon one here in the South in a wrecking yard, you know I will contact you.

[zakspeed 187]

On 11/27/2016 at 11:16 AM, GregM said:

Cool project - will you lift up the body and widen the track, to replicate the Tamiya look?

cheers GregM

Hi Greg - sorry I missed your original post, no I wont be lifting it as I need it to be a useable vehicle to drive. I will however be banding the original steel wheels and i'm likely to lower it slightly. But I need to see what it looks like with the wheels done first

 

On 11/29/2016 at 2:55 PM, Crash Cramer said:

1991 year model, YOU LUCKY FOLKS, they seemed to vanish into the vapors in 1984 or such here in the US. I figure if ANYONE has some bits and pieces and knowledge of where the parts might be found, it would be SubaruBratJunkie, but he has taken up flying, so I will contact him and see if he might be of assistance. If ever I stumble upon one here in the South in a wrecking yard, you know I will contact you.

We actually had them to 1994 (M registration) however in theory they did stop making them in 1991. Because they were selling so well in the UK SubaruUK bought remaining stocks and piled them for sale over the coming years. I used to keep in touch with subarubratjunkie but if you can contact him that would be appreciated

These are the end caps I have

 

This is the correct grille that matches the Tamiya version - I've managed to locate the straight slat grille as opposed to the 'honeycomb' one I have fitted. I've also located 2 brand new chrome light bezals to replace the black standard ones used in the UK.

Subaru hatch bumper by Anglia305e, on Flickr

P8301387 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

On 11/28/2016 at 7:59 PM, Pumesta said:

What are you going to do about the twin sunroof

Good question and to be honest I did source a roof cut from a twin roof model imported from Australia however he's already turned down offers in excess of £500 just for the roof and then I am going to have at least 40 hours to fit it. with the likely chance it will leak anyway as the seals are dry !!! So i've not given up hope on finding a roof however I may cheat and just have the roof wrapped in a design to replicate the twin roofs!!

P5200220 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

It is going to be slow over the next few weeks due to the time of year but when Christmas is out of the way full steam ahead for me. I want this on the road for March/April time.The main part ive been contemplating is the fuel filler area which is very bad in the corrosion department. As you cannot access this area it means cutting the 1/4 panel off - watch this space. Next step is to finsih the arches off first, weld the inner arch tub then onto the filler neck area.

[Tamiyabigstuff 831]

If you are cutting panels consider getting hold of a plasma cutter - quick & neat, dead easy to use ( make sure you have the correct tint face mask ).  

[Pumesta 407]

I wonder if the twin sunroof from a Rover Tomcat could be made to fit

[zakspeed 187]

Time for an update - I only started on the O/S as thats the way the pick up was parked - it was also the worst side and meant I had to tackle the fuel filer corrosion issue.

This is the filler pipe - so gives you an idea of whats ahead, you cant see the cavity at the top in this picture but suffice to say it was full of mud. I already have a replacement pipe sourced from Australia.

P2030649 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

You can also see where the inner load bed strap down had started to rot from this area (posted pic above but for clarity added again) So how do you fix this area? you cant buy a 1/4 panel as that would be easy then. You could bodge it from underneath but that will remain a bodge - or you can cut a section out to gain access, yep that sounds like a plan>

PC105552 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

ooppss forgot to move the wires and fuel vapour filter - luckily no damage. phew..

PC105553 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

And as suspected - totally rotten but at least you can get to it now.

PC105554 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Drill the spot welds out

PC105557 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Oh dear it's not looking any better - you can see the back of the lash down strap now.

PC105558 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Totally scrap and no chance of a replacment

PC105559 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

oh well lets move on and fix the lash down strap - luckily only one of these tends to rot out as the others are protected, so all you need to do is look for a scrap truck and take one of the others off - heres one I found earlier in the same colour !!

PC105560 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Try it into place

PC105564 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

and then go round it with a slitting disc so that it leaves a prefect gap to weld and it remains flush for an almost invisble repair.

PC105562 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC105563 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC105565 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC105566 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Now onto the filler neck - what the eck to do with that?? now this workshop is about a 50 mile round trip from my house and all the tools i'd have liked to have used are back at home. All i had to hand was tin snips/hammer/pliers and thats it - no vice or folder great eh?

So I moked this up - sorry if it looks a bit heath robinson but it's the best I could do with the tools to hand.

 

PC105569 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

And tried in place - i had to try the outer skin on for fit as the two have to meet pretty flush - took a few attempts but I got there

 

PC105567 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC105568 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

And then start tacking the panel in place and keep trying the outer panel.

Till we have this - not a perfect replica but it's functional

 

PC105570 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC105572 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

I then sealed round this and started to fit the outer the panel - held in place

 

PC105584 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC105585 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Not totally finished as I ran out of time - primer is just to prevent corrosion while i'm away from it. needs another hour or so to finish

 

PC105586 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

And thats it more or loss, just need to finish the welding and grinding. make a new hole for the filler the neck and thin skim to hide the welds. I have zero distortion so far and i'm hopeful it will stay that way. Lots of sealer and wax will be injected in to protect for the future.

Thanks for looking

 

 

 

 

[Tamiyabigstuff 831]

Nice work !

What rustproofer are you going to be using ?

I used Dinitrol products on my Sierra - pretty good stuff !

[Crash Cramer 617]

WOW, it is like watching an episode of Project Binky, are you certain you are not the third wheel over there at their shop????? I think you were extremely lucky to have missed the wire and plastic box, but wonder if you shouldn't have covered the plastic box before welding it back up else you might melt it if they are that close to each other?? I know, I worry too much, but if the job is worth doing, it is worth doing once and only once, perhaps you can spy with a strong light if the tac welds have melted any of that plastic.

Great looking work thus far.

[zakspeed 187]

17 hours ago, Tamiyabigstuff said:

Nice work !

What rustproofer are you going to be using ?

I used Dinitrol products on my Sierra - pretty good stuff !

Yes I'll be using Dinatrol brushable sealer and underseal - great stuff and use it on all my cars.

13 hours ago, Crash Cramer said:

WOW, it is like watching an episode of Project Binky, are you certain you are not the third wheel over there at their shop????? I think you were extremely lucky to have missed the wire and plastic box, but wonder if you shouldn't have covered the plastic box before welding it back up else you might melt it if they are that close to each other?? I know, I worry too much, but if the job is worth doing, it is worth doing once and only once, perhaps you can spy with a strong light if the tac welds have melted any of that plastic.

Great looking work thus far.

I have to say that I am very flattered to be compared with Project Binky (they are my heroes) But I dont have anything near the equipment (or workshop that they have. That fuel filler area was made with nothing more that brut force and ignorance!!

Dont worry about the wire and plastic box thingy - if you relook at the pictures you can see that I removed them out of the way. And to be honest I am always carefull when cutting suff not to allow the disc to go too far through the panel (not carefull enough not to have moved em out of the way though!!)

[Pumesta 407]

TBH that filler neck looks better than my 01 Fiesta's did, the only thing that was holding it on to the car was the fuel door being clipped on to the quarter panel.  When I removed the fuel door and the filler neck and cap fell forwards into the panel I knew things were not looking good for the wee car

[zakspeed 187]

On 12/12/2016 at 8:09 PM, Pumesta said:

TBH that filler neck looks better than my 01 Fiesta's did, the only thing that was holding it on to the car was the fuel door being clipped on to the quarter panel.  When I removed the fuel door and the filler neck and cap fell forwards into the panel I knew things were not looking good for the wee car

Ah the lovely Fiesta filler area - My mum had one and i sectioned a piece in, spent ages doing it then it got nicked a couple of weeks later, was gutted.

---

So where did I leave it? oh I remember my welder overheated so I had to stop work (cant complain as i bought the welder new in 1988) anyways first job was to finish the welding on the panel and grind it back.

PC175598 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175600 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175601 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Luckily no distortion and just wants a thin skim of good old fashioned bog

PC175602 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

And a bit of primer to protect it

PC175603 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

[zakspeed 187]

Then onto the o/s strut tower

PC105578 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PB195499 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175596 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175595 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

N/S - Much the same

PC175597 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175609 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175610 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

And the floor (this is where the jump seats bolt to if fitted)

PC175604 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175605 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175606 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175607 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Now time to drop the fuel tank - now some would say i should have done this earlier and usually i would have however it was drained a long time ago and the fuel hda evaporated - the only odour you had was the horrible smell of stale fuel. To remove the tank is pretty straightforward, remove diff support and the tow bar.

PC175612 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Undo bolts and ease it out Pretty good apart from this :-(

PC175614 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

I replaced this when i first got it as it wasnt running great and this is after less than 30 mins running

PC175618 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

yep thats horrid

PC175619 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

To be honest it was expected - when i bought it there was a running issue, need to clean the tank / lines etc - check fuel pump and suspect carbis at fault. I'll sort it one way or another. Better to find it now.

While dropping the tank i also removed the axle support bracket - while doing that the fixing bolt snapped

PC175620 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC175622 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Nowt for it but to open the chassis rail up and fix that - this is 2 layers of metal so found some thicker steel and welded a piece inside the leg with a captive nut and then plated the chassis up from underneath.

PC175624 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

realised i didnt have a shot of it finished but you get the idea.

Thats pretty much the o/s and bed complete bar a section letting into the bulkhead but i need to strip the interior out to do that. Then it's turn it around and start on the other side. Need to get it running first so i'll sort the fuel tank out and fit that in.

 

[zakspeed 187]

Lets bring you up to speed on the project, I carried on with the o/s finishing off the fuel filler

First off was to redrill the hole for the filler

PC175603 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC315619 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

PC315621 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Then make a new mounting bracket for the filler pipe

PC315614 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

 

PC315620 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

yep that i'll do

PC315618 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Then onto taking some stuff off

PC315617 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

These were clearly the original brakes and shock absorber and took some serious amounts of shifting, the brakes were wrecked as well - no signs of any recent maintenance. Luckily i've managed to obtain a rear disc brake conversion

The o/s is now all welded so onto the N/s now

P1075631 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

P1075632 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

P1285604 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

P1285605 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

P1285606 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

P1285607 by Anglia305e, on Flickr

Sill section from the inside

P1075626 by Anglia305e, on Flickr