Subcompact Overland Upgrades. '84 Subaru

[IdaSHO]

Hey guys and gals.

Lately I have been very busy with my newest vehicle.

Lots of repairs, preventative maintenance, as well as a few modifications have been done to ready the vehicle for traveling, camping, overlanding, etc.

The latest of which being a sleeping platform. Thats right, a sleeping platform for a 1984 Subaru GL. :sombrero:

The vehicle in question:

Basic modifications include a 2.5" lift, high amp alternator, driving lamps, and recovery gear stowage under-hood.

As for the sleeping platform....

One of my primary goals was to keep the rear seats usable without removing the entire unit.

I started with two sheets of 5x5 1/2" thick Baltic Birch plywood. This is normally used for building cabinets. A lightweight, rigid, and easy to work plywood.

The base built. Notice the back seat is this upright.

The mid-section.

This thing is a bit custom :snorkel:

Rear section in. Though it is easily removable, this is what will remain in the car. The rear seat is still 100% functional. The rear section is also hinged to access the small spaces left and right of the box.

Seat folded forward, now the front section is in. And sleeping space is now obvious. Small, but it is there! The platform will fit both the wife and I. With heads towards the back window, stretched all the way out my feet will hang over the front a bit (Im 6' tall)

Details on cuts. I had to make cuts to allow the use of the door handles. That's important!

The front section rests on the back seat bottom.

Details under the front section. here you can see the aluminum angle used for stiffeners in the mid-section, aluminum plates the front section rests on, and the steel plate that the front section rests, and pins to. For long term usage, I will bolt this section. Short term will be some sort of pin or bolt/wingnut setup. For fitment purposes only, I used a couple of roofing nails.

And where Im at right now. The unit is out of the car for paint. :victory:

 

[SRN]

Every time I see one of these GL wagons it reminds me of trips across Nevada and California as a kid to visit family. If I could find a clean one in Utah, I'd seriously consider picking one up.

 

[4Rescue]

NICE!!!!! My friend had a 2dr one of these old Scooby's for yers when we lived up on Mt. Hood... It was AWESOME in the snow. There is QUITE a fwe old Scooby's running around Portland with some awesome lifts/bar-work, and alot of OR goodies on them. This seems like SUCH a neat build along those lines...

Does yours have the "hill-holder" fuction or is it asn Auto-trans car??? My friends was a stick and had a hill-holder simmilar to that on the old '46 Dodge Sedan I grew up in... Cool function. Can't wait to see this build progress eh.

SUBSCRIBED!!!!

Cheers

Dave

 

[Ray Hyland]

very nice.

I like the look of the unpainted wood myself.

 

[Jeff@QuadShop]

There is one of those at our local Subaru dealer with 80k origional miles, I believe they wanted like $3500 for it.

 

[SuperCal]

I like it... Looking foward to seeing more.

 

[IdaSHO]

Thanks guys. This is a fantastic little rig. And we got very lucky, as it is SUPER clean. We picked it up last November for a few reasons.

One of the biggest being an off-road capable rig with plenty of gear space to get us to remote backpacking trail-heads.

The other was simply having another 4x4 for the nasty winters we have up here in on the Idaho panhandle.

being able to do some lightweight overlanding is simply a bonus. One Im very excited about.:wings:

A bit more info about the rig itself. This model is arguably the most reliable Subaru built.

It has a pushrod 1.8L boxer 4 banger, with a 4-speed manual gearbox. The gearbox has a built in transfer-case, with both high and low range. Manually selectable.

While it is reliably as you can get, the 4 speed manual does have a week point.

The 3rd gear syncro is a fairly predictable failure point. This trans shifts smooth, but every once in a while 3rd gear will grind a bit. So eventually I will treat the car to a 5-speed swap. This swap is said to really wake the motor up, and it also provides a much lower low range. Ive already got the 5speed witting in the shop for the swap, but the 4speed is working great right now. So Ill wait a bit for that.

As far as I can tell, and from what Ive read, this car has ALL of the factory and most dealer options available at the time.

Digital Dash
Power windows
Air conditioning
Sunroof
Power steering
cruise control
Power mirrors

And it all works flawlessly.

The car DOES have the "hill-holder". Though Im fighting with it right now. The hill holder valve is currently a bit sticky, making the brakes a bit sticky int he morning. I may or may not just remove it all-together. One dragging brake caliper is a serious fuel mileage killer.

Im painting the platform to blend in with the interior. Right now Im also considering coating the entire thing with a clear epoxy-coat that I have left from a previous garage build.

here are a few more photos of the car.... from when we first purchased it.

More to come :sombrero:

 

[Ray Hyland]

Clear coat on the wood would look good too. A flooring finish would be indestructible. The Bona Traffic commercial water-based finish is a good choice, cures in a day, and has no smell in the car.

 

[4Rescue]

HA!! I totaly forgot that the spare is on top of the engine... Boy that takes me back.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Warn Industries]

Cool! I totally dig old Subies.

- Andy

 

[mr3wan]

I have been thinking of doing something similar for my outback. The only issue I have is how much room will be left between the platform and roof of the car. The outback only has 29-31 inches of space currently.

How much room do you have between the platform and roof? Also, is that enough room for you to sleep/ use the platform comfortably?

 

[IdaSHO]

Good question.

And something I really had to think about when building this, as Im the one that would suffer if it was TOO small of a space.

Id have to remeasure to double check, but if I remember my measurements correct, I allowed for 8" worth of storage space, and 1 inch lost due to 2 sheets of plywood. This gives me 22-23" worth of space between the platform and the ceiling.

Snug, but it should be fine. Hardest part will be getting into and out of the car.

Im also tossing around an idea to built a "tent" that would attach to the opened rear hatch of the car. Just thoughts at this point.


As for the platform, I have it painted 100%, today I will be epoxy coating the cargo surfaces. Once that dries, it should be good to go. And I will be working out the cargo storage options. :ylsmoke:

 

[pint]

Keep it coming...loving the old Subie! I really want one! What king of mpg's are you getting in town and on hwy? Keep up the great work!

 

[jdlcruiser]

Best car ever

I was given an 84 when I lived in AK. $150 in studded tires, new battery and new brakes and it was my favorite car ever. Loved the true transfer case option too. It worked on ice better than anything. Pulled all kinds of rigs out of snow and across icy bridges.

That thing is beautiful. Congratulations on the expo vehicle. It will serve you well.

I had an old book that was kind of an idiots guide to the Subaru before they had idiots guides. It was written by a couple of half way mechanics that used more sketches than photos. It was awesome. Not that you need that particular manual but if you see one grab it for the fun reading.

Be well

JLa

 

[IdaSHO]

Okay, time for an update. Ive been busy, but the platform is pretty much done. I still need to incorporate some sort of tie-down system for the top of it, but that can happen later.

Again, the platform was painted to match the interior, then epoxy-coated. As the epoxy dried, I backrolled it for textured finish, and once dry I hit it with some 600 grit sandpaper to de-gloss it a bit.

From inside the cab, seat folded down.

Rear section folds up. The soft bag on the left is my tool kit. ammo cans currently have 90% of the cooking essentials. The rest of the space will be occupied by sleeping gear.

Rear seat folded up.

And what it looks like when peeking through the side windows...

Obviously when fully packed with gear this space will have clothing and food related stuff.

So far Im really happy with the way things pack into this platform. Anything shorter than a week, and I have pretty much eliminated the need to use the roof rack and basket all together. For me thats a HUGE benefit, as highway MPG takes a pretty good hit when using the rack and basket. :snorkel:

What king of mpg's are you getting in town and on hwy? Keep up the great work!

I have never seen worse than 22mpg in town. On the highway I have never seen worse than 27mpg. :coffeedrink: