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Justy-fied and ancient


mouseflakes

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That engine bay is so clean, wow. Interior photos?

 

think it's had new front wings at some time, and/or a partial respray. Might explain the sparkliness of the engine bay. I just love the way the colour-coded service points are still all a nice bright yellow.

 

I'll have to get some interior shots. The ones from the old ad are just close-ups of the seats.

 

I had been looking for a low budget AX or ZX to replace my Saxo dizzler which was written off following an attempted theft. The Justy cost a lot more than I had intended to pay for a replacement snotter, but hopefully it'll provide a chance to try a nice one out at least, before they all disappear.

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  • 2 months later...

In response to Reg Hirst's well-placed words of encouragement to us all on the Grumpy Bollocks thread, I thought I'd add an update to this thread. It's not very exciting.

 

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A few weeks back I set to rust-proofing the wheel arches on the Justy as these seem to be the most obvious weak points on these cars. More on that later.

 

Here it's plain to see why the rear wheel tubs breed rust. It looks like the designers just kept adding small panels until all the gaps were filled. The panels are even made with nice, curled-back edges enticing the water to nestle in behind them no doubt.

 

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I sprayed any patches of surface rust with a bit of No1 Rust Beater and then went at it all with that there Bilt Hamber stuff. I'm steering away from taking the welder to any of this car yet. It's got a long test and I'd rather enjoy it as it is without making the inside smell of grinding disc dust and melted carpet from the outset.

 

Front arches hid a couple of unpleasant surprises. One was the hole in this 'gusset' (sorry). Mind, the photo also shows how clean the A posts are - right down to the bottom. Nice.

 

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A couple of the old MOT tests include an advisory about 'damage' (not rust) to the O/S front of the car. I couldn't find any evidence until I saw this - looks like a hole has been patched in the inner wing. I can't imagine it having rusted out though - nothing else on the car would suggest a rust hole this big. Maybe the inner wing was torn or punctured here somehow? Anyway, I think this patch explains why the advisory disappears from later tests. The seam sealer and sticker do a job of disguising it under the bonnet.

 

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More wheel arch revelations later...

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I was a bit bothered to find this crumby little welded patch. It felt very flimsy and the steel around this area seems quite thin.

 

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This is the first thing I'll tackle if I still have the car after the winter. All that thick black goo was already on there.

 

It seems it's (another) weak point on the Justy. There are a few photos on the web showing the same (some even upside down like this one)...

 

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The 'rear' side of the seam at the bottoms of the sills was a bit flaky, but the steel behind that skin was solid. I gave it a coating of that Bilt Hamler stuff.

 

I'll fill the insides of the sills and the rear arches with the spray thing they do. Hopefully that'll keep it solid for a while yet.

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Expect to find more bits of rust! That bit around the steering arm went on mine as well. The under seal hid loads, it was holding seat belt mounts in. Also pray the carb doesn't give up, they're a nightmare to tune once they play up. Looks very clean though.

I have an owners manual somewhere. And a genuine roof rack.

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  • 4 months later...

The bracket that holds the offside end of the rear anti roll bar has snapped on my Justy.

 

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I plan to weld it back onto the lower wishbone, but having taken it off I've found the drop link thingy is virtually welded to the snapped bracket with rust.

 

Until I can separate the parts to make the welding job easier, I've taken the entire ARB off the car.

 

Question: Would it pass an MOT with the ARB removed? I've had a few cars where the model has been available both with and without an ARB, so I would have thought it's okay not to have it. You can see from the photo, this isn't one of those set-ups where the ARB contributes to the suspension geometry - it's loosely coupled through the little drop link doobry. I didn't detect any change in the handling after it snapped - just a horrible clonking noise as the loose end rattled about.

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I think the (remaining) mount might be a give away. I hope I'll manage to de-rust and re-attach the snapped mount anyway - it was just a thought. I'm pretty sure some models have been produced without them and then later had them added to the spec.

Just checked the Delica forum actually - the L300 only got the rear ARB after 1990. I'm sure I've had some others like that.

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That looks great! I've always wondered what these drive like (these small 4x4 hatches are a bit of a curiosity) but I imagine them to be a lot of fun!

 

The only small Subaru I've driven was a vivio, smaller than this and only ever seen a couple on UK roads. That was a bit of a comedy car when travelling 4-up but definitely better than public transport!

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That looks great! I've always wondered what these drive like (these small 4x4 hatches are a bit of a curiosity) but I imagine them to be a lot of fun!

I was looking at these and 4x4 Pandas around the same time. The Fiats seem to have become really expensive whereas the Justys seem to be a bit cheaper (probably because they're all rotten). I believe the Panda is better 'off-road' if that's your thing.

 

This one was pretty good in some of the recent snow. They're pretty basic with no central diff - so 4x4 can only be used on loose surfaces. Having said that, with front and back locked like that, if one axle is slipping the other is still getting drive, so I think it's quite effective in use. Ground clearance and the like isn't great.

 

It is quite a fun little car on country lanes but low gearing makes it less so on the motorway (4000 rpm @ 70mph !!).

 

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Managed to fix the ARB mount.

 

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Noticed that the mount on the other side has been subjected to similar lumpifying at some time in the past.

 

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While I had the mig out I started on some of the patches the car needs. Was hoping the car might last a bit longer without smelling of weld inside :(

 

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And then there's this. An old repair carried out to clear an MoT Advisory. A seat belt mount fixed using rivets and filler. I can see why they did it - that big silver pipe is the filler tube. Still - this is not good. Will have to wait 'til the Easter break.

 

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It's nothing terrible (by Justy standards :) ) but you're right, it's not a great repair. What bothers me most is the impression I got from the sellers that the work was done by the MOT station that flagged it as an advisory. Both mounts were advisories on the same test, but the other side appears to have been welded (burn marks can been seen peeping out from under the filler there). It's as if the repairer saw the fuel pipe there and thought 'sod it, I'll just rivet this side'. Not 100% sure where the work was done though, so I'll leave it at that.

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  • 3 months later...

So, Easter came and went and I didn't fix the seat belt mounts, but I had this week off work so got started.

 

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I loosened the neck on the filler pipe and just swung it round to the front of the car. Sweet.

 

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Then I just shielded the inside of the car with a bit of cardboard and slapped a wet towel over the fuel tank region. It was like health and safety gone mad.

'Filler-as-glue' wasn't very confidence-inspiring...

 

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Oooh - big hole.

 

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More body filler and rivets - getting a bit sick of this now :(

 

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An improvement I think (damp 'fire towel' in evidence here)...

 

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I got a bit anal with this bit. I probably didn't need to recreate all the flanges and whatnot.

 

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I've got the other side to do next. And a small patch on one of the front chassis legs.

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I have to be fair and say that, despite the holes, it still looks much better than the cheap, fairly new at the time, ones I looked at years ago, when I wanted something small, light and 4x4 for going up and down my lane. The least rusty one I tried unfortunately had a gearbox that sounded like a 1930s Remmington Typewriter, so I ended up buying an older, only fairly rusty, Panda 4x4 instead

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  • 3 weeks later...

The old repair on the other side wasn't much better.

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More a case of 'seems welded' than seam welded....

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The old patch was covering a nasty rusted skin over this chassis section, so it was cut out and replaced...

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The belt mount area was replaced. Had to use a couple of sections of steel because of the double curve. Seam welded inside and out.

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And that flimsy old patch at the front was cut off (more rust behind) and replaced.
 

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I intended to create a live collection thread, but once I realised Virgin Trains wanted another £5 from me (on top of a £55 ticket) to use their WiFi I lost my enthusiasm for that idea. So, due to my skin-flintery, here's a poor substitute for a live collection thread....

Massively off topic - but on some East Midlands Trains one of the coaches has half standard, half First class - if you sit in standard, you can use the Free wifi from First class. 

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Massively off topic - but on some East Midlands Trains one of the coaches has half standard, half First class - if you sit in standard, you can use the Free wifi from First class.

At long last - real evidence of 'trickle-down' effect in action!

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