Wrecked and Neglected Barn Find GT

[Theunnamed1]

Not really a barn find by me. The guy I bought it from, bought a house and the car was left in the barn. He understandably had no idea what it was and listed it for sale cheap. I wasn't really looking for a project but this was just too good to pass up. Its the first one I have ever seen for sale anywhere near me and I couldn't let it slip away no matter the condition.

Yes, that is a very poor attempt to graft a 2000 something Subaru Legacy front end onto it. The headlights worked!

After a quick ride around the block I loaded it up and took it home.

After getting it home, the crash damage is pretty bad but nothing appears to have affected the suspension at all. I think I can fix this.

Either this will document me fixing this body with a donor or swapping everything to the donor. Or putting the engine in something else Just looking for a fun daily driver gas saver since diesel is going up and work is 42 miles away.

Slow going on this. Its hot outside and sourcing parts for these is difficult.

Here is what I have for now, the bulk of the work is coming up soon especially as it gets a little cooler out.

Found someone about 3 hours from me that had a shell with some useful parts. We made a deal that I would trade him my early style bumpers for his late style bumpers and he would throw in several other parts I needed for free since my bumpers are more desirable. I personally like the newer style better. They have a more of their era look in my opinion.

So queue the funny music as 4 of us drag a shell with a motor and no wheels into the back of a uhaul.

Would have been much easier getting it in the back if Uhaul had the actual flat bed trailer I reserved.

Unsurprisingly, trying to push a vehicle down a concrete driveway while its sitting on its control arms is a bad idea. I had to wear a brace on my left wrist for 2 months after I seemingly fractured it.

The process to get it out was much easier. I just hooked it up to my jeep and pulled it out of the back with a little speed ;D

This isn't everything I needed but it is a really good start. The donor shell is really rusted. The control arms are barely hanging on. but the fender aprons are in decent shape. and free is always good.

I quickly started cutting the shell up so the neighbors wouldn't complain.

Once I cut it in half it made removing the engine pretty easy. I just unbolted everything and lifted the body off it.

Then I started cutting up the back half.

I posted the scraps free online and they were gone 30 minutes later.

After a month or so of only working on it a few minutes here and there I was able to separate the main piece I needed from the donor. I did that with just a 1/4 inch drill bit and chisel. In a few spots I had to make the hole a little bigger if I didn't hit the spot weld on center.

On the one that I am fixing the body panels get removed with a spot weld drill bit to try and preserve the mating surface. In some areas I have no choice but to cut with a saw and butt weld.

Here is a rough fit of the panel.

and bolting a couple more pieces on to see how its coming together.

And that's pretty much as far as I have gotten.

I have realized and hope you realize too that this will not end up being a complete show quality restoration. I want a cheap, fun, daily driver, beater. The damage on this, while not exactly structural is far too much far me to repair to the point of never knowing it was there to begin with. Even a good body guy would have a hard time I think.

So I do not expect everything to line up perfect. I simply want the body panels to be able to bolt on and the headlights to work. Some day I may find another donor that is in good enough shape to convert to a GT or find a complete GT and keep this one for backup parts.

I will continue to gather parts I need. The main time consumer now will be the fact that a windstorm blew something into its windshield and shattered it. That will be costly.

I also found this little surprise which could have put the biggest delay on the whole project. Thankfully I caught it. Still a delay, but not as bad as it could have been.

Here is a little video of the engine running before I discovered the belt split.

Also a quick look of the interior which cleaned up ok and is mostly in tact.

Thanks for reading.

 

[fireflyse]

Great work, thank you for saving it.

 

[macuserman]

Yeah that is quite the project, but I'm glad you are saving it instead of wasting the powerplant on a ragtop or other geo platform. :-D :-D

 

[Murf]

Great Job.

 

[gt4tified]

Nice find!

 

[Walt]

:-D

Nice great work ;-)

 

[Theunnamed1]

Long time since the last update but for good reasons. This wont necessarily be a quick moving project.

The more I welded and hammered and bolted stuff onto the front of the wrecked GT I realized that it was much farther off than I initially thought. Nothing wanted to line up. I expected some gaps, but nothing like what I was seeing. This means, that despite the promising outward appearance, it was definitely tweaked somewhere.

So plan B went into effect. Start looking for a good donor that will not break the bank. Not such an easy task with the rise of used car prices and the cancerous rust that takes many of these Geo Metros. However, after some time searching I found the perfect one.

$800 for a running driving 89 geo metro 3 cylinder 5 speed. Clutch was on the way out but that was only a couple hour job. Body had some dents but not beyond a little body work. The best part about it, much like the GT which came from a rust free state, this Metro came from Washington and shows no signs of major rust.

It will be a bit more time consuming than plan A but plan b entails a complete swap of all components to the Geo Metro chassis. Everything is bolt on except 2 things. The rear sway bar and the side skirts. Side skirts are simple enough, just need to put some nutserts in the rocker area. Rear sway bar is going to require cutting and welding of the brackets.

Excitedly got started on a 3 day weekend doing what I could.

Much better front end came on the Swift in my opinion.

Sway bars, brakes and suspension are all unique on the GT. So that had to come out. Unfortunately I got ahead of myself and the 4 cylinder hubs do not work with the 3 cylinder axles. So this stuff sits in a pile until I do the engine swap and now the GT is on jack stands Another option is to use Metro convertible hubs for now to have GT brakes with the 3 cylinder engine but I haven't found any at a price that makes it worth doing again after the 4 cylinder is in.

Speaking of rising used car prices, my truck increased in value pretty much over night. So I took advantage of that and sold it so I could build a garage.

Then I bought another car so I wouldn't have to daily drive my project car. Been there, done that. Tired of it.

The concrete and bare bones garage went up in about 3 weeks. But over the next 2 months I spent time running electric, lights, fans, heat and insulation to make it real cozy for working.

With that done it was time to stop working ON the garage and start working IN it. Which brings me to where I am now. Have to get the engine out to inspect it and clean it up.

Engine and trans came out together in about 2 hours.

It's too soon to see one of these on a stand again. Hopefully this engine doesn't take as much money or time as the last one.

Engine internals are in fantastic shape. Now I believe the odometer. This engine only needs a good reseal.

Until next time.

 

[blueturbofly]

use spot- weld cutting bit to remove the rear sway bar mounts, then they can be welded onto the geo metro floor pan rather easily.
or, megazip sells them new.
yup, those tiny front knuckles are pretty much useless...i try to swap them out for the larger brakes whenever i own / drive these cars. those inboard rotor brakes are a pain to service, and have poor braking performance....
looking good , so far ;-)

 

[Theunnamed1]

Excited to show what's going on next.

Got the engine buttoned up a little more. Its not really a priority right now though. Just working on it here and there.

Also while the intake is off I drilled out the bore to accept a larger throttle body.

Moving onto the interior. These seats are dirty. Picked up one of those little Bissle spot cleaners and got to work.

Left side 1st cleaning vs right side uncleaned.

Both looking much better after their first cleaning. Going to let them dry and hit them again before they go in.

Started ripping out the interior to clean the vehicle from 30+ years of grossness caught under everything and I also wanted to give everything a protective coat of paint.

2 coats of Rustomleum enamel paint and 1 coat of rubberized paint to reduce road noise.

I also cleaned the carpet and rear seats from the GT and put them in.

Front seats in as well. Door panels and center console have to wait until I do the dash swap which is still a ways away.

Next is where a lot of money and time went

30 year old suspension and brake components don't make for a fun driving experience and even when they were new they weren't exactly known for superb handling . Lets see if we can fix that.

First, we're going to upgrade the front brakes to vented rotors. The GT front brakes are vented, but the hubs have a different spline on them, so I cant use those until the 4 cylinder engine is in. For now 95+ or convertible knuckles and brakes will work. They are only slightly smaller in diameter to the GT brakes.

95+ on the left and pre 95 on the right. Larger and vented. Also you get bigger bearings and no longer have to deal with trapped rotor design. Yet another benefit is larger wheel studs which I ended up replacing with longer ones to fit alloy wheels.

Freshened up.

And the previously mentioned alloy wheels which are from a Mitsubishi Lancer Rally. Which I fitted more appropriately sized tires to.

Next will be fitting the rear disc brakes from the GT to replace the drum brakes. Everything is a direct fit, even the brake lines. Though the ebrake cables do need to be swapped as well.

Also seen here are some H&R lowering springs, Whiteline Poly bushings, Koni Sport shocks and solid adjustable toe arms.

I drilled out the rear sway bar mounts on the GT and welded them to the Geo. This also part of the reason I painted the interior floor, due to burning the paint on the other side.

I also fit a larger master cylinder. Both the Geo and the Swift GT use the same 13/16ths bore Master cylinder which is plenty but I personally like a shorter stiffer brake pedal and also I want room to go with larger brakes in the future. So I put in a 1" master cylinder from a 1994 Mazda 929. Some may recognize that this swap is also common on the Samurais (or the 1" 1/16th Subaru Legacy MC).

The mounting flange and sealing ring are the same but you need to extend the push rod 8.5mm. One other caveat is that the stock MC has 3 ports but the Mazda one has 2. Not to worry. Just add a tee for the front 2 lines as is common in the Fox Body Mustang world for a similar swap.

I am sure that there is a simpler way to do the tee but I wanted to do it in a way that required no major bending of the factory lines.

Now the real star of the show in my opinion are these front Koni strut assemblies with the H&R springs and Striders Garage camber plates.

I got those bad boys bolted in adjusted them to have as much camber without fouling the body and additionally added a camber bolt to the bottom mount to give it that little extra nudge.

To wrap it all up the front also got Whiteline bushings and a front sway bar. Plus new lower ball joints and tie rods.
Its a completely different animal on the road now. Insane grip and far less body roll make this thing so much fun to drive. Cant wait for the engine swap.

 

[GT4LIFE]

Do you have the contact for strider for adjustable top mounts? I know he was on Redlinegti.com but that is gone gone. I'm not sure if I could still get the Cusco ones that are pretty close to being the same. Lots of good work here. The only thing I would questions is going to a full 1" brake master cylinder. Your caliper clamping force will be significantly reduced for a shorter feel for the brake pedal.

 

[Theunnamed1]

I contact Strider on his Instagram but he also has Whatsapp +60123965589. His mounts are much cheaper than Cusco.

Clamping Force for the brakes is down, but I wouldn't say significantly. It's about a 30psi drop for the same amount of pressure applied. It's not lost, you just have to push harder lol However, once you fit larger brakes, which I intend to do you have more volume in the brake system and the pedal travel tends to get really long. In that instance a larger MC is beneficial. For now the feel and stoping power is great but once larger brakes are fitted it will be more balanced I agree.

 

[Theunnamed1]

Things are underway once again.

Enjoyed it for much of the summer and put it away just before December.

Initially, I had to change out the muffler to make room for the rear sway bar. A cheap tractor muffler did the trick

The only other issue I had was a leak in the gas tank which I was able to exchange for the extra one I had from the GT.

And just to make it a little more enjoyable I tightened up the shifter by lengthening the bottom. I also brought the shifter a little closer to the driver as it felt a mile away from what I considered a comfortable seating position.

I spent some time making a batch of fuel rails for various Suzuki engines to fund the project and help some guys build some cool turbo engines.

Here is one for a 3 cylinder. I think I made 7 of these.

Also one for a 2.3

One also for a SOHC 16v

So as I said this was to raise money for my build.

Here are the spoils of my labor ;D

Bought a built transmission. Built by an old Redlinegti member for another old member and was never used unfortunately due to his passing.

Also by chance, I bought back the Microsquirt ecu and wiring harness among other things from my Samurai build. Which should be easily adaptable to this build.

I'm not quite ready to turbocharge the engine yet though. For now, the plan is still to install the engine with stock engine management and upgrade later so I can enjoy the car for a little while again this coming summer. That didn't stop me from buying some other necessary parts though [smirk]

I do have a little buyer's remorse with this though. The manifold is well made and a good purchase itself, however, the price was inflated for the turbo and wastegate which are pretty much in unusable condition.

Anyways. I've begun finishing up the engine with some more parts purchased from overseas.

And started preparations for it to go in the car.

What comes next is a lot of cleaning and painting. As well as I have to build the GT hubs, brakes, and axles. Still many parts to purchase. Like a clutch, radiator, and hoses to name a few.

 

[Theunnamed1]

A year and a half later. You probably thought I gave up.

It's been slow moving especially since things got out of hand like they usually do.

I thought since I've been putting all these nice new parts on I should probably get the rest to match and since I also planned on painting this thing I should do the bottom while I have the engine out. So I built this tip over jig.

I pulled all the interior and doors to get it to flip easier. When pulling the doors the upper hinge mounts were cracked so guess I have to fix that.

Once flipped I pulled the rest of the suspension, fuel tank/lines and brake lines and started cleaning.

It is cleaning up really nice. Even being 35 years old. I'm glad it came from Washington so there is no rust.

View attachment 259022

Dang...

At least that's not too bad.

DOUBLE DANG! Ok I guess I can fix this. Better now while its on the jig.

I think I made it worse.

 

[Theunnamed1]

Ok that turned out pretty good. I'm surprised.

Fixed! Now when it all gets painted it will actually be rust free.

Speaking of painted. I gathered every bracket I could find and got them ready for sand blast and powder coat.

Except I don't like to spend money on stuff I can do myself.

This is enamel dipping. Similar to hydro dipping just without an image. More similar to the process Ford used for their parts ages ago. It's a 2:1 mix of Rustoleum enamel and acetone. Poured on top of water in a container that's as wide and deep as your parts are. Get about a 1" layer on top and pass your parts through the suspended layer of paint. Way easier than spray painting them and more durable too.

I also finished painting the underside

Put the brake/fuel lines on with a nice coat of preservative wax

Then I flipped it back over and painted the rest of the floor

and the engine bay

So now I can start putting it back together. Plan is wheels and body panels on in 30 days so I will have another update for you soon.

 

[evol911]

Awesome build! So many great ideas, I'm doing the Mazda master cylinder and the dip you used for the brackets. Thanks for posting your build!!

Can you post the parts you used to build your rear toe bars?

 

[Theunnamed1]

I'll see if I can find the parts list. Though I think I'm going to redo them.

I also will have a big brake swap to report on in the next post.

 

[GT4LIFE]

I contact Strider on his Instagram but he also has Whatsapp +60123965589. His mounts are much cheaper than Cusco.

Clamping Force for the brakes is down, but I wouldn't say significantly. It's about a 30psi drop for the same amount of pressure applied. It's not lost, you just have to push harder lol However, once you fit larger brakes, which I intend to do you have more volume in the brake system and the pedal travel tends to get really long. In that instance a larger MC is beneficial. For now the feel and stoping power is great but once larger brakes are fitted it will be more balanced I agree.

Nice job on the restore. The pedal travel on a larger Wilwood system front and back is perfect in my opinion with the stock master cylinder. Yes, you lose the hydraulic force (the same force doesn't occur). It is about 100 lbs (69 psi) of force difference if you keep the pedal pressure the same. This 100 lbs is then multiplied by the surface area of the caliper piston to give you clamping force. The average peak force applied to brake pedal in a stop is 70 lbs of force. You are having to add a lot more force with your leg to equal the same clamping force. If 70lbs is average peak force and your being asked to push to 170lbs peak force I think the numbers are going to tell you that your actual clamping force being applied is not going to be the same. The stroke or distance I push the brake pedal down is just a little bit longer then stock with the Wilwood system front and back. To me it gives you the right amount of pressure sensitivity to really control your braking. If I were to change to a larger master cylinder I would increase the leverage pivot point pedal ratio or go with a slightly larger brake booster (I tried a Suzuki Esteem and the 1.3 dohc doesn't create enough vacuum to run it). Strider's prices might be cheaper but he wants and arm and a leg for shipping. Additionally, to many negative reviews.