my first car was an 87 4 door that I drove for 2 weeks before giving up on since I was 16 and didn’t know anything. After getting tired of my cappuccino I decided I wanted to hunt down something that I can easily work on, fix, or adapt parts for it down the road as this is a vehicle I aim to own for A long time.
I was on the hunt for a round eye 2 door LS model. after about 6 months of searching I got a notification for one on eBay which I managed to win for less than I had budgeted for.
it took about a week to getpayment and shipping arranged but it finally arrived to me.
1986 2 door LS, I’m the 3rd owner. It had 162877 miles on it when it rolled(/almost fell off) of the trailer. Was bought at Tallman Subaru and Isuzu Too! In California, where it stayed with the 1st owner until he put it in storage in 2005. Then in 2015 the man who owned Tallman Subaru got in contact with the owner and bought it back. He then drove it for 3 years until he had to park it in storage in 2018. In December 2020 he passed away and I was fortunate enough to be the one who bought it.
It’s in great condition, everything works except for the hvacair recirc door. His son tells me his dad loved the truck and put a lot of time and effort into getting it back into a running vehicle. I’d Say he did a good job considering he put almost 30k miles on it!
Current plans are to fiddle an tweek things here and there. Do some preventive maintenance. And just enjoy it for the most part.
I’ve already done a timing belt on it since I didn’t have any documentation showing it had been done. But judging the condition of the head and belt it was clear someone had already gone through it.
I‘ve also gone through and deleted the air pump since it has already had its cat swapped out for a modern one. Still passed California smog as recently as 2018!
every few weeks I attach the trim panels with a carpet cleaner to get 35 years of dirt out of them, they look better and better every time I hit Do it.
Very cool - I was able to get my hands on a NOS after market sliding arm rest and cup holder deal that mounts to the top of the stock console, but what you did here is awesome (and probably a lot cheaper and easier to find!)
You can also keep your eyes peeled for some LS trim seats with built-in armrests. I think in 87-88 they probably had some cool 2 tone tan/brown, but after that, aside from the black RS-only trim, the LS seats with armrests were gray for the 1st gens. I bet there are probably some 2nd gen seats with armrests that might work too.
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