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1970 Subaru 360 Pickup
Last updated: September 26, 2000
This is Irma, my 1970 Subaru 360 pickup. I've owned her for just over a year. She is one of less than 1,500 that were imported into the States in the late 60s, early 70s. There are reportedly only a few hundred left of the Subaru 360 pickups in this country. I acquired Irma from a gentleman in Reno, Nevada who contacted me as a result of an ad in the Subaru 360 owner's club newsletter. Our deal was completed via e-mail, the phone, and the postal service. The previous owner brought Irma to Portland on a trailer, making the trip in one day. Irma had apparently last been used at Irma's Poultry Farm and the paintings along with the name have endeared themselves to me. The name's stuck. Reportedly Irma had been sitting in someone's backyard since 1981 and remarkably she is nearly all there and in surprisingly good condition. My plan is to resotre her mechanically and paint her after dinner mint green with a white vinyl interior and white wall tires with fullmoon hubcaps if I can find them.
I've moved Irma into the garage as of March 18, 2000. I've got her up on blocks and the rear gate and rear bumper have been removed. They will both require a little straightening as there is a slight crease where someone obviously backed into something. The locking latch needs to be reinstalled, or I need a new one (I'm not sure if I have it).
I've mainly been cleaning the engine. There has been a lot of dirt and oil all over the engine. A flathead screwdriver, small putty knife, heavy-duty engine degreaser and time have resulted in some nice clean components. Pictures will follow shortly.
Here is a close up view of the engine. I've got a bunch of oil to clean off. I've yet to have Irma fire for me. I've cranked her and she turns over, but has yet to even sputter.
I managed to fairly easily remove the gas tank from under the pickup bed. All of the fuel lines will be replaced. The center breather hose was not attached to the tank when I started, I cut the other hoses. They are all stiff and old. New neoprene will be great. A lot of dirt fell from the top of the tank when I dropped it. It is bone dry, and a bit of sediment was present in the rubber hose that connects the filler pipe to the tank itself. My next step is to clean the outside of the tank, then find a good radiator shop here in town that can really flush the tank and clean up the inside for me. I'll then probably paint the entire tank black. I'm pondering painting the entire underside of the truck, but I might not. The fuel system is what I'm handling first. I'll add an electric fuel pump and a new inline bowl filter along with all new fuel lines. I'll be removing the rest of the filler pipe soon, and cleaning and painting it as well.
Unfortunately it looks as if the poultry people cut her front bumper and installed either a tow bar or possibly an attachment for a scoop or something. She'll need a new bumper. The hen and chicks are cute though. She's missing her left mirror too, but the best part is her windshield is flawless. Windshields can't be replaced.
Well, I was able to remove the towbar and the two bumper halves. I'm in need of a front bumper for Irma, but that will come in time. I'm tryng to limit my spending on parts, etc. until I pay off the loan for Irma. I financed her on my Discover card. Just goes to show how much I wanted this little pickup. There were a lot of bolts to remove. I had to take off the cover that protects the steering linkage and pedals to get at two of the bolts that held the towbar on. The treads were stripped on one bolt and I had to cut the head off with the trusty dremel tool.
The speedometer shows origional mileage. Also gives you a sense of how dirty the interior is. She needs to be cleaned up, that's for sure.
Here is a close up of the plate mounted on the floor under the driver's seat. This lists the enigne and chassis numbers (obviously). It was partially covered by the foam mat which I removed.
This is the floor of the driver's side. After removing the rubber floor mat and scraping the foam off, I discovered some pretty serious rust. The drain hole obviously was plugged, and what you see is the result of that. There are three screws or bolts which I'll need to remove, but I doubt they can be saved. I've decided to go with metal as opposed to fiberglass to repair this area, thanks to the recommendations of many. I've also got a friend that is going to teach me to weld, so I'll probably try and do it myself. Does anyone know of any good online resources though that show how this should be done?
This is the red foam that was under the rubber floor mat. I spent about two hours or maybe more scraping it all mostly off. Should this have been here? Is it origional? I have doubts that it is origional, I certainly hope not because I think it did more harm (in leading to the rust) that good.
Here is an in process picture of the cab floor. At this point I'd cleaned most of the driver's side, but had most of the passenger side to do.
I've got the seats out, and the cab looks pretty empty. I cleaned it up even more after I snapped this picture. I removed the gas pedal and I'm going to clean it up and repaint it.
At the top of this picture is the gas pedal. The middle pedal is the brake pedal. The bottom most is the steering column. To see these, the cover first had to be romoved. This cover is pictured above. It all looks pretty good to me, I'll clean it up a bit, but nothing major.
A view under the body from about the left front wheel. The frame rail is in view to the left. The gas tank is mounted under the bed of the pickup. It is the large rectangular piece in the center. Running down the left side of the tank, the whole length of the pickup is the shifting linkage. It all looks to be in good shape.
This is the inside view of the right front wheel.
It took us about an hour and lots of wood, brick, and my neighbors steep driveway to unload Irma from the trailer. She rolled off around 9pm on September 23rd, 1999.
You get a sense of the diminutive size of Irma when she's parked next to my other cars, from left, my 1959 Nash Metropolitan, 1987 Subaru XT, and Irma.
