Body or Tranny?

[deadlydave]

Well, this summer I was seriously contemplating either re-building an old legacy for a winter beater, or swapping its manual tranny into mine. Also, I've got a large gash down the side of my car that i need to get fixed as well. I'll only have enough money for one of these options.

Also, the old legacy has a perfect engine and tranny. The rest of the drivetrain i'm not sure about, but the body is pretty rusted--it was a farm car.

So, what do you guys think?

[galek_98gt]

its not gonna matter how the drive train is if the body can't support it. i'd fix that first.

[belladonna]

i'd fix the gash in your car first. you don't want that to get rusty as well

[Munkfish]

id fix the body first too, unless you really hate driving an auto..

[pdawg]

Body

[deadlydave]

well...that's pretty unanimous.
thanks for your opinion, i was really on the fence.

[Reason]

BODY!...That's like me doing an engine swap before fixing the whole passenger side of my car.

[Disturbed_beast]

I would go with a transmissin if it needs it badly because the body can always wait, i put a lot into my legacy body wise and the engine, diff, and trany quit i me when i should of put money into getting a new/re-built trans or diff instead but i wanted looks over engine, now im engine is gone and im doing a complete WRX engine swap to fix the car, so if the transmission really needs to be fix i would fix that first most defently

[Wiscon_Mark]

With how many swaps you guys make with your subarus (I actually fantasize about getting a 2.2T for mine) I think Subaru could make a lot of money selling new stand alone engines......... :D

[gator gt]

Fix the body. A rust bucket (which is what it'll turn into if you neglect it) will turn more people away when you decide to sell it, no matter if it has a nicely operating engine.

GGT

[Pwise2326]

I would go with a transmissin if it needs it badly because the body can always wait, i put a lot into my legacy body wise and the engine, diff, and trany quit i me when i should of put money into getting a new/re-built trans or diff instead but i wanted looks over engine, now im engine is gone and im doing a complete WRX engine swap to fix the car, so if the transmission really needs to be fix i would fix that first most defently

Did anyone understand that?!? lol

Well seeing you've already pretty much decided my .02 isn't gonna help much, but if the body isn't ripped apart too badly (e.g. Johnny Perdue's fenders) then do the stuff that counts. If rust is an issue than I'd fix the body first before it eats away more than you'd want to repair, for example needing to get an entire door instead of a door shell. Either way its going to make you happier with the car. As far as the farm car goes, unless you had the money to build a monster out of your Legacy, I'd hold off...thats just more cash that you could spend on your good car. I could see you getting a $500 beater to last you the time it would take to swap the engine in it, but not as a winter beater on a budget. Plus being under 25 (i'm guessing) and owning 2 cars would empty your pocket with higher insurance.