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Upgrading a Brighton


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It's been a little while since I've posted on here, especially in the 2nd gen forums.

 

I recently bought a 1998 Legacy Brighton wagon with the 5MT for $1200. It has 218k miles, one owner, literally an old lady. All of its service records are accounted for, from the dealership until the end of the warranty. Then more records from her local mechanic for everything, including both timing belt services. Runs like a top, no early signs of rod knock and/or head gasket issues.

 

The reason I'm writing this post is the lack of information related to converting a Brighton (manual locks) over to central power locks in addition to some form of alarm system. My first thought is raid the junkyard for a 2nd gen outback legacy and basically steal the actuators and/or harnesses. I know the Brighton wasn't "wired" for power windows or locks. So I'm ok with going somewhat aftermarket for components as I plan on incorporating a GPS tracker/arduino with 3G connectivity that will control all of this.

 

Does anyone have any directions to point me in for swapping a Brighton to power central locking, whether off an outback or a particularly good 3rd party locking or alarm system?

 

I will be the final owner of this car, so I can cut it up a little if need be.

 

Thank you in advance for any hel.

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Easiest route, buy a donor car and preferably the same color. I looked into converting mine to power everything and it would take weeks of time, even with a donor car to steal all the parts from. I wouldn't even attempt it using junkyard parts due to cost and potential for mismatched parts.
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Easiest route, buy a donor car and preferably the same color. I looked into converting mine to power everything and it would take weeks of time, even with a donor car to steal all the parts from. I wouldn't even attempt it using junkyard parts due to cost and potential for mismatched parts.

 

Haha, damn. I was afraid someone would say that. I do have a couple things playing in my favor, such as being a machinist and not caring about resale. Before I make a decision to swap all the good stuff to another car, Im going to go pull the door card off a car at the junkyard to see how they mount everything. I might just buy universal components and just machine some mounting brackets. Im hoping to get to the local pick n pull sat morning to get a read on parts. They want $17 per actuator at pick n pull, $35 for the entire lock assy with actuator. The car just may never have power locks haha

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All of the metal door structures are the same across all the models, the wiring in the door changes per how the car is optioned. The only thing extra that the Brighton comes with is wiring for rear speakers which the Brighton didn't come with factory. Universal window regs are a good option and I was considering doing JUST power windows since manual windows get tiring. I personally don't care about central locking or anti theft so for me, the donor car route isn't worth it. Even though you can find a donor for sub $500, take what you need off it, and sell the rest and probably break even. It's still A LOT of time, effort, swearing, tool purchases etc.
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If you had the four doors, color matched, from a donor, that you could just swap, would the door harness plug to the body harness?

 

Sounds like a 'because I want to' project, so I say do your research on the weekend and go for it if you don't find something that is a deal breaker.

 

P.S. I have a 95 brighton parts car mostly disassembled, so I can take pics of something if that helps.

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So upon reading the requirements for transportation, a security alarm is required as well as a secure lock box(trunk.) So central power locking is not required. Im going to go with a arduino or pi3 powered GPS tracker, give it a loudspeaker under the hood and build in a kill switch to the main harness. This will all be controlled via an app on my phone and a separate key fob. I guess Ill start a new thread in the electrical section, thank you all.
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Please put a lot of effort into the crypto for the messaging from app to car. You want to be secure against replay attacks as well as being safe against giving an adversary an infinite supply of messages to compare in depth to recover the key.

 

Thank you for pointing that out, my close friend is a 15 year senior software architect, this thing will be locked down like Ft.Knox.:lol:

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