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About time i show you guys what i get up to when i'm not terrorizing the north. With the help of bubblegoose I'll be throwing up a few pics over the next few days.

this is roughly how it started out, half caged panda when i purchased it..


this is its current manifestation


Discussion

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found this today, the only pic i have of it with a wof, 5yrs old i think.


so from here i played with the 4age a tad, 160~hp and put a 2way trd diff in her. Had a half cage in it already so was logical that i finish it through to the struts.



next thing to tackle was the rust, talk about opening a can of worms! A TE71 was sacrificed to fix most of it. Then the horrible panda scheme was ditched for the best factory color to ever grace the skin of a toyota... 4A8 toyota beige

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Now the panel work is all finished *so i thought* it was time to build up some suspension for the front. I brought some bilsteins that are a replacement item for nissan pajero 4x4 rears. They are inboard on those trucks so are very stiff.. perfect for the 550lb springs. The rest i cunningly crafted over the next few weeks.



Aluminum lock rings

I made the main tubes out of 75T/SqI chromoly then got them Electro plated at falcon in christchurch, excellent corrosion inhibitor $30 for both tubes








finished product ready to screw into bottom tube

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Next on the list were some adjustable camber plates, i had a look at a few aftermarket ones but as predicted they were all shit and offered fuckal adjustment in regards to being in a race car and were grossly overpriced. Soooo I made my own.

6mm aluminium plate, remember the pillow bearing retainer from my last post? we bit of clearance machined into it in next pic






all the static adjustment you could ever want

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its about now you will start to realize that i work very backward, if not you will soon see. Now the engine bay is all painted and front suspension pretty much solved it was time to put the engine back in. In went the 160hp 16v blue top 4age... I drove it out of the garage, across the drive, then reversed back into the garage and out it came! I had found a brand new never been used 7afe block! Stated to build up a 7agte using a head off the black top 20v 4age i was intending to put in and pistons out of the 4agze i also intended n putting in once upon a time. A rotating assembly was acquired and a small turbo purchased all in hope of 400hp at the flywheel on 18psi..

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But suddenly the rules i was building the project to (sports saloon S.I.) changed so from being able to run a 1800cc turbo in my class I could now run a 2000cc turbo.. enter the altezza beams engines, turbo of course! Aiming for 500hp here on once again 18psi. With the aid of a grinder and a couple of cut off discs in she went.

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keeping in tune with changing my mind every 5 seconds and getting extremely sick of sport saloon rules and restrictions i decided to hang the class a finger and look into the OSCA class. Pretty unrestricted here and some very fast cars made me realize that the McPherson strut was about as good as a woman with no vaginie. Then one day whilst driving my rx7 I had a cunning idea...

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I measured the track of the rx7 and plotted where the wheels would fit and cut a 2nd hand guard to suit. Then i lowered the car as much as i possibly could allowing for 30mm travel to the top of the guard mount rail. Next was to fit the cross member/subframe. 2 of the holes in the rails lined up perfectly with the FD subframe coincidence? the other 2 need the crush tube relocated reward 15mm and the hole in the frame welded and recut 10mm inboard so a pretty close fit. The lower arm rear housing needed to be notched into the rail (this will be re braced) and the front cross notched upward 50mm into the rail for better geometry of the lower arm. I made up some boxes for the top arm and cut a gaping wound where it will roughly sit and tacked in place for a wee play with wheel throw.

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Back to the FD3S now to create a mounting jig. Mounting to datums on the subframe and transferring these to the AE85 i will replicate the factory geometry of FD3S.

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Any one notice something missing from the rear in the last pic? Namely..

I removed this heap to have a wee test play with the 17x10 ~ 255/45's i intend on squeezing under there

Coincidently at the same time a friend of mine was wrecking out a JZA80 Supra.... and then....

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I initially looked at putting the entire rear end under the car but being from a skinny supra with a track of 1525mm and wanting to match the track of the new front end I'd just put in (FD3S 1460mm) i was going to have to shorten it. This was going to be a bit of work so i had a chat to my buddy Grant. Aside from grants dazzling eyes he is also dam good mechanical engineer and quickly wiped up an idea for the rear.


So a bit of modelling was done and a few changes here and there and we had our design for the subframe. I set to getting the ball rolling and headed around to my mate Simon Urquhart owner of SURFAB and grabbed some roll tube notched it out bent it up and then Simon laid some sweet tig welds down on it.

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now it was time to fit the frame into the car attaching the frame to the chassis rail and the to be wheel tubs. I'd started cutting the floor out in prep for the first set up..



then Grant came around and told me need MOAR room so out the grinder came again.. look away if your the die hard original restoration type! In before cant believe you cut it up etc shit

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forgot to post this pic of joe rocco barwick aka BUBBLEGOOSE on a routine inspection absolutely off his tits on a pyne lol

haha bubblegoose is o.g g.c! Right then so with the subframe all tiged up next was to mount it. The chosen points were the bottom of the chassis rail and the wheel tubs face panels, i'd like to have linked them into the cage down bars but this would put it into sceptical space frame area so to avoid argument i decided under the cage bars on the wheel tub faces will be ideal. Many hours were spent trimming it levelling it and measuring it and in the end I had it square level and parallel within 3mm after welding. Not much that will be taken out by arm adjustment.





Now with the frame in I was out of 'free work' I could do at home soooo after some thinking I had an idea... I will leave you with this to ponder..

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WIDE BODY TIME!! I love JGTC and DTM and as far as im aware no one has attempted a modern JGTC/DTM body on a older car so challenge accepted! I drew inspiration from my favourite touring cars, GT300 RE AMEMIYA RX7, PAN SPEED Time attack RX7, DTM BMW M3, DTM AUDI A4 and from alot of time spent researching aerodynamic principles. I'd never worked with body mouldings before so i watched a few videos on youtube and had a chat to Simon from Surfab, he pointed me in the direction of nuplex and showed me what i needed.

I stated by cutting up a dx corolla roof into 10mm wide strips and tack welding them to the guards. Off this using cardboard I started modelling the guards into the prototype plug mould.

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So once i had tacked the body skeleton strips onto the guards front and rare i set to focusing on the front.


Big vent on the rear to draw high pressure out under the car from the radiator and oil coolers.

Added some guard vents on top to help vent rising hot air off the tires and brakes trapped in the guard, in theory vortexes over the top should create a syphon effect.


Marked out a hole for one of the oil coolers and tub the inside with card as well, when removed it will become a template for .6mm steel for inside the guard.


Dummy fitted oil cooler and added some wee canards.


You have to paint your cardboard guards so you can get a true feel for the finished look and to water proof them if you cant afford fibre glass any time soon. Also you must take class photo 2012.

Grinder and Bubblegoose making a reappearance here, big side pods need the doors to clear them, im going to have to scissor hinge the door so it clears the pod.

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Time to shape the rear guard in card board now. Here i am designing the flow off the rear arch, I found this the hardest bit getting the shape nice.





Happy with that, now time to add some exit vents. These help pull air out from under the car and also break the air off the side of the car.

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Check out what's arriving on Friday night..

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Now the door was trimed up i made the side pod. By this time I'd learnt a few new tricks, high density polystyrene, 3mm mdf board, pva glue and hot glue. Any one attempting this i recommend it!! it takes about 40% the time over card board and wire. It makes one hell of a mess and its more delicate but saves alot of time. I shaped it with metal working files (2nd cut grade)


when you bog over it it will reacet and melt as bog is polyester based so you need to seal it with an epoxy resin 1st e.g fibre glass epoxy as i did.
Now it was time to lay down some glass, i used epoxy resign and did 2 layers of glass fibre matting. Its strong as fuck, im 70kg and i can do hand stands on the guards. One cool thing about it is its a amber clear colour when mixed and turns blue when its gone off so you know when you can sand it. So it was 2 layers over 2 nights and a sand with 80g to knock any sharp edges or resign strands off.




Next up I got busy with some bog. All up i spent around 50 hours on this one side to make the plug from wire frame to 2 pack enamel top coat...A48 Toyota beige as is tradition.

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All sanded up now i gave it a quick go over with some 400g dry paper, sprayed on some 2pack primer then another 400g sand followed by 600g dry of coarse NEVER WET!!! sorry if you are a fan of wet sanding with water but i think you are the most retard and should stay away from panel work, WATER CAUSES OXIDIZATION! Don't be a jew, go buy more paper or wet sand with calite (white spirits) wear gloves and respirator to keep the cancers away.

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Whos on the gravy stroke and wants to see it covered in tan??? Im getting the pics ready now!