Popular Post 0R10N Posted October 6, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 6, 2015 Holy shit. HUGE thank you to Christian, Andrew and Sam at OCD in Penrose. They've done wonders with shitty 29-year-old paint that's lived in grimy Tokio smog all its life and has had numerous touchups. Begone, scuff marks from previous Japanese owner's crummy car cover! Now I'm really afraid to drive it anywhere in case the shiny disappears, hahaha. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 More photos of the AW11, courtesy of Christian @ OCD. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.412110952327454.1073741968.329051300633420&type=3 (should be viewable without having to log in to Facebook). Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted October 17, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 17, 2015 Being a ricer faggot. Sometimes it's justifiable! Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted November 2, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 2, 2015 Obligatory service time. Now that I've clocked up a few hundred km I've noticed the occasional misfire and general lack of oomph below 3000rpm, especially when loading it up in the lower gears. This is usually where you discover certain things about the previous owner(s); for example the bloke who owned this particular AW11 wasn't much of a stickler for replacing ignition-related components, even though he seemed to change the oil and coolant regularly (and the paper air filter that I replaced with a K&N was fairly new). First indication of this was the state of the spark plugs. Honourable previous-owner-san, what even is this?! From the way the bodies and electrodes look it's probably about time they were replaced even if they are considered "long-life" iridiums. I suppose it didn't help that when the car underwent fumigation and steam cleaning in NZ the spark plug valley filled up with water - as you'll notice a few photos down, the cover is missing - John did mention it was running like a bag of shit when it was first dropped off to compliance, but he managed to clean it out. A new set of iridium plugs has now been fitted, you can just see the box in the background. Should I be worried about the shit on the threads? Second indication that the dude was behind in his servicing schedule, off came the dizzy cap and uhhhhh... Let's compare old versus new. It would seem this is the original dizzy cap, as the two top posts (for cylinders 3 and 4) were worn down almost beyond the point of recognition (yes they are a slightly different design from the Bosch replacement). Hmmm, guess that could explain the misfire under load! The last few photos demonstrate how much of a pain in the arse it is to work on a mid-engined car sometimes. My worklight blew up, so I had to use the desk lamp from my soldering station instead. Not visible in the shot: the old rim I was using as a stepladder... To reach the dizzy cap you have to fold your upper body around the drivers' side C-pillar and lean right over the engine. (If this were a front-engined AE82 FX-GT or even an AE86, access would be trivial.) There's just barely enough room to get a small ratchet in between the firewall and dizzy cap to tighten up the bolts. Someone with larger hands is gonna have a bad time. You also have to be careful not to snap off the plug on the very right, or it's game over. All done... I just need to track down a 4A-GZE valley cover now. To the previous owner's credit, he did replace the ignition leads with those chunky SplitFire things. Or perhaps it was the dealer he sold it to who fitted them? Nearly at that magical 100,000km milestone. Good news, the misfire is gone, and there's a lot more pull from down low. I need to bleed the clutch next, those who have driven the car all remark it feels a bit spongy from lack of use. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Bought me some sweet white steelies, puhuhuhuhu. Oh hold up a sec... If you're confused, just Google "Bridgestone Super RAP". Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted November 16, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 16, 2015 Shit yarn. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted November 18, 2015 Author Share Posted November 18, 2015 Shit yarn #2. Factory AW11 boot mat. Apparently these are rare, and foamers foam over them. Gonna hit it with some Jif and Simple Green then it should be mint, mayte. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted November 24, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2015 Car is officially now worthless. Time to scrap it or trade in for an Audi S4. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 How can you tell you are turning into a grumpy old man? When you pay good money to have the A/C system rebuilt in a crummy 1980s car. Cheers to Kevin from Alert Auto Air in Devonport. Best person to talk to about A/C - especially if you have an old car. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted February 21, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 21, 2016 So a few years ago someone beat me to these hideously rare factory AW11 roof racks which were attached to a wreck at Pick a Part. Since then I've been half-heartedly looking for another set, but not really holding my breath that I would ever find any. Imagine my surprise when a set appeared for sale on Yahoo late last year! As always, I enlisted the services of Moonlight Racing/Stacked - and managed to win the auction for what I thought was a pretty fair price. One container ride later... The front section could do with some padding under the rack feet so I don't scratch the fuck out of the roof, and I need to find (or make) some spacers for the bolts that hold the rear section to the C-pillars; I'm not 100% confident they'll stay attached without working loose, and I really don't want to break the plastic C-pillar trims either. I'm already eyeing up a Thule universal snowboard carrier for it, but man they are expensive. You just gotta love how quirky/dumb it looks. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted March 1, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 1, 2016 Thanks to the efforts of Slacker.Cam and the Jackson Factory (sounds like a cheesy movie...) the OEM Toyota roof racks have been securely fitted in time for OS Nats 2016. Cam turned up some small spacers for the rear section mounting points on the lathe and found a bunch of appropriate fasteners, while over the weekend I grabbed some felt padding for the front section. Nice and safe... but I don't think I'll be ambitious enough to tie anything to the racks just yet. Went for a quick dort out to Parau in the fading light and managed to grab a few shots before dusk. Look past all the small blemishes of being a thirty year old car, and the old wedge does clean up well for photos I must admit. More photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHskikS3t3 Looks real sicko spec now, haha. More photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHskikS3t3 After Nats the plan is to continue tidying up little bits and pieces on the side, while I focus my efforts on the Skylines. One annoyance I'm hoping to get sorted is to restore all of the exterior side trims to their original black colour. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 More unicorn-spec optional OEM parts have appeared on Yahoo, but the price = moonbeams. Factory monsoons for when it's pissing down but you absolutely need to have the window cracked open. At a cool NZ$700 I think I will let these pass by... I'm not even sure if I can have them and the roof racks fitted at the same time! Also for anyone who missed the gigantic Nats 2016 photo thread, here's a couple of cool shots of the AW with a fellow pop-up enthusiast at the top of the Bruce Road, Whakapapa. Covered the 750km round trip with no dramas although I have since noticed the starter is now a bit sticky when engaging. It's the perils of having just ticked over 100,000km I suppose! Also thanks to everyone's favourite train enthusiast Jamie/HighLUX for supplying a pair of replacement interior C-pillar trims without speaker grilles. Purists might argue that facelift AWs should have the grilles, but I discovered that having rear speakers was actually a big waste of time and prefer the cleaner look of the pre-facelift trims - so it all works out nicely in the end. Sample pic follows: Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 Dunno why, but I've always preferred the design of the pre-facelift AW11 steering wheel (shared with AE86s, AE82s, and a couple of other 'sporty' Toyotas from the same era) over the facelift one. Here they are side by side for comparison... facelift on left, pre-facelift on right. Perspective is a bit off in the photo - they are actually the same diameter (but pre-facelift has a thinner rim). I installed the pre-facelift one today, we'll see how long it lasts before I go back to the Nardi/Personal. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted March 27, 2016 Author Share Posted March 27, 2016 Windscreen still has remnants of the Nats roadtrip bug holocaust, will have to drag the car back out of the shed and give it a better clean. Thanks Alistair for the last minute wipe down before Caffeine and Classics today One zenki steering wheel installed. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 Let's play "spot the AW11" on Google Street View... Image is from May 2015, so a month or two before the car was sold and shipped out to NZ. Yup, that's it on the right hand side of the shot. The car yard (Marumi Auto) has also revamped their website to highlight the fact they specialize in selling '80s and '90s sports cars, which is sort of cool! (And also some really oddball cars...) Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 More foamer rubbish. You probably can't see it from the shitty Instagram photo but I finally have a use for my genuine jay-de-em Toyota plate surrounds. (Transportation office: 熊谷 - Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture). Just around the corner from the yard, mayte! Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted September 4, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 4, 2016 Took the AW11 on another roadtrip to do some late winter/early spring snowboarding at Turoa and to explore the Central Plateau area. Slacker.Cam and myself had already done a bit of recon work during the OS Nats scavenger hunt, and I'd mentally filed away a list of places to come back and check out when I next had the opportunity. As luck would have it, the weather played ball (for the most part). On the way down I stopped at my usual rest area on Waipapa Road for a couple of snaps. This is kind of a ritual for me, almost every car I own has been photographed here at some point. For reference: AW11 #2 and AW11 #5 Then after a lush trip up the mountain to do some snowboarding I hit the road again for a full day of exploring. The conditions were nearly perfect and traffic was unusually light for a Friday, which meant I made good time between each destination. First photo stop, the Rangipo power station and Poutu intake. There's not a lot to see at the power station, just a weathered old concrete sign and tunnel entrance built into the side of the hill, with a locked gate that you can peer through into a creepy, dimly lit tunnel which leads underground. It's almost completely silent here, with only the occasional sounds of gunfire and explosions from the army training nearby to interrupt the peace and quiet. Tomstament mentioned to me later that Rangipo is entirely remote controlled from Tokaanu power station. Backtrack up the road to the intake and you can drive across the structure to the other side of the Tongariro river, where they sometimes launch whitewater rafts (I did this a few years ago, and it was choice). Then it was back onto the Desert Road for some amazing views of the Tongariro National Park area. When I'd set out from Taupo earlier in the day it was clouded over, miserable and gloomy, but one of the Desert Road webcams indicated that conditions were nearly perfect on the Central Plateau, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that it would stay that way. The further south I drove from Taupo the more obvious it became that I'd lucked out. One of the scavenger hunt stops for Nats was "underneath a power pylon", or something like that. Thanks to this earlier excursion I already knew to make a beeline straight for the Tukino skifield access road. Wew lad, the vista I found when I finally got there makes me appreciate this little country we live in that much more. I'd hoped to be able to travel a bit further up the access road but recent snowmelt and rainfall made it almost impossible to traverse past a certain point without 4WD and a bit more ground clearance, so I called it quits at that point. After a late lunch in Waiouru I checked the time and calculated that I should be able to carry on to Taihape and at least make it some of the way down the Gentle Annie road before having to turn around and be back in Taupo by dinnertime. So I made sure the tyre pressures were still good, bought a bottle of water to stay hydrated, and carried on my merry way south. The kilometres flew by and soon I was at the turnoff just outside Taihape: Old barrys will tell you that the Gentle Annie is a shadow of its former self now that it's completely sealed - but that just makes it perfectly engineered for a tiny low-slung mid-engine sports car. Over hills and through valleys the road meandered once I'd passed through the small hamlet of Moawhango, and I rolled the windows down to listen to that glorious sound of that supercharger with the engine wound out in 3rd gear. After a series of corners through light forest and a small gorge, the hills opened up again and in the valley below there flowed the Rangitikei. The road dropped sharply to the valley floor and at the bottom I came across the old Springvale suspension bridge that once served as the river's crossing point, alongside the modern concrete structure which replaced it. At this point I figured it was time to retrace my steps back to Taupo, so reluctantly I swung the AW11 around and headed back the way I came. Definitely have to revisit this part of the country again once I've obtained some better tyres, sharpened up the handling slightly, and fitted the extractors for a little more oomph. The plan will be to leave Taupo early, traverse the Gentle Annie, have lunch in Napier, then set off back to Taupo again on the regular state highway (which, in itself, is a pretty fun drive in the right car). Apart from a bit of wind and cabin noise which is to be expected from a car of this sort, I really have no gripes about the AW11. Pretty stoked really. It's definitely my best go-to car for roadtrips (provided the conditions aren't totally shitty) and it has nearly the right amount of power to keep things entertaining. With the previously mentioned tweaks I reckon it'll keep returning a great smiles-to-miles ratio for years to come. Cool story bro. Full photo album: https://flic.kr/s/aHskCWNzhA Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0R10N Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 Received a new TGP "Caution Plate" decal through a contact in Japan. The one on my driver's door is a bit ratty looking and some of the lettering has rubbed off. Fucking annoying. Didn't think you could still get genuine ones and was originally searching around for reproductions, so this is handy. It basically tells you not to do stupid shit like park on long dry grass, stop driving the car if the catalytic converter overheats or the check engine light comes on, and make sure to read the owners' manual before operation! There's no caution against burnouts though, so I guess those are allowed. Hashtag: jaydeem-az-fvkk. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted December 27, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 27, 2016 Merry Xmas! The latest Stacked/Moonlight container arrived just in time for the festive season, and so did my shiny new AW11 Recaro seat rails. When Xmas morning dawned bright and early I busied myself in the shed, and eventually ended up with this: Not many people realize that you can swap the centre fabrics around on just about any Recaro L-series seat as long as the bases match - I cobbled these together from a pair of good Lancer GSR LX-B seats that I bought off Dirk about six or seven years ago, and a pair of munted BF Familia Infini LS-Bs that still had relatively good centres. It's a pretty time consuming process if you're being careful to re-attach all the hog rings and trying not to rip or damage anything. Thinking back to when I originally assembled them it probably took a good hour and a half per side. As you can see, the effort was worth it. They're surprisingly comfortable, have just the right amount of firmness in the padding, and are much more supportive than the factory AW11 seats. Plus as an added bonus - the eye-watering red stripes are totally '80s spec and stay in line with the character of the car. Next I'll probably have to give them a good scrub to make the red fabric really pop against the blue exterior. N.B. if anyone is wondering what the Recaro LX and LS guff is all about, I direct your attention to the following image: Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/ 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 0R10N Posted April 19, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 19, 2017 So this happened: Long story short, I took it for a WOF, and it failed on excessive steering play, which turned out to be a worn bush (which is better than a fucked rack or tierod end, I suppose). While it was in the workshop we noticed a weird squealing/chuffing noise from one of the belts, so I got Karl to inspect further. What he found next will shock you! Nah not really. But he did discover that the cambelt was really old and perished, and chunks were flaking off it - and the waterpump seals have started weeping - even though it had been changed at 90,000km (less than 20,000km ago). We're guessing that it was done maybe 10 years ago and the car simply hasn't been driven a lot in Japan, then I got hold of it and drove to Nats 2016 and around the country like a lunatic. Ha! So with that in mind, out the hole it goes for another new cambelt, tensioner, seals, waterpump, belts, blah blah blah. I'm slightly disappointed that I haven't even had a chance to stockpile more upgrade parts yet, because I was so confident that it wouldn't need any serious work done for another 50-60,000km and I had ages to collect more shit for it. At least I will now be able to fit the shiny extractors I bought a while back, but it would have been nice to throw in an upgraded supercharger pulley, LSD box, and rear swaybar at the same time. Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49412-80s-kid-part-ii-eds-aw11-sc-chit-chat/ 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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