_Matt

Took it to Keith Stewart to go on the dyno to be run in and get a tune put on it. Had zero issues, made 120.6hp atw. Will get some km's on it and take in back for a fine tune, should still have another 1000 or so rpm in it I'd imagine! Made an aluminium sump bash guard and that finished off everything on the underside. Couldn't find any good bumper end caps, so I drew one up in solidworks and my brother 3D printed out a couple to take some moulds off, so then we could make some fibreglass ones. Pretty happy with how they turned out! Far tidier than the old warped and cracked factory plastic ones. Had the bumpers, grill, headlight surrounds and fender mirrors painted in a metallic grey very close to the factory colour. Installed some NOS park/indicator lights that I got ages ago and put the bonnet on. That basically finishes off the exterior! Cert next!

IT RUNS!! The timing was out by 320° and then it started right up. Need to take it out to the dyno at some stage now and get it run in and a decent tune on it. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVw9xp3lLJu/ Got the dash all back in. Repinned the dash cluster plugs to suit the tacho dash (thanks to Paul for doing me a pin-out!). Fuel level warning light and the cat warning light are the only things that don't work because the car doesn't have them. Had to change the tacho signal resistor to get the gauge working from the Link ecu signal. Stoked it all works and even does the full sweep on ign! Bought some new door seals and lower window seals from Thailand and fitted them to the doors, so they could finally go back on. Made an oil catch can that tucks away under the intake. Drew up a front timing cover plug for where the original fwd engine mount use to stick out. Blocks up the hole nicely. Thanks to @Brennan for 3d printing it. Had the cam cover painted black (thanks Justin!). Looks good, but strange because I'm so used to the raw aluminium one.

Made a bit of an overkill of a windscreen washer bottle that tucks in behind the front guard. Same for the radiator overflow. Windscreen back in and attached some new drip rail trim along with the stainless rain guards. Wiring of the body loom and Link ecu is pretty much done, other than a couple little things and the dash. Dash mostly back in. Made up a new base for the lower parcel shelf out of aluminium since the original cardboard one had seen better days. Made an alright spot to mount some relays and fuses. Waiting for some new door seals and then the doors can go back on. Hopefully get it started very soon, so it can go to the dyno and then get the upholstery/carpet done.

Thanks man! I made it

I finally got some samples from basis and this one https://basisnz.co.nz/products/sku217-007 works perfectly! Cheers man, pretty excited to get it back on the road!

Still the daily driver with barely any issues! The auto trans is the main one still. Chucked the 3rd trans in after 2019 drag day. It's a bit slow changing from 2nd to 3rd and still seems to burn out if giving it some. Also has the same issue as before when you thrash it, it goes into limp mode so stays in 3rd. Bought a 300zx and ripped the 5 speed manual gearbox out of that to eventually throw in, just waiting for the Starlet to be back on the road. Drove it up to Beach hop 2020 and took out the best under 25 award! Dump of pics from the travels. Have been trying to do a bit of maintenance recently, fixing up some annoying things. At the start of the year the steering rack bushes basically disappeared, so I machined up some aluminium ones. They worked good but got sick of the vibrations at 100km/h, so put some poly bushes in. Next was the 4-link rose joints making knocking noises over every little bump. I had them on the chassis side of the 4-link bars and poly ones at the diff end, so swapped them around, and that quietened it down. The front tyres were down to the canvas on the inner edge, hoping most of that was just caused from the loose steering rack. Got some new tyres on and repainted the whitewalls. Made them a bit wider and more proportionate front and rear. The steering makes a horrible groaning at low speed turning occasionally too. Hopefully it's the bearing in the column, otherwise I have a new powersteering pump sitting there, but that's a front clip off job so that can wait until the manual swap.

Still making progress on this thing. Have been a bit slack at taking detailed progress photos. Engine was dropped in a while ago. Radiator and overflow bottle finished up too. Fuel lines are done as well as the brake and clutch lines, they bleed up perfectly! Built the exhaust too. Went with a twin 2" stainless system and made the muffler as well. It's now fully welded and mounted properly. Swapped to the SSR MkII's Have put the original loom back in and hooked up most things again. Need to reroute the wiper motor plug, rewire the dash to suit the tacho cluster and redo all the wiring that runs through the front guards so it can be tucked away. Then I need to figure out how to wire up the engine with the Link ecu!

Made a new parcel tray out of some 2mm aluminium and mounted some Pioneer TS-X8 box speakers on it. Also fitted the rear window, just waiting on some new chrome filler trim to arrive, hopefully it fits right. Straightened up the bumpers and bumper filler panels. The filler panels are originally covered in rubber and they had a few spots where they had formed rust bubbles underneath and just looked terrible, so stripped that all off and tidied up the steel panels. Made some mounts for the radiator. Need to get the engine in to see if there's clearance between the fan and engine before I finish mounting the shroud. Finally got the engine back from being built. Basically it's got big cams, CNC ported head, uprated valve springs, TRD headgasket, Toda cam gears, then just all the usual stuff to freshen it up. Will try and get some proper specs soon. Got the throttle body's and manifold vapour blasted and then went through and replaced all the zinc socket head capscrews that everyone seems to send with their aftermarket parts, with some nicer stainless button heads. Gave the gearbox a coat of silver metallic basecoat and then since it was getting some clearcoat sprayed over the top, I thought it'd be rude to not throw some metal flake in too. Need to decide on something cool to paint the cam covers in now!

Painted the door window frames in 2k matte black and then assembled them back together. Hatch assembled and back on. Finally found some factory fender mirror, in pretty good condition too! Sanded the tail lights and sprayed them with some clearcoat. Got it off the rotisserie in the weekend, after being on it for 16 months!

Got some longer wheel studs for the front. Painted the hubs and installed some new genuine Toyota wheel bearings and seals. Have also changed the front springs to some shorter 5kg ones and added some keeper springs. Need to find some 100-130mm long 4kg springs for the rear, but they're proving hard to find. Painted the inside of the hatch, doors and bonnet. Finally managed to finish prepping the rest of the panels and took them into work this weekend. Had a bit of drama with the base coat being the wrong tint, as I had another 2 litres mixed up since there was only about 1-1.5 litres out of a 4 litre tin left after doing the body and didn't want to run out. Turned out the new mix was a bit darker, but managed to get 2 coats of that on and then one coat of the previous left overs sprayed on top. So hopefully it matches to the body! Stoked with how it turned out! I sprayed the basecoat and then my coworker Justin came and sprayed the clear on, so thanks to him for doing such a good job! Assembled a few bits today. Could just stare at this thing all day!

Peugeot 106 rotors, need drilling to match the hub pcd and some machining needs done to the hub. Hub is in the same place as factory, but needs at least a 12mm spacer so the wheel face clears the calliper. I have a spare set of the brackets that are needed if you’re interested

Front crossmember and steering rack back in. Got one side of the suspension and brakes bolted in. Have pieced together a Wilwood Dynapro 4 pot brake upgrade with 250mm rotors. Just fits under my 13" wheels with a 12mm spacer. Got the fuel tank back from powder coating and bolted that up under the car. Has a 255lph Denso in-tank pump with a Holley HydraMat pickup mounted inside. Test fitted the wheels with the 12mm spacers on the front, when this was running I only had 6" wide wheels on the front, so it'll be interesting to see how the extra width fits. Cleaned up the side rear window rubbers and glass and chucked them back in. What a huge difference that makes to the whole look of the car!

Got the front crossmember back from sandblasting. The bottom had a few scrapes and dents in it, so made up a skid pate type thing and welded that on. Also while I was there, added a bunch of stitch welds around the whole crossmember. Sprayed some 2k black over it and few other things. Slowly assembling a bunch of things. Diff with new seals and assembled back together and then lifted in to place. Hopefully one of the last lots of zinc plating back. The 4 round bits and top right brackets are for a front brake upgrade (two sets actually), just waiting for some longer wheel studs to arrive and that can be assembled.

Got the underseal done, used some tintable bed liner so it should be super durable. Came out so nice! Have been slowly assembling things that won't get in the way later. Installed a whole bunch of Kilmat pretty much everywhere I could. Once it's rollable again, going to try and take it in and get some new carpet installed throughout. Painted a bunch of stuff black this weekend. Not pictured is the sway bar, steering and control arms, steering rack and the new radiator support piece. Dropped the diff off to Geartech and they set it up properly and while they were at it swapped in the S15 6th gear into the J160. Need the front crossmember back from sandblasters, then that can be painted and put in. Also waiting on a bunch of new bushes and and zinc plating to be arrive before much more assembling can be done.

Yeah Feco in Levin seems to be the go to place in the lower north to get it done

Got the body in primer about 6 weeks ago It then took me all that time to get it up to a reasonable state so that it could then be painted. So then a couple days a go we loaded it up on the trailer (only just fit!) and dragged it into the spray booth at work. Sprayed the base and clearcoat on, it turned out pretty good! A few runs around in places, but nothing that can't be fixed. Pretty stocked really! Could of easily gone wrong haha. Gonna leave it in the booth for a few more days to harden, then take it home and get some underseal on the underside. In the meantime get the rest of the panels ready for some paint too.

Yeah has the original vin plate with all the info; model, engine, frame number, colour etc. The frame number is what’s stamped on the firewall and barely visible. Might just wire wheel it back and light coat it to save any issues

There’s a 3 and a few dots haha

I’m mostly finished prepping the engine bay in my starlet for paint and the stamped chassis number on the firewall has pretty much disappeared from all the coats of primer, is that going to be an issue or should I strip that area right back and just put some lighter coats on it? Cheers

Shake Out again next Tuesday! Need to use up those vouchers we got given last time!

Hey guys, next meet is just a week away and we're heading back to Shake Out burgers in the Pioneer New World car park. Tuesday 17th November @ 7pm See you there!

Cheers man! Nope I am a fabricator, started new job last week building hotrods though! Did do a couple years part time during high school at a car painters though, so that helps a little, otherwise just it’s just practise and hoping for the best haha

Finished up what I think was all the fabrication and welding on the body. So gave the inside a good clean, sand and then sprayed some epoxy primer down. Came out really nice and smooth! Scuffed back the bits that need to be nice as they aren't being covered up once the interior is back in; wheel wells, strut brace and the b to c pillars. Also went around all the seams and applied some seam sealer, matched to the factory look. Then it was ready to spray the base coat and clear on. Really happy with how it turned out, got all the visible bits nice and glossy! Got some basecoat matched to the brown colour of the dash and spayed some on the dash top piece. Sprayed some flattened 2k clear on top. Got the outside, underneath and engine bay mostly sanded back, hopefully done by next weekend so it can be epoxy primed. Not really too sure on what order to do things from now though. Would like to try and avoid having to mask it up multiple times and having to sand the whole thing in-between each process.

Got some stuff back from zinc plating. Was more of it than pictured but I had already started assembling the bits back together before getting a photo. Still not sure why some comes out really nice and shiny and other bits come out dull. Most of it will get painted anyway so not too worried. Bought some longer trumpets from MRP. Need to get the throttle bodies vapour blasted! Got the Estima handbrake cables remade and lengthened. They didn't work with the original mounts so machined up a new aluminium one, took far too long! Bought an AE86 boot and fuel door lever assembly as I never liked having to open the hatch or fuel door with the key each time. Now was a good time to modify it all to work. Shaved the key hole. Works perfectly!

New meet up! This time we’re gonna try out Shake Out on the 20th Oct at 7pm