Discussion: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/48043-pedrac3rs-1985-ae85-levin-discussion/
Hey guys, have been casually browsing these forums for a few years now, thought I would finally sign up and share my AE85 build with you. Ive had the car for about 4 years now, has come long way from when I first picked it up.
It wasnt factory spec when I bought it, someone had already swapped a 4AG in there, with a W58 box, hilux diff and some minor suspension and brake upgrades, 14x6.5 and 7.5 SSR MKII wheels, bolt in half cage which had been welded in, a pretty rangi surge tank, some of the rust had been "repaired". Although it was pretty rough around the edges I thought I had myself a fairly well set up car, until I had been driving it for a few weeks and all the problems started piling up...
Engine bay after a bit of a clean up. Forgot to mention it had been painted a champagne gold colour.
First thing was sorting out the clutch. Was using a 85 pedal box adapted to suit hydraulic clutch, didnt really work, was hard to shift gears and the car would roll forward slowly with it in gear and clutch disengaged. Swapped it out with 86 pedal box from Japan, problem solved. Next problem was the intermitted external fuel pump hooked up to the surge tank. Decided to remove it all run as per factory. While pulling some of the interior out I noticed some of the wiring was pretty rough!
Spent a few weeks going over all the wiring and removing a lot of unnecessary wiring and dodgy solder joints, which there were plenty!
Ended up with a box full wires!
With that mostly sorted, I began on tidying up the rear end a little. Pulled the rear axle out to paint it up, along with a bunch of other stuff, clean up the tubs etc. I had the 4.3 LSD shimmed and went to put everything back together. Getting the bolts through the control arms/diff mounts was a cunt, I figured whoever welded the mounts on the Hilux rear end welded them on the piss so I got the measuring tape out and sure enough, left bottom mount was 20mm out... Would have been causing some serious toe in/out and binding issues. As quick fix I drilled a new hole in the bolt-on traction bracket to correct it.
Made the decision to get a proper cage now that the bolt in cage had been removed and it was rolling again. Herbert Fab did the roll cage.
I took the chance while the car was away getting the roll cage done to have my rear wheels widened. Wheels are SSR MKII 14x9 at -11 offset. Only did the pair for the rear, and put the 7.5's on the front.
Then we had the task of painting the cage. Was a pretty big job prepping and masking everything, but came out pretty good in the end.
Looked pretty red there, but once everything was back in it looked okay
Ill leave it here for today, will have another update soon!