PedRac3r

Pretty much carrying on from where I left off. I made a new shifter... The old shifter looked to be part W58 welded to 85/86 stuff...

And the new parts I machined up

Because I lengthen the selector end by 25mm to reduce the throw of the shifter, I had to make this space plate to compensate for the difference in length

And all together

Put a bend in the shifter, towards the driver side and back a little bit. Big fuck off shift knob installed too

Carrying on from my last post. Engine back in after all the suspension done

Dusty photo of it all back together

My mate Goob and I made a new exhaust, to get a bit more ground clearance.

TIG'd a section of stainless pipe on the end of it

My mate Graeme doing a bit of welding on the new collector section off the headers

Ended up being stupid loud and sounded just as shit, so put a reso in and that helped, sorta

Did a few drift days, ended up stacking it at Meremere after the fuel pump stopped working mid drift.

Pulled a little to the right after that... Ended up bending a few bits, like the LCA bent from the gusset out

Steering rack, cracked the housing and bent the rack

And chassis

Figured this would be a good time to improve a few things, so I begun the search for all the parts I needed to get it rolling again. Was luckily enough to find 2 AE86 manual racks. A mint guard which was absolutely rust free and most importantly unmolested. Picked up 2 KE30 LCA's which are 10mm longer than AE86 stuff and off to the panel beaters it went. Took it to West Coast Panel and they did an excellent job! Did more than I asked them to do and for a good price. They straightened and repaired the chassis rail, lower rad support and fixed the bent edge on the bonnet. These few weeks were pretty hectic so I didnt get alot of photos unfortunately.

So here is the rail after a bit of paint

Everything back in now, new rebuilt steering rack, tie rods, ball joints etc

Made up some small alloy braces in an attempt to strengthen the chassis rail where the subframe bolts through. Battery tray now removed also

New guard.

Got the engine back in again. Bought a new RWD water pump from Toyota which has the proper thermostat housing on the back of it. RWD water pump pulley, top water neck and alternator bracket now also fitted. Picked up a new radiator too. Was sick of trying to find a quality alloy radiator, so I got this dual core Racing Gear radiator made by Koyo

Bought a new front lip to go on the new front bumper, got a duck bill at the same time all from Mike Shaw. His fibreglass work is pretty good! Took it down to Meremere again, car ran perfectly.

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!