jsnapsnz

My mate Dion hooked me up with a Niteparts A-W bellhousing so I "had to" rebuild my W57 from my old GX60 Cressida Wagon as I wasn't confident the T50 would handle the jandal. $600 odd bucks later Rick Larcombe in Paihia fitted new bearings, synchros and reverse gear as well as painting it battleship grey. Great deal! Rob came to my rescue when I asked if he had an AW11 S/C Clutch & Flywheel handy. He sure did - just a casual OS Giken TS2A Twin Plate for a monster Adub he was planning but decided not to complete. We sussed a deal and I bolted it up! No TOB supplied so I dealt with Barry Manon for the first time and bought a Quarter Master Hydraulic Release Bearing. What a mission to get the input spline in! I ended up borrowing a cut off W input shaft from Henwoods Hotrod Shop to line up the plates to the spigot bearing. I also got master fabricator Jack to make me a gearbox crossmember The W57 shifter position was a little further back and I was NOT keen to cut my tunnel but what do you do! I also got my TRS short shifter modified to position the knob better (closer to the handbrake and steering wheel ) Finally I sent my driveshaft to Beatties to shorten, balance and replace the hanger bearing. Damn that was expensive!!! I promptly sold my T50 and Extreme clutch setup to help pay for all this shit... Yay I don't have to touch the diff - already got a TRD 2-way out back so no desire to muck with that

I decided I was unhappy with the tight bends of the Coby Extractors at the Head and I also noticed the muffler shop didn't bother with a flexi. Time for custom headers! Rob recommended biggest diameter primaries I could find to maximise results with the Twinscrew Blower. The issue is I want to mount the S/C over the exhaust. All the best headers sweep up and I couldn''t find any decent lo-rise headers at the time. Consequently I hit up a local welder Jack Blagrove (now running Invil Custom Design and Engineering in AKL) to tackle the job. I went with 41mm 180 bends and straight tube in 1.5mm wall mild steel. I also gave him SS304 Tig Filler wire and misc consumables from work to keep costs down. Finally Jack cannibalised the Coby Headers for the Exhaust Flange. He bloody outdid himself creating an equal length, firing order specific, merge collected & vee banded masterpiece in metal. Finally he got them HPC coated for me: I wish I could have left them bare - I love the weld discolouration

For years now I have had 1x only 14x8J -13 Work Equip Excel wheel. It sure looked nice on my shed wall but nothing more... Until TradeMe struck again! (TradeMe keeps me so poor). I scored 3x 14x6.5J +6 and 1x 15x7J (oddly enough with a 14" center and tapered lip!) and full hardware! Drift damage claiming the other two rims... Happily the rear barrels are all the same so I got 41degree Race Wheels to knock up a set of 3" Lips to make me a set: I don't want her too low or with big tyre/guard gap but I do want semi-legit tyre/rim width. 185/60 would be sweet but probably too stretched. 195/45 is far to rubber band like so I think I'll try to find 195/55R14 Toyos or something

I also bought a Vertex style bumper off Nick Teeboon for a thrash bumper. I noticed my Goodline front copped some major stone chips driving to Fielding and Wellington so thought a spare would be a good idea. Pretty rashed up - just what the doc ordered. I also started mucking around with PlastiDip coating my bumper for protection. I really like how it looks like factory plastic I also checked my paint code and discovered my Levin was Blood Panda originally so I left the red stripe up top. One day I will go back to Panda scheme if I find some body mouldings... You can also see my custom Towhook I had my local engineer cut out for me. I then used some Plastic and Bronze bushing with a Rated D Shackle to complete it. I love the industrial look!

Right about now I decided I wanted Supercharged Boost! My good mate Rob had already given me an IHI blower from a Mazda Millenia I had intended to run this on an Injected 3.5L Rover V8 in my GX61 MkII. I ended up buying the AE86 instead of spending an uncertain amount of $$$ on a cool but vague project. Voila! 1x supercharger itching to go. I had a hankering to attend the D1NZ round at Toll Carriers in Whangarei so I rocked into Muffler Services for some Coby Headers to replace the rooted turbo mani. I was relieved my pulsing "bridgeport" idle was not affected by the removal of the turbo. It was great to see Fanga win the home round! The Levin ran like a bag of shit with it's turbo tune in the Link but no matter! I towed it across town early as then idled it into the event I also met up with Nick Teeboon who sold me a sweet Runfree Rear Strut brace.

Can anyone shed some light on my Negative Camber RCAs? Spirit5 (?) can't find jack online...

Next job was test out high boost! I'm not proud to say I made this decision ~1 week later visiting family in Wellington - showing off for my younger brother sans boost gauge so no idea what it did, just that it clearly went beyond what the 2.5bar map sensor could handle (~21psi) and my Chinese Turbo promptly started filling the motorway with smoke. Bugger it!! Disconnected the boost solenoid and limped home to Whangarei. Generally all good except for under decel (poor pedestrians at traffic lights wondering why their eyes are suddenly streaming) It used bugger all oil (5L on hand just in case) until I started thrashing it from Taupo on using around 3L to get home I think it was a DSR430 - a bit big I reckon. Nightmare removing the SS capscrews from the dump pipe so just cut the beeyatch off. Now I find the gate doesn't open fully as it hits the dump housing. Ports are miss-matched all round. Manifold has three major cracks under the miles of header wrap. No wonder the slut ran so hot and cracked my bonnet paint! I threw out these parts in disgust - best the prev owner would offer is another of his turbos at cost. Didn't like it anyway... **sulk** One month of driving then POW! The missus was unimpressed...

Next mish was sort the clutch out. Happily it came with a new Extreme Clutch so out came the T50. I removed a very sad Cusco Super Single which had hugely pitted surfaces. I had the flywheel ground in prep for the new full face disc and cover (not hopeful re: longevity) so I could try out high boost as it had been wound back to 9psi to ease slippage. When the old owner asked me if I'd tried high boost yet I said I'd yet to install the new clutch and bed it in. "Bed it in?" he reckons - ahhhh Not that motivated until me mate Louie calls me ~9pm Friday checking if I'm still keen to drive him to Fielding (from Whangarei) to pick up his TradeMe purchase - KB310 Sunny Coupe with Z18ET! Soooo we smashed the clutch and box back in and left around 1am driving through the night. 9am we pick up the Sunny and roll home - fun drive with two boosted Old School weapons! Some where between Cambridge and Taupiri on the way home I clocked over my 1000km and let rip! Glorious

So first thing I did when I got it home was cut out the rope tying the hatch down inside. Once I got the hatch open I discovered how the external High Stop had been installed - cabling run under the ducktail then under the hatch - lifting the hatch revealed the long cable length "allowing" hatch operation! No idea why this wasn't run in the usual place at the hinge... Damn I wish I kept a pic of this Begone foul High Stop! Next mod was to install the NCRCA's I bought when the car was first imported - the TRD sus was removed for BC adjusties and they were deemed unnecessary as the BCs had camber plates. Don't mind if I do! Nice synchronicity returning these parts to their rightful place: Can anyone tell me more about these? "Spirit5" brand from the looks of it. Couldn't really find info online, just a pic of a sticker in an AE86 in a Drift Tengoku mag. Discussion //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/51964-jsnapsnzs-1985-ae86-levin/ At this time I discovered why it handled like shit as my thumb sank into the tyre sidewall - just a casual 15psi all round (much better now it's 30+) I ran the NCRCAs on my crusty KE70 then on my ©rusty AE85. These plus 32mm spacers guaranteed guard rub with my Celica rims Now I find the Watanabe's rub my bumper mounts like crazy! Bloody 205 tyres...

I've plastidipped the bumpers now and gone to 14"s but not much exterior change I need to catch the build up to current! More pics to come...

Nice! Got a pic?

Thanks! I used to have a converted Panda Trueno AE85 but it was the biggest rust POS you ever saw... The Levin front has really grown on me! I reckon I prefer it now. Plans are get it back on the road now I'm in aux and get to some meets!! Bloody certs... I'll catch my build thread up to current and you'll see what has been on the go lately

Upon viewing for the first time I discovered the reason for the high revs @ 100kmh The chap even went as far as to change out the 4.3 ratio for a 4.1 cwp. I quizzed him if he changed the box and this was met with derision, had to physically show him 5th gear. I also noted no mention of the turbo which was odd because even when it was first imported it was turbo! It came in with an old school HKS setup with log manifold and huge external gate - apparently this was all shit so the prev owner got rid of it (wish it was on display in my shed ) I decide to run the gauntlet regardless and maybe re-cert later. Furthermore the rear interior was gone and asking about it resulted in: "What do you want that for, it's not a family car!" "Well you know it's nice just to have..." "I threw it all away" **sighhhh** I also commented on the external High Stop "Stink bro, did you have to do that for the WOF?" It was defended at least times throughout the convo referencing it's style, the fact it looked like a rocket and it's forward facing LED light "so you can see when you are braking!" Naturally I "rescued" the car ASAP Here's a couple of pics I took on my phone when first imported: Wee bit jacked on TRD sus - tried to buy for my KE70 at the time but too poor I am pretty sold on the Goodline Aero now of course! Sweet shopping list I want to do terrible things to that bumper...

Oh yeah, love your Runfree rear strut brace too! I have the same...

Trademe sucker... Damn that awesome/terrible site!

So a few years back I bought myself an AE86 Levin - impulse purchase off Trademe Discussion: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/51964-jsnapsnzs-1985-ae86-levin/ I had spotted it when first imported and lusted over it so when I saw it for sale ~3yrs later for a suspiciously reasonable price I had to have it!!! Here's the pics as advertised on TM: Mmmm Runfree style (built by them perhaps?) Ooooo turbo! Sweet digi dash, immediate love Peaky power but WHATEVER! Trust Oil Cooler had me gagging Visiting the seller way up north I found there were a few strange things about it (strangely high revs at 100kmh (claimed taller ratio installed), external High Stop light mod, roped closed rear hatch, average handling (claimed due to poorly setup coilovers), too much fibreglass for my liking, single shitty bonnet catch, shifty alarm, dodgy boost gauge install & slipping clutch) but was an immediate sucker for the newly added rear quarters and zero (bullshit! It's totally true though) rust and fresh paint. Anyway, three days I later I took it off his hands

When I bought my AE86 the previous owner pointed out the ~4000rpm "cruising" at 100km - turns out he never checked for a 5th gear... I got excited about a mean short ratio but he had already swapped the 4.3 for a 4.1 Man I'm jealous of your Whiteline tail lights! I have the garnish but am on the hunt for the lights. I have done the cheeky red indicators on my Zenki lights - American spec That's one beautiful Levin you have there!

Hah what a noob, I've now "discovered" the discussion links Seeing your Hako makes me think fondly of Watanabe-san @ Fun2Drive taking me for a spirited hoon in their rental Hako. Not sure if it had the L28 but it sure went well, would leave my AE behind - "Six cirinder is best!" - I might just agree with him Are you on the hunt for an OS Giken head?

Hahahaha it took seeing the Moonlight sticker on the back window to realise it's you Alex! Then I spotted the user name... Congratulations bro, I'm super jealous of your Hako! Wanna swap for my AE86? Yeah right he sez... Loving the 4door!

Wow this KP is looking so sweeet! Your gold Starsharks are great but would you consider going red on red? I have 14x6.5J on my AE: Keep up the good work! Jordan

Daaamn bro what a build! Tim Charman welded up my BCs for my AE86 too I'm loving your steering mods too, got some big plans myself in that department!