Snoozin

And here she is... the much vaunted 1981 Toyota Starlet KP61 Lisse (a spec level I assume, from what I can gather she was the top-spec KP61 in it's day!). Known colloquially (at our place at least!) as the KPimp. So there she be.... all $490 dollars worth of cult-classic Jap RWD Econohatch. Motovation is provided by the perennial 4K pushrod engine, in the case of the KPimp it's a 4K-U, U being the designation for Jap emissions package... however this is also the most powerful of the carbied 4K engines with a reputed 74hp. Due mostly I would think to the heron-head combustion chamber design, the higher compression and so forth... the 4K-U also has a stronger bottom end (or so I read) than garden variety 4K's. Soon to receive a freer flowing exhaust courtesy of a parts car I've scored. She runs a very sweet K40 gearbox, great for round town work, sadly not-so-great for open road stuff as it's noisy and generally crap. Inside the KPimp showcases the very feature's that contribute to it's name... the rich, enveloping white velour/vinyl and maroon interior. Truly this is the interior of the kings... albeit with added dirt from years of ferrying round Joe and Jolene average in the course of their daily chores. Unfortunately 1981's idea of an audio system is not by any means acceptable.... the only acceptable facet of said audio is that EVERY (yes... all 5! 5 presets!) preset is tuned into Radio Hauraki. Classic rock hard. Note the brushed alumnium trim on the dash - now we know where Audi got the idea's for the TT from... GO TOYOTA! Steering is controlled via a premium public-transport issue steering wheel, which at some point will also be binned in favour of something less crap. A tacho is also an addition I think I will require, to allow me to keep tabs on the fearsome 4K lest it slip from it's incredibly narrow powerband (I am yet to find said powerband, someone once told me it was actually there..... somewhere!). And here she is showing off here insides... filthy wee thing. So.... what are my plans for this, the pinnacle of Toyota's automotive prowess? Well, to begin with, I'm sorting out a basic (read: cheap but reasonably effective) sound system. The source unit will be (sale pending) Pioneer DEH-P6450, which my flatmate is kindly selling me for $100. This will send musics to my recently acquired Audison VR404 amp (4x45wrms), which I also acquired for $100. No LP or HP filter though so an electronic crossover will be in order... I can sort that cheaply from Jaycar with my super-excellent rates! I ideally want to run components in the front, so I've got my peepers peeled for something cheapish and half-decent quality... probably actually going to go for a set of the Jaycar kevlar coned 6.5" comp's unless anyone has any particularly bad news about them! As for rolling stock, I already have a couple of options open to me... what, did ya think I was going to run around looking stock??? I just bought a set of SSR Mark I 14x7" rims off Trademe, ($100... there's a pattern emerging here) one of the earlier Jap 2 piece rims, stupidly light and very period! The parts car also came with a set of 13x6" Cheviot US800's... which are a tad bogan looking for me, but at least they've got tyres. Anyways, that's the intro, I'll keep this updated with any progress! The best thing is, I'm not putting k's on the Alfa any more! Cheers, and thanks for reading!

Yeah can do, almost all of them are chromed plastic however, very rare to find metal ones.... even those on anpanman's GX61 will be plastic I suspect!

That Is Superb!!! Well done, you've made that look as it is supposed to! Lovin the SSR's, that touch of camber on the rear looks the biz, can't do much for tyre wear but meh! durty_starlet - if you want fender mirrors, let me know, there's a wrecker here with huge amounts of JDM vehicles with them on, I'm sure they'd work otu quite cheaply.

Sounds to me like it could be a problem concerning the brake booster or associated hoses? (If you have a booster of course)

You'll experience a considerable gain in hp - don't listen to WESTCORT... bascially calculate the volume of gas that the fartcannons can hold at any given time, times that number by the square root of the total swept capacity of the engine you're running, then add in 25% of the octane rating of the fuel that is in the tank. The result is the total "real" horsepower gain, none of this namby-pamby unreliable engine dyno or rolling road stuff - those things are notoriously temperamental when it comes to accurate readings. I would consider an 8 outlet system if I were you - 4 exiting from the rear of the car, and 2 exiting on each side. This equates to 2 exhausts from each cylinder. The best way to gain performance from this setup is to design a 4 - 16 -8 exhaust primary system - the way it steps into 16 smaller diameter pipes after the initial 4 exhaust ports will mean the gases travel at a faster velocity - but only when teamed up with say, a downdraft manifold with a Toyota 2K carburettor (with choke removed - this is imperative) for optimum intake velocity to match. Then, as the gas expands into the 8 pipes which eventually exit the vehicle at aformentioned locations, they will create a venturi effect, which will successfully draw the gases out of the system at a high rate, resulting in what I would imagine would be a considerable performance enhancement. It's a tried and true system used extensively by AMC Gremlin owners in the States, when the GM 2.4l quad four powerplant is transplanted into these cars.... http://www.extravagentperformance.com/g ... austs.html has some info, although the page has been down for a few days. Good luck

Well they already handle brilliantly... I'm not doing it to get WOF's, it's purely for looks, so I have the 15s as a wheel for driving on daily.. while the widened steels are there for occasional weekend posing and/or car shows if I ever get round to sorting my engine bay out properly. lowlancer, they'll only be 7.5" wide, but with nearly 3" of lip on them.... black centres is also on the agenda. At this stage I think I'll go for 185/60s on them, it won't be mega stretched but it should look the biz...

I love that look... thats why I'm planning to do it on my car with these steelies I just bought for $25... They're going to receive some widening, an extra 2 inches on the happy side.... (yes I realise it's not legal... hence I have my 15's still! Now THAT's what I'm talking about.....

That.... thing.... is..... WICKED BEYOND BELIEF!!!! Nice job there mate, any other details on mods to it though???

Argh... don't bother! Just buy a turbo one if that's the intention. All the gear is already there for it.... the 1.0l is carbed vs the Turbo's injection, so there'll just be too much fussing around with fuelling and electrics as well.... when a Uno Turbo can be had for the money you'll be throwing down the drain at this thing....

Cheers for the comments.... I'm looking at going and getting my bumpers resprayed soon, theres a few dodgy spots on them. And... I've noticed a rust bubble in the hatch (SHOCK!) so that needs to be sorted asap as well dammit. But like most projects there's future plans... I've been discussing the prospect of building a new engine with my uncle (who races a Sud/builds his own engines) and it appears I already have a few bits and pieces suited to building a hot 1.7 8v.... one of which include a VERY useful set of cams. Still... sometimes I get sick of it, and it'd be nice to start a new project, as there's really not much I haven't touched on the bloody thing... but there's still the fear I'll regret it if I do....

To be honest I'm not even a slight fan of Celeste's, but I can see the potential if it's done in a tasteful JDM style.... you could even make a custom rear panel as per the photoshop and use R32 lights... surely those are dime a dozen... nice chrome trim ring around them and voila! Instant phatness.... ditch the front bumper, add an external cooler and a chin spoiler and it should be looking mad. There's a very tidy green one cruising round in Chch, square lights, sitting very low on what appear to be Work Equip 14" dished rims with black centers and polished lip.

From out at leftfield, you could chuck a Jap V6 in there.... like a VG30DE (keeping it NA!) but that could prove expensive, especially maintaining it.... or there's the other expensive option of a 1UZ-FE Toyota V8... I'm actually liking RT's suggestion... supercharged Pinto... supercharging is sadly overlooked too often IMO, especially in the small car scene. You'd have the advantage of the wicked low end torque afforded by a blower as well. Don't imagine it would be nearly as expensive or complicated as a turbo setup of any kind either. Still be able to keep a nice NA sound as well....

I run Bilstein's in the front of the Sud.... I think I paid $400 for the pair, plus the struts were modified as the shocks are a short stroke Subaru item... In the rear I have a set of Spax shocks, which are compression and rebound adjustable, which arrived from the UK with adjustable Spax front inserts, (which bit the dust after an argument with a fucking massive pothole) and progressive springs for a total of $750NZD.

Ok then... I know it's a FWD and a lot of you don't even consider it to be an oldschool car, but here's a wee bit on the Alfa. I bought the car on the 1st of October 1999, as a $500 near wreck, the thing was absolutely rotten, having originally been a UK car, (salt on the roads in winter) and then imported to Wellington in 1986 (sea breeze....) so it was always going to be a mission. Talked the chick selling it down from $3000 so it was a good deal really. Basically I bought it for the fact it had a great deal of the hard to get Sud bits in great condition - namely an intact interior, all the plastics and electrical parts, as well as the more desirable 14" Speedline alloys versus the weird metric Speedline alloys of the same design (340mm - part way between a 13" and a 14"). On the way back to Palmy from buying it... we ran over a Chep pallet in the middle of the road at 140km/h, completely buggering the LH strut, wheel, tyre, and output shaft bearing on the transaxle. Luckily, my uncle who was following managed to track down the truck the pallet had fallen off, and a healthy insurance payout from the transport company assisted in a full respray and panel job. This was pretty extensive, bascially involved putting on new front guards, stitching in new rear guards, welding up extensive rust at the base of both A-pillars and the base of the LH B-pillar, and also some in the floor. In total it was off the road for about 8 months while I found the time to do the work amongst exams and the busy social life of a 6th/7th former at the time These are the oldest photo's I could lay my hands on.... fresh out of the panelshop, the day I finally got it all back together, circa mid 2000. Check those styly 14" rims, the absurdly high ride height and the somewhat comical wee exhaust! I drove it like this for a wee while, doing minor mods in it like a 2" exhaust and the usual K&N filter, until I chanced upon a ridiculously cheap set of mags at the local Partsworld.... thus I became the owner of a set of ROH Spider 14" wheels in a 4x98mm PCD for the princely sum of $150 - they actually came off a Lada and the wrecker guy was convinced they wouldn't fit anything else, so who was I to argue??? Here's a couple of pics of it resplendent in all its glory, still riding high on the 14" rims... this is around October 2001, both of these pics snapped en route to 4nR Nationals 2001. Time went by once more..... until I decided it was time I had more go. By this stage I was on my 2nd 1500cc 105hp boxer, as the initial engine that the car had in it died from a cracked piston due to leaning out, the substitute engine being a $200 boxer pulled from a wrecked Alfa 33 until I could afford my planned 1712cc Alfa 33 engine conversion. I purchased a low km example of this engine from Italian Autos in Auckland in May 2001 for $850 including freight. Usual maintenance stuff was completed, such as cambelts, all new fluids, new hoses where necessary, and a few other seals and gaskets, before it was completed around August the same year during a weekend. Added was a new 2.25" exhaust with a set of tuned length split pulse extractors. Also took the opportunity to build a fresh gearbox, and install brand spankers brake hardware while I was at it. So with a new engine, I got interested in doing some track time at Manfeild, and it became apparent that even though a standard Sud handles absolutely brilliantly (contrary to many peoples belief of FWD handling) some work would need to be done to go even faaaaaassstteeer! Cue a suspension upgrade. All four corners were fitted with Spax 50mm progressive lowering springs brought back from the UK by an AROCNZ member, and matched Spax adjustable dampers. It sat nice and low, as well as displaying improved handling characteristics mainly due to the stiffened rear end, and made the car more susceptible to oversteer as opposed to the usual FWD understeer. The resulting ride height was something like this: As happy as I was with the performance for the time being, I turned my attention to some interior mods, namely a stereo as I hadn't had anything in the car since I had purchased it, and for a music lover, that was hell, even though the raspy boxer sounds wicked (especially on the overrun... mmm popping and crackling!). A moderate system was installed, namely a Pioneer CD player and Blaupunkt front speakers, Sony sub, amp and 6x9s. This got stolen eventually but that's another story. Joining it in the cabin was a period 80s style MOMO steering wheel that I scored complete with a Skyline boss kit for $70... then I sold the boss kit for $50, making it a cheap wheel. In the months following this set of mods, not a lot was done to the car, I drove it daily, took it to the track when I could and also did a fair few long haul trips up North in it, until I shifted to Chch in 2003, where the car soon became known as SUD0FF when I had the opportunity to buy the plate for a very cheap price. In October 2003 one of the lifters packed a sad in the left hand head, so I pulled both heads off, recondtioned them, including a slight plane, cleaning up the ports, k-lining the valves, and installing valve stem seals on the exhaust valves, which they don't have as standard. Summer 2004 was when the next noticable mod came - the set of 15" TSW Apex wheels. During 2004 I managed to get out and do some drag events, culminating in a couple of trips to the DYO semi-finals and a best time of 16.14 @ 139km/h, with a 60ft time of 2.3 secs. I will venture out again soon, aiming for a high 15 with some tuning this time! In between times, I found time to meet up with other Sud enthusiasts and snap piccies like this one: So this brings this epic saga to 2005... where the full interior and audio overhaul took place after some serious hours at work, and some serious saving. I designed a basic, boxed boot install trimmed in carpet, as I figured it was in keeping with the car's overall style. 2 Rockford Fosgate 10" subs were to be the bass makers, powered by a Rockford Fosgate P3001 382wrms mono channel amp (2ohm parallel wiring), the front speakers were Alpine Type R 6.5" components, running of a second amp, another Rockford Fosgate, this time a P2002 2 channel 2x92wrms amp. A whole heap of quality wiring was run throughout the car, I worked for ages building the boot setup, and even taught myself a few new skills, such as trimming and fibreglassing, courtesy of some good mates who helped me along the way! I turned my attention to the seating.... I bought the complete seating arrangement from a 2000 Alfa Romeo 145QV for the meagre sum of $200. This included a pair of wickedly comfortable Recaro reclining seats, and a rear seat, which I ended up cannibalising for the material in order to trim my existing seat to match the fronts. This turned out to be the only work other than the paint that I farmed out to someone else... Patrick Auto Trimmers in Chch did a wicked job for a fair price, also installing the headrests from the 145 rear seat for a subtle custom touch. The steering wheel in thse pics unfortunately doesn't belong to me (cheers Paul!), but I am searching for one in the exact style but a 350mm version..... So that is the story so far of my (very) long term project, as well as daily driver and track car and..... yeah. Next plans involved pulling the engine out again... and replacing with a hot 1.7 8v, still running twin Dellortos, this is scheduled for sometime early 2006 when I should have enough saved to do so! Until then, here's some of the nicer pics of the car as it is now.... PS: Have since replaced the front speakers with a set of Swedish DLS R6A Reference components, I now have a 320mm MOMO Race steering wheel similar to the pics.... and it's run 101hp on the dyno!

How about you...... let your fingers do the walking! Yellowpages is always a great place to start, could always look up "powercoating" or something similar.... for example, I looked up the aforementioned word "powdercoating" at http://www.yellowpages.co.nz and this is the results it presented on my computer screen thingy. http://yellowpages.co.nz/Pages/SearchRe ... dercoating So yeah.... it's a start huh. At a guess, I would imagine you would be looking at it costing more than an Irvines steak and cheese Pie Time and 600ml Coke combo from a Caltex station.

No matte is matte... and flat is... well flatter.. you knwo what i mean?... like smooth not rough liek matte black is... haha like think of house paint... usually not gloss... but you wouldn't call it matte would you? Semi gloss? Satin or semi-gloss.... satin is the less glossy of the two, more useful as an interior paint. Trust me, I work at *coughBunningscough*.

From that angle you can unfortunately see where the tip connects to the muffler, but when standing, it looks pretty damn good. The droop of the tip follows the same angle as the rear quarter, so it fits really nicely with the style of the car EDIT: Oh yeah the tip there is a 2.5"

Hahahhahaaaa nice use of the word GRUNTY.

4EFTE Toyota 1300?

Carbied 4AGE has to be the go. They do go pretty well, are fairly light as well. Sound goos with carbs! Go with a 16V, easier to find, cheaper to fix. That one in the pic isn't a silvertop eitherm it's most likely a bluetop 4AGE, indicated by the placement of the dizzy.

I wouldn't touch a 20v.... have you driven one? Torque is at an all time low on those things..... Smallport redtop 4age would be the go, keeping it NA etc etc. as they tend to flow a lot better than the bigport models (velocity etc) which in themselves are actually more suited to turbocharging... And we all know how well an oldschool car with turbo 4AGE power goes with a hairdryer bolted onto it... (TIM1D!!!)

If you want that Alfa washer bag with the pump attached let me know... I have one spare

Ideally in a RWD you want the rear set up a tad softer than the front, to combat oversteer. However other factors like front wheel camber and castor can influence handling in a big way, so maybe adjustable camber/castor kits could be an option? I'm sure there's a range available for Escorts from the likes of K-Mac or Whiteline (Aussie brands) I have adjustable shocks all round, the rear end is stiff as buggery (FWD) and the front a little softer to stop crashing over bumps. Also have adjustable bottom arms for camber etc so with a bit of fine tuning by someone who knows whats up, it's reasonable inexpensive to set up suspension.

LOL at iridium or multi-electrode spark plugs. How the hell can that give you a fatter spark??? The spark is always going to travel the shortest route to a ground, so it's highly likely that the distance to one electrode will always be shorter! Hence a smaller spark. Buy normal copper NGK's and be done with it. With coils as well, on an internally standard engine, I wouldn't bother putting a fancy one on, the engine is not really going to benefit in any way. I'd be inclined just to stick with a new set of plugs, leads, rotor, dizzy cap and a check of the coil to make sure it's doing it's thing, and be done with it. Always heard nothing but good things about the GT40 bosch coils as well....

But custom made springs aren't cheap and what about leaf spring rear suspension? Custom made springs you will find are not much dearer than buying Kings, Dobis, or whatever, a ballpark figure is around the $400 mark. I'd sooner drive on standard springs while saving that $400 up.... I had an FXGT with chopped springs and it was lethal, and considering some of the shit we used to do in that car, it's kinda lucky I'm still alive. With leaf springs, lowering blocks are entirely legal (once certed) as long as they fit within the LTSA guidelines. Otherwise, get the reset, it's not too expensive I hear.