oftensideways

4 and rotas is the plan, got my car and my friends 20b altezza that i built for him to put in the show. nah no laser cutting or plasma here just alot of grinding dust up my nose! not a full time gig, but I am working on it to become that way (not just auto engineering stuff tho, do a fair bit of heavy stuff), it makes it easier for me that i have a good winter seasonal job to go to if the works not there. i've got a good selection of gear (saving for a lathe at the moment) but shed is only 8x5 and mostly dirt floor (concrete soon tho hopefully) i did have a pretty decent shed in the old house we rented.

ill bump this up aswell

heres some pics of the car in action, massive thanks to respective photographers, so stoked to have cool ass photos of the car! plans for the near future are turbo the motor thats in it, cut the gaurds up for wider wheels in the back and more track and lock up front. also if i can find a set of 14" 3 piece wheel i will widen them to around 9 for the front and 10 or so for the back. am looking at the possibilty of putting a steering rack in to replace the box aswell, lots of little details ive missed and things i didnt photograph but planning on taking the car to 4 and rota show so feel free to crawl all over it there.

I think this page is in need of a bump and a bit of an update! been attending a few trackdays and meremere drift days, and having an absolute blast with this thing, but as things do when you start pushing harder, started breaking diffs and axels (actually suprised me how much abuse the standard gear took). I've now put a b1600 diff into this and along with it when in a full custom 4 link setup and coil overs as well as raising the entire tunnel and floorpan to give clearance and more LOW! damn i love cutting up cars. took me alot of hours to do but i think all up cost me about $450 thats including the $150 for the diff, so can't be much happier with that! the car is also alot more fun to drift with a better ratio. righto so heres a bunch of photos of the diff conversion and a few words. first step was to cut all brackets of diff housing and make new lower arm brackets welded on, used the bar to keep both side aligned making sure they are not offset at all in any direction fabbed lower arms using the original leaf spring hanger as the forward mount and also using the rear nolathane shackle bushes Test fit. shit that aint guna work! Cut a massive hole! making top arm brackets top arms made adjustable using rear toe adjusters off a mazda lantis if remember correclty top arm inboard mounting points welded in and started shaping the tunnel scored these bad boys for $60, from the rear of a civic, no leaks but look alot of effort to un seize start of the coil over mounts, these were quite a mission to get sitting in a place that i thought would work with cutting a shit load more out of the car, ended up having to space the fuel tank back to get them to fit. you can see the pan hard rod mount in this pic finished diff housing waiting for prep and paint Top coil over mounts diff ready to go with all the arms floor and tunnel all done waiting for sealer and paint Sorry never snapped any pics of painting or anything (front mouted the oil cooler to) as was in a mad rush to get it done! ended up workin on it till 3am then left at 4 to head to Keisuke's xmas drift bash, awesome day just wish i wasnt so tired. car went pretty well considering, nothing broke so thats a always a bonus.

lovin the look of this thing man! so dope, little bit envious of your wheels to..

I am just about to start 4 linking my corolla as well but its a ke30. if you have access to a lathe and welder and are competent at fabricating i don't see it being to much of a mission. I went to horopito motors with a tape and measured a whole lot of different toyota's, leaf sprung and 4 linked. the length of bottom arm on most 4 links and the length of the leaf spring from front hanger to center of axel were all pretty close, and the forward mounting points are all in very similar positions. like was said above starlets have inward angled top arms and others were standard parallel arms. I'm going to put a b1600 diff into mine but i think the easiest 4 link conversion into an old leaf sprung corolla would be to remove a full diff complete withs arms out of a ke70 or similar mount bottom arms from leaf spring hangers, would likely need spacers made to take up any slack and mayby modified parts to accept appropriate sized bolts. for the top arms if you don't want to cut up the floor and and bring longer arms into the rear seat area use the standard arms and either make mounts from the body or off the side of the chassis rails. most toyotas i looked at had similar looking shaped rails so look like there would be plenty of room to do this. then make panhard rod mounts and if you want coilovers take a look at KPR's cars and turret like he has. all this may not place the wheel in the center of the wheel arch but adjustable arms can sort that If you doing all this to get car alot lower remake lower arm diff mounts further to bring arms back to flat and position top arm approriately. all the above could can still be done with what ever diff just make the 4 link mounts in the correct position on the diff you want to use. Don't forget to lock the diff and do skids.

very nice work mate! bet your stoked its all coming together. any idea of a date you want to be driving it?

have now gusseted steering arms, look much better and am now 100% positive they will never fail. will upload a pic at some stage. good to get feedback on things like this, sometimes its hard to decide what to do and another persons view helps alot.

you're quite right a straight arm will be stronger for sure, i'm unsure what i'm going to do at the moment. as I see it there may be a little flex in them but I may gusset them to stop it and i can't see them failing except for in the event or a crash in which case things are likely to break or bend anyway. the part I have added in will not bend or break, its solid bar, and i'm more than confident of my welding so I think WORST case under high steering load the original part may flex and bend which will instantly throw out the steering alignment and you would assume damage has been done and pull in to pit. I will do some testing tho to see how they work, if all else fails i will just convert it to steering rack. I have seen the new rules for steering and suspension but am unsure of what the testing involves? i'm assuming non-destructive to be xray or something similar?

SO, im a sucker for pulling this thing apart! got inspired by KPR's work and Todd's drift KE70 and decided i need more lock and some better alignment of suspension. arms have now been moved forward 25mm, steering arms offset 50mm to suit the extra castor and the modified knuckles. Knuckles have been had length and ackerman modified for max lock. steering arm mod is something i thought up (idea from offset rack ends people do to steering racks) to stop over centering and keep them at a better angle, they work good so far but am yet to drive the car so hopefully it all works out. lock is now only limited by wheels hitting chassis rails so if more is needed i'll need to lengthen the LCA's some more but will require guards to be cut if i keep it this low. standard setup LCA mounting point moved knuckles and steering arms also to make things abit easier at the track i've made jacking point front and rear which bolt to the bumper mounts and sit behind both front and rear valance. just need to finish off once car is back on the ground. and in the process of making a catch can.

if you have access to a lathe this is a decent homemade tool to turn the radius in the dies !

I know the prices are rediculous! I actually found the receipt and they are a little less than 500 but still not cheap. i tried to import them direct but the cost was not really any cheaper than to get straight from cardwells and then there was the wait while they were shipped. the way i looked at it was i needed a cage anyway and if i payed some one to do it it was guna be up around the cost to go buy the bender so why not just do it myself If its only bike frames your wanting to build i would look at building a bender or maybe even modifying a cheap one as the crush involved in bending tube is not guna be as critical as it is with roll cage building so you should be able to get away with something lower quality. i did find a real good article on a guy that built his own bender and dies, i'll see if i can dig it up, just need to remember what forum i saw it on.

having thoughts of selling this off as I have no use for it anymore, and lack the motivation to finish it at this point in time. don't really wanna sell it to anyone but seeing it go to someone from here would be cool. would anyone be interested? not sure on how much i'd be after at this stage but but am wanting to build a decent tandem car trailer so having the funds to do that would be sweet. would probly need a grand or so and abit of time thrown at it to get it legal.

although not legal 195/45/14 are cheap, small and look good on a 8.5 inch, thats what i'm running on mine.

I bought a pro tools bender from cardwells for bending roll cage tubing and they are the real deal. but as danger said the dies are what kill the budget, I'm unsure on the prices for the smaller dies for bike size tubing but i payed around the 500 mark for each die needed (2 for roll cages, 1 1/2 and 1 3/4).the bender itself was about the same price. if you are on a budget and have the skills to build quality shit, i'd say buy the dies you need and then build a bender yourself, shit I could even send you plans of mine if you ended up with pro tools stuff. you could try making the dies yousrelf if you have access to a decent lathe but the chunks of steel need are probly worth abit anyway.

I'm toying with the idea of the oil cooler out the front, what do you guys think?? for those that don't know, rotarys use big oil coolers from factory so it will be functional. it sits behind the grill at the moment.

weak link at the moment is the diff, the standard is taking a fair bit of abuse but have blown a few axels. plan is to upgrade to a b1600 diff at some stage so will have to cut the floor and tunnel up to get it even lower!

that is awesome! would love to build one of these.

and a video form hori dori in the figure 8 section http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151814645495290

So...got abit of work done on the car done just in time for club-k trackday and hori dori 9. was by far the best weekend i've had in a while! ended up getting some drifting done at trackday (thanks for allowing it club-k!), good to meet a few of the guys from here and club-k. and then hori dori on sunday went pretty sweet, awesome fun. ended up getting crowd favourite which i was pretty stoked about!! car is now all painted, nothing flash tho, will hit something at some stage. front is now rocking 14 x 8.5 sigma steels with 195/45/14. cage is all done, loud exhaust was on, skid wheels were in stock. big thanks to Matt Lowe form club-k for the awesome pics!

One tip I can give you guys is if you plan on buying things bring cash, If you see colin he's far more likely to sell you stuff abit cheaper if you give him cash. also if anyone is planing on making a night of it but don't really wanna pay accom, people are more then welcome to come party/crash at my pad if your keen (haven't many of you tho haha) but yeah the offers there, we live 5min from ohakune.

this is looking awesome there buddy keep it up!

So I fitted tyres to the rims today but to dark for pics now, wheels look rather average with tyres on them as I was half expecting, but I'm guna paint the lip black and I think that will change the whole look of them for the better. Anybody got any pics of wide 14s with 195/45 on them?

havent updated this for awhile, but a few things to show. havent done alot of work lately as me and the missus have bought a house and have no shed untill i convert the decent sized lean to into one, my shed stuff is all around the house haha. anyway, bought a chin spoiler off Shakotanke70, scored a boot spoiler off a falcon that i cut down. full cage is now all done, alloy dash, bought a pair of those 13 x 7 starshark imitations and a set of sigma steels that i will widen to 8.5 or 9. just need to source a new bonnet and then give the front a spary and most likley respray the rest of the car. camera was flat so heres some crappy ipod photos. enjoy!

gutted! turns out the 7's is on the same weekend and the bros missus bought them tickets.