nzstato

I don’t believe it

At the time I heard enough stories from old boys “I had a **** and I wish I never sold it….” Plus I was fortunate enough to get a work car with my 1st job so since it wasn’t worth much at the time (even now ae92 are cheap fun) selling it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Question for the brains trust, if I want to buy a bunch of genuine Toyota seals/pipes/kits where can I go if this stuff still exists?

So I've had this occasionally up on the forum over the years and now it's a proper project. But first, the yarn... As a 18yr old whipper-snapper I was fortunate enough to get a after school/uni job at the local rural mechanics - that was the start of where I learnt alot of what I know now. The workshop was run by a father-son, the latter of which owned this and then who I convinced to sell to me. It is an '89 AE92 Corolla GT and from what I was told, there were 2 brothers who imported one of each of these from JPN - one white and one black, that makes me the 3rd NZ owner. There are very few of these GT sedans which have survived (less than the FXGTs) and I had never seen another one in black (most are white/grey). Then one day, up popped on a random thread the reason why.... A basic translation has this descibes a small run of 215 units with black on black codes and some other slight factory upgrades to the 4age/5spd platform. I subsequently learned that Toyota also did a similar 254 unit run of Levins (and I know where at least one of them lives). So after being a daily driver and many teen/twentys antics it has sat for the last 15 years, moving between a few storage locations and sitting in my workshop until the landrover was pretty much finished. Some recent encouragement got me to get stuck into it again... Problem #1 is that after sitting for so long the fuel pump was dead, I had a Denso one sitting there but these things are a bit painful that you have to drop the tank to get the pump out.... I can assure you that dealing with the stale fuel which was in there was not alot of fun.... That was pretty much all it needed to fire back into life, some fresh fuel, a new battery and then that 4age was humming again... I immediately drove it outside to give a basic rinse of the accumulated dust. The years have not been super kind to the body work, there is some chipping/flaking paint, and I also spotted some very minor rust on the roofline, as well as some rust/cracking on the boot where the wing attaches (that was really an after thought from toyota). Also, during one of the storage moves it ran off the trailer and jammed the door, that then folded up the front guard when it was closed. So I pulled the affected panel off to give it some very slight tweaking to get it straight again. After working with 1.6mm alloy for landrover panels for so long I had forgotten how flimsy panel steel can be... So whats the plan? Basically a refresh of everything, but I'm going to spit up the work: The clutch is near done so the engine/gearbox needs to come out, and I think it is work pulling the head to at least do a check over and replace every seal/gasket while I'm there. While this thing has been used and abused it has also been very well serviced so I'll be interesting to see how it looks. In the process that also means all of the cooling/vac systems hoses, water pump/thermostat ect... Then the hydraulic systems - brake/clutch all need new fluids and seals, the A/C isnt working any more and I'd also like to have it back... Suspension, all bushes, and the top hats I see are cracking, so thats a complete go through. Plus gearshifter bushes. After that then its cosmetics, probably get the rims refurbished and i might be able to get away with a very good 'scotch n spray'. The steering wheel needs restiched and I need to find a Gen1 ipod nano to go with the pioneer stereo which I installed back in the day. Basically, get it back to what I remember when I was 18, but make it tidier than what I could afford at the times. This has been a long time coming, and the car means alot (plus its pretty unique) so I want to have a good go of it.

I'll post up a bit of progress as I go on these. But for the Landrover/Army nerds, these are genuine Series IIA 'Skippy' guards I'll be making repros of. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DajL7OVTr1d/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

So, after getting rather waylaid with other projects/life etc we do have some progress here.... got it running as good as its going to be... sorted out a bunch of minor stuff (wipers, lighting etc). Then gave it a much needed clean... Very soon, the long awaited 'WOF-day' was upon us, and despite the looks of the list it came off pretty good... a set of minor stuff to tick off, do some tidy of the seatbelts and one of the rear brake cylinders looks to be leaking. Biggest drama of the whole lot is to 'return to original'/ignore declaration papers I need to pull off the Series3 brake assembly and return to non- boosted brakes. Most of the way through the list, ideally I get back to a re-check soon.

If you want a list of more stuff to do, or list of addresses with OS stuff sitting in a paddock, hit us up.

My Wifey was a bit jealous of the workbench I built myself and wanted something similar. A bought a bunch of macro sleepers from marketplace a while back and still have a bit of rata left. Knocked this outdoor bar leaner up over the xmas break. I cheated this time as there are a few screws in it, but nothing you can see

I'm in for this idea

Doing lots of little tool restoration at the moment - the shed cant take any workshop machinery. I really dont like cosmetic restorations of tools or 'collector only' stuff- my preference is to keep whatever age/patina is there and then get it working how it should/straight/sharp etc. Kinda worked out my own process for derusting stuff like this (FYI for anything else). I tend to go with the brass wheel on a bench grinder to knock off the major stuff, then dunk in a tub of water/oxalic acid for a few days, back out and on the wheel and repeat untill the rust is gone and any exposed bits have a black iron-oxalic acid complex to them. Nickel plated stuff I'll scrub any excess off with a tooth brush and steel buff off on the wheel - coating in CRC or linseed oil keeps them fresh. You can buy oxalic acid as 'bar keepers friend' from bunnings for cheap.

Yes the top is all glued. The frame is held together mainly with mortise + tenon joints (+drawboard pins) with a few housed dovetails. The lower shelf is handcut T&G in a housing joint, same with the 'trough' between the benchtops

This is a bit of a different project for me, and my first real try with carpentry. I set the goal to make a workbench using all wood joints - no nails/screws. Every piece means something: Rimu (laminate top) - recycled from 1880s biscuit factory Rimu (frame) - from a large beam left in the garage when we bought the house. Rata (laminate and legs) - saved from the lintels from a greenhouse I had to take down (the beams were heavy) Macrocarpa (frame) - milled from a work colleagues house site overlooking Otago harbour. Wood vice (Record 52 1/2) - ex Otago Girls HS (c. 1950s) Blacksmiths vice - from my pops workshop (still more restoration needed)

Kinda 3d print thread, but also here. I have decided that I do need a little bit of dust collection on my thickensser as have a project upcoming where I'll be using it alot. I made up a simple 2 piece collector housing to go on the thickesser and printed it out in PETG, found a cheap vortex separator on Temu (though in hindsight I could have printed that too), then a bunnings bucket + hose completed the ensumble. Isnt 100% (but I dont need it to be) and a quick test run has it working fine as long as you're not expecting it too much of it. Beware of the 'dust collection barry' rabbithole which exists on the internet. Continuing the wood tool theme.... I very much like the concept of a track saw (and will be handy to process some beams I have here) but refuse to pay the $$ that is demanded by festool + others considering. Found some alloy extrusions from Temu for ~$40 which come close to the Festool profile and the printed a 'sled' which matches the groove profile + my skilsaw base. Doest have the depth of cut as a retail plunge saw but worth it for the $ I have into the whole affair.

Some more updates which might help others out there.... While the Zenith 36IV carb is a pretty simple bit of kit, and largely 'set and forget', it does come with a major issue over time... Sitting over a hot manifold the light alloy casings will warp, and with only 4x bolts holding it together it will do so to the extent that fuel (or more problematically, air) will seep past the gasket. You can see this here by the blackening on the gasket nearest the venturi, the ports that are now open to atmosphere control the economy diaphram which causes the copious fuel consumption at idle. The fix is to sand the faces back down flat, you can see the area where the feeler gauge can still get through. Assembly on these are pretty simple, with just a handful of jets/diaphrams to worry about.