Jump to content

Ed bought... and sold... another bloody AW11 (it's now Millhouse's)


0R10N

Recommended Posts

After selling my white T-top MR2 SC, I lasted all of two weeks before giving in to temptation and commenced searching for another AW11 to trundle around in for everyday duties.

If anyone's keeping count, this is number five.

Test drove a couple of examples up here in Auckland and was severely disappointed by a) price, B) various mechanical faults, and c) an endemic reluctance on the part of each seller to negotiate a) based on B). Gave Ewan @ hayatonka a call as well, but a search of the auctions and yards in Japan yielded no results within budget, apart from a couple examples with major rust that would never have passed compliance here in NZ without $$$$ worth of repairs :doubt:

Then just as I was about to give up, I received a phone call from a good friend in Wellington saying that one of his mates was selling a tidy hardtop manual AW11 SC, in more or less standard condition, and was I interested at all?

29dereh.jpg

After a bit of back and forth negotiating (and agonizing over the fact it was midnight blue with blue interior, my least favourite colour combination of the lot) - during which the price sharpened considerably after Ben, the seller, sold the BBS rims separately - I finally caved in and said yes.

So during the third weekend of June I flew down to Wellington, picked up the car, and covered the 650km trip back home in some of the most horrendous torrential rain ever, on the sketchiest of sketchy tyres, but without incident. And more importantly, drip free, thanks to the hardtop roof :P As it happened, the very next weekend a snowstorm closed the Desert Road, so timing was impeccable.

Here it is sitting in my driveway, on the crappy balloon tyres and mega fugly wheels that replaced the BBSes :pukeright:

5991714929_715624d306_z.jpg

5991715655_1ef5857e3a_z.jpg

The good: 5-speed. Super charger of course. Hardtop. Wind-up windows and lightweight glass (rare). Adjustable damper shocks. Rear swaybar!

The bad: Most infuriatingly it doesn't seem to have a LSD, unless it's a Torsen of some sort. Already miss the TRD one from old whitey :(

The ugly: Smurfy blue interior. No sideskirts. Those wheels, yuck.

Within a day of getting the car home I'd already found two tiny spots of rust, naturally at the bottom of the A-pillars, but the rest of the car remains thankfully free of tinworm... the direct result of being located in inland Otago for the last few years before the previous owner bought it. Upon advice from my panelbeater and a few friends I fishoiled the most troublesome spots for peace of mind, and then set about making a list of things that needed doing. you really didn't think I would just drive the car as-is, did you?

The exterior does need a few touch-ups here and there, but unlike my TX3 which ended up being a budget blowout restoration of stupid proportions, I reckon I can get away with painting the worst affected areas and cut'n'polishing the rest. It won't be the mintest AW11 out there by a long shot, but it'll certainly be one that an "enthusiast" would still be proud to own.

Thanks to the strong NZ dollar it was a good time as any to pick up a Twos R Us engine cover gas prop kit; I've been wanting one for a long time, but I'd never kept an AW11 long enough to really justify the effort. The key blank was a last minute "add to cart" decision :D

5911463381_c43b0d56fe_z.jpg

and I finally found a use for the vintage deep-dish Momo wheel in my parts pile. Excuse the electric blue interior...

5991716871_ce9a387aec_z.jpg

The fugly wheels have got to go, and the balloon tyres are not conducive to epic twisty touge runs, so I ordered a set of 14" RE001s (the only ones in the country, apparently) and found some suitably retro wheels to whack them onto.

2llkflx.jpg

Eventually the AW11 will wear some 15" Buddyclub P1s in bronze, but the Speedlines will do for now.

The other week I happened to stumble across a pleasant chap not far from my house who was wrecking an AW11 in midnight blue. Now half the exterior panels from his wreck reside in my garage ;)

Including a pair of sideskirts, which my panelbeater will find a way to retrofit to the car and hopefully prevent any future rust issues. One distinct advantage of having an AW11 without skirts from factory is that you can check the condition of the sills and be satisfied they haven't completely rotted away...

then someone tipped me off to the presence of a complete '89 AW11 at Pick a Part Avondale, so I made haste down there to see what I could scavenge. Arrived about 20 minutes too late to score the LED rear spoiler according to the nice lady at the counter, but did manage to grab a whole swag of other small bits, including the swanky updated mirrors that only came on that year.

5944420675_5e4d7348bd_z.jpg

5944974238_2c61554b02_z.jpg

opinions are divided over whether chunky is better than swanky, but they take literally minutes to swap so it's not the end of the world.

A hot date with the panel shop and paint booth is fast approaching, so I guess the next update will occur after this takes place, or once the tyres arrive and I can finally fit the Speedline telephone dials, or if I do something incredibly impulsive and click buy now on that Cusco LSD that keeps taunting me on Yahoo Japan... :rolleyes:

but as this is my daily driver I can't really justify having it off the road for too long, nor do I really want to do anything outrageous like fit monstrous swaybars, or gigantic blower pulley kits, or anything that would impinge on reliability. Yes it is a LOT slower than the white AW11 was, but I suppose I should exercise a shred of self-control now and again, am I right?

lololololol.

5992273596_69848f42d1_z.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 98
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

I think the blue interior looks nice (at least in the photo of it up there ^).

I liked the attention to detail on your TX3, so will be following this with interest. 8)

hehe, cheers. Attention to detail is probably the only thing I'm good at... should be able to keep it tasteful and "period-spec" without resorting to spending ridiculous money a la TX3, which to be fair started off in far worse condition than this AW11.

The interior only looks nice due to judicious aperture control of the camera device; on a sunny day the blue gets so painfully bright that I swear it starts glowing :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You need moar dials on. Now.

Also, sucks that it's not LSD. Boo. Hiss. Also also, you should have just waited for something to pop up in Japan, Mr. Impatient. :P

Dials will be fitted as soon as they return from Arrow Wheels, where I've sent them to have the kerbing repaired. 1.5-way Cusco LSD is around 90k yams, give or take, so the option is there. And as for waiting for a suitable, reasonably priced AW11 to pop up in Japan... well, let's just say I'd still be waiting at this point in time, and suffering the fuel bill/depreciation woes of having to drive squid/RX-7/coupe around (because I blew up my TX3).

Anywhooooooo... the blue exterior's not so bad. Gotta have one blue car in the collection, I suppose.

Blue interior, on the other hand, does irk me a little... at least my rose tinted shades turn it a neutral greenish tinge during the day, and at night everything turns dark anyway ;)

I have some miscellaneous trim, a centre crashpad, stereo surround, one C-pillar panel, and mint manual doorcards all in factory black lying around that could be swapped in if I so wished, but don't have a black dashboard (and ain't looking forward to fitting it either, should I buy one). Carpet and hoodlining I'd probably leave blue.

Even got some cool retro seats to chuck in if I ever do convert it to full black interior. But then there's the hassle of having to find rails etc. again, it's JUST a daily...

5997733978_d3c643b616_z.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lolololol, you love it Al :D

Oh harro what be these. Chur to Markku and Richy for the separate tipoffs.

DSC_0059.jpg

four 15x7+35 wobbly Buddyclub P1s are nowe mine. Plus some Falken Azeni semi slicks which may or may not be super hard and useless for anything except skids.

and there I was hoping not to spend any cash before payday!

tyres will find their way onto my track car and the rims will go into a dark corner of the shed to await their time. Have to repair the wobbles and refurbish then repaint in a nice shade of bronze or gunmetal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i liketh the rims man. you wouldnt be keen to flick off some of those white OZ or have something similar in 4x100 by chance?

alas, all my O.Z rims are 4x114.3 but I don't have any spare sets at the moment (sold off all my surplus ones)

The only spare 4x100 wheels I got are those hideous 14" ones that came on the AW11 (2nd photo in first post). The joys of having only one car with that particular stud pattern, haha.

Brad/Rich: If I ended up matching the bronze from my old AW, I would be happy :D It has been pointed out to me that gunmetal has the potential to look dull against the blue, similar to black rims on any car.

3780220933_b67f05a906_z.jpg

(i lurve how the bronze 'pops' and shines. Magpie magpie magpie)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...