MZ10 Toyota Soarer restoration

[Roman]

Hey people,

Just thought I'd share some pictures etc of my Dad's car project.

(discussion thread here]

Basically we've got an MZ10 soarer shell with about 170,00kms on it, but like many 80s Toyotas it's seen better days in terms of rust etc.

Here's how it looked a few years ago:

The idea of this project is to make it a nice standard looking car again, that can be used comfortably on long road trips etc for going to see family and things like that.

So it's not going to be race car, drift car, or be super low or have hard suspension etc. (deal-with-it.jpg)

Here are a few pics of the current state of affairs in terms of rust etc:

Inside the boot didnt look tooooo bad initially...

But when we stripped it out a little more, turns out to be not so good. (not beyond repair, just a bit more work than anticipated)

Rear quarter windows always seem to be a problem with 80s Toyotas!

Engine bay etc is all reasonably good

Rear subframe all looks okay, just old/dirty

Inside the boot is pretty bad, few areas like this under bog:

[Roman]

Heaps of progress has been made in terms of tidying up all of the suspension parts etc...

Everything has been sandblasted clean, then painted with what is like a 2 pot version of POR15 that comes out matte black, and then some marine grade 2 pot gloss black.

Gas tank before:

And after:

Heaps nicer, and definitely nicer if working under a car not to have 30 years worth of grime to contend with!

[Roman]

I would say that the most notable feature of the first generation Toyota soarer, was the amazing amount of modern conveniences that it had for a car that came out in the early 80s.

The factory car had a 2 litre EFI turbo engine, (MTEU) air conditioning, power steering, electric windows, central locking, an awesom stereo system with a recordable tape deck and mic input (aka kareoke system), and a few other things which were pretty cool.

So we have decied that since it was a technology laden car originally, it would be nice to have all of that still, plus some more discretely added modern additions to the car that will not detract from its appearance as a reasonably tidy original sort of looking car.

Sooo, in terms of drivetrain etc we will not be using early 80s gear anymore.

We have got what is pretty much a front cut from a 1996 JZX100 Toyota chaser.

From this, we will be using:

2.5 litre 6 cylinder single turbo engine, and automatic transmission. AKA VVTI 1JZGTE + autobox (280hp, max torque @ 2400rpm)

The full airconditioning system

Full traction control and ABS systems fitted (Can be turned off, of course)

The full front loom, to replace all Soarer wiring forward of the firewall (Chaser fusebox/relays etc will control headlights, indicators etc)

Steering rack, with variable rate power assist

Brake booster and master cylinder

ABS/traction control unit

And a few other things which I may have forgotten about, hah.

Here's a picture of the engine and trans fitted: (Thanks to Ryan Fels for engine mount drawings!)

JZX100 steering rack, seeing how it can be mounted to the Soarer crossmember:

Front mount intercooler fitted, in front of a radiator from an Auto Altezza (As it has the trans cooler built into the bottom of the radiator)

Welcome to wiring hell! There's no way I'd ever want to tackle a job like this, hahaha.

[Roman]

Oh yeah, so some stuff has been slowly happening with this.

The car is now a Torana



Have needed some wheels for a while in a size that suits what it will end up with, as the gaurds need panel beating etc and want to make sure that everything clears the wheels/tires before $paint$.

Might get something different later on, or might stick to our West Auckland Bogan heritage and rock the globes to be a troll.
I actually quite like them.

Picked up a TRD LSD already in the IRS housing that will slot straight in too, along with some spare axles.

Vultured from NicT's Carina, snooze you lose people haha.

Pretty much all of the wiring is complete now, according to my Dad at least - all I see is a horrifying cluster**** of wiring hell. 

But there's no Soarer wiring forward of the firewall anymore - it's all JZX100 stuff. We've had the motor fired up, and not reporting error codes for any of the above from memory, but still needs a few things like the ABS controller mounted properly in the engine bay and so on.

It's now using the Power steering, aircon, ABS, traction control, motor, trans, fuse boxes, etc etc all from the JZX100. I believe he's retrofitted some of the body loo m as well, so for example all of the old worn out switches have had their internals swapped for newer stuff.



A few other bits have been sand blasted and repainted etc too. Slowly but surely getting there. Still a long road ahead, but Daylight savings + summer coming up should help a fair bit

As always, when at this stage of the project it looks like there's been nothing done for a long time, then it all sort of comes together at the end once it gets painted and reassembled.

Although we have been a bit slack on it too, coupe life.

[Roman]

Epic thread bump!

 

Still havent really done anything further with this, hahaha.

 

Have been a bit occupied with other stuff (blowing up carina, fixing carina, blowing up carina, fixing carina....)

 

However!

 

An MZ11 came up for sale, and we figure it might have some cool bits, or otherwise clips/trim/etc that is less than great on ours. So we went on a mission:

 

If I had to use two words to describe the external condition of this car, they would probably be 'super fucked' heh.

Mega rusty, most panels kicked in, roof kicked in! Sort of a bummer but it's a parts car so who cares




Came with some cool stuff like headlight squirters, and we were missing one of the fibre optic light thingys you can see on top of the gaurd in this pic:



And aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh yeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhh about that rust.








It looks like the car was parked up for rust reasons rather than mechanical ones, it's got a sweet looking 5MGE in it. Which might start up and be fine, but fuel pump has crapped itself.



One thing though is that the interior is EXCELLENT.

We will definitely be swapping all of this over into the other car.

Not sure if I like the burgundy better than the blue, but the dash isnt cracked, and the (cream) carpet and seats are in amazing condition. Stoked!

 

It's also got cruise control so we'll put that in as well, overcomplicated coupe life

Some scumbag kicking panels in, ggrrr....






We've been looking for ages for a 3.7 ratio F series diff, which this has. So we're super chuffed about that! Will make for some sweet cruising rpms when running 15" wheels, with a lot smaller rolling diameter than JZX100 stuff.

 

Either way, it's got me a bit more motivated to get stuck into working on the other car. I think the next thing on the menu is to pull the motor back out, tweak the engine positions slightly, then after that it's laregely panel, paint, reassembly.

 

Cant wait to drive it again one day!