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James's 1984 Corona Coupe GT-TR.


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Discussion thread > viewtopic.php?f=18&t=33392

Hi all.

I was going to keep this project under wraps from my dislike of internet photo uploading and the very minimal time I actually get to work on it.

But here goes.

It all started in October of 2009 when I had just finished my first year at uni in Wellington and was going crazy with the lack of cars to work on living in the horrible uni hostel. Trawling the pages of Trademe on night I spotted the Corona Coupe for sale as a shell. Having never seen one before I had to have it, looked so staunch. It was a few weeks before I was heading back to Tauranga for the summer so wasn't sure if it was still going to be there when I was able to actually buy it.

Turns out it was. Went up to Auckland on the Thursday to have a look and bought it out of sheer excitement.

Picked it up on the Saturday and this is what it looked like after I scraped and scrubbed the dirt and pine needles of it:

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Pretty much a bare shell with a box of bits. Now what?

I hadn't yet decide what engine etc I wanted to run in it so I though the best idea would be to start with body work.

Having worked for a spray painter through school years I was keen to get painting.

Hindsight says put motor in first because it will get scratched up haha.

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Having been a bit of a drift hack and sat under the pine trees for I don't know how long it had a bit of rust but nothing to major.

Cut all the rust out and welded in new steel.

I decided I wanted to keep the exterior as factory looking body wise (even though it had already had the black trim removed, looks better in my opinion).

So went with the factory Toyota metallic blue.

Sprayed engine bay, boot and door shuts.

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End of 2009.

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Just before I bought it, it had a 4age of some sought. The one thats in C's Garage corolla wagon (sedan now).

Being new to the scene and being talked out of 4age's by friends I decide to go nissan power, CA18det infact.

Firstly because engines and parts are readily available, but also because every single crashed altezza in NZ I was trying to buy

the people were making it difficult to buy. Even tried waving the asking price in cash at people! who knows..

Anyway a CA18det came up cheap with skyline box and other goodies so I snatched it up to get the car going quick.

Getting it home I found it needed a lot of work so after a quick check over, the whole thing ended up coming apart.

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This turned out to be great fun as I'd never done much engine work and got to learn a lot from my Dad (so did he).

It came with some custom engine mounts so I measure up and made mounts for the crossmember (welded by an engineer).

In hindsite dumb idea so may redo it all before it eventually goes for cert.... oneday.

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Early 2010 was spent pouring every hour I wasn't working into getting it running.

Should have gone N/A, Engine was CHEAP in comparison to everything else (learning curve).

But decided to invest in some good kit anyway.

Eventually got it all in and running, wiring was a nightmare (still is).

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Was reading up on what to do about front suspension but didn't want to pay big $$

Bought a set of Cusco S13 coilovers, hubs and brakes which fit a treat.

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A good friend of mine helped mock up a 3" exhaust. Had a coby and muffler at the end but is way too loud and

theres not enough ground clearance so may go down to 2.5" in the future.

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Bought a set of 16x8 & 9 Work Rezax. Look good with spacers but still don't fill the guards out.

These coupes have HUGE inner guards. Decided id rather run smaller 14" wheels so up for sale.

I think i'll either have to bolt 8 wheels together or get huge lips custom made.

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Scored a parts car in 2011 which I got a ton of little bits off including mint blue carpet so stoaked!

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After pillaging it for all it was worth sent shell to wreckers. Still have heaps of body panels, interior etc. PM me!

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Plan on keeping the interior fairly stock/restored. Nardi steering wheel and maybe brides when I can afford it. As well as subtle Blitz boost gauge.

Doors had/have a bit of rust in the bottom so spent a bit of time last winter when I was in Tauranga cutting it out (still havn't finished!)

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In November found a guy with a rusted out coupe in Whakatane so scored the dash (black) and interior panels as well as tail lights, bits and bobs.

Was a wreck, never seen so much rust in my life, could put my arm through the holes in it.

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Got my original dash colour matched with vinal paint and fixed holes where some idiot had screwed gauges to it.

Old Dash:

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New Dash:

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Nardi fitted is a friend of mines, I bought one but I think it will be too small as im not running power steering.

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A few more pics. The rear had cut springs in it (in pic) so spent ages trying to figure out what to run in it, turns out the factory front springs from the 325i were the perfect size and length when in the car (and really firm). Its now raised up about an inch to match the front. May have to change it again when I get 14" wheels on it.

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  • 1 month later...

Quick update. A while ago I ended up buying a pair of 14" starsharks.

Sat in my friend garage in auckland for a while but today she dropped them off at my parents place in Tauranga.

My dad put them on one side and sent me some pics.

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Currently has 27mm spacers on but am planning on running no spacers and getting wider lips made up to fill guards out when I get some $$$.

Looking for another pair but probably not until the end of the year.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Managed to get up to Tauranga for a week to do some work on the coupe.

First off I thought I'd check out the Starsharks that I recently bought off another member of OldSchool..

Turns out that the pair I bought is actually not a pair at all. They are both different offsets and have different size lips and barrels.

You can probably guess im pretty annoyed so I hope this member can sort it out as I payed top dollar for them, and are pretty much good for nothing in this state.

On a lighter note I installed the Blitz boost gauge I bought a few years ago. Wanted it on top of the steering column for that "period correct" look.

First I made a bracket and bolted the mount to the top of the steering column.

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Next I had to carefully measure and cut out a slit for the gauge mount to slide through the plastic cover. The last owner had also put in an adjustable steering column which is great but had to modify the inside of the plastic cover and cut a slit for the adjuster to fit.

Drilled holes for wires and hose.

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Wired it all up.

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Looks quite good, stoked!

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Corona got to see some sunlight in the time I was up in Tauranga.

With boxes of parts lying round I decided to put majority of the interior back together.

Was a bit of a mission and had lost a lot of screws and bolts but scrambled some from the parts car boxes.

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Feels way more like an actual car now with the dash complete and center console in. Had to spray it vinyl blue to match the rest as it was black before.

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Mounted the ECU in the center for now because there was not enough room behind the glovebox and didn't want it on the floor.

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Just need to mount the rear seat belts at the top then the rear will be complete. Theres surprisingly a lot of room in the back for a coupe. Interior looks mint! Rear side windows also go down which is awesome.

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Installed the thermo fan with a mounting kit as I had it wired up during summer.

A few mates were round in their BMWs, driveway was looking quite european.

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Headlights and yellow spotlights working.

Just packing up after my last day to work on it all year we decided it was in a good enough state to take it for its maiden voyage.

Just went up the road a few kms (in the country). Needs a very good tune but just being able to drive it for the first time after owning it for 3years made my day. Was over fueling like crazy so sounded like gun shots the whole way back down the hill. Handled and braked well (was only at cruising speed haha) SO STOKED!!! Back to uni until november then hopefully it will get more attention.

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  • 1 month later...

Managed to get up to Tauranga for a few days so thought I'd try get more done.

I'v decided to cut my losses with the crappy starsharks I got ripped off buying and get them laithed apart for new lips.

Took the spacers off so I could get an idea of size and offset. Going to hopefully get 5" lips made but will take a better measurement when I get them back from the engineers with no lips on. Im not sure who to get them done? Does Batemans still do lips? Or is Arrow wheels better/cheaper?

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While I was taking the spacers off I swapped out the crappy shocks I had in their just to keep it all captive with some monroe's that came with my parts car. Nice and firm with not too much droop.

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  • 3 months later...

Have been doing a bit on the corona lately.

The build wasn't going exactly as I wanted it so to make it more of a car I could just jump in and drive I said goodbye to the ca18det.

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An am just going to run the vvt sr20de n/a.

Gave it a clean up and used alloy cleaner + waterblast and came up mint. As well as the sr20det gearbox.

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Picked up some grubby enkei easy riders for the rear (starsharks on the front).

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After waterblast:

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After alloy cleaner:

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Got the lips laithed off and measured up for my new ones.

4.5" lips front (8.5" wheel), 5" lips rear (9" wheel).

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Started paint stripping, just deciding on colour, may go with the original gold?

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Going to start on paint over christmas.

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