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Guypie's Wife's 1986 Corolla GT Liftback of Sentimentality


Guypie

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Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/51171-guypies-wifes-1986-corolla-gt-discussion/

 

When I met my wife some years ago now she was driving around in her first car, a maroon 1987 ee80 corolla hatchback with 320,000km on the clock and a leaky valve stem seal that would foul the #3 spark plug every 100km or so.

 

The original corolla:

l5xO0Mn.jpg

 

oNdLlbN.jpg

 

She had a love/hate relationship with this car, it was quite simple and went like this:

Is the car going at the moment?

Yes: LOVE!

no: HATE!

Eventually a few years later we had to get rid of it as it was only worth about $300 and it needed rust repairs (I had no welder at the time) and seatbelts plus a few other things for a wof and was just not viable to fix for broke students.

 

So off it went and every time since then... and I mean EVERY SINGLE time we saw one on the road she has pined over it and wanted her old one back. This came to a point when Heather saw Gnarlydude/Matt's lovely yellow EE80 (might be different number for sedan?) Corolla sedan, and after Dromageddon this year she decided she needed one back in her life. And who am I to stand in the way of getting a sweet new/old car?!

 

So after trawling trademe and facebook we found a AE82 liftback that didnt exceed our budget, and was registered. We went over to Tauranga, inspected it and found it to be in reasonable shape in terms of bodyshell. It is currently not running. The story is that he fired it up after sitting for about 7 years and it spluttered out and wouldnt start again. My guess would be old fuel/clogged fuel filter/dead fuel pump, however I have not put any time into it yet so it could be anything.

 

Will post up pics in a moment on the next post.

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  • 2 weeks later...

hOCxc2w.jpg

 

Fuel pump arrived yesterday (just in the nick of time! thanks Frosty!) and I put that in, loaded her up with 15 liters of the good stuff and had a go at starting it.

 

Heres a video:

 

 

Ok so its running on 3 cylinders by the sound, I did get it to run without dying but definitely on 3 or less. I have not changed the sparkplugs yet so thats the first thing I will do once the shops open.

I also have a friends compression tester so might give it a test and see what that says.

 

In the meantime we got the windscreen replaced:

 

Before:

eK8HW55.jpg

 

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Heather being a stalker during the replacement:

 

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And After:

uEYBH6d.jpg

 

So heres the current list of things to do before wof:

-Full service (hopefully sparkplugs will get it running on 4)

-Replace tyres (current ones are old/crusty/perished)

-Treat rust (nothing major that I can see just needs to be neutralised)

-Get a battery with the correct size terminals

-Check over braking system

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  • 3 weeks later...

kvsIQCx.jpg

Recieved new injectors for this on saturday from tim13 (many thanks!) and replaced number 4 injector. Drained the "coolant" and the stuck a hose in the thermostat housing and walked away for 30min til the water ran clear. Filled it up again and popped a thermostat in (it was missing, not a great sign)

BihbNuF.jpg

Put on my Volk 5/4s because they have mint tyres, will be returning the minilites to it once they have good tyres. The tyres in the minilites are cracked they are so old and hard.

W8E7Hcb.jpg

And took it for a drive! It ran well aside from having a vacuum leak and the brakes are dragging. Both fronts and probably both rears too, they were smoking a bit when we got back from going round the block twice. So next up is caliper rebuilds, probably new rotors and pads too.

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4XIN4gN.jpg

 

Got a pile of parts to put in this thing, fitted the caliper seal kits, bled the front end and installed new pads and rotors. Brakes are feeling a lot better now and not sticking on. Have not touched the rear end but they seem to have repaired themselves. Wouldn't surprise me if I needed to do something there some wof time/ brake balance check but I will wait and see.

 

YwTDUFT.jpg

 

Shiney new brakes

 

OJOSduE.jpg

 

I also changed the injector o rings that seal to the intake manifold. Couldn't find them anywhere but Toyota, at $10.50 a piece they aren't cheap!

They did not solve my poor Idle problem either dangit! ah well one less thing to do at least.

 

good news though is that Toyota cocked up and put 2 seals in one of the bags. Bonus!

 

ej3nmbl.jpg

 

So after a bit of googling on 4age idle problems (there is a lot of info out there on this!) I decided to take off the throttle body and check out the IACV and see whats going on there.

It was clogged with rust and junk in the coolant pipes, so definitely not doing its job. Will try to clean it out give it a test by dunking it in hot water, it has a wax element type thing in it like a thermostat. Given the state of it though I am not holding my breath

 

haDH9wa.jpg

 

And heres one last picture of the car being super square.

 

bjzbxVl.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...

Finally got this thing working again after the spark disappearing on me. After replacing the coil and ignitor and lots of fluffing around I called an auto electrician to come and have a look. He suspected the ECU so after getting a replacement off pbaines (super fast delivery! 10/10 would get their tofu delivered on time by his AE86) it was all go again, retimed to 10 degrees at idle (the IACV I rebuilt is working fine now too)

 

In the meantime I stripped some paint back where rust was showing through, had to do some welding around the fuel filler area as it looks like water has been finding its way past the seam sealer and sitting between the outter panel and the filler pocket thing.

 

lH1slp2.jpg

 

There were a couple of little holes, note really enough to patch though so I drilled them out til the metal was a bit thicker and filled with weld and ground it back.

 

CbMA9pt.jpg

 

gZlQ3Nm.jpg

 

First attempt at spraying 2k primer, I really went way too thick because I was expecting it to be opaque but it is kind of a weird milky transparent colour. Is this corract? its protec epotech 408 and I used the prescribed reducer and waited the 10min after mixing before spraying. Anywho its not permanant its just to protect it until it gets a full makeover (so a long time)

 

wTcjHQF.jpg

 

Anywho next up is putting some new wiper arms on and go see if I can pass a WOF!

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Picless update time. Took this machine for a WOF on friday, failed on:

Front brake hoses perished

Play in RF wheel

LF CV boot leaking grease onto braking components

Rear brake imbalance (RR dragging)

LR stoplight not working

 

Then went camping. Got back late today and got one brake hose sorted and bled, found the RF play was due to one of the bolts that holds the shock absorber to the hub was loose. also found it has adjustable camber on the front, tha'ts cool!

 

Super stoked with the wof results, there was always going to be something considering this is the first WOF in 14 years but its all cheap/easy to fix.

will hopefully have enough light to get the rest smashed out before the end of the day tomorrow night then recheck on Wednesday.

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Got a wheel alignment today, very happy I got this done before the trackday. Check out the toe!

 

NPFmiS8.jpg

 

I asked them to tweak it a bit to handle better for the trackday so they said the dialed in a smidge extra toe out on the rear and in on the front I think they said? anyways they said it should help with the turn in. If you have a good idea of what you are reading and have an opinion on the setup let me know in the discussion!

 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/51171-guypies-wifes-1986-corolla-gt-discussion/page-2

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