Popular Post Bling Posted August 28, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2018 So yeah. Found out about this fine specimen right after Nats '18 after mentioning i'd like a hardtop to throw spanners at. Seedy Al mentioned I should speak to Goat, and so I did, the rest is history. It had been living in Goat / Joe's shed for a while and after some discussions I had it trucked down a couple of weeks ago. Specs: 1982 Toyota Corolla, GL “Lime” with a 3AU powerhouse and 5 speed manual trans. Lime is along the same lines as Lisse, a luxury variant of the GL model (Lisse for XL) featuring automatic transmission and power-steering. They were marketed heavily towards women in Japan. (Thanks Wikipedia). Plans including lowering it and upgrading the brakes and giving it a spruce up. Engine can come later, as it would more than double the budget given drivetrain upgrades required. There will also be all the boring bits like fixing rust, replacing half the car and all that carry on. This is actually hardtop number two, but who is counting. Teaser pics for now. Discussion Fred. 32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted September 4, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 4, 2018 Quick update time. I've mainly focused on pulling everything I can off it, while still keeping it driveable. Main objective is to find as much rust as I can, so I can work out what repairs I need to work on. Before: Fabulously red(ish) carpet, might look into options for dying this a more consistent red. When I get around to that i'll just do a test patch under the seat or something. Have seen some pretty good results with dye mixed up into a spray bottle. Quite thread bare in places, so dye may help disguise that. I'm not going to splash out on new carpet, money won't be there for it. So this build will be a do what I can with what I have and run with it in that regard. Interior shots Out came the seats and carpet. Floor seems really good, probably won't bother touching it. Passenger floor was soaked from giving it a wash (I hope). I've located some rust under the windscreen which is likely related. So the front screen is going to need to come out, doh. New battery ratchet made quick work of the interior. Even got out my inspection snake camera and checked inside the sills while I was there, they seem pretty good. Nothing of concern seen. Will probably keep interior out until I have finished rust repairs now. Inspected the seats, pretty mucky and covered in hair of some description. Purchased one of those upholstery cleaning aerosols with the brush head. Did a test patch on a bad area, came up great. So plan for seats is the spray and scrub the whole lot. Hopefully it will come up quite tidy. Top of rear seat is showing its age and has been cooked by the sun. Will cover the exterior chrome trim removal in another update later on. Don't want to set unrealistic expectations as to my work speed. Purchased some ultraclear resin to repair one of the headlight lenses (worth a shot). Also checked my stash and found some newer globes in stock, so tried one in for comparison. Old globe: and new(er), featuring the aeration hole I hope to fix. Last job for this update was to try and unseize the brakes. With the handbrake off the car didn't want to budge. Which made for loud times trying to get it up the slope to the garage as currently the exhaust has a missing section just after the trans. Nice and loud. So anyway, popped off the front calipers and pushed the pistons back in a bit. That went fine, even cleared out some of the junk in the brake line. But being in a hurry I ended up getting air in the line so now the handbrake is the only working brake. Not a problem, car rolls perfectly fine now, so one thing off the list. Excuse the blur, I need to up my game and sort lighting in future. That will do for now, will try get an update up every week or two. Motivation dependent. Peace. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted September 15, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 15, 2018 Have been steadily working away on this, so a few more progress pics. Decided to give the carpet a blast as it seemed the easiest way to de-grot it. Came up decent after drying, still aiming to give it a colour spruce up later. All of the chrome has been removed from the car now, along with most rubber seals. Some areas are pretty solid, some not so much. Windscreen had to come out to access some rust, that was good fun. Nothing a craft knife or two couldn't sort. Probably took around two hours, with much swearing, sweating and paranoia. Did some digging in the gutters to see how far the rust goes. Mostly not too far, so hopefully only a few patches to replace. Locating clip missing on this side, gotta to what you gotta do. Managed to successfully remove the plastic clip on the other side, so will try find another to match it for reinstall time. Whole bottom section of this frame will need to be remade, it's at least twice as thick as the other side (which is sound). So one more window to remove, doh. I would have left the front screen in, if not for this fine specimen of ferrous oxide. Thankfully it is localised, so just a bit of creativity with a hammer and some panel steel to sort. Nothing a knife and lots of lube can't sort. Out came the dash pad (what a PITA). I'll add some ducting in to join the fan to passenger outlet, and give it all a good blow out. Will also look to run any wiring I need to while its all easy access. So now I think I have uncovered most of the rust in the top half of the car. Next update will include front end work. The front has taken a punt so i'm going to work out a way to bring that back into line. Nothing major, just panel work beside radiator has moved inward 10-20mm pushing in the drivers side headlight bracket and all that carry on. Quite handy having another car the same next to it, easy to check how panels are supposed to be shaped! The above photos are to give a general idea, i've probably found three times as many repairs to do, so plenty of practice on the metal glue machine. No point posting 20 photos of rust though. Will post up front end removal next week. 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted September 25, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 25, 2018 Small update, before a bit of a break to get stuck in and fix rust / procrastinate as per usual. After discovering the rust on passenger side winscreen base, the next job was to remove the guards to see what was lurking. Nothing too bad which is good. Pics. Someone got a bit generous with he seam sealer gun by the looks. All has since been removed, this side seems sound in the join. Drivers side will need some surgery. Drivers side, I don't really want to start cutting this (bottom bit of rust), but if the rust has got into the seam then I will probably need to do something. Along with the window frame rust that will get chopped out and replaced. All glue / sealant removed from the guard areas, pretty clean. Will give it a coat of something before refitting at later stage. Will also underseal the wheel arches at some stage. Need to find my spare set of springs so I can makita one way the ones in car for future planning on height. Last pic, just a boring one (the others were totally exciting, right?). Highlighted section has been pushed in a tad, headlight bracket is rather bent. So i'll fix that when I can work out the best way to straighten it. Anyone got ideas? Not sure if easier to pull it out, or push from within engine bay. Either way i'll probably have to make up a steel frame braced to car and work from that. So that is it for now, i've been cleaning the jizz off the windscreen frame which has been frustrating. Trying to get one job done at a time, so won't be updating until I have some decent progress to show. Choice, suggestions, smack talk and all that here: Also, thank fuck the forum saves your unsubmitted posts, I just closed this tab and thought i'd lost everything. Thankfully all the boring details were still here! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted December 11, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 11, 2018 Haven't done bugger all on this recently. Had been trying to source some cert happy 14" wheels, but that didn't happen. Wheels held the build up a little bit as I needed them to start working out other things that will happen later. Anyway, some pics of the limited progress since last update. "Built" a frame to straighten out the headlight area of the front. Didn't take too long with a handful of long tek screws, to get it much closer to the right shape. Happy enough with the results, so that will get a primer / paint later on. Amazingly complicated alignment tool: Previous to that I had removed the rusty A pillar section shown earlier. Before, with the two layers removed. After, with one section made up, i'll make the top section when I have this one welded in and epoxy primered up. Then weld that over the top, epoxy, paint. Meanwhile, this turned up, with a friend another day. And unwrapped Wheel specs: SSR XR-4 Longchamps, 15x7-1(x2) and 15x7+11(x2). Lost count of the hours spent browsing Yahoo to find a set or even a pair that matched the offsets I measured I wanted. Well worth the time in the end, but it did drive me half insane, finally finding some, only to be outbid by twice my budget. Nothing super wide or dished, but they will sit well on the car I feel, and I can wrap them in damn good tyres. Similar dish on the rear to my 14x7.5-1, but with 10 times the number of tyres available, an easy choice in the end. I also removed some unnecessary weight from the rear of the car, to help sort the ride height. Shocks and springs, overrated. Before: After: I will be home alone for the whole Xmas break, so will be aiming to get the car completely back together (for now) with all of the rust cut out and replaced with new steel. Epoxied up and some red spray cans to tidy up the repairs. Then I can start the next stage which will get quite expensive, rather quickly. Until then, let me know what i've done wrong here. 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted April 13, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 13, 2019 Well Xmas break was a bust, ended up finding more and more rust to fix. Not that I care, I knew it was an 80's Toyota from day one. Just means the goal posts are shifted as to when it will be legal. Hoping to have it sorted for Nats. Have been slowly chipping away at it, slowly filling a container will rusty bits of car. My shrinker / stretcher has been pretty useful, makes creating curved sections much easier. Anyway, some pics of some of the repairs. No point posting the photos of all repairs, as ain't no one got time for that. Still have a many repairs to do, just need to pull finger as paint drying outside is going to be a pain come winter. This update is basically just showing my rust repairs, which is all i've done on the car since last update. Making a new rain gutter section for bottom of A-pillar. Decent surface rust that got 2-3 layers deep in some areas. Replaced with single piece. Boot latch, seal traps water above the latch. Rusted out of my other car too, so out it came. Finished section, with boot frame pieces also cut. Doesn't look pretty, but it's all welded up now, and solid as fuck, so whatever works. Drivers side boot above tail light area, other side had similar repairs. Not much was left original, I just had to replace it a section at a time, to keep the original shape as best I could. Passenger side boot hinge area Drivers side boot hinge area, or at least what was left after removing the "structural" rubber seal. This took a bit of planning, as I had to make a section that didn't exist. Just imagine someone getting frustrated and spending hours on the stretcher/shrinker having not much luck. A lot of this area is 2-3 layers thick and attaches to supports underneath. I'll have to tidy the underside up later. Not many progress pics of this bit, no time for pics when frustrated. Transfer the curve on to paper, then put folded sections into stretcher/shrinker to curve to shape to form half the gutter. And just like that it was done, so simple.... Random repair found above tail light, viewed from boot floor.. Mayte, just tack some sheet on and fold it under, no one will ever see it. There is perhaps 5% of the original boot seal area left, it has all been cut out in sections and replaced. Was just going to replace the worst bits, but the further I got into it, the further I realised the whole lot was beyond a wire wheel and paint job. So that is some of the repairs, but certainly not all of them. Need to tidy up a lot of the welds ready for epoxy primer. So will be doing that over the next month, with the intention of having it all sealed up ready for filler and paint. In between repairs i'm doing my homework on what parts i'll need to get it back on the road. Bit of a boring update, but rust gonna rust. 18 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted October 29, 2019 Author Share Posted October 29, 2019 Didn't do much over winter as I can't finish rust work till it's warm enough to park it outside all day to dry. So just a quick update, will try get the next one out a bit quicker. Have been pulling the front end apart to send parts away to be worked on. So figured i'd replace all consumables while I was in there. Out came the steering rack, which had about 5mm of grime on it, along with crossmember. Whipped both those out and left the engine in the bay supported on blocks. Excuse the blur. Rack and cross-member are now clean as a whistle. Replaced the tie rod ends and boots on the rack. Pulled the suspension out, chopped it and sent it off to Barry @ MRP to work his magic. Brakes also came off for a "service". Wasn't till I took the wheels off I realised this car came with the big brake option, 200mm of stopping power. Winding down the windows would likely slow the car faster. The old: New 276mm vs old 200mm, with Wilwood calipers to match (too lazy to find that photo): Bits from RockAuto, three orders so far, filling my cart as I work through the car. Anything consumable is being replaced to save it failing later on. To a point anyway, not made of money. So that's it for now, aiming to have it on the road by the end of summer, pending rust work progress. All of the above bits will hopefully provide some motivation to keep working on it in the meantime. Choice. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted December 5, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 5, 2019 Still fixing rust, waiting to get my CO2 cylinder back before I can continue with that side of things. Enough rust in this thread so will keep that progress to a minimum. Bit of boot rust to sort, one corner example. Tacked up, have since finished this ready for primer/fill/paint. Doors are next, had some sheet folded up to have a nice straight bottom edge on the doors. Was going to patch it in sections, but it would take longer and i'd likely have ended up with an averagely not straight edge. Before: With new section clamped in place, no gas = no metal gluing. Etch primed some bits with Zinc-It, then black Zinc-It on top. It's not as good as epoxy primer and a top coat. But all the parts are sound enough that I just wanted to tidy them up, will last for years anyway. Plus some parts like hub faces, steering knuckles, I don't want thick paint layers on. I don't spray the epoxy, so brushing on doesn't really suit. Bits: I need to knuckle down and get rust sorted by the end of the holiday (funnily enough that's what I said about a year ago...). I have most of the parts needed now, just need to paint the engine cross-member and get that installed back in. Then I can reinstall all of the front end, sway bar, steering rack etc. All bushes up front have been redone. Pressed in new ball joints this week, wheel bearings are next. The brake disc bolts to the rear of the hub, so I need to have the brakes all finished first, as I don't want to take the hub off once bearings are in. Still a huge list of things to do. Snookered myself with the brakes as I can't roll the car on 13's up front anymore with the discs installed. Can't roll it without them either as it will mean the hub is installed with no brakes and will have to come to bits again. On the hunt for a pair of 15's to get me rolling. Wheels aren't finished being polished yet. But if I can get them done by xmas I will hopefully get some tyres thrown on and have it moving again. Anyway, a smaller teaser to finish off 2019. 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted April 9, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 9, 2020 Small lock down update. Things are still happening, have just had a few issues that have taken a while to get resolved. Suspension is all in, brakes are done. Hard to get an idea of actual front height as I didn't take pic with front guard on. But it's currently sitting at it's highest setting up front and about the middle height in the rear. I aim to go as low as I can, but guard clearance and bumpsteer will likely determine final height. Recently replaced old exhaust system. Not running a resonator for now, will see how it sounds as I can easily add one later if needed. Got the impression the muffler is a good one and should cover both jobs. Had a section bent up, with some changes to try and clear everything. Some of the bends ended up being poorly done so I just cut the whole lot up and rebuilt it. It was just too hard to bend it as required to go over the diff at an angle, then bend back to get to muffler location. So I spent a fair few hours tweaking the bends to get it right. Currently prepping more areas for epoxy, and discovering more things to fix, so fixing those as I go. Aiming to get the front end finished, then i'll move to the rear and finish that off. I don't have the space to work on it all at once. Replacing a few bits and bobs as I go too as many parts are rusted beyond use. Like the bracket shown below that took a hit and is too rusty to bother straightening. Have done cambelt, waterpump, thermostat, radiator hoses, all other belts, plugs, air filter, all of which was sourced from RockAuto. Small bypass pipe was sourced from Toyota (thanks Mark) and I used the orings that came with waterpump. Radiator was flushed and repaired a while back, and is likely to be replaced at some point, it's sound, just not able to be rodded out as it will probably do damage. Not much else to post really, slowly getting there, hoping to have everything painted and back together in a few weeks. But given how long it's taken so far, even with being locked down that isn't that likely. Some proof of progress: Old exhaust + new exhaust bits Exhaust finished up: Exhaust bracket I made as not many factory hangers could be used: All new belts installed along with waterpump etc Some brackets I dunked in MetalReady for a while, along with a spring that was solid rust Replacement bracket I knocked up as old one was beyond repair As car currently sits, will play with heights when I have final wheels installed. Discussion Fred. 25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted April 26, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Two updates in one month, lockdown eh... Have been epoxy priming lots of things, under wiper area, gave it a good scrub out, clean, and epoxy. Some areas that I couldn't reach to remove every tiny bit of surface rust I sprayed 3-4 times with Brunox, then epoxied over the top. It wasn't that bad to begin with, but figured i'd stop it now. Any water that gets into that area now has a clean run along the epoxy (to be top coated I guess) and out the side of the car. Have some seam sealer so will do along the front edge to stop any water ever getting to the firewall metal panel sandwich. Also finished painting the radiator area, so the brackets on the underside got another coat of paint. The radiator support area got two coats of epoxy after a lot of wire wheeling and surface rust treatment. Then a couple of coats of red. Now I just have to be careful to not scratch it. The brackets on the underside are currently not bolted up as I want the paint all 1000% dry before bolting the surfaces together. So with all that paint work done (photos aren't 100% current as I don't always remember to take them), I installed the radiator. I had a slow leak on it fixed before lock down. So was expecting a nice and simple job. I should have known... turns out there was a relatively large (to the pipe size) crack on the overflow pipe on the radiator. So after a lot of pissing around trying to fix it in place, I removed the whole neck. I then removed the existing pipe as solder would not stick, even with flux and a super good clean. Got some 3/8" copper out of the van and dremeled it down in diameter to fit in the hole. Braised it up and called it good. At some point i'd like to throw a Fenix radiator at it, as this one is past it's used by. But it will do for now as the whole system will still have a bit of shit in it. So once that is nice and clean i'll look at new rad. Some before and after pics of the overflow / washer bottles, as they were rather grot. Lots of scrubbing later after splitting them apart, they came up much nicer. Also removed the brake master cylinder and will replace / rebuild that at some point. So yeah, some pics. Battery tray which was super rust pitted, spent a long time on the wire wheel. Epoxy, epoxy, paint, paint. Front on, have since fit the loom back in place and painted black the areas seen through the grill. Epoxy finished in this area now. Red top coat to go on, and whatever top coat colour I have lying around for in the gutter. Washer / radiator bottles before And after, enough time spent on these that I had priced up universal ones. Wouldn't look right though, so I soldiered on. All fixed back in place with new bolts from "Car Clips" based in Dunedin I think. Didn't take much heat to pop this off. My gas torch is not suited to this job at all, so you'll notice solder here and there. Even on low it's enough to send the solder running. Such a small crack, such a massive pain to fix. Copper pipe installed, took longer to sand it down to size than braise it in place. And job done, find out tomorrow how porous the cooling system is. This part at least should be sound. 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted August 28, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2020 Yeah so it wasn't that sound after all... pwned. 10 months since I cut sections out of the doors, not much has changed there. Not really sure where the time has gone. Had the radiator recored with auto trans cooler removed. Had the heater core remade, reusing a couple of parts, but new core at least. A bunch more coin spent on new parts has chipped away at savings. Still chasing a few bits, and getting pissed around by people on facebook going back on deals. Shortened time frame due to next years addition (kids fred) means I need to properly pull finger on this. Dropped the diff into undercar service centre a while back, had them freshen it all up with new cylinders, shoes and skimmed drums. So that is waiting to go back in currently. Have some rust to sort in rear wheel arch, so will do that while diff is out due to bonus space. Not sure how to fix it though, so i've been putting it off. Battling a few other issues too, but will cover those in later updates. Anyway, some pics for fred. Those following along on Insta will have seen many of these. I removed the whole heater system, stripped it all down and cleaned it out. 38 years worth of grime wasn't pleasant. Had the heater core sorted at that point. Most of AC system has been removed for paint work, i've left all of the inside parts installed though so can easily put the engine bay parts back if wanted. Heater core and replacement brake master cylinder. Master was pretty gummed up so rather that fart around with it, I got a new one. Recored radiator, another thing off the list. Amazing how fast money goes down the hole. Gave the booster a good clean up too and paint job. Tested it before doing that though, seems to be functioning as it should. As it sits now, minus the diff. Space is limited to the point I need to be a contortionist to get to passenger side, which the guard needs fixing. Yay. Aiming for another update in a couple of weeks. Weather / motivation dependent. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted September 24, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 24, 2020 Have been chipping away slowly. Torqued all the the bolts on the front strut's up to cert specs. Then had to pull both struts apart as a ~0.5mm spacer wasn't needed. I had previously found it was needed as one pad didn't fit. This time I found it wasn't needed... so hopefully a drive around the block will sort the slight rub of one pad. Without the spacer plate, the pads have a gap sub 1mm, with one slightly touching, still easy enough to spin so I think that will sort itself after a drive. Installed the diff back into the car, nightmare one man job. Took a lot of pissing around as some of the arms are super tight. Got there in the end. I stripped the surface rust off all the arms and gave them a couple of coats of paint. No pics of this as I spent too long cursing and losing the will to live. Bolted an adjustable MRP panhard rod in for the first time, shocks bolted up. Still need to work out what i'll do for bump stops, not being able to chop some down is a bit of a ball ache. Have left handbrake cables flapping in the wind for now as I need to bleed the brakes first. Drums were completely rebuilt, so that side of things is done. Hoping to get the brakes up and working this week, then I can get it off the axle stands it's been on for months and get it outside. Boring update, but just trying to keep the momentum going. I've also installed the dash back into the car and hopefully plugged everything back in correctly. Brakes together for hopefully final time Heater ducting, couldn't find a duct in the parts pile for this section so made one up with some 75mm flexipipe stuff. Had to flatten it below the emissions ECU as it's a tight fit between that and the glovebox. Hub installed with bolts for brake upgrade kit. Ticked and torque written down so I know it's done. And wheel arch repair. Was the only part that needed replacing, due to a prang which caused it to rust out. The rest of the arch has some surface rust so I gave it a really good clean up and sanded off what I could. Then put some Brunox over it. Will epoxy prime the inside too so that any moisture can't get to the area. It was either that or replace the whole rear arch for the sake of some very light rust between the skins. A: that's above my paygrade B: seems a bit extreme as it won't get any worse. The repair I did took an hour to weld as it's so thin I could only do a couple of spot welds at a time, while letting it cool again. Relatively boring update done, if you made it this far, you've done well. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted October 15, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 15, 2020 So yeah, famous last words last month with brakes together for last time. Turns out that all the bolts I got with the brakes are unsuitable. 12.9 bolts are not suitable for cyclic loading and use with steering, suspension or brakes. As per the Car Construction Manual. 10.9 and 8.8 are fine. They would probably be fine, but not something I can be bothered replacing later if they get picked up. So grabbed all the replacement bolts and Nord-Lock washers this arvo. Pulled it all to bits, replaced bolts / nuts (including the also unsuitable nylocs (thanks for the heads up @cletus) previously shown) and added so more grease for good measure. Since last update i've had the front edge of the bonnet repaired as it was rusting in the seam and had blown out more than a fat person in a cake shop. I had a pro do that as i'd most likely fuck it up. I also finished welding in the door patches and remade the bottom corners. Ground it all back and dropped the doors at the restoration man. He will remove the distortion in the first door I did. He gave me some tips for repairing the second door and it made all the difference to the end result. I have dropped him that one too though as there were a couple of hollows in the door to pop out. Should get those back in a week or so hopefully. Ordered tyres last week after asking in spam about sidewall sizes. Went with RE003's as they were one of two tyres I was looking into and @xsspeed mentioned the sidewalls aren't extreme. Getting them fitted to wheels tomorrow arvo, so will give the wheel bolts a quick polish, last minute spec. Have been spending all my time on other car jobs until I knew tyres had arrived in stock. Fingers crossed the weak offset wheels fit on the front without contacting the struts. Coilovers means thicker diameter shock body by probably 10mm or so. So it makes it a really tight fit to jam a 7" tyre between the strut and stock wheel arch. Nothing extreme here size wise, it doesn't need it. Closer the wheel sits to the shock the lower I can probably get it before it rubs. Will be doing some sanding of bog and priming to finish out this week. Will likely need to get some more colour match cans as I don't have the space to use proper gun, so proper backyard shit job it is. Don't really care what it looks like though at this point, just need it in for cert next month. Which if you looked at the car in person, you'd just laugh and go with "yeah right" Photo so this isn't a photo-less update. 14 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted November 21, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 21, 2020 If you don't want to read a book, just look at the photos, I waffle a bit in this post. Not many decent photos this time, have been focusing on getting stuff done and forget to take progress pics. Have given the exterior repaired areas a coat of paint. Ran out of paint pretty quick, so ordered some more cans off the paint code, close enough is good enough. Ran out again, so had some made from the 500ml of paint code paint I had lying around, and a couple of cans made from paint I got matched pre-lockdown. Up until about last week, I was still planning on getting first cert inspection this year. Bit everything on this car is fighting me and so i've come to the realisation that just isn't possible. More rust, wheels don't fit properly, brake lines don't fit properly, certain parts i've struggled to track down, parts from Japan destroying my wallet (will explain below) list goes on. Anyway enough of the negative vibes, here are some potato photos. On the plus side, i'm hopefully getting a deal on a DSLR next week, so quality of photos may or may not improve. Content of the photos, will not improve. First the rust, doors had quite a bit, I removed all I could, and rebuilt quite a lot of it. Then had Warrick @ Canterbury Auto Fabrication work his magic. He fixed the rust on the bonnet previously, and subsequently took most of the distortion out of the doors. Due to lack of time / skill I have just given then a quick epoxy / bog skim and paint. Appearance is at the bottom of the priorities for this car. So long as the rust is sorted, it can be painted properly down the road / never. So yeah just a couple of pics of doors. One of the doors after a skim / paint. Will need a buff up to finish the paint off for now. All repairs got two brushed on coats of epoxy primer, then seal sealer. So they are well sealed and shouldn't cause me any problems for a long time. Rear end bog, lots of epoxy on this too, a quick tickle up, then primer / paint. Rear end got a primer and paint with colour matched paint. Bit light in a few areas after a tickle up, so will give it another couple of coats, then buff up. Will do that after spray bombing the inside of the boot as this is currently all epoxy primer and seam sealer. Brackets that come with coilovers for brake hoses don't fit. Either I am missing something, or they just sell them as two separate things with zero interest in making sure they work together. /rant. I made up some sheetmetal tabs that when the supplied brackets are fitted, lock to the bracket and mean the hose support is locked in place. Gave them a coat of Mathew Black ZincIt, noice. Supplied one of right, which the brake hose passes straight through, the others are mine pre paint, probably obvious because sows ear. They both got tidied up since this photo so they are closer to identical. Car came with one correct belt, which had camo treatment, and one sedan looking belt. Tried to source some poo brown ones locally but to be honest got the run around, so said don't bother in the end. Sourced a pair from Japan. Drivers side looked to be in good enough condition to install as is, passenger side needed repairs. Grabbed them through Buyee as they got listed with pretty short auction lengths. Won both auctions, thought I was doing well. Turns out they wouldn't send them internationally. So I could either bin them or have them sent within Japan. Thankfully I know someone there, so had them sent to them. Much to their annoyance I bet. Had them cut the belts off the parts I needed and bit some perfectly good bits, boo. They sent them to me and I had them in a week. Sweet, by this stage i'm bleeding money, just to get original parts as I want the drop downs from the roof due to them being low profile and sort of a must with the hardtop look. They got the last laugh though, they sent them in a box nearly 10 times the size of the belts and filled the box with heavy packing (not actually protecting the parts, they were at the bottom). Thanks bro... But hey, beggars / choosers eh. Anyway, said parts, which i'll now pay even more money to get remade into usable belts haha, fuck my wallet. From a liftback I think, so the covers for the door panels are different, not a big deal at all. I have one good one and one that needs fixing, so i'll do that then paint them both black. I don't think i'll add up the cost of making these belts, i'll just cry. And last pic the wheels that don't currently work due to lack of clearance from front struts. So i'll scratch my head over the holiday and see about getting some spacers made. Guess I should find out from cert man what clearance he'll be happy with. 1mm currently won't cut it, so i'll try for 5mm, even though spacer maker man said 5mm was too annoying to make, we'll see. Anyway, peace out, probably won't do another update this year. 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted April 17, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 17, 2021 Six months since last update, feels like a year... Spent the last four months with a new member in the family so car time has suffered accordingly. Will keep it brief with a few pics. Have been working my arse off the last week or so to get the car back together. Lots to still do, but I finally have a window of time to get things done, so I have to get it done. Last update ended with lack of clearance between strut and wheel. It was the locking nut to be exact. I spent a long time working out spacer requirements and longer wheel studs needed etc. Problem with spacers is that it shifts the wheel closer to the guard, which I can't afford to do, so I had to come up with another solution. I worked out a design and showed cert man and got the green light. Had a word with Anton @ajg193 and he did a proper drawing of it. He then set about filling his garage with aluminium swarf and made me the parts. I then had them anodised as per @mjrstar's recommendation. The whole design was focused around moving the locking ring further up the strut as due to being angled inward, this would provide the clearance needed without shifting the wheel with spacers. Bottom section has internal thread to match the shock body, Anton did a great job. Installed Gave the rear 1/4 frames another lick of paint or two where the trims will be, to offer a bit more protection. Removed all of the sticky shit off the frame and windows and glued them back in. Then it was time to start putting the interior back in with the new belts. Previous to that though, I spent give or take a day installing all the moving windows in the car, aligning the doors and then adjusting the windows till they operated correctly. I've got them pretty good, but I just don't have the time to get them perfect right now. If they even can be given the seals are all poo and the panels don't line up due to a hit. Happy with the end result though, even if it's not close to waterproof lol. Thursday: Friday Saturday That's where I am at for now. Some up and coming jobs: Install brake master cylinder, make brackets for front hoses, diddle with the handbrake cables, eyecrometer the alignment, organise windscreen install, fit plastics / door cards up front blah blah, too many other things. Thanks for playing. 41 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted May 4, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 4, 2021 Still chipping away, have had a few jobs that held up other jobs, so progress hasn't been as quick as i'd like. Couldn't put brake master cylinder in till I sorted the clutch and couldn't put fuel tank back in till i'd sorted the brakes... Anyway, a quick run down below. Tried to start it the other week to make sure it still runs, it doesn't. Figured it was probably fuel as it will have been sitting for a while. So I dropped the fuel tank out to find the tube pretty blocked, so that hopefully answers that. Drained the fuel tank, turns out I put quite a bit more fuel in over time than I thought, fill the mower container and any lose containers I had. Took the worst to the dump eco area. Dropped the tank in to Hornby Radiators and they gave it a good clean inside. I grabbed some new hose while that was being done. Got fuel tank back and gave it a quick paint on the top half, only surface rust, but some was a bit pitted so worthwhile doing. Fuel tank. Hoses labelled for future reference, also labelled on car. After getting the insides cleaned. quick tickle up Then a coat of whatever rust paint was lying around. Was blowing a gale, can't beat a brush on product sometimes. Engine fuel supply pipe with some meths in it, sloshed it around a bit and left it overnight. Grabbed some pipe cleaners and it's good as now. Getting a new intank filter thing was too hard basket with my time frame, so I gave it a good clean and chucked it back on. Oh yeah and the new hose: While that was being done I went down to CBC in town and they made me a new clutch cable. The old one had been resting on the exhaust so the cover was pretty toast. No pics because I just wanted it installed. But it was a pretty sweet cable. I had it made 50mm shorter than the one I had, as I couldn't route the one in the car without it hitting exhaust and steering. So with the new cable made I made a bracket to hold it clear of everything. Factory they have a bracket, but it's NLA so I had to just guess it. Asked on a FB group dedicated to these cars but no one could be bothered taking a photo for me of how it's run factory, boo. Anyway, the bracket, which is part of a realtor sign I chopped up. Gave it another tweak with the rivnut tool after this photo and got it compressed a bit more, shes solid as fuck. Bolted to the firewall and installed a P-clip on it to hold the cable. Bolted two clips together to keep the clutch and speedo cable apart and keeps it off the fuel line on firewall from filter. No idea how much of this junk is legit, but none of it's under pressure, it's just done to keep things apart so nothing can rub through. Seems legit enough to me, guess i'll find out soon enough when it gets checked. Just need it together for now and worry about the details later. For those that don't frequent the spam tech thread, I asked about bleeding my new master cylinder and went with this solution. Which when installed worked like this. Didn't leak bugger all when being bled, and I just clamped the pipes with vice grips when done so brake fluid didn't go everywhere. So then I bled the rest of the car, gave up doing it by myself and installed someone in the car to pump for me. It was after I had done this, I realised I had fucked up... I pulled the pads out as I was getting a bit of fluid leaking while trying to bleed the nipples myself (no euphemism). So I thought rather than potentially fuck the pads i'll remove them. I'm sure you can work out the rest... thankfully the pistons are long enough for this rookie mistake to not be an issue. They pushed back in fine with a nipple released. Was going to rebleed the whole system again tomorrow anyway with new fluid. But that is a must now as i'll have air in one side of each caliper. No biggie. Next time I'll have brake pad shaped bits of wood to install. Quake safe on axle stands with enough junk underneath to stop it being able to fall on me. Next up will be work out why the dash sits too high to where the windscreen will struggle to fit on one side. Then book in a windscreen install. Then do my own alignment to the point I can get the brakes bed in a bit. Then book proper alignment. Then not sure... i'll worry about that another day, getting close. 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted June 12, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 12, 2021 Still chipping away on this fuck. Removed the carb the other day and had local workshop look it over for me. Main jet is pretty corroded so not sure how well it will run, or for how long, but YOLO. Reason I had it looked at was due to sitting for so long she was a bit gummed up and so wouldn't idle properly and wouldn't start without kick in the dick. Installed the carb today and it now fires off the key no worries, doesn't run that great, but will stay running. Win some lose some, i'm hopeful it's now just down to having a bunch of vacuum lines not connected and no air filter at all. Coolant has started to leak in a couple of places, one of which is behind the water pump, under the carb. So yeah a right PITA to get to. Tomorrows job will be the remove half the front of the engine to remove the water pump to try fix that. It's also leaking on a hose at the rear, so will try find a hose that will sort that. Gave it another tickle up alignment wise and it's looking a lot better. Todays plan was to drive around the block sans windscreen, previously mentioned water leaks killed that idea. Replaced the diff and gearbag fluid recently, neither of which looked that dirty, if I exclude the drain plugs (pics to follow). Had a few leaks on the gearbag, so got up and personal with it to find out why. Speedo drive thread had a massive cut mark on a 45 degree angle, so was never going to seal well. The bracket that holds the speedo drive was also MIA. Read the Toyota manual and noticed there was supposed to be one so made on up to suit. Cleaned the threads as best I could and goo'd everything together with some non setting gasket stuff. So far so good. Nothing much to add really, still on the list is windscreen install and proper alignment. Pretty good odds the wheel arches are both going to need a bash, which is something I wanted to avoid. But at this point I don't care about going beyond the point of no return. So will probably level the car up a bit before alignment and worry about clearance at cert time. Will then discuss best way to go about that as i'm not sure. Pics. Gearbag filler plug, after initially seeing it I figured i'd be welding a nut on it to get it off, but it JUST came off before becoming further chewed up. Quite impressive, not sure what was bashed on this previously. Luckily I had a supply of dirt cheap rockauto sump plugs on hand. So most things got new drain plugs and washers. Fresh fluids, VMX big boy was from when I had a starlet, circa ~12 years ago. I knew i'd need it one day... Gearbag or diff drain plug, I forget which but they both looked similar. Before / after. Carb on car so I could plumb it back up right and on bench. Handy having another car with the same setup, I managed to find a few hoses in the wrong locations. So much unnecessary BS hosing. Will google for a supply of vacuum hose and run hoses between locations that have none. Can get rebuild kits online buy the looks, so if I find it runs like a bag of dicks after connecting up 100% of the vacuum lines, i'll look in to that. So long as it runs good enough to get through cert process, that can be a future problem. 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted September 7, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 7, 2022 Shit a brick, over a year since last update... So believe it or not, this thing is still progressing. I'll try remember what i've done while I write this update. I have taken it to my local garage to get some jobs done. Jobs I can mostly do, but I want it in for cert this year not next year, so gotta be done. Had the carb checked over with some work done to get things running a bit nicer. It starts easily now and runs fine, just needs a bit more work when coming to a stop. I'll probably fiddle with the idle a bit and see if that sorts the stalling. If not i'll get garage to take another look. I got some longer shocks for the front coilovers as I was sitting a bit low (impossibru). Wanting to keep the fenders factory so that coupled with pretty square tyres on much wider than factory wheels, means they are close to rubbing it too low. So the shock bodies are 50mm longer, which gives me the option to keep it as low as it is now and also lift it 50mm while still having enough of the shock captive in the sleeve on the hub. I also installed some keeper springs up front as I only had 30mm of droop from memory, so now I can have 30mm up to quite a lot. So i'll set it at 40mm potentially for now. But may change that to 50mm if it isn't going change my bump steer enough to cause issue, I have no idea on that stuff. Rear suspension is unchanged, but I still have some work to do in that area as I don't think I have enough droop there. So may need to look into the 1/3 droop rule. There is only so much weight in the rear once you take the diff and wheels out of the equation. And the springs I have were developed specifically for AE86 and are progressive 4.5kg. Worst case would be having Cobra make me some springs of lower rate, but that is last resort as they will not compare to the springs I have ride wise. Can only fill the fuel tank so much, so i'm a bit stuck as to how to add some more weight without it being super obvious that's what i've done. Anyone with ideas around this problem please let me know. Interior is complete now, all belts installed, plastic trims and the likes. Have swapped out the dash cluster as the temperature gauge wasn't working. Asked in spam about diagnosing things and found the sender on the block is working fine, the wiring was fine, which only left the cluster. So i've swapped in another one, thanks Goat for including all of the spares with the car! So I now have a fancy as fuck analog clock and no tacho, but a working temperature gauge, so i'm happy with that for now. Don't have the money to pay someone to fix the other one at the moment, but i'm sure it's something I can swap back later. So now I have a working gauge I could see that the engine seemed to be staying cool enough. I'm not 100% convinced the thermostat is working correctly. So I may swap that out when I have a bit more motivation, just to be sure. So that's where it is for now, fine tuning the running of it, then i'll book cert and alignment. Still haven't set the final height yet, but that will happen. Excuse the wall of text, there will be lots of missed, but no point making the wall longer, so here are some pics. Fred for discussion etc Oh yeah forgot I 3D printed a few bits for the car, very rough and ready, but I have a better 3D scanner now so plan to make some better parts when time allows. Longer shock body comparison Printed bases for my mirrors, only have one good one with car so 3d scanned it and mirrored for other side. Came out ok, but will improve on it when I have time. Had a taillight to fix as well. Replacement lights are just not a thing here. I spent a very long time watching Japan auctions but any I found went for (to me) silly money. Think the last pair was north of $500. So I printed my own repair as I don't care what it looks like, so long as it's functional. Before: Printed a test section out of plain orange filament I already had. This was after scanning the taillight on my other Corolla. I could have just as easily scanned the passenger taillight of this car which isn't damaged and mirrored it. But since I had a drivers side to scan, I did that instead. Didn't take too much work to turn it from a scan into a printable object. Print new piece out of transparent orange filament. Trimmed the original print down till it just covered the damage, before printing the final version below. Sitting in place Glued in place and painted over the whole thing a few time with transparent modelling paint. Got it closer to original shade and tinted all the clear glue I had used to fill the gaps. It's no piece of art, but it sure beats the before version. 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted November 15, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 15, 2022 So yeah, where the fuck did that time go... Have been working on this a bit harder over the last few months, was supposed to be done before child number two arrived, but that never happened. Anyway, took it to local workshop a while back for them to tidy up quite a few loose ends that I just didn't have time to do. Had them check my timing belt job, set timing, tune what they could and put it through a WOF check. Funnily enough it didn't pass. The sheet was filled with many of the problems I had asked to be fixed lol... so they could have saved some ink and fixed my list first, but minor thing. So I got it back running a bit better, but on a knife edge between stalling when coming to a stop, or running on when shut off. I've fiddled with it so that I doesn't stall now, and will leave it at that. I have a rebuild kit for the carb, so at some point that will probably get fitted. For now it drives fine for cert etc, so it's down the list to do. Then I took it down for an alignment and made the technicians Friday well and truely, two hours later he was looking a bit out of patience haha. But I now had a failed WOF sheet and an alignment sheet. So it was time to book it in for initial cert check. Turns out they are busy chaps as the estimated 3-4 weeks turned into 7 weeks away. To be fair, it was a good few weeks between calls as I wanted to do WOF / alignment before booking as didn't want there to be any surprises. So 6 weeks later and with a week till check, I figured I better check everything was ready to go. Nope, carb had decided to play up quite a bit since it had been parked up. The battery I purchased to get the car shipped down had finally had enough so it was off to SCA to get a new one. Didn't fix the carb, but it sure made the time between firing it up and fiddling less than the battery charge it needed each time. Battery was always on the list as well as a full tank of gas, don't want to be that guy when dropping the car for cert. So anyway, dropped it in a week ago and it came back with a few things to sort. Nothing too major. Rear seatbelt mounts didn't exist they were just drilled through a single skin at compliance. So that was one item to sort, what a nightmare too, so little space to work with. Ended up laying in the boot for a few hours getting them to fit nicely. Suspension travel was not adequate in back, so I have sorted that now hopefully. Gained quite a bit of travel, while still meeting all of the cert requirements. Wasn't sure i'd be able to get it done with my springs, but certifier and Clint both had ideas to help with that. So got that sorted and gained around 30mm travel. Wheel studs up front slightly too short. I set myself up with this one as I had been using factory nuts for all my testing of turns etc. Then put on some nicer ones I didn't check the engagement, it's less of course. So hit up Mark at Toyota as 2+ years ago he had sent me a photo of the wheel stud options in case I needed new ones. They arrived next day, so they are on my list to fit now. Of all the jobs on the list, they are the easiest, so they will be done last. That was the list to rectify, along with sorting the exhaust to not hit the car. Exhaust wasn't too bad, but I had the front joint fixed and that involved them jamming the exhaust against the trans. So I pie cut the exhaust at the trans and rewelded it bent down. this lead to problems further down the exhaust where it hit a crossmember just above the diff. So I grabbed a mount from SCA on the weekend and welded a dropper from that to the exhaust. I have plenty of support stopping the exhaust from dropping, just none from stopping it heading upwards. Wasn't really on my radar at the time, but with it being lowered and a lot firmer than factory, something had to give. So that's all fitted now and so it's rubber on rubber with minimal distance for that travel. So it shouldn't stressed the rest of the exhaust, and it stops all noises. Sorting the suspension took me probably 1.5 days of solid head scratching and removing and reinstalling most of the rear end with small adjustments. Such a PITA with the limited space I have. I also wasted a lot of time forgetting to include droop in my travel calculations. Was getting pretty hard to get decent travel till I remembered that counts, duh. Some pics. Filling it up with the good stuff Studs that need to go in, as well as working out plate area vs the space I have to fit them. Got it sorted, trimmed them a bit, while staying within the requirements, zinc'd then painted. Still well and truely have the clamping area I need after being trimmed (not shown). They will be bolted into the car with 5mm bolts, one of which will pass through a sheetmetal packer. I'll then use the provided rivets to finish securing the packer between the plates and jobs done. Gave this side another tickle, I didn't want to fuck with the exterior look of the fenders on the car, front or rear. So that meant I needed to get as much space as I could on the inside. Rear is nice and easy to add clearance without compromising anything. Will give it all a paint up as some flaked off the inside. Don't want any rust forming in the now formed channel, so will sort that out too. Thankfully there were two threaded holes in the car above exhaust. So I cut some steel and made a solid as fuck bracket to bolt to the car. Then bend up some round bar and curved it around the exhaust. Zap zap later and with some molten steel in my armpit I was done. It's not supporting any weight in this setup, it only prevents or at least reduces greatly, the rate at which the exhaust can travel upwards. I had both ends of the mount enter it from opposite sites with the hope this will prevent it being able to physically come apart. Seemed to work in my head, time will tell. Didn't want to weld caps on the ends as it would make removing the mount impossible later. To remove it now you have to unbolt it from the car to slide it off the exhaust. And hopefully how it will sit when finished. So I now have till the end of this month to tidy up all of the list, when i'll drop it back in for recheck. Pretty sure I have all of the things sorted after speaking with certifier today. It's basically as low as I can get it with the 15x7s in this offset, with factory fenders and sufficient suspension travel. It's been 4 years of mostly struggles to get to this point, so the weight on my shoulders is finally starting to lift. That's all folks. 33 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bling Posted December 27, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 27, 2022 Quick update while there is some peace and quiet around here. Went for cert recheck and got the big tick / cert donut. May have already covered it, but spent a bit of time sorting the suspension travel to get it to comply. Just one of the joys of a light chassis, where half the weight in the rear is unsprung. Lots of maths and a bit of trimming here and there and I got it bang on. Pretty sure I could pull the rear suspension out with my eyes closed now. So yeah, cert man said I did a good job and I was on my way. Christmas period means it won't be in the system till next year, hopefully no hiccups in that regard. So i'll hopefully have it WOF'd by end of January. Carb still needs a bit of work, there is a local guy that rebuilds them, but i'm not sure he will be interested in determining what the actual problem is. So I may have to try sort that myself. Just likes to either run on, or stall at lights. So I currently have it fiddled to run a higher idle so that it doesn't stall, the less embarrassing option. So time allowing i'll potentially swap bits between the cars and see if I can isolate the problem, be it the dieseling solenoid or whatever other voodoo controls such things. Have been using my aliexpress claybar on the windows to remove all of the garbage left on them during the build, coming up nice. Have also been looking into sound options as that will make things a bit more pleasant in the cabin. Pretty raw, even with carpet, so looking to get a big ol' roll of deadening and laying that in places to quieten that up a bit. Sound wise, looking to put some components up front and amp them when money allows. I have a sub and amp from many years ago, but really don't know if I can be bothered installing that. So will see how the front speakers go and work from there. As part of cert I had to weld up the rear speaker holes in the parcel shelf. Didn't have to, but to keep the seatbelt anchorages in the rear shelf, they had to be filled, so that was my preferred option. I don't want to cut the rear panels to fit speakers. Box speakers to bolt on the shelf are silly money these days, so for now I have no interest in rear speakers. So yeah, front speakers are around the 4" mark from the factory, which isn't going to work. So I scanned my kick panels the other day and printed up some practice speaker rings. The idea being that i'll cut up a spare pair of panels and mount the printed parts (that won't be orange) to the kick panels and cut out in the inside. Currently has nice black panels installed, so they will be removed and put away for safe keeping. I'll then paint the spares, one of which is half brown half black, to be black. Will have a play with changing the angle of the speakers too, this first run was just to see if my theory was right. I was pretty sure while it was printing, that I had fucked something up as the profile of the ring did NOT look anything like the panel. It was though. So here are some pics, will update when road legal all going to plan. Panel to be scanned: Scan result, which I wasn't worried about accuracy so didn't bother scanning with my more accurate scanner, rough and ready will do the trick. Speaker ring, rough print as it's a concept print, not a final print to be used. Couple of photos of it on the panel, has the potential to make the install pretty neat and should look relatively factory IMO. /spent /fred for abuse advice: 20 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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