Bling's AE70 Hardtop

Bling · February 25, 2023

Pretty pathetic update this one, but figured i'd post it to keep things going in here.

Drove down to Timaru to pick up a spare 3AU. Such a boring road with all of the people trying to become statistics. Current plan is to potentially swap the carb from the spare engine into the car as it may be easier than fixing what is currently breaking my balls on the current carb. The rest of the engine will be wrapped up as a bare engine, with spares like alternator stored in garage to prevent rust, which my shed seems to grow. Spare engine has always been on my want list. Running two of them, I figure it makes sense to have a backup. It's out of an AE85, so i'm not sure if that changes much, but some of the carb numbers seemed to match up. So it's mostly likely all the same shit with maybe a few small variances.

Only one photo as I don't want to put people through excessive boat anchor exposure. After loading and unloading it, I can see why they do make such good anchors though.

Excuse the blur, I had just taken the skin off the knuckle of my thumb with a really greasy part of the engine.

Apart from that, not much has happened. My cert still isn't live as certifier, for some reason, won't finish my paperwork and send it in. I mean it's only been 10+ weeks now, with xmas break. So perhaps i'm just expecting too much. Three times the paperwork has been nearly finished and was going to be sent in shortly. I've never once been contacted in regards to any delays, i've had to chase each time to see where things are at. So yeah, no WOF, no driving it for most of summer and all that boring stuff people tend to do with road legal cars. Not much I can do though, just eat up the shit sandwich. Certainly sours the whole cert process.

As you can see, i'm passed the point of expecting much to happen anytime soon.

Bling · February 26, 2023

Cert now live, rather than edit the above figured i'd do a quick post as update. WOF time I guess!!

That said... as part of recheck I had to modify some parts which aren't shown as changed in the photos. Can only assume that will bite me one day so better look into that.

Not sure if lag or my phone was playing up, but shows as popping in a few days ago.

Bling · March 25, 2023

Got this thing down to local garage and it got itself a sticker it hadn't worn in a while. So then it was time to put some rego on it, was going to chuck six months but forgot it's old as fuck now, so 12 months is cheap anyway. So did that, then called up another crowd to organise getting some plates pressed for it. I purchased them off trademe a week after getting the car, really good timing. They were going for dirt cheap so I offered for them to send them to me included in the dirt cheap price, they agreed. The single bashed to buggery plate has been hanging on the wall (it came off a trailer), taunting me for over four years now. Was tempting to go for the Jap plate style, but I ain't got money for that AND a tank of gas these days.

Took it for a nice backround trip, the roads are all over the show, but it soaked it all up nicely. Low as possible is nice, but it would have been scraping most of the trip if lower. So a good compromise of low and actually able to drive it at pace over shit rural roads. Quite good being able to hit the sharp corners without slowing and it just sits flat with no roll. Wasn't harsh at all on the undulations in the road either. Overall, very happy with it's ride quality. I'd loved to have had it another 30mm lower, but the compromise needed to achieve that isn't worth it. Plenty around that are MUCH lower than mine, but low isn't everything (cop out lol). I wasn't willing to cut the body / guards to get it lower than it is.

Just a short update, but an important one as it's finally back on the road. Will get myself some AA membership going on so i'm not so anxious driving it around. Still needs a carb fettle, likely new jets. So when the weather turns proper shit, i'll whip the carb off and see about sorting that out. Next on the to do list is some deadening and installing the speakers. Will update when I work on the 3D printed mounting hardware for those, but it won't be for a while. Will swap off the Levin badge too for the Corolla "C" badge I have. It's what it had factory, i've just left it on there because lazy.

Some pics for proof.

Bling · December 29, 2023

Small update today.

Took it for a WOF a while ago now and just had a few minor things to sort. Took it to the OS BBQ meat this month so took a quick snap of it next to Karls sweet wags. Oh and Bart's whip features too. Didn't take any other pics because lazy.

Have been working on the stereo since the mrs finished work for the year. I get very limited garage time these days so need to take the time when it's there. Made a template for the stereo surround bracket as this car didn't have one. So removed the frame from the other Corolla and got to work. Was going to do it in steel but gave up as getting the welder out is a PITA. So next logical option was wood. So I made this:

I've started making a replacement frame, but it requires getting the welder out, so job for another day. I need to make it pretty low profile so that the stereo fits inside it, there isn't a huge amount of space.

I installed the tweeters in approximate locations, may fine tune their direction, but for now I just want to get them in and wire and will worry about that, probably never.

Popped out and broke one of the top dash vents. Thankfully there is lots of clearance between the duct and the vent to run the wiring. So have done that and placed them back for now. Plenty of wire to the crossover so can easily whip them back out later on and sort if they need it. May hide a bracket on the underside so they can't fly out at me. But for now the speakers are cable tied to the vent via the tweeter base, which I assume you'd normally screw to the dash them slide the tweeter on. So it's pretty secure with no effort. Ignore the fact I go from passenger side to drivers side in the photos.

Current project is the front kick space speakers. Pretty much done now, just need to pop them in with a bit more securing to the car, and plug them into the crossover. The amp I ended up getting is for boats, so its pretty small and is all coated for moist install locations. It's two channel and when bridged will give me 90w @ 4ohm. The whole amp makes me scratch my head as the wiring loom it has, its a lot smaller gauge that I would expect for the power output. But it must be right so i'll just install it so that the main power feed is as short as practical.

Anyway, continuing on from my 3D scanned and printed speaker mounts, I printed some more in black. Not really necessary given they are painted, but figured if someone does actually kick one (and never rides again) it will at least still be black underneath.

Tried a few glues to stick the PLA parts to the car plastics. Some glues work on each of them but none seem to work well on both surfaces. So I resorted to using roof silicone in the end as I have tubes of that, that will go off anyway. So I first did a coat of silicone that came with my pergola for sealing (and that I didn't use because had roof sealant open). It seem to glue the parts together solid. I installed short wood screws for gluing and just left them in. Then I got out my roof silicone and sealed up the join, to make it a bit tidier. Could have done a smaller bead easily, but when you have fuck all time and just want shit done you just slap it on and call it a day. Then it was wet sanded to remove the last paint job the panels got. Then plastic primer times a few, then satin black times a few. Then I installed the speakers in the holes, then the grilles and it was done. Will install them in the next few days all going well and will continue making a frame for the stereo surround to bolt to.

That's it for now really, pics:

Glued with pergola silicone, would have made sense to sand the panels before doing this, but oh well.

Fitment:

Goo'd up. As mentioned, could have used a lot less as you can see the gap above isn't big. But messing around making a small bead look good isn't something I can be bothered with when none of this is even visible when installed.