Name is Allen, I reside in a small town in Washington state. Moved from Portland, OR.
Keep in mind, while owning these cars what I did for fun was junkyard raiding. I would purchase all the contents of a car from a yard and cart it home.
At a point, I had an entire car in the garage minus the shell and glass. I had enough left over to build another car minus interior and a couple body panels.
I bought my first AE in 2002, an 87 SR5 Coupe with quarter panel damage. Basically the one no one ever wants. Paid 750 for it. Ran like a champ for 3 years but leaked oil like no ones business. The GTS Swap happened in early 2005. Everything from a GTS was swapped over including the power mirrors. Had a rebuilt motor, dynoed at 99hp at the wheels.
My other pride was an 86 GTS Coupe I bought north of Seattle in a little town near the coast. I got it back, neglected to check the coolant one day and overheated the motor and blew the headgasket. I had a 'friend' who would help me with some of this car stuff, taught me a little bit but mostly stole from me. This car sat for years without a motor and rear axle (sold to a friend while this sat idle).
I was able to purchase a 3tc swap with sidedraft (I think mikuni 44s) carbs. It was a bolt in, simple, couple wires. I also had finally found another LSD axle and threw it in the back. I drove this around for a bit, it mostly sat because it was incredibly loud. It shot fireballs all the time, ran rich, burned the eyes. It wasn't super fast, but it was stupid and stupid made a lot of friends.
While in Spokane, WA visiting a friend at Gonzaga my GTSR5 had an electrical fire and burned. Had a good friend (whom I lost contact with now) help me and tow it back. I am still appreciative to this day.
I stripped the GTSR5 and took the 4age down to a short block and resealed it, put it back together and threw it back into the GTS where it belonged.
Bought some front bumper that was 'cool' back in 2006 or 2007 and went dirt drifting. If there was anything loose on the car, you would have found it after 5 minutes. A group of 5 of us did this for at least 6 hours.
After collecting parts for a year, I was ready to redo the suspension and steering. Added a GTS manual rack, column with hub extension, SPL coilovers, extended lower control arms, NCRCAs, Swaybars, and SS HTS rear shocks.
At the end of the road in 2007/2008 I was working on a F22 Swap from a wrecked S2000. I never got it fully done.
TODAY
At the beginning of April I have purchased a 1986 hatchback from my friend James. I purchased the car before I had even gotten it road worthy because I knew he took great care of this thing and I have purchased other vehicles from him before. It needed brake work, I put in a new master cylinder and booster over the weekend to get it road worthy. I had a clutch master to put in at the same time but I accidentally ordered the wrong one.
I intend on restoring the vehicle, not to factory but a resto-mod.
I did the stripped out corolla thing years ago and I don't want to venture down that route again. It was fun and wild to drive my old corolla but I want to drive this daily and without problems. The end product for this car would be a 1UZ swap. There will be a lot of work before that.
I will try and bring informative DIY segments for everyone as I do things along the build.
I had ordered a couple of things and decided that today would be a good day to fix up some parts of the car.
On the schedule:
-Spark Plugs, Cap, and Rotor
-Front Brakes - Rotors, Pads, Bearings, and Lines
-Rear Brakes - Rotors, Pads, Lines, and center brake line
-Clutch master cylinder, clutch line, and slave
-Exhaust manifold
-Oil Change
First order of business. Get it in the air and start on the brakes.
Got one side done fairly quick.
This was the drivers side. The sliders were dry and had no grease.
Outside pad was nearly on metal, inside was worn diagonally.
My co-worker Steven was helping me out through out the day. He actually did the header install on his own.
Rockin' and Rollin' around the car.
This was the last set I did, Drivers side rear. The rotor was badly grooved, like a record. The rear brake pads looked new, but since I had bought a complete brake system, I changed them anyway. Sorry, I didn't keep the pads.
After the brakes, I put in NGK Iridium plugs.
Next, I spent my time taking the clutch master out and Steven took the stock exhaust manifold out.
No-name header I purchased. Beats an exhaust leaking into the cabin making me dizzy! Clutch Master on top left.
I have the new clutch master in, now I am tightening everything up.
Steven had the top half of the manifold in, spent some time grinding out the two stud holes because they weren't exactly right.
Tightening up the last two bolts to the exhaust.
This manifold did hit on the lower part of the firewall. Nothing a ballpeen hammer couldn't take care of.
I also had purchased this from a customer recently. It has a bad crank, I will be putting a new motor into it and refreshing it for my girlfriend to drive. It needs a thorough cleaning, new interior parts, some POR15 on the underside and skid-plates. Its going to be our adventure rig.
Next on the agenda
Distributor Rebuild, the current one leaks oil fairly bad. - ordered and arrived
Bushing kit install
T50 Inspection and breakdown, new seals and install
New clutch and flywheel - Would need to order, going with a 212mm
Water Pump Install - have a brand new one
Hunt down a manual steering set-up
Freshen up the interior
