Hi, Sorry to bring this thread up again,but please can you tell me how you manage to get to the dash bolts,those where they are nearly touch the windshield glass without removin it? Did you remove the windshield or you have fabricate a special screwdriver to reach those bolts? I am asking because i have the same car with the same problem.Any help will be greatly appriciated.Thank you.
You don't need to touch the screws you can see next to the glass. The replacement dash slides in underneath the plastic piece you see next to the glass from what I remember. All the bolts to loosen the dash pad are accessible from underneath. You'll have to loosen the tacho panel to get access to some of them.
Not updated in a while. Exhaust was completed and the car came back to me. Very happy with the quality and sound. Clearance is nice and tight too!
Once I had it back, I found I couldnt get it into gear. The clutch fork turned out to be the issue being too worn. I replaced the fork, and the pivot inside the box to a new one from Japan.
While the box was off, I created a template for a flywheel dust cover - the one I had was from an MR2, so didnt quite work with the 86 box.
The old sump was pretty bruised looking, and was leaking slightly from the seal. For good measure I replaced with a new one.
I also had a slight leak at the master cylinder for the brakes. I wasnt too happy with the copper lines, so I found a solution from Venhill which allowed me to use stainless lines instead.
The leak had caused some of the paint to come away in the engine bay, so I rearranged a few things to allow easier access.
A proper accelerator pedal was overdue, so I took what remained of the floor mounted KE25 pedal, and married it with a pedal from a Toyota Aygo. Pretty happy with it.
I managed to get a hold of some TE27 trueno tail lights. Always liked the style, so had a quick test fit. I'll need to make up a center piece for these - the one that came with was a poor fibreglass effort. I might try 3D printing as it's not too complicated a shape.
I'm so envious of all the space you've got with your exhaust manifold. I have to weave mine past the steering box as well. With the 2T-G i could just manage it, but i've managed to get the 4A-GE a bit furter back in the bay of the KE20, which makes exhaust routing a bit more troublesome.
Keep up the good work on yours! I love the Trueno rear lights!
Work has been pretty busy, so I've been lacking in posts. Fitted the pedal and started refitting some of the interior. I picked up a carpet quite cheap from the USA and set about fitting it up.
I needed a shifter boot to go with it, and found this one which is actually from a classic fiat 500. I liked the style, and it keeps the interior quite neat.
I won a second and cheaper set of rear tail lights on yahoo auctions, and lucked out sourcing a centre garnish for them. So the first set will go up for sale, and I decided to fix up the ones that arrived as a bit of a restoration project. Lots of rusted bolts like this one:
Using a combinatiion of heat, and drill bits... the previous studs melted their way out from the plastic frame. I opted for then glueing in some rivnut inserts with epoxy, and will bolt through from the inside of the boot when fitting.
And fitted to the car...
My next challenge was getting the engine to rev propertly, and try driving the car. I was having all sorts of issues getting the car to rev. Any throttle would just completely starve the car.
Some considerable time later, and various combinations of jetting - I finally got something that the car was happy with. It's a pretty big learning curve having never touched carbs before.
Still some tuning to be done, but the main thing was I could drive the car in and out the garage under its own power for the first time in 2 years. Delighted! Oh, and I changed out the arches for ones that are closer to the stock sizes of the TE27, which I think fit the style of the car much more than the orange ones did.
With the engine able to idle for longer, I could finally test the cooling system. I have a frankenstein of RWD and FWD 4AGE parts in my setup. The thermostat housing is from an AE82 (I think), which has a fitting for the radiator fan. The sensor for the AE82 is normally closed, whereas my aftermarket radiator fan setup is wired in such a way that it is more suited to a normally open circuit. I found one from a mistubishi colt which was within the temp range I needed, and fitted the thermostat housing.
I tidied up the coolant hoses at the same time, and gave the coolant a flush through. Spark plug cover back on, and a bit of a wiring tidy later... (I need to get an overflow bottle sorted still)
My focus then switched to packing the garage up as I'm moving house. Good excuse to clear out some spare parts too and get some more pennies for the build. Amazing how many random bits you collect building just 1 car...
So... when I moved house the car went into storage for a with the good folks at Coco's Kustoms. Coco helped manage getting the car over to paint while it was in his care.
The rear quarters were cut and raised for a more factory finish so the lips remain in tact under the fender flares.
The car was then taken back to bare metal before a repaint in the factory colour.
In the booth...
In primer...
And in white!
And assembling back together...
(Rear tail lights refurbished in storm grey)
(These badges and vents got a refurb before going back on)
The car came back from the body shop, and into Coco's Kustom's clean bay in the lead up to my wedding.
The Watanabe wheels had been refurbished in a nice gunmetal grey, with a staggered set of nice new Falken tyres.
I found on refitting the rear bumper that it wasn't quite straight (damaged in shipping from Australia), and luckily one came up on ebay in the UK. I buoght it, and it went straight to the chromers and arrived with us with a few days remaining.
The rear parcel shelf was sun-baked and brittle, so I made a new one out of some 'Foamex' which worked really well.
The car was then getting an alignment when we ran into an issue with some play on the AE86 steering arms. It turns out the tapered part of the control arm on the KE25 is 1mm smaller than the AE86. AE86 control arms aren't the same length as KE25. The solution was to get some fully adjustable AE86 control arms...
Once it was aligned, it went to the rolling road to see if the car could be driveable for the wedding. A1 Automotive (now known as Raceworx) were up to the task.
I really needed some anti-vibration mounts, and the linkage setup wasnt the best... and also the carb choice wasnt the most tuneable but it was definitely better - but that gave me a shopping list post-wedding.
At this point, I hadn't seen the car in the flesh fully completed with all the finished badges, and the final polish. Here it is arriving the day before my wedding at the venue. It looked unbelievable!
And of course, a custom japanese style plate was added. Here's a bunch of pics from the day before, and the day of the wedding.
Getting piped into the reception by one of my mates was a fantastic moment!
Post wedding & honeymoon, I was invited to have the car as one of the 100 black carpet spots at CleanFest.
At this point, the car was officially registered with the DVLA with help from the Toyota Enthusiasts Club, (1600 engine is now on the V5 which I'm pleased about too). The car hadn't been driven on the road yet so we had it trailered to and from the venue.
I spent a lot of time tidying engine bay of all places before the show, repainting the rocker covers again and cleaning up any wiring which looked untidy.
This was a pretty cool show, but a bit more catered towards slam culture / air ride car crowd. I did get a lot of nice people come to talk about the car though, and it was a huge compliment to be given a spot.
Just finished reading through this thread great work. Can't believe how rust free the car was though compared to what I usually work with. I spend alot of time on mr2's so am very familiar with the 4age and love it as an engine. Nice to see it well polished as your wedding car.
(Rear tail lights refurbished in storm grey)
(These badges and vents got a refurb before going back on)
(repainted cowl)
