Sloth

I should still be coming.. I should probably think about washing the 55 (and fixing the brakes.. :P)

Blasphemy!! When I bought the 7k it was running a 3k carb instead of the ecu cause the guy couldn't be bothered fitting it and it ran like crap. I'd never want to subject my silvertop to a carby :happy: The point of the AE86 is to do things properly (well as properly as I can afford) which means sacrifing time :lolcry:

The sprinter isn't running at the moment, doesn't have the ECU in it :happy:

I'll have to see what's happening... That's probably the weekend I'll be heading back to Vic to pick up the sprinter :P (if it's finished). If it isn't though, I can probably come along in the 55, the brakes are still screwed from the track day I did laster year but it'll be fine :blush:

Not a lot of news recently. Everything is almost ready to go, last time I spoke to the mechanic everything was in except the computer/electrics and the seats (which were probably going in the next day). The auto-elec that was going to do the computer work though was in hospital after being bitten by a spider, so I'm just playing the waiting game now...

Potential Seats (FTO) While my mechanic was visiting the wreckers to get some random pieces for the Sprinter, he came across a set of seats from an FTO that are relatively cheap. Similar to these but in black and "better looking". I was originally looking at putting a set of brand new recaros in, similar to the one below, but probably in leather... The only difference is that I would get away with the FTO seats for under $1000, but the Recaros would cost $4500+ (and that's just for the cheapest ones with no leather, for the more expensive ones with leather I'd be looking around $6000!!!!) The idea behind the Sprinter was to do things properly and get nice parts (the Sparco seat in my KE55 was bought from a guy I met in a Maccas carpark at 1am) but I have to be realistic (spending 6k on seats for the Sprinter is a little excessive). The problem though is it can be a slippery slope and next thing I know I could end up with a tacho taped to my ashtray (like I had in the KE55 until it got broken into). I'm going to have a think about things over the weekend, but at the moment I'm leaning more towards the FTO seats. One of the issues with this project is that I want things to work and be done right, which basically means I'm avoiding doing any of the work myself, which in turn means the cost of everything goes up dramatically (although there's less effort on my part and things are done properly). From what I've heard they go well in the AE86, although they sit a little higher than the stock seats. Any thoughts guys?

Shame I missed out (I need to check the forums more). My car is heaps bogan, I got so many dirty looks around Nats (the black rear drivers side door is the icing on the cake).

Yeah I love the shopping trolley engine stands :jamie: Latest word from the mechanic: The engine is in ( no need to take it out again.) Water gallery modified and plated. Just finished the clutch hydraulics...it works! Painted and fitted the extractors and fitted up the exhaust system. Distributor in. Heater in. I think all that leaves is Putting in the computer Wiring everything up Replacing the dash Getting the aircon working

Hoping to have the car back on the road in Canberra by the end of the month. ETA for the end of the project though will be a lot later (due to lack of funds, buying a house etc), so everything else will just slowly trickle in.

Engine Update Things have been progressing. My mechanic had some trouble getting his auto-elec to come and take a look at the car to advise on what computer to get. Meanwhile my mechanic has done the following: Replaced the rear shocks with Pedders "Sports" shocks Lowered the car a little all round Made a new exhaust (and fitted it) Made a set of extractors Cleaned the engine bay Mounted the aircon unit onto the new engine (on the opposite site) Removed the dash and heater Had the heater repaired and modified to not interfer with the distributor Mounted the distributor without it hitting the firewall Shortly after Christmas the auto-elec took a look at the engine/car and recommended a Link ECU, which has been ordered and should be arriving about now. Once it is installed the engine can go back in and everything can be finished up. Hopefully the car should be back on the road by the end of the month (but I'm letting it take as long as it takes and not rushing it). Here are various pics of the car as it was just before Christmas. Engine bay, after being cleaned 3 times Bell housing nice and clean The Silvertop! Dash completely removed Engine with extractors Engine again with extractors Mechanic pushing the car onto the lift (as it can't drive on there yet) Getting ready to lift The exhaust The two bolts that came out at 110km/h on the Hume in the middle of nowhere (the two that are in there now are originally from the passenger seat) The Sprinter on the lift New muffler and shocks Engine from behind (parts have been modified) Extractors Tayell Automotive - Road & Rally, where all the work is getting done. (Btw the Starion is for sale if anyone is interested :jamie: )

This could be fun, wouldn't mind getting my hands dirty is anyone needs an extra set of hands, although I'm not really good at anything mechanical, lol.

Looks amazing! (Looks so good in some of the shots my brain was telling me they had to be fake, lol) I hope that I can get mine looking half that good in the future.

I'd start looking for a nice straight sprinter now, they aren't exactly the easiest cars to find.

Black Limited I did a bit of searching around the net for black AE86s with gold rims and stumbled across the "Black Limited" edition. It was a special Trueno release of the AE86. Apparently there was only 400 released in Japan and now they go for crazy amounts. The only differences with this release are: Black Paint Gold Detailing (badges and "Black Limited" stickers) "Black Limited" on the red trim on the hatch (instead of "Sprinter") Different seats Different dear knob Different coloured clock (orange) Yellow globes This is pretty similar to what I am thinking, so I thought I'd repost a couple of pics from around the net (I think most are from the AEU86.org forums). Hopefully this shows the look I'm going for.

Thanks for the comment. The idea is to make something that looks nice and clean, but doesn't jump out too much. I'm really just making the car for myself, not for other people to look at. One of my first ideas was to go totally rice, paint it orange and black (as you can see on the first page of this thread) then cover it in vinyls/stickers. I realised though that it would probably just make me look like a tool and get a lot of unwanted attention from the police. So I've decided to dial it back a bit and go with something a little more classy/refined. I'm still planning on putting a body kit on it, but again, nothing too over the top. I've always still got my KE55 which has the cobra style stripes (or "go fast stripes" as someone called them the other day). Maybe one day in the future I will get another project car as a track car (as the 86 is going to be designed as a road car, not a track car) and rice it up. The next car I'm planning on getting though is an Evo XI (if they make one and I'm rich enough to get one) and probably a 4WD (Hilux or Cruiser) for offroading.

I know the look you are talking about: The black on black makes it look almost evil. And the silver on black looks nice and classy and helps to show off the rims. I'm a fan of both looks, and will probably get another set of rims later to give that look. Both of those options made the car look nice and tidy. Black with chrome trim rims also look pretty mad, here's a pic of the rims that are currently on my housemates silvia. They would look pretty awesome with a full black paintjob. They might be on the table if my housemate upgrades to 5 stud, but cause of the size I may need to roll the guards to fit them (I think anything bigger than 17 I need to roll the guards). The look that I'd be going for with the gold/bronze rims is something a little different, but something that still doesn't jump out as over the top. Something similar to these cars: The bonus of these gold rims is that they would look pretty good with the rolla (blue, silver and gold). Feel free to make any opinions.

Like other people have said, as your first car you don't want to do too much to it. Pretty much everyone crashes (or is crashed into in) their first car, and you'll feel pretty bad if you've put in a lot of effort (and money) and that happens. My biggest advice is do what is right for you and makes the car good to drive/something you are happy with (and safe in). We started by spraying my car, but that was only cause we had someone who could do the whole job for free (including paint). Aside from that, I just put rims on it and made sure the engine was in relatively ok condition. As I drove it things went wrong. The first thing was the exhaust falling off at the muffler, so I took the opportunity to replace it with a 2inch sports exhaust. Later on I had problems with the gearbox, so we swapped it for another, and when that had problems we found a 5 speed box with a 7k attached. Unless you want to do a big project and have the time, money and passion, don't go too crazy. After a year you'll have a better idea of what you want out of a car and you can go from there. Some of my friends bought their first car, spent heaps on various things then realised they didn't like the actual car and switched to a different model, losing all the money they spent (not that you'll have that problem as rollas are awesome :y: ).

I'm pretty easy. Probably won't have the sprinter back until early next year, but I've still got the rolla. It's missing the back seat now, and has oil on the rear carpet and the brakes are a little worse for wear, but aside from that she's keen too.

Engine Update The engine conversion is still progressing slowly. To solve the issue of the distributor not fitting we are probably going to use an aftermarket ECU. My mechanic has made up a custom exhaust and set of extractors and fitted them. He's replaced the front shocks with Pedders sports shocks (the rear shocks were replaced last time) and lowered the whole car a little. Good things take time, and I'm not in a rush as long as things are done properly. There's a chance it could all be done before Christmas, but it will probably be ready early next year. Rims My housemate bought a set of Rota rims earlier this year, but is now thinking of upgrading his axles to 5 stud, so he offered to sell the new 4 studs to me (as they haven't even been taken out of the box). They were sitting in the boxes in the corner of the apartment for 6 months and I forgot to get a photo, but I think they look something like this: I think they would look good with the black paintjob I'm thinking of doing. The other option would be black rims. Once I've paid for the engine I'll look at picking up the rims and putting some rubber on them.

Yeah, I should be up for any of those. I'm going a LAN on the 5th and going to Marulan Driver Training Center on the 6th, but aside from that I think I'm pretty free.

I've uploaded all 158 of the photos I took, and you can see them here, the photos are shown a little small, but there is a button to show them in their fullscreen glory. Enjoy!!

Gotta upload the pics to the net somewhere, but here is one showing everyone who rocked up on time :) Left to right (let me know if I get this wrong): NVE00S - AE102 Sammo - KE10 Sloth - KE55 Tom - KE55 Bart - KE70 Sammo - KE30

Just wanted to confirm that we were meeting at the National Museum Of Australia (didn't want to show up at the wrong place).

Yeah, originally I was pretty keen on the orange as I wanted something a little ricey that really stood out. But now I'm thinking of going more subtle and just want something that looks respectable. I'm planning on going as black as possible for the interior. I've been looking at the Momo Champion (or Competition, can't remember which) wheel, which is a black leather wheel with brushed black metal in the center. For the seats I've been thinking black leather Recaros (if I can't bring myself to dishing out that much coin). And then putting in new black carpet and getting the door panels and dash done in black.

4AGE 20v Silvertop After discussing which engine to put into the Sprinter with many people and doing a bit of research online I finally settled on the silvertop. Some people suggested putting in a CA18 or SR20, but others said putting a non-Toyota engine into the car would be ruining it. Of course the various 4AG engines were suggested (4AGZE, and the black and silvertops), without having to worry too much about new mounts etc. and the fact that it's something that's been done a million times before. My dad suggested a 1JZ or 2JZ (supra motors) as this would probably give me as much power as I'd ever need (probably more). The idea of a v8 was also brought up, since it's a little unique. I had a really good think about what I wanted to get out of the car and what exactly I was going to do with it. Since I'm extremely lazy, I wouldn't be using the car as a serious track car, I might attend a track day every here or there, but at the end of the day it's a road car. For that reason I don't think I need stupid amounts of power, I want a car that has a respectable amounts power though (which any of the above engines could provide) but a v8, 1JZ or 2JZ would probably be overkill and require too much effort/money/time (as the firewall would need to be modified). I then thought about whether to go with a 4AG (which has been done a million times) or whether I wanted something a little different (the CA or SR, which have still been done, but aren't as common as the 4AG). Since I wanted something for myself (and not just to show off to everyone else) I decided on the the 4AG as I thought this should be easier/cheaper. Finally came the choice between a 20v or supercharged 16v. I'd originally wanted to go the supercharged option, as I've always wanted a supercharger cause everyone else has turbos. But after doing a bit of research and talking to various people I began to to think sourcing and getting parts for the ZE would be a bit more difficult. The ZE and the 20vs also make around the same amount of power (depending on who you talk to). This left the choice between the silver and black, which could've really gone either way, but was made easier by my mechanic being able to source a Silvertop from someone who he'd dealt with in the past for a reasonable price. So I told my mechanic to get the engine.... Road Trip Since I am currently living in Canberra and the mechanic who will be doing the work for me (along with the engine) is in Melbourne I had to do a roadtrip to deliver the car. We set out on a Saturday morning in the Sprinter on the almost 1500km round trip. Things went relatively well, with the car travelling from Canberra to Benalla (around 450kms) on about 30 litres. We then took the back way into the Yarra Ranges when the Sprinter started randomly loosing power. Luckily this didn't last too long and we made it to our destination safely. Since we had left relatively early in the day we didn't get too much sun (getting into Melbourne around 3), which was a godsend since the Sprinters airconditioning doesn't work!! Then on Sunday came the trip back... in the Corolla! The rolla had never done a trip longer than about 150kms so it was an interesting experience. Since the 7K in it is quite new and runs nice it wasn't too bad, but the gearbox could've been better at 110km/h and the trip also would've been nicer if there was aircon! The rolla is a much more raw experience than the Sprinter (or any more modern car) and it really feels like part of you instead of just and automobile you are riding in. We stopped at Glenrowan for fuel and I was shocked when I thought I saw something dripping from the engine. When I got back into the car it wouldn't start! We rolled it back and underneath wear the engine had been was a pool of oil. I managed to start the car and put it into a parking spot. After getting some icecream and having a toilet break I checked back on the car which didn't appear to be dripping any oil and started fine. I was pretty sure the oil wasn't mine, so we headed off back to Canberra. We made it up in one piece without any hassles doing the the 430ish kms from Glenrowan to Canberra on about 39 litres (the twin SUs on the 1.8 are a lot less fuel efficient than a stock 4AC). I was then greeted in Canberra by a random crack-head calling me a wanker as she almost stumble in front of me, bottle in hand, as I drove up the main drag (ahh... it's good to be home!). Engine Conversion Now that the mechanic has the Sprinter he's started doing the engine change. After ripping out the 4AC and all the old wiring, he dropped in the Silvertop, only to find out that the distributor doesn't fit! I've now pointed him to some of the information on rollaclub and other places on the net about the different solutions to the problem, and we will decide which approach we want to take. Here's a before and after pic.. 4AC 4AGE20v (not connected) New Paintjob One of the things I'll be doing in the future is respraying the car. At first I wanted to do it very ricey, and was thinking of two tone with orange. Now I'm thinking of keeping it a little less conspicious, probably painting it in a plain glossy black. Here are a couple of random black 86s from the net: I don't know if I'd want something in the colour, but it looks really nice and tidy: