Ben's JZX83 Grande

[Deceiver]

Hi all,
After lurking for some time and finally deciding to register (after many subtle hints from Matt to do so), I thought I'd show you my pride and joy.

This is my 1992 JZX83 Cressida Grande. I bought it in Feb 2011 with the intention of it being a project from the get go. It was rescued from the local wrecker after someone had sent it there to die as a result of the 7M doing a head gasket (among other things). My step-dad knew at the time I was on the look out for one to make a project out of, so being good mates with the local wrecker, he heard that there was one on it's way in from the Northern Beaches. Once it arrived I headed over there after work to check it out. After having a quick look over it in the state it was in, I paid my money and drove it the 500m home with no rego and a missing cylinder.
Upon getting it home I went right over it to see what it needed;



Here it is once I got it home:


For the next month or so it sat in the garage as it had arrived while I had my AE93 4AGZE GTI for sale.

In the mean time, a mate came over and gave me a hand to rip the interior out and give it a clean.
This is the mess we discovered once the seats were out:

Crumbs, glitter, gummy bears, tissues, dirt, sticky substances. You name it, it was there.
We managed to get it looking like this. Not perfect, but good enough:


Anyway, the Corolla sold in April, so I went for a drive down to Ichiban and returned home with this:

And so, that afternoon, the project began..


All in a day's work.


The JZ in it's new home.

From this point, the project dragged on for another 6 months as I slowly ticked off items on the to-do list.
It was a learning curve for me, as prior to this the most I had done to a motor was change a head gasket on a 4AGE. Along the way I hit hurdles, but with help from some mates (including Matt for the wiring - cheers mate), it all started coming together.
This was easily the biggest head-fuck for me though:


In the end I got there and this was how the car ended up looking:



The maiden voyage (with no exhaust) to the exhaust shop to complete the whole puzzle:


Though, the absolute highlight of the entire experience was the moment I took this photo:


Since then, I've done the following:




And here's how she sits today:




As with any project though, it's never really finished, so the current list of things to do goes in this order:




Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Ben

[dr1ft-pig]

clean x8 man plan on staying auto???

[Matt]

Thats right, wiring an engine off the car is 1000x easier than on unless you've done loads of them.

Good write up tho and hurry up and put a r154 behind it.

[Deceiver]

Thanks bud. Definitely not staying auto though. This is the first auto I've owned and I can't wait to get rid of the fucking thing. Won't be going manual until I've at least fixed the auto and run it down the 1/4.
Currently between jobs at the moment, but once I find work again and scratch together the cash I'll be on the hunt for preferrably an R154, but will settle for a W58.

PEER PRESSUE! Stop it!

[dan.91]

awesome looking cressida.. GOOD WORK

[declan]

i've got a 1J cressy myself, fun cars.
enjoy it!

[dangdang]

Rid of the beef flaps and I'm sold, x8 chassis is ace!