Scott's Panda Trueno Hatch

[scotty]

Hi All,

Bit late getting to posting this thread so the first post will be a bit of a catch up.

The AE86 has been (all jokes aside) my favourite car since I first watched Initial D.
I have grown up a bit since then but I have been trying to save for/buy one for the better part of 8 years.

Now being 22 I had the money but importers i had spoken to said i would be looking at 25-30k to import my own.
Luckily i found this beautiful example in November 2015 and snatched it up straight away, I have not looked back.

Enough about me, Here is a picture from when I drove it home from up Newcastle way (I live in Sydney).
I got on the train after work and got to Newcastle around 9pm, I then drove it home and didn't make it home until 12:30am.
Now some of you may ask why it took so long but the weather on this night was torrential and the worst I have ever driven in.
I was doing 80km/h the whole way home, the car was twitching due to the water sitting on the road, the RE002's weren't happy.
I got her home safely and was over the moon when I pulled up at home.





The first thing I did that weekend was clean the car, inside and out. Everything came up really nice.







I did a look over the car and added to the spec list that was on the advertisement, that was a good surprise.
I also went out and bought a StormGuard Car Cover in Medium-Car or 4.25m which fits as if it was custom made!






-Fully Engineered.
-Silvertop 20V 4AGE conversion
-Watanabe Type R 8” and 8.5” RE002’s Front and RE003’s Rear
-Haltech Sprint 500 ECU
-TRD Front Coilovers
-T3 Rear Coilovers
-Custom Made Stainless over diff Exhaust
-Nardi Steering Wheel and Boss Kit
-Respray in Panda Colour Scheme (It was originally a white panda too)
-4.3 2-Way LSD
-Dimpled and Slotted Rotors with After market pads
-AJPS Traction Brackets
-Recaro Seats
-SQ Stacks with Air Box
-Exedy HD Clutch
-Fibreglass Front Fenders
-Crank Trigger Wheel Setup
-Adjustable Pan Hard Rod
-Throttle Linkage Upgrade
-Shifter Rebuild
-Brand New Eyebrow Trims and Raybrig Headlights
-Project Mu Brake Lines
-Brake Cylinder Brace



First up a did a service, Oil, Oil Filter etc.


Secondly I cleaned the Nardi as it was grimey and stickey. It think it came up pretty nice.

Before:






After:








Next up one of my front lights had a hole in it from a rock, also i figured because the indicators were showing their age and looked matte orange I would wrap them in a very light tint. Makes the hole less noticeable, keeps the water out and looks better. I ran out of time and only did one on each side but I will post more photos once complete. This is why they are all different colours hah.
I know it doesn't look the best but it is only an interim until I can save up for new ones from T3.







Couple of months have passed and I have just been enjoying the car and driving it like it should be. It is my daily for now but I have been on a couple of trips through the National Park and other good driving roads.
I plan on getting to some track days once I sort out a few things.







I bought some colour matched paint to paint the side moulds. I was planning on doing that this long weekend but due to the weather that wont be happening.

I bought all the stuff for another service, Oil, Oil Filter, Plugs, Diff Oil and Gearbox Oil etc so I'll get that done this weekend.

I also have bought Front bearing kits and need to install them as the Front Left Bearing is loose. The wonders of owning a 30 year old car!


TLDR bought an AE86, loving every minute of it and slowly fixing everything that breaks.


p.s sorry about image links this is my first forum thread and it won't let me attach images.

[Matt]

Image links look perfect and tbh it is how most people share images... Uploading pictures has always been a little sketchy between revision upgrades with the forum and we changed the server it was being hosted on recently too so the uploads may be broken again.

Nice trueno you have there enjoy it and I look forward to seeing more updates. I'm pretty sure this car was owned by another forum member a few years back and you might find a build thread on it in here.

[ae8zn6]

Car looks the goods Scott, I'm glad to hear you plan on painting the weatherstrip though!

What product did you use to clean the wheel? It came up really nicely, I might give it a go on the missus' car because here wheel looks a little grotty, I just assumed it was wear on the leather rather than oil and gunk off our hands

[scotty]

On the wheel I used some good oil warm soapy water and elbow grease
Yeh I couldn't stand the wheel especially knowing it wasn't my hand gunk!

Whilst servicing the car on the weekend I found some extra goodies as well.
-RCA's
-21mm Front Swaybar
-14mm Rear Swaybar

Does anyone know if the sway bars are stock items or aftermarket?
I couldn't see any markings on them and I'm unsure if they came standard on GT-Apex models and if so what size.

Last Friday I noticed temps rising and some white smoke whilst decelerating.
I found the culprit of the temps on Saturday, the radiator hose was spraying coolant all over the block.
I tightened up the hose clamp and filled up the radiator, took nearly 4 litres so it must have been empty.
It isn't leaking anymore but new hoses have been added to the shopping list just to be careful.

As for the white smoke, there isn't anymore after the service so that's a bonus.

This weekend I'll be getting some help from the Girlfriend's Dad and knocking out the front wheel bearings and the gearbox/diff oils.

[ae8zn6]

Yup, AE86s had front and rear swaybars from the factory. I can't put my hand on my heart and say the rear is definitely a 14mm item, but that sounds about right.

Elbow grease it is!

[scotty]

So the overheating issue is back, albeit no white smoke so that it good I guess.

I checked the radiator and the reservoir bottle and they were empty again!
I can't see where it is leaking from but I'm going to have to fill it up again until then weekend when I can jack up the car and see what the fuck is going on.

Any information or tips on where to check?

[ae8zn6]

Don't suppose the oil has gone to milkshake mode? If you've lost 4 litres in a couple of days it must be a fairly substantial leak...

[scotty]

No milkshake oil so i guess that is a bonus :/

Car is about to be jacked up to have a closer look.

Beautiful day for it in Sydney, hopefully the rain holds out. Sadly my garage is not big enough to work out of.

[scotty]

So my Girlfriends dad's car broke down on the way out to mine from out west so had a closer look myself.

Other than the coolant that is EVERYWHERE, I think i have brought it down to the following.

I think its the radiator cooling fan motor? It sits directly behind the fan, it seems like the further down the more coolant.
From there its getting blown around the bay by the fan because it is everywhere as I said.
I think the gasket is gone. Any ideas from you guys?

From underneath:


From above:


General picture of bay from below:

[ae8zn6]

OK,That isn't just a cooling fan motor per se, that's the actual water pump that is responsible for pumping the coolant through all the water galleries in the motor and then through the radiator to actually cool it. In RWD applications most companies (well just about all companies in the 80s) also used the water pump to drive a clutch mechanism that powered a fan without trying to overspin it at high RPM.

I haven't worked on a 20 valve for a long time, but you have to remember that they are FWD from the factory, so they wouldn't have a clutch fan attached normally. I personally wouldn't replace just the gasket on a water pump, but would instead replace the pump as well for piece of mind. SamQ sells complete pumps that are already sealed so that you don't have to worry about incorrect fitment of the gasket etc causing further issues. However, as I can't remember the normal process, you'd best ask him if the standard 20v pump is compatible with a clutch fan, or if you'd need to run thermofans instead (electric fans). It's possible that having the clutch fan hanging off the FWD pump caused the issue, but again, please consult the experts like Sam before taking my word for it, because the last time I had a 20v was in 2005! I think I may have ended up with a 16V pump, but again my memory is super sketchy.

SamQ's website lists replacement pump assemblies for around $120:

Hope I have been of some assistance!