Always good to see these old girls being restored / looked after. I had one of these as my first car.
So Recently I bought this,
An AE-82, Toyota Corolla with its original 4A-C Carby engine inside. Built back in August 1985, with only one owner? I couldn't pass up.
Sure its not the worlds most exciting or popular car, but to me having the late 80's look and being in next to mint condition for what i paid? Its perfect.
It has a few km's on the clock at around 370k, came from a cane farm down near Bundaberg, and the older man who owned the car was one of the nicest i have ever met.
The car overall was in great condition other than a pretty messy engine bay, few missing screws throughout the car, faded plastic and a crack in one of the rear lights...
Its unregistered for now, but tomorrow i actually have my roadworthy booked, and hope to see it become the first day for it back on the road in a few years.
At this stage i'm mainly working on cleaning up the car, e.g. replacing some bad wiring within the engine bay and giving the inside a really good clean, however who knows whats to come
- Darcy
Always good to see these old girls being restored / looked after. I had one of these as my first car.
Ae86 Drivingclub - Toyota AE86 Car Club where AE86 | KE70 | Toyota 86 / GT86 | Subaru BRZ | Scion FRS owners
Long story short, it didn't pass the roadworthy, tyres made back in 2001 dont always look great and my rear drum brakes need some work.
Couple of other little things but hey, as most of us were expecting for a car its age it was due for something to be worked on. Nothing major other than the tyres and brakes but still, HOWEVER.....
Took off the rocker cover cover today, this was a fun find. It kinda solves the engine clicking noise too...
Its surprising how well it has been running despite the rocker arm being clean snapped off for who knows how long...
The snapped off part wasn't far away and thankfully by the looks no fragments have come off that could be running through the engine.
So i have some more mechanical work to do, but hey, wasn't listed for the RWC not that i will be driving it like this
Thats awesome, I bought a Mazda engine years ago and put it in my 323 van, and it never ran quite right. Took it in for a tune up and they bore scoped it, and noticed a chunk out of a piston. Drove it like that for years and eventually sold the car to a mechanic from the local mazda dealer.
Chunk out of a piston? damn! Its crazy how little knocks and sounds turn out to be stuff like this while the car is still running decently....
Managed to install the new rocker arms, somehow managed to over torque a bolt and break it though so i had to quickly touch that up....
I had a spare bolt and where it broke i managed to unscrew it with pliers but, i did learn my lesson with really taking it slow torquing things, which is what the whole car is for me, a learning experience.
Touched her up, went full ricer and painted the rocker cover but hey, its about making her appeal to me and not the world. (though my goals are for it to stay pretty true to stock, no turbos or body kit crap (cool but not for this car))
So long story short i got her registered! Its been a while but thats because i have been busy....
First day on the road, i travel about 15km to visit family, yknow show em the car? BAM, car breaks down at their house...
Thick rust in the fuel tank woke up and started being fed into my car. Blockages and gunk, you name it.
So, for a while, my car sat at their house, waiting for help. During work days i would bounce over and get to work, needles to say though now its all fixed. From dropping the fuel tank (which took ages (seized bolts)).
Guernied inside the fuel tank to clean it, god it was bad. Came up nice though.
Washed the water out with metho, let it dry, easy peasy and did a bit of sealing with good ol WD40.
Before and after shots to compare, 40~ years of dust dirt and tar kinda hinders the look of it
BUT PROGRESS, ITS REGO'D AND RUNNING YEEEY!
Such drama but all good now
SO SOME TIME LATER....
Everything was going well, fuel tank fixed, or so i thought...
Bam! One day, a few weeks ago now, i realised my car was struggling to start, checked my fuel filter and it was happening again. Rust was finding its way back into my fuel tank like crazy.
The fuel filter was literally chocking with f*king rust. Opened up the tank and surely enough i had rust sludge at the bottom and feathery crap all in the tank, not to mention the fuel pickup was falling apart and the fuel sender died the following day.
So off to the wreckers i went, there were two cars with fuel units that could be compatible, the first car was a slightly newer version of my car, and a hatchback model, fuel tank would have been perfect but someone had put a screwdriver through the tank a few times..... HOWEVER the sender unit in it was exactly what i was looking for and i managed to get out for a mere $10, pretty good for what was almost a bran-new sender.
And thankfully, the other older corolla out there that i had already been pinching engine parts off of had the same fuel tank again in perfect condition, it even had half a tank of fuel, which became a problem when i was ready to remove it.
See, our wreckers out here had a few interesting rules, NO JACKS under any circumstances, and NO FUEL SIPHONS, which was a pain in the ass. Partial to the fact that my model of fuel tank has no drain port, and the car being so low to the ground with me barely being able to fit under it, i knew i was in for it. Did i mention the two bolts holding the fuel tank straps were seized? oh yeah that was fun. Hot weather, an hour and a half of trying to take the bolts off (no joke 90mins(i ended up just cutting the straps with pliers)). overall it took two and a bit hours to get the tank out, and i was a little light headed from heat and the petrol i was soaked in, but it was not in vain i had a bran-new fuel tank to go with. Easy. Ish.
$10 Sender unit, $35 fuel tank (which i sneakily left the fuel pickup unit attached in so they didn't notice or charge me for), so $45 worth of parts and before i put it in i made sure i cleaned all of my fuel lines, which were pretty good thankfully and i cleaned the carby out. Glad i did all of the lines properly this time too because i actually found a near kinked fuel line so my car is actually getting a decent amount at high speeds/RPM, explaining a bit of the lag i was feeling. And now?
she runs perfectly! For now!