Tom's 4agte (in progress)

[Nikkojoe]

COPY AND PASTE FROM OLD FORUM

Had my Sprinter for a good few months now so it's about time I put some pictures up of it.

Been looking for an 86 in perth for a while now and as most know they are hard to come by. I missed out on some decent deals, although things happen for a reason right? I had almost given up when in January a mate notified me of one selling in the paper, listed as a corolla (lucky). I rang up, the guy still had it and I zipped down as fast as I could (long trip from NOR to SOR). When I got there, I found a pretty average condition 86 with the usual rust, nothing too serious but would require some tlc. Ended up getting it for 1300 so I can't complain

Here are some pics of what it looked like when I first got it home:






So the project began

Started with fixing some rust (not all rust is shown, there is plenty more where that came from)





The rust was ground out, treated and then using a fibre filler to fill in the gaps. I plan to get it welded up before I respray the entire car soon.




Then I ran out of time and did not do much for a while. The car has done almost 350,000km so naturally the 4ac was pretty tired



The rings were pretty worn, and it blew a decent amount of smoke under load. We had a cruise in which the rings were killed completely (dam hills hahaha).

Was able to source a cheap ae82 4age for $250 with ecu and loom which spelt conversion time!!!

4ac ftl!

Dirty 4ac grease, yuck


ZING!!!


OH NOES, the mighty 4ac has my t50!!!


ZING No.2


After a few weeks of headaches, it was finally back on the road again. Felt nice to have some extra ooomph aswell as no smoke

I then got some gold 14x7" unknown meshies with decent offset (no offset printed on rim, but the look between +20 to +10)

This is how it stands today





Plan to get some suspension in it soon, fix more rust when weather/time permit and get it completely resprayed (not sure what colour yet, definately not white)....

[Nikkojoe]

Small update

Got some king springs and kyb exel-g shocks for the front and back put in. The rears are chopped but have short stroke shocks to suit. Fronts are just normal height. I also put some random jap brand camber tops in. Much better to drive now than with the stock stuff

Pic of how low the rear is



Also got some full face tail lights on Wednesday (thanks ken) to give the car that jdm look



Decided to take some more pics today of how it looks at the moment.




Also have some adm struts to go in with Ajps 8kg springs and some pedders heavy duty springs for the rear. Also hope to have a T-series diff in the car in 2 weeks time.

More updates soon

Tom

[Nikkojoe]

Well 2 months have pretty much passed without an update so here's whats happened in that time:

- New struts with ajps 8kg springs and kyb excel g short strokes fitted
- Replaced front brake hoses
- ajps 6kg rear springs with kyb excel g short strokes fitted
- Fixed more rust (door jam, quater window, surface rust on lower sill pannel)
- Polished lips of the meshies
- Painted bumpers and side strips black, and repainted factory sill panel black
- Removed mega cracked dash and replaced with a less cracked dash (took about 2hours)
- Fitted new clock surround

To go on (when they arrive):

- Rear camaro agx shocks
- XT130 corona lca's
- Powersteering arms
- Lock spacer (perhaps)
- Adj panhard rod
- Strut brace
- JDM trim bits
- Other minor bits (inc dash mat )

Picture time!!

First thing off the list was the suspension (8kg-Front/6kg-Rear). Together with kyb excel-g short shocks, made a massive improvement in the cars handling. Here are a couple of pics taken just before the brake shop rang to tell me the new hoses were ready.




Next i decided it was time to treat some more rust (woooooo what ive always wanted to do <_< )
From this:

to this:


The rims looked a bit plain so i did this to them


The crappy bumpers and strips were always looking like crap (light and dark grey), so to give it a cleaner look i painted them black. I also painted the lower sill panel as all the paint had come off.






Now for more than 6months, every time i looked at my dash it reminded me of a dry desert (also smelt funky). So what do you do? Swap it for one with less cracks of course!

Also fitted the new clock surround to complete the minor transformation (and man that thing was hard to put on!!)

Last sunday was the OST cruise. After weeks of rain it was actually a nice beautiful day, so i gave the car a clean. I also half arsed polished the back rims to match the fronts.


During the cruise, i noticed that my radiator looked to be finally giving up. After ringing a few places to see if i could find a brand new stock 86 radiator, most places said re-core was my best option. I was looking at 300-350 single core, or 350-450 twin core. Out of randomness, i decided to try my local corner part shop (which always manage to get parts in for me) and i picked up a brand new 86 radiator a few hours later for $220




Now yes what you see are two auto trans lines comming out the bottom of the radiator, but that does not matter . It's lightweight, 2 year 50,000km warranty, and works a million times better than the old one

Lastly, some new parts arrived in the mail on friday:
Camaro AGX 8-way shocks
Powersteering arms




I fitted the shocks on friday afternoon and i must say they are fantastic :crazy: I hopefully can install PS arms tomorrow along with the XT130 LCA's.

That is all for now, check back soon

[Nikkojoe]

Small update, more rust fixing.

Picked up a mig last week so im ready to tackle the rust for good and make extra things. Began today by cutting out all the rusted sections of the lower passenger quater panel:





So far only welded one section in and then it got too dark to see. Will continue on wednesday (should have a coat of paint by then). Next will probably be the beaver panel lower section (you can see how bad it is) and some other spots too.

It may not look pretty at the moment but the lower section has been replaced with a rust free cut out. All it needs now is a bit of smoothing with bog and a coat of paint

From this

To this


Anyway, got some primer on now just before the rain came today. If i get a dry span, ill finish painting it but weather forecast says showers up until sunday.

Pics!!





Think it turned out pretty good. Just gotta spray some cavity sealant on the inside and the inner guard.

Finished off the rust repairs last week with some final coats of paint. The inside of wheel arch was resprayed with fresh underbody and cavity sealant (the inside of quater was also sprayed with both cavity sealant and underbody) making it look all minty fresh .

Note, pics taken before clear coat applied.



Beserker99 told me of a set of MA61 rims for sale. One set had sold, but lucky there were 2 sets


The car is all back together now for the time being. This friday is a skidpan day, so hopefully should have some action pics (sik open diff spec). In 2 weeks i head to bathurst for 1 week so there probably wont be much progress for a while (other than gathering parts).

[Nikkojoe]

Had a good day at the skid pan/mini track. A few things to comment:

ADM Brakes suck
Tyres suck
Open diffs are gay
Standard steering wheel ftl
Standard seat ftl

I can now cross 1 problem off the list:


JDM Calipers and vented/slotted rotors (Thanks Gilly)


Cusco master cylinder brace (Thanks Z10)

Dunno if i'll get any footage but will post some up if i do.

[Nikkojoe]

Early part of today was spent putting the new brakes on and fitting the cusco master cylinder brace.

Took the wheel off and found too much lock wears paint


Began to remove the adm calipers when something decided to just fall out:




I guess thats what happens when you use standard brakes at the track lol......

I then proceeded to take the hub/grease cap off with my pliers ready to tackle the split pin............................................exc ept there was none :wacko: lol, ive been driving something that could be deadly...

In the end, i fitted and bled it all, took about 1hour


Brakes feel much better than before so now i need another track day to test it all out No pics of the master cylinder brace installed, should know what they look like

More stuff to come

[Nikkojoe]

Update time.

The last couple of weeks were spent living in Bathurst for the Bathurst 1000 so not really much happened to my car. I did however had a look at the original Group A ae86 at the motor museum which i took lots of pictures as to how it was setup (a lot of under car shots which i may post up later).

Anyway, today my Nardi Torino wheel arrived in the mail. Thanks Gilly





Some pics of how my engine bay looks







Also there may be a new engine on the cards very soon if all goes well, more info shortly

[Nikkojoe]

Attended a dyno day today, pic speaks for itself:



Sadly, one of the last events this motor will see (in my car ). Have managed to secure which will be going into the car in a months time (and yes, i am going to fix the cooler piping)

Picked up this today:

[Nikkojoe]

Engine arrived. Once finished exams, began to pull it out and do the conversion

PICS:

[Nikkojoe]

Motor is in, and bolted up. Tail shaft needs to go back on, a few more things tightened and then i can start the cooler piping (just a bit of trimming and drilling).

If i get time, will start on wiring but at this stage it will be friday.

Well, been too busy/tired to update but i'm happy to say the car IS running

Unfortunately it was not running in time for the cruise (Big thanks to Matt and Ken and other good mates for giving me a massive helping hand trying to get the thing running). It would have been running for the cruise, only needed power to the injectors to kick it into life.

Still need to do things properly (such as reduce the amount of zip ties holding things on), and neaten the wiring. Motor feels fantastic, can't wait to take it to a track day (no real long stretch of roads to test it out properly).

Pics, will get some better ones soon.

Just in:


During wiring:


Done (dodgy ):


I do have some pics, but at the moment im shaped so uploading is painful. I get unshaped tomorrow so i'll try and get them up after work.