The make do AE71 daily, turn tidy track pig in the making.
Firstly Hi everyone,
My names Grant and this is the story of my AE71 so far:
Ok so a bit of background.
Earlier last year i came off the motocross bike and broke my left femour, left hip and back in three places (T12, L4 & L5). After a few months of being stuck at home and hospitals being frustrated by not being able to go out, walk or drive as my ute is manual. I set about trying to find an automatic daily. After a few days of finding nothing but excels and ford lasers. It was back to the hospital, on the drive home i spotted a bet up e7. That belonged to an older guy that no longer drove it. After closer inspection it was an ae71 AUTO with 4ac the usual rust areas and paint as thin as tissue paper, by no means was it pretty and needed some tlc and it just ran out of rego. I him 300 for and drove away in my new (unregistered) daily.
Upon taking it home and inspecting the mechanicals off the car were pretty sound with near new brake pads, cleaner than expected oil, new plugs and leads and no noises or knocks. WIN!!!!! the auto felt a little clunky on the short trip home, turned out it was just short on oil. leaked some brake fulid out of the RHS rear wheel cylinder, with a shed full of corolla parts this was no biggy.
Unfortunatly taking photos at this time was not my major concern. However i do have a couple from the iphone that werent sent to the old man before i bought it.
So with it still being a few weeks until i was able to be given the all clear to start driving an auto i set about preping for paint, sorting the rust and a few scatered dints.
Once it was sanded the rust really wasnt that bad. (again wasnt to fussed at photos at this stage just wanted it finished)
I must say working on the car whislt still being on crutchers and unable put weight on my left leg certainly made for some interesting moments.
So with not being able to walk and struggling laying the primer i asked my unlce to come lay the final coats.
I had the colour matched as close as possible to the standard metallic blue, having a pretty tight budget at this stage i opted to paint it in a enemal (CHEAP!!! however can be dificut to lay being a metallic) mixed by HARTS down in moss street.
When first laid it looked really grey however as it cured the blue came threw.
The car was assembled and sent for roadworthy and registretion.
Within 30 mins of the car being bought back to my house with the rego the angle grinder came out and down she went. with out being to stupid and trying to keep it 100mm off the ground this was the result.
With it now being registerd and actually being able to drive, some photos were in order.
Since then the list of mods started to grow and how i visioned this car began to take place.
First on the list were those hideous rims.
the temporary replacements:
Definatly a better fit but still not happy so a set of these Casablanca 14x7 +5 were ordered thre otomoto in nsw.
Pics........
Rims were ordered and arrived within the week great service from the store will definatly be sourcing more items threw otomoto. I have to roll the inner lip of the gaurds before i fitt them up as i dont want to be shreadding side walls just yet.
Not wanting to go down the quad head light conversion yet i deceided to tidy up the front end with a Kamei lip.
LOVE THIS THING.
With the extrenals begining to take shape it was time to start thinking about a 4age. I sourced an AE82 for next to nothing with a 16v bigport 4age, which had a blown head gasket, and a few missing bits but for what i paid i wasnt to concerened. Also scored a twin cam wheel.
The ass of the drivers seat feel out, i had a cheap bucket seat sitting in the shed so i threw that in aswell.
With hospital visits becoming less and less frequent and my injures healling day by day i found myself with more and more time to work on the corolla. I began stripping the AE82.
The engine itself was missing a few parts like camshafts and gears and the dizzy was pulled apart(which im having troubles with now)
After getting hold of these i found the head to be out of square and with a cracked water jet. Another head was needed.
Also got hold of a jdm rwd inlet and exhaust manifold and razorback ECU.
Luckliy another head came up pretty quick so things were back underway.
Still being unsure if id be able to drive manual again the origanal plan was to make this an auto aswell.
In ths time i had gone back to work and the leg was starting to gain strengh, so i decieded to give driving my ute a go. With a few stalls and getting used to pushing the clutch again i was set.
This however threw a spanner in the works... continue the corolla as a auto or do the manual conversion aswell.
After much thinking i decieded to do the engine conversion first than manual it later on. As i missed driving it.
So where is the corolla now?? well its parked in the yard not running due to not having any spark.
The jobs list is still full with front and rear suspension, maual conversion, diff and gaurd mods as well as a strip and paint of the enigne bay so stay tuned for more pics and updates. Also looking at heading to a few meets once i get some spark.............. So say hi if your around.
Cheers
Last edited by ktm372; 2nd January 2012 at 03:14 PM.
Nice cleanup of the ride.....
Most likely the issue with spark is around the connetivity of the dizzy plug / internal wiring of the dizzy.
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