Between us, we've owned more than a handful of AE86s, some we've held onto, and others sold off. This blue one, as rough as it is, has... "potential" - it's one of those diamond in the rough kind of shells we had to keep. It's an Australian delivered, non sunroof, pov pack AE86.
How it looks, is exactly how we got it 5 years ago; bare, no running gear and rust included. As you can see the radiator support is missing, why? We're not sure, maybe the last owner had the same crazy ideas we have for it.
RUST, RUST, and more RUST! At this point any sensible person, would just give up and find a cleaner shell, but that would be too easy, right ?
The shell has been booked-in to get soda blasted this weekend! Once done, we'll have a better idea on the work required.
I've just gotta say.... Who are you? That garage is amazing! And I can see more ae86's in the background. Not to mention the collection of parts. This looks like heaven.
Obviously you know what you're in for (and what you're doing) so this'll be a build worth watching.
Keep me posted!
I checked out the Facebook page and it seems like this is one of the guys who've been involved with the Zen crew down south.
Pretty switched on guys from what I've seen that they've exposed on the interwebs over the last few years.
When someone mentions AE86, 2 variants pop into mind; either Takumi's Panda AE86 Trueno from Initial D or an N2 AE86 screaming at 10,000rpm. When it came time to deciding which direction we were going with the blue shell it was quite an easy one for us..
We love our AE86s and have owned many different street variants, from bone stock carby, 4age, 4age+itb, 20v, supercharged and also turbo...but an all out AE86 "race car" has alway eluded all us. When the blue shell came up for sale, it was fate calling on our door step, the blue shell was destined for race use only. Being the rust bucket that it is, cutting up its oem guards and quarters wont be issue ( we could never do this to a clean shell, there's just not enough AE86s going around nowadays).
The body kit is a genuine TRD N2 kit for an AE86 Zenki Trueno. The fit and finish is perfect, and nothing less from an OEM performance supply arm.
Color choice is still light years away but when its done 86GREASER should look something similar to the above photo with a Greaser Twist.
Thanks for the kind comments everyone. Yep, Justin and I go way back. Like many of us, the ae86 is more than just a car, it's how I met my friends; who I now call family and is responsible for introducing me to cars and the culture behind. I was fortunate enough to grow up and be part of the street scene at its pinnacle, and so greaser is our tribute to those that have come before us. =)
Quick update. Soda blasting has been pushed back until next Monday.
Last edited by Greaser; 9th February 2016 at 08:12 PM.
Two weeks ago we dropped the shell off to get media blasted. Now back at Greaser, we got to see the good, the bad and the ugly..
The good- If you stand a couple meters back it looks pretty damn good, right?
The interior also checks out ok, the lack of sound deadening is probably the best part-anyone who has taken out sound deadening will know how painful and messy that stuff gets!
The bad, we expected rust but not as much as the below.
We'll cut out the drivers side B-pillar and rear quarter glass sections, and weld in a rust-free B-pillar section from a donor car and hand form a replacement piece for the rear quarter section.
1st year apprentice rust repairs can be found on the drivers side aperture and both rear wheel arches.
And the ugly...
The passenger side aperture looks to be the worst (below).
Rust has infected most of the outer layer and like the driver side, this will need to be cut out and a new rust-free section will need to sourced from a donor car and welded in its place.
Moving to the rear lower quarter section, you can see it was damaged and repaired poorly. Similarly, rust on the wheel arch was also cut out and replaced with sheet metal resembling a wheel arch. Luckily, most of this section will be cut to fit the massive TRD N2 flares.
So this is 86GREASER in all its rusty bare shell glory. Some what daunting but our buddy Shia LaBeouf put it best.. thanks bro.
Last edited by Greaser; 1st March 2016 at 12:25 PM.