Samwise

Just a small update, bought some goodies for the 86 despite the fact its still in 1000 pieces Set of Clear/black/red Valenti lights from Ft86speedfactory in the states, these were my favourite over the smoked or red lensed offerings we get here and they were actually ever so slightly cheaper even after delivery and import costs Going to get the rear lights installed this weekend but the 3rd light might take a little bit more work to get it to function as a fog light.

Shhhh spoiler alert!

I want to verify that the chassis is straight on the car, at some point when its not raining i'll do some proper measurements and get some numbers down to compare the level of the chassis legs as well as the how they fair in relation to the rest of the chassis as well as probably the distance between the front and rear lower control arm mounting points diagonally to confirm theres no effects further down the car. but for now I decided to have another look now that its so much easier to check the condition of the chassis legs and get some pictures. Theres a few bent bits that need to be replaced however this is all part of the front rad support structure which i'll be removing and re-fitting with new parts, mostly the parts as sub assembly 4 and 5 here as well as both parts labeled 2: So other than that the only thing to worry about that I can see so far is that the corner of the chassis arm that bolts to the crash structure will need to be tweaked back in to place or maybe even replaced as its part of the sub assembly 4 I noted above: So other than that mos of everything seems straight, heres the face of the other side, again the parts from sub assembly 5 will need to be replaced as mentioned above: Other than that most of it looks pretty good, just going to chuck a load of images up Top/engine bay side of both chassis legs, no buckling to be seen and the seam sealer is still intact: Lower rad support is straight and true although the perspective of my phone camera makes it look a bit weird, i'll measure to make sure though when I get a chance: Inside of the arches looks okay: And the wishbones themselves don't appear to be bent, although the yare a funny old shape from factory. Sorry for all the boring stuff this time Just want to make sure everything is okay before I go ahead spending cash and bolting on new parts to a shagged chassis. Next week im going to take a few measurements to hopefully confirm this and then head down to Toyota to start ordering a few parts, first will be a new airbag set I think. I've seen a few from Breakers on ebay for roughly £800-1k and i'm hoping the dealership price will be similar but we'll soon find out. Does anyone know if new wings/bumpers can come painted from toyota? otherwise i'm going to be on the lookout for any red 86's being broken for parts!

Its all just a hobby for me, I work in IT on the daily telling being to switch it off and on again but I always try and DIY any job I can on my cars with the exception of resprays and welding work. Mostly all my knowledge is just from my Dad and watching various youtube channels We bought a Vx220 a few years ago and since then we've done a load to it which has steadily built up my knowledge, everything from fitting a spoiler, to swapping suspension components/bushing to rebuilding & forging the engine last year! and so I've always had the luxury of being able to take my time with things, do my research and simply lock up and go home if things get a little tricky or frustrating. Although I don't want to break the bank with repairs I like to do things right as it's me doing the work and I take a little pride in it so it would be nice to have something to show off in that regard and be safe ofcourse!

I've watched Bifb for a long time so im pretty familiar with his builds As much as I love to watch his stuff I won't be taking too many tips from him as I really don't want to diy build some of the parts like he did, alot of the 86 parts are fairly cheap (Atleast in my books lol) for the sake of £150 i'd rather just buy a new front crash bar for example, he can be a little sketchy at times lol. but I have recently gone back to watch some of his earlier vids, gives a good perspective on what parts go in to the front end of the car and where they all go, etc

Oh right! fair enough no problems there! I will check the chassis legs now that i've got all the broken bits out of the way but they're looking okay from what i've been able to see so far. The only bits im worried about are the end of those arms that hold the wings. Haha I know, I got in to the habit of calling them fenders today as I was trying to look up how to remove them and far more results come back saying fenders rather than wings

No? why do you ask? I was probably going to join eventually but tend to wait a bit

New parts pretty much apart from colour reliant body panels probably I hate shelling out for paint work lol

And so finally today I was finally able to get my hands on it and see what was what! My plan is to take it a little bit slow, not only to lessen the blow to my wallet but also to simply get things done right the first time rather than have to re-visit areas further down the line. So I had already costed a few bits up before making the purchase, I know that the most expensive parts will be a set of headlights even if they are aftermarket and the Airbag set. Most of the parts im probably going to get from a Toyota dealer or online if they're cheap enough and legit. So without further ado heres a few pics of my first day spannering on the car! Here's how it sits in the garage, quite tight compared to the previous occupant and as you can see its still looking a little sorry for itself. Couple of closeup of some of some of the damage Quite a horrible sight! but with the fenders and the remnants of the headlights out of the way it was starting to look a bit better. Those fenders are a bit of a pain to get off though! The core support was a little tricky to get off with the washer bottle in the way and a few mildly bent bits of radiator support in the way but eventually after a few hours it was in a much better state and I could start checking out whether there was any further damage to be worried about. Sorry for the blurry pic! And the pile of parts that came off... So now that the worst has been removed there's a couple of bit's im unsure about so I'm looking for a few second opinions! The Top "branches" of the rad support are clearly bent and I'll replace those along with the enter of it that holds the bonnet lach mechanism however I'm wondering if a couple of other areas are bent which I wasn't expecting, namely these areas: It almost appears they've come ever so slightly away and bent downwards from the rest of the frame, thoughts on this? As well as this the bottom of the rad support actually looks straight which I was not expecting, can anyone confirm whether this looks right? So thats it for now, the battery's completely dead as well so that's a bummer. I'm going to have to get a shopping list together and start placing a few orders as I hope I've removed all the bent parts so far that don't need their spot welds drilled out, those will come next!

Yeah I imagine so! First stage for me is getting the car back in one piece and on the road, then im going to start saving some pennies for some goodies! Already learnt the hard way that you get what you pay for in the form of a cheap coilover completely snapping in half after just 18 months, twice! So i'm in the mindset with the 86 that i'd like to do things right the first time and ofcourse doing it all myself, hence taking my time with it The VX has some nice tyres in the form of Yokohama AD08R's so you really do have to try your luck to get it to unstick when the conditions are good but if it does start to give theres no hope in hell of controlling it as it's got a lovely open diff but it is lovely on track, a great platform to learn on! Been looking forward to this Saturday as it'll be the first day I can crack on with taking it apart!

Just picked up an 86 a couple of weeks ago which has definitely seen better days. Recently joined the other owner's forum and thought i'd make myself known here as well! I was planning to pick one up towards the end of the year but this one popped up for sale and so I jumped at the chance it up for a decent price with plans to repair it. Haven't got many pictures yet, I will probably end up making a project thread once I start working on it this weekend! Going to take things slow as I save a bit of cash for parts but first things first i'll start stripping down all the broken pieces next weekend & begin making note of what I need to buy and seeing if any parts can be salvaged, im hoping to Headlight Balasts will still be in working order as this saves me a decent amount of cash The Car's a 63 plate, Category N meaning that the chassis is straight and the engine runs, its generally just a case of smashed lights, bent rad/rad support, front bumper bar and wings. Don't expect to see me on the road any time soon but I'll hoping be poking my head around here from time to time for info. Cheers! Sam

I'm looking forward to it as well. I'm not expecting them to be too similar atleast in my case as the VX has been a track car project between me and my Dad so it's ride is quite firm and is also a bit too bitey to really toy with in terms of oversteer but does handle extremely well and invokes alot of confidence on track so long as you go in to it with a bit of common sense, on the other hand it constantly reminds you when you work on it that it was infact designed and built in shed somewhere in britain We bought it at a fairly high state of tune about 5 years ago, running about 300bhp so we didn't really have that experience of building it up in increments and these days it can be a bit of a labour of love to take it out unless its one of our elusive warm summer days. So i'm looking forward to have something RWD that's a little more down to earth but im quite excited to see how the 86 handles itself on the road as it's still a fairly light and nimble car.

Thank you! Also they renamed Cat C and D last year. Cat N is the new name for Cat D, Likewise Cat S is the new Cat C http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/consumer-news/99750/cat-a-b-s-and-n-cars-new-insurance-write-off-categories-explained

I'm really interested in getting the CrystalEye lights as well. What kind of adjustment was needed for the MOT, just the level of the beam? Do you know if the crystalights sold in Japan and sold for the Australian markets are the same? Maybe the AU ones work with DRL's? I guess unike the spec-d ones these are plug and play? Albeit without the DRL's working? have you got any good info you can send over about potentially getting the DRL's working?