'83 Starlet-Avoid the Noid! content

Baby Steps.

One more coat on the cowl and engine compartment, and the keeper struts now look like this: One starlet strut will not let go, and I decided to give the 4X4 shop some more time, as this was a better painting day than a running to their shop kind of day.

BAM! It was a long time coming, but the cowl is back on. Milestone.

Before I removed it in the first place, I drilled 1/8" alignment holes through both it, and the metal below. Tonight, I put sheet metal screws in those holes so I could be reasonably sure everything was lined up, at least everywhere I hadn't reconstructed. Everything is stuck together. I came in to let it cool, let the compressor come up, and post. As I have stated before, I'm not too crazy about Weld through primer. My welds showed contamination. Some vigorous wire wheeling is in my near future.

One more shot just for the heck of it: Random musings:

My axle is still not done. Good thing I trusted my Spidey senses, and gave them a couple of extra days.

I got a little excited to do this step, and the paint wasn't totally cured on the inner cowl. Oh well, have to sand and do another coat later.

Next time, I'm going to get spot weld cutters like NOHOME recommends (more forstner, less hole saw type).

I woke up in the middle of the night to realize I had forgotten to put the hood hinges on. They are very hard to get to. To be continued...

How close are you to Kingsport?

In reply to Dusterbd13:

About 5 hours. You headed over that way?

wheelsmithy wrote: I woke up in the middle of the night to realize I had forgotten to put the hood hinges on. They are very hard to get to. To be continued...

Bummer! It was looking great with the cowl on.

I was going to ask you to lay eyes on a parts car. But it will be gone before I could get there, and you're farther away from there than me.

And I'm sure that with a rotisserie you'll get the hood springs on easier than anticipated.

Duster, 'twould be my pleasure if I could help, but yeah, pretty far. Is it a Duster?

I took tonight to clean all the frontend parts. We'll see if the cowl has to come back off or not. I thought it prudent to walk away.

The 4X4 shop's mouth is writing checks I'm not too sure they want cashed. I went by today, turns out they have not set up the rear, installed the locker, or cut down the axles. The housing is narrowed. When I first walked in, dude said "Were we supposed to narrow the axles?". I did clearly explain what I wanted done both when I took it in, and today. The clutch style LSD I was promised was thrown away, leaving me with a choice of Detroit locker, or Detroit locker.

Still, I'm not upset. I've dealt with these guys before, and they do good work for cheap, and NEVER get anything done til you start nagging them. So, guess I'll NAG. As I was walking out the door, Dude said "It'll be ready in the morning"...My reply "Call Me"

Huge victory today...They're in! I'm not sure if anyone can tell, but the cabin air intake box is pretty much in line with the hinge mount. I had to remove the circlips that hold the nuts on, and couldn't even see this thing. If this had been on its 4 wheels, I would have had to build a scaffolding to lie on, well... maybe a picture I managed during my automotive yoga session says it best... That was actually an accidental shot. And yes, I'm a model, you know what I mean. Props to Duster on the rotisserie advantage.

The metal cut me a bit, and I was forced to rely on red loc-tite instead of the circlips, but hey, the cowl can now be welded up.

In other news, stuff is soaking in mineral spirits to degrease, and Evap-o-rust to, well, de-rust, and struts are fully disassembled.

I was so pleased, I stopped there for the day, came in to post, and have a victory libation. More later.

Today, front coilovers. Welded, ground down, lower perch on, and ready for paint. and I cut down the stock Corolla bump stops.

Inch by inch...

That paint color looks really sharp! What is it? Have any more info on your coilovers?

In reply to Mezzanine:

Rustoleum 2 parts royal Blue, one part flat black.

I bought the Techno Toy Tuning kit for AE 86 struts, with KYB AGX adjustable coil inserts, I believe for a AE 92, to fit in cut down housings. That way, I don't loose all my suspension travel while lowering. The rears are also T3. They are their standard coilover kit for Starlets, also KYB AGX adjustable. 250 lb. springs in front, 150 lb. in rear. This stuff is all of very good quality. Not Pro grade, but a far cry better than stock. I'm hoping the front suspension kit I bought will be a real improvement. It has Heim joints on the lower control arms, separate Track arms, and sway (stock combines the two), and I also got Roll center adjusters to help some negative side effects of lowering. After where I've been, this stuff is all exceptionally easy. T3 stuff is very well made and engineered. Highly recommended.

Nice work! I hope to be ordering my t3 stuff soon they seem to have the Toyota suspention figured out as everyone raves about how good they are

Lomaxmotorsports wrote: they seem to have the Toyota suspention figured out

, and Datsun, and Mazda, and...

I'm among friends, right?

Then I can admit getting here whipped my posterior. First, Kyb directions are cryptic, at best, and mostly pictures of applications that are unlike mine. The fact that I tried to thread the supplied top nut(left) into my freshly shortened strut really can't be blamed on them, though. So I boogered up the first couple of threads.A little careful Dremel work, and they were okay. I also can't blame anyone for the fact that I had to disassemble both a couple of times (sleeve wouldn't fit over the nut, sleeve was on upside down, I didn't like how the supplied o-rings rolled to the bottom when I put the sleeve on). Once together, despite what I considered impeccable measuring, the struts rattled up and down, so I glued washers on the bottom to take up the slack. I ended up using electrical tape instead of the o-rings to keep the sleeve tight on the strut body. The stock nuts went on up top, but not before I cut out a seal it would've been nice to keep. Unfortunately, that's what it took to ensure the strut body was making full contact with metal, not rubber.

In other news, the 4X4 shop says the axle shafts are now shortened and turned down, but they didn't like the locker install, and warrantied it, and will start over again. Hmmm...

Old guy I use to work with use to say "The only person that don't mess up is the one that doesn't do anything" -Archie Walters

Looks like it will work out just fine!

Somewhat superfluous update, but brick by brick, as it were... I've been ordering parts receiving both correct, and incorrect parts, returning, re-ordering, etc...

Packing bearings, painting, allowing said paint to dry, cleaning, priming. In short, prep work. I still don't have a rear axle, which once in hand, is going to require some fiddling to get rear brakes on the thing, as well as seals, bearings, paint, and the like. Thanks for staying tuned.

Today's episode of Ran When Parked...

These three, and one more were my car's peers in the local Domino's fleet of the 80's. These are the cars I have stopped by and begged they sell me one of, any of, on several separate occasions. It still gives me a thrill that I got the "cream puff" of the bunch.

It was a nice day, so I stopped by to snap these shots. Also, not much of note going on in the shop. Weld cowl, grind cowl, repeat....Fiddling with brake calipers, getting everything moving, ordering little parts for said calipers, de-rusting, wire wheeling. Really, I'm just posting to keep my momentum.

According to a conversation I had with the 4X4 shop Thursday, the axle would be ready to pick up Friday. I told them, once again, to call me when it was done. No call. I'll try them again Monday.

I love the thoroughness of this build. Impresses me every time I click and take a look.

Those poor cars are just waiting for me to come save them. I think it would be hilarious to pick up the one that still has the Domino's paint scheme, freshen it up a bit, and race it just like that.

HunterBenz wrote: I think it would be hilarious to pick up the one that still has the Domino's paint scheme, freshen it up a bit, and race it just like that.

I agree 100%.

It's asinine on my part, but do you remember all the fuss with the 30 minute or less deliveries of this era? Dominos got in trouble because their drivers were causing some pretty awful wrecks trying to live up to that promise. I wonder if my car was in a delivery wreck.

Anywho, even though it is in kind of bad taste, a super quick pizza delivery car is hilarious in my book. Not a bad LeMons car theme either. This is why I haven't totally written off the idea of the red , white, and blue returning to my car. I'll be spending some time staring at these pictures

In my youth, I always wanted to be the pizza delivery dude, and I currently have a lame-brained fantasy of quitting my day job, and using this thing to deliver pies. It would be the stuff of legend. "He BUILT his delivery car from the bones of an old one, but with a bigger engine, more gears, tricked out suspension. He's the oldest delivery guy we've got...and the fastest."

No need to quit your day job, I think it would be one of the best jokes ever. Sign up to do some part time night deliveries. Find a late 80's early 90's delivery shirt and jacket. Maybe a bag. Show up to the first shift like that.

Depending on how much of a dick the manager is it could be funny.

HunterBenz wrote: No need to quit your day job, I think it would be one of the best jokes ever. Sign up to do some part time night deliveries. Find a late 80's early 90's delivery shirt and jacket. Maybe a bag. Show up to the first shift like that. Depending on how much of a dick the manager is it could be funny.

I would leave that guy a big tip. Maybe slam a couple PBR's with him after the shift is over. Memories.

HunterBenz wrote: I love the thoroughness of this build.

I hope you are serious, because, here's more mind numbing detail! You guessed it, now I'm rebuilding calipers. I just wanted to prove to myself I could. They were astoundingly simple to take apart...

For any doubters, here's what the formerly rusty brackets look like after a few days in the evap-o-rust: The rears are going to be a bigger challenge. I'm missing pieces, and one of the tubes is seized in the caliper. Days in the evap-o-bath did no good, but the other side is brand new, just missing stuff.

You have no idea how much this thread has made me want a starlet.