'83 Starlet-Avoid the Noid! content

Sorry to hear about your illness. I've had some pretty exotic intestinal bugs so I've been where you are.

If you're in the car game long enough, there will be mistakes. Like the time I let a car sit with a blown head gasket until I had time to work on it. A few months go by and the engine seized from coolant leaking into cylinders. Nobody bats a thousand. Sounds to me like any "mistake' you've made will be cured by time. So give yourself a break, get better, and continue providing us with Starlet porn.

Back at it, I made a little patch for the aforementioned spot in the hatch. And, speaking of changing my mind, a GRM forum member was good enough to sell me a GT-S rearend. That's it on the bottom. Not only did this guy deliver from Atlanta, but its a LSD, and new rotors were included! Thanks JohnnyHachi6, you are the man.

So, this should save some weight, not need narrowing, and, of course, leave two black marks. Excellent. It was cheaper than my original plan of narrowing the rear at the top of the picture would have been, too. I believe it has a 4.30:1 ratio, which is nice.

Also, I have to thank AE86andKP61 for good-naturedly answering my thread-jacking questions on weather this would widen my track too much. AE, mind sharing what you did to get this rear under your KP? I've seen the whole adjustable 4-link as sold by T3, but am interested in options. I kind of want bushings, rather than Heim Joints, but I believe the latter are the way to go on the top links.

wheelsmithy wrote: It helps that I'm in good company.

and then the lightbulb came on.

I did not realize that this was a RWD vehicle you were working on. NOW I get the love for the car.

wiki said: Tidy 60 series starlets are becoming more difficult to acquire due, in part, to their age and proneness to rust, and due to the fact that many are being converted into track and rally cars, and are thus beginning to become a valuable collector's car.

NOHOME wrote: and then the lightbulb came on. I did not realize that this was a RWD vehicle you were working on. NOW I get the love for the car.

Yeah, basically, a RWD Geo Metro. 1700 lbs.econobox, but I believe they will bring $$$ in the future. Doesn't really matter, as I am "never" going to sell this one. My thought is with the Complete AE86 drivetrain, this will be sort of a nice period correct resto-mod type of thing. The plan is to eventually put AC back in to make a nice daily.

I think the car's value depends on what country you're in. Starlets were sold all over the world. In places like Australia and Singapore, they have a cult following. I don't know how well-regarded they are here. Even when new, the innovative, front-wheel-drive Civic stole the Starlet's thunder, which is why Toyota offered the Starlet in the USA for just three years.

In reply to Jerry From LA:

What about Drift Tax, Yo?!

Seriously, Value to the rest of the world doesn't matter much to me. I like my car

Absolutely. However, the thread started going in the "these are rare and therefore valuable" direction. Starlets were sold for years in other countries. There was even a second generation car that has a big following as well. In terms of concrete value, it won't be worth a fortune in the US in any of our lifetimes. I had a great time with mine and had an affection for it far surpassing what it was worth. Hell, you're already in love with yours and it's sitting in a rotisserie. There's no logic to any of this stuff.

Well, loyal readers, progress, albeit at a snail's pace I decided the Starlet's more triangulated 4 link was going to stay, and hacked off the Corolla's superior 5-link. There is some rust, and the axles don't want to let go just yet. More later.

Its official! I'm Ticked-Off. I have spent the last few nights Slide hammering on this rearend to no avail. Last night, I got so fed up, I came in and watched You Tube videos of people successfully doing what I could not. One video recommended this: I got it to budge, but had to walk away. I deformed the 1/4" plate I made to distribute the force, and I'm out of acetylene. This is only the first side, too. I'm pretty concerned about knocking stuff out of true, but know this bastidge will come apart.

On top of all that, I scrapped my plan A rearend before getting this one sorted. The housing and axles are under several hundred pounds of pointy scrap metal in the roll-off at work. I think tomorrow I'll dig them out, just in case.

I did successfully open a light American beer, and am heading back out to cause some sort of destruction here.

The Good News? I won. it is apart. The Bad News... Ring and pinion shot, just as I feared (it didn't spin too well, which prompted this tear down). The LSD carrier is beaten to heck. Loose springs, and other carnage inside. The picture does no justice. Its BLOWN. any differential experts think this is salvageable? To me, it looks like I should return to plan A. The irony there is I couldn't manage to dig it out of the dumpster at work. There was just too much sheet metal sliding every which way, and I eventually decided I'd rather grab another rearend at the PAP for $80 than spend that money or more on stitches. The fact that I have not begun to slice up the Starlet rearend is a plus.

In other news, I can see the end of the seam welding, which gets us ready for paint. I also got a nice DA sander and 100 packs of 80 and 220 grit sandpaper. Paint stripping to begin...sometime. My plan was to go back out, and finish the seam welding today, but this kind of knocked the wind out of my sails. I'm having a beer now, then going to start by cleaning up the carnage.

Sorry I haven't checked in on this thread in a while, and sorry to hear about your rear axle woes! If you continue with the Corolla axle, I would look into an aftermarket ring and pinion from Weir Performance or one of the Dwarf Car suppliers as the OE Toyota ones are something like $600 or $700 or something insane like that.

I know that the differentials are rebuildable, after all it is basically just a stack of clutch plates with some springs and some ramps and a splined hole for the axle shaft, right? I am not sure what you would be looking at in terms of $$ for parts.

I also have a brand-new KAAZ 2-way limited slip differential I am contemplating selling...

In reply to ae86andkp61:

I appreciate the offer and sympathy. This is not a tragedy. If you are interested in selling the KAAZ, let me know, but considering what they fetch new, might be a little too rich for my blood. I can revert to my plan A rearend (Narrowed Toyota spacevan with endless cheap gears and lockers) for nearly the same cash.

I found chunks of stuff that were not R&P teeth. I'm mainly wondering if the LSD housing looks usable. My first inclination says no.

Oh, and thanks on the info on Weir. They were the top Google result, But I had never heard of them before.

I'm calling myself done seam welding. Both rockers, both rails, back to both wheel wells in the rear, as well as side to side, and top to bottom at the cowl. How long did that take? 3 months? I have no concept. I'll go back and look later-Edit:(try 4 months). I have decided no on the subframe connectors, and other chassis stiffening shenanigans. I'd like to get a move on.This does not preclude a strut tower brace, possibly a Monte Carlo style bar, I'm just going to stop, and get some paint on this thing before the dead of winter.

There is still some work to be done at the cowl, but other than that, this is the "last" major rust repair to be done: That's the front corner of the rear passenger's side glass...And away we go. This is where I got before, yep, coming in to let the welds cool. My crystal ball sees plastic body filler in the future, but hopefully, not rust.

This build makes me happy.

Add the bracing. For the extra week it will take, you won't spend the rest of your ownership wondering what if.

Or redoing it like I am on the duster.

Here's that bit today: Yep, got a little low at the front. The filler curing on it as I type will take care of that just fine.I had to get a die grinder after some of it, hence the pimply part in the corner. Good enough. Not a show car.

I see this thread pop to the top and I usually purposely avoid it. I can't just look at the updates, I look at everything. You make it all seem so easy. I look at the pictures and say "I can totally do that" and then remember that I don't have enough spare hours right now. So then I vow to not look here again for a while. But then it pops back to the top......
Such great work. Keep it up.

In reply to mazdeuce: Thanks, man. Keep in mind, I have an excellent editor (me), who hides the burn throughs, and stuff like where I spent a whole day building the patch panel for the cowl inside out.

Besides, this stuff is way easier than hanging drywall solo

It was more like $121, but I got another rearend. How many rearends does one Starlet need? Right now, we're at four including the stocker. Because I'm an idiot. I drove maybe 80 miles round trip, walked every row of imports before finding my prize on the last row, it started raining shortly after I started the extraction, and the van was a 4-link with panhard bar, so there was lots more junk to be cut off before I could send it out to be narrowed. The upside is this jewel leaked transmission fluid, and oil like crazy, so not one single seized bolt. It came right apart. Another plus, I called a buddy with a plasma cutter, and swung by to use it on the way home. Next up, a good cleaning, break it down, grind those pesky tabs off, and send it out to be narrowed, and locked.

Also in the plus department, I at least had the sense to hold on to the old 3rd member, so I have a spare should this car, or the Sprite tear out the R&P with their POWAR!(extremely doubtful).

ae86andkp61 wrote: I also have a brand-new KAAZ 2-way limited slip differential I am contemplating selling...

AE, thanks for the offer again. I saw your ad for the LSD and pistons. Hopefully you have good luck with the sale. I did some soul searching on this, and all the potential mismatching of early and late axles, combined with not knowing which I even have kind of scared me away. My plan A axle should be way overbuilt, have cheap, readily available parts, and all be matched, and mated. I think the KAAZ is way cool, Somebody should snatch that right up. I have a similar situation with a Swift GT LSD sitting brand new in a box. Luckily, it doesn't take up much space.

All cleaned up and ready to go to the local 4X4 shop, who in turn, will send the axles and housing out to the hinterland where a mythical guy will narrow the housing 3.5", and cut down the axles. Once again, stock Starlet above.

Looking good! What is GRM if not making the most of what's readily available/what you have? Some Celica or Corolla nut will enjoy my awesome spare LSD while I enjoy the other one I have in my remaining AE86.

Let's say you have a guy who has a crappy compressor, a new DA sander, a car he's trying to refurb, and a mound of dirt that needs to be spread about 20' away from its current locale. Let's also assume this guy needs some exercise badly to keep from ballooning up his normal 20 or so winter pounds.

Here's how I spent my early evening: Kick reset button on compressor, carry/throw shovels full of dirt to their new home until the compressor comes up to pressure, sand with DA until it dies (about an 80 gal. tank full), carry more shovels full until I think the compressor is cool enough to kick back on with the aid of the reset button, Repeat.

Exercise, and productivity on two projects. That's how I roll. I stripped back to the Dominoes color just for fun. I will go down mostly to bare metal. Not every speck, but pretty far down. The part at the back is where I stripped to eliminate the side marker light. Let's just say that my body working skills have improved since then.

So, I think after the holiday weekend, I'd better fix that compressor. It sounds pretty badly of piston slap/rod knock, and I know a good electric motor shop nearby that I'll take the motor to. I've got an 80 gal. Ingersol Rand 5hp. supposedly among the last before they shot to heck in a handbasket. I definitely need to fix it, no way painting is happening like this. In the meantime, that was kind of fun.

Oh, and in other news, the rear is at the 4X4 shop. Good thing, too, as they say it will be 4 weeks before they can even touch it. I know what I'm getting for Christmas (realistically, a late Christmas).

Lookin' Good!! That's neat to see the old color, it's orange right? Can't say I've ever seen another Starlet painted that color, keep at it!