Banpei's new TA60 family cruiser

[Ivan141]

If you end up painting wheels yourself, get some half-decent respiratory protection and use 2K clearcoat. It's available in cans these days.
I order most of my paint supplies from nonpaints.com (CROP),you can get everything from them and they deliver for free when you order for 50€ or more.

[banpei]

I finished the wheels somewhere mid-November, shortly after the AEU86 meetup. After that, the weather was so dreadful that I just ignored them. Spring has arrived early, so the Black Racing just had to be mounted on the Carina!


I'm really happy with the looks of these wheels on the Carina. The wheel/tire size is also just right.

However, they are about 3.5% smaller in diameter than the Celica Supra wheels with 185/60 R15 tyres and it shows really well in these photos of before and after:


The fender gap is larger than my daughter's shoe length!
Now I'll definitely need a set of lowering springs or coil-overs to make that right vertically. Also, the wheels sit a bit too far inward. The rear is relatively okay, but I'd say another 20 millimetres at the front would be necessary. I could swap around the front and rear wheels as I have the wheels with +15 offset in the rear and +25 at the front. R.ave already offered to lend his 10mm spaces to see what would be a good fitment.

[oldskull]

[banpei]

After a week of looking for ways for lowering, I found the following options:
1. Make AE86 lowering springs set fit the TA60
2. Dobinsons coil springs (from Australia) are available for the Celica RA60 (with live-axle), lowering about 3 to 4 cm
3. Some homemade coil-over setup from AE86 parts
4. T3 coil-over set for Celica RA60/RA64 (from the US)

I have a set of Apex springs for the AE86 and I can make them fit if I can find the right top mounts hats (KE25) for my struts. The problem is to find those top mounts hats.
The Dobinsons coil springs are probably the next cheapest option for about 400 euros (excluding shipping & import duties), but they only drop the car a little bit.
The homemade coil-over setup using (secondhand) AE86 parts and some mix-and-match will probably set me back a similar amount of money as the Dobinson springs, but I need someone to do the cutting and welding for me.
The complete T3 coil-over set for the RA60/RA64 will most likely fit, but it will cost about 1500 euros excluding shipping & import duties.

I think I'll first try the Apex lowering springs on the rear and see how much they drop compared to the Carina springs. This could be a good indication how to proceed from here.

[Power_uP]

Instead of lowering it, how about raising it slightly and turning it into a monster truck?

J/K, I hope you can get the AE86 springs to fit. That car is really cool and it looks like you have a nice project for 2024.

[The Doctor]

KE20 rear topmounts? They don't have rear topmounts.
The fronts are the same as TE27 and cusco still makes camber plates for them.

I'd say that rear springs are quite interchangeable between any T series live axle car.
Shocks as well, I'm running AA63 rear shocks (IRS) on my leaf spring live axle KE20.

[banpei]

(03-14-2024 01:36 PM)The Doctor Wrote:  KE20 rear topmounts? They don't have rear topmounts.
The fronts are the same as TE27 and cusco still makes camber plates for them.

I'd say that rear springs are quite interchangeable between any T series live axle car.
Shocks as well, I'm running AA63 rear shocks (IRS) on my leaf spring live axle KE20.

Sorry I wasn't talking about the rears, but the front ones. I also meant upper spring retainers (hats) and not top mounts.
One of my contacts replaced the springs with AE86 springs, the Carina TA60 spring retainers don't fit the AE86 front springs but the E20 upper ones do make it fit.
Edit: I think something like this might also work:
https://technotoytuning.com/toyota/ra28/...id-springs

I also have a set of T3 camber plates, so theoretically, I could fit them on top of an AE86 strut. But then I also need different steering knuckles.

[banpei]

Today the weather finally allowed me to do a bit of work on the Carina. So I fitted a fuel pressure regulator to allow the excess fuel to flow back via the original return line instead of overflowing the carb. Luckily there were some OEM bolt holes that I could reuse for this purpose:

From what I could see, this is usually where components of the power steering and aircon are supposed to sit on the JDM Carina.

Most time was spent on unblocking the return line. The people who rebuilt the engine plugged it to prevent fuel fumes from entering the engine bay. However, they did this with some sealant. I tried pulling it out, but that didn't work. Then I tried a tiny screw and use that to help to unplug it. Then it hit me that I could use the vacuum pump on my brake bleeding kit to suck it out. This actually worked quite well.

The engine now runs a lot smoother and starts immediately even when the engine is hot. Previously, a hot engine meant the carb sometimes got flooded with petrol and then I would have issues starting it again. If you're interested, you can read more about it here. So that seems to be another job I can cross from the list.

Another thing I did today was trial fit this Italvolanti Admiral wooden steering wheel:

I picked it up for a very cheap price and was thinking about two options: 1) fit it in the Carina or 2) find another cheap Italvolanti steering wheel (not the Formel) and mount it on top of it and make it a cheap imitation of the Initial D version of the Admiral.
It looks nice with the brown/tan interior of the Carina, but I removed it again and will go for option 2.

Next up is replacing the brake pads with the OEM ones I was gifted recently. I never really liked these aftermarket ones. So hopefully that will improve things as well.

[banpei]

These are the last two photos I took of the Carina before she left me:


By the time I took these photos, technically the Carina wasn't mine any more. I sold the Carina to Seb (he's once been a forum member here) who is a friend of various other people I know, so it will be in good hands. He has many plans and hopefully, he will be doing the conversions I have been postponing for the past 15 years.

[DasparX]

Managed to find my login credentials, might even start a thread once i get some work on the car going. Enjoying the car so far.