Ivan's coupe: bodywork is done

[Ivan141]

I thought I could use a little project thread of myself..
Since I will be tracking future progress in this thread first a bit of history:

Car was bought early 2003, it had been standing still for 4 years but still ran pretty strong. My first effort was to rebuild the brakes, since they where virtually non-existent. I rebuilt all 4 calipers using toyota's original rebuild kits, only to find out my master brake cilinder was leaking too when trying to bleed the system...Bought the overly expensive rebuild kit and had a go at the MBC as well..Fitted some Goodridge stainless steel brake lines while I was at it as well.

The engine died on me after a few months, the possible causes leading to it's failure where many since I really didnt know how to treat my engine back then. I only refilled the oil, never replaced it or the filter (although they where both 4 years old, which I only found out later). I once refilled it just after the engine had run (at a gas station)...how much more stupid could I get? Lastly I couldnt resist to show my new car off while the engine was still cold a few times, so I did stress the old engine a bit too much.

Almost 10 months later I had the engine replaced with an ae92 4age bluetop, which I had been cleaning up in the meantime (new seals, belts etc..). Since then I have been treating my 4age like my most precious possession...no more stepping on it before it's warmed up and fresh oil every so often..


Now over to the upcoming work: suspension! (fun fun fun)

I've already bought some 40mm lowering springs from a local spring factory (merwede), spring rates approximately 3,5kg/mm front and 3,5 kg/mm back.

Today my tokico HP's (blues) arrived in the mail...lucky me, I didnt have to pay import taxes over these!

[ZaX]

Too bad you killed the engine.
I also heard that 4a-ge doesn't like reving when it's cold.
I use expencive oil and change it on 4-5k km basis.

[Ivan141]

I use good value for money oil (castrol gtx) and have replaced it only once since the new engine went in (fresh oil was put in at installation, and then 1000km later)..I'm going to replace the oil and filter again after the next 1000k's since I've driven the car a lot since the last oil change.

But what interests me the most now is installing my new goodies on my struts. @ Robokill, could I come around again for some quality time on the bridge?

[Ivan141]

Okay, things are getting shipped over here surprisingly fast lately. Just received my front and rear strut bars..packaging was a bit bad so they have a few scratches on them, but nothing dramatic. Also paid a visit to the toyota dealer. Í bought some vacuum tubing from them and a new oil filter so that's going to be done as well in the upcoming weeks.

[Mux213]

Damn, at this rate I'll never catch up to you Ivan

[Ivan141]

Yes you will..you only have to order a few things on ebay. I'm really pissed off at the moment. I was looking out my window at home and saw the punk boyfriend of one of my new neigbours daughters deliberately spit on my car. I didnt go out to shout at the little piece of shit though..these days I could expect to find my car receiving worse treatment if I did say something about it. Too bad he doesnt have a car himself..way to young.

[Mux213]

WTF?!?!

Is he jalous or something??

Youth these days, dont they have anything more constructive to do like tune their mopeds and crash themselves against a tree or something?

[Ivan141]

I went over to Robokill's place yesterday and we had a go at the yellow/black coupe and my own car. We managed to replace the shocks and springs after a gruelling 4 hours of work, using more tools than I can remember.
The bolts holding the struts to the control arm (where you would place an RCA if you had one) were completely seized, and I nearly thought we werent going to get them loose any more. We tried using airtools to get them off but the bolts wouldnt budge. We then proceded to try a huge breakerbar for extra leverage but we only managed to crack 2 powersockets as if they were walnuts. Lucky for me robokills friend who owns the workplace we were using has 40 years of experience as a mechanic, he really saved the day. Out pops the torch and that really did the trick.


Anyway..my car is lowered now. I'm not completely satisfied with the springs though. They are supposed to be progressive, but the 4 closely wound lower coils dont do anything at all..they bind when the weight of the car rests on them. What's the use in having 4 coils doing nothing? The stiffness could be a bit better as well, though it rides a fair bit stiffer at the moment (really notice the shaking on rough roads). The old crap I took off the car were Monroe shocks. They suck balls... The springs I took off felt kinda good though. Couldnt notice the difference with my lowering springs, but then those had the softer coils which give way pretty easily.

Some pics of this afternoon (you cant see the lowering quie well here):

[Mux213]

Hey Ivan,

Damn sounds alot like my work on my RX7, but there the bolts tend to snap off when to much power is applied

[Ivan141]

Yeah, my volvo has the exact same problems...I think I'm going to buy new struts for that one at the wreckers since the brake saddle bolts have been turned to pieces by previous efforts. Now I really understand people saying they could do it much faster the second time around. Once you get those bolts off after 10 years, it takes a while for them to get that stuck again...especially when you dont tighten them like there's no tomorrow.