New member from Japan.

[gt4st205]

Hello! My name is Robbie and I am currently stationed in Misawa Japan with the U.S. Army. I have been here a little over the year, I own a 1996 Celica GT-four that has a few basic mods done to it. I joined this forum because I am going to buy an AE86 Levin for my wife in the next few months, and I want to know what I should look out for when buying one. Such as things that typically go out and are expensive to replace, or what kind of price range I should be paying, so on so forth. I do know that the one I have my eye on has minimal bodywork needed to be done and ZERO chassis rust. The shop I will be working with will teardown and repaint the whole car to what i want (i'm thinking Midnight Purple), give it a JCI ($900 road worthy test) and give it new gaskets and pipes. All for about $8000, depending on what the Yen rate is. Here is a pic of my current ride, and the levin, let me know what you think!



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[FunteX]

Hello, and welcome.

Looks like the body is in good shap despite the cosmetics,
good luck restoring her.

Please folow up with pics,
allways nice to hear that another one has been saved . . .

[Bean]

Hello and welcome,

nice car.
wouldn't it be cheaper to get a better model from an auction or so, than to have this one 'rebuilt'?

[Hachi]

keep corolla for yourself and get yaris for wife

[IBMFD3S]

hi, welcome here!

i would suggest Miguel from Newera:
http://www.aeu86.org/privmsg/ae86/mode/post/u=416

he's in Japan, knows the market and probably knows a nice car for you or can find you one.

[IBMFD3S]

his numbers:

Japan Office Tel 0207-193-3979.
Mobile (Japan): +81- (0) 90-4133-3825

[gt4st205]

I have looked and looked around here for some that needed less work. I have traveled as far as 200km's away, but no luck. I found a few but the chassis and drivetrain parts were rusted pretty bad. I am mainly paying the shop for bodywork and paint. the car itself was about $4500. It already has some work done to it, just not sure what yet.

I'll have to check that guy out, thank you!

[Okami]

sounds very cool man - let us know how it all works out...

no dissrespect to your wife but keep the car for yourself

[gt4st205]

We have recently worked this deal, It's "hers" only until i sell my GT-four. then we will be picking up a daily driver for her to use. probably a scubbie or some other POS. My main plan is to own two 86's in the states...the ae86 for me and a ft-86 for her.

[gt4st205]

BTW, car is now at the shop, I will be there for the whole process, so be ready for a build thread. I still would like some advice though, I have checked the car out, and it looks clean to me. However, you guys are the experts on the 86's, what else should I look for? Mechanically, suspension, other fail points? I just want to make sure that I do it right the first time. I had a 93 eagle talon in the states...I do not want to break down every 10 miles ever again!