New member from NZ!

[TOUGE]

Hi everyone, I'm another AE86 fan from Down Under!

A little about my cars. Well, I own three AE86s – an '83 Trueno GT Apex, a '83 Levin GT-V and an '84 Levin GT-V. They are all JDM spec cars that were imported in to NZ in the early 1990s.

I bought my first AE86 (the '84 Levin) in 1999 and used it for a weekend driver for about two years. I then took it off the road, pulled it apart and re-painted it. That car was (and still is!) in pieces, so I bought another car (the '83 Levin) to drive in the interim.

The '83 Levin served me well as a daily driver for about two years. It was a little on the rough side though, and started to slowly deteriorate (rust!) the more I drove it. A few years ago a Japanese friend of mine came to do the WRC Rally New Zealand in a Lancer Evo. He forgot to arrange a recce car though, but quickly spied the AE86, so I lent it to him! Having rallied AE86s for many years he was pretty handy behind the wheel, and although the car did everyone proud and lasted the recce week without hitting anything it got pretty hammered and the motor was really smoking by the end of it. It was parked up after that and is now my parts donor car.

Early last year I decided I would get myself another AE86 – this time a Trueno with intention of undertaking a complete rebuild a really tidy weekend road car that I can keep forever. What I found was an '83 Trueno GT Apex that was pretty original, but had been semi-pulled apart (the owner had wanted to build a rally car) but then left to sit for five years. It was still running nicely too! I've been focussed on building this for the past year.

I'll get some progress pics of the Trueno up in the PROJECTS sections when I have a chance to dig them all out, but so far (and with the help of Toyota New Zealand) I have replaced every panel I could (from what is still avaiable ex-Japan) with new parts. That included new doors, new rear 3/4 panels, new rear panel, new bonnet, new hatch etc...

Anyway, here are a few shots of the Trueno I have on hand...


The first one when I purchased the car last year. After been rallied up and down a gravel driveway, the old owner then parked it up for five years.


After new panels fitted, I fitted up the wheels to see if we needed to make any guard modifications (which we did)


And the last one, in the spray booth getting it's primer coat. Plenty of work still to do though before it gets it's final paint coat!

My goal with this car is to one day take it back to Japan for the AE86 Festival! I might finish the other '84 Levin one day too!

Hope to make some new like-minded friends on here!
Cheers,
Brad

[banpei]

Welcome!
Nice collection!

[robokill]

to bad to use a hachi as parts car. Anything saveable is worth saving.

what color schemes will you use?

[hachirokuGTV]

This is the one from NZ Performance Car...........right?

[TOUGE]

robokill Wrote:to bad to use a hachi as parts car. Anything saveable is worth saving.

what color schemes will you use?

Unfortunately the body itself is probably a bit too rusty to make it worthwile to repair, but there are still many parts that I can retain (including all the running gear and interior etc...). I'm not getting rid of it just yet though, so who knows what will happen.

As for the colour, my Levin is painted back to factory silver colour, but the Trueno is being changed to white/black.

[TOUGE]

hachirokuGTV Wrote:This is the one from NZ Performance Car...........right?

Yip :wink: