Trueno Hatch and Levin Coupe - Repair, replace, pray xD

[TomRich]

Morning,

New to the forum, and apologies in advance for a rambling first post, but thought I'd roll the "Hey you guys" post and the start of the joint build thread into one, for this pair of former beauties that my Mrs and I are sorting out.

We're new to Corollas, besides having a '95 1.3 daily driver during a broke-AF period years ago, but I've been through a string of S13 Nissans, E30 BMW's and most frequently an endless stream of Mk2 VW Golfs, usually turbo'd, but throughout that I've always had a huge appreciation of good 86's and the utmost respect for them. Now there's a pair of them sat here and we're pretty excited



My girlfriend recently got hold of a Levin coupe, which came into the UK by way of Kawasaki and we're unsure of its history before its last owner, but it has had a tough life and been in service as a well used and capable drift car with no holds barred by the previous owner who could drive it well but the flipside is it did get knocked at pace.

It's got a basic but decent enough spec, 4 branch and custom exhaust, HKS filter, twin O/S rocker covers, rebuilt gearbox, TRD 2-Way, BC Racing coilovers, modified front knuckles, D Max kit, bolt in cage, buckets and harnesses, the usual pretty much.



It needs fresh bumpers and skirts, the dizzy needs rebuilding as it broke down within 15 minutes of collection from the cap being full of oil, the diff is leaking, the bonnet pins ripped out on the way home (riveted through a fibreglass bonnet) and it cracked the bonnet's inner skin and windscreen, and has a fair few other wobbly bits / half assed jobs / tired bits that want taking care of. NOT A DIG AT ALL TO ANY P.O's, just how it is.

Whilst she was picking this up, I'd been nagging a good friend of mine for ages to part with a Trueno he'd had for around 5 years. It had been neglected and sat idle for the past couple of years, as I think time and priorities got away from him as he's a good guy and had good intentions of bringing it off the road to address it's rust and other issues, but we all know life gets in the way and he's moved on to building badass cafe racer style motorbikes.

He agreed and we went and collected it shortly after, so happy days. It's an early '83 model, again imported from the homeland and I believe it went to Rob May thereafter as per most UK Corolla's it seems .

It has a set of cams (unknown as of yet), a (now rusty) 4 branch and exhaust, TRD shocks (rears blown), presumably cut down springs, an ancient Bride drivers seat, some ghey dildo gearknob, some 15" XXR's and has come with a replacement rear axle with the later bigger driveshafts and a TRD 2-Way in need of a rebuild.



It needs a lot of wiring tidying up, a fair bit of metal replaced, a coat of paint and a good freshen up of the mechanicals as well as some wheels and seats and so on. It's a fairly honest car though and it totally deserves the refresh

Now these pictures, unfortunately, are from when the cars were good. They now need a lot of TLC as mentioned above, so here's a random image dump of the rusty Christian-flyer-covered Trueno and the battered pile of Levin as they got to us...










Hopefully progress will be *relatively* steady, but while we do have a tiny but half decent workshop and most of what we need to get them done, we still don't have much free time for these little 'uns so hoping for some good luck along the way!

Thanks for reading and hope this hasn't put anyone to sleep

[mad.matt]

Ah sick! You bought Matt Abela's 86

Welcome!
It's got my Alternator on it

If you're not a fan of the Levin fogs and would happily rehome them, I'd gladly take them off your hands

[TomRich]

Funny you should mention the fogs, she's got a NOS Levin non-fog grill coming so will let you know if they end up surplus man

But yeah Matt was a good guy, Zo spotted the car on Facebook, recognised it from a mate of ours' pics from Rockingham and text me saying she needed to go to Dover to pick it up haha, so we brimmed the diesel and got going He helped us out getting it home after it packed in and it was genuinely just bad luck with geriatric parts. Looks like he could pedal the thing as well so fair play to him, hope he's enjoying the new Mazda power

We rebuilt the dizzy earlier after getting a more useful bearing puller but ran out of time to re-fit so hopefully it'll be driving again tomorrow.

[zenki]

Welcome.

I recognize the levin from a thread on dw. Has had a rough life so far but so do alot of them and they take it like a champ. Looking forward seeing these cars get some proper tlc.

[TomRich]

Thanks, liking the attention to detail in your thread, bay looked WAY better for it, how did you find the POR 15? Never gotten around to trying it, been through Gravitex and Raptor from Upol which I think both fit slightly different jobs.

[banpei]

Welcome and I see you got two very nice, but different, hachis!

[TomRich]

Thanks man, is your Carina the blue one? Recognise the name from stumbling over some pics on t'internet, looks badass if it is

[zenki]

Bought the por15 in the netherlands. I have mixed results with this stuff. The inside floor has held up pretty good. My steering knuckles and other various bits and bobs not so well. Paint started chipping off only a couple of months later. I must admit it was a new can but had been on the shelf for 2 years.

[TomRich]

Thanks mate, may well finally give it a try then Seems hard to find a good coating for steering knuckles etc, even had trouble with powder coat in the past, will bare it in mind

[mad.matt]

(08-28-2018 09:29 PM)TomRich Wrote:  Funny you should mention the fogs, she's got a NOS Levin non-fog grill coming so will let you know if they end up surplus man

SICK! Thanks man, please let me know ^_^