Lemonade

Hello AE club.  This is my first post and introduction.  This is my AE.  I picked it up for $400 back in the fall.  I got the car for my girlfriend and I to drive.  I was looking for a Wagon for some time and the VERY few that popped up got snagged right away, and also were in excess of $2000.. a little out of my price range at the time.  I got this car for cheap because it was lacking TLC.  A father bought it for his son who had it for 2 years? did no maintenance, drove it into the ground and generally neglected it.  Still surprised it didnt burn in flames.  Funny enough, when cleaning the car, i found it had been in an accident on my birthday of 2013, geez.

The car had no brakes, no brake fluid, no tread on 3/4 tires, the interior was missing pieces and there was garbage everywhere. it was awful, but i knew i could bring it back.

So i accessed the things that needed to be done.  Brakes, gaskets, oil change, fluids check, belts and plugs/wires.  

This is an Edmonton car and strangley enough everything came apart easily, other than 2 rear brake lines.  There were KYB GR2 shocks in the rear, shoes had been replaced within the last couple years.  The old owner said he had a guy repack the wheel bearing on one side...which funny enough was MISSING A BRAKE PAD...

this leads me to the no brakes.  it had no fluid in the master, there wasnt any apparent leak, and the pedal would return no problem.  the pedal would just go to the floor, with resistance.  When i took the front end apart i found the side with the re packed wheel bearing was missing its inside brake pad.  The piston was far extending into the rotor and grinding metal on metal to slow it down...strangely enough, there was no horrid noise?

i replaced the brakes with some brembo blank rotors, hawk hps pads, made new lines from russells catalogue for front and rear.  got new 90 degree bends for the rear as one broke, as well as some joiner lines to make new lines for the chassis side that broke. it was quite the ordeal with these brakes, im telling ya.  did plugs and wires from NGK, new valve cover gasket, welded the exhaust manifold as it had a crack, added a Apex'i water temp gauge to check out the temps as the oem cluster temp gauge was not reading correct? did an oil change, changed the belts, modified the air box with holes for more air flow, topped up fluids and thats about it? i think.

added a kenwood stereo finally so now i have tunes to listen to.  Has winter tires on currently in the front, got some mix matched tires for $75, so that was cool.  I have some Enkeis coming from japan, then i think i will do lowering springs and front struts, maybe new headlights and a chin spoiler and that will be that.  Ideally id like a silvertop/blacktop 20V with an auto trans for better mileage and power.

thanks for looking

Chris

Nice man, looks very clean

Welcome seems you like a battle nice progress

aii. i do. i do a lot of racing (drifting) and this is the second auto car ive ever owned.  Took my time to make sure it was road worthy and that id feel safe having my girlfriend drive it and be comfortable to drive on a daily basis.  currently i need to replace the thermostat, as it sits around 60C water temp, fuel mileage is at best 9L/100km and at worst 12L/100km.  Fuel gauge shows empty at 300km's on the tripometer, havent tried going past that, even though it should go to 450kms no problem.  I do believe this is a 3 speed auto as well.  Its those short journey's in town that kill the mileage.

here's my other cars

welcome to the site, nice to see you got it all sorted now, im liking the colour of the car..

Nice, welcome!

is there an OEM fog light option for the USDM bumpers? any sort of front valence as well? i went through a lot of pictures and a lot of the bumpers are different and have a variety of options. I found a bunch of fog lights but i dont now if theyre locally available or even from toyota as a last resort?

Nope, the 7th gen never had fogs in the USA. You can find other fogs to fit in the center opening though.

hey battleaxe loving the car and all the work you've done to it thus far. you seem pretty knowledgeable about the work youre doing and was hoping you could answer me one ? You said that you wanted an auto 20v for better mileage and power? I understand y you'd want auto for better mileage but what do you mean by power? I currently have a st 20v auto in my 7th gen and have been gathering parts for a manual swap b/c i thought manual would be better but im just curious with what you said. sry not too knowledgeable in this so thats y im asking. thx in advance and sry for the thread jack lol

battleaxe wrote:

is there an OEM fog light option for the USDM bumpers? any sort of front valence as well? i went through a lot of pictures and a lot of the bumpers are different and have a variety of options.  I found a bunch of fog lights but i dont now if theyre locally available or even from toyota as a last resort?

afraid they werent available for the usdm bumper. iv seen people use celica ones, carina ones, focus ones and even civic ones.. all depends which shape you like.
the front lip.. again very hard to get, and not available for the usdm bumper.. but you can use different ones.. i know iv got a different bumper, but i have an integra dc2 one on mine..

all you have to do it look around junk yards and see if it will fit or not

was just curious if there were factory options for it, cause ive come to like oem bits that arent always available on all trims. i was considering getting a half cut for the front end as the bumper choices are pretty cool for this car. but i think ill import a whole car and take all the good bits haha, including front end.

as for why i would keep it auto? i dont trust my girlfriend to drive standard, and i like my daily to be an auto with power steering and its just easier to get around. that being said id MUCH prefer a manual gear box for all my cars cause i like to be in control. its not for fuel savings. a 20V is better on gas and power than the 4AFE thats in my car now. i dont mind it on the highway, but i have the 3 spd and its slow in town and revs high on the highway, so the worst of both worlds. but when it is in high revs it does have a little grunt

lol ok i was just wondering ill def continue on with my plans

battleaxe wrote:

was just curious if there were factory options for it, cause ive come to like oem bits that arent always available on all trims. i was considering getting a half cut for the front end as the bumper choices are pretty cool for this car. but i think ill import a whole car and take all the good bits haha, including front end.

that would be sweet, which bumper / car would you go for?

not sure. id have to see whats available at the time. i wont even consider getting another car for parts until the cressida is my daily again, and the other 2 stay driveable..mostly so i can have both my stalls open to do all the swappage...unless i come across a wagon, which is what i REALLY wanted in the first place. also have a 91 hardbody pickup as well lol. all different kinds of vehciles for various tasks.

im fond of this front end. though not sure how it would look on a nearly stock heaight car with 'rally'esque wheels

wheels came in from japan finally!!

Enkei, not sure what model. Going to look them up soon
15x7 +40. not the best of sizes, but I will see how they fit on the corolla. gotta grab tires so once the cold and icy weather goes away, ill put them on.



pic from the auction

Love the wheels! Can't wait to seem em on the car.

love the wheels theyre super dope. i used to never be a fan of white wheels then i got mine powdercoated gloss white and now i absolutely love the color b/c it stands out so much lol. cant wait to see them on

minor 'winter' here on vancouver island. temps are around 0C so ill be leaving the winters on for a while longer. got some tires coming in march on an order we made. might try to find some temps in the mean time. pretty keen on seeing them on the car as well. i wanted a 'rally' look for the car. i was looking for some OZ Rally's for a while and none were popping up. next time for next winter hahaha

got some used tires from a pile for the wheels to test fit them, they TALL, i think 195/60/15s.
The wheels are 15x7 +40. they clear the rear struts with good distance all around, and fit the body very nicely. I think +35 or +30 would be ideal, but your tire sizes would have to be chosen more wisely. and i want to run high camber/stock, so this is quite ideal.
I only plan to get new shocks for the front and I think some lowering springs all around, rear already has KYB shocks. I like a nice dailyable ride height for this car.

Replaced the thermostat in it FINALLY, so now its between 82-90C at operating temp instead of 40-50C due to the thermostat stuck open. Now the cabin even gets too hot for comfort, so thats excellent at this time of year.

I didnt put the front wheels on because we still have some snow coming down and actually snowed today and quite heavily this evening. New tires are coming in March for the wheels so they'll have a nice fresh set, 195/50s.

Welded up the broken flex pipe for now, that piece on the bottom needs to be replaced, the cat also needs to be replaced or cleaned up for new gaskets. Next on the list, but that thermostat was a big thing it needed. Really happy with it. Also needs speakers, only one works

went for a early morning sunday drive

those wheels look so similar to mine, look awesome on the car

Finally the weather has been steady with rain so i put the front on.
clears everything, rears rub on cornering with 5 people in the car i found
i have new tires to go on there, 195/50 instead of the 65? on there now.



also polished up the headlights as well, turned out half decent

looking good. just needs to be lowered now

i think ill get lowering springs and some new dampeners towards the end of the year.
my purpose wasnt to mod it much but that front gap is just silly. that, and add some fog lights cause my shop is in the sticks.

yeah lol it really is.. Monster truck mode engaged

Front fogs?