Just another corolla - DIY Caterham frame 7age and ´93 Liftback RWD

Been watching to many youtube videos of 7age running in AE86´s  and seeing how good they are
is making me think the 7age over again, I know its a crime to make this destroy my car inthusiastic
again but hey, I love it while it lasts hahaha

I turned over the 7age engine I had in the garage, been standing for a year now and I had marked it nr.1
Thought it was the one that blew valve seals or a piston ring, so I opened the oilpan to see if it was
the same engine...





That was a quick let down, now I got to tear it apart and change the rod that is busted, might aswell
go all the way then and order rings and bearrings and make it new again. but this time I will buy a
crank shaft timing belt sprokket made for the 7age so I dont need to adjust the cams for timing.

But I wont have to think as much about this now see as it is a rebuild project not a runner.
Going for the stock 4age engine I have in the Toyota parts garage, good to have extra stuff sometimes.

I closed the bottom ef the engine again and hoist it over and into the frame to see if was
made to fit.


Im using a Fwd exhaust headers, I dont own the Rwd one the engine came with a homemade at the
time which I put in the trash. So now I will have to make a turbo header, Oh well
The stock headers clear the brake booster but the line would not clear the headers coming from it.


I had planned to remove the brake booster and clutch master cylender and fabricate from them a raceing petal
makanism (Turn them 180°) to lower the two resovoir close to the bottom of the frame to make clear for
the turbo stuff but mainly to get the gear leaver closer to the driver, the hole engine and trans could
go back 5-6cm but I will check on that later.


Put the front facing intake plenum on and its almost in-line with the EVO intercooler outlet port.


Now I need a small rad, thinking about a civic one.


Been test fitting my self behind the wheel, in a position im confortable  in my knee is hitting the
steering wheel, so I moved the steering tube up about 3cm but still hitting the wheel needed like 1cm
more clearance the suade steering wheel is 350mm


I almoast bought a 320mm wheel online yesterday but thought I wait and see I might need to move
all of the steering and petals back about 30cm but as I was walking my kid to sleep in his stroller out side
I walked past the Mighty L200 and found a doner to fix this problem    totally for got I had 320mm
OMP steering wheel in it so now that problem is fixed, (for now)


Trying to figure out the next step to go over, might be time to part that Corolla I bought for it.

Found more stuff I could do befor finding time to pick up and part the 4wd Corolla

I went on my favorite online part website Rockauto.com been buyin all my car parts there for two
years now, i have a ML500 4WD Mercedes that I have little by little parting all togeather with new stuff.

I Bought two new AE86 motor mounts, the frame already came with a new tranny mount




I also got new suspension extremely cheap from China but will probably buy new
and more addvansed suspesion with more flex. Also got a used radiator from Nissan Micra



Bought 4 shocks with 300lbs springs settup, in total delivered to my door around 140$ usa.
In the rear they are to short but could fab a steel welded to the rear axle with many adjustment
holes to make up the 10cm shorter suspension just to make this work for a couple of runs.


Then I tried figuring out where to place the Hydro e-brake for future fun and crashing

New stuff arrived!


Bought new Gokart seats from Tillett Racing


They fit me like a glove





Fitted them in the frame, they fit like a glove there to, love when this happens





My doughter had to pose  


Cant wait to bolt them in how ever i am going to do that task.

lol I thought that was a baby seat until you sat in it. Nice find!

gold94corolla wrote:

lol I thought that was a baby seat until you sat in it.  Nice find!

LOL, I just saw it now, it does look like a baby seat hahaha


I  got another package, new pilot bearring and a clutch slave cylender for the T50 gearbox


Then dug out my OMP seat belts, I also hat new Atlas 3" seatbelts but cant find them anywhere
but 3" might be overkill, my two boys love the frame build spesially my 7year old



Then I went to my Toyota parts garage to look for stuff I could use in the frame, and somewhere
behind my fathers jeep Tires I found a dash that looks to be from a AE86.





So if the dash was there I suspect I have the harness for it also, and hour later I found it
complete in-car and engine harness from a AE86 Buja!!


Nice big lump of wires


I also needed radiator hoses and clutch and flywheel for 6bolt 4afe or 7afe (if I go 7age)
also found a clutch fork that I needed the most cus I cant find it on ebay or Rockauto.com
Then in all of the crap I found a beginning of a turbo hedders that I suspect that at one time
it was a complete headders 4-1, that would had been nice to have uncut on the engine



7afe/4afe waterpumps grate to fab to 4age/7age Rwd

Desited to wait alittle longer to tear down that 4x4 Touring toyota Carib parts car, the little parts i still need now i can pull from pick and pull grave yard down town..


I put up an add on faxebook for a rear axle from the same model and got it the same day.


Now i can start making the suspension parts and all the other stuff around the rear fitted so i can put the wheels on and have the frame stand on its own.

Time to shop on ebay

Finally found time to fit the rear axle in the frame.

First I had to cut the old panhard bars away and then unbolt the wheels.


Then I picked up the whole rear axle and put it in the frame, these things are light!



Looking at the it from the front, I messured the front from hub to hub 140cm
and I think if I recall the rear was 145cm from hub to hub.



Bolted the wheels back on to check clearence



Looking forward to make some brackets


Cant wait to make it stand on its own

Abit random but looks cool lol

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So its been a hell of a time from the last time I posted, I have just been focusing on doing car
builds, got like 4 projects, like you must know by now I have a illness I cant sit down for more
then 5min I constantly have to be doing stuff my mind does not relax for a minute.

So to start where I last went off, I got some more Caterham stuff ordered, new headlight´s Suspension bushings
go kart seat shims and bolts, new suade steering wheel that clears my knees, gasket set for 4age and 7afe.







Finally found my big rod set that I had stored somewhere 10years ago they are 24mm
they are going into a 4agte build for the caterham or another project that I started working
on over at my toyota parts garage.


Found an old toolbox, going to use that for the ECU and fusebox


Then I started working on the front brakes, trying to find out what brand front calipers it
had was a no go, so I opted I change the front hubs for a set of AE86 front hubs with
calipers, brake disks and pads, currently still working on that part.




Then I got this parts corolla for cheap, I need couple of things to finish the Caterham
build, the complete handbrake stuff, steering bids, heater core and blower,
and then the registration number



So that is cind off it for the Catherham build, I desited to buy new parts every month
to collect as many stuff for it as I could then when the time came I would bolt everything
to geather and have fun, mean while I strapped it to the roof of the garage so I could
to something else in the garage.

I have a thing for Mercedes. My first car would have been a merc c200 1998 manual sportline
if my father had not turned me to the Toyota´s, o´man where would I bee if that would not
have happen.

So I bought this w124 befor last summer and have been tinkering with it, bought a sett of H&R 55mm coil springs from Germany because three of the ones under it where broken, bought couple of set of wheels for it 19" 18" 17" 16" wheels and tires, but currently running winter mode on
stealees, the automatic gave up couple of month´s ago so i am in the progress of doing a manual swap, bought everything needed to do the swap. It is a 2.8l inline 6 cylender and has a leather interior and sunroof, and a limited diff,  I only use it when I go to the gym



I also had to buy this v8 w124 off a guy that had started to part out the car because it had a
broken rear axle and there is a special busty axle in it that you had to import from Germany
so I took the axle out and welded it back to geather and started buying parts for it to make
it a whole car again. Currently it is a running driving car and I am going to paint it in next week.

Couple of months ago I coulden sleep one night and I got to thinking I never did my full time
rear wheel swap, engine and gearbox and rear diff just every thing to make a corolla RWD.

So the next day I went online and bought this broken down SI corolla (GSi in uk?) It is a 1.6l
manual and had a faulty NEW water pump and the owner thought the head gasket had blown.




I just could not wait to start working on it so I took it to my Toyota Parts garage and just
cleared out the garage, every thing I could not sell the last two years I threw away and
every thing else I boxed and stored in the corner to make room for the car. I fixed the
broken water pump because I was going to start the project using the existing
engine (4afe) and a T50 AE86 gearbox and driveshaft.

All of this is 4age stuff btw (I need help )



But be for I started tearing the car down a friend of mine needed
a car to get to work and I sold it to him.

Couple of days later another friend of mine contacted me about a Dodge Stealth I had
bought to fix and sell and wanted to buy it, he offered me his daily a Corolla GLi liftback
age 1993 with 1.6l (4afe), it had a sunroof and new adjustable suspension did not look that
good so it was perfect for my build  



Be for I started the RWD corolla I had thought of the idea of having the complete drive train from a Mercedes w124 installed to a corolla because I had it all laying around at my house, a rear subframe with everything bolted to it, propshaft, 2.0l engine with supercharger
and a manual gearbox, just a crazy idea I know.



So there was nothing to do but start tearing everything out of the engine bay, every bolt.




Bought this bucked seat for the Caterham but it did not fit so it moves to
the next project along with my OMP steering wheel.

Cutting the floor and firewall




So because I have extra EVERYTHING corolla related I recon I start by fitting
toyota stuff to it first, then later the Mercedes stuff if I desited to go that rout

T50 rwd gearbox from a ae86




Fits neatly, just have to cut a little more around the tunnel for the bell housing to clear



Next to fit a 4age engine block to see where i am at






Jees the room in there, I could fit a v12  So next I swapped out the
left and right front hubs to get the power steering to fit under the oil pan




Bolted up the oil pan and the power steering to the hubs and checked for clearance



Checked the steering angle



So this is just a work in progress, plan is to work on it only at night
when I cant sleep (happens alot) I think I already have a rear subframe
from one of my 4x4 Touring (BZ BRZ wagon 4x4) that I could bolt up but
I dont want to do that part again later if the diff and axles wont hold the power
so might go with the w124 mercedes rear subframe after all, only time will tell.




Im out.

Awesome

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Nice to see some updates!