1994 AE101 Maroon/ Black wagon

Hey all,

Been on this site a few months and I'm loving all these badass wagons you guys have been posting.
I went pretty quickly from not caring at all about my car, to being completely obsessed with my wagon,
and any other AE101 corollas around.

A little about me, I'm a Junior Industrial Designer who gets obsessed about things easily, have a few hobbies:
Gardening, Art, Guitar, Design, Music I do Muay Thai and more recently, my AE101 wagon.
I fully intend on using my design skills, talents, aesthetic knowledge and passionate curiosity to make this unique.

I bought my car off my sister in-law in 2009 as she couldn't take it with her when she went overseas,
it also served as an upgrade from my AE92 (my first car).
I want to work on this car as a project and to respect it for all it's done for me, as a run around and being treated as roughly as it has
since I've owned it.

Can't really find many photos of it when I first got it, I do however have photos of something which made me care about it.
Was in a 3 car collision, long story short I was in the wrong
(needless to say I stay at least 2 cars distance from anyone infront of me) and it resulted in this happening to the front end..

I was pretty angry about the situation, mainly because I felt i had to put up with another problem with this car, which at the time I didn't have much respect for.

A few months later all the insurance was sorted, my Dad and I had a discussion to decide the fate of the wagon.
Wasn't really (still not) in a strong financial situation, and I needed a reliable car. We have had this car for a long time and we know what needs to be done on it
for legal roadworthy reasons. We were going to sell this off for whatever we could get for it, and pick up a similar car.

Only problem being, that may have many unknown problems, I decided it wasn't worth it so we went to work on this one.
Straightened up the front bumper reinforcements somewhat, just so it could last the following few weeks and got the lights in a position to be secure.





About 3 weeks later, went up to the local car wreckers to check out their stock, seeing any AE101 parts to harvest. Found a new front & rear bumper,
front left guard from a hatchback, adjusted the rear bumper support and mounted them up.










The following week, picked up a bit of momentum, decided to get a new front grill, and hood. Even got the wife in to help haha.








Will post up the other images when I get the chance; new wheel HUBS, clutch and getting the flywheel machined!

Alright guys here's some more stuff.

Clutch, Wheel hubs and flywheel:
Wheel hubs and the brake cover things were making a horrible rubbing noise, sounded like
it was in pain, we fixed those up.

Clutch was getting worn and had a bit too much resistance.

Flywheel was machined, because why not- it'd be a long time before we take the gearbox off again.







A week later I wanted to do some cosmetic work. Dad and I took to the partially buckled chassis.




after that, she's looking a lot happier!






I'm having problems with the rear shocks, whenever my mates are in the car with me, the back end sacks to the ground.
Further to this, I do want to lower it, would be keen for any advice on lowering, how it can be done by yourself to save labour,
or what options you guys have experience in? cheers all!

No replies from anyone? Bit of a ghost town around here.

Here's some more prog:





matt black for the grill, left guard and currently working on the hood!
Also have a new passenger front door blacked up and ready to go- pending
time to install it.

Also sprayed my horns silver for some nice contrast, and goes with the chrome.
Although I do want to chrome the horns, need to research how to do that.

Planned colour scheme is matt black, chrome and eventually will respray the car the same maroon as before, with a gloss clear on top!

I'm keen for questions, or even acknowledgement ay. Seems a bit weird this is one of the only wagon posts with no comments.

I'm still lurking around, every day

Amazing work man, fair play to ya, alot of people would have just scrapped the car after the frontal damage you made it look good again, a full respray will make it look really fresh. Any other future plans for it suspension upgrades engine swaps ?

Regards

Chris

Cheers guys I appreciate it! Yeah next step is rims, then coilovers, respray of the same maroon and gloss clear coat. Then I'm thinking a 4age conversion, 4afe 1.6 doesnt give enough power ay

Keeping the front and front left side Matt black, makes it look distinguished I think haha.
When I'm on my laptop next I'll update what it looks like. Blacks all done on bonnet.

Next up is getting some gloss black dished steelies 15 x 8s. low profile tyres to suite.
Chrome out the calipers/ spray silver. Blacken the drum brake covers in the rear,
Then continue to save for those sweet coilovers!
Going to practice a bit on the old door i took off, up skill for when i need to mask and spray the maroon on again. Need to sand off 90% of the clear coat, get some colour matched cans or use my mates spray gun.

Most likely the latter due to finances, wanted to use cans all the way initially because i find it to be a novel way of painting, even though on large bodies can be tedious haha

Interior update woo. Finally got some replacement seats for the front!



My driverside seat was looking pretty damn sad, after 20+ years of rough use, they've both been upgraded to some AE101 trueno bucket seats, found again at my local wreckers.



Took about 2 hours to clean them up, large amounts of dust, dirt, strange stains and a disgusting smell all removed with some basic laundry powder and fabric softener soaked over ~20 hours (day time and mostly over night)



Bolted straight in, so damn comfy and a lot better on the eyes. No more visual let downs on the interior. This will do nicely for now

Tinted the lights!

I'll be cutting a few holes out of the plastidip tint for light to be more visible, and make it more unique!

Went down to the local wreckers and found this center console, not only with matching upholstery but it contains a secondary layer for storage!

Had to give it a very thorough clean before installing though.





And then installed


Following this, I decided to give the car a full interior and exterior clean.
Silicone sprayed everything black on the exterior, minus the window wipers and the window wiper jets.

good Job! keep the progress coming!

am waiting for the RIMS now..............all in all great job and passion

subscribed...

Awesome transformation so far bro, I know you've painted it all black now (saw it on fb)

need to update this thread

Any Updates? In for updates!

Hey everyone! Man it makes feel stoked that you guys are following this! Thanks so much for the comments and feedback, really appreciated!

MASSIVE UPDATE:
Fully painted now! wooooo no more rubbish clear coat.

Full matt black with Rustoleum matt black, including the paint already used- total of 11 cans used @$12 each NZD, then topped off with Ironlak's matt clearcoat at $9 NZD per can, used about 8 cans in total?

After that I decided to touch up the interior, including some DIY'd installs such as a black synthetic leather cover for the drivers sunvisor and aux cable.

I had also gone to my local wreckers, and got a 94' camery wagon's wide rearview mirror, gearknob and synthetic leather gear boot.

Purchased an aftermarket steering wheel and compatible boss kit off Aliexpress and played around with the horn to make it work,
adjusting the contacts that complete the circuit, and earthing the horn between the hub and wheel.
Here are the photos, hope you enjoy!

I also decided to remove the rear light tint, didnt like the smoke tint against the black colour

My Dad gave me the red seat cover to use for working on the car, he said the red ones are rare as they no longer make them, because of the rarity and being a gift from my Dad, I plan to keep it on for the rest of it's natural life. Cheers to my mate Trent who helped paint my car too!

One of my other friends Daniel gave me a set of superlows for the front! Just need to get some super lows for the back and I'll see how it sits and feels

edit: I masked the interior of the doors as I liked the maroon lining, also representing those maroon/ black corollas out there

Looking good nilesh
What's the next plans?

Cheers! Lowering and rims for the next major things. But along the way some more painting and probably interior mods. Recarpeting, some diy reupholstery

looks sweet man fair play for keeping going, when you look after your corolla,
your corolla will look after you

Stickerbomb that didn't work too well, the edges are peeling of the entire section, as well as some of the top layer throughout the section.
This is because I went on too heavy with the clear gloss between coats :/

Red tinted tail lights! Some stuff I got off Aliexpress for $2 NZD, will have to cut out the reverse section so it's not illegal

I get to anxious sometimes to put in new mods, forgetting the simple things.

If at first you don't succeed ......

Super lows installed in the front! 2nd hand from one of my mates, unsure as to the brand of them though.

Needs more low though

can't wait to be able to afford new rims and coilovers, until then, i fully embrace the JDM culture of 'do what you can with what you have'

such as these! sanded and clear coated corner lamps!