only real improvement with the exhaust is aesthetics - its much nicer on the eyes the the peice of shyte that was on there! sounds almost the same, but maybe a tad raspier. sounds good when engine braking coming past around 3000rpm..

with the simmons, i had only got the outer edge of each wheel redone. i wouldn't mind redoing the centre's in the future (also giving a chance to properly polish the barrel), but id redo it in colour-matched red. for the moment, its nice to see some battered original gold centre's - just the right amount of patina to perfectly match my tired red paint. :)
went ahead and got some tires put on them the other day too! ended up going with the 195/50 RE001's. been very happy with this tyre.. they're excellent for the money.


in other news; the untouched... 356,000km old... toyota suspension goodness, got a thorough going over in the last week!

replaced the:
- front lower inner control arm bushes
- front strut bar (radius rod) to chassis bushes
- front swaybar D-bushes (17mm)
- front ball joints
- front tie rod ends
- rear lower innter control arm bushes
- rear 'trailing' arm front bushes
- rear trailing arm rear (control arm end) bushes
- rear swaybar D-bushes (13mm)
- rear ball joints.
on Tuesday ill get the front swaybar links in (forgot to order..!), and hopefully the inner rear toe-control-arms(sortof). atleast on the RHR.
only other thing i might order is some F+R Koni adjustable inserts.. but the shocks in the car will be fine for the moment. everything else is spot-on. :)

the only other thing ive done, is get the 'rad' 1988 momo in.. freakyeah. so vintage. needs the recaro's in A..S..A...P


now 1 pic showing off the awesomly 80's Simmons, and fuji exhaust on the car. P-Plates are killing it! [xx(]

it feels... the same! :S
probably like it should feel like when it was new.. which is nice. At least now it will hold a wheel alignment too!
eventually ill go with some bigger swaybars, adjustable shocks, and better springs.. but that'll wait a little while. probably wouldve got all the parts the other week, but i couldnt find the Eibach Pro-Kit part number for the aw11, and gave up. :p

as for the interior, it actually holds up really well. its only in the last few years ive had it, its gone slighly down-hill. the clock and radio dont work any more, the dash is starting to crack, and some of the trims are starting to squeak and rattle. its 23 next month though, so thats to be expected! n yah, the floormats are tatty, but its STUPIDLY hard to find some good ones of those mats.. so ah well. :(

couple more pics anyway: :)

^ definetley needs a bit of low though. just need to sort out how and when.

anyway, more pics.. been screwing around with the camera settings... :S

1987 just called..

lul.

quote:

---

Originally posted by 2hardtop



Sam Tyler?

---

David Bowie playing in the background.[88]

That is Horrifawesome.

update tiem. :)

the car is happily into the 36X,XXXkm's now. had the 360,000km service, about 8000 into the engine rebuild. finally running super sweet now. economy has improved back to where it was, and is very willing to rev around. still... phenomenally... gutless in a straight line compared to a majority of cars on the road, but once on a roll its a fun as i could imagine a car could be.

few things happened since the last pics.
some poor guy in a shiny new Hyundai i30 failed to stop when i was waiting at an intersection. gave the car a VERY solid shunt up the bum, but wasnt as bad as it could have been. lucky there was no-one in front of me. barely any damage to his car, as he hit right in-between the two bumper supports. poor lil adub took all the force, and banana'd the rear reo. :(
got the guy's details, but never bothered chasing him for any of it. no point fcuking two peoples day.




within a couple days, id allready bought a replacement bumper off ebay. i was super lucky to find one for sale in Melbourne so soon. bought it off a nice guy in the eastern suburbs who used to have an AW11SC.
although the bumper looked not so bad from the outside, the reason it was bowed was clear from underneath. the reo had pushed in alot further. in this pic i had taken all the 10mm bolts out to take some stress off the plastic skin (prevent the paint cracking somewhat)

shame. the reo was technically near-new:

can see where it had luckily JUST met the beaver panel. sososo happy.

shame.

and then - fugly, yet straight.

shows what its meant to be:

bumperless is cooler than it would seem!:

bit of a scrub up, then some chassis black:

cleaned and back together:

good as new! (well, 90% of what it was before)


respectable. :)


and sugarloaf. enjoying the refreshing 99.9% full; full it hasnt been since 2005 or so.



around the same time - while driving around yarra bend; i hit a cockatoo. it was like someone had dragged a greasy (yet suprisingly dusty) bag of fish and chips over the bonnet and up the screen.
wasnt the only animal i hit recently though...
whilst out in healsville the other saturday, a little skippy decided life was just too hard - i can only assume eating grass all day is more emotionally stressful than it seems. he/she/it decided a close look at the triple pinstripe on the front bumper on my adub was the best imaginable scenario.
hit the poor little bugger at 80km or so, and he was just too big to go under the car, so tumbled in front of the car for a bit before the mr2 went over. (i cant believe it fit under! [:0])
checked the headlight, and got him off the road. then drove home.

really wanted to fix the car up before work the next day, as having the car look neglected makes me depressed.
amazingly the bumper is unharmed - but the guard was not so impressed with it all. those dints were actually caused by its tail. quite a slap!

front lip and grille area. :(

it wouldn't go back together beacuse the lip and bonnet catch support bar had been pushed right back into the radiator.. and the lower radiator support pushed back a tad. becuase so many bolts hold the lip on, and it all still attached, it wouldn't release back to how its meant to look. same goes for the black grille insert. becuase of the screw it the centre, its bowed outwards at the edges.


the only option was to remove the two strips that hold the lip on under the black grille, and the two bolts in the centre. then just connect the lip floating in the centre. its still sturdy, but moves back an inch or so when you push it. similar story for the black lip.
all up, its decently strong as it is, but ill get another support strip for it soon.
good as 'new' i suppose...


by this stage it was 1am, but good for another day. you can tell i have no life whatsoever.

after a good scrub!

close up of the guard. you can actually see where the coarse hair has slapped it! [xx(]

took the rear mudflaps off for a proper clean. i reckon they look great without them. thins up the rear end visually, and makes the exhaust seem lower. makes it more obvious its some sort of MR/RR setup.





...AAAAANyway. ive actually ordered the parts i need for the recaro's, so i can take it to the trimmer of my choice. ended up getting two new replacement bolsters, and 1m of the black recaro fabric out of the UK. very dear for what it is, but honestly, what can you do??
really keen to have the interior in. :)