After the dissapointing moment involving the head, I started the search for a new engine and continued with my engine removal

Found one that had been rebuilt a couple years back, picked it up with gearbox, loom and ecu for a couple hundred bucks. It's out of a AE82 corolla


 
Unfortunately it is only a 3 rib (compared to the 7 rib that is currently in the car) but it has an oil cooler and 'apparently' reground cams to 252* Not holding my breath on that though. by the looks of some of the seals it has had a seal kit done recently. 

The inside of the head is super clean too and the oil was pretty clean. I think (and hope) its okay. As much as I would love to pull down and inspect I dont have the $$ to do it right now ( I do try to do things properly Dennis!)

back to pulling the engine out, lowered it down onto the ground


 
Slid the engine out a bit and then moved the car over


 
And on the old engine I found what I believe caused the over heating. 


 
This hose was kinked so much so that no water could flow through it. I believe this is what caused it to overheat originally and do the head gasket



And here she sits, taking over the whole garage. Hopefully she can be put back together in the next week or so otherwise I will be murdered by the parents ;)

Did alot of cleaning like Dennis suggested. man was that gearbox dirty! it was completely black, but a blast with the gerni cleaned things up. Put everything back on the engine and began the reinstallation

Dont have a photo but the old clutch was well gone. both the pressure plate and flywheel had massive hot spots, and the throw out bearing was seized solid. Good thing the new engine I bought had a freshly machined flywheel, new throwout bearing and pressure plate


 
The front got realllyyyy low
 
Back where it belongs!


 
In the process of trying to get it started again, I need to check all the earths as I believe there may be an issue with that

I didnt believe the guy at first that the engine had been rebuilt and had bigger cams, but upon further inspection with nate_p, It definetly has reground cams and the engine seems in pretty good shape

I need to get this running soon and registered as I want to do a fair few things on the SW20 that require a bit more "in the garage" time than it currently receives, and therefore need another car to daily drive

Now this is going to be a very long post/s, so I commend you if you stick with it ;)

Alot of time has passed and many things have changed! unfortunately I couldnt afford two cars so I had to sell the AW11 off, (thankfully the guy lives pretty close so I still get to see it) And now it was time to give the SW20 some attention. It's been with me for 2 years, and hasnt received a whole lot of attention, as I spent most of my time and money on my project cars. 

Unfortunately the car had terible rust in the roof, to the point where the paint was bubbling, If I left it for too much longer the car would be nothing. My paint was already horid and the car was easily one of the worst in the country.

I often look at other peoples threads, such as robk, purple5ive and especially RdS's and go "wow I wish my car looked like that" The main difference between them and what I could acheive was the ammount of effort they put in. everything was done properly, even if it was never seen again or cost more. I wanted to build one of the cleanest and respectable looking SW20's in the country. I decided it was time to adopt that "everything once and properly" attiude, found my painter and started to tear her down...


 
I Started picking away at the rust.... (this is on the rear pillar)


 
and it kept getting worse...


 
Looking inside the pillar was even worse! the roof had been reskinned previously by the looks of it



Within three days the car had been stripped to near bare
This photo was taken on the 13th of Jan. a long time ago. 




Got to use this lovely beast as my daily during the respray. thanks to the girlfriend for that one ;)



2 days after dropping the car off to the painter, he called me with some particularly bad news. the rust was much worse than we first thought. the steel used on the front pillars was paper thin and shatter when he hit it with the grinder, the rears needed to be heavily repaired and the rust under the windscreen was so bad the glass removalist just pushed the windscreen out. Only mildly dangerous...

That called for a bare metal roof job.



All the window channels and pillars were ground back to bare metal, re welded where necisarry acid bathed, a special rust treatment paste applied.


 


The next time I came back, car was getting a base coat done


 


I by that point was continually receiving presents in the mail

New dashboard, 98 spec steering wheel, boxes of dynamat, alarms, the list continued



During this time I was also restoring the bare pieces off the car, like what RdS does ;)

And then I got to see the completed bonnet. Wow. I couldnt believe how FLAT he go it. 

This is with Primer, 2 coats base and 3 coats clear. Photos DO NOT do it justice



I got the car back a few weeks later and started installing dynamat in the whole interior

Yes yes I know its adding weight (dont crucify me for this!) but the end result was amazing! remember this is my daily(sorta)



 
Upgraded the stereo and amps too. did a clever trick and ran the amp wires from the boot up through the pillars and into the cabin that way ;)



Before the final reassembly I painted all under the guards, so she looks new, cleaned every bit, put the new dash in, machined front rotors and a couple bits and pieces aswell as raising the car later

And the end result was just amazing. 





I hadnt even polished it. just used some instant details and wow. The photos do not do it justice. The car is actually a mirror. 

Of course nothing goes to plan though. I was taking the car for a lovely drive and at 1xxkmh the wheels moved ever so slightly (less than 1mm) and the inner lip of the wheel started rubbing on the coilover spring perch (thanks the the height increase) causing a horific noise. Thankfully at 60kmh the noise didnt occur so I nursed it home. the damage wasnt too bad, just some scrapes on the inner lip. but needles to say these cheap 17"s had to go!

Enter GTR wheels :P

DVS_MR2 and I made a trip to Japanese parts and performance, we bought a set of GTR wheels and he managed to pick up a GENUINE border kit!!!

It barely fit in the car





Also picked up 2 gtst wheels on the way back. so you could say it was cramped.....



As of now I have to race off to uni, But I will update with more photos soon

Im sure thats enough reading for most of you anyway ;)

-Eric
 
 

The car looks great, and congratulations on all your efforts.

Wow, what a great result, you must be really happy with it.
I am now looking at your thread, and thinking "wow I wish my car looked like that" lol

Still got another 20 months of P'S
But after that, a snail and 2 extra cylinders ;)

Will go into more detail soon.....

My painter restores muscle cars for a living (this was his second ever jap car hes painted) and hes an expert at rust treatment. We didnt need to replace the skin, just treated the problem areas (arround the windscreen and pillars)