Polishing a Turd
To polish a turd or “The act of trying to make something hopelessly weak and unattractive appear strong and appealing. An impossible process that usually results in a larger, uglier turd’. From the outside looking in, sometimes our way of spending money and spending time may look like a lost cause to the outside world.
What better car to show case the act of flogging a dead horse than this fine machine here. The word turd has been thrown around since its first days as a pipe dream. The Daihatsu charmant, as cool as it looks in todays world of sharp curves and plastic, has a sort of coolness to it. Lets be honest here, when this car first rolled out of the showroom back in the day, the charmant which is french for “charming” wasnt exactly a show stopper, or a poster for the wall.
This particular one may have spent its entire life going back and fourth to the shops, and every Sunday made its way to church and then the pub. It served its purpose, as a completely casual A to B machine. A machine that time and “mod cons” eventually caught up with. Somewhere along the line this Charmant made its way into a field, soon after Mother Nature started to take its course.
I enjoy this car on so many levels, I love how out of control this build got, I love the attention to detail, which will be over looked by many, until a second glance. If any of you out there know the owner, you will know the attention to detail that is put in with any task. The original idea with the Charmant was to build a drift beater, and slowly but surley that idea started to fade away.
Under the bonnet is a is almost a complete shock. The exterior would easily throw you off, the car very much is an extension of the owner. Nothing flashy or loud or extravagant about this car or the owner, quite unassuming, that is until you get him to open up. Once that bonnet is lifted, very quickly you realise that nothing is stock, and nothing is half arsed, there is more than enough effort even in areas that no one will ever see.
On show with this build is Bryans skill set, but in a sort of humorous way. There was many what ifs on this build. The “what ifs?” usually followed by much laughter manifested themselves into this spectacle you see here. “How clean could the engine bay look” “How much could be removed and hidden”. What if the engine bay was over the top and the exterior was dull and dreary. .
Bryan has had to deal with the Toyota Virus for many years now, after catching it a long time ago after importing a Trueno from Japan. It consumes him very quickly and has had no real control over the sickness. It has become one of those for life illnesses. The Charmant has been a direct result of this. It was the first time he could really do his own thing with a car, starting with a blank rotted canvas that many people would have sent to the crusher.
How Bryan’s mind works, the absolute drive to see how far you can push a something, even even if its in the most subtle of ways. Putting together such a delicious engine bay display, but retaining the stock colour on the cam covers and putting together a custom “turbo” word for the GTE conversion. Keeping things somewhat factory in the middle of a screaming meltdown the same with the pulley cover. Again this is a small insight into a very hilarious and very driven creative mind of the owner.
The inside of this car was supposed to be gutted functional track slag. But then came “I sort of found a set of rear seats”, which in turn was followed by ” Im going to get them re – trimmed in the same material as these mint SR2 Recaros and while I’m at it why not re do the head liner”
Before long it the car had is fantastically put together interior trim with seats that complimented the exterior and matching rears. A car that basically came with nothing but rust for back seats was suddenly taking shape into something much more than a ratty drift slag.
The shed where this creation was assembled is a diverse place at the best of times. Everyone there has some form of talent or interest outside of the car world, which can lend itself in the most unexpected of ways. This always creates an open playing field for weird ideas that end usually turn out better than expected. One of Byran’s good friends Dave put together this very neat instrument panel cut from Sapele, a tree native to africa. I can’t express how good this looks when you peep inside as it secures a collection of Greddy gauges in place.
The cars exterior was heavily inspired by the original stock car era with added Mad Max. The Diamond racing steelies were purchased long before it became a thing people did with Civics. I absolutely love the ignorant black wheels wrapped in Yokohama Neova rubber against the flat grey. Lurking behind those steels is a full brake conversion from an AE86 with project Mu pads and drilled discs. Deeper lurking reveals Custom coilovers and an array of Cusco and TRD handling goodies.
From day one this whole activity to an outsider was classed as polishing a turd. Is this a complete waste of time? Waste of energy? Waste of money? This car was never supposed to be the hero, it was some offshoot of the E70 corolla and yet here we are praising and admiring a grey box from the eighties. In a sea of try hard modern plastic machines, on paper this grey econobox from the past shouldn’t really work.
The fact its painted Grey, a colour associated with misery and dullness, yet wrapped around the awkward lines of the Charmant it’s the perfect choice. There is something so human about the gaps not lining up properly in the doors and wings, the ripples in the bodywork.
A car that should have been crushed a long time ago is given a second chance, through some unusual luck of design and convenience from Toyota. Being able to add parts other more popular chassis the Charmant is reborn as an almost organic living creature. Stuff is missing, stuff has been replaced, there are holes that should be filled, bumpers that should be fitted and yet the fact all this is missing just leaves us staring curious and smiling.
Why is it a car arranged in such a manner can look so good. Why is it that a cage can look so right in a four-door car, completely rendering the rear seats useless. When the machine starts to take on organic human traits, we seem to gravitate towards its imperfections, the weird underdog of the common man.
This Charming Daihatsu is a perfect extension of a friend’s stubborn mind, where many would have figured putting together such a vehicle would be considered a complete waste of time, Bryan took pleasure in going over board. Going over board is something he truly gets a kick out of. His sense of humour, personality and taste translates very clearly into this car. Why paint the car grey? Because it’s kind of funny. Why spend three days flattening and polishing the “turd”? Because why not… because if you polish hard enough, sometimes you end up with something magical like this.
No half measures even when its all just a bit of a laugh, because in reality, if we aren’t having fun with this car stuff, what’s the point?
Wheels/Tires/Suspension/Handling/Transmission
MCN short stroke front inserts with coilover converted struts using Rix coilover sleeves and Faulkner race springs
Cusco front Roll Centre Adjusters
Camber plates
Uras inner tie rods
P/S steering knuckles
Black Diamond drilled and grooved discs
Project Mu B-Spec front pads and D1 Spec rear pads
Goodridge braided caliper hoses
TRD green short stroke rear dampers
TRD race height 6kg/mm rear springs
Cusco Formula Jr rear 4 link and Formula panhard rod
Cusco weld on rear Roll Centre Adjuster
T3 traction brackets
Various poly-bushings
Front wheels: 15″x8″ 0 offset with AD08 Advan Neova tyres
Rear wheels 15″x8″ -12 offset with Kingstar’s finest
4.1:1 6.7″ rear end with Cusco RS 2 way LSD with late spec shafts
Rebuilt T50 gearbox
Exterior
Grey Paint
Rolled Arches
Sprayed By Damien
Many hours of sanding effort From Jackie
Some added sanding from Bryan
Minus Bumpers
Chin Spoiler
Custom sills
Custom metal work
Seam welded shell
Engine
Small port 4A-GZE long block
TRD 0.8mm H/G
ARP head studs
Toda 264 In and 256 Ex cams
T3 Small port to big port inlet manifold adaptor
Kelway exhaust manifold
T25G turbo with HKS actuator
3″ down pipe
Trust MX cat back exhaust
TRD engine mounts
Trd 212mm Sport Clutch with blacktop flywheel
Koyo rad
Evo4 intercooler
AE101 4A-GZE ecu and wiring loom
oh and Apexi 75mm air filter
Various AN fittings for oil and fuel
Custom made Twin Cam Turbocharger cam cover modified from a 4A-GZE cover
Samco AE86 silicone 5 hose set
Toda cam pulleys
RS Chita sump baffle
HKS oil pressure increase kit with head oil feed restriction
Odyssey PC680 battery in the boot
Interior
Ill fitting AE86 carpet
Recaro SR2 seats with rear seat retrimmed to match colour
Headlining re-trimmed in black suede
Custom instrument cluster set in some wood that Dave will have to identify for you
Greddy 60mm gauges and Auto Gauge 80 tacho
Ultra Speed Monitor for vehicle speed
Nardi Classic 360mm wheel fitted to HKB hub
TRD Shifter
Saito Achieve roll cage