We head back to our friend Dan’s back garden, where we initially found the AE86. We check out his collection of forgotten Japanese cars to hear his plans, reminisce about old stories and collect a sensor for my 4A-GE engine.
Getting closer to that first start on the AE86, we fit the clutch lines, add gearbox and clutch fluid and mess around with hidden throttle linkage from SQ engineering.
So after a massive chunk of progress, we were onto the brakes. I thought this would be smooth sailing after fitting the engine box and other chunky bits. It turns out this would be one of the most temperamental parts of the build. The bias valve to the rear was faulty and wasn’t allowing fluid to the back brakes. It took us a good few hours to figure this out. You might have seen it in the video.
We install brake lines on the AE86 and eventually get the callipers to work. As usual, it’s not without a slice of typical Trueno torture!
At the time, I didn’t realise just how important this day would be. In well over three years, the ae86 hadn’t seen the light of day on its wheels. After we fitted the engine and box, we decided to push the car over to Flips to fit the manifold, sort a Flexi pipe and do the exhaust.
This was another one of those incredibly productive weekends. During covid, things were patchy, and progress ground halted for much of Christmas 2019/2020. With lockdowns and everything in between, the car progress had stopped, and it wasn’t until May/June 2020 that things started to move again.
This build has always been feast or famine, massive chunks of progress in the shed or small dribbles of effort. Over this weekend, our friend Darrel had re-adjusted the clocks to zero, as we felt the car deserved it. It had never come with the original Clocks. If you are a long time viewer of the build, you will know that the clocks were out of an AE92 supercharged FWD Levin, along with the entire loom.
The AE86 rolls out of the shed for the first time in daylight with an engine, and we push it over to flips to sort an exhaust manifold setup.
Considerable progress on the AE86. We fit the 4A-GE and gearbox Trueno and a few other small bits. Another step towards starting this thing!
We reset the clocks on a cluster for the AE86, and add some parts to the 4A-GE
I can still taste the rich fumes on the back of my throat from this weekend. I’m sure this was a moment Flip would never forget. During the lockdown period of 2020, Flip and Reuben were quietly working away on resolving all the gremlins in the FC and sorting it out for its first start. They gave me a call when they knew they were close to the first proper start.
Reuben was jobless and looking for something to occupy his time during what seemed like a never-ending lockdown, and what better way to pass the time than jumping headfirst into the unknown land of rotary power. When I called out, the lads were talking about things I had never heard of, and it was great to see just how far down the rabbit hole both of them had fallen on a mission to get the 13b Fired up.
Flips RX7 fires up for the first time, and it sounds glorious, and we fit wheels to my AE86.
Here are a few shots of Evan’s lovely GX71 work in progress. We pulled it out of the shed about a month ago to shoot the B roll for the episode as I had realised we filmed nothing extra from the original video.
Evan is excellent on camera once he warms up to it, and it was nice to immortalise his build in the videos. Much like all our builds, progress has been slow due to other life circumstances. He has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve with this build over the next year, and I’m looking forward to this taking shape.
For now, enjoy these pictures of Evans time capsule. This GX71 was the same base he was searching for, and he somehow came across it on the auctions, a low mileage, un-modified example, a perfect slice of eighties bubble economy goodness.
This is an insane adventure across Southeast Asia, finishing in Japan. Enjoy Reubens six-month bike trip, narrowly avoiding death on his sketchy motorbike. Something different to start the new year.