I love the other side of the Irish car culture, the lads that came before us, before the influx of Japanese cars on the Emerald Isle.
I always try to make sure I make my way to New Ross every July to check out Bolands Ford gathering. Long before the black hole of Japanese cars, I was obsessed with Sierra and Escort Cosworths; these cars will always have a special place in my heart.
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After endless days of metalwork on the shell, it sat as bare in ten different shades of shit for almost two years. It started as four days worth of metal work but slowly turned into a very in-depth restoration project.
I learned a lot about what could be hiding under the paint, in between panels and what it takes to get the shell to the right shape. It has been an enormous learning curve; I often wonder if I would have pulled it out of Dan’s garden, knowing what I know now. Maybe so, it’s hard to tell. Sometimes it feels like we are going nowhere but it takes looking back at these images to realise how far we have come.
The progress was moving very quickly for the first six months, but it started to slow down as I quickly realised I had bitten off more than I could chew. These photos were from September 2018 when we rubbed the shell down, getting it ready for paint. Every one of us have a life outside the shed; Barry has a full-time job, I could only get to the project on the weekends, this all aided in the project going on for much longer than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, we kept inching forward. Unfortunately, we found another batch of rust which ill cover in a future post and vlog episode, but we are getting there.
I guess its all part of the fun. I’ve wanted one of these cars for over fifteen years; I watched all of my friends go through the misery, go through the motions with their projects while I was on the sidelines documenting their stories.
Its like life was waiting to drop a mega project on me to make up for all the years I avoided the hardship! Either way, I cant wait for the day this is a proper 86 again.
I have endless respect for the people who have gone down this road with a restoration project and I’m forever grateful for everyone who has helped me get this far already.
Three years and counting. Always looking forward to that first start.
At this point, we thought the rust chasing was coming to an end, oh how we were wrong! Barry had worked his way up to the front end of the car, cutting out the last few bits around the shock tower, making his way to the front end.
Every year they hold two rally sprints in the business park. These always bring the variety of cars we would otherwise never encounter. It’s a scene we are not too connected with being honest. On any given day you are sure to see stuff like this MK2 Escort or EX WRC cars, we are fortunate to have some of the best roads for this sort of thing.
I love how much the 86 pocket joke has grown. These are questionable design flaw on the 86. The area is prone to moisture, and the only real purpose the pocket serves is to help keep the bumper on. It’s a notorious spot to rust on these cars and people usually gauge the car’s overall health here in Ireland by what pocket condition. A long-standing joke amongst Irish 86 heads, you often see people talk about them when figuring out if its a solid car or not. I love the fact we got it going with the vlogs.
Valve lapping is up there with taking out the sound deadening and removing the sealer from the wheel wells. Three of the most miserable parts of this car so far. For everything else, I’m lucky to have people like Barry and Bryan helping otherwise id be screwed.
Lapping felt like forever, so why not bring the head to some scenic spots, take in the sights and enjoy the more beautiful things in life, like beaches and misery. I still get a chuckle from these pics. Good times…
When we pulled the car apart, we realised that the left chassis leg was kinked up just before the front panel. The car was in an unfortunate accident in Japan before it was painted purple, a new quarter had fitted to the left side, and a lousy repair on the filled in on the right side. That’s most likely why the car is painted purple. The new left quarter panel was done swiftly and caused a lot of rust which was a result of welds not getting the right treatment. I guess the Trueno was fixed back when these cars weren’t as valuable; people weren’t thinking about the future; they were highly disposable.
Throughout this whole build, Barry has been a critical ingredient in keeping me calm and pushing forward. He also likes to fuck with me as much as possible, especially when I’m completely vulnerable like a helpless child watching him cut the car into pieces.
With all this COVID 19 stuff, I’ve been going through all these photos recently, finally having time to sort them out and upload them on the site. One thing I’ve noticed is just how little time I have these days to do articles on the website.
Now that I have a bit of time to go back over these photos, it’s funny how optimistic I felt as we collected the shell from Sandblasting.
Bryan Loves cleaning…
Eamon not so much… His R32 looks amazing here. The BN kit on the four-door is 10/10 
Reuben wearing some of Barrys War collection.
Evans little EP71 under the shed light.
Although I love Watanabes, I never felt like they suited this car as much as the other wheels. Maybe a combination of tyre profile and the wrong colour for the wheels themselves, id was a little too plain for the look.
Here is a prime example of procrastination at the shed. Duggie had work to do on his cars, I had an endless list with the Trueno, and yet we focused our efforts on turning the Accent it into a Trials course.
You’ve more than likely seen the recent vlog episode about Sean and Barry, two brothers with an undeniable love for old Japanese cars, preferably old Toyotas. I’ve known the lads a very long time, and I’ve always admired Sean persistence with his builds.
