If you scroll back a bit you will see the original post where we went to check the 86 out for the first time. Looking at these photos it’s actually hard to believe this is the state the car was in for at least two or three years. I really wanted to shoot as many photos as I could the day we rescued it but to be honest, I was a little wiped out pulling this thing out of the bush. So many things were going through my head as I trying to focus on making some sort of a decent video to kick start these vlogs. It’s funny looking back over a year and a half later at these snaps and take it all in once again. I really had no idea how this was going to pan out.
Another slightly productive weekend at the shed. Barry calls around to do some more welding on the AE86 and show us his Wispa lunch combo. Reuben fixes his gearbox, sets fire to stuff and Dan calls down with some race drones.
It’s nice to finally get the photo features going on the website again. I’ve been pretty strapped for time over the last year with the Vlogs and trying to get work done on the AE86. When the website went under and the old hosting service basically held the site hostage, I didn’t have the time or patience to sit down and sort it all out and basically neglected it. A few weeks ago I had some free time over Christmas and decided to make it happen. Juicebox has over nine years worth of Blog content so it took a considerable amount of time to move everything over to a new server but its all working pretty decent now. I’ll kick things off with our trip to Sweden almost ten months ago. As many have you have seen the vlog we did, I’m going keep things pretty short under the photos and give a rough explanation as to what’s going on and maybe some insightful info that might not have been shared in the videos. This “Photos Unboxed” series will be a behind the scenes photo features accompanying the vlog series. In an age where reading and looking at websites is slowly dying, I hope you enjoy the slower pace of these.
In this episode the AE86 gets the front chassis leg straightened out. The Trueno was in a bit of a smash somewhere on its timeline in Japan and the left chassis leg is a little wonky. The progress is always accompanied by a bit of nonsense.
The Trueno gets the new roof fixed in place and Barry works his magic on the tedious bits of surrounding metal.
This is a little Christmas day treat. Happy Holidays to everyone who has been along for the ride so far. Hope its a good one.
Back to actual AE86 progress, the snow has melted and Barry returns to replace the rusty roof on the Trueno. We also tear down the 20 valve bottom end and rebuild the rear brakes. This one is pretty interesting.
The Trueno gets some work done until we are horribly distracted by a freak snowstorm called the “beast from the east”. Knowing how rare this weather is we quickly take advantage of some cheap cars and plenty of beer.
We get distracted from the AE86 build and somehow end up drifting on a snowy frozen lake in Sweden. We also get to experience the WRC with a bunch of crazy Scandinavians.
We pull apart the AE86’s new blacktop 20 valve 4A-GE heart and see if this engine swap was actually worth the effort…
We get some more work done on the AE86 but not without a bunch of distractions. Barry calls down to do some more metal work and we get carried away with fire.
In this episode, we paint some of my AE86 parts, we also learn about the Irish and UK spec AE86 Twin cam GT coupe. What a mouthful!
In this episode, we take a break from the Trueno and check out a V8 powered AE86. Flip also picks up one of his dream cars, an FC3s RX7 and we have a little fun with a Hyundai.
The AE86 loses more metal, gains some new metal and we have a BBQ. There’s also some cool stories about some of the donor metal.
We get the AE86 shell back from blasting and it turns out the rust is a little worse than we expected. Not to fear, a new character enters the series…
We take a visit to an AE86 parts graveyard to pick up some parts for the Trueno, we also check out a very unique collection of old-school Toyotas locked up in some sheds.