We uncover where my AE86 lived in Japan with the help of David from Japan car history check. We even discover an old for sale advert in Ireland and more photos which help piece together its past. Enjoy this 100th episode history special.
Remember our EK4 Civic? We give it a quick makeover and take it to an epic Honda only day at Mondello Circuit.
D-Mac reminisces about building his AE86 to compete in D1 during the golden years of drifting, we get a tour of the shop and encounter the strongest Irish accent.
I don’t need to get into too much detail about the back story to shooting these cars; it’s the very same as the Cut Loose guys. The Reckless tribe crew were chatting to us on social media and decided to meet up with the Cut Loose boys and road trip their way to the Juicebox BBQ.
Gaz reached out to me after he took a photo of a Juicebox sticker he stuck on his S15. I’m flattered that many people reach out to us to show where they have placed their purchases and Gaz’s car was just one of those situations where you had to take a second look. His car was absolutely stunning. I was flattered that he wanted to throw our stickers on his build, and I was shocked that I hadn’t seen this car before.
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.
We head to Josh’s parent’s house to collect parts to fix the E36 only to encounter the rustiest RX7 ever.
I have a lot of memories with this car, I passed out and slept in it at Gatebil one year in Sweden, I got the chance to take a passenger spin with Luke Fink on the side of the Alps back in 2013 as he drifted the narrow ski resort hills…
Our friend Rob has a pretty cool collection of Mitsubishi Evo’s hidden right around the corner from our shed. Its about time we give you a tour of his unit packed full of Cool Mitsubishis.
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.
Barry is back to cut the rust out of the AE86. Jackie calls down to apply fresh seam-seal the vulnerable parts of the Trueno! More progress and fewer distractions with this one.
Barry is back to cut the rust out of the AE86. Jackie calls down to apply fresh seam-seal the vulnerable parts of the Trueno! More progress and fewer distractions with this one.
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.
We get back on track with AE86 progress, we build a spit for the Trueno, rebuild the starter motor and get the shell ready for undersealing.