1986 Toyota Corolla Levin 2dr GT-Apex

[ondafly]

in the interest of not repeating myself - original starter for this car is here

https://www.aeu86.org/forum/Thread-Hello...and--16833

Now fast forward to collection day, and my 3 days of ownership.

Christmas eve - I couldn't resist throwing a few bits into the car and also having a good rumage around it.

I found a fuel receipt for December 2020, which had an address for a Eneos petrol station in Shiga. Of course I had to spot it on google street view, and the car was registered to Shiga prefecture on its number plates.




As it was Christmas eve I started simple - took out the extremely heavy Levin floor matts, aftermarket obviously but were rubber/carpet and ugly. I decided to make it even more crazy, and went with the classic checkboard red/black. Threw in a cup holder on the vent of course, daughter loves the Shibu inu dog (so had to fit it), also handy spot for the air freshner.

In the pic you can also see the car has a quick release for the nardi, but also down by the side of the radio is a Apexi exhaust valve control, which for the life of me I cannot seem to get quieter. This car is LOUD. I also need a spare wheel, and the carboard/mdf shelving for the side pockets in the boot.





That evening, once the usual Chrimbo even visitors had left, I couldn't resist going out into the cold and taking off the base model grill, and putting on the correct foglight grill and fogs (its a GT apex car after all). The bonnet and tailgate, which I thought were fibre glass from the photos, are certainly not in person and from the photo below, can kinda see what its made from this was an extremely great surprise. A friend 20 years ago had an ae86 with full jblood parts. Fast forward and I too now own jblood parts, which from looking online, are not CHEAP at all.

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Christmas day - went to visit my parents. Both aren't well thanks to the flu , so this was a brief show and tell of the car. My dad is a petrol head, and was gutted he couldn't come to the port for the pickup. He's had many many cars over the years; MGB, MGBGT, Spitfires, VW bugs, X19s, BMWs etc.

Anyway it passed the sniff test with the 'rents



I also snagged a picture of the fogs/lights working. The inners are factory yellow lenses but the outers must be some after market job. I also need to muster up the courage to stick the "levin" decal on the grill, just paranoid of getting it crooked/not centered !

https://i.imgur.com/M3cpKpX.jpeg

I also reckon the carpet was replaced in this at some stage, as it and the headliner look really clean.



Today I decided to start changing bolts for fresh ones. I'm a sucker for that. But also fit a fan shroud cover I had purchased (silver). Also pictured is the titanium fujitsubo bonnet stay. I'm a sucker for this stuff.



In the original pictures I had of the car prior to purchase I was concerned about the shock tower drivers side, that it was rusted. But in fact in person, its as if some plastic has melted into the tower, or someone has painted anti corrosion/grease of some sort. I was relieved to see it like this in person though.



The aircon is blowing super cold btw and lovely hot too. All pipes (related parts) look to be new. The header (can sort of see in the engine bay pic) its far from standard and has that familiar titanium rainbow shade to it, which probably explains the noise of the exhaust.

Its not all sushine and lolipops though, paintwork isn't great. Lots of idiot touch ups done with tipex level of skill on the doors. The bumpers look to have ancient original paint, almost feels like chalk and the base of the bumpers and side skirts is super faded. I really want to run it all over the with polisher, but its too damn cold for it

The trim around the windows on the drivers side, is exposing the chrome underneath which irks me no end. The both door plastic(s) on the outside, also faded brutally and someone looks to have wrapped it in black, but then ripped the wrap off, which just left a complete gooey mess.

The trim around the windscreen also is scruffy as hell, however I've just now ordered the complete replacement for that. Can't come quick enough for my OCD !

Other news - the nardi wheel is too small, I cannot see the top of the speedo in the current setup. @Banpei - same issue you had. So I'm hoping either fitting the Bride seats will have me lower or I will pickup a new 350mm wheel, possibly non-dished.

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So I have a couple of questions on disconnected connectors I have found. Any ideas what they are ? in the last picture I'm interested in the black ones, as the white one is for the grill fogs.







Finally is this for cassette tapes or am I missing something ?



thanks all

[banpei]

I think that storage pocket looks indeed like it was meant for cassette tapes! To be honest, I have never this piece of the dash with such a big hole in it. Maybe this was a dealer option?

The connectors are not familiar to me. Maybe those are additional grounds for the fog lights? Another possibility is that they belong to one of the two horns, as it's also located just a little bit below that. But then I would expect it to be a double connector.