Koen's 86 - every drive a new issue

[Koen]

I've spend some time on the green car in preparation for 86DACH. Decided that I wanted to install the "JDM" fogs to change the appearance because it's boring to go to the show with exactly the same car as last year


Here they are fitted together with the kouki headlights. I also have the kouki fog light grille, but I don't like that paired with the zenki bumper. I will fit a zenki grille again in the future. The car isn't perfectly straight either, so might have to do something about the alignment of the lights too.

I've got the driveshaft back last Wednesday. They swapped the front section of both shafts (cut/welded). Dimensions were different so it wasn't possible to just swap the U-joints unfortunately.

Put it all back in the car on Thursday evening so it would be ready for a test drive. As usual something did go wrong (Murphy's law). The engine didn't turn over anymore (like, completely locked)

Turns out I didn't notice that the bellhouse of the dogbox was modified (because it was dirty) and I just slapped the standard T50 on assuming it would fit. It didn't ... the car is running a 20v flywheel + clutch apparently (224mm) and that requires clearancing in the bellhouse. So everything came out again and I separated the bellhouse from the box to start grinding.


Grind all around, put on some paint (to see marks), put the bellhouse in the car (and tighten it), see where it still hits and repeat proces until the engine can rotate again ... took me about 7 tries. Great. Then reassembled everything and the car drove again Friday evening.

So took it to 86Dach the next morning.

Nice show, better traffic regulation than last year so we could all park in the same row. Good turnout of 86's. I think about 15 AE86's. The newer models were of course in the majority

[banpei]

The JDM kouki fogs look brilliant on a grill-less zenki.
Mekaru produced a zenki grill with cutouts for the kouki fog lights. Every now and then they pop up for sale on the auction. Also, some time ago, I found someone on the auctions selling new copies of that grill.

It looks like your green car had a lot of special modifications done to it! On one side, good to know they made a lot of modifications to it to have a bigger flywheel, on the other hand, stuff like the propshaft are a pain.

It's a very nice lineup at 86Dach, and 15 AE86 is way more than last year! It's a shame I couldn't make it this year.

[banpei]

Found it:


And this is what it looks like when mounted:


They are 3D printed copies of the original. You can find the auction here:
https://buyee.jp/item/jdirectitems/auction/t1232787565

[Ivan141]

You could probably get a similar result if you take a Dremel to an original grille. Which is what I intend to do to my old grille if I can get a hold of a timemachine/flos replacement.
There would be an advantage to a 3D printed one if it fits the kouki brackets though.

[banpei]

(06-10-2026 07:54 AM)Ivan141 Wrote:  You could probably get a similar result if you take a Dremel to an original grille. Which is what I intend to do to my old grille if I can get a hold of a timemachine/flos replacement.
There would be an advantage to a 3D printed one if it fits the kouki brackets though.

The issue with using a Dremel on a 43-year-old grill, the plastic is brittle and might crack, or parts may snap off. 10 years ago, I had major difficulty restoring a 30-year-old Carina grill that had cracked in various places. I solved that by adding a fibreglass support structure, but a newly printed grill would have been much easier.

According to the ad, it fits the kouki brackets as well, so long as you cut a portion at the bottom:

Quote:Compatible with both early and late model center braces. For later model vehicles, the interfering portion will need to be cut.
Please secure it using the included clips and screws, or cable ties, etc.

How it's attached:


From what I can see, it's attached to the centre both top and bottom and to the side only to the top of the fog lights.

[Koen]

I guess I modify an original one. I probably have one somewhere with broken tabs. The center support is missing in my car so this Mekaru one won't fit either (or it barely attaches). But thanks for the tip anyway

[Koen]

Did some more work to the grey car. It's turning into a rabbit hole. Stuff keeps getting added to the list because of "while you're there, lets fix this too".

The paintjob of the engine bay was horrible. It was rattle canned black which wiped off with a piece of scotch brite without any effort. This is how it looked after removing the engine.



So I decided to give it a "quick" sanding which showed even more bad paintjobs some parts were painted silver and it came off in big pieces with an airgun. After attacking it with a wirewheel, some more sanding and cleaning (and lots of hours) I resprayed it completely. Also welded in the feedthrough for the lines which was previously made from aluminium.


It's no showcar paintjob, but it looks a lot better. It's also RAL9006 (white aluminium) like the interior. But this time with a spray gun (and clearcoat) instead of rattlecans. The 2k cans I used for the interior didn't give a good result (poor coverage, not enough coats maybe).

Hopefully this works better (and lasts longer). It's also a lot cheaper. The paintgun was about €30,- and all the paint (industrial) about €80,- for base, color and clear and hardener (4L total) which is the same price as 5 of those 2k cans

And because the engine bay looks nice now, the wheelwells were ugly so they needed a coat also.

Didn't spend too much time preparing them (some people take them back to bare metal for weightsaving) and just cleaned and sprayed them with anti-gravel spray. White this time (because racecar). Used some regular paint spraycans from the Action to improve coverage after the first layer of stone-chip spray. Looks ok now

Also did the bottom of the car and now the rears need to be done. When cleaning the car turned out to be a real AE86 because I found rust so now it's missing a piece of chassisrail.


Next job is welding some plates in. After that the re-assembly should be able to begin now I understand (again) why anyone would buy a Chinese shell. If I value the hours of these jobs it probably already adds up to the price of a new shell

[decryphe]

Beautiful work!