ae86 drifter

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oldskoolcool
Posts: 83
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 19:00
Location: Nanaimo, B.C.

ae86 drifter

Post by oldskoolcool »

Somehow last winter i wound up owning a 2000 honda civic hatchback, it did good in the snow, but front wheel drive just does nothing for me. after winter i posted it for sale and began searching for another proper wheel drive car. I found this 86 on usedvic, talked to the owner a few times and set up a time to go see it. I never was to fond of the coupe 86's but figured it was worth a test drive. one quick ride around the block and a check over of the fluids and cash exchanged hands, and off to superstore for some plates we went..

Heres its first day at my house
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and after a good cleaning
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The exhaust was too loud, the rear end needed to be dropped but all in all it was a decent investment. I cut the rear springs/ bumpstops and installed some camaro rear shocks to lower it up and stiffen it some. changed up the tires because they had bigger tires in the front like it was civic drag car. Then i had a run in with our favourite donut loving career criminals and they gave me a vehicle inspection after 13 days of owning it. this lead to me taking off the fartcannon and replacing it with stock 86 piping and a free flowing muffler. it was good enough to get it street legal again.

6 days after passing the v.i. i went to a capital drift event and someone spun in front of me so to avoid them i locked up and spun my car around and gently backed into the wall, no major damage. Broke a bit of my drivers brake light and dented the corner, very minimal damage. used some band-aid brand palm bandages and it was good as new.. But i had no ebrake at this event. so that was on my list to do

that photo was the first event i took the car to. it help up well, but was obviously still to soft. and stock seats wernt up to the holding me in
when i got home that night i hopped onto ebay and ordered myself the complete energy suspension kit for the 86 and some rails for my sparco seat i had collecting dust. just by changing the front and rear sway bar bushings i noticed the car stiffened up a bit. i changed the front suspension to some bottomed out 86 struts on ebay sleeves that i typically run in my 82 wagon. this helped with the body roll as well.

This is before i changed the front struts to the ebay sleeved ones
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this is after, its a hard angle to tell the roll on but its alot less
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I hit a few more events without really changing much, i ordered a hydro brake and installed it, it worked good for half the event then it started to have problems building pressure, i would avoid the ebay brand products. lesson learnt.
then one week before an event my diff started snapping on right turns, it almost felt to me like it was racheting, so i decided to change the oil, and lots and lots and lots of metal came out. so the diff needed to come out. whoever welded it didnt do a good job, the plate that some people insist is good to use was in the bottom of the axle housing. chunks of spider gears were everywhere it was bad, luckily lukes 86 has a spooled diff and he was willing to lend it to me for the day..

Then i hit the wall
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Somehow i managed to just drag the bumper down the back stretch of western, just enough to remove the black paint and show more of the cars original colours
the best part about this car, is i really have no love for coupes, i prefer hatchbacks. so for me if i kill the body thats fine, i just hope to save the 4ag for future fun, so i decided after watching all the more experienced drivers getting into the walltaps and dirtbank tapping i decided it was my turn. it took a few good attempts to get the feel of it and how close the car was getting, and then i found my way into it
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWM203UH ... RQ&index=1 you need to fast forward a bit but thats the video of it.
oldskoolcool
Posts: 83
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 19:00
Location: Nanaimo, B.C.

Re: ae86 drifter

Post by oldskoolcool »

so the season came to an end, and i promised myself i would stop wasting money on my 86 and the wagon and just focus my funds into my wedding. like all plans, it changed.
it seems whenever i help someone, i wind up getting f'ed in the end. i went to teach my fiance's sister to drive standard and on my way home with her we hit a road block and i got another vi on my car. the cop was chill about it, but not having a rear bumper reinforcement is hard to get away with. Normally this would have made me mad, but i felt it was a sign that i needed to make it a racecar i was not happy about having to drive the wagon thru the winter, but **** happens.

i decided that it was time to step up and buy a trailer and truck, then my boss offered to let me use his truck and trailer/ my dad as well, so im set saving money already!

The black paint was done terribly, flaking off in lots of spots. so i decided i wanted a hand sander, now was a good enough reason to buy one.
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i was very excited when i found the gts decals beneath the black
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since it is going to be track use only i am thinking about running one headlight and the other one having the filter coming out of it. lots of cars do this but i feel its a truely effective form of cold air intake, and in my head it will help get air into the car better when sideways

I have the majority of it allready sanded, but im doing some work on the rear arches, they were in rough shape. what i decided might not have been the best solution but it worked for me.
i recently had picked up a small lincoln welder so i decide to do a bit of practice before i got to far into something and wasnt able to back peddle
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i removed the rear lights and welded plated in to flush them out. i know lots of hot rod and custom guys do this for the flush look, i only did it to get some practice welding the pot metal that we call cars.
it worked ok so i decided i could cut off the stock wheel arch, and began to hammer the inner fender upward to meet the cut line, then folded it together up a slight bit and tacked it all up, one side is nearly completed now, and i mounted a flare ( the one that it came with) slightly higher then where it used to be but it looks more or less the same as when the stock arch was there, this has sealed up the inner cabin and also will allow for wider wheels

One of my friends little brothers bought a 240sx and it was just full of rust so he is putting the ka24de into his little hardbody pickup and scrapping the car, another friend had a 240 that needed parts and a deal was struck, i middle maned it and wound up with a sweet deal on some goodies. i picked up some 15" mitsubishi oz rally rims (4x4.5" but terrible offset) and also got the 240sx front suspension so the track will be wider on the 86. theres also more upgrades for everything 240 related at most the time a better price range then parts for the 86. so it made sense, the only part i was bummed out about was that the new front end parts wont clear 13" rims... or will it. if your offset it low enough it seems to clear. i just did a quick test fit without lug nuts because the thread pitch is different then what i have, but it appears that my deepest d slot's and my crager rims should work fine for the front. bonus!

Another recent purchase i made was the Nitrous setup dugan was selling he gave me a good deal on the nos setup and wound up tossing more stuff in on top of that, i highly recommend dealing with dug he is a standup person, he included a injen intake allready plumbed for the nitrous, a fuel rail allready plumbed, so much more also well worth the investment i think, at least it will liven up the 4ag until something better comes along.
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if im going to nitrous the car i decided hell i have a wideband thats been in a box brand new for almost 2 years, might as well use it. i am sure everyone and there dog puts there wideband here. but its just such a good spot for it
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oldskoolcool
Posts: 83
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 19:00
Location: Nanaimo, B.C.

Re: ae86 drifter

Post by oldskoolcool »

Today i spent a bit of time in the shop bouncing from task to task, but heres what i have completed now

The rear arches were pretty rotten, and the car came with bolt on flares for the rear. So i decided to do some more hacking i mentioned this before but heres the pictures of what i have done.
i used tin snips to cut the arch off both sides, then trimmed the inner fenders up as well. using a ball peen hammer i spent a good amount of time massaging the old tin up and flush with the newly trimmed body line. then came the task of tacking it all back up, even with my small Lincoln welder on low it was still trying to burn holes in the sheet metal. got the job done but its not as clean as i had hoped, but the flares hide it anyways. after all was said and done i realized i should have done some form of measuring to make the flares roughly even... only 1/2" off from side to side so i will be moving them slightly to get it even. then comes the task of flushing them in. i plan on using either fibreglass or bondo to mate the flare to the body lines and make it look a bit better. almost time to order some 13x10's

starting
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beginning to roll the inner fender up
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tons of ugly little welds, but they worked thats what counts i guess
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and mocking the flare
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here is the other side it was completed last week.
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One side of the 240sx suspension is in... sort of. I have hit a road block, because the stock struts are to large to fit in the strut tower of the 86. so i started off by undoing the strut without a strut compressor. this is not for the weak of heart. then i test fitted them without springs or the top hat. and it fits... sort of, the bottom perch for the spring is still in the way. so i got out the angle grinder (these wont be run on my car but i got impatient and wanted to see how it looked width wise..) so now it will turn and sit properly without hitting anything, i have thrown in the "coil over" spring that was in it before. just the spring not the adjustment perch. bolted **** up and put it on the ground. here it is maxxed out camber on the 86 camber plates. I'm sure i can get more camber if i wanted to adjust it at the knuckle

i will need to add more caster. the radius arms are not bolted in right now.
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fender unbolted sitting gracefully ( the fenders are on bolt on spacers at the back )
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oldskoolcool
Posts: 83
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 19:00
Location: Nanaimo, B.C.

Re: ae86 drifter

Post by oldskoolcool »

got everything bolted on both sides now and test fitted the spacing of my fenders.

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This is the ghetto **** i have done to get it to roll around the shop again until i can afford proper coil overs for the front. Because of this ghetto nonsense it sits super low, so i let it have the most camber i could get out of it. now it lays frame in and out of my shop, driveway, bumps in the street. oh yea!

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After doing this i have had **** for brakes, but i did it over a week and a bit because of my hand, i think that the master seals might have let go. I read warren ran into a problem with his brakes as well when he did the s13 front end. my calipers are on the right side, haha but doesnt really want to build much for pressure. Another problem for another day i suppose, bleed brakes alone is tedious without the proper tools to do it.
oldskoolcool
Posts: 83
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 19:00
Location: Nanaimo, B.C.

Re: ae86 drifter

Post by oldskoolcool »

This is how it sits today before i go to my first track event of the season. its my stag so i plan to go hard as a mother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZzMSJoM ... RQ&index=1
Datsunkid-510-
Posts: 301
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 22:31
Location: San Diego

Re: ae86 drifter

Post by Datsunkid-510- »

i have a hatch myself! But its a bare bones drift missile. nice job on the coupe!
Good Sellers: Abe Froman, Troy Ermish, Engineered Datsun Products,

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