Hi all,

so progress on the Elephant has pretty much been non-existant over the last couple of months. It's winter in New Zealand and July was particularly cold, so there really hasn't been much motivation to get some small things done on the car.

There have also been a number of issues and other priorities over these last couple of months which have delayed progress:

1) haven't had access to the car at the workshop. Panel beater is hiring a workshop space and the owner decided that no one could access the workshop as he started storing a bunch of stuff in there from a business he was wrapping up. That meant I wasn't able to go up there and do my fibreglass work, which had been planned - basically screwed up my schedule of work which I had planned with my time off from work. The progress on my car has been slowed down to a crawl as a result. Caveat - laying fibreglass in low temp environments would not have helped anything, so I would have had to figure out a way to heat up various work areas anyway.

2) Panel beater is also working crazy hours on his real job in traffic control. This is a perky, but his real job has consumed a lot of his free time so he doesn't get much of a chance to work on my car. Of course, this is not what one wants to hear when they want the car finished. But I'm a reasonably patient person - hell, it's getting up to 7 years since I broke the car, what's a couple of months in reality (7th year anniversary on the 30 August if I remember)

3) I've done a little work on Pearl, but weather has played a huge part in the delay. Due to the cold, even getting out to the garage or over to Peal has been a mission. Non insulated garages and no heater big enough to get them warmed up. Can't do much when you can't feel your fingers. I've bought more parts if that counts..

4) With the garage swapping of cars, I have a R30 Skyline which I have been working on for the last couple of weeks as my friend Nick and I agreed that the fab work should be done at my place as I have lots of tools/equipment to do the job. Link here: http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/forum/v ... &start=160

Also, looking back through all my photos recently, I really need to give more thorough updates and show you what I have done. I think I'll start soon as I really need to document all my stuff. I take photos, but don't tend to do much with them. So time consuming writing all of the explanations up. Maybe I'll just let the photos do the talking instead.

I'm still around and the car will be finished one day. As my friend Richard said 'it's a project, it doesn't matter about the time'. But being so close to finishing, I want to push through and get it back on the road. I can't have this car sitting around forever, and I want to just say done is done.

Lots of updates soon

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Thanks for the update Dave. I can empathise with your story as my own project will be coming up for its seventh anniversary at the end of this year. In fairness this was when the shell was trailered to the unit and it was another six months at least before work started and even then it was fairly low key. I'm trying to get mine to the stage where its running in the next couple of months to fit in with my move. Hopefully more progress to report after next weekend

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

I'm realistic about the setback as one needs to have infinite patience with these types of projects.
It's just unfortunate that I couldn't have used the time as productively as I could have, though this exhaust system for my friend's car is taking longer than expected. Hopefully it will be finished over the next couple of days and I'll start doing all the small jobs for the Celica and possibly work on Pearl as well once I'm finished doing the fabrication work on the Skyline.

Off to pick up 3" exhaust multi bend to finish up - lots of measuring, cutting and welding today. I get to do some aluminium tig as well as some radiator and intercooler pipe brackets need to be made

I was actually looking at your overall project and was thinking that it has been a long time in the making. Love/hate the feeling of being so close, yet still not there...

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

2011:
828 = total Celica related photos
642 = sorted Celica photos
305 = selected Celica photos

Lots of photos to go through, so I'll provide brief notes unless I think it is of interest and will explain.

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For whatever reason, I take photos of the garage to see how things have progressed over the years. Usual story of same mess, different day/year




Cleaned and painted the lower arm shafts


Cleaned and painted engine front and rear engine mounts


Underside of car with subframe out


Cleaned the underside of the car, first using a stiff bristle brush to loosen the dirt off the car before scrubbing the underside


Amazing how much dirt came off


Spent around 3 days cleaning the underside with a scrubbing brush and a toothbrush. Hindsight says I should have just degreased the underside and taken to it with a pressure washer.


Rust on the rear quarter - was a sign of accident damage to the passenger rear quarter


Shot of the seam sealer removed from the engine bay


Amazingly a clean space


Fun with front and rear hubs. Combination of ST185, ST202 front hubs/carriers, and ST185, ST215 rear hubs/carriers. Figured out that the ST215 has the same hub spigot diameter is the st205, which allows for the st205 rear disc to be centred on the hub without a shim.


ST215 rear hub carriers = $300 from wrecker. Bit of a punt, but worth it in the end. Of note, the hub carrier itself cannot be swapped over due to the rear suspension arm points being different between the models. For those that have retrofitted the ST205 rear end into a ST185 would understand this.


ST185 rear hub carriers ready to be disassembled.






Borrowed 20T press off neighbour who has a workshop


The passenger side front wheel bearing had been replaced by the previous owner, and when I took apart the hub to replace the bearings the hub showed evidence of damage. This shows the gap between the seal and the hub, meaning I had to replace the hub. ST182 hub was an easy replacement.


ST205 rear disc sitting on the rear hub.


ST185 and ST215 rear hub


Removed rear hubs from hub carrier






Don't forget to remove the C-clip

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Fun figuring out a big brake kit for the ST185. The quest for larger front brakes took me around 3 years to figure out a cost effective solution. In the end, instead of mucking about trying to retrofit ST205 calipers to the ST185, I just organised a custom Wilwood setup to be fabricated by an engineer.

As part of this process, I tested a number of discs and setups to determine what would be the most appropriate setup for me. I was able to borrow ST205 calipers and discs on 2 occassions, which confirmed that the calipers were not the right solution for me.

One option was using the WRX disc 294x25mm. With ST205 caliper, the option was to use pad spacers to align the pads with the disc. Enough clearance from ball joint.


ST205 disc = no clearance. Would require a spacer behind the disc, but then caliper would then need to be re-offset to suit. NZ allows only 1x spacer to be used, 5mm max not securely fastened. Anything over 5mm, requires attached to the hub face or wheel securely. Spacer on the inside of the disc would have limited wheel options later.


Damage to hub from crap wheel bearing replacement. With the hub carrier damaged, a lot of debri got past the seals and destroyed the wheel bearing. I'm thinking that the chunks were from the mechanic removing the wheel bearing - careless, just careless


You may have seen my paint stand - I decided to test how much weight it could take - 80kg easy


Started replacing front and rear CV joints


Big hammer breaks the snap ring on the inside


Old vs new


Filled the panel gap in the rear passenger wheel well. Result of damage to rear quarter


ST185 rear hub carriers ready for paint


Truck liner used to protect wheel wells


Inside of fuel tank shows baffle around fuel pump


Prop shaft cleaned up and sprayed


Walbro 255 to replace factory


Disassemby of alternator to clean up the casing


Pic of prep of Richards GTS25T before a track day. He blew his turbo seals, Don had ECu issues, Jonno lost the spring on his shifting mechanism rendering his Subaru Legacy almost immoveable. Brian's hatch broke off his little CRX. Had to wait to borrow a car trailer - got home around midnight. Fun of track days


Rear driveshafts clean up




started cleaning up rear bushings




Small jobs like cleaning up nuts and bolts. At the time, there was a restriction with our modification criteria which would not allow us to just send nuts and bolts to get cleaned and anodised, especially for high tensile nuts and bolts. And I'm a cheap *bleep* anyway so I didn't want to spend money on something that was just going to corrode anyway - daily driver and all




Bought my own press - too hard to organise time at the neighbours workshop during the day


Spray bolts with zinc spray


Painted rear hub


Studs pressed back in


Stud splines aligned using some little marks




Test fit of WRX 324x30mm discs. Just enough clearance

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Cleaned up fuel tank. Some rubber cushioning was coming off, so fixed them up and glued them back on with some polyurethane








Seats - oh the fun figuring out seats. Bought some R32 GTR seats - found they didn't have flat mounts on the base - sold them on.


Gloves save hands from major abrasions. Especially good when you have to go to meetings without looking like you have been working on a car for a whole weekend. These gloves took a beating!


Lifts grease from pots and pans and dirty gloves!


Amazing how much it lifts out


Continued clean up of the fuel tank






Truck bed liner rolled on. The stuff ate through the plastic cup haha




Rear driveshafts


Front driveshafts


Replaced handbrake pads


Cleaned up handbrake components


To fit ST205 rear discs either bend the protective shield back or cut them off - I cut them off, cleaned up the edges, gave them a spray with some zine, re-assembled.






Pressed bearings in


Put handrake mount/shield back on


Hub back in


Test of extended stud in hub

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Rear driveshaft re-assembly. Really should buy a CV band tool sometime.


Front and rear CVs are the same and can be replaced. Some buy the whole shaft off the shelf. The shaft is fine, boots and CV just needed to be replaced. I could have just cleaned out the CV and regreased to be honest.


Snap ring slipped on to gap


Compressed ring with hose clamp


CV joint filled with grease


CV joint tapped on. CV pushes the hose clamp down while holding the snap ring under tension until in the CV bearing cage then hose clamp removed. CV couldn't go on with snap ring not under tension.


CV bands installed




Fuel tank underside looking pretty




Sometimes I get visitors. Met a guy up at the local scrapyard scavanging a crank pulley off a ST202. Was a strange thing to see a ST205 in the scrapyard parking lot. Told him he could grab one off me so we rolled back to the garage had a chat about GT-Fours and I sold him a crank pulley.








Switch for retractable mirrors. North American owners love the retractables.


A shot of my garage - so empty *sigh


2x AC compressor pumps and lots of calipers. 2x sets of Hilux, factory ST185, and rear ST205. Told you I was playing around with brakes for a while


funny story: It was late, I was cleaning the garage. I had all these parts sitting around and trying to make some room. Then it dawned on me, block + pan + head = assemble a partial engine together. I had finally reached the point where I could nearly assemble an engine from spare parts haha

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Took an introductory welding course - MIG/TIG/Stick. Towards the end of the course we had the option to build our own things. I chose to build a jig to build an exhaust manifold.


I love packages


My welding station at polytech


Mock up for T3 twin scroll collector


Manifold jig


Adding gussets to jig


I had previously bought these collectors welded up by Sinco Customs. I then prepped them for welding to the T3 flange. Tech tutor finished up welding the collectors to the flange as I was too much of a rookie


Removed bushings from trailing arms


By now we are in October 2011 and watching Bathurst at my place. In 2011, an All Blacks test was on at the same time, so I tried to accommodate for guests needs by having two TVs haha.




Bathurst is a long race. You tend to do other things at the same time. In this case, there was an issue with Tracey's amplifier cutting in an out. I got Glen to hop in the back of Tracey's Civic and we drove around and Glen jiggled wires trying to replicate the amplifier cutting out. We couldn't replicate the issue, so we went back to watching the race


Scavanging up at the scrapyard - found a Celica with a good condition Momo wheel. Also something very unique, sunvisors with additional foldout sunshade. JDM optional extra I have never ever seen before or heard about. Both are now mine!




Cleaned up and painted the filler neck. Fuel tank was reassembled and then I got some fuel and tested the seals by putting the tank on its side. No leaks. Hooked up pump to battery to drain tank of fuel.






Decided to clean up my tool box


Dirty vs clean


Previously I had put lots of sound deadening in the car as part of my car audio stuff. Decided to make a start on removing it.






Was looking to replace my brake and fuel hoses with Nickel Copper tubing and new fittings. Rolled out the length of brake tube I had




Upon inspection, my brake and fuel hardlines were in very good condition under the dirt.


Started cleaning up the brackets as well


Old vs new brake tube flare

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Started cleaning up the tube guards as well. Some were broken unfortunately, and they are specific to the ST185


Clean vs dirty with broken tabs to the side.


Exhaust heat shield covered in dirt


And cleaned up ready for paint






Can't remember the reason why I cleaned up but it was a unique photo op, so I took it. Possibly because the electrician was installing an isolated line for my welder on that side of the garage.


I really have accumulated too much stuff.


Started cleaning up the brake booster units. ST202 unit is the same as the ST205 according to EPC and is on the left. Smaller unit than the ST18x unit with different mounting pattern for the master cylinder










Started cleaning up the starter motor. Ready for paint.


Cleaned up the brake bias valve with a wire brush






I had previously damaged one of the new CV's trying to install it. Had to buy a new one (oh well..) Fun with grease and Cvs again


Suspension needed to be addressed. Disassembled and removed studs from Tein HA top hats


Damage evident




Literally flaking off. Don't know what they use, but it doesn't last.




Start of clean up with paint stripping wheel. Don't like using wire wheels on aluminium. Too much abrasion.




Spherical bearings covered up.


Painting started.


Starter motor cleaned up and painted


Tein adjuster rings cleaned up.




Adjuster ring washers cleaned up

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

More bushes removed.


Had to find purchase on the arm. Bent it as a result of the pressure to get the bush out.


But bent back, so no issue.


Bushes replaced on the hubs and trailing arms. Factory Spherical bushes retained as per GT Four community recommendations


Time to lube up ya hear!




Bushes pressed in




More bushes to replace




Rear subframe and washers cleaned up




Plugs and grommets removed and cleaned up


Diff cleaned up


Starter motor ready for reassembly


When you have a project as long as this, you need to ensure you are organised. Lots of ziplock bags and labelling keeps things as organised as best as possible.


Looks pretty


Exhaust mounts ready for cleaning up.


Seriously the amount of dirt and grim that comes off this car


Bought a 200 piece tap and die set. Very handy


Helps with cleaning thread on the car that have corroded or been a bit blocked up due to mods.


Fuel tank and exhaust shield bolted back in


To fix the broken tabs on the brake/fuel hose guards, I had to make a plastic welding bit for my solder iron. Started with a broken screwdriver


Ground down the metal to fit the solder iron. Slanted the tip afterwards.


To fix the tab, I bought some screen door mesh and some aluminium tape. The trick here is to melt the metal mesh into the plastic to make it structural again.
















Some fixes are easier. This was just cracked so it was an easy plastic weld.


Finished up

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Parts are so much fun






Exhaust mounts cleaned up and painted.


Test fit of subframe and brake/fuel hoses. Sometimes you need to put it back together to ensure you haven't forgotten how to put it back together.


Started cleaning up the handbrake


Re-installed the brake cables


got some spare parts off a guy who used to own a Gt-Four


My friends are great aren't they


Because the car sits around so long, I normally wrap things up to protect them




Put studs back into top hats. Using the press was a bit much for these aluminium units so I got them in the old way




Re-assembly time






Much to popular conjecture, the Whiteline adjustable swaybar is still available. I purchased this from the Whiteline booth at World Time Attack 2011. I asked on Saturday, they made a special run back to the warehouse and brought it to the event on Sunday for me to collect
Not so much fun to get it wrapped up for transport on the plane, but wasn't a major issue.




More thread cleaning




Spherical bearings covered up for cleaning




Tip - a finger nail helps to push in the tape to the edges. A sharp craft knife with a decent blade cuts the tape at the edge.






More labels and more wrapping


Oh - they are painted..


Looking good


More cleaning


Rear sway bar bushes are 17mm factory. I happened to find some 16mm ones at the scrapyard but they didn't fit.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Again, keeping organised. Parts boxed up and labelled to ensure I don't lose stuff.


Springs need a clean


And after the clean, more re-assembly




Looking fine


Tie rod ends were a pain to remove. Big F'ing hammer cracked the rust and the tie rod ends removed.


Measured to ensure that the new rack ends were mounted at the same adjustment point. Saves some adjustment once the car gets back on the road.




My purchasing decisions are sparodic at times. Originally I had decided on keeping the factory subframe bushings but as I had started a secondment and I had some extra money, I decided to purchase various bushes from GT4-Racing in Poland. Waited a couple of months but they finally arrived

Over the course of this project, I've learnt that my method is to do the research, get 3 or 4 options, write out a list of pro's, con's and cost then select the option that I am prepared to pay for. Shipping to New Zealand is cost prohibitive for a lot of options (like the rally light pod copy on GT4OC) but in the end the benefits outweigh the costs.


Time to remove the old bushes
















The diff hanger bushes sheared easily under pressure. Good thing I am replacing them.


Tried a couple of methods to remove the main subframe bushing. Found a workflow after a litte while.


Cutting through the poly wasn't an option. I've seen people burn out the bushes, but that is a messy job and not my cup of tea.


Two bushes removed so time to show the workflow


Spray some penetrating fluid on the sides of the bush


using the tip of a strong screwdriver, push the bush out by hammering the edge of the bush. Don't scrap the internal surface of the subframe. keep hammering consistantly all the way around the bush and it edge out. Worked a treat, though from other people's photos, their bushes are rusted in so this technique may not work for all.


Bush comparison, aftermarket vs factory
















Diff hanger bush pressed in using a bearing race as a spacer




Subframe busings lubed up and ready to insert


You need a little force to start the bush into the subframe. Hard to make it sit on top while balancing the subframe in the press.


Yes it does fit in there, just a little awkward to get setup.


Bushes in


Excess wiped away


Sometimes friends pop around to visit tools or sometimes my Forester as it has a tow bar. Brian borrowed my car and left his for me to roll around in if I needed it: Road legal race car, albeit a little honda crx gen1. Took some photos because people leave things in my driveway..

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Back to the Celica, started cutting out the shoulder of the A-arm bushes before pressing them out.








Pushed out the lower arm bush


Bush comparison










Filled diff with GL4 as per manual


New rear diff mount


And installed


Diff mounted on subframe with the help of my friend Glen (guy in the boot)


And installed onto the car




Tools - always more tools


Had to change the cambelt and water pump on the Forester. Gee, thats not a mission Built a tool to hold the crank pulley so I could crack the crank bolt. 12mm plate was a bit of overkill, but the tool works a treat. Made it work for the 3S and Subaru crank pulleys.




















Finally opened up my 200A AC/DC TIG and had a look see.


Got this far on the photos (chronological order so displayed as I took them). Ended up drilling out a series of holes as the holesaw wasn't cutting through. Then cleared out the middle to accept a 19mm deep socket. Added a handle to accept a pipe to ensure leverage could be applied to the pulley.


Don't know why this was in my photos but meh - Hello Kitty jellybeans!


Setup a little jig to cut the studs






As part of de-looming the wiring, I chucked all the loom tape into a bag. Amazingly there was more loom tape removed after this!


Front subframe and steering rack painted


More friends popping around to do some work. Nishant needed a battery relocation and we made a battery rack in the spare wheel well


My crimpers take a beating. Broke the high tensile steel bolt crimping 70mm2 lugs. Note, it is only suppose to go to 50mm2 haha. Repaired later with high tensile bolt


Prepped for cambelt replacement






Jun adjustable cam pulleys looking sexy


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So that ends 2011. As you can understand, a lot of work has gone on in the background which I haven't shown before. Will work to get 2012 up next week. This has taken around 10 hours to sort out and briefly type out today. As you can understand, this is very time consuming and I'm only being brief in my explanations haha.

Catch up soon, Dave

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

That is an insane update!

I love the attention to detail, really impressive. I especially like the coating you used on the fuel tank, looks smart and hardwearing.

Looking forward to the 2012 pics!

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK

On reflection, its all those photos that are taken on cameras or phones that are never used or shown. I have gigs of photos from trips, parties, events, and hobbies that I don't put anywhere.
In some ways, I'm just sorting out my stuff.

Interestingly on the quick look through the work in 2012 and 2013, there isn't a huge amount of major things done (at least not I noted). Really the car should have been finished a couple of years ago if I had the time to spend on it but work probably took up the bulk of energy..

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."