First and foremost, my goals with this car is an overall GOOD performer. Good in the straights, good in the curves, and good in long distance road trips. All while maintaining the idea that I built the car in the late 80s or early 90s. I.E. only old school tuners and the like. But, before we get into what I'm going to do, lets cover what I have done.
When I was not even 16 (I think I was 15 at the time...) I was scouring craigslist looking for a 2nd gen integra. My whole deal with that car was being able to blow the doors of people in a HONDA. And then I saw an ad for an 87 Supra Turbo for sale or trade. And that was that. The search for a Supra began. Being in the midwest, it was incredibly hard to find a clean, rust free Supra. But I was a kid, and I was an idiot. I found an 86 Non Turbo with a white Maaco paintjob and, get this, 320k miles. It had a rebuilt engine, fresh paint (albeit Maaco...), and it drove decently. However, the trans had 320k miles on it, and the guy wanted $2000 if I remember right. I walked away from that one.
The next car I found was an 88 5 speed turbo with a sunroof. Black on tan.. I wanted it! 140k miles, bald tires, rouuuuugh paint, loose steering, but dammit it ran! So we made the road trip out to St. Louis from Lincoln Nebraska. Drove all the way out there on the promise of a running car when we got there.. And sure enough, it didn't. Turned around and found another Supra in KC.
This one was yellow (man I wish I had pictures of these cars...) and it was a turbo targa. It looked like ass, had rust. The owner said it was a 10 second car (yeah sure. Its bone stock other than a FMIC...) and I believed it. Remember, I was 15! We made an offer of $2500 and he laughed at us. Back to Nebraska we went.
And here is where my search for Supras ended. It was back to the drawing board. I couldn't find a single good looking Supra that was in my price range. Hell, I couldn't find anything I wanted to drive in my price range (around $3000)
Until Sam came along.
Sam is a 1990 N/A Toyota Supra hard top, with 214k miles. It had the cleanest interior of any Supra I have ever seen in person, and the body was pretty straight (minus the rust.. It had never been in any accidents.). Now this car, I have pictures of... So!
I pulled the trigger. $3000 later, and it was sitting in my driveway. You may have noticed that the paint is rather oxidized.. I can fix that! A coat of wax later and...
Mere weeks after buying the car... Disaster.
It was a hit and run. Fortunately, they eventually showed back up and fessed up. I got a quote for the damage and received a check from the insurance company for $1300 if I remember right... I payed my brother back for helping pay for the car ($1000) and bought a fender with the rest of the money.
That hair!!!!
And the new fender...
Remember when I was mentioned rust way back in the beginning of the thread? Nows the time to fix it..
Our paint booth!
Now that that's done, I had some tires to kill...
[video=youtube;NxU2TEecdqU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxU2TEecdqU[/video]
So now I have a mostly rust free car, that I've grown to be able to control over the course of a handful of years.. It's time for more power. This would be when I was 17. Over winter, I decided a GTE swap was definitely in order. I was originally going to use GTE electronics, on an N/A block, utilizing the higher compression of the GE pistons in order to make more power on less boost.
Must have been a JDM engine that sat for awhile at some point... Interesting
Nice, clean head... decked of course.
Cams!
And prettiness
Now, here's where things get a little funky. I was having the machine shop drill and tap the hole for the second knock sensor that the GTE electronics utilized. I told them to drill it and tap it to m12x1.25. They completely ignored me and tapped it for some obscenely coarse thread, then forced my nice Toyota knock sensor into said coarse threads, ruining the knock sensor. I called them up, chewed their asses out, and they said they would fix it. Perfect! Get a call the next day... They welded up my block, without preheating it, and cracked it. Awesome.
So, they are now funding me with a new engine. But I have to source it, and pick it up. Fine, I like road trips. So we drive to Manhattan Kansas and pick up the only 7M in the area, which happened to be a GTE. The cylinders are pitted, and require boring. At this time, I decided to go with GTE pistons, but decided to find a balance point between the low 8 compression GTE pistons and the low 9 compression GE pistons, and deck the block enough for 9:1 compression. I paired that with a MHG and that was that. However, my new block is now using NPR pistons. -_- Its also a light block, compared to the heavy block that came in my 90.. Aaaaand it has a crack from a steam bolt hole to a head bolt hole. Not a big deal I suppose. It hasn't caused any issues in the last 30,000 miles!
But here's some more pictures
Bought some lowering springs as well..
And in the amazing 5k miles of turbo happiness.... Oops.
I felt awful. All the years of hard work. The turbo swap. The rust repair. The long search for a clean MK3 and I ruined it.
This is, unfortunately, the end of this car. It STILL had rust in it, and now the frame is bent.
However, I did hold onto it for awhile longer, with the aspirations of fixing the damage I caused.
Got some wheels for it..
And some other miscellaneous things happend that I have not recorded with a camera..
But then!!
Look what the cat dragged home! While I had many many good times in the previous car, He will always be remembered, as my very first Supra. I still miss the old fart, even if my current one is HUGELY better.
Peeling the plasti dip
New downpipe!
The transplant!
Its in!
Pops giving me a hand
Its almost like I knew what I was doing.. And then it died.
Washed out pictures thanks to HTCs attempt at HDR
I love targa tops..
Thats gotten us MOSTLY up to date. A few odds and ends here and there and you get this...
[video=youtube;_0X0zek1N2E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0X0zek1N2E[/video]
Now that I've been typing for seriously 2 hours, I'm going to stop there for now. Now guys, don't be strangers! I've made build threads in the past and they never encourage me to keep going. Its just a bunch of people being silently appreciative. Ask questions! Call me an idiot! Do whatever you want, I want conversation in this build thread!
When I was not even 16 (I think I was 15 at the time...) I was scouring craigslist looking for a 2nd gen integra. My whole deal with that car was being able to blow the doors of people in a HONDA. And then I saw an ad for an 87 Supra Turbo for sale or trade. And that was that. The search for a Supra began. Being in the midwest, it was incredibly hard to find a clean, rust free Supra. But I was a kid, and I was an idiot. I found an 86 Non Turbo with a white Maaco paintjob and, get this, 320k miles. It had a rebuilt engine, fresh paint (albeit Maaco...), and it drove decently. However, the trans had 320k miles on it, and the guy wanted $2000 if I remember right. I walked away from that one.
The next car I found was an 88 5 speed turbo with a sunroof. Black on tan.. I wanted it! 140k miles, bald tires, rouuuuugh paint, loose steering, but dammit it ran! So we made the road trip out to St. Louis from Lincoln Nebraska. Drove all the way out there on the promise of a running car when we got there.. And sure enough, it didn't. Turned around and found another Supra in KC.
This one was yellow (man I wish I had pictures of these cars...) and it was a turbo targa. It looked like ass, had rust. The owner said it was a 10 second car (yeah sure. Its bone stock other than a FMIC...) and I believed it. Remember, I was 15! We made an offer of $2500 and he laughed at us. Back to Nebraska we went.
And here is where my search for Supras ended. It was back to the drawing board. I couldn't find a single good looking Supra that was in my price range. Hell, I couldn't find anything I wanted to drive in my price range (around $3000)
Until Sam came along.
Sam is a 1990 N/A Toyota Supra hard top, with 214k miles. It had the cleanest interior of any Supra I have ever seen in person, and the body was pretty straight (minus the rust.. It had never been in any accidents.). Now this car, I have pictures of... So!
I pulled the trigger. $3000 later, and it was sitting in my driveway. You may have noticed that the paint is rather oxidized.. I can fix that! A coat of wax later and...
Mere weeks after buying the car... Disaster.
It was a hit and run. Fortunately, they eventually showed back up and fessed up. I got a quote for the damage and received a check from the insurance company for $1300 if I remember right... I payed my brother back for helping pay for the car ($1000) and bought a fender with the rest of the money.
That hair!!!!
And the new fender...
Remember when I was mentioned rust way back in the beginning of the thread? Nows the time to fix it..
Our paint booth!
Now that that's done, I had some tires to kill...
[video=youtube;NxU2TEecdqU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxU2TEecdqU[/video]
So now I have a mostly rust free car, that I've grown to be able to control over the course of a handful of years.. It's time for more power. This would be when I was 17. Over winter, I decided a GTE swap was definitely in order. I was originally going to use GTE electronics, on an N/A block, utilizing the higher compression of the GE pistons in order to make more power on less boost.
Must have been a JDM engine that sat for awhile at some point... Interesting
Nice, clean head... decked of course.
Cams!
And prettiness
Now, here's where things get a little funky. I was having the machine shop drill and tap the hole for the second knock sensor that the GTE electronics utilized. I told them to drill it and tap it to m12x1.25. They completely ignored me and tapped it for some obscenely coarse thread, then forced my nice Toyota knock sensor into said coarse threads, ruining the knock sensor. I called them up, chewed their asses out, and they said they would fix it. Perfect! Get a call the next day... They welded up my block, without preheating it, and cracked it. Awesome.
So, they are now funding me with a new engine. But I have to source it, and pick it up. Fine, I like road trips. So we drive to Manhattan Kansas and pick up the only 7M in the area, which happened to be a GTE. The cylinders are pitted, and require boring. At this time, I decided to go with GTE pistons, but decided to find a balance point between the low 8 compression GTE pistons and the low 9 compression GE pistons, and deck the block enough for 9:1 compression. I paired that with a MHG and that was that. However, my new block is now using NPR pistons. -_- Its also a light block, compared to the heavy block that came in my 90.. Aaaaand it has a crack from a steam bolt hole to a head bolt hole. Not a big deal I suppose. It hasn't caused any issues in the last 30,000 miles!
But here's some more pictures
Bought some lowering springs as well..
And in the amazing 5k miles of turbo happiness.... Oops.
I felt awful. All the years of hard work. The turbo swap. The rust repair. The long search for a clean MK3 and I ruined it.
This is, unfortunately, the end of this car. It STILL had rust in it, and now the frame is bent.
However, I did hold onto it for awhile longer, with the aspirations of fixing the damage I caused.
Got some wheels for it..
And some other miscellaneous things happend that I have not recorded with a camera..
But then!!
Look what the cat dragged home! While I had many many good times in the previous car, He will always be remembered, as my very first Supra. I still miss the old fart, even if my current one is HUGELY better.
Peeling the plasti dip
New downpipe!
The transplant!
Its in!
Pops giving me a hand
Its almost like I knew what I was doing.. And then it died.
Washed out pictures thanks to HTCs attempt at HDR
I love targa tops..
Thats gotten us MOSTLY up to date. A few odds and ends here and there and you get this...
[video=youtube;_0X0zek1N2E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0X0zek1N2E[/video]
Now that I've been typing for seriously 2 hours, I'm going to stop there for now. Now guys, don't be strangers! I've made build threads in the past and they never encourage me to keep going. Its just a bunch of people being silently appreciative. Ask questions! Call me an idiot! Do whatever you want, I want conversation in this build thread!
