TobyCat's winter buildup

[TobyCat]

Small update, my coilovers arrived! pair of Tein HA fronts, and Cusco rears. Hopefully my sway bar kit arrives soon, so that I can install these all in one shot.

I think I'll rent a spring compressor to disassemble the coilovers, clean them up, and put new boots onto the Teins. Other than that, there isn't any oil leaking anywhere so woohoo!

-Chris

 

[TobyCat]

Sway bars are in! I was hoping to get the suspension bits installed this weekend but I *accidently* have to go to Vancouver this weekend to talk to Greg @ cooleeze...let's see what comes out of that

 

[TobyCat]

I rented a spring compressor today to take apart the TEINs as they are in rougher shape than the Cuscos. After cleaning everything up, and checking for leaks everything looks to be in working order...just kinda ugly. There is surface rust on the tubes but they look like they should last for the summer before I ship them off to be rebuilt.

Question though, how do I check to make sure a shock is still working correctly? I just pushed it against the ground and it took a lot of effort to compress it. After that, they'd slowly come back up to the extended position by themselves.

Anyways, do the coilovers look OK enough for 1 summer?

 

[TobyCat]

This morning the FedEx dude came and delivered a gorgeous looking, non-damaged lip from shineauto. Oh yeah, it's awesome! Big thanks to shine for the absolutely amazing customer service!

Also, I've been grinding down all the rusty bits off of the TEINs, and picked up a wirewheel for my grinder. Gonna get them totally stripped down and repainted so that they last a bit longer. I went to order a pair of dust boots from a local TEIN "reseller" today...And I use the term reseller loosely. More a long the lines of rip off artists! According to the TEIN website, they sell dust boots for 5$ each. Here is a quote from them

"Chris,

We can order the boots on thier own for you but wth all the shipping and handling fees you would be looking at about $100-$125CAD+tax. "

So umm...100$ in shipping/handling fees? Whatever.

Does anybody know where I can order these, or just plain noname brand ones online?

Back to the wire wheel I go!

 

[TobyCat]

Wire brushed the TEINs a bit...gonna need to use the dremel a bit to get the corners before these puppies go in for paint.

 

[NashMan]

tien no longer makes that shock tube no more so reabluing them will eb hassle if not ahve to repalce the shock it's self



and what wiht mix match shocks


ps your in the same boat as me repalce all dammper tubes or them saying we might bebale to finx them if we still have the parts around

 

[canadianbacon]

Wow you have really changed that stock car in to something that is really going to rock this spring! Great to see man!
That poor old man that you bought it from must be rolling around in his lazy boy!
This is the first time I looked at your build thread. Man, I am getting excited!

Hopefully, you can come over for some Fri nite racing @ Mission.
Nice work Toby!!:biglaugh:

 

[TobyCat]

Yeah, I'm getting pretty excited too! The coilovers are off getting painted, and I'm waiting on some dust boots. Appearently HPF sells them and I'm waiting on them to see how quickly they can get them up here. Also, Zensport can get them in but there is a 2week wait. We'll see.

I think I may drive by the old guy's place this spring after everything is all done up...see what he has to say

I'd like to come out to mission sometime..we'll see.

-Chris

 

[TobyCat]

Small update:

I sold my winter daily driver to a good friend of mine who was in the market for a beater, and put the supra back on the road. Oh what a dream it is to drive a car that works and has power. I never thought 7 months of tercel could be so hard

Anyways, got the coilovers back from my brother today, and he did an amazing job painting them back to TEIN green. He taped up all the threads and even the original sticker to keep the authentic look.

So now I'm waiting on a pair of dust boots to match, then on they go! I can't WAIT to lower the 4x4.

 

[canadianbacon]

Nice work! Let see some pics of the Shine Lip on your car. I need one too LOL:icon_razz

 

[TobyCat]

Finally got some work done on the car. I rented a spring compressor again, went down to Lordco and picked up some generic dust boots, cut them to fit and put the fronts back together. They look amazing!

Also, took the original lip off and test fitted it. Looks pretty good! Only thing I could have suggest from shine was that they pre-drill the mounting holes. Two of the holes I drilled don't quite fit right, so I'm going to wait until I have the car on the hoist to do the fiddly bits. Note to self, getting head stuck under car because new lip sits lower then stocker...priceless!

Coilovers get installed tomorrow!

 

[Mrbaboon]

^

Holy wheelgap batman!

Not for much longer though.

Woo. me need engine back now. Cometic gasket makes me so happy.

 

[TobyCat]

Ahh yes, another trying day. I got up bright and early, skipped school and went to town installing my coilovers. All was going very smoothly, did the rears first because i wanted to flush/bleed the brake lines with new fluid. Got the entire rear interior out no probs, dropped the suspension and put the Cuscos in. Dropped the car down...man 2" drop! Definitely going to have to raise that by at least .5"...but that's cool, on to the front.

The front came off easier than the rears...no interior clips to deal with =) Pretty straight forward, and the upper control arm is a 1 bolt wonder. Everything was on their pretty damn good - 20 year old stock suspensions ftl!

So, my good friend had to go to work at this point which was AOK, I can handle re-assembly. This is where the fun started....

Trying to put the strut tower bolts through the 3 holes, I ran into problems...they didn't quite fit. No problem, nothing a dremel can't fix. Problem #2, the bolts are a different thread than the stockers...no problem I can use the TEMS cover bolts for the front. Then....

I lowered the car.

CRRAAAACK! Instant panic, wtf is wrong? why are my wheels bottomed out? What was that sound?! So it appears I have two sets of rear coilovers. Note to self, installing rears suspension up front does not work!

Anyways, there are some pics of the process, and my stockers are back up front. The thing look ridiculous with the back so low

Now to hunt down some front suspension.

 

[TobyCat]

Finally got a chance to install my sway bar kit that I purchased a few months ago. All I have to say is MAN those end link bolts are a bitch to get off. Thankfully an acetylene torch was near by to heat up the nuts and crack them off with an impact gun. I kinda marred up the boots a bit, and the rear ones are ready to be replaced. Might just be that time to hit up BIC for a kit and some reenforcement tabs.

 

[canadianbacon]

Looking good! We have a mini meet this weekend and I will ask around for some front coil overs if you want!
Or..... Just call VanSupra! LOL
I like your Shine Lip.:biglaugh:

 

[TobyCat]

Yeah, I'm gonna try and make it out. I'm still keeping an eye out on eBay for some front TEIN HAs...so if anybody sees a set don't bid please!

 

[TobyCat]

Found my Tein HAs on Rinkya. Bought the whole set of 4, none of this mix-match shenanigans! They should be here sometime in the next 2 weeks =)

 

[TobyCat]

My rear hatch has always 'clunked' but now with a lowered car it's *really* annoying. So, down to Toyota I went and picked up some new hatch bump stops. 6 Pieces in total, so hopefully that fixed it.

80 bucks for these jimmies.

 

[NashMan]

did yae bring the k y kelly

 

[TobyCat]

lol, I don't think Carol would have appreciated that