It is said that humans are insatiable by nature, whether it
is for knowledge, truth, power, possessions, love, hunger and whatever else.
History has proven this to us time and again. But before I stray too far off
topic, what I am deeming insatiable to me right now (apart from other things.)
is my passion for cars and pretty much anything to do with them. Which leads me
to another subtopic that will serve as a short introduction into my main topic,
bear with me. On May 1, 2013, I bought myself my first car, a 2013 Mitsubishi
Lancer EX GLX (1.6L),
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| (Orion.) |
it was a big moment for me having accomplished something
like that early in my life (I was 25 at the time.), I got all excited about
what I wanted to do to it, what modifications I wanted to put in and all that. I
got as far as installing a rubber lip to protect the front fender (after
unfortunately scraping part of it on a steep incline due to miscalculation.) and installing a front upper
strut bar. But being a passionate enthusiast, I wanted more, therein lay the
conflict. I wanted to maintain the warranty of the car but at the same time, I
wanted to modify the car to my liking. At one point, I decided to say
"Screw the warranty. I'm going to do what I want!" and I was able to
save up enough money to buy a new set of wheels, I inquired and was told that
what I wanted was available but for some reason, the voice inside my head
reminded me that I wasn't going to just stop at wheels. So I cancelled my order
and searched online to see if I could find a project car without having to dip
into my savings and investments, just for the heck of it, I didn't think I was
going to find anything. But lo and behold, I found a bunch of cars that costed
the same or less than the money I had set aside for new wheels. I did my
research, made a number of phone calls, asked a number of people and then
finally decided on one. A 1980 Toyota Corona Liftback. I called the owner, set
a date (January 19, 2014) to view the car, found a mechanic that could come and view the car with
me, invited a few buddies to come along and that was that. Test drove and
inspected the car, negotiations were made, papers were signed and that was it,
I had a project car. And this is where it all begins.
To be honest, the Corona a.k.a. "Kazumi" was in fairly decent overall shape
when I got it. The 3T, 1.8L engine ran well except for a minor hiccup (We hit a
dip and the throttle cable came loose causing the engine to die and not start
up again.) which led to adjusting the idling and shortening the slack on the throttle
cable. Now to get to the "fairly decent" parts a.k.a "Aspects In
Need Of Improvement" of the car, first up is the suspension. The previous
owner took the cheap and lazy way to lowering the car, he cut coils off the
damn springs. Now riding, let alone driving the car (there is hardly any ground
clearance, I can barely stick my whole foot under the car!) is like being one
of those bobble head toys on a dashboard, in short it's a really rough ride. That’s
pretty much the biggest issue with the car. The body is solid except for some
rust issues and aesthetic issues. The interior needs to be reupholstered, the
dashboard and other interior trims need to be fixed or replaced as well. The
entire gauge cluster (except some indicators) is not functioning but it might
be an electronics issue, the horn doesn't work either. There’s also a manual
steering to power steering conversion that needs to be done as well. That’s
pretty much it In terms of issues but I know, more are bound to pop up at one
time or another, but I’ll cross those bridges when I get them.
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| (Kazumi.) |
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| (Kazumi's current 3T Heart.) |
I know it might be too early in the project but I do have a
vision and a set of goals that I want to achieve in this RestoMod. Of course, I
understand that if you break down those word RestoMod, the word Resto(ration)
comes before Mod(ification) and rightly so but I believe that vision and direction
is important when doing something like this, this will also serve as a reminder
of the path I’m supposed to be on should I begin to deviate.
So here’s what I have planned:
The Exterior:
First off, I’m going to have to repaint the whole car, it’s currently
flat brown of sorts, I plan to bring it back to blue (which was the color it
was registered in.) but a flat shade of midnight blue. I also plan to put some
fender flares on all four sides to give the car wider and aggressive look or perhaps have the fenders rolled to keep it clean looking. I
intend to keep the fender mirrors to retain the classic look. For the wheels, I
will most likely be going with gold BBS RS’ with a polished silver lip; they
just seem to suit the car when I picture it in my head. But this is still a
very changeable
aspect.
The Interior:
For the interior, I’m planning to with a pair of bucket
seats up front and then probably reupholstering the rear seats in some leather.
I also need to get the rear seatbelts to
become functional. But the front buckets will most likely be using harnesses. For
the dashboard, I plan on putting together a custom gauge cluster instead of
restoring and maintaining the old one. I also plan on having a custom
fabricated gated shifter just to give it that touch of class with a mix of
function. I’m still debating if I’m going to put a stereo back into the car or
not, I’ll also most likely have to have a custom console made for the air
conditioning controls. For the steering wheel, I’m looking to go with something
from Nardi, haven’t decided which one yet. I’ll also be incorporating central
locking and power windows for that functional modern touch. That’s all I have
in mind for now when it comes to the interior.
Suspension:
I initially tried to look for replacement suspension parts
but for a car this old, it’s pretty difficult. I reached out to a shop (Sushi Factory: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sushi-Machine/137794983026593?ref=ts&fref=ts) that can
do a custom suspension job (Among other amazing things they can do!) on it so there’s that. Though I’m willing to explore
the possibilities of going with a full coilover setup for the front and rear
though it might involve some metal fabrication work.
The Engine and
Transmission:
Now for the fun and probably the most costly and challenging
part, the engine. I am planning to go with a 1UZ-FE (Either from a Toyota or a
Lexus, doesn't matter to me as long as the price is right. Haha!) engine and I
plan to use a W58 five-speed transmission which seems to be the best
transmission of choice when it comes to the 1UZ-FE based on what I’ve read and
the people I’ve spoken to. Though I did have a passing thought of trying to get
a sequential gearbox in there somehow, unless the price kills me first of
course. I also plan to run it with individual throttle bodies with velocity
stacks for each throttle body. I haven’t really put thought into the exhaust
system yet though.
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| (Spark Plug #4.) |
Now onto the present time, I mentioned earlier that the
issue with the engine was the throttle cable but after getting the car to a
warehouse (my best friend was kind enough to offer it to store Kazumi. They house, service and
repair their delivery trucks there meaning it’s pretty much like a workshop,
thankfully!) I decided to give the spark plugs a check and it turns out the
real issue didn't lie solely with the throttle cable. Plug number 4 was pretty
much blown
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| (Out with the old, in with the new.) |
and the spark plug wires were also pretty shot. So I
got my hands on a brand new set of spark plugs (4-pieces Bosch IR Fusion
Iridium Spark Plugs to be exact.) and a set of NGK high tension wires plus an
ignition coil wire. Swapped the old ones out and put the new
ones in, cranked the engine and nothing, cranked it again then
smoke started to emanate from the battery terminals, I took a closer look and
the insulation was in pretty bad shape, so one of the warehouse mechanics and I
took the terminals off and adjusted the clamps that house the wiring to make
them tighter, reclamped the wires and re-insulated it by wrapping it with
electrical tape. The car needed a little jump start but after, she ran so much
smoother and without any more idling issues. The next step would be to clean
the carb to make it even smoother. So that’s one issue down but onto another
one, apart from the present issues I've mentioned and listed. I bought a set of
16x8 (front) and 16x9 (rear) BBS RS’ (Gold center, silver polished lip.)
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| (BBS RS + Attached Human.) |
with a
PCD of 114.3mm, I was really excited to try them on but unfortunately, they
don’t fit. For some reason, the bolt spacing on the rear of the Corona measures
127mm which is really strange because prior research and inquiries say that the
PCD of the Corona is 114mm, diagonally though, the bolt spacing matches up at
88.9mm for both the BBS’ and the Corona. So it’s both frustrating and
confusing. Now I’m in search of wheel adapters that will help get the wheels to
fit properly. I suppose it really does happen when doing projects, solve one
problem only to discover a new one.
Stay tuned for my next article on this awesome journey that I'm on!
