No not the type you are used to.  This kind

This is my old ep82 Turbo Starlet. JDM hatch that shares all the sus bits with the tercell and paseo cept it has rear discs. Engine is a massive 1.3l engine rater at 130hp from the factory. This car died in the 2004 hurricane Ivan and i vowed not to do it again....

Well the wive says different. at 7 months preagnant she wants a racecar. So i decided to get something now and start early.

Got a good deal on one that had been sitting for a while with a questionable engine. Right away started stripping the interior for the sem weld and various chassis bracing.

Engine bay is pretty crappy. I think ill either tear it don and refresh it with new rings or i will just get a better engine.

I plan on following the same basic pricipals that i did with the Altezza my.is/forums/f96/epic-diy-chassis-buildup-319542/

Cost effective and EFFECTIVE suspention will be a trick. sway easy, Whiteline. as well as antilift and panard bar. trailing ar and fron controll arm will prob be cusco heim joints. Coilovers  eeerrrr...ill bring it up later cuz Mike might cuss.

Time to start again.

Thats a really cool car that stuck out in the pack of hatchbacks from the same era.

started really stripping the engine bay last night. The engine is pretty far gone. All the steel inserts that go into the head are rusted pretty bad and it was running pure water in the cooling so the rad hoses have a crust of rust coating the inside of them. Ill pull the engine apart to see whats what but it dont look good.

Also founf that the left chassis leg is bent. This used to happen to us all the time when we used to race them inthe dirt. The crumple zones crumple at a stiff breeze. After i get it to a rolling shell and seam weld the interior ill take it to the shop and stretch it out. Thanksfully this is all cosmetic really. Should i reinforce this area? Its in front of the shock towers but the whole front ties together pretty well so this might add significant stiffness to that area...

This is the stock turbo. Its....miniscule. But hybrid versions can push the engine to 200hp easily enough. Ive been looking at the GT15 for a while as it HAs to be more modern and is about the same cost new as this one is modded... Looking to push 200 HP MAX with a super wide range. This turbo has a 35mm inlet...

Going to try get the engine out today and pull it down further this weekend

Got the engine out, and it doesent look good. I figured the engine wasnt too fresh but wow. Need to get another one.

a victim of no oil changes and shoddy repair work. There was a ton on RTV inthe bottom of the pan. Time to start hunting.

Got the engine out yesterday so now i have a rolling chassis basically.

I washed the gearbox 3 times with degreaser and its still not clean. Imm going to oven cleaner it when the time comes. For now ill throw it on a shelf.

Also started cleaning up the interior a bit and started pulling the dash out. Really starting to look like a theft victim now.

There was some significantly bad wiring on the turbo timer and the boost gauge. Im talking wires wrapped around other wires and taped...sweet.

Ive been looking around at places to strengthen and i think this area below is a prime place to start. The bar under the window is a single sheet, as is the peice coming down that holds on the seatbelt. I was thinking of adding in a sheet or at least some cross bracing to help torsional rigidity a bit.

Going to get the dash and all wiring out tomorow hopefully and start on the tar mats

Been stripping and cleaning and looking and thinking...

Got the interior bald. Had to use heat to get the tar mats up as dry ice isnt available here and i tried ice but it was just too messy. Its going to take alot of clean up.

Going through and looking at the spot welds i noticed there really arent alot of them. So i think more then doubling up on them should make a really nice difference.

for example:

Got up all the tar from the floor boards. Not fun. Also popped out the windshield

I have some rust in the windshield area. the only rust on the whole car. Im going to try and fins another starlet that i can cut this section out of and joing it back in.

BigDave, Im not rebuilding for a few reasons, it has mad heavy sludge, they were running only water in it so it has heavy calcium and rust buildup, it had been pulled down before and the bottom of the sump was full of silicone peices, and most importantly i have no engine building skills at all.

Endo, after scraping as much of the reside of the tar off i used Lacquer thinner and a crap load of paper towels. on the firewall i actually heated trhe residue and wiped it off mostly before cleaning it.

Doing the pug welds is exactly what i plan on doing on most of the joins, as shown below on the altezza i built.

Im not drilling THAT big a hole cause the weld spreads out and if you get it right you dont have to grind it at all.

As for the windshield the spots are too big to just fill with weld, the big one is about the size of a 25 cent.

Cleaned up the garage a bit and jacked the car up in the air. going to pull the suspention and gastank etc off and start welding this weekend
 

One thing to notice is the complete lack of posotive camber. I an hoping that aditional KPI gained from camber plates and additional caster from the whiteline antilift kit will sort some of that out.

I got all the subsystems off today and cleaned up the garage a bit to get organised. the chassis is mad light. I did some test welds in the foot well and the shock tower and the tie rod hole.

I was testing a bigger bit and it worked well in the thicher areas like the shocktower. The thinner sheets i tried the same size bit but i think i will go down to 3/16 like i used on the altezza.

The sealant on the backside bubbles up and can build pressure and can blow the weld out. so ill just cut a slice in it and it will help to remove it later.

Tested the tie rod hole also. These areas are a real pain cause you CANT get all the sealant out so as soon as you hit it with the welder it gasses out and contaminates the weld.

It seems like this car is actually made up of more panels than the Altezza, so it might be more work. Sheesh.

Endo those dimples look nice but i dont have a press. I can get use of one but i havent decided if its nsesary to fill that hole yet.

Another reason i like the drill and fill method is i think it leads to less warpage. You are welding in the middle of the panel so the shrinkage pulls evenly instead of along the edge of the sheet. I might be completly wrong about that though.

Started welding the shocktowers tonight

Gt the other side done too and started on the seam on the firewall. That one is tough because there is seam sealant inbetween the metal layers so it messes up the welds alot.

Then i ran out of wire...

Sprayed it with anti-spatter spray to protect it a bit. no silicone so wont affect  when i clean it off to paint it. Also highlights the contaminated welds. They are black for whatever reason.