My Car is a POS. (PICS. Lots.)

[Al]

Some of you might know me or not.

Im just another Drifting Enthusiast. I have been drifting for quiet sometimes. Alex P. was my personal trainee at Touge heheeh. We used to go out all the time when he used to live in the Bay Area (S.F) then he moved out to L.A.

Thru out the years, I've gone to hundreds of track days. Not just drifting but road racing also. I've been doing my own Private Drifting Event at Buttonwillow that I can concentrate on low participant with 200 MILES of seat time.

Lets just say, I've lay low for quiet sometimes.

I started to compete with the Big Boys this year. Starting at Formula D which didn't do so good. Then D1 at August which my car was pretty much *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* UP!

With all the Hundreds of hours abusing the car, I have no time to prep the car. I work. I have a family and all I want to do is DRIVE. I go out to events every week so my car needs a refreshing!

Thanks to sponsor guys at Techno Toy Tuning (T3). After D1 they took my car for some refreshing.

Heres a couple of pics from T3 and what they have done to my car.

-Al

ps. Note that Im copying and pasting from Club4ag.com.
here is the link...

http://forums.club4ag.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=80476

TruenoCoupe's Car is a pile of Crap and And this is What T3 is gonna do about it.

Some of you may know, Al Lagura (fictional character "Trueno-Coupe" here on the boards) is our sponsored Drifter. He is actually a very skilled drifter and has the experience, drive, charisma and borderline insanity to do well in competition.

I had the opportunity to drive his orange 20Valve Coupe on Friday and was completely appalled at the hunk of crap it is.

Al drives this car like a Madman and nearly every pic you see of the car on the track is with the tires smoking and it is near completely sideways. I do NOT understand how he can drive this piece of junk this well and am really excited to see what he can do with a car that is not falling apart around him.

Right now the car is little more than a "sad shopping cart on mild steroids". We plan to work this car into more of a "Go Kart on Crack".

Some basic issues that were immediately apparent with the car:

1. The shift unit works nearly not at all (hello, where is ANY GEAR?)
2. The brakes are non-existent (why won't this car stop)
3. Starters dead (ok, come push me back onto the track and push start the car please?)
4. Steering rack is shot, tie rods are shot. It's like steering a hovercraft.
5. TC rods are shot, wheels move back and forth 3/4" or so
6. Rear axle is bent "wobble wobble wobble"
7. Rear suspension is tore up. Car was so low it was binding up all the suspension and running on the bump stops. Please, can we have some travel here?
8. Starter wire was hanging down, making contact with the exhaust manifold and cutting out the motor
9. Sideskirts are duct taped on (most of the front bumper is now made of duct tape also
10. Front fenders are beat to crap, rear bumper is falling off.
11. Missing front drivers window as well as nearly all window trim
12. Wiring looks like a rats nest
13. More stuff I'm sure we'll find once we dig into the car.

After the D1 drivers search, we decided to take the car away from Al and up to our shop for the next 2 weeks to prep and repair it for the upcoming Formula D event at Irwindale on the 29th.

I'm sure TruenoCoupe will be totally pissed that we are exposing his cars "personal life" on the boards, but he really does deserve it for all the crap he give you guys It's time to have some fun at HIS Expense!!!

But, really, it is a tribute to his driving skill that he can even drive this thing.

Our main goals for the car are to get it back in tight working condition again; a proper drift car that behaves and drives like it should. The cosmetics are only secondary.

We will post daily photo updates on the car as we dig into it and get it back up to speed. All work will be done in the evenings, so updates will come late or the next day.

[Al]

First update from T3.

Theres more....

Alright, First update:

Tim Wehe from X-Zost Garage and Brian Jensen (BigBri on the boards) are helping overhaul this car from top to bottom with me. They are both Extremely qualified mechanics and very good fabricators.

I'm really starting to like this orange pile of crap. It's got character from its 100's of hours of drift use. The chassis is straight and good. All the unneccesary parts have been stripped off already and things such as beating in the fender wells have already been done. The engine bay is really not bad and very spare, just the way I like it. The cage in the car is pretty darn nice. The SDS engine management system seems fairly straightforward and tuneable.

Overall I think this car is going to be fun to work on, and I can't wait to see and drive the final results.

We went to pull the sparkplugs this evening to give it a tune-up and found the spark plug wells full of oil. Apparently the valve cover gaskets are not doing their job. Luckily Brian Jensen is a tech at Toyota and recognizes the "donut seals" from another model Toyota. He'll be able to get that fixed right away. He went ahead and pulled the whole valve cover and will take it in to work tomorrow to press out the old and install the new seals.

[Tuner]

Awesome!


BTW How do you like the SDS System?

[Al]

SDS is a great systems if you are not so peaky with little things.

Its very simple to set up so I had no problem with it. Its easier to deal with I guess and very, very easy to tune IMO.

-Al

[Al]

[blue][size=5]Day 2[/size=5]
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Left the machine shop and met up with Brian at my house to start work on the car around 6pm. A few minutes after I get home, we get a call from Tim Wehe. He apparently just purchased a clean '86 GTS coupe today and took it to the car wash. I TOLD him 4AG's don't like to be pressure washed. Car wouldn't run, so we had to go save his hide and get him a new cap and spark plugs.

Ahh well....At least now he knows why I am always timid about pressure washing engines. The 4AG taught me well! (I've spent an hour with a blowdryer at 3AM in the morning before a drift day trying to get the sucker to run.)

We all got to my house around 7pm and started work on the car again. Brian Jensen had found time to fix the leaky spark plug well and valve cover gaskets so threw those on.

We put the car up on jackstands and pulled the wheels, hood, fenders, sideskirts and front bumper off. Front fenders and bumper are trash now.

Couple things of note:

1. Bolt holding rear TRD shock on was missing!!! (TRD shocks are still good though! We'll probably turn them into coilovers).

2. Front control arm was bent to hell and back from when Al forgot to tighten the lug nuts on his wheels and went skating down the freeway. I TOLD Al to replace the control arm before the last 3 events, but he doesn't listen too well Looks like a good "Pick N Pull" run for us this weekend.

3. Old spark plug wires were totally jello from being soaked in oil for so long.

4. Pulled the shifter unit and it was indeed missing ANY kind of bushings at all. NO BUSHINGS...NONE....What the hell?

I built Al a replacement shifter unit today with stock throw, but all Delrin bushings, internal and external. Dropped that puppy into place and now his shifter is "money". Perfect precise shifts. We thought about going to the short shift kit, but SSK's have a bit of a learning curve and I don't want to throw that at him with no practice time.

Tim picked up a set of Mallory custom spark plug wires to replace the jello ones. Brian was able to get new Denso spark plugs for the motor. The old spark plugs were pretty much totally fried.

Started prepping the new front bumper. We always do the following before paint and assembly:

1. Spray the backside of the bumper with rubberized undercoating. This helps provide a bit more strength and keeps the bumper from coming completely apart on impact.

2. re-inforce th bumper with two alluminum L bar straps. This greatly increases the strength of the bumper and makes sure everything stays straight and doesn't sag as much.

Tim spent most of the evening under the dash trying out his contortionist moves over the roll bar and trying to clean up the wiring rats nest.

We mounted the new (read: replacement) fenders and marked out our cutting line on them. We'll completely cut off the lip edge around the fender to make plenty more clearance for the wheels and tires (we'll get to that tomorrow).

And what the Hell is this that we pulled out from under Trueno-Coupe's seat? Has he been having a party in here????

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Edited by - Gabriel Tyler on 08/18/2004 09:57:14

[Raziel]

Al your cars a mess. Will they do mine next?

[ausdrifter]

sweet ride man, should wash the car.
BTW drift on brother.

[URMachines]

i like the car man, keeo it up!!
i have a question though, how is the power of the 20v compared to the stock 4age??

[Al]

Day 3

We hit the car again today about 7pm. Tim and Brian finished cleaning up the wiring under the dash and running the spark plug wires in to the coil. Buttoned down the plug wire cover with Stainless Button Head allen bolts.

Picked my line and cut the hell out of the fenders with the air "saws-all". Little bit of clean up and evening up with the dremel tool and we are good to go. Following the line of the bevel all the way forward and cutting the front bumper to match will insure that there is no rubbing issues at the point where the bumper meets the fender.

Removed the Tie-Rods from the steering rack. We were going to replace the power rack with a manual rack but decided to do a "lock to lock" test to see if there was really any mechanical advantage in the the swap. Both manual and power racks are 3.25 turns, lock to lock.

We will be making new tie rods for the car that use a spherical rod end for the steering knuckle mounting point. We'll also space the steering tie rods down by about an inch for further bump steer reduction on this ultra low car. The rod ends will also free up the steering a bit.

Went to remove the lower control arm and noticed that BOTH BOLTS holding the TC rod to the driver side control arm were MISSING. No wonder his tires would shift around so much! How has this car not ended crashed and burned??? Al must have the luck of the Gods. I'm just going to shake my head and keep on going on the car.

See his nifty pedal set? He needed a wider pedal so he could put both feet side by side next to one another, so he TAPED a pedal onto the gas pedal... I'll be machining a "wide pedal set" for the car that will bolt on (or maybe I'll just re-tape it on?)

About 11pm I stepped out of the garage and felt a major sting on my stomach. I slap at it and a stupid Yellow Jacket flies into the garage. What kind of Bee is up at 11PM?? Thing must of been rabid. Second time it dive bombed me I'm running/hopping around the garage slapping all over myself, glasses flying, yelling like a crazed ape. WHAT the HELL is your problem!!! Leave ME ALONE. All kinds of grunting and URGHHH noises. The neighbors probably thought a Sasquatch was making love in the garage. That's ok, it's good to make 'em wonder [/size=4][/blue]

[Al]

Day 4, I think....

I think this is day 4? We're a little tired over here. Between the 3 guys who had Mexican food for dinner and the paint fumes, we are all a little baked in a way that I'm sure is not healthy. It's ok, it's worth it! It's for the sake of on a AE86!

Built a set of rear coilovers off of Al's old TRD short stroke shocks. Hmm...these TRD shocks are made by KYB. They look an awful lot like the AGX's we use on our rear coilovers...easy to work with at least!

Brian and Tim did an oil change on the car and we were all a little suprised to find that.........

THERE WAS ONLY 1.5 Quarts of OIL In the ENGINE!!!! And it looked like it had been in there since the motor was imported from Japan. This is plain disrespect for the motor. I think we need to borrow MayanWarrior's gigantic Spoon and paddle Al's butt for this one. You can bet sure as Ish that we'll check the oil level on the Diff before we put this car back on the ground.

Brian took the rear rotors to work today and resurfaced them. They were warped pretty badly. Tossed a new set of pads on there too.

Pulled the Wobbly rear drivers side axle out and replaced it with one a bit more true. Once you get the hang of pulling axles it really isn't all that hard.

Installed the rear axle, coilovers and brakes and buttoned the rear of the car back up again. Good, pretty much done with the rear end of the car.

On to the front...Pulled the whole control arm, TC Rod and Steering knuckle assemblies on both sides. Again some serious neglect here. On both sides of the car, the 4 bolts that hold the swaybar/TC rod brackets to the chassis were incredibly loose. On one side all but 1 of the bolts had backed almost completely out.

Went to pull the drivers side control arm off and the ball joint went right through the top of the control arm. When Al drove his car down the freeway with no wheel on that side, it essentially ground the bottom of the ball joint completely off.

At this point I am completely amazed. I have NEVER EVER seen a car with this many loose bolts and nuts. Now I completely understand why the front end felt like piloting a hovercraft. I am very very glad that we got a chance to overhaul this car before something really bad happened.

Backpainted the fenders to prep them for paint.

Used our rubberized undercoating trick on the sideskirts in preparation for paint.

And finally on to lightening the car a bit more. Started cutting out the door panels to shave some more weight. We want to keep the interior trim panels on the door as well as the windows functional. The main part we are trying to remove is the side impact bars in the doors. They are the heaviest and strongest parts of the doors. From a safety standpoint we will be ok, because the car has a very beefy cage with very good side impact protection.

Ordered a starter from Kraggen, but of course everyone knows, they always give you the wrong one the first two times (and they've proved that principal with us again) Maybe the Correct one will come in tomorrow.

We've got a lot more to do to this car by next Thursday, so it's going to be time to kick it into high gear!

[Coiloverkid]

what a PILE!!

get that thing over to my shop so it can exxon-valdez all over my dyno!

[Ghost of Duluth]

Beautiful.

[Ripper]

sweet throttle bodies
and what's the story behind this?

[Vosko]

wow....... you must be happy with the progress!

[nedinic]

NICE CAR