On this page, you'll find the latest news and changes to the project!
The most recent changes are posted on top, and very old news will probably be deleted after a while.
Sunday September 11th 2011
BIG CHANGE OF PLANS!!!
With pain in my heart I had to say farewell to my first car and the car that started it all: My Corolla AE92 Hatchback.
I had big plans for the car and she hasn't driven in years. But in that time, the body of the car got very, very bad. And looking at her realisticly, it would have taken way to much work and money to restore her to her former glory. So it was best to just let her go while I still could.
But like I said. I had some big plans for that car and was always on the lookout for good parts for her.
With the car gone, a lot of the plans and parts I had for the hatchback are going to find their way into the coupé project. So the project is going to make a real step up and the car is going to get some really nice up-grades!
I managed to get a complete ABS system out of a AE111 a few years ago and I would like to try and get it up and running in the coupé, which would make a nice addition to the braking system.
But the biggest news is that the 4A-GE will not be returning into the car!
I had a 2nd gen 4A-GZE engine lyng around the shop, which was supposed to go into the hatchback. Now the 4A-GE already had a complete overhaul and was pretty much ready to run. But when I have to make the choise between a engine that might churn out 130hp with modifications and a engine that makes 165hp stock with room to grow, well that choise wasn't that difficult.
But a lot of plans are going through my mind for this engine. Give me some time to work things out and see what is possible and I'll post the changes and mods for the project up as soon as I've got everything clear for myself. So pretty exciting times for the project!
Sunday July 17th, 2011
There haven't been very much up-dates on the site lately, but there was still work done behind the scenes.
I'm still busy to get the body sorted out. And one of the things that was still on my list of things to do were the hoodlifters. Apart from some welding, I have them pretty much ready.
To see how this was done, look at 'The project > The progress > The body' page.
The photoalbum has also been updated with the latest photo's that were taken durig the project.
Saturday May 28th, 2011
Well, I finally have a chance to work on the website again. Time for a big-up-date!
First, I would like to appologize for taking this long to up-date the site again. It might sound a bit corny, but I have been very busy these last few months.
I have bought a new house for me and my family, a pretty big change in our lives again which took some time to sort everything out. We will be moving in December, so I'll be a little busy then too.
I'm also in the process of starting my own little part-time company:
I'm still working out a few things for this and that takes some time as I want to do it right.
But I have already made a brand new website for it. It is all in Dutch, so I guess all you foreign visitors won't really understand what it's all about. But the pictures will probably show you what I'm doing.
So if you're curious, just take a look:
It has been very busy at work aswell. I've been away for work a lot and had to put in some overtime the last few months. But dispite all of that, the project continued!
I'm still mainly working on the body of the car. Since the last up-date, I've placed a new antenna, found out the car has have considerable frontal damage which I'm trying to fix. And I received a new bumper from the other side of the globe again!
All the pictures that were taken during all of this (and it were quite a lot) ahve been uploaded to the photoalbum, the plans page has been up-dated, I've placed some new links on the links page and everything that has been done on the car thusfar can be read and seen on 'the progress' pages.
Monday Januari 3rd, 2011
I want to take the opportunity to wish all my visitors a happy, and damagefree new year.
Pfoe, the project is entering it's 6th year already! Time just seems to fly right by and last year was no exeption.
Looking back, I've made some progress in 2010, although mostly small. But hey, even that has to be done.
I'm going to do my best to make even more progress on this project in 2011.
On one of the last days of the year, I've spend on more evening in the workshop to get some things done.
All the bitumen has been removed from the interior of the body:
You can read all about this on 'the body' page, that can be found under the progress.
And in the other evenings this week, when I got around to it, I translated some more tech talk articles!
New articles that can be found on the tech talk pages:
Koni, Cylinderhead, Torque, Cranckshaft and the Lambda probe.
Hope you learn something from them and enjoy them. More updates to come!
And a little something just for fun:
I have looked at my website statistics for last year and here are some numbers it came up with:
In 2010 I have had a total of 24.877 pageviews.
With this, I have a avarage of 2000 pageviews per month
These pages were viewed by 6.618 unique visitors
That avarages out to about 18 people on the site everyday.
All these visitors came from a total of 102 different countries!
The top 5 of countries that visit my website most:
Netherlands
United States
Belgium
Great Britain
Canada
I have absolutely no idea if that are good numbers for a website like mine. But I was pleased to read it and was veyr happy with these numbers. It means that a lot of peole can still find my website.
I would like to thank you all for that!
Saturday December 25th, 2010
First of all: A mery christmas to all my visitors!
Yes, it's christmas and since I have already fullfilled all my social obligations for today, I had some time to spare an relax. So I thought I'd give all of you loyal followers of my adventures with the project car a little present.
An update on the body of the car and especially for all of you, I have translated 4 new tech articles!
The update on the body can be read on 'the body' pages under the progress which can be found on the project page on this website.
The new Tech articles can be found on the 'Tech talk' pages.
New TechTalk articles:
Throttle body, Intake manifold, ITB's and the Catalitic converter
Happy reading!
Tuesdag December 14th, 2010
Eventhough I picked up on my weekly evenings in the workshop again, I've been kind of busy with other things than the car thusfar. But don't worry, the car has had some attention aswell over the last couple of weeks.
But before work on the car continued, we had to do a little work on the workshop itself aswell.
After a good year, we found it was time to finally hook up the water in the workshop. So me and my brother (Who also uses the workshop) got busy with connecting the water mains and installed a close-in boiler.
So now we enjoy the luxury of having cold and hot streaming water in the workshop!
It's very nice to be able to wash your hands after a long, hard evening of work.
Now that the workshop has become an ever better place to spend some time, my attention turned to the car again. I still had my shiny new bumper lying on the ground, while it should be hanging on the car.
My progress on the bumper can be read on 'the body' pages.
'The plans' page has had a little update aswell.
Some of the plans have changed over the last couple of weeks.
Amongst these changes are the sidemarkers that the USDM Corolla features. They will not find their way back onto the car. The holes that are in the body now will be welded shut, so the car will look a little cleaner.
Same goes for the antenna. After seeing a picture of another Corolla coupé with it's antenna extended I found it to look a little cheap and not that good at all. So change of plans on that department aswell.
I'm thinking of a nice, automatic extending antenne on the rear of the car.
All in all, you guys have something to read again on this website. All the new pictures have found their way into the photoalbum as well!
Friday October 15th, 2010
Like I already said in the last up-date, I've been very busy with looking for a specific bumper for my car.
They are pretty rare and very wanted in AE92 circles, but I got lucky.
After a long, hard search on the internet and a tip on club4AG.com, I managed to locate one in Toronto Canada!
So I contacted the seller and luckily, the bumper was still available. It was almost complete and in excellent condition. With all the costs of shipping it across the atlantic ocean, it became a very expensive bumper. But I just had to have it!
After a long flight half way across the world and some waiting for it to clear customs, I finally had some time to pick it up today. I'm very pleased with it!
A perfect fit into my daily driver!
Everything that's worth while has to come from far, is a saing we have here.
Well packed
And here it is! My very own Trueno Zenki bumper and it is practically complete
It came complete with the mounting brackets, lighting and even the wiring looms. Only thing that's missing is the 'Trueno' emblem that goes into the grille. I'm still looking for that, which isn't easy. If I really can't find one, then I might consider making my own replica.
But there will be an emblem in that bumper.
But if anyone finds one anywhere, please contact me as I'm very interessted!
Furthermore, there has been an up-date on 'The body' pages of this website and pictures added to the photoalbum.
Sunday August 15th, 2010
Although I'm pretty busy with work, maintenance on the Carina E GTi and work for the Corolla Club NL, I'm still very busy with this project.
I've had some good news that might help speed this project along a bit, but I'll tell more about this when things are sure and setteld.
I'm also searching for other bumpers for the car.
Achter giving it some close consideration, I've dicided not to use the bumpers that came with the car anymore.
They are made of a strange, very soft kind of plastic. So I'm afraid that with time, the paint will crack or chip off the bumper. The way they are mounted to the car is not to my liking aswell and because they don't really have any strenght in them with that soft plastic, they tend to sagg of disform.
And to make it all worse, there is some kind of foamrubber behind the bumpercover. Together with the heavy, metal beam it is all mounted to makes that the bumper sticks out on the front.
The Japanese bumpers are made of ABS plastic and they are mounted the same way our Euro spec bumpers are mounted to the car. That means without metal beam and without the foamrubber.
And to top it all off, they don't stick out that much and they look way better if you ask me.
This is the bumper I'm looking for:
A AE92 Trueno Sprinter Zenki bumper.
So far, I haven't had any luck on locating one. Even in Japan, the AE92 parts are getting rare. But I'll keep looking! They should still be out there somewhere.
Sunday March 28th, 2010
Yesterday, the Corolla Club NL had it's openingsmeeting for this year and I was there. One of the guys there had a few packages for me. One of them contained a very nice JDM goodie.
Straight from Japan, a AE92 digital dashboard!:
When it is installed in the car and wired correctly, it should look something like this:
I'm very happy with this rare item. Peter, thank you very much!
Sunday February 28th, 2010
And there are a few things that got done!
Like fabricating my own pedalset!
Want to know how I made these? Take a look at 'the interior' page and you can read all about it.
All the pictures can be found in the photoalbum aswell!
But there is more that got done. The main clutch cilinder for instance
Wednesday February 10th, 2010
Alright, it's been a while since the site was updated for what I here by apologize.
But I did have a very good reason! My life has been very hectic the last few weeks.
On the 3rd of January I became a father again!
Our beautiful daughter Naomi was born that day!
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But when the dust settled, a few things did get done on the car again!
A lot of the dashmounting and supports have been cleaned up, the steeringcolumn has been overhauled, I made a custom handbrakelever, the fueltank got done, I gave the Cusco header some attention and a lot more got done!
Take a look at 'The progress' pages to see what got done and how I did it.
All the pictures that were taken during the work are already uploaded to the photoalbum.
So you guys should have enough to read again!
Saturday December 25th, 2009
A few things got done! This time, some of ther interior parts received some attention.
You can read about it in 'the interior' page.
All of the pictures taken during the work have already been placed in the photoalbum!
Thursday December 10th, 2009
Something actually got done to the car itself again today! The engine mounts could use a good cleanup and some modifications.
The writeup for this can be found on 'the engine' page and all the pictures are placed in the photoalbum!
Sunday November 22nd, 2009
I've uploaded three more tech articles today!
Articles placed:
Compression, Compression ratio and Differential
Friday November 20th, 2009
I've translated and uploaded some tech talk articles today. I'm very busy translating and writing more, but it takes a lot of time to make and translate these articles. So come back for more if you like them!
Articles placed today:
ATB, ABS, AFM, Blueprinting, Sparkplug, Bluetop, Blacktop and CAI
Check it out in the Tech talk section!
Sunday November 15th, 2009
Like I said before, the whole project moved to another location. I've been very busy transforming a empty shed into a nice workshop for 4 people.
Among others, I had to completly install all the electrics and lighting, make a stairs to the upper floor and make a hoist arm.
I made a few pictures of moving the whole project and everything in my old workshop with it, and setting up the new workshop.
Below are some of the pictures that can also been seen in the photoalbum now!
Thursday October 15th, 2009
The new site is, like you can see, finally on-line! And now with an english section aswell!
It is not 100% complete yet, so give me a few weeks time to finish it.
With this new site, especially in the beginning, there are some bugs to sort out.
So if you find anything that you think isn't right or can be improved, please let me know!
Monday September 14th, 2009
I regret the fact that it had been a while since there was an up-date. But I have some very good reasons for that! There has been a lot happening the past few months.
Like my regular visitors may have noticed: The entire site has been changed (and I hope) improved aswell!
That on it's own has been a lot of work and it has cost me many evenings behind the computer.
Espessially since I had to built the whole site twice becauce as you can see, it's now available in English aswell.
I noticed there was some interest from abroad. But since the old site was entirely in my native language, most of you probably couldn't make heads or tails of it. That's why I dicided to go a little more internaional.
I hope you guys can appriciate the effort.
Other news is that the entire project has been relocated!
My old shed was going to be torn down and I had to turn in the keys by the first of September this year.
So a new location had to be found if I wanted to finish the project.
It wasn't easy to find something suitable and affordable. So I had to improvise. I found a new, very nice shed with a lot of space. But the rent was way to high for me to cough up every month. So now I share the shed with 3 other guys with projectcars.
This way I did have a little less space. But all in all, I think my situation has improved.
I now have a oil- dense floor, it's isolated, decent electrics and lighting, water, a nice big entrance for the car, and a second level for storage.
I probably don't have to worry about rust on my parts, spills on the floor, wind, theft and such anymore.
On a more personal change in my life: I'm going to be a father again!
My girlfriend is pregnant for a few months now and the baby is due the fourth of Januari 2010.
So I'm afraid I will probably be a little busy around that time again. But I'll try to keep the updates coming!
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Friday Januari 23rd, 2009
Last weekend a friend of mine and fellow AE92 driver/enthousiast paid me and the project a visit. He ordered a 4A-GZE frontcut from Japan and and he had some coupé parts he was not going to use in his Liftback. Well if he wasn't going to use them, maybe I could do something with it. Peter, thanks again man!
So I've got some parts to ad to my collection. Since the frontcut came from Japan, all the stuff is for a RHD car. So I probably can't use most of it, but you never know. You can never have to much spare parts I always say. The part I liked most and wich I defenetly am going to use is the JDm Trueno steering wheel! A whole lot better than the original steeringwheel and quite rare outside Japan!
In time, it will be refurbished of course with the rest of the interior.
I also bought 2 new tools that will make my life a little easier. A brake bleeder and a device to centre the clutchplates.
My tool collection is still growing!
But there was some bad news aswell this week. The shed where I have made my workshop and where the project has been housed since the start is going to be demolished! It's planned to go down somewhere after the summer. So I will have to move all my stuff. But sadly I haven't found another place yet. But I still have some time and I'm still looking. I will keep you all posted off course.
Thursday Januari 15, 2009
I posted a new tech article again today and updated one that was already on-line. I also remembered that I still owed you guys a picture of the overhauled startermoter. I finished it a while ago, but I never came around to post the result. There is a picture of that now in 'the engine' page.
New article: The sparkplug. Altered article: The ignition.
Monday Januari 12th, 2009
With the old saying in mind: Better late than never: A happy new year and a lot of damage free miles to you all!
The project is already entering it's fourth year! Time flies when you're having fun.
I know there hasn't been much done last year and to be really honest, I didn't really like that. Thats why I've got a new years resolution! I'm going to try and go to the shed every tuesday.
The first tuesday of this year I honoured my resolution. But with a temperature of -10° Celcius there wasn't much I could do. So I tidied up the place a bit and took the brakebooster apart. But you'll read about that later.
I posted 2 new tech articles on the site agian: New articles: The igniter and the distributor
There are more articles to come!
Tuesday December 30, 2008
During a short vacation with a laptop at my disposal, I made a lot of new tech articles.
New articles: CAI, airfilters, throttlebody, intakemanifold, combustionchamber, torque, poweroutput, startermotor, timingbelt, V-belt, ignition, shopmanual.
I also updated 'the plans' page with everything that changed and has been done up to now. The 'links' page has been updated with two new links (russell 'ozone's' site and the Toyota Nation forum).
Wednesday October 21st, 2008
A a package finally arrived today, all the way from the US of A! I found this bargain on the Toyota Nations forum and it was exactly what I had been looking for!
It's a Cusco 'powerball' exhaust header. A very rare header developed for the 4A-GE 16V! As you can see, the header gets is't name from the ball shaped collector where the 4 runners merge. In contrast to other header on the market toda, the Cusco is a very nice piece of craftmanship. I am very pleased that I found it and am very curious what it will do once it is installed and running
Wednesday September 3rd, 2008
I wrote a small tech article today about the pistonrods. As usual, you can find it in the tech talk section of the website!
Sunday August 31st, 2008
Today I started the overhaul of the startermotor. The story and the pictures can be found in 'the engine' section of the website.
Thursday July 24th, 2008
And once again, a few tech articles have found their way to this website! The head of the engine is explained, as is the cranckshaft and I try to explain what a non- interference engine is and what TDC means. And has any of you ever heard of the term Squish before? I try to explain what it is.
Saturday July 6th, 2008
I wrote another tech article! This time I try to explain what the block is. There are still a lot of articles to come!
Wednesday June 25th, 2008
Today I changed some things on 'the mechanic' page, to up-date it to my current situation.
Saturday June 21st, 2008
I went to my workshop today to reorganize a bit. I had to make more room for the Corolla hatchback which will keep the coupé company in a while. Everything is all cleaned up and sorted again. Works nicer like this again.
Friday June 20th, 2008
There is some progress again, you can read about it on 'the body' page.
Wednesday June 4th, 2008
After thinking for a long time about it, the inevitable could no longer be postponed. My first car, which was still my daily driver has to be put aside. Technically the car is still going strong, but the body is really rusting away. So I diceded to stop driving the car and store it, while I'm still able to save it. Because of it's age and milage (The thing already had 365.000km's on it) a few parts were starting to wear, so it would probably not pass it's MOT anymore. It was better to store it and let it wait for better times.
After a extensive search, a replacemant was found! Since we were a family now, it was time for a bigger car with more room than a hatchback could give. But I also preferred it be be a car with a bit of power in it. And off course it had to be a Toyota. That narrowed down my search a bit. And so I bought a Toyota Carina E GTi! (I believe in other county's they were named Corona) And the funny thing is: It's from the same year as the Corolla HB! (1992)
The new daily driver!
For those of you who don't know these cars: This is again a pretty rare car with a Toyota 2000cc 156bhp 3S-GE engine (The same engine that was used in the MR2 and the Celica). Other nice features on these cars that differ them from other Carina's are the brake discs front and rear, the exhaust on both sides, the sports interior with the very nice seats and the most special of all: A superstrut suspension with the twin caliper brakes that go with it.
The car has all the luxuries you could wish for like power steering, central door locking with remote, power windows front and rear, cruise-control, electric and heated mirrors, etc. It's a very nice car and we will probably enjoy it for a long time to come.
Saturday May 18th, 2008
Two new tech articles were placed today.
New articles: Camshafts and pistons.
Tuesday April 8th, 2008
I've got a new job since a week! I now work at MRC Middelburg. This job is a lot closer to home for me. That should mean that there is more time that I can spend on the Coupé project, because now I don't have to drive 200km's a day anymore! I'm very glad with it.
I also placed 3 new Tech articles today! Check the Tech talk pages!
New articles: Blueprinten, compression and compressionratings
I hope you guys can use them!
Saturday Februari 23rd, 2008
It's already 2008 and I regret that I wasn't able to update the site sooner. 2008 has already been a very busy year for me. We just finished our new house and now I live together with my girlfriend Hanneke and son Luuk.
Buying and fixing up a house takes a tremendous amount of time. I'm affraid that coused the project to come to a total stop. But I prommis, that now I have a little bit more free time on my hands again, I'll spend a little off it on the Coupé. It is obviously going to take me way longer to fish the project, now that I also have a family to support and a mortgage to pay every month. But trust me, however long it's going to take. The project will be finished one day!
Saturday November 3rd, 2007
The coupé has been suspended for another year! So as far as out gouverment goes, I don't have to pay taxes and such for the car for another year!
Monday Oktober 15th, 2007
I went to a clubmeeting yesterday and I was able to pick something up there. I had found a very nice scalemodel on E-bay a while ago and I just couldn't resist. Since I'm not that formiliar with E-bay, a guy in out club who is offered to help me out. (Thanks again Martijn!)
It's a rare, unbuild scalemodel of a Toyota Corolla AE92 GT-Z trueno coupé! Very rare these days since they stopped making these for years!
When I come around to it, it will be but together.
Monday Oktober 8th, 2007
The work on the Corolla has been stopped for a while now. I'm currently helping my parents to move to a new place. And when that is done, me, my girlfriend and her son are going to live together in our own new place! That means we have another house to fix up and then we heve got to move our own stuff. Everybody will understand that is going to take some time and money. But it surtainly has more priority than the Corolla projectcar.
As soon as we're done and settled, I'm going to start work on the coupé again. So keep visiting this website for the latest updates! |
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