I need a play thing to mess with while I work out how the Previa is gonna go down. I've been doing some research about AE-86 and I think I'd like to get one to turn into a street drifter/daily driver. I looked at one today, I need advice from those of you familiar with 86s.
Here goes, today I looked at a 1985 Corolla GT coupe (it was listed as a GT-S but the lettering on the car was only GT). The car had 277 000 kms on it. Also, there was a lot of rust on the fenders and the brakes were very soft. The price was $1500 CDN which would translate into something like $1100 USD the seller also made it clear, when I decided not to make an offer today, that the price was very flexible. I think I could probably get the car for $900CDN ($675 USD). The rust on the fenders had not eaten through the body but it was bubbling severly enough that the body panels would probably have to be replaced altogether or heavily modified. There was also some rust on the sunroof and trunk lid as well as the rocker panels. The strut towers were clean, and the engine and drivetrain seemed sound (to my untrained eyes). The brakes were concerning as they had much less grab, then the disc and drum combo on my Previa. It sort of felt like the car was just engine braking, and not actually using the brakes at all. I suspect that the master cylinder is faulty. My question to all of you is: should I buy this car and spend money on it to restore it to good condition, or should I simply wait and spend more money on a better condition hatchback? Also, is the aftermarket support for the 86 hatch the same as the coupe? I believe that they are both based on the same chassis so any suspension mods, or engine swaps would work equally well on either vehicle, but I wonder if the abundance of aftermarket body parts that are available for the 86 hatch would be available for the coupe in equal abundance? If this is the case could I simply buy aftermarket fender flares and have them put onto the Corrolla instead of trying to restore or replace the OEM ones? If this is the case I think I would buy the Corrola and simply fix the parts that are wrecked by doing them according to the standards I would like to have the car built to anyways.
The underlying theme here is money. I don't have a very large buget for this project, and I would like to not only make it look good again, but also modify the suspension and possibly swap the engine. Could the above-mentioned problems be remedied fairly easily?
Sorry, one last thing, could you suggest to me a site where I could learn about/purchase items for the Corolla GT-S coupe?
Here goes, today I looked at a 1985 Corolla GT coupe (it was listed as a GT-S but the lettering on the car was only GT). The car had 277 000 kms on it. Also, there was a lot of rust on the fenders and the brakes were very soft. The price was $1500 CDN which would translate into something like $1100 USD the seller also made it clear, when I decided not to make an offer today, that the price was very flexible. I think I could probably get the car for $900CDN ($675 USD). The rust on the fenders had not eaten through the body but it was bubbling severly enough that the body panels would probably have to be replaced altogether or heavily modified. There was also some rust on the sunroof and trunk lid as well as the rocker panels. The strut towers were clean, and the engine and drivetrain seemed sound (to my untrained eyes). The brakes were concerning as they had much less grab, then the disc and drum combo on my Previa. It sort of felt like the car was just engine braking, and not actually using the brakes at all. I suspect that the master cylinder is faulty. My question to all of you is: should I buy this car and spend money on it to restore it to good condition, or should I simply wait and spend more money on a better condition hatchback? Also, is the aftermarket support for the 86 hatch the same as the coupe? I believe that they are both based on the same chassis so any suspension mods, or engine swaps would work equally well on either vehicle, but I wonder if the abundance of aftermarket body parts that are available for the 86 hatch would be available for the coupe in equal abundance? If this is the case could I simply buy aftermarket fender flares and have them put onto the Corrolla instead of trying to restore or replace the OEM ones? If this is the case I think I would buy the Corrola and simply fix the parts that are wrecked by doing them according to the standards I would like to have the car built to anyways.
The underlying theme here is money. I don't have a very large buget for this project, and I would like to not only make it look good again, but also modify the suspension and possibly swap the engine. Could the above-mentioned problems be remedied fairly easily?
Sorry, one last thing, could you suggest to me a site where I could learn about/purchase items for the Corolla GT-S coupe?
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