The 86 I bought came with a sunroof, but it wasn’t working and the sunroof was stuck in the “almost closed position.” And because its a track car, the only logical thing to do was to remove it. Having the whole sunroof assembly allows me to have a more room for a future roll cage.

There wasn’t much info on how to remove the sunroof online so I had to learn as I go. Basically remove the headliner and all the bolts, then pull away at that glued seems.

I removed all bolts that was visible (after removing the headliner), but I couldn’t remove the sunroof. As it turn out, I had to removed the headliner on the sunroof itself! The issue was, the sunroof was stuck on the “almost closed position”, so I couldn’t just pull out the headliner. Since Im going to throw away the sunroof, I took a knife and cut thought the headliner. and this gave me access to the bolts holding the sunroof.

Here are the exposed bolts after removing the sunroof headliner.

After removing the bolts, you just push up on the sunroof and pops right out! Next is removing the sunroof assembly and rails.

You first remove the the screws attaching to the wind breaker. I will portably sell that since its in good condition.

Then you get a flat head screw driver and wedge it between the glued seems. Using a hammer, you break the glued seams. After separating a good portion of the glued seam, then you can pull up and out on the rail assmebly. It should come you easy and not a lot of force. If you find yourself having a difficult time, make sure you remove all the bolts.

The sunroof rail guide are glued in the front position of the car, once you separate the glue from the railings you just slide it out forward.

Next is the removing the sunroof case. After removing all the bolts, it is also held on my glue and you break the seam as you did with the sun roof rail. Use a flathead and hammer.

Once you break the seam, you just apply some downward pressure to continue to break the glue seam. Some might need more then other portions but you get the idea. Dont for get to disconnect the drain hoses.

You can pull out the hose afterwards.

And just like that the whole sunroof assembly is out!!!! Surprisingly its didn’t feel as heavy as I thought it would be. I have big gapping sunroof hole that I will probably seal with a piece of aluminum and JB weld. Another good tip, when doing this, is to have the seats removed for more space. Stay tuned for more updates!!!

Couple days ago, the engine harness maker messaged me that he is almost done with the engine harness and wanted a picture of the TPS. I was pretty excited since, Im hoping the ECU and harness will make the motor run and idle right. So I proceeded to removed the TPS…

Removing the top screw was pretty easy but when I got to the bottom that was a different story. I noticed I was having a harder time losening the screw and I found out the screw was stripped. Ugh, what was suppose to be an easy removed now turned out to be more difficult.

At first, I thought I had to remove the motor to get enough access to use my bolt extractor. But on the 86 group chat I was in, someone mentioned I could just removed the throttle bodies. I didn’t think of it (being a complete noob) but it was a great idea.

I first removed the trumpets then the throttle bodies. The process was pretty straight forward I didn’t need any special tools, just a Allen key, and 10mm socket.

The throttle body adapter has some type of gasket that was actually wrong for the fitment haha. You could tell its was some type of liquid gasket maker the previous person used. Not factory spec, but I guess it worked. I went ahead and ordered the correct gasket for the throttle bodies from SQ Engineering. One nice thing to note are the throttle bodies and trumpets are from a 20v silver top, and the adapter plate is from Techno Toy Tuning (T3).

While the trumpets and throttle bodies are out, I taped up the intake portion just to make sure no debris makes it into the intake.

Im no stranger to striped screws and bolts, and I my bolt extractor made it easy to remove the screw.

With the hard part done, I was able to take good pictures of the TPS for the engine harness maker. Then I went to the bolt supply store to replace the TPS screws, and some other missing bolts I needed for the 86.

The bolt guy was pretty nice, and gave me the bolts for free!!

I went with hex bolts, because they are less prone to strip compared to screws. While Im waiting for the gaskets to arrive, I did some cleaning of the throttle bodies and trumpets. They sure needed it.

I cleaned the throttle bodies with brake cleaner, and hand polished the trumpets.

For the T3 adapter plate, I used a copper brush to remove the remaining gasket, and brake cleaner to remove the carbon build up.

I wonder how clean this will last because I have no future plans to run a filter for my ITBs. I just know that I will will be making frequent oil changes every 1000 miles or after a track event. Maybe I could make more own filters for cheap. Stay tuned!

As Im writing this, I’ve had some engine management issues and been a disappointment. So to stay motivated, I started to work on other parts of the car and just remind myself the end goal. To rip this thing at the track, and just have fun.

I went ahead and finally mount my bucket seats for the 86. Only one problem, the seat mounts I bought on eBay didn’t fit right. Just to let everybody know, do NOT get Weapon R seat brackets. Yeah it is super cheap but damn the quality control is terrible. Learn from my lesson, just go ahead and save money to by legit seat mounts.

The holes never lined up correctly and currently trying to get a refund back from the seller. Mad and disappointed for cheaping out, I went ahead and bought a Buddy Club Racing seat bracket instead. Yes it was more expensive, but there are just some things but I know for sure it was going to fit right.

And sure enough, the Buddy Club Racing seating seat bracket did manage to fit right and I was able to mount the seat lower then the Weapon R seat bracket. Having installed bucket seats before, it went like a breeze.

For anyone doing a bucket seat install, its best to mount everything up loosely to allow for adjustment and alignment.

I put the side mounts on the seat first before putting it on the seat rails. Makes its alot easier this way, because you can slap on a spacer between the seat and the mount to avoid scratches. And once you have everything aligned right, then you can tighten up the bolts!!!

The Status bucket seat is on the Weapen R mount, but not bolted. Just mocked up to show the different of height at its lowest setting too. Im 5’10” and with the Weapon R seat mount, my helmet hits the roof!!

The Buddy Club Racing seat bracket mounts much lower and have helmet clearance.

My helmet fits!!! Next im going to try to remove the sun roof for extra room and less weight. Stay tuned!

After I installed my coilovers, the next thing on the list was put new wheel bearings, extended studs and rotors. I first tackled the front, since my wheel hub was already out.

I had to remove the race and wheel bearings, and you dont really need any special tools for this. I used a hammer and 6″ extension socket. Ill like the youtube video on what help guid me during this install. As you can see the old bearing was pretty dirty and looked like is wasn’t changed for a long time. I probably didn’t really need to do it, but since Ill be tracking it, Im sure these bearings wouldn’t last long.

With the race and bearings removed, its now time to clean out all the grease. I used paper towels to take out most of the grease then brake cleaner.

Next was installing the new races. This is where you need a spacial tool to make sure the races go in evenly.

Thankfully Autozone has a race driver set and lets you rent the tool for free!!

Next was applying high temp wheel grease on the race, to make it easier to slide into the hub. There are two side you have to do.

Then you set the driver in the race and hammer away. There is a notch where the race will sit on, and you will know once you hear a distinct sound when hammering. If you are not sure just look into the hub see if the race is flush to the notch.

Thats what its suppose to look like.

Then you repeat on the other side.

The race and bearings are slanted inside so there only one way to mount them into the hub.

The larger bearing is what you want to seal frist, becuase this is part that will go into the spindle first. Make sure to pack the bearing and hub with lots of grease before putting it into the race. The messier the better.

Then you have to apply the seal after the installing the larger bearing. I used the driver to make sure the seal went in evenly.

With the back side of the hub done, I had to install my extended studs and rotors. Make sure you follow that order, because if you did the rotors first, then you wouldn’t have room for the studs.

Look at the size difference from OEM and extended. I choose extended studs because its stronger, allows more more surface area for the nut, and you can run spacers safely. You don’t really need it for the street, but at the track its a must. The studs go though a lot of stress especially in the corners. You dont want to be snapping studs on a high speed sweeper.

Installing the studs is really quick and easy if you have a impact gun. I used a bigger nut that I didn’t need and another nut that treaded onto the studs. Then is was just basically impacting the stud till it sit flush. If you don’t have an impact for this, then you need a press. Because just using a ratchet and trying to to get the stud to seat right is almost impossible, and tiring.

After installing the studs, you then install the rotors

I replaced my rusty front rotors for new vented Stop Tech rotors. For vented rotors, make sure you install the rotors on the correct side. Mine came labeled on the packaging. If you are not sure here is a link: https://www.zeckhausen.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=6446_6515

Starting to look fresh!

After the studs and rotors, its now time tome to finish the wheel bearings. First is to grease the spindle liberally.

Next was to slide the hub into the spindle. Make sure you don’t get grease on the rotor during installation. But you can use brake cleaner to clean the rotor after everything is installed.

After that, you slide in the smaller wheel bearing and cover. Then you install the nut into the spindle. You torque it to 20lbs, this makes sure the bearings are seated. You then losen the nut to where the hub can spin one full turn. I usually hand tighten the nut then 1/4 turn with ratchet.

Make sure you install the locking pin!! That is was prevents the hub from flying out the spindle!!! you could use the old pin but its best to use a new locking pin after any bearing install.

Then you apply the dust cap. Just hit it with rubber hammer and it will go in. Fresh new parts!!!

The next day I tackled the rear, and everything was just soo rusty! I even broke my cordless my ratchet trying to remove the rear caliper. Looked like the car hasn’t moved for years. There was spiderwebs and dead bugs all over the calipers and rotors. At least its GTS converted, right??

Eventually I was able to remove the rear caliper rotor with a lot of hammering, a stronger impact gun, and a lot of wd40. The rotor was rusted to the axle. Thats why you use anti seize.

Now the issue was trying to get the extended studs into the hub. I loosened the rear bolts that the hub to the axle. This allowed more space to work with.

Once you loosen it, you can move the rear backing to allow more room to slide the stud in.

To remove the old studs, you hammer it out. That part was easy.

Once you slide the extended stud in, then you use the impact gun method.

Impact tools, and cordless tools makes the job soo much easier.

Than you reassemble everything back together!! I didn’t take pics on this part but you get the point. Oh, don’t forget to apply antiseize! After seeing the amount of rust on the bolts the hub, I didn’t want to go though that ordeal again. Joys of having a project car….. you never know what you run into sometimes.

Let me just say, this is my actual true real car build. My past cars I would do mainly maintenance stuff and thats pretty much it. They rest of the parts I would take it to a shop to do the installs. Im more of a driver then a mechanic. But getting involved in this build makes me understand my car better, with that, I’ll be installing my coilovers.

The first thing I tackled on was the front suspension. I was kinda familiar on how to remove it, when I helped Donnie do his suspension on his Carnia. I really do like how simple old Toyotas are simple to work on, you don’t need any special tools to do the work. There are three 10mm bolts on the top strut and 2 bottom bolts that hold the suspenion. Pretty simple and easy.

The stock suspension is alot longer then the coilovers so I had to remove the sway bar connection to get enough room to remove the suspension. Power tools made the work a lot easier. They pay for themselves! Worth the investment if you own a home or even do a lot of wrenching.

New verses old.

What I forgot to do was take measurements of the old suspension, but with a side by side comparison I was able to kinda guess how low I wanted to go. These new coilovers have room to go slammed, if you wanted to.

And removing the wheel hub from the suspension was pretty easy too. I didn’t take any pics because its a messy job. But basically, you remove the dust cap with a hammer and flat head screw driver. That exposes the locking pin, where you use a plier to remover. After that you remover the nut on the spindle, should be loose enough to remove by hand, and then you put the entire wheel hub out!

The wheel bearings install ill do another post. You could use the repack the old bearings but for me I wanted new ones since the car was going to see track time. I do like the fact of not having a front control arm made the front suspension easy to remove. I bolted the front coilover back and moved on to the rear!

When I removed the rear lower bolt for the shock, I thought I stripped or broke off the bolt considering how short it was. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, and is actually the bolt length. Then I removed the top bolt holding the stock, used used the rubber hammer to get the shock out. This worked just fine.

I noticed the the solid rear axle was resting on the exhaust, so I remove a section the exhaust so the rear axle can droop more. The car came with a buddy club exhaust and had a quick release conveniently placed behind the rear axle. The extra droop allowed me to pull out the rear springs.

The AE86 came with Eibach lowering springs but look at the hieght difference!

The collars comes with a lock so you dont have to worry about the springs getting loose.

With any lowered cars, you have to make sure to cut off the bump stops. I know I was going to be pretty low so I opted to cut of a majority of the bump stop.

I could got a lot lower haha, but I did adjust the hight a little to something more functional

I left it with about 1″ wheel gap. I know the suspension will settle more on the ground. I probably had about 3″ more inches to go lower. I didn’t mount the front wheels for test fit, since I didn’t get around to finishing my wheels bearings and extended studs. She is getting there little by little.

If anyone is wondering, the coilovers I bought was from Battle Garage very own product and hasn’t been on the market yet. They come with adjustable dampening and front camber plates. I have front swift springs 8kg and 6kg rears. Its kinda on the stiff side, but the AE86 will mainly see the track time and on r comp tires. If it was going to be a daily or see more street time would get lower springs rates.