With my 86 running good for almost one year, Im really happy the way the car turned out. It was rough 1.5yrs build it, but at least all the major issues are fixed, and minor ones are easy fixes that didn’t hinder my seat time.

In one of the group chats I was in, one the guys was selling their NOLA Gridlife driver ticket. Since it was discounted, I said “fuck it” and bought the driver ticket. I guess I have to track prep the 86. The last event was about 3 weeks ago at the Knuckle Up drift event.

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The car ran great, no issues. I just had to flush my brakes and change the oil. Turns out when I was about to flush my brake fluid, I noticed the rear caliper seal was starting to leak.

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Typical me, I didn’t inspect the the car till a week before the Gridlife NOLA. That life, sometimes stuff happens unexpectedly, this probably explains why my brakes felt spongy at Knuckle Up. Unfortunately, the Toyota dealerships didn’t have a seal kit in stock and was a 3 week delivery time. Luckly Rockauto had the aftermarket brands in stock, but I paid extra for 2 day shipping.

Then about 2hrs after buying from Rockauto, Danh messaged me he had an OEM one in stock. Thankfully he was willing to sell it to me, and I was able to replace the old seals in the rear caliper. This video helped me out:

The processes wasnt too hard and took me about 3hrs to do the replace both seals. You do need a special service tool to replace a O ring, but I skipped that step becuase on the 4age forums, people said its hard to put back in without the SST. Unfortunately, the SST is not made anymore and kinda expensive if you do find it. Not really with it for a tool I might use once. Thankfully no leaks.

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With new rear brake seals, the front passenger had brake pad issues. It wore unevenly, I think it was from the leaking seal, and sticking caliper pin. Always grease the pins. Thankfully Harris was able to overnight me Hawk HP pads and Battle Garage was able to 2 day ship Porterfield RS-4 pads. I ended up using the Hawk HP because it more track oriented.

So with the 86 all ready, I was able to make it to Gridlife by Friday night. I paid for the 2 day event, and planned to camp, at the track, till Monday morning.

This was my first time attending Gridlife, but with the covid pandemic happening, the music festival was gone. From what I was told, the prior Gridlife events felt like Forza Horizon. Car and music festival all in one. A more lively atmosphere then just a track day.

Regardless, I still had fun and met old and new friends. The cars out at Gridlife was top notch, show car worthy. I like it when cars that look clean are actually driven for the intended purpose and not hard parked. I like the car shows, but it just cooler when they get driven. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to attend more Gridlife events.