AE71 Update

Posted on by

So one car i’ve been keeping kind of on the DL over the last few years is my 1983 Toyota Corolla. I purchased it a few years ago and drove it only for a few months until I overheated and seized the motor.

This is how it sat May 20, 2011.

20130904-201406.jpg

I’d seen a handful of the *e7 corollas out there pop up on the 86 forums, but never really looked in depth at them. I was so confused. Was it a te72? A ke70? An ae71? From my research i learned that the letter before the e7_ corresponded with the engine. So te72 had a 2tc. A ke70 had a 3kc motor. And the ae71’s came woth 4ac motors.

The great thing I learned about ae71’s was that they are essentially 4 door sr5 ae86’s. The whole e7 generation corolla family have a lot of similarities to ae86’s, but the 83 model ae71’s were most similar. Since they came with 4ac’s it would be really easy to do a gts swap and fit a 4age in. So i started looking at other peoples builds and came across a few I really liked.

The guys i really looked at in the e7 world for inspiration are:

Grant Scott

20130904-210049.jpg

20130904-210716.jpg

too many projects…

Posted on by

I get people telling me “You have too many projects” alllll the time.  A lot of the people tell me to sell my other cars and just focus on ONE.  And I tell them — no fuckin’ way.  I can’t sell any of my cars.  And if I did, it’d only be to people I know and trust — that way I can still see my car, help build it, and get to drive it!

too many or not enough? i say…not enough

While I’m getting my blacktop swap together for the 86, I’ve been looking up parts for the ae71.  I’m gonna start transferring over my old (stock) ae86 parts onto the ae71 — yay the benefits of having the same chasis!  I also just ordered a bunch of parts from Malaysia.  Why Malaysia you ask?  Because in the southeastern Asia, people LOVE their Corollas!  Especially the older ones.  And because of that, there’s a huge market for Corolla parts.  For craaaazy cheap, since they’re OEM reproduction parts!  So I’m talking like $100 chrome bumpers, rather than $300 OEM JDM chrome bumpers.  And like $30 tail lights.  Crazy cheap.  Hit up Kay Parts for your OEM ke/te/ae70 parts.  He also has a bunch of oldschool JDM wheels and access to other old Japanese parts! EDIT: DO NOT PURCHASE FROM KAY PARTS.  I ORDERED MY PARTS MAY 2ND, IT’S NOW SEPT 5TH AND NO PARTS, NO EMAILS, NO COMMUNICATION FROM KAY PARTS.

E7 Slant Front

E7 flat front

So I’m essentially converting my ae71 to a “GL” model.  What’s a GL model you ask?  It’s the “last” trim model of the E7 Corolla generation.  They look a lot like ae86 Levin Sedans is the way I like to think about it.  They made them in flat fronts and slanted fronts.  Unfortunately, stateside we never got these cool GL models.  But they did in Austrailia, New Zealand, Japan, etc.

The “slant fronts” are commonly known as the ugly ducklings of the E7’s, however I think they’re quire nice looking when set up properly.

So coming soon, will be my slammed ae71 with chrome bumpers and GL flat front conversion.