'86 Toyota Starlet EP70

[Bumblebi]

In September this year, I got my driver's license, and as a present I recieved a Toyota Starlet Ep70 from my granddad (dad's father). The car is over 26 years old but it has only run about 140 000 km. It's been standing just a few minutes from the sea in southern Sweden for a few years now, but in less than two weeks I'll start working on it together with my granddad (mum's father) who is an old car mechanic.
I have some plans for it:

-Firstly, I'll fix the rust, there is rust on several parts in the chassis but it's mostly surface rust (Edit:Or so I thought...)

-Secondly, I'll fix the suspension, I'll buy coils (of course), sway bars and strut tower bars both in the front and in the rear. I know for sure that this car can become a gocart for the street and that's what I'm aiming for.

-Thirdly, there will be hella much lightening going on. The car in its original shape weighs about 830 kg, another Starlet-build in Sweden has a target weight of 740 kg, I'm aiming a bit higher than that.

-Forthly, I'm thinking about switching out the engine for a V-tec motor, not sure about how it's going to turn out but it's a vision I have...


So, here's "a few" pics of how it sits right now, but as I said, in less than two week s(the 30th of November to be exakt) we'll go down there and pick it up!

[Nagah]

I fear that this one already has lost to rust.

[Zacne_4]

Man, the engine is missing! You can't switch an engine if there isn't one in the first place!


Good on you for being up for the challenge!

Good luck with it!

[MommysLittleMonster]

I'm gonna have to agree with a previous post, your car is already pretty far gone with rust. Your car doesn't have "surface rust", your car has full-on chassis and body rot.

The only way you could "save" it properly would be to strip it down to a bare chassis and do a ton of rust repair- not something I'd do with a mid-80's FWD Toyota, short of being completely in love with it.

Personally: I would drive it, enjoy it, and keep your eyes open for a cleaner chassis to mess with later on.

[Bumblebi]

I fear that this one already has lost to rust.

We'll see when I start digging into it! But if it's too rusty underneath, I might aswell do as another Swedish guy did to his Starlet; Cut out the floor and placed a shorted Volvo 240 chassis underneath

[Bumblebi]

Man, the engine is missing! You can't switch an engine if there isn't one in the first place!


Good on you for being up for the challenge!

Good luck with it!

Hahaha very funny

Thanks, I'll do my best and a bit better hopefully!

[Bumblebi]

I'm gonna have to agree with a previous post, your car is already pretty far gone with rust. Your car doesn't have "surface rust", your car has full-on chassis and body rot.

The only way you could "save" it properly would be to strip it down to a bare chassis and do a ton of rust repair- not something I'd do with a mid-80's FWD Toyota, short of being completely in love with it.

Personally: I would drive it, enjoy it, and keep your eyes open for a cleaner chassis to mess with later on.

I am well aware about the body rot, but my plan pretty much involves stripping it down completely either way because I want to learn from the ground up on how to restore a car.

The thing with this particular car is that my granddad has had it for like twenty years, so it's always been "a part of him" for me, and now he's given it to me, so I kind of do love it, plus it's a nice way to get to learn how to fix hella much rust, lol

[MommysLittleMonster]

I tip my hat to you then, my good sir. I wish you the best of luck with your learning experience. I hope it turns out as well as you hope.

[Bumblebi]

I tip my hat to you then, my good sir. I wish you the best of luck with your learning experience. I hope it turns out as well as you hope.

Thank you very much, I think I'm going to need it, haha

[Bumblebi]

This saturday, the 30th of November, is the day me and my dad will get the car. The whole trip will take about a day from start to finish (including a few breaks). The thing that literally slows us down is the fact that here in Sweden, the speedlimit on freeways is normally 110/120 km/h, but in our case with a trailer, the limit is only 80 km/h (Not sure how it is in other countries...) but it will take a lot more time... But yeah, wish us luck!!

[Bumblebi]

As I said a few days ago, me and my dad took a trip to get the car to the garage.

Here is where the car had been standing for about 5 years...


We were afraid that the brakes had been seized, but thankfully it rolled quite nicely when we pushed it. Dad was able to push it himself so there were no problems at all.


The trailer we hired was a pretty small one, it could only load 790 kg legally, but since the car weighs like 750-760 kg without driver we didn't have any problems with that. So here it is on the trailer...




A few hours later, the car stood in the garage, its first time ever in a garage probably...



We tried to get the engine to start, we knew that it turned around, but the battery was completely dead and didn't want to recharge, so that'll have to wait...



We decided to take a look at the rust instead, and here's three of the worst rust spots, in front of both rear wheel wells and in the spare wheel tub... Consider that these pics were taken after we had removed some of the rust by hand...







Today the car will be jacked up so that we can see how it looks underneath, hopefully there's not too much rust there either... the suspension parts might be a bit rusty, but as long as the body isn't rusty underneath, there shouldn't be any problems fixing it.

[hackrtanman]

I say go for it
I am knee deep in rust(Literally I can stand through my trunk) in my project ('73 Celica), and do I care? Hell no. Sure it will take longer, but in the end it will be worth it.

Anyways, this isn't my build. I always see the KP60 series Starlets, but I have yet to see a strong build on an EP70, who cares if its a FWD econo-box from the 80s. More of a blank canvas than many other cars. I say go with the Panda paint scheme, keep the "12 Valve" Logo, and go for something like this

But, that's my opinion.
Best of luck!

[lushadonggo]

The thing that literally slows us down is the fact that here in Sweden, the speedlimit on freeways is normally 110/120 km/h

[Bumblebi]

hackrtanman: The panda theme is actually a great idea since it's more or less the same "generation" Toyota cars as the AE86...
Thanks!

lushadonggo: yeah exactly, and considering the fact that with a trailer the limit is even lower it takes forever to get to places... But at the same time, the highways are often empty, so no wonder many Germans can't understand why there is no free speed on them...

[Bumblebi]

Sorry for no update for a long time... But here's at least a pic to show that I've started tearing the car apart to to be able to fix all rust...