Team Hinga Ae86 Levin coupe build

[HingaSPL]

After hearing that I had to move back stateside, I stripped down two of my three 86's, only to find out at the last minute that I was staying for another 10 months. So I looked for an 86 to bring back stateside when I eventually get sent back, probably next year. I scoured the mainland, here on Okinawa, all over the Yahoo! Auctions and saw many I wanted to get, but this one caught my eye. She wasn't in the greatest condition, but she was exactly what I wanted. She has a little rust here and there, but nothing I can't handle. She is the 16th 86 I have owned, so I wanna do her up proper like. After I JCI her, plans include:
-fix rust spots, weld in new metal
-Swapping front to Levin (on hand)
-Install RunFree bodykit (on hand)
-install Revolver overfenders (on hand)
-swap in the blacktop out of my BB86 (I also got another BT, a Turbo 4A, and a Full tuned mecha 4a, to choose from)
-swap drum brakes to disk.
-paint roll cage and install
-paint car
-run the hell out of it
She already has:
-Greddy coilovers front and back
-BattleVersion panhard bar
-Header
-RS*R exhaust

The plan with this car is to take her back stateside. If the Gov is going to force me to come back stateside, I'm bringing a little piece of Okinawa with me.
Alternator is shot. Plan on selling the Trueno frontend as soon as JCI inspection is completed

Two Defrosts? Guess the previous owner thought that one wasn't enough. Or it might be a secret ejection seat switch like 007

The dash is pretty gnarly, so I started taking it out to swap in another that has sitting in a closet for 12 years. Only problem is, the crackless dash is dark brown. Seriously thinking about sanding it and shooting it black. Oh yeah, that cheap a$$ Autometer gauge crumbled in my hands when I attempted to take it out, it was inop anyways.

Lame steering wheel that came with the car

There is no lower dash in this car, I'm guessin the previous owner had huge feet or was smuggling illegal immigrants under the dash, cause there is plenty of room for it. Also, yeah that is a minidisk player. I honestly thought these things were exstinct. I'm giving this away locally, if anybody wants it. Omori oil pressure gauge is not hooked up and the stock oil pressure gauge read below low at idle and above high when off, weird. I got Defi Water temp and Oil temp gauges, gotta find a Oil pressure gauge for her

Checking out old reliable. This is the Personal steering wheel I had on old "Blue" and also had her on the Panzer. She's beat up and been through alot with me, so I'll keep her in active duty. at least until the leather peels off, then I'll retire her and mount her on my wall, haha

Dash is out, check out that gangster radio mount(not). gonna clean her up under the dash before installing the new one

Little surface rust showing it's ugliness. I'll exterminate with extreme prejudice with some POR15, after sanding it all out of course.

Bride seat that came with the car. It isn't as comfy and worn in as my D&W seat so I may sell it locally. or make it into an office chair

I've had these for about 8 or 9 years now. Revolver overfenders. I've always wanted to use them, but am not fond of chopping the rear quarters for them. Since this girl had already had her rear lips chopped, I will mount these after JCI inspection.

She will get the rear lowered, this is rediculously high

I had a perfect dash in my closet for the last 12 years, only problem was it was brown and I needed it to be black. I searched the DIY shops the other day looking for plastic paint that wouldn't crack. I found it, but they only had extremely flat black and glossy black, I went with the gloss. I rubbed down the dash really good with paint thinner and let it dry in the sun for a bit, then got to painting. I laid it on heavy, then let it bake in my van while I was at work, the next day I did it again, I'm happy with the way it turned out. I could have sanded it smooth, but I like the little imperfections.

Puttin dash in

Swapped out the shifter n e-brake button, remounted the Vacuum and Oil Pressure gauge to a better spot, swapped in a gauge bezel in better shape, gotta find a home for that damned MD player.

Lil too shiny, but daijobu. air vents in, looks good to me. Broke the damned clock bezels in two of my other 86's, so I'll have to order new ones from Toyota

Sorry for the interior lameness, I really want to dig into the Sus and motor, but cannot till after JCI. Gotta get funds in check again before I do that. So until then I'll be doing little interior projects. Once JCI is done, I can do all of the non-law abiding mods, hehe

Engine bay shot. Shock towers have been stitch welded. I'm selling this frontend locally

Swapped the alternator today and my 2 month old daughter ops checked it

Ops check good

Not a really great update, but I did score a replacement for the MD player. Lil Carrozzeria goodness. I'm really trying to hold off on working on the girl till after JCI, which should be this week or the next. Got the cash, just not the time at the moment

If I had paid the 6k the guy wanted for this car, I'd be breakin this guys legs right about now, haha. Not really his fault, he didn't know what he was getting into when he bought it. When I looked at the door jambs, I knew they had been worked over just by lookin at them. I have a spare set of door jambs at home so this wasn't that big of a deal. BUT I didn't think it was this bad, haha.

 

[HingaSPL]

I always talk about Taki motors and other local body shops using thin sheets of tin or cutting up soda cans to hold the body putty in place, well, here you go, another case of half assed bodywork. I'm pretty sure I know the name of the shop that did this work, but got a few friends who swear by this place so I won't mention their name.

Doh, up here too?!

Got my work cut out for me here, I can do bodywork, but my weldin skills are lacking

Here is the panel I need to swap in

Drivers side

Welding it today

Ok, so it wasn't really my fault that the welds turned out bad, a lot of it had to do with letting some jerk borrow my welder and them losing the tip, so whenever I welded the wire was goin all over the damned place and to make things worse... is I had one of them ancient non auto darkening masks, so those two problems together made my welds look like the dude in T2 was skeetin all over where I was supposed to be welding, there was blobs of metal everywhere, also I was wearin shorts and a t-shirt, so I got burned many times on my legs and arms. I can do pretty much everything on my car, paint, body, motor, suspension, BUT the two things I absolutely suck at is wiring and welding. So determined as I was to learn how to weld I borrowed FatDaddys welder, which was almost identical to mine, except he can control wire speed and his has a tip. I had to work all week, so I left the welder in the van, resisting the urge to play with it. On nights after work I went to the University of YouTube and watched every sheet metal welding video I could find. Today I ran some errands, stopped at the hardware store and bought some scrap metal to practice on and headed home. Once home I set everything up and donned FatDaddys auto darkening mask, it was like magic, like when man stole from Crom the enigma of Steel. I attempt to weld the two pieces of square tubing together but like a virgin on prom night I was firing off with no control, too far away from the spot I was trying to weld and I had an iron grip on that trigger spitting hot fire all over the damned place, once I pulled away the metal was still in two pieces, the only difference was there was blobs of metal all over the place. So I got closer to the spot with the gun, turned down the speed and did some short bursts. They looks awesome. Feeling like I had conquered welding, I kicked the scrap outta the way and cleaned the paint of the spots on my car I wanted to weld. This time I wore jeans, thinkin they would protect my legs, Wrong. As I started welding, i'm all excited and once again i'm shootin hot metal everywhere not accomplishing anything AND them jeans I expected to shield me from the hell rain of hot metal did nothing to protect my legs. That shit went through my jeans like gamma rays through David Banner, I was getting tore up. But as I slowed down and did the short bursts as YouTube requested, it turned out pretty nice. But then I ran out of wire. will hit it hard tomorrow.

Today i tackled welding again. Still wore a tshirt, jeans , n zoris, BUT i planned to cover my lap. Since i didnt own a pair of Jim Morrison pants, i looked for something i could lay across my lap. Ended up using a stock floormat outta my van, it worked great. Short bursts n trailin worked good. Wouldn't say great cause them welds arent too pretty but they are solid. I'll seal this side with sikaflex from the inside and dump a bunch more paint on it

Pass side isn't near as bad as the Drivers side was, looks like I won't have to cut out the whole panel.

That lil shit on the upper right side of the pic got bigger, but I was relieved that there was barely any putty work. The dipshits that worked this side just threw RTV on the rust and called it a day. I LOVE Okinawa, but I absofuckinlutely HATE Okinawa body shops. A majority of them at least. Haven't seen a legit one yet in all my years here.

Lil bastard, what the hell? How the hell did you form there?? I'll fix you next time, I'm runnin outta sunlight today

Little surface rust on the upper section and under the lip

I cut out the rust on the bigger holed on the upper right side and cut a rectangle out of the old S15 hood to patch it. Grinded the other small holes and filled them with metal

Girl, you'll be a woman soon, hehehe

 

[HingaSPL]

Pass side complete. Ran outta Blue, went with Panzer Grey, I have a gallon of it, haha. All of the work will be shot one color once I'm done. Levin frontend going on soon

Levin hood looks at home there. Tomorrow I will drill out the rust steel bonpin and put in the aluminum bonpins

Tomorrow the headlights will get overhauled. Will take them apart and re-paint the black inside and will try to restore the reflectors

Bought this old vertex bumper brand new from some high school kid about 11 years ago for $40. Even came with brand new corner lights. Such a great deal that I think it might have been stolen, haha

Been a long time since I've seen her face. The headlights, grill and bumper came off of my old girl "Blue". Out of all of the 86's I've owned, she was the one that really got ahold of me. It's really good to see her face again. panels are just temp installed, tomorrow I will weld up the fenders on the bottom, clean up her eyelids, clean out the headlights. I'll do her right. Wife came home and I said "Did you see her face"? she was like "WHO?!", hahaha. Only a car guy would understand, or car gal.

Cutting out the cancer

Old school overfenders? Also filled in the antenna hole, she's gonna need a dab of putty to smooth her out

Or Revolver big overfenders? Still haven't decided yet. The old schoolers sit low on the fender and look decent. The Revolvers sit uncomfortably high on the fender but look gangster. Only thing worrying me is with them sitting so high up it might end up only stick out the same distance as the old schoolers. And to pull off the Revolvers, I might have to run her on the frame, hahaha

Cancer filled in, not finished yet

Headlights in worse shape than I thought. Might re- chrome the reflector

Old bonpin out and new ones temp installed

New Little facelift. Bout time I retired that old Vertex. She will wear the Vertex for comps and trackdays if the track ever opens back up

Welded on the Levin headlamp brackets. Wrapped up the inner fender work. Put a thick coat of Panzer Grey on the inner fenders, like drenched that shit. Fuck rust, tired of dealin with it. Been dealin with it for almost 20 years now with all of the cars I've owned. Hopefully this will last

Fenders are lined up with the doors. Headlamp brackets are lined up perfectly, was kinda eyein it then went apeshit with the welder

Tryin on some old Equips up front for now. I will paint the equips all white

 

[tocca]

Nice mate, and some top quality repair work there! Shame about the previous repairs!

 

[HingaSPL]

Definitely going to run this decal on the girl

Decided not to install the A/C and Heater. I will make a panel for the CD player to go here

Was going to put the Water Temp and Oil Temp here, but changed my mind

Since I won't have a heater or A/C, the gauges look better here. I will need to fab up a panel

Found these in my panzer 86 glove box. Back in my loveho days

I've owned a bunch of 86's and I've NEVER seen this. I stared at it for a few minutes, it didn't make sense. The shifter hole was skinnier and longer than normal and the mounting holes were different. Then it came to me, this 86 originally had an Automatic tranny. These are pretty rare finds

Here is the normal Manual tranny shifter hole in my grey 86

Needed the rubber boot, but it wouldn't slip over where the shifter widened, so it got cut

Looks good, will look better with sheet metal screws and extra sheet metal. Don't need hot air blastin through this hole

She came with a half dash, now she has a full dash

This motor is coming out, already have a friend waiting on it

 

[HingaSPL]

Brother from another mother hooked me up with some mint doors

Tried on the sidesteps, worked the fender a bit, swapped the door, lock, n panel

Pass side, bout to swap the door

door swapped and aligned.

Dems moldings gots to go!!!

Swapped locks and hung both doors. Worked on the shitty fenders I picked up, taihen yo. Worked on the hood and headlamps. Chasing the gremlin that's keepin my fuel pump from working. Also washed the gal

 

[HingaSPL]

Just ordered this, gonna flock my dash. should cover the small cracks

Droppin the tank to swap the fuel pump. I dread droppin the tank. It isn't hard to do, it just isn't that fun

Swappin the stocker for the Walbro 255 outta my 32

Strappin the tank back up. Notice my "Eco friendly jack stands"? Funny thing is, I got like 8 jack stands sitting along the wall. I like using the 2x4's mo betta

Trunk lid off of the Panzer with stock coupe spoiler.

Solex trunk lock installed. I got a whole set from my pare Rhett many years ago. These have been on four of my 86's. I lost the door locks a couple of years ago, but still got the trunk lock

Flocking kit came in the mail today. Looks like ill be pullin my dash to flock it

Flock-It could not send their adhesive overseas so I used a black enamel paint. Could not find flat black, had to settle for gloss black. Kit came with enough flock to do two dashes and the mini-flocker applicator. I also bought two brushes. I had painted my dash a few months ago and never put armorall or any cleaners on it, so she just needed a good wipe down.

Holy SHIT, This shit gets EVERYWHERE!!!! I flocking flocked my hand, I'm mother flockin filthy!!! Even after I washed my hands, my fingertips are black and furry, gonna have to whip out the thinner

Looks decent, I'm happy with it, had to do a lot of touch up. I want to see it in the sunlight. Still got enough flock for another dash, Maybe I'll flock my son while he is sleepin

HOLY SHIT, she's beautiful, I'm really happy with it so far, we will see after it dries and I blow off the excess flock

Still have to blow off the excess flock

Now she will dry for 2 hours.

That takes care of the auto hole in my manual 86. don't need no extra heater on the tranny tunnel, the plastic'll work fine

Put the whole dash back in only to decide to pull it all out when I found a spare underdash harness in my spare room. Might fix the inop fuel pump since I've changed EVERYTHING else, but the harness

Flockin SEXY!!!

Not diggin the Skyline shift boot I made for my 32 in here. Will swap it out for a stock 86 boot, when I find one

Once she is on the road, I will clean up the lower dash area

Gittin her dun

See how nice the harness is, get a good mental picture of it so you can compare to the absolute rats nest I pull out of the car.

pullin it all back out

one of the previous owners was a accessory bitch. Had all kinds crap spliced in. Yeah, that's the cigarette lighter sittin in the middle of that shit, weird

 

[HingaSPL]

This is what came out. Believe it or not, about half of the stock harness has been dyked away by the previous idiot who I guess was trying to make it look cleaner, He failed. A lot of that rats nest are extra lights, bullshit and Autobacs gayness spiced in

Speaking of rats nest, isn't this ironic? Found one. They've been evicted

All back in with the new underdash harness, and believe it or not, the fuel pump now works, but the battery is almost dead, ain't that a bitch. I'll charge her tomorrow and crank her proper like

Before the cell phone we used these.

Previous owner paid Toma Garage 250,000yen for this shoddy ass work. I was always told that Tomas was legit. Is that sodacan tin in there? Haha. Never trust a bodyshop on Okinawa

stained up ugly headliner

sexy black headliner.

Fuel leak, hose was crusty, so I made a new hose. Not sure if I have enough hose. J/K.

Pulled the gal out to clean the garage

Gonna some how fit these S15 HID lights inside the 86 foglights. Not the projector part, just the hid bulbs

Gonna be close

Testing them, since they did come out of a crashed car

Sexy

Mounted and tested pass side

Very soon, All she needs is a couple of bugs worked out and a JCI and she'll be on the road. VERY VERY Close!!!

Drivers side mounted and tested

 

[HingaSPL]

once she is road legal, then all of the fun illegal mods begin. This is only the start

Hinga Skrappy inherited Kazes old 86. Cleaning her up today

Like an old warbird being dragged out of hibernation

My Girl

GARAGE HINGA!!!

Sleepin

Playing with my 86s

Ansen Top Eliminator wheels. I bought these off of Ebay about 10 years ago. The guy who had them said he bought them new in the early 60's and ran them on the back of his drag car
. He said they were 5x4.5 bolt pattern (114.3), but he was wrong. Still need to bring these to JP for him to redrill the lug holes. Been wanting to run these on the front of my 86 for years. I love old school American wheels

 

[HingaSPL]

My 7 month old daughter christening the new tool box

Strippin the BB86. I bought her from my Hinga Bro Jay mainly for the motor and the suspension. The owner before Jay beat the crap outta her and rolled her, she had a 16v 4AG with a tiny stock SR20 turbine. Jay ripped out all of the turbo stuff and shoehorned a BT 4Ag in it's place. The chasis was mainly a test bed for shit we wanted to try. The body was twisted pretty bad and rust was claiming her, but she had a killer suspension set up. Tokiko HTS shocks all around, coilovers up front, adjustable lower arms, Cusco tension rods, aftermarket outer tie rods, EG Civic brake rotors and calipers up front(guess?), chopped knuckles, height adjustable camber plates, Revolver NCRA's. In the rear she has a RS*R Adj Lateral bar, Traction brackets, Cusco diff with 4.5 final, Cusco lower control arms, TRD springs. She was a hell of a car. Since she was in bad shape we decided to just battle patch her up and run her. I didn't fix any of the dents, but I did cut out alot of the rust and patched holes with FRP. She ran like a raped ape and out of the sixteen 86's I've owned, she is a close second to my "Blue". There was no saving the body, the door jambs were solid body filler and she was just falling apart. Most likely I will chop her up and dump her in the sea like I did with my old Blue. She served me well

Stock 86 brakes on the right and the BB86 on the left. I'm guessing EG Civic brakes, can anybody confirm? Seeing as the EG brakes were popular with the 86s over here, I'm thinking that. But need to confirm before buying new brake pads.

Skrappy cutting metal of of the Panzer86 to weld patches on his 86

Kaze's old 86, was going to build it up for him, but with us not knowing if we can stay here and Kaze moving back to the states with his mother, we decided to share the new 86 with Kaze. Kaze's car was to be chopped and scrapped, but Skrappy was looking for a project to bring to Australia and asked about Kaze's car. I still had paperwork for it and was stoked that it was staying in the Hinga family and that she would be alive and kickin ass in Australia. I asked Kaze if it was alright and he said "Hell Yeah, COOL!!!". Skrapps has big plans for her and has been busting his ass on her. Not gonna say what he is doing with her, dunno if he wants to divulge that info at the moment.

Skrappy taking a brake from his car as I dismantle the BB86. She has stock sus up front now so we can move her

Panzer donating her parts to the cause.

Skrappy grindin and weldin on his gal

Kaze and My girl, her sus is maxed out at the top for JCI inspection. I drove her around the neighborhood today, felt great

hung the sidesteps. Still gotta swap out the rear bumper to finish out the Running Free kit. My gal posed for some pics. I'm really dig this bitch. She is a fitting tribute to "Blue". But Blue was old school and this gal will be more new school looking

Next up will be to JCI her, then decide on a color to paint her

 

[HingaSPL]

removed the ugly moldings and began wet sanding, preppin for primer

coming along nicely

Killer watchdog and Hinga team member Dai, beware he will kill you with kindness, hahaha

wet n nasty, Skrappy n Dai in the back

Primered her today, soon JCI. Might run her through with overfenders

Running Free Fr Bumper

Running Free Sides

Running Free Ass

There was a break in the rain long enough for me to start putting her back together. I will leave the sidesteps off for JCI inspection. I will also install the rear overfenders. I will leave it up to the shop to run it through JCI with or without the overfenders.

Kaze's old 86 that is now his uncle Skrappys girl. Kaze and I will share mine. I will eventually build another for Kaze. Skrappy's been bustin ass on this girl, got big plans for her.

 

[HingaSPL]

This is where I am at now. Gotta throw skinny tires on her for JCI inspection. Once JCI inspection is over with I will throw on the overfenders, swap motors, swap sus, paint, slide

 

[knowlesy]

Awesome thread and what a yard full of cars!!

 

[HingaSPL]

Thanks, yeah every once in awhile I stumble on a good deal. Problem is keeping them all running, haha

 

[HingaSPL]

She had a problem starting, troubleshot, she purrs now

Got the rear overfenders on, all I have to do is put the other hood on her for JCI

Head of Team Hinga Australia, Skrappy and his sidekick Dai

JCI hood on. It's FRP too, but this one has the windshield squirter holes and no duct. Dunno if duct is kosher with the inspectors, but I do need washer holes

Kaze old 86 and my girl nose to nose

Dai watching over the Hinga garage

 

[johnmaloney88]

great stuff?? what do u work at over there?

 

[HingaSPL]

Currently the Grocery Manager at one of the Marine base commissaries. Before that I was military, Turboprob technician

 

[Fife]

Great build you have there. How long will it take to ship over to the states ?

 

[HingaSPL]

Whenever the gov decides to send me back, she will come back with me. Hoping I can stay here since I grew up here and never really lived in the US.

 

[Fife]

Fingers crossed for you sir. Will you be able to finish building the car in a short amount of time aye?