Alright it's time for a quick update on Project GT-S; the
car that has now completely consumed my life. Late nights browsing on
eBay and Craigslist are now the norm as I take small steps towards creating a
super clean drift ready Corolla. Over the past week I have mapped out a
plan of attack for upgrading and fixing the Hachi, and this weekend I got an
opportunity to give the car a real mechanical
shakedown to see what I was up
against.
Now usually I would be lying
flat on the ground with a wrench digging into my arm as I try my hardest to
crack a rusted bolt, however thanks to Turn 10's Lead Subject Matter Expert, Joel, this is no longer a problem.
Check the GT-S just chillin as Joel gives Adam a tour of the shop.
Joel is a car freak just like everyone at Turn 10. The only difference is he doesn’t fool around
when it comes to cars. Why? Well currently Joel has a dedicated car workshop,
complete with all the tools necessary to do just about any job you can think
of. Oh yeah he also has a full sized
lift, something that everyone can appreciate after spending enough time on the
ground with an muffler in your face.
Luckily for me, Joel was nice enough to let me use his facilities over
the weekend. SWEET!
Massive doors hide Joels pimpin' garage from intruders. Even if you wanted to get in, good luck pushing the 200 pound doors open!
After parking my car on his gravel driveway, he gave us a
full tour of the place. Now keep in mind
that his workshop has just recently been painted, meaning all his tools were
scattered about trying desperately to avoid paint splatter. Overall the shop is a great place to work on
cars, and has just about every automotive trinket you can think of. Let me put it to you like this…if MacGyver
ever stopped by Joel’s place he would probably fly home in a Gyrocopter.
So with the car up on the lift it was time for the shakedown. Considering the Corolla is 1 year younger
than me, I was really impressed with the condition it was in. I guess I am slightly biased coming from a
town where salt is everywhere and rust is your best friend, but honestly this
car is in really great shape.
Got the car up on the hoist to give it a good shakedown. Hoist or Lift? What's the proper terminology? You decide.First things first, the cat needed to go back on for the
emissions test. When you have a hoist at your disposal, changing a pipe takes minutes. So with that finished we rotated the rear
wheels, as the tires were facing the wrong direction. Really not sure why they were on like this and
considering the amount of rain in Washington I was really surprised. So with all of that done we started checking
around for any other problem spots. We
discovered that the tie rod linkage boot was torn, and dirt was already
starting to build up inside. So along with
the Throttle Position Sensor, this boot needs to be changed as soon as possible.
We easily mounted the cat to the exhaust. The car is much quieter now, and with a bit of luck I might just pass emissions.
Finally we spent some
time trying to tighten the latch for the hatchback, and believe me it was way
harder than we expected.
So I understand
that this is a 20 year old car, but I still cannot believe that an engineer
would recommend this fastening solution for the rear latch.
Essentially there is a negative space that
cannot be accessed with a normal wrench, meaning it is almost impossible to
tighten the nut on the other side.
Oddly
enough the nut is not welded to anything at all, explaining why my trunk was
rattling whenever I hit a crack in the road.
After the shock and awe of this terrible design wore off, Adam and I
picked up some Zip-Ties and tied down the latch for a temporary solution.
Currently I am looking at getting some rivet
nuts from McMaster Carr to solve the problem, but if you have any ideas feel
free to chime in.
Essentially I need to
fasten a nut and a bolt with access to one side.
Using a wrench and a ratchet just won’t cut
it for this problem.
The GT-S touches down, and looks ready to tackle the twisty mountain roads leading up to Joel's place.
Along with these three high priority fixes, I have created a
massive list of upgrades and changes.
Most of these involve DIY projects, or expensive purchases, so I will
make sure to post up my Project Roadmap once I get the details ironed out.
Now please excuse me while I continue my office drift runs; steering wheel in hand.
Gotta practice
that countersteer baby! Peace.