2005: My first AE86 on the day I bought it.
As described in the prequel, I obtained my first Toyota AE86 from a user on the AEU86 forums called Jasper. Jasper had bought the car from the treasurer of the Dutch Toyota Club. The AE86 in question was a USDM car, a 1984 Toyota Corolla SR5 with air conditioning and a sunroof to be more precise. This will be a three-part series covering how I was able to purchase it, my ownership and what happened to it after I sold it.
For those unfamiliar with the Toyota AE86: the AE86 is the model code for two cars produced by Toyota that were built between 1983 and 1987 on the same platform. Within Japan, these cars were sold as the Corolla Levin and Sprinter Trueno in both two-door and three-door body style. You easily identify which one is which as the Levin features fixed headlights while the Trueno features popup headlights. Outside of Japan, the Corolla Levin was sold as the Corolla Sprinter SR in Australia, Corolla GT coupé, Corolla GTi and Corolla SR in Europe, and the Sprinter Trueno as the Corolla GT-S and Corolla SR5 in the US and Canada. The latter will be important as the Corolla GT-S was delivered with the twin cam 16 valve 4A-GE engine, while the SR5 was delivered with the single cam 8 valve 4A-C engine. There are some other differences, but that’s beyond the scope of today’s entry.
My first AE86 (on the right in this photo) when it was still laid up in a farm shed
You may ask, how did a USDM AE86 end up in the Netherlands? It was brought into Europe in the 1980s by a US private stationed in Germany. In 1994, the first Dutch owners imported the, by now 10-year-old Toyota Corolla SR5 from Germany. After importing the car into the Netherlands, the car had its rust patched up as it had been viciously attacked by the rust monster over its first 10 years in both the US and Germany. The car was resprayed in a custom pearlescent silver, and I remember it was bright whenever the sun shone. After using the car for seven or eight years, they laid up the car as an accident damaged the body near the right rear tail light. By then, the rear fenders were already crumbling away when tapped lightly.
Around 2004, me and my best mate started a forum for European AE86 owners called AEU86. I didn’t own an AE86 myself, but my mate did own a blue one. As I wrote in the prequel, I really wanted to buy one but couldn’t find an affordable one. You might wonder, why I poured money into an online website with a forum that wouldn’t make me any money. The answer to that was quite simple: experience and knowledge! I worked as a developer in IT and was bored by programming the same things over and over again daily for somebody else. This would give me a personal challenge and I learned a lot about how to run successful websites on a large scale, which would come in handy in my future career. It also turned out to be a treasure trove of information, which would come in handy when I would have the money to buy one. So in the meanwhile I started to save money to buy my dream car
The AE86 when Jasper bought it
After being laid up for two years, the farm shed this AE86 was in had to be cleared out. Jasper bought the car for a mere 1200 euros (1500 dollars back in those days). He patched the rear fenders by cutting sections from a pair of European Corolla AE86 front fenders and welding them upside down on the bodywork. Today he would be ruining about 600 dollars worth of parts, but back then, these fenders were still plentiful. His repair won’t win a beauty contest, but at least the car was saved. Another thing he did was to perform a “GT-S” swap. I put that between quotes as the guts used were actually from a European AE86 that had very recently wrapped itself around a tree in a Dutch polder. The driver, also known as Kees “Straatrace” (Streetrace), walked away unscathed. Back in those days, Kees was the organizer of the largest illegal street races in the Netherlands, so the guts were car royalty.
The very same AE86 after the engine, transmission and rear axle swap
I was able to purchase this AE86 from Jasper because Jasper was a member of the AEU86 forum, he was short on cash and had to fund another project quickly. I read the ad he placed on the AEU86 forums on an early Sunday morning and before 9 AM and Jasper had closed the deal. I got the car for a cheap price because its interior and dashboard were still in boxes and the entire car was filled to the brim with boxes and parts. When I drove home, I was lucky it didn’t rain as the windshield wiper switch was wedged into what was left of the dashboard and during one corner it fell out of the socket and dangled in the air. The headlight switch suffered from a similar fate. I also found that the rear brake rotors were warped and made a droning noise when driving. Any ordinary person would have returned the key and walked away and this was a precursor to all the other shortcuts and issues I found with this car. Let’s put it this way: the car was a good learning platform as it continuously taught me how to wrench on my car. But when I bought it, I was overjoyed and just couldn’t stop smiling!
I purchased my AE86 with a stripped interior and dashboard
The first thing I fixed was the seat belts: the inertia reels of the driver-side weren’t locking up properly. It performed well 90% of the time, but it simply didn’t feel safe to hope an accident wouldn’t happen within 10% of the cases when it didn’t lock up. One of the contacts of the AEU86 forum lived nearby and he had a set of blue seatbelts from a car he wrecked earlier.
As mentioned earlier, the rear brake rotors were also due for replacement. After, presumably, an intensive drift session, Jasper left the handbrake on and one of the rear rotors warped due to this. Driving with those rotors sounded like I was constantly hearing the sound of thunder, which is ironic as the Japanese version of this car is called Trueno. In the Spanish language, Trueno means thunder! I could have had the warped disk machined to spec, but a new set only cost 80 euros and machining would be at least as expensive.
Rust underneath the windshield is a known issue on the AE86 and it destroys windshields!
Another thing to fix was a cracked windshield. This was caused by a rust spot at the bottom of the windshield, which is a common place to find rust on left-hand-drive AE86s. The rust lifts the base of the windshield and this causes it to crack. My neighbor owned a body repair shop and I asked him to fix rust underneath the windshield. The complication was that I needed to replace the windshield and my insurance would cover the cost if it were to be replaced by Car Glass. However, I first had to show Car Glass the windshield was broken, then have the rust repaired and only then have Car Glass replace the windshield on-site. After everything was agreed upon with Car Glass, my neighbour set to work, fixing the rust and then we had to wait for Car Glass with the new windshield.
Two days later Car Glass tried to place the new windshield. However, it didn’t fit. It turned out to be a windshield for the Corolla Liftback EE80. Two days later they showed up again and this time with a windshield for the Corolla hatchback AE82 (also known as the Corolla FX). So we waited patiently for two whole weeks and this time it finally fitted! I was told they were unable to find one in the Netherlands and the windshield had to be ordered and shipped from Pilkington in the UK. Nowadays it’s much easier: just order a windshield for a Daewoo Nexia as that fits as well!
Three times is a charm: they finally found the correct windshield
After this was fixed, I started to install the dashboard and other interior parts. Naturally, various bits and bobs were missing, but in the end, I managed to get everything sorted. Finally, I could drive and enjoy my dream car! In the next part, I’ll dive into what I did with the car and why I, regrettably, had to sell it after only two years of ownership.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S – The Legendary AE86
I’ve owned some money pit cars in my time, but this takes the biscuit. I’ve younger friends that ask for advice on buying cars and my mantra to them is ‘don’t buy a car that’s been messed about with by a previous owner. You have no idea if the modifications are appropriate, safe or legal’. Of course, with my ownership of so many rusty, worn out clunkers; I’m surprised they listen.