About 8 years ago, the previous owner of my Levin sold it to a shady car dealer. Rusty and worn out, it seemed that it would never hit the road again… until it did. Here’s the story of the revival of my AE86!
After being sold to a shady Pakistani car dealer, it seemed the fate of this AE86 was sealed. Rust, worn out paint and a noisy transmission seemed like a guaranteed end as a donor car.
Only thing is, this is not what happened! Instead, it was the beginning of the second life of this 1984 Levin GT APEX. In fact, as I am writing this, it is parked in the carport in front of my house, fully insured and registered, ready to go. Just last weekend, the car was used on a drift event at Fuji Speedway.
To be honest, it was a very beginner-level drift event: they used a truck to make the road wet and we were practicing doing donuts. Honestly, I am neither into racing or drifting, I mainly enjoy repairing and driving old cars.
That being said, the car took the slight abuse and clutch kicks quite well, and I enjoyed my part in the event. A Japanese friend taught me the basics of how to make the car go sideways, so I had a lot of fun, and learned a thing or two about how to handle the AE86 at the limits.
Back home, I put the baby seat back in, and the stroller back in the trunk. If I’m not out having fun with the car, the Levin serves as our family car, buying groceries and going to family events. We don’t have a second car in Japan, and I am lucky that my wife is tolerating using such an old car as a daily.
You might be wondering, how did it get there? How did the car come from the shady parking lot dealer to his new life?
I documented the event of buying this car and bringing it home here on my blog, in documenting how I bought it, how we made it road-safe and how we drove it home from Nagoya to Yokohama (~200km).
Afterwards, I spent many months doing metalwork on the car, replacing the radiator support panel, the left rear wheel arch, and many smaller rust spots.
On the mechanical side, the body needed a complete overhaul of the brake and clutch system. The fuel tank had to be replaced. The coolant system was in terrible condition. However, many months later, the car was ready for inspection. I organized temporary license plates, and brought the car to the Japanese vehicle inspection center.
The “user shaken”, where you bring your car yourself for the inspection, is very similar to the TUV in Germany. They test the general condition of the car, test the steering alignment, test the brakes and ensure the car meets the emission standard.
During the inspection, I realized that the clutch was leaking fluid onto my shoes. From there, it seeped through the carpet and via some gaps in the body dripped onto the floor of the testing facilities. The inspector noted the leaks, but couldn’t pinpoint where it came from. Since everything else was good, the car passed the inspection. Lucky me! The clutch stopped working the moment I left the vehicle inspection. I refilled the clutch fluid, and registered the car.
After having passed the inspection, I only managed to drive out once, before the engine died in a serious mechanical failure. A valve had hit the piston, and a complete cylinder head rebuild was required.
With the engine repairs completed, the AE86 is now a “rolling restoration”, and gets improvements bit by bit.
These days I am working on re-installing the original AC that I have sourced. For the interior, I am working on replacing the sun-faded interior with reproduction parts. Both are necessary to obtain approval from my wife to use the AE86 as a family car.
At the same time, I take the cars on trips around Japan, such as here in Hakone.
It’s a great fun car and has been very reliable so far. After the engine was repaired, the only issue that popped up was the brake light switch requiring re-adjustment (the brake lights would randomly go on). Besides that, there were zero issues, although, as most AE86 owners can probably relate, the car is making strange sounds everywhere when driving: knistering from the dashboard, squeaking from the engine, grinding noises from the transmission, all these make me worry every time I drive this car.
So far, that’s all I have for today – thank you for reading! I will keep posting about the restoration progress of my AE86, or other memorable events I encountered with it, so come back again!
