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I'd class mine as heavy duty, so say 6mm thick in Ally. Wouldn't go less than 5mm in steel even, unless you ran some stiffeners on it, probably just costing you ground clearance though. Depends a bit on how far your supports are away from each other though. I've seen some people making sumpguards from 3mm aluminium ... that ain't going to stop a lot.

With LSD ... you :abuse: I so want an LSD for mine, would transform the car into a real weapon. At the moment I feel as though a lot of time is lost just spinning wheels. I'd like to tell you that it'll be fine with stock shocks .... but I think it's asking for trouble unless the roads are pretty flat. If there's only a bump or two, you'll get away with it, but if it's real rough ... no hope. My sumpguard is 6mm aluminium and I bent it (albeit on the fairly unsupported bit) at that first khanacross with standard shocks and uprated springs. The rear certainly doesn't need anything special, but that ZE gearbox adds near 40kg to the nose, in fact out past the front axle if you look at the gearbox position and that's the killer. If your budget is small, create a heavy duty sump guard to protect the sump and gearbox and then just be prepared to smash away at it. AE92 is a bit unique suspension wise, only thing of that era in Toyota with that amount of suspension travel (except ST162). And the celica's were also renowned for being under sprung. Still, if you hunt around for long enough, you might find something from another manufacturer. Choice of 'wander-around' wrecking yards is pretty slim in Perth since 'Pick-a-part' closed down about 6yrs ago.

P.S (for last post) should mention my username is DAT610_WA on the BMSC forum. There's a 180B Datsun hiding in my shed under a pile of bits, patiently waiting to be finished once I get this damn Corolla running again. Have been working away, seems to be taking a while though. But I guess slow progress is still progress Have the rear struts and crossmember bolted in. Have swapped to standard springs and have opted to disconnect the sway bar to get rid of the tailey attitude of the car. Interesting note; the bar that came with the car is 1mm bigger in diameter than the rear bar that came with the 4AFE powered corolla that is it's replacement. Have opted for the slightly smaller bar on this project. Only reason it's still installed is in case my theory is completely bogus and the car handle's worse w/out a rear sway bar. Once the exhaust is in, it's near impossible to swap the bar, so dropping a link will work for the moment and give me flexibillity later on. As a side note, bought a '98 Lantra, mostly for parts for an Excel rally car I intend to build sometime in the future, but the car ran and as I hadn't finished the Rolla, took the Lantra along to the most recent Khanacross. Managed to scrounge a full set of Rally tyres (all be it fairly worn) to run for a 'once off' appearance, and that car was fairly tailey as well. Really considered dropping the rear swaybar before I went to the event, but decided to leave it on to see if a full set of rally tyres made the difference, and during the event simply didn't have the motivation to jack it up and drop a link (had other issues to contend with and the man flu) Interior hasn't seen much love yet. Nothing can go in until the gear selector cables are in place, next week/end will see the installation of more (all of the ?) interior and I'll be closer to swapping the engine/gearbox over. Next Khanacross is late August, really don't want to take the Lantra again, but will if I haven't got the Rolla finished in time to take it for a short test drive and check it's issues. Still need a few bits and Corolla parts in the local gumtree/quokka seem to be a bit thin on the ground.

Hi Adrian, you won't be able to remove the aircon, it's an integral part of the belt tensioning for the 4AGZE. Those that have removed it have replaced it with a stub shaft just running an idler pulley in the same location. Standard suspension and a 4AGZE will probably mean a bottom out. If you're just planning on running the 4AGZE on the standard gearbox (which may not last long with the added torque of the ZE), you might get away with it. Supercharger only adds ~13kg to the weight of the car, so really not enough to bother it. It's the massive frickin' gearbox that really piles on the weight. I had Kings springs on new shocks to begin with, they're meant to be ~220lb/in rate (progressive, so not exactly true, but that was the number I was given by King's Technical support) and I'm currently running 275lb/in springs. You may well get away with something around 250lb/in, but that'd be the bare minimum I'd suggest. If you look at my YouTube channel, I'll upload some footage of the first Khanacross I went too (BORMSA will be the heading), was a pretty rough course and I definitely bottom out several times on that day. You're right, alternator does sit incredibly low on the motor and my alternator has the mud tide line to prove it. Only been in one truly wet event, has survived thus far though. More likely to give up the ghost due to age than mud ingress though I would think. If you like I can Post or PM you a plan of my sumpguard. Dude on another forum has cut the same guard, though mounted it slightly different to use on his wife's AE92. I went to a fair bit of trouble to section the front mounting tube/rhs to get as much clearance as I could, biggest drama with FWD cars is ground clearance. Link to other AE92 Build; http://www.bmsc.com.au/forums/bmsc-members-rides/27639-fionas-corolla.html

My new shell had the silver L trim's in the corner and had an o-brien's sticker on the windscreen. Would be fairly rare to find a car that old that does still have an original windscreen. You'd be able to tell, because if it was original the sandblasting and wiper blades over it for 20yrs would make it pretty crappy to see thru.

I'm going to try and update this thread fairly regularly, just to try and keep me motivated. Not planning on changing much on the way the car goes back together, just refinements for the most part. Found this interesting though. The GTi corolla has an extra brace on the rear crossmember to stiffen it up. Thread's in the Aus spec shell are there and seem to be in the right place, but seems as though they don't bother with the brace on 4AFE powered cars. Perhaps handy to know for those who intend on giving their corolla a hard time.

And the answer is ..... <drum roll> ................... RED ! And not that far off the original colour either. Cracked the windscreen removing the trim :bash: :oops: , so didn't even bother masking it Shows up fairly different at night with the flash on it though The old shell had some rust, so had to cut that and repair it, unfortunately due to the amount of rust and proximity to body seams, the welds look like :yak: So you're not going to see any photo's of the repair.

Your AE92 would be one of the rare ones then. There was a very brief period of time when they came with a decent sized tube that carried an insert. The much more common scenario is they're a small tube that uses the tube as the outside of the shock and the top of the strut will be crimped over to hold it all together. Unserviceable unit, once the shock dies, buy another complete strut leg from Monroe or some such. I visited quite a few wreckers in Perth and hunted around online looking for a pair of these mythical strut legs. In the end I adapted a set of struts from a Celica to fit (not as simple as it first appeared either, check my Khanacross build thread). If you have one of the crimped struts, even if you could find a sleeve to suit the OD of the tube, you'd be a brave man to try and weld them to a thin walled tube full of hydraulic oil and nitrogen gas under pressure.

At work, so can't see the vid, but if it's of the car crashing into the house, the nav is getting out to display the OK sign. Usually there's a copy printed at the back of the roadbook. Needs to display the OK sign to the next three cars, otherwise they'll stop to render medical assistance and will be pretty pi$$ed if they didn't need to stop.

Watching someone like Nicky Grist is interesting, been in so many crashes he can see them coming, throw the notes, cross the arms and grab the belts. Then give driver the evil eyes when it's finally stopped bouncing ;)

Why can't the tyre company you were going to buy the tyre's from help you with choice ? Tyre guy doesn't seem to have lead you astray at this point. He's probably right about the 205/50R15's not working, though depends on your wheel offset a bit. I've got 15" rims on my corolla from a later model (AE101 or something later) 5mm difference in offset and that 5mm change causes some big issues (same rim width as standard though). I'm running 195/50R15's and they rub on the strut with a bit of sideways flex, so you really can't go any wider. Any bigger in diameter (larger profile) and you'll foul with the spring platform. If your rims are that much wider than standard, you'll probably also want to check the guard lip clearance. I've rolled mine and now run 15mm (or 20mm) spacers, and they still fit, but don't think there's a lot of room in there. At the end of the day, some prefer Dunlop's over Yokies and some people prefer Yokies over Dunlop's, so there's not a lot of point asking for individual opinions.The Tyre guy should be able to help you with your driving style and budget. 92's are always a bastard to choose tyre's for on the rear, just the way they are.

Ripped the gutter trims (can't rail mouldings according to some) off to do the re-spray. Went to snap them back on, only to realise that they're pretty much stuffed. Rubber's all flaking away and they won't stay in place. Spoke to Toyota, they have them, but they're holding them ransom for $168ea :notimp: Also looking for the outer window weather seals (Door Belt mouldings according to some). The prices on those are much more reasonable, but they don't have all of them in the country and one they couldn't find a listing for, so not sure what that means in terms of availability. Seen complete sets on ebay pretty cheap, just not for the AE92. Anyone got a lead, or names I can email before I shell out the big ones ? Seems overkill for a Khana car, should have left the gutter trims on and painted over them.

Lots and lots and lots of Sikaflex... especially if it's only a daily. No guarantee's, but a whole bunch cheaper than trying to repair it. You'd invest way more than the car's worth (ignoring what you got the car for)

Keep the screwdriver away from the glass, one small chip on the edge and you'll have a crack that'll run for miles... don't ask how I know :bash:

Those two cylinders aren't on the same coil pack are they ?

In the middle of stripping and painting the new hack, taking a lot longer with all the hot weather we've had lately, but that will happen in summer I guess. Anyway, I've pulled the rear quarter air vents to give them a quick rub down and spray. They look to be die cast steel so some description and really are quite heavy for the job they're doing (typical Toyota). Wouldn't save a lot of weight, but every bit helps, anyone seen these available in fibreglass ? Not worth the hassle to cast my own for this project, but if I can buy them from somewhere I'd be all about it.

Good to know, glad I didn't go down that path as suggested by a friend of mine, Cheers !

Bugger ! Oh well, nice to have confirmation, will rip the scoop offand use it on the Aus bonnet. Think I could get hold of the lights, but don't think there were any guards or a grill.

Just purchased a bonnet from an import AE92 Corolla with the expectation that it would bolt up to the Australian spec AE92. Unfortunately a quick inspection reveals some differences particularly around the lights, but I haven't got the car assembled enough to be sure. Just wondered if anyone's been thru this before ? Worst case I'll rip the scoop off and attach it to the Aus spec bonnet, it's only for a khana car.

~$3500 and Modena will be able to knock one up for you. Get a group together, might be able to get a discount.

Nice write up, perhaps a few things need to be clarified though, eg cutting out the diagonal bar in the roof of the rollcage.

Depends on which celica you're talking about. ST184/5 is a shorter travel (130mm) but my investigations show them as having larger bottom bolts with a different offset from strut centrerline (in a bad way) and I believe they were the same overall length. If you go back to ST162 ish, they have the same travel as the AE92 (I'm actually using ST162 Koni's in my AE92, though they're supposedly a discontinued item) same size bolts to hold the strut to the knuckle, but again different offset of bolts to strut centreline (again in a bad way). Camry from my rough measurements at the wreckers were very similar to Celica. Btw; if you run your car with those sort of offset rims you're asking for guard damage and a canary.

Blow some air into it, see if it comes out anywhere. I thought it might have been the port for the power valve, though the pic altezzaclub has linked to shows that it's taken from a seperate port in the base of the carb.

Ripped the 4AFE mount off the engine tonight and took some photo's to compare. By my measurements the mounts are the same distance off the motor to the center of the mounting pin. The GE mount just looks to be strategically 'trimmed' presumably to fit around the timing cover and possibly the timing belt. The mount to the motor is subtlety different, but looks as though you could use a GE mount on the end of an FE motor mount. Rubber in the bush is the same configuration, so no strength advantage of using one over the other. Won't be pulling the motor out for a while, but when I do I'll check out the differences as to how they fit on the motor.

So, lack of replies led me to chasing down an original 4AGE mount from a seller on ebay (the mount's a little worse for wear than advertised), I haven't stripped the 4AFE mount off to compare them properly yet, but intial inspection shows that the rubber appears to be the same. The rubber on this mount is cracked, so I'll have to press a new bush into anyway, hopefully can still get hold of those from Toyota or an aftermarket supplier.