Smokeygsi

Hey guys, been lurking for a while making the odd post, and admiring most of your lovely SC's, so i thought it was about time i started a project thread for my daily.

Shes a 1993 Toyota Soarer - JDM import obviously
1JZ-GTE hooked up to an auto box thats destined for the bin in favour of an R154
I picked her up for £1000 GBP so about $1500
Paintworks a Porsche dark olive pearl, but its a little tired in places due to years of neglect by the previous owner
It came with HSD mono Pro coilovers with pillow ball top mounts
Tired 18" wheels - 8.5" and 9.5" ET-38 If i recall - so a touch on the weak side
And a Greddy profec e-01 boost controller
I wont go into the rear lights.........

Some pics from the day i picked it up:








I quickly realised the lights were terrible, so set about polishing the headlamps and fitted some 4300K HID's - huge improvement - especially in the middle of winter!
Being a cheap car, there were obviously going to be some issues that needed attending to, which soon got expensive!
Boot struts failed, service was needed, the rear brake discs / rotors were warped to a rediculous degree, sticking front caliper, tyres were all shot and it pulled to the left on the road.
So i ordered a heap of stuff over a few months and set about putting stuff right

Fitted some new boot struts - nice 10 min job which has resulted in the back of my head feeling much better these days



Serviced while I had some spare time one Saturday



New rear brakes - just went with cheap stuff for now, as i want to fit Supra 2 pots to the rear





Also threw these on - i have to say the difference in the feel of the steering was impressive for such a simple mod



Decided a clean was in order

Smokeygsi

Next up was 4 tyres - a Pair of 255/35/18 Dunlop SP sport maxx on the rear, and a pair of 225/40/18 Yokohama Prada spec 2 on the front - would love the Yokohamas on the rear, but for some reason they arent available in the size i need.. wierd one that
Not wanting to waste the money i spent on the tyres i carried out a full alignment - As we never had the Soarer or SC over here i had no specs to work with, so i ended up using the UK spec Toyota Supra Spec and increased the camber on the front a touch - ended up i think with 2 degrees neg on the rear and 1 degree 50 mins on the front

Love the tread pattern on these



Hooked up for the alignment - the RS6 in the background was being treated to new turbos.... I need to re align it at some point as i have played with the ride height so its bound to have changed.. maybe

1sWt2GS

iTrader: (6)

Change out those taillights!

Smokeygsi

Lastly I attended to the front brakes - by the time i had done all the above, the seized caliper had really taken its toll on the brakes - i was getting seriously bad vibrations under braking and knocking when taking off after stopping. With the rarity of LS400 brakes over here i ended up opting for brand new Supra 4 pots, coupled with EBC grooved and drilled discs, EBC yellow stuff pads and HEL brake lines..
Being the general idiot i am, i decided to tackle this at home.... while it was snowing a little.... i got a little bit cold....
It was all a pretty simple afair to be honest, worst of it was undoing the hard brake line to flexi union which had at some point been overtightened crushing the union

Old Vs New caliper..



The reason one of the pistons seized - lasted 20 years, so thats pretty good going



Some rather knackered flexis also



Anyways, ripped all the old stuff off and set about attacking the backing plate with an angle grinder..





Bolted on the new calipers with the discs and pads, bolted up the braided flexis and bled the brakes with my vac gun.. (cunning plan that! )



And all done.. gotta say, the difference in braking power is outstanding. I am a happy bunny



Also Trial fitted the Super Advans on the front, need spacers for sure, so thats going to be another £200 / $300 for the front and rear... yey..




So thats were she stands for the time being,
I have some bits which i have been getting ready to go on, including:
Bixenon headlamps
Front mounted intercooler
HKS mushroom filter
Super Advans

im on the look out for some decent rear lights, and i am looking into exhausts, but it already had the CAT removed, so i may end up needing to remove the fuel cut as im almost certain it will boost past the limit and cut the fuel with a larger diameter exhaust

Smokeygsi

On the look out for some different ones - dont care what, as long as its OEM - 97 tails would be ideal... but finding a decent set it no easy task here unfortunately... This is why i never take any pictures of the rear!!

1sWt2GS

iTrader: (6)

Have you looked in junkyards?

Tabaka

iTrader: (8)

Great progress, I like Super Advans on our cars. You don't get to see them very often.

Smokeygsi

Yeh, theres a place round the corner from my work 'Garage D' - they usually have a soarer in for breaking, but more often than not the lights are either the same as mine, or busted... there are a few on ebay, but nearly all for the offside - which is not helpful! the rest are either abroad and therefore overpriced and cost a fortune to post or not in great shape - I will get some eventually, but if im going to paying good money, i would rather have some 97's

JIzzle

dont do this mate, this is a clear downgrade. if you dont believe me search around for a bit.

better option would be a BFI with shields/ housing against hot engine air.

2. EBC is overpriced and offer no better performance than oem. especially their pads.

anyways for 1000 pounds this soarer is a steal, especially with the coilovers. will follow this thread to see how you get on with the r154 swap. good luck

scENFORCER

Looks like you've put some good work into her, nice job.

I'm actually gonna be visiting London for the first time on the 28th, was curious if I'd see any Soarers out there. But I guess as you said they were never sold there.

Smokeygsi

Thanks guys

Jizzle - yeh, i agree with the BFI - its one of the reasons i havent fitted the filter, only reason i have it is because it came with the FMIC and strut brace i bought...
on the EBC front, again i agree to a point on that, i have driven cars with greenstuff and redstuff pads - both were rubbish and oem were much better. However these yellow stuffs so far seem pretty good with a good hard bite from cold, and werent that much more than toyota pads

scENFORCER

Thankfully driving it makes all the work worthwhile. Im often offered brand new audis to use after work, and mostly turn them down (unless its something special) as i prefer driving the soarer

What are you in London for? And what area? I would be surprised if you see a Soarer or SC on the road over here, i think i have only ever seen another two outside of a meet since i became aware they even existed 8 or so years ago! lol

Holtspeed

iTrader: (5)

nice progress so far, please get the superadvans!! They'll look great!!

bank

iTrader: (1)

Wow looks good man! Wish we had soarers over here in the states.

Smokeygsi

Thanks for the kind comments

Holtspeed - the super advans are sat in my garage, i just need to buy some spacers as they are et-42

Bank - they arent that different to the sc's - best of it is, they dont really command a good price tag - all sub £2000 regardless of age etc. Only exception is a manual 1jz

I will try and get some pictures of the bits i have in the pipeline over the nexf few days also

Smokeygsi

So i have been on the case of getting the lighting sorted for the soarer..

Managed to obtain some near enough perfect 97+ rear lights... so it will be goooood bye to the ebay items! (YEY)




And i have been busy starting a headlamp build - Overall effect will be BiXenon and removed sidelight (think you guys may call it the 'city light')
I will probably relocate the light to live with the turnsignal.
The projector i am using is a Hella H55 (i belive) its out of an Audi S3 headlamp anyway. Not ideal for the small soarer headlamp, but i think i have made it work

Modified projector with modified soarer adjustment mech and wiring for solenoid sorted



Trial fitted in lamp before i did the wiring





With the lense - its a little off, but will be fine once its adjusted properly



Slotted back together but still LOTs to do.. plus i need another projector for the other side..