Kurt's RA61 All-In-One Restomod Thread!

[RA61Kurt]

G'day gents, this is the beginning of my build thread.

Picked up this March 1983 RA61 2.0 XT [21R-C, Auto, Analogue Cluster, Hatch/Liftback, Blue interior, White exterior, Solid Axle, Rear Drum] on Jan 7, 2019.



Everything on the car works except the AC, which is missing the belt. Plans for this car are:
- To mod the 21R-C, I'm aiming for roughly 200hp at the crank -- But optimistic claims on the old toymods forum think 220whp is possible with some hard work and rare parts. If I hit that, I'm chuffed.
- Manual conversion -- I'm not at all impressed with the automatic, and I'm not planning on pushing big numbers so I think I'll be chasing a w57 as i believe it was the 21R-C's factory stick box.
- Outside bolt ons for the motor and the gearbox change, I'm aiming to keep it as factory as possible. Most, if not all parts used will either be from Toyota themselves or as close as I can get.
- Repair some minor rust, which will be in pictures in my next post, with the rest of the "Before" images.

OTHER INFO WORTH NOTING:
- This car was incredibly straight, I couldn't see any floorpan rust, nor hatch crust or even anything in the spare wheel well (which had a full size spare!) even as a Manly/Warringah (beachside) car it's come through the last 30 years relatively unscathed.
 
Ultimately I love the car as is, and want to change as little as possible, but I also do want to wake it up a bit. That's why I've decided to do the manual conversion so I can control the revs and throttle response, and I would like to keep the 21R-C as it was the factory motor. I'm not particularly interested in engine swaps, even though 20Rs and 22Rs are supposed to "just drop right in".

Making the car a bit more fun is my end goal, and ensure it survives well into the future, like it's managed to survive in making its way to me.

Please excuse the overshare of details, it took me forever to find information on other forums and would like to make it easy for anyone looking at doing what I'm doing in the future!

Onto the progress and informative posts!

[RA61Kurt]

BEFORE IMAGES:
Part One:

RUST.
As I did mention in the OP, the car was incredibly straight in the problem areas, but isn't perfect.

Here are some of the crusty bits that I'm working on getting repaired before I do anything mechanical. Step 1 in making a car last forever is to make sure the platform is solid before wasting money on go fast parts.


FUEL FILLER DOOR:
There's some minor crust in the bottom RH corner of the filler door, which a previous owner has tried to stop from getting worse. The part that perplexes me, is the riveted on stainless plate. I suspect that's also concealing some rust as well, but some cars did come with these kind of things factory. There might not be rust under there, but at some point an owner has attached the frankly hideous plate to the car.


RH REAR WHEEL ARCH:
There's crust spots along the outer edge of the right hand rear wheel arch, some has been painted, some hasn't, I suspect it goes a fair bit further than it looks like it does, but as far as panel rust goes this is the largest section of it.


RH REAR QUARTER GLASS SILL:
This suspicious riveted stainless plate (lined with silicone), very similar to the one near the fuel cap, lines the entire lower half of the rear quarter glass. Best case scenario is previous owner thought lining the whole sill after some paint loss looked better than just patching up a problem spot.
Worst case, the guy let it rot for too long and the plate covers rust along the whole sill. being that its silicone sealed, I believe it can't have gotten much worse since it was "repaired."


RADIO ANTENNA MOUNT:
Not entirely sure how this one happened, and not entirely sure what I'm going to do about it. Patrly I want to just shave the antenna off altogether and make the panel look nicer once the rust is gone, but in saying that I never know if/when I may need AM/FM radio. Minor crust, not too worried about that one.


LH REAR QUARTER GLASS SILL:
This is my biggest worry as far as this car's body goes. The crust has actually developed a hole, and rain/moisture gets in easily. Was never attempted to be repaired during previous owners' tenures. Best case scenario: fixing this hole makes it go away. Worst case scenario: the whole quarter may be compromised. We shall see.


FRONT WINSHIELD MOULDING - LOWER:
This one seems to be my easiest fix. It's crusted all the way through, but the entire panel is available online to purchase. With any luck the crust will have started and ended on this panel and have not also compromised the windshield cowl panel underneath.


LH FRONT RADIATOR SUPPORT:
This subframe has some rust, only on the left front corner of the car, seems to be the only crusty structural component.


LH REAR QUARTER PANEL:
This one stumps me. It's two minor dots on the rear quarter, that I can't think of a way they appeared. Both had attempted repairs, and I'm not too worried about it.


BONNET/HOOD UNDERSIDE:
Someone has slapped some anti-corrosion patches from repco on the underside of my hood. unsure if it means there's rust under there, but the entire hood will likely be replaced before I'm finished with the car, as the spot welds on the support bracketry are starting to pop out. Not worried about this one.

That's it for the rust, moving on to my next post which will be about other minor body damage.

[RA61Kurt]

BEFORE IMAGES:
Part Two:

DINGS AND OTHER NIGGLES.
With all of the rust mentioned and documented, I'm moving on to other body imperfections.


RH DOOR HANDLE:
Old mate with his rivet gun strikes again. I'm assuming the handle broke at some point and this genius with a slad of metal thought he's fix it. Easy fix, just need to replace the handle.


LH DOOR SKIN:
Left hand side door appears to have a... wrinkle? I'm classifying it as a dent, but i'm not real sure what lurks under that.


LH DOOR MIRROR:
Left hand door mirror assembly is missing. Unknown cause, but the mechanism hole was filled in with silicone. (Confused as to why a new one wasn't just put on? surely silicone would have been more effort?) Should be relatively easy to sort out, remove the silicone and putting a replacement mirror on should sort it out.


FRONT LH CORNER TRIM:
This guy and his DIY fixes, I swear to god. Black side trim must have come off at some point, now screwed into the panel. Wary of rust underneath.


LH DOOR SEAM//FRONT LEFT QUARTER TRIM:
More screwed in trim, and odd panel damage to front quarter panel and left door, where they meet. Panel and door no longer line up as they should, shouldn't be too hard to sort out.

That ends Before Pics Pt. 2.

[RA61Kurt]

Now that we're done with the Bad and the Ugly, I'd like to post some of the Good. The interior is very clean aside from not being very clean


Just shy of 163,000km!


rest of the interior is pretty snappy too, no seat damage or stains that I could see.

Rear seat was apparently "never sat in" according to the guy I bought it from, which I quickly changed, just to see how nice a brand new 80s seat was to sit in.






Other misc images showing a very un-crusty hatch back and brief glimpses at a clean trunk / boot interior.

Very happy with all of that.

[CakeFullofLolis]

Oh wow, very picture heavy, that's always good to see 

I'm definitely looking forward to your build here!

[sirdan]

The hoods are always separating from the bracing on these things. If you can get 200 hp you will have a fun car.

[twotone_ra64]

Wow, lots to go through here! Looking forward to seeing all the progress. W57 should be fine if you can pick one up cheap, but the W58 has a longer 5th gear and you might like that better, if you find one and the price is right. Amazing fixes from previous owner. Interesting that your speedo goes up to 220 km/h, JDM ones only go to 180 km/h. Interior is sharp, that uncracked dash is a lucky find! Otherwise I'm amazed at the lack of rust on this car, my hatch area had all sorts of rot.

[ozzie]

Good luck with the project! You've got some work ahead if you want to make it mint, and you might want to keep an eye out on e.g. toymods and gumtree for a replacement fender - I've never been able to get one crinkled like that to look right. Even if you bondo over the damage, the gap between door and fender will never be right. My brother's name is also Kurt (not Curt/Curtis), my dad named him after Kurt Russell.

[RA61Kurt]

W57 should be fine if you can pick one up cheap, but the W58 has a longer 5th gear and you might like that better, if you find one and the price is right.

Yeah, I would prefer the W58, however all the supra guys and even the Holden/Ford blokes love them for manual conversions, so their value is through the roof at the moment.

I weighed up the values and differences and settled on a W57 being "good enough" but if i do spy a cheap W68, I'll jump on that, no hesitation!

Only W57 I saw for sale: $650 AUD
Average W58 price through a brief search: $1500AUD

[twotone_ra64]

Yeah, I would prefer the W58, however all the supra guys and even the Holden/Ford blokes love them for manual conversions, so their value is through the roof at the moment.

I weighed up the values and differences and settled on a W57 being "good enough" but if i do spy a cheap W68, I'll jump on that, no hesitation!

Only W57 I saw for sale: $650 AUD
Average W58 price through a brief search: $1500AUD

Holy sh!t, I got my W58 at the wreckers for $100 USD... even then, used ones here are $300-600 USD. Ok, W57 it is...

[RA61Kurt]

Good luck with the project! You've got some work ahead if you want to make it mint, and you might want to keep an eye out on e.g. toymods and gumtree for a replacement fender - I've never been able to get one crinkled like that to look right. Even if you bondo over the damage, the gap between door and fender will never be right.

So I've been told, I took the car to a body shop to see what I'd be up against for some rust repair and panel alignment, and they seem pretty confident in their abilities so we'll see how that goes 

My brother's name is also Kurt (not Curt/Curtis), my dad named him after Kurt Russell.

I was also named after a famous Kurt, but not Russell. I was named after Cobain, my parents were huge on grunge and whatnot back in the day. I wish I was named after Russell though. 

[Sigma Projects]

Nice, that interior looks mint.

[Lone.mincer_]

Whats up keep us posted! Nice project!. In the subject of rust mine had alot and i just finished sanding and bondoing all. Check under the bottom of the doors where the weather seal is. I had major rust there and in the back wheel wells inside behind back seats. I had holes in my wheel wells. Thats the most common major HIDDEN rust spot along with the side pockets where the jack goes i had rust holes too and the hatch leaking is common. Check rear bumper too. You can see how much i had to patch on just the hatch end! Good luck !

[ozzie]

The other place you want to check for rust is the inside of the rear quarter panel in the back, not the wheel well but the flat piece that comes down next to it. I think I'm going to have to cut out my trunk to get to it to repair it.

[RA61Kurt]

In the subject of rust mine had alot and i just finished sanding and bondoing all. Check under the bottom of the doors where the weather seal is. I had major rust there and in the back wheel wells inside behind back seats. I had holes in my wheel wells. Thats the most common major HIDDEN rust spot along with the side pockets where the jack goes i had rust holes too and the hatch leaking is common. Check rear bumper too. You can see how much i had to patch on just the hatch end! Good luck !

The other place you want to check for rust is the inside of the rear quarter panel in the back, not the wheel well but the flat piece that comes down next to it. I think I'm going to have to cut out my trunk to get to it to repair it.

Thanks for the heads up guys! I haven't been doing much with it over the past week as I've been trying to get some money together for other parts, but I'll keep my eyes peeled for other suss spots.