I've been lurking on these forums for a number of years now, reading many many inspirational builds and generally enjoying the vibe going on around here 
.
I decided this morning it was time to start a thread here on my current project, as this is a forum I'd like to take a more active role in.
I've had a few projects over the last 7-8 years, Chevette wagon, Mini Clubman, Mitsy Sapporo... But this one is returning to my roots. My first car, when I was 18, was a Starion. My second car, was another Starion, as was my third... This is my return to ownership after an 8 year Hiatus. This time, I'm slightly less young (and stupid), know a bit more about cars, and have a decent garage to work in. Its time to build my dream Starion.
This whole thing started when I attended a 'Japanese Nostalgic Car' magazine meetup here in Christchurch. Seeing so many awesome 70's and 80's RWD J-Tin rides in once place was really inspiring. I decided there and then on the spot it was time to own a Starion again.
I spent the next couple of weeks scouring the interwebs for cars for sale in New Zealand. I was willing to travel the length of the country for the right car. I checked out a couple locally, and nothing was really up to Par. People supposedly selling cars in other cities took ages to respond, and it was like squeezing blood out of a stone getting photos and information on their cars...
Then, success. I'd seen a bunch of old expired listings on our local auction site for a black 82 Starion, but it hadn't been up for sale in a while, so I figured it had sold. Then out of the blue, it was listed again. The photos on the site made the car look quite rough and beaten... But I was not put off, and went to have a look. I took a good friend with me, and instructed him, before we set off, too reign in my enthusiasm and not let me buy a junker just because I was excited... Good mate.
The car turned out to be far tidier than expected. Minimal rust problems, the engine started and ran with no obvious noises, or smoke. The interior was very tidy and clean, bar the rear seat, which has some acid-spill related issues... The only problem was a stuffed clutch master and slave, which made it un-driveable currently. After discussion with my friend, we decided it looked like a pretty honest car, and the pin was pulled, the asking price paid, and the car towed home.
The first item to address was the wheels. The factory supplied 14's are a bit average, and the tyres were pretty worn-out. The same friend helping me out loaned me a set of 14's with a decently low offset as an interim solution while I did some research and figured out what would fit, and what I could get in New Zealand. Thus the car spent it's first night in my garage like this:
In the next couple of days my ordered clutch master and slave arrived, were swapped in, and the car finally moved under it's own power for the first time in my ownership. That was a really awesome day. I just drove the car, and drove, and drove and drove.
Most importantly, the cat approved.
Further investigation revealed that this was a pretty highly spec'd car from the factory. Coming with the 'GSR III' package, including digital dash, trip computer, and up-market stereo system. It also had a factory fitted LSD (very rare in an early model flat-body Starion) which I was over the moon about, as finding one is difficult enough, let alone paying for one once you've found one!
After getting used to the car for a week or so, it was time to start making it my own in earnest. All the aftermarket added parts in the interior had to go, and everything needed a good tidy-up. Whomever installed the aftermarket bits and bobs used crimp-tap wiring connectors everywhere, so restoring everything to stock was pretty straight forward.
There were some horrible wiring attempts and bodge-jobs going on around the place however, such as:
The headlights were also having a few issues. Someone had added a Cibie power-relay kit which was well and truly stuffed by now. I removed it all, plugged the factory headlight wiring back in, and hey presto, all fixed.
Anyone who has had a Starion before, or knows a bit about them will have noticed that this car has some non-standard parts fitted. The later model front bumper, and lower spoiler, with american Conquest tail-lights and badging. I'm not sure when these were added, but the tail-lights were in pretty average condition and needed sorting. I bought a set of factory early Starion tails, took them apart, cleaned, painted, polished, and reassembled.
I've also aquired a set of Later model Starion tails, and another set of Conquest tails that are both in good nick, but need taking apart and cleaning also.
All the driving I'd done had revealed a slight miss when cruising at around 2500rpm. It had the car a bit jerky and hesitant at round-town speeds. Its was totally fine under acceleration however. These cars have a pretty antiquated fuel injection setup, its basically an electronic carburettor. Many moons ago when I first owned a Starion I wrote this
prozac.orconhosting.net.nz/eciguide/rebuild.html
Luckily its still alive and kicking on the interwebs! Rebuilding of my current intake manifold ensued, and while I was at it I removed all the emissions gear, and the air-condition idle up system (The AC was removed from my car by a previous owner, a bit of a shame).
This got the car running quite a bit better. No more miss, smooth idle, very quick rev and return to idle. I was stoked.
While I had it apart, I noticed that the radiator had seen better days and was going pretty rotten down the bottom. A quick measure up of a friends aftermarket alloy S13 radiator showed that it was likely to be a good fit. They're also pretty cheap, cheaper than getting my factory radiator re-cored even. I sourced one, and fitting was pretty straight forward. I welded a couple of tabs onto the side to re-use the factory mounting location, and made up a new lower support.
I also removed the factory clutched engine driven fan in favour of a 14" electric fan. This tidied the engine bay up a bit, and gave more than adequate cooling for the current engine.
Now that I had all the mechanics sorted, and the car was proving to be quite reliable, It was time for the performance and aesthetic modifications. In the last couple of years, a company called D2 finally started making adjustable suspension for these cars. D2 coil-overs have a pretty bad name however, I fitted a set to a friends S14 once, and it was almost un-drivable afterwards, too stiff, and then the shock-tubes actually bent! However, these problems have all been sorted apparently, and after reading many positive reviews of their new products, I ordered a set of their Starion suspension. As Starions run a once-piece shock tube and cast spindle, there is some welding required to get the front suspension sorted. But it's nothing to complicated, anyone with an AE85-86 will be mightily familiar with the procedure.
Start with a bare strut.
Measure.
Cut.
Weld on new threaded sleeves. (However, make sure the brake hose mounting tabs are orientated correctly, NOT like mine... Hah.
Paint, and ZING, adjustable suspension complete.
While I had the front suspension apart, I noticed al all the steering ball-joints looks a bit worse for wear, as did the lower ball-joints. I purchased new parts for everything, and sent the drag-link away to be reconditioned.
Now that I had some decent suspension installed, It was time to think about wheels. I did quite a bit of research on what would fit, and basically came to the conclusion that Starions have mahoooosive wheel arches, and the more negitave the offset you can get, the better. I toyed with the idea of a few different setups, but eventually went with a set of TE37V knock-off wheels, in 15x9, with a 0 offset. I ordered a set of Toyo T1R 225/50/15 tyres, had them mounted, popped the wheels on, and bob's your uncle... almost.
Had to do plenty of this to remedy some guard clearance issues, but the wheels are now on there, and fitting nicely. I've had some 15mm front, and 20mm rear hub-centric bolt on spacers machined up to get the really fat-ass look I'm after, but there are some hub modifications required to get them to fit, so they're not on as yet.
However, after all this mucking around, I've ended up with this:
Which I am super happy with. It holds the road very very well, is quite comfortable to drive, and isnt un-managable at this height.
There are very few alterations I'll make to the appearance now, as I really like the look... Performance wise however... Well... I've just bought a complete, but deregistered 1990 Galant with the twin-cam version of my motor in it... Its going to donate it's heart to achieve my goal of 300RWHP.
Cheers to anyone that actually bothered to read all my dribble... Look forward to reading more of your builds and being a part of this forum
.I decided this morning it was time to start a thread here on my current project, as this is a forum I'd like to take a more active role in.
I've had a few projects over the last 7-8 years, Chevette wagon, Mini Clubman, Mitsy Sapporo... But this one is returning to my roots. My first car, when I was 18, was a Starion. My second car, was another Starion, as was my third... This is my return to ownership after an 8 year Hiatus. This time, I'm slightly less young (and stupid), know a bit more about cars, and have a decent garage to work in. Its time to build my dream Starion
.This whole thing started when I attended a 'Japanese Nostalgic Car' magazine meetup here in Christchurch. Seeing so many awesome 70's and 80's RWD J-Tin rides in once place was really inspiring. I decided there and then on the spot it was time to own a Starion again.
I spent the next couple of weeks scouring the interwebs for cars for sale in New Zealand. I was willing to travel the length of the country for the right car. I checked out a couple locally, and nothing was really up to Par. People supposedly selling cars in other cities took ages to respond, and it was like squeezing blood out of a stone getting photos and information on their cars...
Then, success. I'd seen a bunch of old expired listings on our local auction site for a black 82 Starion, but it hadn't been up for sale in a while, so I figured it had sold. Then out of the blue, it was listed again. The photos on the site made the car look quite rough and beaten... But I was not put off, and went to have a look. I took a good friend with me, and instructed him, before we set off, too reign in my enthusiasm and not let me buy a junker just because I was excited... Good mate
.The car turned out to be far tidier than expected. Minimal rust problems, the engine started and ran with no obvious noises, or smoke. The interior was very tidy and clean, bar the rear seat, which has some acid-spill related issues... The only problem was a stuffed clutch master and slave, which made it un-driveable currently. After discussion with my friend, we decided it looked like a pretty honest car, and the pin was pulled, the asking price paid, and the car towed home.
The first item to address was the wheels. The factory supplied 14's are a bit average, and the tyres were pretty worn-out. The same friend helping me out loaned me a set of 14's with a decently low offset as an interim solution while I did some research and figured out what would fit, and what I could get in New Zealand. Thus the car spent it's first night in my garage like this:
In the next couple of days my ordered clutch master and slave arrived, were swapped in, and the car finally moved under it's own power for the first time in my ownership. That was a really awesome day. I just drove the car, and drove, and drove and drove.
Most importantly, the cat approved.
Further investigation revealed that this was a pretty highly spec'd car from the factory. Coming with the 'GSR III' package, including digital dash, trip computer, and up-market stereo system. It also had a factory fitted LSD (very rare in an early model flat-body Starion) which I was over the moon about, as finding one is difficult enough, let alone paying for one once you've found one!
After getting used to the car for a week or so, it was time to start making it my own in earnest. All the aftermarket added parts in the interior had to go, and everything needed a good tidy-up. Whomever installed the aftermarket bits and bobs used crimp-tap wiring connectors everywhere, so restoring everything to stock was pretty straight forward.
There were some horrible wiring attempts and bodge-jobs going on around the place however, such as:
The headlights were also having a few issues. Someone had added a Cibie power-relay kit which was well and truly stuffed by now. I removed it all, plugged the factory headlight wiring back in, and hey presto, all fixed.
Anyone who has had a Starion before, or knows a bit about them will have noticed that this car has some non-standard parts fitted. The later model front bumper, and lower spoiler, with american Conquest tail-lights and badging. I'm not sure when these were added, but the tail-lights were in pretty average condition and needed sorting. I bought a set of factory early Starion tails, took them apart, cleaned, painted, polished, and reassembled.
I've also aquired a set of Later model Starion tails, and another set of Conquest tails that are both in good nick, but need taking apart and cleaning also.
All the driving I'd done had revealed a slight miss when cruising at around 2500rpm. It had the car a bit jerky and hesitant at round-town speeds. Its was totally fine under acceleration however. These cars have a pretty antiquated fuel injection setup, its basically an electronic carburettor. Many moons ago when I first owned a Starion I wrote this
prozac.orconhosting.net.nz/eciguide/rebuild.html
Luckily its still alive and kicking on the interwebs! Rebuilding of my current intake manifold ensued, and while I was at it I removed all the emissions gear, and the air-condition idle up system (The AC was removed from my car by a previous owner, a bit of a shame).
This got the car running quite a bit better. No more miss, smooth idle, very quick rev and return to idle. I was stoked
.While I had it apart, I noticed that the radiator had seen better days and was going pretty rotten down the bottom. A quick measure up of a friends aftermarket alloy S13 radiator showed that it was likely to be a good fit. They're also pretty cheap, cheaper than getting my factory radiator re-cored even. I sourced one, and fitting was pretty straight forward. I welded a couple of tabs onto the side to re-use the factory mounting location, and made up a new lower support.
I also removed the factory clutched engine driven fan in favour of a 14" electric fan. This tidied the engine bay up a bit, and gave more than adequate cooling for the current engine.
Now that I had all the mechanics sorted, and the car was proving to be quite reliable, It was time for the performance and aesthetic modifications. In the last couple of years, a company called D2 finally started making adjustable suspension for these cars. D2 coil-overs have a pretty bad name however, I fitted a set to a friends S14 once, and it was almost un-drivable afterwards, too stiff, and then the shock-tubes actually bent! However, these problems have all been sorted apparently, and after reading many positive reviews of their new products, I ordered a set of their Starion suspension. As Starions run a once-piece shock tube and cast spindle, there is some welding required to get the front suspension sorted. But it's nothing to complicated, anyone with an AE85-86 will be mightily familiar with the procedure
.Start with a bare strut.
Measure.
Cut.
Weld on new threaded sleeves. (However, make sure the brake hose mounting tabs are orientated correctly, NOT like mine... Hah.
Paint, and ZING, adjustable suspension complete.
While I had the front suspension apart, I noticed al all the steering ball-joints looks a bit worse for wear, as did the lower ball-joints. I purchased new parts for everything, and sent the drag-link away to be reconditioned.
Now that I had some decent suspension installed, It was time to think about wheels. I did quite a bit of research on what would fit, and basically came to the conclusion that Starions have mahoooosive wheel arches, and the more negitave the offset you can get, the better. I toyed with the idea of a few different setups, but eventually went with a set of TE37V knock-off wheels, in 15x9, with a 0 offset. I ordered a set of Toyo T1R 225/50/15 tyres, had them mounted, popped the wheels on, and bob's your uncle... almost.
Had to do plenty of this to remedy some guard clearance issues, but the wheels are now on there, and fitting nicely. I've had some 15mm front, and 20mm rear hub-centric bolt on spacers machined up to get the really fat-ass look I'm after, but there are some hub modifications required to get them to fit, so they're not on as yet.
However, after all this mucking around, I've ended up with this:
Which I am super happy with. It holds the road very very well, is quite comfortable to drive, and isnt un-managable at this height.
There are very few alterations I'll make to the appearance now, as I really like the look... Performance wise however... Well... I've just bought a complete, but deregistered 1990 Galant with the twin-cam version of my motor in it... Its going to donate it's heart to achieve my goal of 300RWHP
.Cheers to anyone that actually bothered to read all my dribble... Look forward to reading more of your builds and being a part of this forum
.
