Saving the 86

Here it is, my 1986 Corolla GT-S Coupe!

It had been in storage for nearly 10 years (purchased in 2009 or 2010), I had intended on using it as a parts car for my Hatch. Fortunately my Hatch did not really need any major parts so this one remained pretty much untouched all those years.  It runs, has an near-mint interior, but like all Corollas, it’s very rusty.

In Nov. 2018 I decided I would give this car a new lease on life. With the prices of these things sky-rocketing every year and more are being scrapped every day, I wanted to “save” this car to the best of my ability.  

Clean interior. Nice. 

Good Ole 16V. Still has factory airbox and tube thingy.  What’s with all the leaves?

Keep in mind I am not a  professional welder, bodyman, or mechanic - just your average weekend warrior/DIYer with some sheet metal and a welder.  

Time to bring it to the shop, tear off those overfenders and check out the rust.  

Not pretty! Thank God for Wolf Steel.

https://www.alfaparts.net/toycor.htm

Time to get cutting and welding.  

I’ll be using my Hobart 135 MIG welder with C25 shielding gas, and 0.023″ wire.  I got this setup used for around $600. Gas is a bit extra, but I highly recommend it.  You’ll need an angle grinder and a bunch of cut-off disks/grinders too. 

NOTE:   I’ve only welded on one or two other projects, and definitely consider myself a beginner. I know full well there are resto shops that do this kind of work with their eyes closed, and probably do it to a much higher standard than I do. But I don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on a professional restoration so I’m doing the best I can within my abilities/resources available. 

If you are just starting out, don’t be intimidated.  There is lots of info and tutorials online.  Spend a week or two doing research, get a cheap welder and some scrap metal and go to town. You will get the hang of it. 

ALSO: There are lots of parts that are not shown (most likely because they’re boring) and not everything was done in the order that’s shown here. I tried to show it in a way that makes sense if you’re reading along. 

The rocker panels are completely rotted, as well as the “inner” rocker section that comes down from the floors which the rockers are spot welded to at the bottom.  Nobody makes that part but I can make this section from sheet metal and luckily it won’t be visible so it doesn't have to be pretty. If you are doing this, just make sure it is spot welded to the frame rails like it is from the factory. 

More cutting of rust

This car has been packed with expanding foam. Yuck. On a side note, I scored these wheel arch cuts for $50. They’ve been “flared” but apparently they are original AE86 Steel. I will strip the paint and try to re-create the stock bevelled edge on the arch. More on this later. 

Making the “inner” rocker from 18ga sheet metal... or 16ga - don’t quite remember.  Treated with POR15 rust paint or weld-thru primer as necessary so the rocker will adhere. 

Test fitting the Wolf Steel rocker panels. That looks a lot better! 

Time to tack in those rocker panels. They have been coated on the inside with POR15 rust paint to prevent future rust. Ignore all the black gunk. That’s just spilled POR15. The yellow-ish gold stuff is weld-thru primer. It allows you to seal the bare metal but still allows you to weld to it.

Now onto welding the seams. The previous owner had trimmed the rear arches so he could install overfenders - likely just to hide the rust. But he forgot to weld the seams! The rear quarter panel is welded to the wheel well for structural integrity so if you’re planning on cutting the arches on your car, you need to weld the seams or else it’s bad news for your car’s rigidity.  Problem solved now! 

Here I am test-fitting the Wolf Steel Bottom Quarter Panel cuts (TC3L  - https://www.alfaparts.net/toycor.htm) as well as arch cuts that I’ve now stripped the paint from and bent closer to the OEM look.  

Thank god for those Wolf Steel pieces - they’d be almost impossible to fabricate on my own without specialized tools (which I don’t have).

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Beginning to weld everything in. Keep in mind the arch section is no longer structural since I’ve now welded the seams underneath. Think of it as a steel, weld-on overfender, but it’s made from an actual factory AE86 arch.  Again, that gold stuff is the weld-thru primer. The new arches are also coated with POR15 on the inside. 

Everything is tacked in place - Nice!  It will need some minor filling and sanding to look perfect, but its looking night-and-day from when I started. 

Ah - the famous AE86 “rust-pockets”.  I’ve seen many simply delete the whole thing and forget about it. Here I’ve done a “semi” - delete. I’ll be putting back the bumper so who cares what it looks like. 

My good friend Nic sold me these clean front fenders. I’m super lucky to have good friends like this! These are crazy hard to find in good condition these days. 

Also: Nic and I have a shared instagram account for our 86s. Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/4agduo/

Also: Note the SSR XR-4 Longchamps!  Shout out to Matt for hooking me up: https://www.instagram.com/mattyballz86/

Sprayed with primer for now. I’ll finish up the body work later, but for now I’m happy with it. 

Yes, I know. the car looks hilarious on stock springs. 

The other side of the car needs similar treatment. I’ll let the pics speak for themselves:   

It’s springtime - I can finally open the garage and see the car in natural light.  I’ve primered the new panels so it looks more like a car again. 

Made this lil piece by hand. - not bad

Unfortunately one of the fenders I got had some rust...

So I bent up some sheet metal. Helps if you have a metal brake. You can get one at Princess Auto for $50.  

I wanted to get the exact contour so I cut the piece in half and welded in half at a time. That way the first piece I could align with the original piece. 

Not too bad. The fender isn’t bolted up yet, but once it is, it everything should line up pretty nicely. 

Here we are at last! Looks like a real car again. Still needs lots of minor filling and sanding, but considering there is absolutely zero filler at this point, I’d say its a great starting point.  Ignore the silver gascap - I took the other one out to use as a paint sample and luckily I had a spare laying around. It’s the only piece I have from my first ever Corolla I bought in 2008!

Aug 2019 Update: 

Did applied some filler around the arch areas and around the gascap, spent hours and hours sanding, and sprayed with a rattle can, here’s the result for now. Could use a full respray but looks okay for now. 

Remember what the car used to look like?!