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for April, 2010.
By Eric
I have a car here that I have been working on for a little while that I would like to introduce you to. It’s taken a while because this is my after hours project, and after hours can sometime be difficult to come by for a family man. Some of you who know me know my current daily driver. For those of you that don’t, let me fill you in. My current dd is a 99 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS with a full WRX drivetrain swap with a ton of bolt-on’s, gutted, caged coilovers big brakes etc. Not exactly the best dd especially when you have a 50 mile daily round trip. I think I may have a little of a warped perception of what makes a good dd than most though. For me, I love building my cars to perform at the track and the canyon as well as possible. In some cases this severely affects the daily drivability but I guess that’s what separates the truly hardcore from the enthusiasts. I can’t even remember the last time I had a dd with full interior, or even A/C for that matter. For me personally I don’t really have the desire to build a track only car. In my opinion if you can build a well prepped car for the track, and keep it relatively streetable you will get 5 times the use out of it than something you only drive once a month at the track if you’re lucky. And I think hell may actually freeze over before I would ever buy a truck and trailer to tow my track car around, do you know how many AE86’s you could buy for that ?!! 
Anyways I’m rambling. To get to the point the commute is taking it’s toll on my GC8 and I need a replacement. Here’s my current dd…..
Now having owned a couple of AE86’s in the past I was felling the need for another lightweight RWD car. I wanted to build something a little bit different this time though, and I came across an 82 Toyota Starlet (KP61) that a fellow co-worker had for sale. It was actually 2 half decent KP61 chassis that I had to make one good running car out of. This is what was left of the chassis that was gutted for parts due to the fact that it had a bent frame.
And here is the good one, and all the parts I thought I may need out of the donor,
The chassis was actually in very good shape. The paint was done for but it’s an 82 man, what do you expect? The body is actually very straight and there was only a bit of rust around the spare tire well. I know, I know, it may not be the finest looking J-tin out there but I think it has great potential. And I’ve always had a thing for tiny little hatchbacks, and I can actually fit some parts in this thing. The First thing that had to happen was swapping a bunch of parts from the donor to even make it drivable, and after that, it needed a drop and some better wheels. Luckily the deal also came with some sweet 13×6.5″ Work Equips and AE86 front spindles and brakes. Looking better already……
Still needs some work though, and lots of it The first thing that had to go were those bumpers, good god!! What were they thinking??!! The rear one is seriously almost a foot long! Good for waiting for the bus, or maybe the occasional spontaneous picnic. Hey, you could probably back it up to the lake and use it for a diving board perhaps…. actually maybe I should keep it now that I think about it .
Seriously, look at that thing!! There’s a couple of options out there for fiberglass JDM replicas etc. but I wanted something a little different. And why buy something when you can make it right? So as you can see here just removing the bumper leaves quite a mess back there.
I wanted to clean it up a bit, but not shave it completely because I think that looks a bit plain . Also if you shave it you loose access to the hardware that secures the gas tank straps. I did however go a bit shave crazy once I got started back there…
So you have an idea of the work I put into it let me break it down, the blue circles are the license plate lights, trunk latch, and holes that needed to be patched and filled. The red circles show the gas tank strap hardware that I needed to keep access to. I decided to make a removable aluminum filler panel to cover the center section, which is what the purple circles are. They are nuts welded to the car to attach the panel to. I also had to remove all these tabs along the seam weld that the bumper attached to.
While I was at it, I also decided to remove the font and rear sidemarkers…
And the antenna and mirror… yes, there’s only one.
In my opinion all the stuff that always looks like an afterthought on most cars. Unfortunately I am only doing a bit at a time so I can still drive it.
So at this point I decided I still needed bumpers of some sort. I decided to experiment with a nerf style that is sometimes seen on old VW’s, Shelby Cobras, etc. You’ll get a better idea in a minute, here’s the first step.
I wanted to use stainless steel so I could keep them unpainted. That was a good Idea until I remembered cutting holes in stainless is a real pain. I haven’t found a decent hole saw that isn’t a gazillion dollars that lasts longer than 5 minutes on this stuff. I ended up using the plasma cutter and cleaning up the holes afterwords. Mmm…. dimple dies….
Then bend it..
And bend another piece just right to cover the outside and tack it in place.
And the final product… this is why I decided to use stainless. I think this is officially the longest bead I have done yet, I almost passed out when I was done because I have a bad habit of holding my breath when I weld in order to keep a super steady hand. Only 3 more to go!! ughhhh….
I made some brackets to attach the bumpers to the car, finished the aluminum filler panel, and added some Sparco trunk springs since I removed the latch. Definitely different, I’ll keep it for a while to see if it grows on me.
I’ve always loved these things.
I think I will probably paint the aluminum panel as well because I think it is looking a bit busy back there.
So now on to the front. As you can see removing the front bumper makes a HUGE gap in the front of the car that needs to be addressed. I also played around with the turn signal placement for a while as well but decided to just hide them behind the front grill S30 style because lets face it, they’re ugly.
I played around with a few different designs for the front and ended up with some more removable aluminum filler panels. These will be painted as well. I put he slots in because hopefully in the future I will have a motor in this that makes more than 62hp and needs some cooling 
So in total I think I took like a foot and a half off of the length of the car and I think it looks MUCH better.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I also came across some old Hakosuka fender mirrors that look pretty peachy on there if I don’t say so myself.
And my sister made me this super bitchin’ rainbow sparkle gold shift knob to top it off, thanks Sheesh!!
So there you have it. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m feeling it. It still needs more offset, more drop , more motor, more paint, etc. etc. but I feel like we’re off to a pretty good start so far. Stay tuned for more hot, face melting KP61 action!!!
By Eric
We have decided to put or beloved DR30 Skyline up for auction and it ends tonight!! So if owning one of these iconic legends from the eighties has ever crossed your mind you might want to check it out, because unless I’m mistaken this is THE cleanest DR30 you are going to see in the states. And it is highly doubtful we are going to come across another one in this good of shape any time soon.
The auction can be found here (psst… the reserve is only at $10,100.00) And additional pictures and information can be found on our website here And if you would like any additional information you can always contact me at eric@jdmlegends.com
By Eric
I am pleased to say that our 72 Skyline is on it’s way out to the West cost soon to be in the hands of a new owner. I will surely miss the sound those triple Mikuni 40’s made on that L28 most of all. The new owner has a full resto in the works so hopefully the next time you see this car it will be looking better than ever. I will have to say it makes that Lexus and Acura look a a little more boring than usual don’t you think?
There is now a sad empty spot next to our Kenmeri in the showroom, no worries though as we should be receiving another super clean 72 Skyline to replace it in less than a month. So if you may be interested and would like first dibs, drop us a line!!
By Eric
We have quite a few resources for sourcing and importing cars from Japan, from private sales, used car specialists, used car dealers, local sales etc. One of the routes we also have is access to is about 30 different auctions across Japan. The auctions consist of a huge variety of cars, from fully restored Hakosuka and Kenmeri GT-R’s (clones, and legitimate GT-R’s alike) , Toyota 2000GT’s, Mazda Cosmos, S30 Fairladys, to half running rusty fixer uppers of all kinds. The vehicle inspections are very critical, and as long as you know what you are looking for it can be a great resource. Vintage restoration shops from all over Japan including Flex Auto, Red Megaphone, Vintage car Yoshino, just to name a few, post up their cars to sell and also purchase vehicles through theses same auctions. From time to time I will start posting up vehicles I come across that I feel some of our audience may be interested in just to give you an idea of all the really cool stuff that we have access to. It’s not just Skylines you know And even better, if you see something you like, drop me a line and we will see what we can do for you. I’m going to start here with a bit more of the obscure side of things I’ve come across….. Like this 610 Bluebird sedan with just enough Boso style to look mean without looking ridiculous……
I’ve never seen a 610 look so good…
Clean Yonmeri C110 sedan, I love these in sedan form. And they’re also much cheaper than the 2 doors.
Just one example of a clean S30 Fairlady. I’ve had one of these on my wish list for a while now, they’re still very sought after in Japan and usually fetch around the same going price as 2 door Hakosukas.
On the other side of the spectrum, how about a GT3 themed crown wagon? This is one of those “only in Japan” moments for sure.
Very nicely restored TE27 with a very long list of classic TRD goodies on it…
And a ridiculous Mark II (Cressida in the States) that I am still beating myself up over not picking up. I could definitely see a couple of baby seats in the back of that thing as my daily…
That is all for now, and this is only the tip of the iceberg of what we have access to so let me know if you see something you like, or if you have something else in mind you would like us to find shoot me an Email at eric@jdmlegends.com and we’ll see what we can do for you.
By Eric
We last left off project RA29 with the motor and transmission neatly mounted in place, and modified the chassis to accept the new 6 speed shifter position. Next up of the list is finishing up the loose ends on our rack and pinion steering conversion. The first question some may ask is why even do a rack and pinion steering conversion? Those asking probably haven’t driven a 30+ year old car with an old, worn out steering system that has a good 2-3″ of travel in the steering wheel before the wheels even think about turning. Slightly unnerving to say the least, and definitely far from precise. Not the attributes one looks for in a sports car. Let’s compare the two, here’s the stock “recirculating ball” type steering system.
Note the big, leaky steering box, pitman and idler arms galore, and all kinds of bushings just waiting to slop up your steering feel. This type of steering is still in use on some larger trucks and utility vehicles due to it’s greater mechanical advantage over rack and pinion steering. Now onto the rack and pinion setup, still mounted to the new subframe.
Definitely a bit simpler and more self contained. The rack and pinion steering has the advantages of a large degree of feedback and more direct steering feel.
Before we even attempted to start the conversion I made a whole bunch of measurements (RA29 build part 4) to make sure everything would work properly before any cutting or disasembly. Also make sure to have everything you need from your donor before you start. In this case we had the entire steering column and lower bearing carrier housing where it passes through the firewall, the new rack, and subframe from our 82 Toyota Starlet (KP61).
We already started with the new rack and pinion steering rack in place. I decided to start first by figuring out which components to use in the steering column. I ended up using the entire top section of the factory RA29 steering column. To connect the RA29 column to the new rack I needed to use the KP61 steering shaft inside the RA29 column. I also needed to use the bearing carrier section on the bottom of the KP61 steering shaft to support the steering linkage at the firewall. The old RA29 system attached directly to the steering box in the engine compartment which negates the need for a bearing support like on the rack and pinion system. The first thing I did was cut out the bearing carrier portion from the KP61 and mount it in to the old RA29 one.
This is the part I needed cut out of the KP61 unit.
And final welded into place.
With the new bearing carrier in place, I can now cut the bottom off of the RA29 column and figure out exactly how much I need to lengthen the KP steering shaft.
This is where measurement of how much the steering shaft needs to come out of the upper bearing retainer needs to be taken. It needs to be right on because there is a c-clip that retains the shaft just on the other side of the bearing.
This gives you an idea of what is going on inside the column, and where it needs to be extended.
Now before we go any further, I had realized that I knew this car (as does any relatively new car) has a collapsible steering column and I knew that would be something that would have to be retained with our new system as safety is not something we like to cut corners on here. I also realized that I had no idea on how a collapsible steering column works so I decided to dissect the old RA29 shaft and do some research to figure out how it all works. What you see in this picture of the RA shaft is 2 little dots, hardly visible unless you really look.
Drill those out and you will find that you can slide the upper shaft out of the lower sleeve. It turns out that in manufacturing the upper shaft is slid into the lower sleeve and a special resin is injected into the holes which holds the two pieces together (note there is never a lateral force in that area, only rotational). This resin is meant to shatter at a precise lateral load (a.k.a. your dome slamming into the steering wheel in a hard front end collision) allowing the shaft to slide into the sleeve so the column doesn’t act like an impaling javelin.
Now that I know how that all works, I can make sure it is retained with our new steering. After figuring out exactly how much the shaft needs to be lengthened, it’s a simple matter of taking some length out of our old unused RA29 steering shaft and adding it into the KP one. When welding steering components you never want to rely on one weld to make sure everything stays in place. More is better in this situation and this will require me sleeving and plug-welding our lengthened section (more on this in a minute). The steering shaft is an odd shaped half round, half square extrusion which would mean finding a sleeve to fit it would be next to impossible. This is when I realized I could cut off the lower section from the old RA shaft and use it as a sleeve. Here is where I cut it off, right before it goes completely round.
Next is to measure and drill some well spaced holes.
The edges on the shaft were beveled in order to achieve as much penetration as possible, and still allow the weld to fit inside the sleeve with as little grinding as possible.
The shaft is TIG welded, and then the sleeve slid over it.
This is now where the weld that connects the two sits inside the sleeve.
Now crank up the MIG and plug weld the holes.
As you can see there are multiple areas reinforcing the original weld. Which now means multiple areas to distribute the force instead of on just one solitary weld. Not exactly necessary for some, but I would never fabricate something as important as steering linkage in any other way. This is now how the new column sits inside the car, looks factory if I don’t say so myself
Now we just need to finish it up from the engine bay side of the firewall to the rack. This is about the distance it needs to be lengthened.
Since I don’t have another rack around to steal parts from I’m going to have take a trip to Metal Supermarket, a favorite spot around here. Luckily I was able to find some metric bar stock, and a sleeve to fit it perfectly. Here is the newly lengthened, TIG welded piece.
As you can see, having 2 welds is going to require a longer sleeve. Here it is, drilled and ready to go.
And the plug welds….. um…. plugged
Here it is in the car, you can also now see the need for that lower bearing carrier from this angle.
Now the only thing to do is modify the downpipe just a bit to clear the new steering linkage. Oh yea, did I mention yet that we were turbocharging the 3SGE? I had to cut off the flange to add a bit of rotation.
And that about does it. It looks a bit closer in the pic than it actually is. With some proper heat shielding on the downpipe and brake booster, we should be good to go!!
So there you have it. Not exactly child’s play but not too terribly difficult either as long as you do the proper planning ahead of time, and have the proper fabrication equipment. We’ve still got a AE86 rear disc brake and rebuilt LSD on the list of things to do for the next installment so check back soon!!
By Eric
I know I said I would post up some JDM Legends stuff, but I came across these from the Fukuoka Custom Car Show and I had to share. This Kei Paddock 510 is straight bananas!! I usually prefer my 510’s with some wide 13’s but you can’t deny this one pulls of the modern look quite well. This car has presence for sure.
Looks like a Neo SR20VE, the later versions of those were good for 205 ps! Perfect for a 510 in my opinion. Carbs are cool, but if you like canyon driving (and we love our canyons here in Utah) you will know that carbs will either work well at the bottom of the canyon, or the top, not both So in that sense, fuel injection is the way to go.
Clean DR30 as well…. Ours is still for sale by the way
And an S15 also in the Kei Paddock booth too hard not to post, classic or not. This one also runs the NA SR20VE.
A rare, but welcome sight in an S15.
By Eric
As promised, here are a couple of ridiculous S30’s from RS Start that I came across the other day. I’ve been really wanting to build one of these for a while now, and this only makes it worse. First up is this tasty little orange number. Its had a full ground-up restoration on it which you can see on their site . It is jam packed with everything one could ever want in an S30, nice welded in cage, Ohlins coilovers, rack and pinion conversion, Stack gauge cluster, Brembos, the list goes on and on. It even has air jacks!! It started as this…..
To this…
I know, I know, it’s missing the S20. Well then, how about this Green 432?
Clean, clean, and clean. I usually prefer the over fenders on S30’s just because they look brutal. But I would probably have second thoughts on drilling into a 432. Oh yea, and what makes the 432, the 432…..
And the interior is spot on as well.
I’m sorry Rocky Auto, but with builds like this I think RS Start has mt heart at the moment But enough about other shops already. The next post will be about our beloved RA29 project and the ins and outs of the rack and pinion conversion so check back!!!
By Eric
Just though I would let some of the loyal blog readers know that we have put our 72 KGC10 Skyline up for auction on ebay and it ends this Friday. This could be a screaming deal for someone with the desire and ability to take on a little more of a project. We’re still a little new to ebay auctioning and to be honest it’s not our preferred method of selling cars but for now still being a new company it’s turned out to be a very good way to get the company name out there and show people what we do. Back to the Skyline, the topside and interior look really good, it’s a little rusty underneath, the brake, and suspension need some attention, but it has all the GT-R conversion parts and an L28 with triple Mikuni carbs so it makes a great starting point for someone willing to put in a little elbow grease to make it perfect. I get a lot of people wanting a “buy it now” price or asking what our reserve is and maybe I’m still a bit new to ebay but isn’t the point of an auction for people to bid on what they think it’s worth? Maybe we may have to revise our auction methods a bit next time. And in case you were wondering, the reserve is still way under what you can get one in similar condition in Japan, and waaay under the $25-30K range they are worth in cleaner condition. So don’t worry, bid away!! These don’t come around every day
Oh yeah, I should mention that the Watanabe’s aren’t being sold with the car (not when we’re selling it that cheap anyways ) But if you would like wheel specs, pics, or any other info on the car you can always e mail me at eric@jdmlegends.com or check the vehicle sale page on our site, and of course the ebay auction.
By Eric
I am proud to say that we have recently purchased another Hakosuka, and I was looking around a bit to find a front spoiler among other things and stumbled across these gems from RS Start. First is a KPGC10 GT-R….
Spotless S20 of course…
Spotless under carriage..
And the fender wells…. seriously, I think I would feel bad driving this thing.
One more, looks similar but this one has some interesting bits.
I’m not too big on carbon on classic J-tin, especially the holy KPGC10. But if it must be done, do it right and this one is SO right. Lets start with the common hood, but in Japan they do right, as light as possible complete with carbon skeleton. But it will cost you
Full carbon doors… painted on the outside keeps it looking clean.
Let’s not forget the trunk.
Carbon interior panels and a cage as well, nicely done.
Because I don’t want to make your head explode from over-awesomeness I will wait until tomorrow to show you the S30 Z’s.
By Eric
Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I’ve been a bit preoccupied with this…..
And this among many other things…..
Not exactly JDM Legends material but cool stuff nonetheless. More updates soon I promise!!
