JamesG

After driving the car quite a lot in the past few months I decided I wasn't quite happy with the seat rails and wanted to get the seats to sit lower in the car. So I managed to get hold of a pair of ep91 low rails made by William Tuite in Ireland. They're really well made and get the seating position as low as possible. Only problem was they are designed to work with recaro SR seats with the flat base, the trendline seats have a different bolt pattern and the base of the seat hangs down in the middle. So I decided to sell the EP3 prem seats and the rail setup in order to fund some r

Looks great mate, some really good work gone into this.

Thanks mate.

Another update, Bought some Reflet rear tail lights in from Japan. Happy with the condition, gave them a good clean and then polished them up. Only change I had to make to the bulbs was to put orange indicators in. Came out really well and make a great difference to the look of the back of the car. Also bought a replacement 96 Glanza front grill badge made by a lad on one of the facebook groups to replace my original that I had a go at refurbing. I thinks it looks great, really good to see people reproducing discontinued parts.

Thanks Burty

Heres some pics from Japfest at Silverstone last weekend. A good turnout of starlets, It was good to meet and chat to a few of the owners. The car drove the 300 mile round trip faultlessly very pleased.

Made some more progress with the car over the last couple of months. Purchased a spare 4efte rocker cover with the intention of removing the baffle, giving it a proper clean inside and then painting it. Started by drilling the heads off all the factory fitted rivets to allow the baffle to come free. Then I ground the remaining stubs flush with the dremel and gave the area behind the baffle and the baffle itself a good clean out to remove all the oil residue and grime. Next I marked and drilled the 14 5mm holes needed to reattach the baffle with m6 bolts, I did h

Started the car up for the first time in a while after sitting over winter recently. I have developed a strange issue with the factory radiator fan circuit. The fan is on constantly when the engine is cold even with just the ignition on. I ran the car up to temp with the fan unplugged and at 93 degrees the fan shuts off before coming back on when the coolant drops to around 85 degrees. Also if you unplug the fan switch sensor the fan shuts off when I believe the fan should come on as soon as you unplug the sensor as a safety feature. It's as if the circuit is running in reverse oppos

Thanks Jase. Only a small update but picked up a few bits from toyota last week. New headlight adjusters and front bumper fixings for where it attaches to the wing. Got them all fitted and replaced the originals. Wanted to replace the adjusters while they are still available as mine had seen better days. Just a shame you cant get new headlights from toyota anymore .

This arrived from 86aero in Northern Ireland this week, a fibreglass replica of the 96 spec oem front lip. Managed to get it test fitted and cut around the intercooler, heres a before and after. Then I prepped it for painting by sanding it flat and smooth. I had to fill a few small imperfections and low points but got it looking pretty good. I gave it a few coats of primer before painting in 040 white to match the car. This is the finished product. Really pleased with it. I have always wanted one of these and it really changes the look of the front end.

The car passed its mot for another year last week with no advisories. Also thanks to @Patches on here. I managed to find the original auction sheet from japan, aswell as a few pictures from the auction.

Havent updated this in a little while but finally made some progress on the seats recently. Decided to make my own rails. Started off with some 3mm thick steel that I cut and bent to shape to suit the starlet floorpan. I bought some recaro rails that bolt straight onto the recaro trendline seats. I just had to use some stainless steel spacers and longer bolts so that they would clear the base of the seat that hangs down. Then I was able try the seats in and decide where the rails needed to be positioned. Once I was happy I drilled and bolted the rails down to the subframes. I a

Recieved my aluminium power steering pot from RW developments last week. Got it all fitted up with my roose silicone hoses and fresh power steering fluid. Very happy with it, looks great in the bay compared to the standard one. Also picked up some 98 spec glanza wing mirrors to replace my originals as one has been badly cracked since I got the car. They are a slightly different shape to the 96 ones and the glass is a little larger, but the plug is the same so they bolt straight on. Pleased with them, they've also been repainted in 040 white so look well on

Thanks mate

Added an oil pressure gauge to the car this week. Bought a prosport gauge and used a remote adapter line that fits into the factory oil pressure switch to fit the sensor. I had to make a bracket to mount the adapter and sensors just above the gearbox. Also added a heat protective sleeve to the oil line because of its location near the turbo and downpipe. I decided to carefully disassemble and remove the insides of the dash clock so that I could run the wires for the gauge neatly through the dash. Got the gauge wired in and up and running. Just need to stick it