Soop's track wagon.
After driving my Naturally aspirated EJ22 powered BD sedan home from work one night, and giving it some stick through the country back roads I often frequent, i was thinking "Sure it goes around corners alright. But i did it with my elbow on the window sill."
I needed something that would get the Ol' adrenaline glads back into shape, and since riding was out of the question due to injuries, I needed something i could do with both butt cheeks planted.
The decision was made, that it would be a gen1 that would do the job, and further more a gen1 wagon. I chose the wagon because i dislike the styling of the sedan, that rear quarter panel is awful!
What i didn't expect was how long it would take to find an example that was worth the money being asked for it, the price of these old banger's has held up quiet well.
In late June i found the one i was after. In a wreckers no less.
It was a 1990 model GX Liberty wagon, featuring a dual range 5speed manual and the remnants of what used to be an airbag suspension setup.
A quick inspection revealed that it had spent most if not all its life on a farm. The underside, engine bay and most of the interior were mostly covered in dirt and dust.
The day after i got it i started pulling it down, in preparation for the build.
The amount of debris was utterly staggering. Inside the rear quarter panels we (My self and a mate) removed about eight liters of dirt and mud.
First job on the cards was removing the engine. We did this the easiest way we could think of, straight out the bottom.
To begin with we removed the front clip and exhaust system. Once this was done we then moved to removing everything that attached the engine to the car and then moved onto the actual removal. The plan was to remove the engine without splitting the two. So with the aid of a trolley jack we undid the transmission cross member and the engine cross member and slowly slid the whole lot out. The most difficult part was clearing the radiator support, but we overcame this quickly and the engine was out.
(Do you see Dylan, do you see!)
Once this stage was completed we moved onto the interior.
Holy f*ck was it filthy. I can't even begin to describe how much filth was in this vehicle. So I'll let pictures tell the story.
Once we had removed all the interior components and the sound deadening from the floor (BIATCH of a job), we had to clean it.
This was done via some turpentine and a rag. Two days later it looked like this:
And the Engine bay.
Once we had the car stripped and cleaned. It was time to start on the modifications.
First up, were a pair of second hand G4 coil overs. These will not be staying in for the long term, they're more of a stop gap so that i can get everything set where i want it until such time as i can purchase some Tein RA coil overs.
Next i Purchased a set of Whiteline adjustable lateral control arms, with poly urethane bushes. This is to allow some degree of toe adjustment and the ability to later upgrade to an R180 rear end.
I finally received the drive line. After quiet a few hiccups with the far from efficient Australian logistics network. A massive thanks must go out to Mick (Evil_Chief) for tracking the drive line down for me after the incompetent freight companies botched the job.
Here is the new front bar, needs a little tickle up here and there. But will be fine for the shit box.
And the new gearbox. 4.11 final drive.
It will most probably break at some point, but it will have to do for the moment.
Modifications:
Suspension:
- G4 coil overs.
- Whiteline adjustable lateral arms.
- (In transit) Alloy control arms.
Chassis:
- Interior removed.
- Sound deadening stripped.
- Hillholder deleted.
- (On the list.) Roll cage and seam welding.
Driveline:
- JDM 4.11 gear box and VLSD Diff.
Engine:
- Incomplete.
- Forged EJ22t bottom end.
- GT3071 turbo.
- GTB heads.
Thanks for reading, I hope some how you may have gained some information from this. If you have any queries please post up or shoot me a PM!
Cheers, Paul.
.
Your B4 exhaust is longer mate, by about 114mm.
Sedan is a daily mate, and it does the trick.
