Project RA28 Celica

[MWP]

OWNER
Mark Williams (aka MWP)
Adelaide, South Australia

BODY
04/1977 RA28 Toyota Celica
GT Grill
GT Hatch Release
Inset door handles
Rolled guards
Resprayed pure white

ENGINE
None

DRIVELINE
No gearbox
Factory diff

SUSPENSION & STEERING
Stock front suspension & steering
Rear factory springs & Armstrong adj shocks

BRAKES
All factory

WHEELS
Enough to hold the car up

INTERIOR
Factory
GT center console

STEREO
:roll:

PLANNED MODS
- 1UZ-FE
- Manual Conversion (W58)
- One piece tailshaft
- R&P Steering
- Hilux Diff
- 5 stud wheel hubs
- Chassis strengthening
- Removed key locks (central locking)
- Etc....

The above mods are not 100% certain as yet.
Installing a 1UZ could become too difficult or too expensive... investigating this at the moment.
The above has been approved by an engineer though.
If the 1UZ doesnt go ahead, ill fall back to a 1G-GZE or 1G-GTE.

All of the photos can be seen here.

 

[MWP]

How it looked when i bought it:

 

[MWP]

How it looks now:

 

[MWP]

Im working on getting the front suspension/brakes done atm.

Ill be using:
- LN106 Hilux 4 spot calipers
- RT132 Corona struts
- Pug 604 vented/slotted disks
- MS65 Crown Hubs (to give 5x114.3 wheel pattern)
- Koni Yellow inserts
- Notec Coilover Kit
- King Springs

The calipers rebuilt and painted:

Pug 604 Rotor, Crown hub, Corona struts and a Caliper:

 

[MWP]

Working out placement of the AE82 rack:

All cleaned up ready for paint:

Cross member with rack mounted:

 

[Lextreme II]

Nice.... They are very hard to find now in the USA. They are old school Toyota.... keep it up and let us know the progress...

 

[MWP]

Nice.... They are very hard to find now in the USA. They are old school Toyota.... keep it up and let us know the progress...

They are just as hard to find here.
I couldnt find a good one (=no rust) here in Adelaide, so i bought and shipped this one over from Perth.
I ended up paying a decent amount for the shell, but its worth it as there is only minimal body work to do.
Spending time fixing rust, paint, etc is somthing i dont want to do.

 

[The Flea]

Is it true what they say about great minds thinking alike?
Curious to see how the rest of your project goes. It looks like you're doing everything really cherry. Go with the 1uz!

How did the ackerman work out? I figure yours is almost exactly the same as mine, or at least really close. I'm not much into taking corners anyway... I figure a locked spool with 12' slicks can be worse than being a little off on the ackerman?
I need to shorten my rod ends? Any suggestions for a direct swap? I need to lose over 1.5" per side.

 

[MWP]

I used a dynabolt to extend the thread and then cut the end off the tie-rod.

I wrote this in another forum:

I spent the afternoon comparing the original steering angles to the new R&P angles.

Bumpsteer looks very good.
At full travel up (at the bumpstop): r&p=-1.22° orig=+0.81°
At full travel down (fully extended): r&p=+2.94° orig=-2.23°
Not quite sure why the angles have been reversed, but it doesnt really matter as long as the angles havnt increased much.

Ackerman might be a problem though.
At a turning angle of 30° at the outside wheel, the difference in angle between the outside and inside wheels are: r&p=7.1° orig=4.1°

Longer steering arms would help reduce the ackerman angle, but would probably reduce turning circle which is already limited.
Ill try longer steering arms though if the engineer thinks 7.1° is too much.
Ill find out this week...

What rack are you using?

 

[MWP]

I used a dynabolt to extend the thread and then cut the end off the tie-rod.

I wrote this in another forum:

I spent the afternoon comparing the original steering angles to the new R&P angles.

Bumpsteer looks very good.
At full travel up (at the bumpstop): r&p=-1.22° orig=+0.81°
At full travel down (fully extended): r&p=+2.94° orig=-2.23°
Not quite sure why the angles have been reversed, but it doesnt really matter as long as the angles havnt increased much.

Ackerman might be a problem though.
At a turning angle of 30° at the outside wheel, the difference in angle between the outside and inside wheels are: r&p=7.1° orig=4.1°

Longer steering arms would help reduce the ackerman angle, but would probably reduce turning circle which is already limited.
Ill try longer steering arms though if the engineer thinks 7.1° is too much.
Ill find out this week...

What rack are you using?

 

[mycarhasposessedme]

Here is a few graphs that might help you guys out.
This indicates that the rack (inner tie rods) are mounted too high. If it slanted to the right, the rack would be mounted too low.

 

[mycarhasposessedme]

And another graph.
Here the rack is almost at the right vertical height, it still could be a little lower however. Now we have a nice curve appearing. This now means that the inner tie rod pivot points are to far appart. which will require a shorter rack and longer tie rods.
If the curve went the other way it would mean the opposite (ie:rack to short)
So
Step 1
Graph your suspension travel
Step 2
Get the rack height worked out first
Step 3
Work on rack length

Appologies if i'm telling you what you guys already know, hope this is of some help
cheers
Trev

 

[thefastj]

ahhhh very nice indeed.
the RA28 that was on Toymods i assume.

would love to get my hands on one of them in the future. : )

 

[The Flea]

Thanks for the help guys.
I had a crossmember from a Corolla with a factory manual rack that I removed the brackets from. I tried to copy it exaclty. We'll see...
I'm really hoping I don't have to change anything. I have no room above to raise the rack if required.

What's a dynabolt?

 

[MWP]

What's a dynabolt?

Its a special (and expensive) nut that cuts a new thread as you screw it on.

 

[MWP]

ahhhh very nice indeed.
the RA28 that was on Toymods i assume.

That it is

 

[Zuffen]

The Flea,

The correct diameter/thread die will do the same.

The dynabolt is set up to be driven by a 1/2" socket.

Makes it much easier to use.

 

[The Flea]

Ah, I see.

 

[WDoherty]

Updates, i have an Ra29 myself that sits around mostly due to my sc400.

 

[MWP]

No updates.
Im living in Canada for a while so nothing will be done on the car for quite a while.