Project Drift Supra

I was going to try to keep this project under wraps for as long as possible but I'm a fair way through gathering parts so thought I'd start a thread in case I need to ask for advice.

Basically I've been interested in drifting for years, I'm the typical I've watched ton's of videos and want to start doing it myself. I know it's an expensive hobby but I've been meaning to build a project car for track days for ages. Might as well push towards drifting too.

I bought Parry's old blue shell to use as a base for the project, it's a complete bare shell so it's going to be a heck of a lot of work and will cost ton's in parts building it up but I like to know every inch of the cars I build. Managed to also score quite a few deals with him on other parts he had for sale, it's worrying to think of the amount of money I've parted with in his direction the last few months haha

Also managed to pick up another shell, a jspec TT auto shell. This one is a rolling shell so has pretty much everything I need Makes my driveway a little crowded now though having 3 Supras on the drive haha!

The next major step is saving for a manual conversion, Ideally an R154 gearbox but they all seem to be rocketing up in price. I can't afford the gearbox for a while but I did get a good deal on this bad boy

Bought a shell dolly to move the project car around, if I actually decide on which shell I'm going to use It should make things easier for when the car is fully stripped down and I send it off to be blasted and hot zinc coated to protect it from rust in future

This project isn't going to progress along quickly as I'm doing all the work myself on limited funds, saving for the gearbox is going to be a bastard as I have a credit card I need to pay off first (if you're reading this Parry please stop selling me parts! )

But the main goal is to build a pretty much stripped out, weld in roll caged, single turbo'd GTE engine'd track and drift car.

I'm in!

Get yourself a cheap snotter to practice in first before you shed all your money on this and stuff it into the wall?.

Great project to share with the club, good luck and keep us in the loop

Yeah I'm planning on getting a cheap bmw to practice in, that or use the blue shell for practice then swap everything over to the white one after I've got battered the blue one. It's got a fair amount of rust on it anyway.

Interesting project.

Subscribed.

Good luck - just getting into drifting myself.

Always enjoyable building a project car!

Some nice plans for that car, or cars...

Nice build I'm Subscribed and watching with interest.

Not done too much of late apart from stripping down the shell I'm planning on using, the white shell is in far better condition than the blue so I'm going to go with that one for this project. Still undecided what to do with the blue one but if I do end up parting ways with it I'll remove the manual tunnel from it first.

Having a few issues with seized bolts on the drop links *as usual* so went out and bought a blowtorch and angle grinder yesterday. Tools I'm surprised I've managed to get away with not having all these years haha

Planning on getting the whole white shell down to having absolutely nothing left on it, strap it down to the dolly then get it transported up to Peterborough as I have family up there who run a powder coating / hot zinc coating factory. Going to get the whole car shot blasted underneath and hot zinc coated to protect it from any future corrosion.

If anyone needs any powder coating done feel free to PM me and I can get quotes for you. Might even be able to do a collect and return service if you're not far away or en route when I next pay them a visit.

I'm in the same boat, i have watched to many videos and put it off for long enough, its time t commit and build my Supra into a track and drift car.... Following with interest

I've not done much to it since the last update unfortunately due to a lack of good weather and a bad elbow, don't know what I've done to it but I can't put any pressure on my right arm and can't pull/push/twist anything. I did get out there today though and tried to do most things with my left arm instead haha I'm a righty and everything feels so wrong this way.

Got one of the wishbones off the front and started to clean it up, going to polybush all around when funds allow so need lots of it off the car. I'm concerned over ball joints though as Supra ones aren't serviceable are they? Seems to be a sealed unit and there's an awful lot of play in mine.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/91738842/20150412_155349.mp4

Is that pretty much shot? I'm guessing back and forth/left and right is ok but up and down play is bad?

Had to cut one of the camber bolts off to get the wishbone off though as it was seized as feck. No amount of heat or 'encouragement' would shift it and my bad elbow was limiting how much 'welly' I could give it haha

Oh also because I haven't fully stripped down the shell yet I haven't made much use of my shell dolly, it was starting to get rusty spots so thought I'd give it a coat of silver paint to help protect it from the elements for when it eventually lives outside.

I stripped back the block of my GTE lump too but due to not having a tool to lock the crank I couldn't get the crank pulley off, going to buy a good one at some point as I'm sure it's a job I'll have to do more than once more in my lifetime. Going to strip the whole engine down and inspect it for any damage before it ever gets near the car. It's best to be sure right

Such a cool project dude I'm doing the exact same as you - buying a cheap bmw to practise drifting in before I risk the Supra... I'm going for a 2001 323i

I'm tempted to do the same but unless I sell one of my supra shells I don't have the room.

Also forgot to mention I've hoarded more parts, a Titanium Greddy Racing 3" exhaust system and double double decat pipe.

Interesting thread. great to see more people getting involved in track action Cant wait for updates.

However why not use the auto shell you bought, sell the rest off and use the funds to go a different route with manual conversion i.e the BMW boxes various people have been researching on the forum of late?

Already done lots of research into bmw gearbox conversions but as of yet I'm unsure on what gearbox route I'm going to go for. The white shell aka the auto one is the one I'm now using actually, I thought I'd already reported that haha my bad. Not sure what I'll do with the blue shell but I feel obliged to keep it safe away from the scrap yard

Looking good mate and ball joint looked ok it's in and out movement you don't won't,

Is that pretty much shot? I'm guessing back and forth/left and right is ok but up and down play is bad?

Its hard to tell from the video, if it is fitted to the car and there is play, it may well fail an MOT, depending on the testers opinion...

I stripped back the block of my GTE lump too but due to not having a tool to lock the crank I couldn't get the crank pulley off, going to buy a good one at some point as I'm sure it's a job I'll have to do more than once more in my lifetime.

I used an electric impact gun on mine to remove the bolt and brought a cheap pulling tool off eBay, seemed to work pretty well...!

My impact gun died recently, I haven't quite got used to not having her around yet and it felt wrong to go out and get a new one this early on. We had been through so much together but she was having some health problems which I thought we'd beaten but unfortunately it came back and took her life [emoji37] [emoji1]

I think the ball joints are ok but I seem to remember people saying they should be really stiff and hard to move. This move fairly easily but aren't sloppy. It stays put whatever position it's left in.

Yes Matt, no inward and outward movement

Oh a side note I just saw the price of the camber bolts....ouch! Just had to cut it didn't I haha

My impact gun died recently, I haven't quite got used to not having her around yet and it felt wrong to go out and get a new one this early on. We had been through so much together but she was having some health problems which I thought we'd beaten but unfortunately it came back and took her life [emoji37] [emoji1]

 

I think the ball joints are ok but I seem to remember people saying they should be really stiff and hard to move. This move fairly easily but aren't sloppy. It stays put whatever position it's left in.

The mykita kit from screw fix is great value just for the impact drill

I've not updated this in ages but slowly and surely progress is happening behind the scenes, nothing really worth pictures though I'm afraid. I've stripped the whole car down and all the subframes, wishbones and rods are all off getting blasted and powder coated in random colours haha some even have glitter. A friend of the family owns a powder coating firm so I'm letting him do them any colour he likes *in pairs* so I can get him some advertising.

Will collect and start putting it all back together in the next month or so.

Oh and in other news I scrapped the blue shell and bought another one for yet another project. The white Supra I have is now the chosen shell for the drift project

Bump - Time for another update

I am soon to be starting my own thread so thought it would be good to see how you were getting on.

I'm concentrating on buying parts here and there, I've had quite a few set backs due to my housemate having financial problems due to being unemployed and me taking the brunt of it as I'm not getting any help with bill money etc It's put me in a pretty poor state financially of late so things have moved on slowly. If it doesn't get better soon I'm going to be forced to sell both my Supra shells and rehouse myself elsewhere which will be a real shame.

In the mean time I did get the wishbones etc back from my mates, he really did go all out on colours. Nobody will ever see them and it was free so I really don't care

I bought a new 10T hydraulic press so I've used that to push out most of the bushes but some have been a right pain to get out, had to resort to cutting slots in them with a saw and hitting them for ages with a hammer to get out the metal sleeve some of them sit inside. I have bought most of my Superpro bushes now and have fitted some but I had to halt progress when I discovered the subframe I had was damaged and I had to source a new one...

I'll try and get some better pictures of what I've actually been up to but there's not been massive amounts of progress because it's just been in buying parts behind the scenes.