mods finally let me in!!! iv'e been looking for a supura forum and i think this is it. i have a ton more old pics on an old computer that i need to get off the hard drive, so some of the early stuff will be posted later.... sorry for the long story, but it was an experience i'll never forget. keep in mind while reading this that hurricane katrina and i were in a race to see which would get this car first. we beat her by @ 16 hours fortunately.
here's the story, around june/july of '05 i was given (free) a super clean no title black '91 targa auto turbo car. it was a south carolina car. it was bought by a friend of mine for parts since he was doin' a really nice build on his white targa '91. he had removed the drivetrain, and interior because it was a low mile 7m turbo motor, and it had a really nice looking black and grey w./leather interior. if i recall the seats had trd embroidered in them.
well as soon as i saw that stripped supra the first thing i thought was, that thing is begging for a v-8. and of course it was. so the plan was to fab. some motor mounts and put a motor that i had built for my '74 z28 camaro in there. and as the project progressed upgrade everything that breaks or isn't doin it's job. so we made the mounts dropped the motor/trans in and it was on... well that was all fine and dandy until a guy that works for me was on ebay and he found an '87 no targa car that someone had abandoned in a mini storage in new orleans. turns out an employee of a now defunct local shop remembered the car. the story starts at wyotech a few years ago, a student in need of a project brought the supra in. did an ok job of installing the 3X4" rails theyr'e a little off (i have had an nhra chassis builder check it out and he says it is fine), narrowed the 9", did a pretty shoddy job of the 4 link, and gave up. now from wyotech to new orleans its a little vague. anyway, the car was bought by a guy in michigan at some point. he made a couple attempts to pick it up, but had truck/trailer trouble and never got it. so he paid the storage on it for awhile, until it just didn't make sense to him anymore. then he posted the ol' girl on ebay. where we found it. no one was even looking at it let alone bidding, if i recall he was hoping to get $1,500.00+ out of it at least. well i ended up putting a bid in for like $600.00 and got the car. so off to loisianna we go.
well the trip started off fine until we got to the point of no return where a plug wire on my trusty old '93 gmc gets chaffed and is shorting, so it's missing like crazy, and it's 3 in the morning. we pull off at an exit and diagnose the issue and fortunately this toothless redneck has a full set for my truck, he says i can't sell ya' just one though. so i say how much? he says $5, i laugh!! and were on our way... all is pretty good from there until we get to LA. where it's hot as phuck!!!! and the directions we have are wrong... we are like two towns away, but the street and address are right. twilight zone style. so the radiator blows somewhere in there. we have to call home and cross reference ebay and the seller (which has never even seen the car) after a few hours we get there and the necks are even more red. oh, super strange to us, all the highways are elevated so you don't see anything but swap, weird. i can't imagine what that costed. and english is a foreign language. the storage place owner isn't there, there are babies all over the place, and another toothless woman yelling at evrything that moves hangin' around a trailer home (imagine that) the storage lackee is concerned about the late fees, we are not. and he doesn't even have the key, so we end up breaking into the unit. and there she was, flat tires, and a layer of dust... so we load her up and head home. lots more drama ensues but this story is already too long...
this is around sept. '05, about a month after picking up the car... we have the new wheels/tires on the car, motor/trans in, driveshaft made, fuel cell/system in (temp.) the cage (which will be changed later) the biggest hood scoop jeg's had as a joke and some shop stickers.
this is @ last summer '06. doin' bodywork and trying to spark some interrest in the project by putting paint on it (didn't work very well)
new cage for 6'3" people, the other one was more 5'8" style
by this time i have ordered brakes,
axles, bearings, studs, etc. and the new cage to fit me is in
also a diferrent panhard bar, the first one just didn't seem to be strong enough
here's a bunch more stuff for the car, like pedal assy. etc...
suspension from the first car, i plan to use for a street rod project down the road
with some stuff i have laying around the shop
looks good to me, but the supra needs to be finished before that project.
oh i have an '85 honda civic 1500s that needs a nissan silvia redtop sr20det drivetrain too before that project...
here's the story, around june/july of '05 i was given (free) a super clean no title black '91 targa auto turbo car. it was a south carolina car. it was bought by a friend of mine for parts since he was doin' a really nice build on his white targa '91. he had removed the drivetrain, and interior because it was a low mile 7m turbo motor, and it had a really nice looking black and grey w./leather interior. if i recall the seats had trd embroidered in them.
well as soon as i saw that stripped supra the first thing i thought was, that thing is begging for a v-8. and of course it was. so the plan was to fab. some motor mounts and put a motor that i had built for my '74 z28 camaro in there. and as the project progressed upgrade everything that breaks or isn't doin it's job. so we made the mounts dropped the motor/trans in and it was on... well that was all fine and dandy until a guy that works for me was on ebay and he found an '87 no targa car that someone had abandoned in a mini storage in new orleans. turns out an employee of a now defunct local shop remembered the car. the story starts at wyotech a few years ago, a student in need of a project brought the supra in. did an ok job of installing the 3X4" rails theyr'e a little off (i have had an nhra chassis builder check it out and he says it is fine), narrowed the 9", did a pretty shoddy job of the 4 link, and gave up. now from wyotech to new orleans its a little vague. anyway, the car was bought by a guy in michigan at some point. he made a couple attempts to pick it up, but had truck/trailer trouble and never got it. so he paid the storage on it for awhile, until it just didn't make sense to him anymore. then he posted the ol' girl on ebay. where we found it. no one was even looking at it let alone bidding, if i recall he was hoping to get $1,500.00+ out of it at least. well i ended up putting a bid in for like $600.00 and got the car. so off to loisianna we go.
well the trip started off fine until we got to the point of no return where a plug wire on my trusty old '93 gmc gets chaffed and is shorting, so it's missing like crazy, and it's 3 in the morning. we pull off at an exit and diagnose the issue and fortunately this toothless redneck has a full set for my truck, he says i can't sell ya' just one though. so i say how much? he says $5, i laugh!! and were on our way... all is pretty good from there until we get to LA. where it's hot as phuck!!!! and the directions we have are wrong... we are like two towns away, but the street and address are right. twilight zone style. so the radiator blows somewhere in there. we have to call home and cross reference ebay and the seller (which has never even seen the car) after a few hours we get there and the necks are even more red. oh, super strange to us, all the highways are elevated so you don't see anything but swap, weird. i can't imagine what that costed. and english is a foreign language. the storage place owner isn't there, there are babies all over the place, and another toothless woman yelling at evrything that moves hangin' around a trailer home (imagine that) the storage lackee is concerned about the late fees, we are not. and he doesn't even have the key, so we end up breaking into the unit. and there she was, flat tires, and a layer of dust... so we load her up and head home. lots more drama ensues but this story is already too long...
this is around sept. '05, about a month after picking up the car... we have the new wheels/tires on the car, motor/trans in, driveshaft made, fuel cell/system in (temp.) the cage (which will be changed later) the biggest hood scoop jeg's had as a joke and some shop stickers.
this is @ last summer '06. doin' bodywork and trying to spark some interrest in the project by putting paint on it (didn't work very well)
new cage for 6'3" people, the other one was more 5'8" style
by this time i have ordered brakes,
axles, bearings, studs, etc. and the new cage to fit me is in
also a diferrent panhard bar, the first one just didn't seem to be strong enough
here's a bunch more stuff for the car, like pedal assy. etc...
suspension from the first car, i plan to use for a street rod project down the road
with some stuff i have laying around the shop
looks good to me, but the supra needs to be finished before that project.
oh i have an '85 honda civic 1500s that needs a nissan silvia redtop sr20det drivetrain too before that project...
