This is the beginning of my mighty l80s journey to new life.
So on a lovely not so winter feeling afternoon I went to collect the l80. I arrived on time and paid the previous owner the $100 I offered them for the car and then went to look at the car for the very first time.
There she is sitting covered in dirt, leaves, sticks and spider webs. The car has 100% been heavily neglected even before its last owner. The only major rust I have seen so far is the rear hatch and little hole under the driver’s seat.
Engine bay needs alot of love, its quiet Dirty, covered in oil, and has some surface rust and corrosion on some parts. After I looked at the car I was still waiting on my tow truck to arrive, Man ended up being 30mins late but oh well I got a little nugget so I’m happy.
I can’t wait to dig into this car properly and make a checklist of what she needs to be a tidy little box once again. Hope you guys are just as keen to see the progression of this nugget as I am.
Nice dude I’m glad it’s gonna get some attention. I got offered this car but due to having 2 extra dais and an old swift on top of my 2 daily’s and trailer I just didn’t have the room. Looking forward to watching this space.
That’s the longish list of items that I need to work on. some things don’t need to be done but I want them to be done haha.
So far I have acquired these parts for the l80:
New battery
New radiator
New timing belt kit
New front brake disks
New front brake pads
New swaybar bushings
New air filter
New oil filter
New fuel filter
New engine mounts
New metal coolant pipe
New radiator hoses
New vacuum lines
New engine oil
New transmission fluid
New brake fluid
New coolant
New tires
New wheels
Will be doing a lot of work this Friday to get it drivable for Saturday so I can test the car out and see if anything else is off. Next week I will be getting more photos of the rust and dents to send to my mate who is a panel beater so I can get an idea of what i need to fix those issues.
One thing i forgot to mention is we got the car running pretty quickly. put a new battery in and she cranked smoothly and then we uses some start ya basted and it fired up straight away. all we need to do now is give the fuel tank a quick clean and flush out the fuel lines, put the new fuel filter on, reconnect the fuel line to the carbie and put some fresh fuel in.
the new tires for the new wheels i got will be showing up today. so i cant wait to see the car sitting on some nice fresh rubber and cool wheels and hopefully we can get moving under her own weight this weekend.
I got an email from Sparesbox that my order of parts was coming today, it arrived around lunchtime which was when I was going to deal with my wheels. dropped the parts off at home, then went to the tire shop with the wheels. turns out I didn’t look hard enough at my wheels for the spec stamp and because of that I ordered the wrong tires, yes this is a very silly novice mistake but goddamit I feel pretty stupid.
The last owner of the wheels said they were 13x5 but they are actually 12x4.5. this kinda makes sense now as they felt the same as the last 12" wheels I had for my l200. after that whole stuff around i took the wheels and tires home and went back to work.
Later that evening my mate picked me up to go work on the l80 and his Subaru liberty. once we got the l80 on jack stands we began to check the fuel lines and hook the fuel lines back up. then we found out the in-tank fuel pump was not priming but was getting power. since all of that went so well i decided to start servicing the car and replacing the radiator and some other bits. (edit: i had a ape moment its actualy a mechanical fuel pump not a intake electrical pump )
stay tuned for my next update as i pray for my new pump, fuel lines, and front brakes to arrive before the Daihatsu track day.
Howdy all, haven’t done any extra work yet due to work being a pain. but thanks to Lukes’s wisdom on how the mechanical pumps work I will try to sort out the lack of fuel going to the carby when I get the chance.
But while I work on getting the car running and driving nicely I’m going to plan out one of the next big things for the l80.
I have begun sourcing parts to do the almighty Franken engine with a little spooly boi. Thanks to a legend Jasper on the L2D Facebook page I have now got a fresh ef head, dizzy, intake manifold, and engine harness. still need to acquire the following for the swap before i can really begin.
Ecu (Probably a Haltech Elite 550)
Fuse Box
Rocket Cover
Fuel Pressure Regulator
Fuel Rail
Injectors
Throttle body
Headgasket
Every other engine gasket
Custom turbo manifold
Small Boi turbo
Dump pipe for turbo
Oil feed line
Oil drain line
Oil drain bit for oil pan
Oil filter sandwich plate
Clutch Upgrade
Intercooler
Intercooler pipes
Various sensors
probs missing some other things
The plan is to rebuild the ed10 bottom end and the ef head so they are ready to have some boost thrown at it. I think it’s time I build a motor right and make sure everything is perfect and dialed in. will see what can be done with the ed10 4-speed box with regards to rebuilding it and possibly an LSD if that’s even possible.
Most of my spares have arrived/ are coming in the next couple of days. just waiting on my new front/rear shock, front swaybar bushings, and some fuel hoses. still need to go get the new tires I ordered fitted to the wheels too but hopefully, I can get that sorted this week.
I’m also going to be moving houses by the end of this year so lots of the bodywork and painting will begin once I move to the new place. the place is owned by a family member and has a nice area to work in so I will be able to pull the car apart and take my time to clean up and fixing the exterior and interior while also getting the engine/drivetrain perfect.
It’s a bit rough but it’s in surprisingly better shape than the white one. So saying that i will be restoring the blue one with parts from the white l80, it’s going to be sad to strip the white one as there is not many of these left around. But that is also a problem there aren’t many spare parts around.
my plans are still the same overall just moving it all to a different body. I’m keen to return this og handivan back to being awesome
I remember this dai/ suzuki meet we had it was a great Dai. I was in my 84 swift (1L) and both Greame and I went for a drive up to the end of the road in our cars. The L80 with the 550cc turbo eb engine would just start to pull away from me slightly when he was hitting boost.
Again i haven’t done much with the l80s yet but I have been hoarding parts while I wait to move to my new house. Will probably start smashing out the to-do list once I have moved in as well as will have a covered area that’s on concrete to work in.
So far all I need to be left to acquire are wheel bearings, new rear brake drums, and materials for door cards, carpet, and roof lining. then need to actually put the work in to put then prep the car for bodywork and paint.
Are your spares being imported from abroad or are they still available over the counter?
Here in Europe, we would need to travel to either Malaysia, Pakistan or Japan, in order to get anything besides bits that share with other makes for one of these
)
