1UZ 72 Toyota Corona Coupe

wonderful!
was your transmission solution easier than getting one of the w58 adapters made for the 1uz? or just better in another way? Truly curious as I want to put a 1uz into something badly

In reply to WhiteLX:

To be fair I did about 1% of the metal/customizing work on the car. We have an amazing old school hot rod dude that takes care of all of that stuff!

Once the decision was made to convert it from unibody to frame the body was braced, then they cut out the floor. With measurements from the car a CAD model of the frame was made up then used to hand build the frame. After that was completed the rest of the car, including floor, firewall, etc was build around the frame and the engine. I cannot begin to put the fabrication into words. What I can do is grab some pics when I get back down to the shop on Thursday! I will try to get some good, detailed pics of the floor for you. Also I do not recall exactly what kind of bracing, etc has been done where the body mounts to the frame but I'll ask the guys to go into a little more depth on that. With this whole project my head has been on what needs to be done next and the finished product. It can be easy to overlook all the steps between!

In reply to corytate:

There are two reasons a TKO 500 was used and the w58 ditched. Packaging was a huge concern as this is a tiny car. Another concern was power holding capabilities. While the TKO500 will have no problem holding up to a mildly warmed over 1uz, it is quite likely that the w58 would have...hell I blew two w58s in my SC and I was N/A when one went out.

There are several hot rod styling cues on the car and that applies to parts selection as well. Mustang II front end, 8" ford rear and the TKO 500 tranny.

Normally I don't like applying hot rod styling techniques to imports, but with the corona already having the shape of a mini muscle car it works! Even the concept drawings with the paint job chosen for the vehicle looks amazing! And I NEVER would have thought it could pull of this paint scheme. But ya'll are gonna have to wait to see that...

CLNSC3 wrote: In reply to corytate: There are two reasons a TKO 500 was used and the w58 ditched. Packaging was a huge concern as this is a tiny car. Another concern was power holding capabilities. While the TKO500 will have no problem holding up to a mildly warmed over 1uz, it is quite likely that the w58 would have...hell I blew two w58s in my SC and I was N/A when one went out. There are several hot rod styling cues on the car and that applies to parts selection as well. Mustang II front end, 8" ford rear and the TKO 500 tranny. Normally I don't like applying hot rod styling techniques to imports, but with the corona already having the shape of a mini muscle car it works! Even the concept drawings with the paint job chosen for the vehicle looks amazing! And I NEVER would have thought it could pull of this paint scheme. But ya'll are gonna have to wait to see that...

Gotcha. I hadn't seen much abotu the w58 capabilities, definitely a good thing to know! I agree the corona is definitely a perfect import to hot rod out.
Buddy of mine dirt tracked one of them (in way worse shape) up in Alaska for a while. Love those cars.

With that much bitchin' metal work, its almost a sin to paint it.

First off, this car is awesome. It brings a tear to my eye how awesome it is. And the work is unbelievable.

CLNSC3 wrote: There are two reasons a TKO 500 was used and the w58 ditched. Packaging was a huge concern as this is a tiny car. Another concern was power holding capabilities. While the TKO500 will have no problem holding up to a mildly warmed over 1uz, it is quite likely that the w58 would have...hell I blew two w58s in my SC and I was N/A when one went out.

I thought the W58 was supposed to be pretty strong. I have little experience with engines that make anything similar to this elusive "power" I keep hearing about, so I have no first hand experience. I'm guessing the 22R in the Celica isn't likely to destroy any transmissions any time soon. But my belief was that the Toyota W transmissions were considered pretty beefy. Is that wrong?

That's damn impressive.

Not a fan of the wheels, but everything else is highly lustworthy.

In the supra world W58s are notoriously weak. I had an extra sitting in my garage at all times just in case while I was turbo. I mean they are good from 300-350whp, more depending on driving style. But in the supra world thats nothing...

With the about 250whp/270wtq that the 1UZ is making I am sure a w58 would have sufficed. But why not go with a stronger tranny since either way it would be a pain in the ass to mate to the engine

In reply to CLNSC3:

Thanks, that's good to know. Yeah, in my world, 300 HP is insane. So "strong" has a different yard stick. lol

Very impressive work. Looks like a very cool result too.