How do you deal with obsolete/NLA parts plus no aftermarket? Frustrated with my AE86 project

Go back 20-30 years and there's a void in the parts supply for many cars. Too old to be a viable parts supply business, but to new to be worth starting a business. Try and find injector lines for 80s-90s Volkswagens, for example. Earlier Rabbit stuff is starting to become available form Volkswagen Heritage in Europe, but here there is very little available.
My Challenge car is a '73 Corolla, so I looked on Ebay to see what bits and bobs could be sold . There's some pretty impressive prices for good used parts for that model. Unfortunately , it's often for parts I would need to keep.

As the owner of an RA64 (every similar Toyota that shares many parts) I can tell you this: the reason you even have perfmance parts available is due to interest. There are many "sports" cars lost to time with no aftermarket support. The restoration game for the hachiroku isn't there. A few guys at jccs have done it. But you need connections in Japan. Japanese cars are much better taken care of. At this point I would "restore" it to track mode. It'll be the only way for people to look at the car and say "wow, it's like new in here". I don't know man, I would turn an ae86 into a boulevard cruiser or garage queen anyways. It was meant for something else.

As far as performance goes, you have to start getting innovative. It's why I have parts from about 20 different cars on my celica. (And somehow it performs good)

Ford 8.8 axle, Lexus engine, civic suspension, mr2 shocks, mr2 clutch and flywheel, mustang rear springs, land cruiser clutch master, etc.

I have some input I hope is somewhat helpful. I have messed with this era Corolla. The multi switches are interchangeable, if not identical to the same era Mr2, garden variety Corollas, and, I suspect, a bunch more. Find good used parts. While difficult, I believe it is doable. As for trim attachments, well placed interior screws work. I know it sucks drilling through good parts, but with a good layout, you will be the only one to know the difference.

I suspect things like the door panels could be screwed around the edges, again, in a neat, well thought out pattern, and that would take the warp out. I ran into this kind of stuff on my swift, only thing was, I had the added adventage of not giving a crap-works? looks okayish? Good Enough. I wired toggles in the dash, repaired broken plastic with sheet metal and pop rivets, and has sheet metal screws everywhere. Don't give up hope. You may just have to slightly alter your expectations.

The 323 GTX market has/had a bunch of the guys who were sitting on a bunch of cars and hoarding large number of parts. While I owned my car, one company decided to clear out their attic and one of the Denver hoarders closed up shop and sold everything. Not for a lot of money, either. I bought one of his cars for $900. Like the AE86, there was a core group of a few dozen enthusiasts and a lot of guys who saw the car and said "neat!" but didn't care much otherwise. I'm not part of that scene anymore, but I suspect it's now even harder to get good parts for them.

I don't expect there to ever be aftermarket options again for some of these cars. I've spoken to the guys at Koni about a short run of CRX shocks. They can't just reproduce what they had because their entire line has undergone slight changes and they'd have to re-engineer it from stock. You're basically left with custom shocks. Personally, I modified a set of Protege5 shocks to fit my GTX, that's the sort of thing enthusiasts of orphans have to do.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

That reminds me of a few years ago when I was offered a 323GTX for $1000 or $1500 or some ridiculously low sum. Came with a good trans in the car and a spare. And a spare engine. And three more heads. And a buncha other stuff.

Turned it down because I simply did not have the space for it.

Dr. Hess wrote:

Tyler H wrote: I've seen it with my own eyes in the MR2 world. I'm sure there's a similar guy that was into AE86s.

I have a non-cracked dash for a '87 sitting in my shed. Problems: 1. Who wants it? The market is small. 2. Shipping. So, there it sits.

I have my own micro-hoard of Mk1 MR2 stuff, but nobody is too interested. Eventually all those treasures go straight in the dumpster when hoarders have a life changing event.

Learn fiberglass. Make a buck that's the shape you want, and make a mold of that. Then make the door card in fiberglass.

An alternative is to vacuum for the it out is ABS plastic.

Hell, if they turn out nice enough, you could start selling them to other AE86 owners.

I simpathize. I have an 87 4 runner and

In reply to Tyler H:

Yeah, I suspect that eventually I'll clean the shed out, look at the dash, say "berkeley this" and put it in the dumpster. Years from now, someone "restoring" a 1987 MK1 MR2 with a cracked dash will be saying "I can't find a dash. How do you deal with obsolete/NLA parts and no aftermarket? Frustrated with my AW11 project."

I usually just accept that I cant find the parts and either try to find a substitue or leave it off. In the case of my 86 I have all the interior but I dont plan on putting it in.

How familiar are you with CAD? Building a 3D scanner is fairly DIY friendly and not as costly as you might think. The one at my work was made with a DLP projector, an HD webcam,and a metal positioning mount. You can scan the nla parts and have the data for fabricating the parts however you want.

Try some time-honored restoration tactics, like 'asking around,' and 'telephone,' if you haven't already done so.

Here is a new one, in stock (according to the interwebs,) for $303. Linky.

Another invaluable resource for me with MR2s has been TRD. Seriously...they're not a huge conglomerate, but a subset of enthusiasts that work for one.

They can and will hunt down anything remaining in Toyota's global supply chain if you're signed up for the TRD contingency program.

On door cards and things like that RHDJapan probably can find you some decent original ones but it will probably be expensive.

I've had this issue with my Skyline.

Basically in Japanese car circles the Japanese companies do not support their classic vehicles. The only one you really see get support was the 240Z and there was a program of support specifically for that car. Though IDK if that's been continued.

What's going to happen in the coming years though is these cars will gain support as the collector/classic market for Japanese cars is growing and still in it's infancy. Then all the Japanese car fans who are basically "90s kids" mostly are become affluent and will want to spend more on these cars rather than keep them in ratty states.

One thing I can say is that the majority of "young tuner car" people are on faceballs. Most of the celica knowledge is on the forum, most of the spare parts are on faceballs. Check there, but brace yourself for the worst kind of people.

In reply to kanaric:

I think that's the key. There's companies like PAC Performance (in my case with the RX3) who are just starting to roll out NLA bits for the cars.

As time goes on you'll see more support as it becomes more profitable to produce them. The trick is going to be holding on until then.

I went through this with my 1984 200SX. Very cool little 80s RWD hatchback, impossible to find parts for. It's the 86's unknown cousin. A fella in Wisconsin or Minnesota somewhere bought all the remaining Nissan OEM parts from 80s cars when Nissan decided to scrap it, and was inventorying it, so there was some OEM stuff available at dealer prices or less through him, but that was all there was ever going to be. I got a new chassis harness and some other bits from him that got the car in great shape, but after going through NLA front brake hubs, and THREE used parts off forums that were crappier than mine and wouldn't take a press-in race, I got it fixed, sold it, and haven't looked back.

Good news; I fixed the dimmer switch!!

I'm pretty sure the root of the issue was dirty contacts. Disassembly and cleaning took care of that problem and the switched tested fine on the bench, but things went sideways when installed. It turns out I made an incorrect assumption about the mechanical function of the switch which resulted in an assembly error. I couldn't correct this issue until I did some careful diagnostics on the assembled switch. This lead me to the assembly error. Putting it together correctly results in the dimmer working fine!

As far as the door panels go, I won't respond to each posting, but should give a little background: I've been into AE86's for 20 years and had multiple cars. I have a huge collection of rare/obsolete parts I've been collecting over time, and have recently started selling off, but it is heavy on the mechanical stuff, and light on trim. The reason for this is that fifteen years ago, I thought saving a few pounds was cool, and had lexan windows, no carpet, burned ankles, and ringing in my ears! It turns out that I drove the car less and less because a stripped-out car is fatiguing, and little things like not having functional heat/defrost make a car really impractical to actually use. Over the past decade or so, I haven't seen any panels like mine that look much better. It saddens me that so many of these cars end up gutted or at least missing much of the original interior.

I don't want to make it into a boulevard cruiser, but I do want to have my cake and eat it to. I've made it into a nice aesthetically restored driver with a tuned engine and suspension, just need a few details on the interior still. I have somewhere around 60-80 hours into interior restoration so far, between custom carpet install, plastic refurb and painting, console customization, making the seats as nice as I can, etc. I don't really want to ditch all that work and make it a track-only car at this point.

Since an American-market '85 GT-S was my first car, I have a strong vision of what it should be etched into my brain. A big part of my pride in this car, and my personal satisfaction with the end result requires matching that vision of what the interior should be. So yes, I could use door panels from Japan, or from an SR5, or from an '86-'87 car, and they would look 'good' to most people, but I wouldn't be happy. I think it is a bit like taking a Mach 1 Mustang and putting Grande parts in it because you can't find clean Mach 1 interior parts. It would work, but...

Regarding Tyler H, I really appreciate the effort with the link you posted, but the part number 67620-12860-12 is for a red/maroon SR5 panel. I'm looking for GT-S gray panels Right 67650-12780-03 and Left 67620-1A550-03. I've found recently that some dealers have gone to a web listing that has a mass of imported part numbers which bear no connection with their actual inventory. Lakeland Toyota, Mid-Atlantic Toyota, and a few others. I've done some online searches, gotten excited, placed an order, and gotten a really confused follow-up call a day later telling me that they reversed the charge on my card and wanted to know why I kept trying to order parts they've never stocked and which Toyota discontinued over ten years ago! Buyer beware...

So maybe the questions I meant to ask all along are:

If you replace fiberboard with stapled and glued vinyl upholstery with fiberglass or formed ABS, how do you attach the upholstery? I presume stapling won't work...so will just contact cement be sufficient to minimize shifting and lifting?

Can you get custom patterned vinyl made? Screen printed? Maybe some sort of transfer? The Toyota panels are a light gray pattern, with a dark gray strip painted across the top, and dark gray carpet across the bottom.

What does a high-end restoration shop do when a car comes in and needs replacement panels and upholstery that in a pattern that can't be bought off the shelf?

Here's the vinyl pattern I would need replicated:

Here's the backside of someone else's partially disassembled panel for those who are curious about the construction, but it should be noted that this is a late (kouki '86-'87) panel, which is upholstered with dated/cheesy-looking velour (yuck!) in two parts. My early (zenki '84-'85) panels are made from similar metal/rubber top part, and a slightly more shaped bottom fiberboard bottom, which are assembled first, and then upholstered with one piece of vinyl afterward.

Just found out my passenger window regulator isn't made by anyone anymore. Oh, sure you can get one for a sedan, but not the hatch. That really is frustrating.

That fiberboard doesn't look too crazy. If yours are in semi-decent condition you could likely make a mold pretty easily. The lower piece might be an issue, though I'd likely make a mold of that too and just make the entire thing out of composite.

If you have the vinyl generally you can get an upholstery shop to match it. The high end guys usually just recreate them, which can get spendy.

There are also a number of places which actually repair vinyl seats and door cards. Just type in vinyl repair into Google. I'm actually looking at going that way myself for my door cards and seats after making replacement fiberboards.

This thread has been encouraging to me. My '87 FX16 fits right into range of NLA parts. I have a couple of parts cars which help. But will need to have shocks'rebuilt' soon. Fortunately, many of the mechanical parts are available from Rock Auto. There is a little plastic end-link type part that aims the headlights that is NLA. So far JB Weld has held. I have many performance parts, at least for the suspension so I'm all set there.

Upholstery suppliers sell very shallow staples for attaching vinyl to hardboard.

Also, take a look at some custom upholstery DIY books.

There is a upholstery shop near me that has been using a CNC router to make door cards for custom interiors out of MDF. If you can get the door card modeled that way be a option. Not lightweight but I have seen him crank out some really nice looking panels with multiple compound curved shapes in them. He got the idea from some car show were a high end audio company used the same process to make custom speaker enclosures.

Are you willing to settle for any kind of flat sheet door card? If you don't want utilitarian race car style door cards, here are some other options:

1. Make door cards out of wood or sheet aluminum and wrap them in vinyl for a more factory look. Samurai door cards are vinyl-wrapped wood.

2. Make pimpin' race-style door cards: Start with sheet aluminum, wrap in fake CF vinyl, get tow straps from Sparco or some other expensive brand to use as handles, receive feature in Speedhunters.

Thanks for all the suggestions! It helps me get a better idea of the range of what it is possible.

Since I am set on something OE/completely-restored in appearance, I will look into vinyl repair first, and failing that, having an upholsterer recreate the factory vinyl pattern second, and if that looks like a go, then I can evaluate the various options for making/recreating the fiberboard.

parts http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/pts/5981362257.html http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/pts/5979759949.html

If you can do all that custom stuff you were describing earlier, I'm pretty sure you can do upholstery.