Toyota GT86 build thread

[walamai]

Picked up a 2012 Toyota GT86 in pearl white a few weeks ago. I've got a few plans for some modifications (mostly visual), so thought I'd start a thread to write up the progress as I go and hopefully a few people might enjoy reading what I get up to.

The GT86 replaces a 2.7 Cayman which I had for a little over a year. Hard to fault the Cayman and there was nothing I'd really want to improve on it! I only sold it as I felt like something new. Prior to the Cayman I've had a string of various cars including an Audi S4 (4.2 V8), Maserati 4200 (god-awful flappy paddle gearbox) and a mk2 1.8 MX5. Out of the last three, I had by far the most fun in the modestly powered MX5, so the GT86 felt like something that would suite me and I liked the idea that I can personalise it to make it more 'mine'.

Overall my plan is to aim for a relatively stock look, but a little more aggressive and purposeful. I don't want it to look overtly modified - so there will be no carbon fibre canards, wild GT wings or 20" wheels. I'm also relatively happy with the power of the car. I really enjoy being able to drive it hard through 2nd and 3rd gear without fear of losing my license - so no plans at the moment for a turbo or supercharger.


This is how it looked when I picked it up. (thanks to http://www.nineteen80one.com/ for the photos)








Plans to begin with are:

- do something about the rear spoiler
- new wheels
- lowered
- exhaust
- do something about the 'altezza' style factory tail lights
- maybe tidy up the radio antenna
- maybe do something about the fender trims, which look too 'busy' to me

I want to keep all the modifications 'bolt on' if I can, so that I don't completely lose the factory warranty and also so that I can return the car to standard when the time inevitably comes to sell.

Updates soon!

Edited by walamai on Tuesday 3rd November 19:59

Edited by walamai on Tuesday 3rd November 20:02

[walamai]

First job - Rear Spoiler

I'm not a big fan of the factory rear spoiler.




I do like the TRD style 'duck tail' spoiler like this, so maybe I'll look at getting one at some point.



For now though, I'm going to try out the plain look.

First, open the boot and remove the lining.



There are around 6 small plastic clips which pop out with a small flat head screwdriver. The four rubber plugs just easily pull out.



Wait, I thought I bought a Toyota?



Once the lining is off, remove the four bolts (two on each side) and give the square plastic clips in the middle a squeeze.

It's filthy under there!



Careful wipe down and a spray with some quick detailer. Better, but now the rain can get in!



Picked up some official TRD spec white vinyl off ebay (*may not be official Toyota product). Used a sticky tape role to mark out some circles, then cut them out.



Weather proof for now




I much prefer the look without the spoiler. The little gloss white vinyl circles stand out much more than I expected against the pearl white of the paint, so I'll have to do something about them sooner rather than later. Going to keep an eye out for a spoiler-less boot lid if I can find one.

Edited by walamai on Tuesday 3rd November 20:28

Edited by walamai on Tuesday 3rd November 20:30

[walamai]

Blayney said:

They aren't stock?

Good spot! The seller had some Valenti 'smoked' tail lights on there which are a really dark grey and not to my taste. It's back to stock for the time being. I have plans though

[walamai]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

It wasn't so much the lack of power but the coarseness of the engine that put me off-I was driving a Z4M coupe at the time however.

I know what you mean after coming from the Cayman. Lots of clunks and rattles and road noise that aren't there on a cayman, or something like a Z4M. It's taking a bit of getting used to, but I like it. I don't think I could live with an Elise for example, so this is a nice half way compromise.

[walamai]

5harp3y said:

Seconded!

looking forward to seeing this progress. Stock they just look that touch awkward (spoiler /lights /stance and wheels)

I'm not straying too far from the theme! The Valenti's on it were these 'smoked' ones.



I've got some 'red' ones hopefully arriving from the US this week. Pretty much exactly the same, but red rather than grey, so a bit more 'factory' looking.

[walamai]

ECG1000 said:

Good choice getting an '86, and a nice list of improvements building up.

Once you've got a primary cat-back exhaust, I'd fully recommend a FenSport re-map. Really livens the car up.

With your tail lights; use some red E-Tech spray from eBay. I also sprayed a light mist of the tint stuff on mine too. Much prefer it now.

Fensport do an EcuTek remap right? I've got a K&N filter to drop in also, so I think that's a good plan after the exhaust. Maybe 15 or 20HP across the board from what I can gather. I think that'll be good to balance out against the wider rubber going on.

I did look at doing sprays or films to make the tail lights red, but I really like the look of the Valenti's and the DIY solutions never looked quite perfect. The lights are around £200 in the US, so between what I got for selling the smoked ones there isn't much in it. Also trying to stick with the 'bolt-on' approach for now, so the stock lights can be in perfect condition to go back on in the future.

[walamai]

liner33 said:

Guessing you bought it from Andrew ? That man doesnt keep his cars long !

Yep!

[walamai]

Because real men only buy tools that are eligible for Amazon Prime free delivery.



Almost set for the weekend. I've got a torque wrench, vortex socket set, axle stands and a jack all on the way. I think I'll end up spending more on tools that if I'd just paid somebody to install the springs. Wouldn't be half as much fun though.

[walamai]

ECG1000 said:

Yep, it's an EcuTek re-map. I've got a Milltek primary cat-back and Blitz panel filter. Fensport reckon it's good for 218bhp.
I've gone for 8" wide wheels. So 1" wider than stock. Stuck with the skiddy Primacys, albiet 225 section as opposed to 215. There's still plenty of tail out action to be had!

You can get quite a good result with the E-Tech spray when you're patient. If you don't like it, they do a spray to remove it all.

Ah, that's interesting thanks. Definitely don't want to lose the 'lively' rear end

Your lights look really good, some of the best I've seen done DIY. I didn't realise that there was an easy way to remove it. I probably would have tried that first before shelling out for new Valenti's.

Too late now though, they arrived last night!



The photo hasn't come out too well, they aren't pink in real life, just a normal red colour.

[walamai]

New tail lights

Finally got some time to install the tail lights. The 10 minute job ended up being more like an hour!

Obligatory 'before' shot



First, open the boot and pull out the floor lining.
There are three clips along the plastic cover at the back. They easily pop out with a small flat head screwdriver.



Plastic bit then pulls straight up and out.



Next, there are 4 more of the same small clips in the lining behind the tail light. They pop out in the same way with the small flat screwdriver



Fold back the lining to reveal the four nuts holding the tail light in. 8mm socket or spanner to remove all four of them. Then just unclip the electrical connector and the light slides out.


Which now looks like this...



Old and new...



At this point I thought I was 5 minutes from finished. Put the new lights in, four nuts back on, clip in the electrical connector and job done. Unfortunately it turns out that the US wiring is different from UK wiring. Because I bought them from the US, they weren't quite 'plug and play'. When I hooked them up the orange indicator was connected to the steady tail light (so always on) and the red light flashed as the indicator.
It's actually an easy fix, you just need to swap over the Blue and Yellow pins in the plug on the light. If you know what you're doing this is a 5 minute job. If, like me, you spend fifteen or twenty minutes fiddling and swearing at the plug before giving up to consult the internet, it's less straight forward

There is a bit of a trick to it. First, get a small flat screwdriver and lift up the brown locking cap on the plug. It only lifts about 2mm.



Then get a tiny flat head jewellers screwdriver and use it to lever the white locking tab AWAY from the pin you are trying to move. You sort of need to give the wire a yank at the same time. (I can't believe I managed to get this photo to come out clearly and hold it at the same time!) The pins just 'click' back in to place when you slide them in to their new correct slots. Then push the brown tab back down.



It's all down hill from that point. Lights go in, connect the electrical connector, 4 nuts back on and then all the lining back in. Looking good!




The photos don't really do them justice. The light is much more diffused when it's on, rather than the harsh line that it looks like in the photo. Pretty happy with how they look

[walamai]

Blayney said:

So so so much better. Perfect. When they face lift it those are the lights they should use.

Podie said:

Like the look of those - better than the OEM ones

Totally! They make the OEM ones look cheap and nasty.

[walamai]

ajprice said:

Those lights look loads better than the Lexus style originals, nice one. It looked like a faff to get at the lights though, so if a rear bulb goes you have to take the boot lining apart to change it?!?

It took way longer to take the photos than it did to pop the clips off and remove the lining. You could easily do one side in under a minute. In hindsight, I'm not sure you need to remove that middle plastic section. The lining goes under it, but you could probably just slip it back under without having to take the piece itself off and on.

[walamai]

New Wheels

The plan for today was to swap the springs over, but by the time I got started and messed around figuring out the trolley jack and jack stands and everything for the first time I just ended up doing the wheels instead.

The new wheels are Rota Titan's in 17x9, with 245/40 R17 Falken FK453 tyres. I had my heart set on some 17x9 Wedssport TC105N's, but it was virtually impossible to find some in the right PCD (they're a custom order). Visually the Titan's are very close and they're still quite a light wheel. The wheel itself is a bit lighter than stock, but with the extra rubber it ends up being about the same as the stock setup. Wedssports would have been lighter overall, but more than twice the price, even if I could have found some.

Before...


I don't think I really need to go through the next steps. Basically, take the wheels off, put the new ones on! Just remember to allow 20 minutes of frantic searching for the locking nut socket, texting the previous owner and finally finding it under the drivers seat. *may not be necessary in all cases.

Wheel comes off



Old and new





Now it's getting somewhere!



Two problems now. First, it looks like a four wheel drive, so definitely need to get the new springs in ASAP. Secondly, the front tyres are very close to the factory spring, probably about 2mm off. They don't actually rub, but they're too close for my liking. I've order some 5x100 hubcentric 5mm spacers, so will pop those on before it gets driven any great distance.

Edited by walamai on Sunday 8th November 19:34

[walamai]

Blayney said:

Lovely wheels. I'm happy they aren't black (awaits awkward moment when you say they will be black soon).

Does sit a bit high now. Looking forward to seeing it on new suspension.

Cheers. Never been a fan of black wheels, it just seems like there's a dark void in the wheel arch. I was thinking bronze at one point (Advan bronze) but I don't mind these in silver for now.

No idea why it looks like an SUV now! The overall diameter of the tyre is near identical to stock.

[walamai]

smithyithy said:

Looking good pal, I really fancy one of these next, though maybe in Subaru guise.

Are you going springs or coilies?

I've got some Eibach Pro springs to go in, which are a 20mm rear / 25mm front drop. Thought about coil-overs but I don't want to do an extreme drop and if I was getting some I'd want 'good' ones, so £1k+ and then the time to set them up properly. Springs are cheap enough that I can sell them and swap to coilovers in the future if I decide I want to go that way.

[walamai]

leglessAlex said:

... sort of the point of these cars though to some extent...

This nails it for me, if I wanted 'better' car I could have kept the Cayman. Almost the whole point of getting an 86 was to modify it. It's the activity of modifying itself that's the enjoyable part; choosing the parts, the mechanics of fitting them, seeing how it looks or performs, tinkering some more. As others have mentioned, these are a great base for doing this. I actually don't particularly care about making it 'better', it's more about making it 'mine'.

[walamai]

I appreciate all the comments thanks, good and bad!

epom said:

IMO the wheels would look great a slightly darker colour.

Yeah, I know what you mean. In the US they come in a 'hyper black' (kind of a metallic grey) which would have been my first choice, but you can't get them here. I think once I'm done bolting things to it I might experiment with plastidip to try out a few colours and then perhaps get them painted properly. I still want to try a dark bronze

[walamai]

ECG1000 said:

Slightly annoyed you now have the same wheels as me albeit an inch wider and to be fair, mine are bronze.

Sorry! Just found a picture of yours (showing the wheels) in another thread - they look brilliant, exactly what I've been thinking. Are they the 'sport bronze' version, or have you painted them yourself? Maybe I'll have to be more original with the colour now

ETA: just spotted that you've also done white lettering on the tyres. I was thinking about doing that as well. Your car (but in white) is pretty much exactly what I had in my head for mine!

Edited by walamai on Sunday 15th November 18:01

[walamai]

K14A said:

Looking good so far, definitely needs a drop. After having tried the springs, I would say just go for the coilovers. The Tein Flex A are a good reasonably priced set.

Saw a white spoilerless GT86 with the lights and silver wheels yesterday evening M4 near slough towards London. Wasn't you by any chance?

Yep, that would have been me. Small world!

I've actually already got some Eibach Pro springs to go one, just haven't had the time to fit them yet. I did look at the Tein's, but they are lots more expensive than just springs and I don't massively want to change the stock handling just yet, perhaps after I've driven it for a bit. Will see how it goes on the springs for now.

[walamai]

DeaconFrost said:

Having owned my GT86 for nearly 3 years now and having always fancied a Cayman I'm very interested to hear your thoughts on coming from the Cayman to the 86.

Busy week, didn't get near the car unfortunately. I had an 07 Cayman 2.7 which had been well looked after. Even being the slowest Cayman, it was much quicker than the 86; I miss dropping the car back in to 3rd on a motorway where it's opening up to a NSL zone and just nailing it - the acceleration in the Cayman is fun, in the 86 it is just 'fine'. I think the Cayman sounds better too. I just had the standard exhaust on mine and it's definitely nicer than the stock setup on the 86. However Porsche have tuned the exhaust is great, it sound incredible as you get above 5k revs or so.
The handling on the Cayman is astonishing. It felt much more 'sure footed' than the 86 and definitely less inclined to be tail happy and squirmy. For mucking around having a bit of fun around London the 86 is fun. I took the Cayman to the Evo triangle though and on a road like that it's just completely confidence inspiring, whereas for example in the 86 I would have been nervous about the 86 skittering over a crest, the Cayman is just planted. I guess I'm not saying anything that hundreds of motoring journalists have said better!

One thing I really did like about the Cayman was the anonymity. Particularly in London nobody would notice it at all and I was perfectly happy leaving it parked anywhere on the street. I think the 86 stands out a bit more (particularly mine now!) and I wouldn't leave it in some of the places I left the Porsche.

One last thing - I sold the Cayman for £250 more than I paid for it after a year of ownership. I don't have the same hopes for the 86!