Ae101 Levin front converted Geo Prizm 1997 Daily Driver Build Thread CA, USA

Amidst looking for jobs, I have been quiet - reflecting a correlation with my financial situation. But here are updates from earlier in 2017 where I was going for a cruise in-between rounds and rounds and rounds of applications and interviews. Enjoy!



Updates from 2016 below.

1/2016 update: AE101 Levin front conversion completed by DTM Antibody in El Monte, CA in Dec 2015 - awesome work
I had the option to sell the car, but instead :-)

Body shop pics of the progress are posted below

Pics from meeting up with Supra buddies are below too (2016).

More pictures to come!
For more pics, feel free to visit my website at http://www.thedarcsage.com.

Looks nice, it's good to see the Corolla's cousin fixed up, not too many of them around

Thanks! Yeah, it's nice to see these corollas, especially on the streets! I'm always taking pictures / videos whenever I see one in person hehe

Older Posts (2016):
Updates 11/2016:




You can see the lines from the wrap here, but I plan to fix this sometime.




1/2016 update: AE101 Levin front conversion completed by DTM Antibody in El Monte, CA in Dec 2015 - awesome work
I had the option to sell the car, but instead :-)

Body shop pics of the progress are posted below




Met up with some old buddies for breakfast:




Older post:
I can't keep it to myself any longer as I think about fixing this or that almost every day. And there's always something.

Sorry, I'm relatively new to this forum, and everyone's cars here are so much cleaner, but maybe I can get input, help, and recommendations from y'all here.

But I'll post up some questions and pics soon enough.

Thanks!

Just a little history for now: My uncle sold it to me for $1 in 2001, and I've been using it as a daily driver ever since then till this day. I couldn't resist doing some of the ricer stuff back in college. Just last year, I paid too much money for a mechanic to install a regular automatic transmission into it instead of junking or donating the car - should've gone manual transmission when I had this chance.

Most recent work done: Gauge cluster LED bulbs - blue - I installed in 2002 finally went out, so I replaced them with white SMT LED bulbs.

Questions 07/18/14:
Well, let me search first...but for now
1) Brakes: Is there a straightforward Rear disc brake conversion that could be done from another car or an aftermarket kit? If so, what model? It'll retain the parking e-brake, right?
2)
3)

Older pics:


A few recent pics:

The celica rear disc is a very easy almost bolt on swap

Bump with build pictures - thanks to DTM Antibody for the build!











Wrap from metrorestyling.com!

wow cool, first time I've seen a Prizm with that front end

Looks awesome!

Thanks! Will be cleaning it up gradually too

I wasn't too sure how white was gonna turn out, but I'm thinking of eventually going with a deep blue metallic. And the tail lights with the rear-end are a bit embarrassing to show lol...don't know what else to do with that.

More for the record: The car also survived a long trip in heavy rain while being packed full of stuff for a trip home.

Well, if you can do metal work, you can convert the tail lights to the Sprinter ones

that looks so cool, great work

Definitely the first one I've seen like this. Looks a whole lot sleeker now. When you got the front clip, did you get the motor as well? I thought all of the Levin's came with 20v engines

Thanks! :-) Yup, tail lights might be changed, but who knows when ($$). I'll have to look for a shop in Norcal too.

I got all of the parts individually through several sellers on ebay over the years, so I didn't get the engine. I'm still on the stock 4afe heh, so I need the timing belt done, etc - regular maintenance done. But yeah, the hope is for the 4age whenever. It's been 16 years of wanting the 4age at that too since the days of corollacaclub.com and 4age.net!

And too bad I missed the Initial D World meet in Norcal this year heh. https://m.facebook.com/events/1629012720680152

Your AE Front is awesome! Very nice Prism, with good wheels

Thanks! :-) It's a loooong, continuous project

Great Front End conversion Job mate!

Any updates?

Thanks!! Yeah, I posted a few more pics in the first post above. I'll get more and post them up there.

for front brakes, get a set from an ST-202/204 series celica, you may need to mod it on your hub to get it fitted properly and rears, get one from the same ST-2xx celica as well, make sure it has a complete set of hand brake cables then just have the rotor redrilled to fit in corolla hubs.

lastly, you have to change the master brake cylinder as your original one is calibrated for rear drum. To take advantage of rear discs, you have to install a master brake cylinder from a toyota that originally had rear discs that fit your brake booster mounting bolts OR change the brake booster/master cylinder and find one from a toyota model that originally had rear discs that fit your firewall mounts.

One from an ST-2xx that had original rear discs should fit as well. OR if you find a celica in a junkyard that has the big 275x28mm  2 pot front brakes, 269x10mm rear discs with handbrake cable and a brake booster assembly for cheap, take all and install.

Just note that the corolla center hub diameter came in two sizes, 54.1mm and 55.1mm. IF the center hub diameter of your rotor is bigger, you need to buy or make hub centric rings to use the rotor there so it rotates without shaking....

There seems to be US camry models that used the 275x28mm front discs but the center hub diameter is 62.1mm, if you go this route you need to buy hub centric ring adaptors specifically for your hub size to fit the rotor there. Get everything from the camry, front disc assembly with brake hose, rear disc with handbrake cable, brake booster, etc..... apparently, 1993 US camry XLE with the 3L V6 use these brakes front and rear, I am not sure whether these front brakes are 2 pot or not. you may also need to mod the rear brakes to fit the corolla hub as the backplate mounting bolt holes are not exactly the same but nothing a drill bit and some free time can't accomplish.

there should also be modding guides to fit celica/camry rear discs (especially the back plate) into a corolla hub on the internet. search with google.

Lastly, you will need to use a minimum 15 inch deep offset rims when installing 275mm rotors. I could barely fit a modded 265mm celica front rotor to a +38 offset rim in mine, the brake caliper has probably 2 to 5mm clearance left before it touches the rim.

That sounds like a good project - thanks for the guide!

Onward with the searches - yeah, I'd like the 2 pot brakes.

last last thing..... depending on the car you find, the front brake caliper brackets may need to be changed to a longer one (as measured from the hub bolt hole center  to the slider pin hole center) to accommodate the 275mm rotor.

the celica 2 pot super strut rotors that I got had a 67mm length caliper brackets but I still had to reduce the diameter of my rotor to 265mm to get it to fit my stock corolla hub bolt holes. the camry one may be longer so you may need to do some measurements to see if it fits without changing the caliper bracket.

have pictures of yours redwing001?

pictures in the link below:

https://s198.photobucket.com/user/redwing0001/library/DIY%20Big%20brake%20upgrade?sort=3&page=1

before and after I had the rotor reduced to 265mm to get it to fit the current brake caliper bracket.... if I have to buy the camry 275mm replacement rotor, I would then need to buy a longer caliper bracket (around 72 to 75mm long) so there will be no need to reduce the rotor again.

The only thing bothering me is that the caliper may hit the rim when I do this. Anyway the rotor is still super thick and will last me years before I need to replace it.

I am also using what appears to be a super soft brake pad material that at normal city speeds would already deposit a transfer layer to the rotor surface.... I am not sure if brake bonding is done where you guys are located, but here in the philippines, we have shops that specialize in brake rebonding, meaning, bonding a new brake pad material to the backing plate, much like the way they do it in trucks, but for car brakes instead. The material seems to be even softer than what bendix uses in their General CT brake pads.... will post updated pics there of the current condition of the rotors with the blackish colored transfer layer.

Your brake carrier brakets are from? and what brake pads are you using?

I'm using Celica Carrier Brackets with MR2 Brake pads... Looking to upgrade to Celica Pads.

the same celica super strut brake set that I bought. other than being super strut and 2 pot, I have no other information that I can get from the brake assembly. I know they came from a celica ST-202 since it is pcd 100x5 lug bolts and it had 55.1mm center hub diameter.

The brake pad I actually had was a rebonded set, from a shop close to where I live. We have shops here that rebond brake shoes and brake pads, mostly for commercial vehicles but they also rebond clutch discs as well... for those cars and vehicles that do not have readily available brakes and clutch parts locally and ordering online is not an option or way too expensive.

Celicas and MR2 was not officially released here in the Philippines, so the parts are not readily available directly although you may be able to find parts from specialist toyota stores here if you look hard enough.

That is why those looking to upgrade their brakes here look for parts in what we call "surplus" shops and these shops sell parts mostly imported from Japan.

I am a lazy SOB and I could not find brake pads that fit directly on my brakes, so I went the easy route, had it rebonded. Seems to be good for everyday use though... seems to be so soft that the brakes are sensitive now that the transfer layer is there on both front and rear.

Sounds good!