The "Green Panda" Hatchback

Hello people! I finally decided to start up my very own thread about my "Green Panda" Hatch!
Little backstory on this, it was around last winter, i suddenly gained a lot of interest in the car scene (All thanks to Initial D). So i decided to hunt down something that was easy to drive (Toyota), reliable and easy to work with (Toyota) and just plain good looking (Toyota).

Sometime later i came across these Corolla Hatchbacks models and i found them oddly intriguing, so i started to google some forums about these AE101's and i found this place! It's been a great source information and since then i fell in love with these Hatchbacks! Before i decided on this Hatch, there were other candidates, One Silver and one Blue, i missed both of them because i was hesitant (this was my first time buying a car by myself, so it was nerve-racking. My first car, Golf was a hand me down), but when i came across this one... i was IMMEDIATELY on the phone and i went and picked it up the same day! Ended up paying 700€ for it.

Here are some pictures from the Sales ad..






And here is the picture after i bought it!




And after a arrived home...

Now you may be wondering... why the"Green Panda" Name? Well for one not because of Initial D (aka yes) and for a second, there is a literal GREEN PANDA on my window, so the name kinda stuck with me I obviously celebrated this moment with a "White Panda" Sticker for lols.




After a day of ownership, look what happened! That was fun...




Luckily my uncle had a sameish model of Corolla (More on this car later, i swear) that has some nifty looking Alloy wheels for 150€, so i bought them off of him, since he had no use for them! Oh and i bought a hatshelf (backboard) off of him while i was at it for 30€, it came with some speakers too. (my backboard was missing. Courtesy of the first owner i presume, i'm the third owner i think)



Welp that's it for today folks. I'll post more stuff laters.

Welcome along, looks good so far! Keep posting!

Thanks Man! Will try to keep posting when i find the time.
Speaking of which, here is some more pictures from way back.



Green Panda in action.




Got myself some wind/rainguards fitted, ended up looking quite fine in my eyes!




Lil' clean up job for posing. Shines nicely.




Aaaand a second disaster struck... The bolt snapped! there is only me to blame here. (Let's leave it at that   )



I gotta say, the strut assembly was surprisingly easy to remove from the car, but removing the upper strut mount... was an mission in itself.
At this point i would like to note everyone that BUY PROPER TOOLS. I bought some cheapo basic spring compressors. And when the time came to use them, i quickly found out they were broken right out of the box! So that caused a small delay, but i borrowed my fathers car and went to the store to get some proper ones!

Sadly i don't have a picture of the "job well done" but rest assured i got it in the end. After that i sent the Panda for a wheel alignment test and OH BOY did it need one. On all the wheels!




Around summer time i made my first big money purchase and got myself a FX GT lip from Ebay, ended up costing a pretty penny of 200€ (Damn you customs duties! "shakes fist at the sun")




After that ordeal with the strut mount, i decided to splurge a bit and get a proper set of tools by Bacho, happened to be on sale for a decent chunk!





Another big money move with these BC Racing V1 Coilovers! Currently sitting in the garage for better days atm. (got it for 850€)




Here is my Panda and my neighbor's/co worker's Subaru Legacy that he imported from Japan i believe.



I guess i'll leave it at that for today. Leave a comment if you have well... anything to say.

Tools are always a requirement when you have a car LOL. I have the BCs on my car too, they are nice!

Alright! Time for some more posting since i have the time (finally). Work has come in my way as of late.
I'm also heavily considering to go back on the "school bench" so to speak and study to become an electrician. So i can make actually money and ditch this dead end job of mine, since our Postal firm likes to cut our paychecks (luckily hasn't hit me yet) and making services worse.

Anyway, enough of that! Time to posto!



Got my Hands on this Strut Brace of off an G6R Edition AE111 Hacthback from a local scrap yard.
Original color was more shiny variant of black, but i gave it a matte black finish and the result is surprisingly amazing! Definitely one of my better spray jobs i have done in the while.








Man this made a huge difference in corners! But it made me more aware of my tires being old, worn out and faded as hell.

I have my eyes on a set of Hankook Ventus V12 Evo 2 tires.
Ideally i want something that are comfortable enough for daily use, but are good for track use since i do want to give a track day or two a go one of these days.

Any suggestions?

I was stoked to get this rear spoiler for a bargain! 85€ in total. Some of you may not know, but we didn't get this style of a spoiler here in Finland, we only got the "lesser version".








So it turns out that the last owner plasti dipped the spoiler black, of course this doesn't matter since it's getting repainted by a local shop when the time comes.
At the same time, i'll make them repaint some body panels, fix the rust spots and get the spoiler painted and installed!








Is it just me or does this silver look kinda snazzy with the Greyish Green  

I have those Hancook tires on my Lexus actually, I'm on my second set of them now! They are just summer tires, and there's an all season version too. I doubt it's the latest and greatest tech these days, but they work, I have no complaints.

Updates look good, good luck on the school and career goals!

Couple months ago, decided to get another corolla that replaced my aging golf wagon (as a winter beater).

And that Corolla is a 1995 1.6GLi Liftback! It's in "relatively" good shape, but it could use some love.
Although i'm not really all that interested having another project car so... if it breaks down, it breaks down.

Anyway, the main reason why bought this car was...




Wait for it...




I said wait.



Ta daa! Wallnut Facia panels! I got incredibly lucky with this one! I only know one other guy that has these here in Finland.

Whoops looks like i forgot to post this one!  
I got this white cluster for a steal! Only 30€! Oh and some clear turn signals to go along with it.

Shortly after i got this FX Brochure all the way from Japan, great condition.

So i'm finally catching up with these updates to the point where i stand now.


Last month, i decided to rip out the trim pieces and install them on my project Corolla!

The center pieces came off easily enough, but i couldn't figure out how the driver's side panel came off at the time until far later.
(passenger's side vent is still a mystery to me. Can anyone help me out with that? With pictures please   )



Despite my best efforts, i managed to break one of the upper left pins on both trim pieces (sorry no pics of this)... but super glue was enough to fix them right up!



And they are off!



Before i installed the trim pieces in, i bought these accessories to "fill in" the center a bit more.

Sadly the cupholder doesn't fit, but i have been told that it can be modified to fit if you sand the edges a little bit.
So i might do that.



Also i don't smoke, and i don't plan on having passengers doing that either so i bought this No Smoking Coin tray. This should send a clear message.  




And done! Looks freaking mint. I know, the radio is very ancient, but it's enough for my needs.



Really want to fill that last gap with a Push box.. well that comes later.



Finally i got this panel installed! It took me like a week to figure out how this comes off!
Anyway it looks pretty barebones here.. Would really like to have electric mirrors since the plug for the switch is in there already.
(but it's not gonna be that easy is it?)

Central Locking would be neat too. How feasible is it to add Central Locking afterwards? Any guides out there?

Anyway, thanks for reading! Will post more soon ish.

Looking nice and clean! The radio actually looks pretty fitting in there, it makes sense to see that than some new fancy technological device.

As for the passenger side, unfortunately, that one bolts in from the back, and there's not really any good way to get it out without removing the dash. I've heard of people using like a heat gun to try and melt the screw off, but obviously that's not the best idea haha

Thanks gold94corolla! I would rather keep things more era oriented, blends in better i think.
But i might upgrade the speakers in the front since i like to listen to some jamming beats. I also need to wire the speakers on the back at some point.

Yeah i rather not go through the process of removing the whole dash... sounds like a pain  .
I do have a spare Hatch that's getting parted out, so i might experiment how the whole thing disassembles.

I thinks i'll try to carefully peel off the walnut facia layer with hot soapy water and a knife. The internet says acetone works a treat, but that's a bit risky choice imo.

Hi Buddy, Greetings from Australia.
I have started following your build. Your cars colour looks very nice. I'm not sure if that colour was released here. I very much love the look of the two door version of the AE101. Our dealerships released 4 door compact hatch and sedan versions. The "sprinter" (your wood grain donor car) were sold but were not as popular. Is your front bumper common on models sold in Europe?? Ours all have bumpers similar to your sprinter. I also have fitted the same type spoiler but have found another small spoiler that mounts at the top of the hatch. Look forward to seeing other mods to yours soon.
Kind Regards

Hello there Crusty! Glad you like what you see here.
I do agree that the color is pretty nice, at first i wasn't too hot for it. The color code is 6M3 "Greyish Green".

As for the Bumper, pretty much all pre facelift Hatchbacks (93 - 95) here in Finland have that FXGT bumper regardless of the trim level, which is pretty dope.
It's more rare to see the facelift models (96 - 97) with this type of bumper here.

Anyway, i'll do my best to keep this post (and sometimes it seems this whole site) alive!

"For your viewing pleasure"

Last Friday was a productive day! I finally found the guts to go and start sanding the edges of the cupholder. With a angle grinder nontheless..


Little test fitting action, fits alright. I need to shave it just a tad more, but this will do for now.




And there it is. Sits surprisingly well.

And while i was at it... i got this situation handled. To my surprise, a carpet knife was enough to get it off!
Far better option than removing the dashboard.  

lol that works too, I'm surprised it came off still in one piece and flexible. Nice!

Yet again some small progress. Got the last trim piece in place.




It's now nice and complete!



Also decided to take couple pics while the hatch was outside. The garage was occupied by my Dad's VW Bora for a hot moment..

Look what arrived today... can't wait to get this installed once i find the time.

Hi yo, Merry Christmas. I hope the Holidays are serving you all well!
Sadly, the scenery here isn't much merry, because of the distinct lack of snow..


Anyway i got some Si model interior pieces along with electric mirrors & switch from a fine gentleman!
The price? Free of Charge.

It truly is a Christmas miracle...

Here are some pics




Sure i'm still missing quite a bit of the interior, but as i said before that a price of free is hard to beat! Otherwise these would have been dumped into the junk yard
I'm glad i was able to save these.

Wow those are some nice parts, especially for free! We don't have those over in USA, so that is very rare to see. Really cool!

Glad you like em! I have a couple of places where i can get the rest of the interior, i'm just waiting for their replies.

In the meantime, i took the liberty of getting the seat bolted on it's place.

Looks killer already!





I started on the removal of door cards, but i hit a snag. I have no idea how that whole door handle assembly comes off.
I searched some videos for guidance, but they all are for the sedans and i'm not sure if the handle comes off the same way.
Or maybe i'm just not using enough force, but i rather not break anything  

ah yeah, it's different to remove the sedan handle, because that one doesn't have the door lock integrated in. I think that outer trim piece has to pop out with force, like with a screwdriver inserted in the side and carefully pulling it away from the fabric, once any screws are removed. But I'm not sure

That could well be it. I have tried it twice, but i'm still scared of breaking it.. might have to ask a local car repair shop's guidance to confirm that this is how it's removed.

Oh btw this FX badge arrived yesterday. I like it a lot.



Need to get better pictures later..