Corolla Sound's 97 DX AE101 On-Going Project

Thank you. ...I went shopping today and found a spoiler. It's like it was meant to be..It was unattached just sitting there on the trunk of a 7th gen rolla, so I bought it for $20. It better fit! It wasn't attached so it could of come from another car and somebody just set it there, but looks like a match (its the same colour as the rolla it was sitting on).






I never ended up getting my A/C line, well I almost did but I needed an adjustable wrench or something to take the other end of the hose off...and I found out the hard way that the freon was nicely charged on the dead rolla, gave me a nice startle lol.

looking good mate, but does look abit short though

Thanks, I need to position it better I think, but yes, it does look a bit short.

Here is the A/C line I am trying to replace...

This is the part I loosened off on the car at the wreckers and then had a cloud of evaporating freon blast me in the face lol. I got the bolt out and the hose and connector popped off with ease.

Then I tried removing this bolt but it will not go, the one on my car is seized too!


and I didnt have anything on me to take this off, and they werent lending out tools at the wreckers

It looks like if I can loosen that nut, the whole A/C line will come right out of the car at the wreckers.

Rims look good bro, but damn your exhaust is rusty already.

I went back and got the A/C line I needed. It came off very easily and fast. I was sad to see that the car at the wreckers had less rust underneath it than mine. The rear trailing arms, gas tank support straps, rear axle, and heat sheild looked pretty much mint. Even the exhaust had little to no rust on it. Too bad it was located at the back of the lot behind 100 other cars or I would of asked them to raise the car so I could take some stuff.

I also looked at the car I got the spoiler from and found out it was also a 97 but it was an SD model.

After I got my A/C line, I dropped my car off at the shop to have the header modified to stop the rattle, install the new A/C line (if he can get the old one off (bracket is rusted bad)), and I am getting my calipers and drums painted black. Hopefully all goes well!

I started playing around on photobucket to see how my car looked with different window tints. I wish I could find a better free program for this lol. Heres a couple colours I made...


Edit: deleted pics to shorten thread

I think if I were to tint my windows, Id go with the black. It would probably be cheaper and I think it looks better, and probably would do the best job at blocking the sun. I would obviously have to increase the transparency a little though for safety and legal reasons.

Plus I tried seeing how my rims would look painted black but it got screwed up and I ended up making this out of it....I should start an Art thread, this is kinda fun lol

Edit:deleted pic (takes too long to load)

lol looks cool, theres a photoshop section in the photography section if you want to add pics or requests...

lol hey we all gotta start somewhere. Gimp is a free editing program. It's a lot like photoshop and you can find many tutorials for it. Or you could be naughty and torrent photoshop.

GIMP ftw.

I like the spoiler, I've seen them on a few ae101's here

I got my car back with a new A/C line installed. It hasn't been charged yet, I am going to wait til after I get my Motor Mounts replaced. I am going to try new motor mounts to see if that will stop my header from vibrating before I have the pipe modified. I am going to have all 3 motor mounts replaced (not gonna bother with trans mount) and get the brakes painted at the same time.

and I finally finished the paint on my car (painted my grill)...not sure how they missed it at the paint shop lol






Im going to let it cure inside overnight then patiently wait for the morning dew to dry tomorrow morning and see how it looks in the car.

The Grill on the car:




Looks like a fair match. Its not as shiny as the rest of the car because its not waxed.

Wow that looks great! Makes the car look even cleaner. Never realized how bad the grey color looked.

that looks very nice mate

Thanks. I want to find a lip kit for my car soon. Not sure where to look, Im looking around locally. I dont want to spend to much (I only paid $20 for my spoiler). There is a local fiberglass shop I can get to custom fit it for me. Anybody have any recommendations?

I thought that the original grille looked good with the black lights, but you did a killer paintjob!

Well, technically, here is my original grill. But I was missing the chrome part of my emblem and I think one of the clips were broken, so I got a "new" one from the wreckers. It did match the lights rather well, but it "didn't". It was too faded and dull in colour (was more grey than black). So I painted it green, which I think sharpens up the headlights

Original:


Not Original:

Now I remember, yeah you got the older style grille now.

I ordered my 3 motor mounts by Anchor from Rockauto.com and am expecting them next week. I cant wait because I am refusing to drive my car until the mounts are replaced. I cant take the sound of my header pipe rattling anymore. Im not even sure if the mounts are going to solve the problem.

I put my car up on ramps today just to inspect my rust and I found what looks like a leaking brake line, but it cant be leaking or else my brakes wouldn't work right? My brakes are working fine.




I will know more next week when I finally take it in for some servicing. I think I might be looking at getting a different car.

I know the feeling of considering a different car, bro. All the problems that come with these since they are so old... can get annoying.

Hey I figured out how to keep the AC line and the header. Just gotta drill the hole to about 3/8 thus allowing more freeplay to clear the 02.

Nice! Did you bend the AC pipe at all or did you just install it "angled down"? I just had my "new" ac pipe bent slightly but it still goes around the O2 sensor. I havnt had a chance to try the ac yet, im going to wait until I get my motor mounts changed before I charge the ac. It looks like the ac line has to come off in order to change the right motor mount.

Nope! No bending. Just keep it pushed down while you tighten the 10 mil. I see you already found your own solution to it though. Did you bend it with your bear hands? Cause I tried that and couldn't get mine to budge at all.

Cool, good idea man. I didn't install my ac line because my old one was rusted on. I made my mechanic do it lol. He probably would of used a tube bender of some sort though if he did put a bend in it i imiagine.

...Waiting on the delivery guy to drop off my mounts then headin in to the shop