My long-time LHD conversion and full rebuild project

[phobos]

After enjoying so many interesting project thread on these forums I decided I will give you a chance to follow my build as well.

 

My love for Supras started in 2005, when I spend some time in the US and saw the first Supras in real life. At that time I was a student and couldn't afford such a car. The idea of purchasing one went somehow in the back of my head. Meanwhile I had some fun with my Seat Leon Cupra 4-motion R32 Turbo conversion but reached a point where I had to spend big money to make it more fun. As I couldn't justify to spend more money on a car, which is basically worth nothing, I decided to sell it. Fortunately I found somebody who was looking exactly for that particular kind of car and who was willed to pay the money I wanted for it. The next project car had to be more a more valuable kind of car and the idea to build a Supra was fixed.

 

As I live in Germany, I wanted the Supra to be LHD. It also had to be a hard top version, which narrows down the market quite a bit. As you probably know almost all the EU LHD cars were aero tops, except for some rare CH or Benelux specs. Prices for these cars are crazy. Importing a car from the US was also not an option, as prices were already ridiculous at the time I started my project almost 3 years ago. So I began investigating in RHD->LHD conversions. It turned out to be a lot of work but quite feasible if you get a LHD donor / front cut. Buying the parts alone would cost a fortune, if you you ever find them. As planned to highly modify it, I was OK building a converted car. It would have been stupid however to buy a mint LHD car for crazy money and modify it, as money doesn't grow on trees.

 

Then, just at the right moment, I found a US spec LHD chassis with a truck load full of parts on Facebook, located in Denmark. I was in contact with the seller before, but he asked way too much money. The price tag on Facebook was already significantly reduced, so I made an appointment to check out the parts in person. The shell was US-spec TT AT targa. I assume that it was previously used as a drift bitch, given all the body damage, racing pass and remains of a poorly deleted roll cage. But all the LHD specific body parts were in great condition. I found most of the LHD interior pieces hidden in a pile of parts that I inspected in an old dirty barn. It was hard for me to tell what's missing, since I never actually worked on a Supra but it looked like a good deal to me. We negotiated a price and a week later I picked up the shell and all parts that were stored in the barn.

 

 

In parallel I was looking for the right RHD base car for my conversion. As I would strongly modify it anyway, I didn't care if it's NA, AT or whatever. The only condition was a spotless body (no rust and body damage). What I found so far were only overpriced, rusty shit boxes or cars that looked mint from the outside but the underside already showed surface rust. But I had plenty of time, which I meanwhile filled with removing LHD body parts:

 

 

Months later I decided that importing a fresh JDM Supra might be an option. I got in touch with Autopoint Fukuoka and it didn't take im long to find the right Supra to start my project. The car is a 1998 RHD NA AT:

 

 

 

 

On Facebook I found somebody who wanted to by the complete targa top, incl. A, B&C pillars. It turned out that he was preparing a car for the Fast 8 movie premier :

 

 

My car finally arrived in November 2015 and was prepared for the German TÜV. I wanted it registered before starting any modifications - you never know what's going to happen within the next years, given the crazy EU laws. Once I got it registered, I started to strip it:

 

 

Meanwhile I bought a new dash board...

 

a 2JZ-GTE VVTi

 

 

USDM LHD interior looms (as most of them were missing on my donor car)

 

and a big case diff

 

Then I began stripping the car:

[phobos]

After taking off the trunk rubber seal I actually found some rust spots on my almost spotless chassis:

 

 

I opened the spot welds to remove the rust. After some sandblasting treatment no rust was left and the panels were later glued together with some crazy expensive 3M 2k Epoxy panel bonding glue to prevent any new rust.

 

Chassis almost stripped

 

Drilling out the spot welds of the firewall

 

RHD firewall and wiper cowl removed

 

LHD parts test fitted

 

Some new parts arrived meanwhile...

Edited February 15, 2019 by phobos (see edit history)

[phobos]

I did a lot of research on how to get the best rust protection between the overlapping body panels. I finally decided to put thinned 2K EP primer in the gap after welding them.

 

Some initial spot welding trials

 

Then I put the primer on the panels. Capillary action helps the primer creeping between the panels.

You can already see the primer on the other side.

Some compressed air helps the primer covering all the cavities.

 

As the wiper cowl was in bad condition with several layers of old paint I decided to glass bead blast it along with all the other panels and brackets for my conversion. I just covered the areas where I had to weld later.

 

First interior brackets welded and sealed with primer

[phobos]

It was a heart breaking moment to cut my USDM donor car...

 

Next step was to weld the wiper cowl in place. First some final fitment adjustments

 

Then I welded the upper portion, opened up the gap between the sheets and put 2K EP primer between the sheets, with the help of some compressed air.

 

You can see this technique works really well as the whole overlapping area is sealed from the inside already

 

Some additional touch-ups with a brush and all bare metal was perfectly sealed

...and the gaps finally closed again.

 

 

Then I welded the actual cowl to the chassis and painted all areas where I don't need to weld anymore.

 

Double check all cavities are sealed

[phobos]

Then I welded the firewall in and sealed everything again with primer.

 

Then I removed the AT tunnel

 

I didn't trust the KTL coating of my new MT tunnel so I decided to give it also some layers of paint for a maximum in corrosion protection

 

After removing the AT tunnel the underside were the AT tunnel panel used to be was also painted with primer and 2K chassis paint

 

MT tunnel assembled (again glued with 3M epoxy panel bonding adhesive)

 

And then I went crazy and ground all spot welds on the under body back to bare metal after seeing some minor rust spots on some spot welds. I just want to be on the safe side . I cannot stand rust.

 

All welds treated with 2K primer

[phobos]

To make some room for wide tires I cut the wheel arches a bit. As some of the spot welds were gone afterwards, I glued he panels with my lovely 3M panel bonding adhesive again. I wanted to avoid welding here as there is no way to reach this area with any sort of rust preventative grease / oil later. This is due to the foam material that sits between the inner and outer wheel arch, right above the wheel arch.

 

Cutting the hole for intercooler piping

 

And some fresh paint for the under body.

 

I noticed some cracks in the seal seam at the bottom of the A-pillar. After some peeling my strange gut feeling was confirmed and I found some minor rust spots. Time to take out the sand blaster again to remove any rust. I also remove the upper brackets for the fender.

 

Everything back in place and painted.

[phobos]

Unfortunately some idiot thought it was a good idea to extend the exhaust cut-out of my rare USDM rear bumper so I had to fix it.

First I took a negative of my JDM rear bumper

 

I was lucky to get the missing piece from a forum member here so I just had to cut it to the right size and glue it to the US bumper. Again I used some special 3M bumper repair kit with strong but flexible adhesive, reinforced with some fibre glass mats. And no, I do not hold any 3M shares

 

My car finally looked ready for paint

 

While waiting for the paint shop to take my car I sand blasted all screws

 

and had them galvanized. After galvanization I put the screws in the temperature chamber at work to prevent any kind of hydrogen embrittlement.

 

New LHD steering rack arrived

 

along with my new transmission - BMW M4 DCT :D

 

 

Seems to clear the tunnel quite well after some mods

 

Some further parts refurbished

 

And some instrument cluster improvements

[phobos]

Further parts glass bead blasted and clear coated - looking brand new

 

Brakes disassembled, blasted and painted:

 

The chassis finally on its way to the paint shop

 

First parts painted in Ferrari Grigio Silverstone.

 

I also took all chassis parts to the paint shop to geht a nice black finish after I sand blasted them

 

Some more interior work:

 

Adjusting the mileage of my LHD ODO to my chassis

 

LED conversion and new buttons for my HVAC

[phobos]

Car officially painted

 

and back at my garage

 

First parts of my new fuel setup:

- Radium fuel pump hanger

- Radium fuel filter

- Radium fuel pressure regulator

- Radium fuel pulsation dampener

- Walbro 450lph fuel pump

 

 

Superpro poly bushes to replace all OEM bushes

 

More parts galvanized

and some home tempering...

 

 

First parts assembled and mounted to the car

KW V3 coilovers

 

The dog is watching all the screws that I sorted into a ton of boxes

 

And the most awful job - getting rid of this nasty stuff on the dash panel + filling some holes

 

First interior parts officially mounted

 

ABS block relocated. I will use the 96+ ABS for a cleaner look

[Mika]

Absolutely gorgeous, keep up the good work!

[mwilkinson]

That's one hell of a lot of work in 3 years.

[Hughdahellru]

What a project. Looking forward to more updates!

[nolizma]

Amazing work! Thanks for sharing!

[phobos]

Dashboard in

[Annabella]

Fab work.

[mc92]

Impressive project, wish I had the space/facilities to take mine apart that far.

[phobos]

Does anybody know how to increase the size of the thumbnails when posting pictures as attachments?

[Burna]

What year BMW DCT box is that mate? Did you have to chop any of the tunnel and firewall out to fit it?

[Fitz]

Awesome work with this project I'd love to get my HVAC controls all LED like that

[Dave]

nice

[phobos]

What year BMW DCT box is that mate? Did you have to chop any of the tunnel and firewall out to fit it?

 

It's a 2017 M4 DCT. I did only some rough mock-up and it seems that the tunnel only needs some massage work with a rubber mallet. The challenging part is the DCT control, as this is different from the E9x transmissions. Hope Paul will come up with a solution for that

[Burna]

It's a 2017 M4 DCT. I did only some rough mock-up and it seems that the tunnel only needs some massage work with a rubber mallet. The challenging part is the DCT control, as this is different from the E9x transmissions. Hope Paul will come up with a solution for that

 

Sounds like a better fit than the old one then, which is great news!

 

Which ECU are you using?

[phobos]

Sounds like a better fit than the old one then, which is great news!

 

Which ECU are you using?

 

Syvecs most likely, due to the DCT.

[HadeS]

Proper restoration project.

 

Keep the good work coming.