I’ve gone back through the backlog of photos from the AE86 shell progress. My initial idea was to release all of these when the vlog came out to have a nice behind the scenes photo set to accompany the videos.

Unfortunately, time had been against my so ill post older photos most Fridays from here on out until we catch up with relevant pictures posting Wednesday after each video.

Today we are taking a look back at the weekend we undersealed the car. Barry called down Friday night to finish the last welding, followed by his cousin Jackie, who finished the remaining exposed seals in the arches and under the body. We went complete overkill and sprayed seam sealer all over the high impact parts of the underneath.

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We find a famous AE86 and the perfect KE70 Corolla hidden in the Irish countryside.

I’m playing catchup, editing these photos and chucking them up on the site, but I’m enjoying the process of looking back at the progress so far. You’d miss build threads on old forums. These days it’s youtube for that sort of stuff. Regardless of the vlogs, I’ve still been snap-happy shooting as many photos as possible of the progress.

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A photo flashback to the night we fitted the bus in the shed. This night was such a funny moment. We had no idea if it would fit through the door or even slot into Reubens space in the shed.

When we were backing the bus in, we thought it would be a perfect time to sort the broken front light on the shed, so Barry (Other Barry) climbed up to replace the bulb.

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The AE86 gets its first coat of paint! We finally paint the interior and the engine bay on the Trueno before we begin assembly. A massive step in the right direction!

Man! What an epic feeling it was to finally get the shell’s interior and the bay into the paint. Unfortunately, the loss of my father right in the middle of the project put everything on pause for almost eight months. We had pushed the shell over to Flips in March of 2019, and it more or less sat there until October, gathering dust.

Our trip to Japan was well needed, and when we came back, we decided to crack on with the project.

I was incredibly nervous as we sanded the shells interior for the final time, Jackie had helped out with the sealer earlier in the year, and we had just primed the bay. Flip was giving the engine bay seams a coat of sealer before we covered everything with paint.

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A flashback to the time Barry called down to work on Adrian’s Carina, this was the day we shot the photo of Barry’s head for the sticker we ended up making inspired by the Boss coffee logo.

Barry brought his Darth Vader mask to do a bit of welding, I love days like this in the shed, and I’m looking forward to more of them over the next year. It’s great having like-minded immature mates around; we all keep each other in check.

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It’s incredible looking back over these photos the past few months, seeing how far we have come with the build as I’m writing this, its just over four years of owning this project. Time has flown by.

This photo set is from the weekend where I conned Josh into helping build the spit, something we should have done at the very start of the build and not toward the end of the metalwork!

Jackie was calling down to seal the bottom of the car, the 86 didn’t even receive any treatment like this from the factory, so it should last a little longer. The idea was to brush sealer into the seams on the bottom, and the entire base of the car would eventually get a spray sealer to ensure the Trueno can withstand miserable Irish weather.

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Here is a selection of photos from a typical day in the life at work. Any longtime viewers will know that I work at JDM Distro in Arklow Monday to Friday 8-5 sorting the visual side of the business, shooting photos videos, Instagram, Facebook and everything in between.

It’s one of the most incredible places to work as a Japanese car enthusiast. We purchase interesting parts from Japan and have them shipped to our warehouse in Ireland. They get unboxed, photographed, repackaged and sent back out to many parts of the western world.

It’s a mad setup, but I enjoy working there. It keeps the brain entertained as we are constantly surrounded by the best parts, which can also curse as our wages rarely leave the building. Anyways, here are some photos from back when we did the Juicebox episode on Distro and the container that landed that day.

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I will be the first to admit I know nothing about Porsches, which must have been evident from the recent vlog, I’ve always appreciated the shape, but it’s a rabbit hole I’ve yet to fall into. It’s the Japanese car bug that got me, and I’ve tried to fill my brain with as much knowledge on nonsense JDM machines as possible over the years.

I’m somewhat to blame for this car landing in Robs shed as I was sending links to a friend on Yahoo, and he went looking for Japan Porsche prices and ended up with this Work of art. Japan has always had its own Porsche scene, with a few popping up in the Midnight Club or shops like Promodet and RWB, building some incredible examples.

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The AE86’s engine bay gets sanded down for its final coat of paint, we get distracted by a Rally, and we check out a freshly imported ’78 911 from Japan.

So a few years ago, my mate Davy was interested in getting his hands on an RX7. After browsing back and forth for something local, he decided to import from Japan. He enlisted the help of our good Friend rob, who you might know in the videos as the Mitsubishi guy. Rob has been helping people source cars from Japan for several years now and was more than happy to help Davy find the perfect example.

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Due to unforeseen circumstances and my father’s death in June 2019, the AE86 project took a bit of a hiatus; we put the build on pause until we felt it was right to get back at it. It wasn’t until we returned from Japan in September until we started to move on with the project again. I was hell-bent on getting this thing finished, but life always seems to throw a curveball when you least expect it, and it reminded me to slow down and enjoy the ride.

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If cars could speak, Reubens C33 would have quite the story. Fortunately, we have managed to document most of its life since it left the motherland, a hack machine that someone threw together. Reuben imported this car with the sole purpose of making some extra cash. It wasn’t until it landed that he started trying on wheels and parts that he fell in love with it.

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Much like our photos from the 2019 BBQ, right before the world knew anything about the word Covid, we made our way to the most famous car show in Ireland, held in September every year. This event was a washout, and as expected, we were a little deflated after just coming back from our trip to Japan, which you might have seen on our youtube channel.

We did a lap of the paddock, trying to capture whatever caught our eyes and battled the never-ending heavy downpours that followed.

Little did we know this would be the very last sizeable Irish car show as nothing has happened since the Pandemic took hold of the world. Regardless, enjoy these quick photos from a pre covid world. It took a little longer than expected to get around to putting them on the site, ill keep the words to a minimum here and let the high-quality selection speak for itself. Enjoy – Neil

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