Hello! So my daily driver finally died on me, and it's always been a goal of mine to buy & restore an AE86, however could use some advice upon buying one.

1.Should I bother with an SR5 or try my patience for a good GTS offer to appear?

2.What should be my price range buying a GTS model?

3.Are there any other better buying options other than craigslist?

4. I've heard an SR5 to GTS conversion is pretty difficult work, true?

Thankyou to anyone who could help, grats to my first post on the forum i guess, cheers!

You're looking to buy a 30 year old car that you probably know very little about to use as a daily driver? I have a feeling this might end badly...

Seriously, if you only can have one car, I would not suggest buying a project car as your only car. How can you work on it when it has to be ready to drive every day?

Anyway, to answer your questions:

1. Do you like the car just because of the way it looks? If you don't mind having a somewhat weaker engine and would just enjoy driving the car, then a 4A-C would get you down the road reliably.

2. Prices vary from location to location. You could find a half done non-running project for $1500, or a restored original for $10,000+. Anything below $2000 is probably missing major parts.

3. Craigslist, ae86 forums, and ebay are really the main sources.

4. Yes, finding parts is extremely time and money consuming, and there are many things that can go wrong during the conversion that cause the car to not start, not run correctly, or have other issues. You really have to pay attention to every detail.

Good luck.

Having a good bit of disposable income never hurts as well

All very sound advice so far. I'll add that it would be helpful to get involved in your local AE86 community. Those people know about these cars and likely know the cars that are for sale in your area, so they can help you make better decisions. Look for a meet or check out motorsports events and buddy up with someone that can introduce you to the community.

How much time and money do you have?
Have you ever driven one already?
Can you do decent/structural metalwork?
Enjoy driving a very underpowered (by todays standards) car?


No seriously though.... 2 really important questions.... 1- why? And 2-how much time and money do you have?


By no means am i insulting you... ask any hachi owner who have driven ONE for more than 5+years...

dee808 wrote:ask any hachi owner who have driven ONE for more than 5+years...

Ive owned one for about 9 years and driven it cumulatively for 5 years. Lol. There's always something to fix on it. ALWAYS

Just wanted to chime in with my experience.

Driven my car maybe 10 days total in the first year of ownership