Leather Shifter Boot

The shift boot on Black Car isn't stock. That sort of bothered me for a while...

I had the stock shift boot on Brown Car; in fact I found the center console stashed away in a box and I still have the brown pleather shift boot from Brown Car in all it's beat up glory. So all this considered, it really bothered me that Black Car had what appears to be the stock rubber shift boot from an AE86.

Thing is it fit like trash. I think one of the Previous Owners just cut off the pleather boot around the shifter opening and then shoved in the AE86 boot. It doesn't fit right, part of it is popping out while other parts are gap-ing.



I was pleasantly surprised to find someone from across the pond (merry ol' England) selling real leather shift boots for the T50 Tranny. What I wasn't prepared for was how nice it would be! The leather is real soft and finish is top notch. The panels and stitching are spot-on to the stock unit. The wire clip mounting fits and it is all-in-all a remarkable upgrade.


The only downside, and it is ever so slight, is that the leather is thicker than the pleather so it is a bit tight getting the plastic clips to grab the mounting wire. But that is such a little nit to pick it really isn't worth mentioning.


Detail wise, it has the right texture, correct stitching, and correct shape/size so other than being the incorrect material it is a near perfect replacement.

Decals for Gas Door and Hatch Pop Levers

Picked up a set of repro decals for the trunk release and gas door release levers. After 25+ years, these all seem to be worn out. The lever decals on Black Car are all but entirely worn out at this point. It's impossible to tell what the picture are so these will be a neat little touch.

Still Not Much Going On

Even though we're moved into a house now, I still haven't been spending much time with the Black Car. Between long hours at work and wicked hot temperatures in the carhole, I just haven't been feeling up to it.

The Black Car got to go out for a quick spin today. Still don't have insurance, inspection, or registration so it was just a once around the block and back into the carhole. I did manage to snap a few pictures of it in it's new environment.


I've been collecting a few parts here and there. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the first thing I got for the car was the JAF badge you see on the grille in the picture above. But it was relatively cheap on eBay and it does fit the general vintage of the car.

Nardi Tokyo Horn Button

Found a horn button for sale on eBay that the seller described as a genuine rare Nardi Tokyo horn button. It's different from the standard button in that it says "ND Tokyo" instead of "Nardi Torino".

I'm pretty sure it's a knockoff, but I've never seen one before and I do like the silver trim versus the gold of the real deal.


So I'm rocking the bootleg horn button for now.

Battery Tie Down Bolt

This is a great indicator of the overall state of Black Car. While it looks pretty good from the outside and from 10 feet away, when you start looking closely you start to see small problems.

When I popped the hood, the battery tie down was missing the forward bolt. Now, there really isn't a good reason for this bolt to be missing, just a general lack of attention to detail.


So once we Black Car moved into her new home in the car-hole, I unpacked some boxes and found my bucket of bolts that I salvaged during my AE86 donor car tear down.


A quick dig through the bucket and I found a bolt that would fit.


The battery is now secure, but the OCD part of me is still trying to figure out if I need to go figure out and track down the correct length bolt since this one is likely too long. Since Black Car will never be a Concourse level vehicle, this will probably be good enough.

Not Much Happening

Getting off to a slow start with the new Black Car.

I picked it up shortly after moving for a new job and am living in a temporary apartment when it was delivered. All of my stuff is in storage so I have no tools or parts to start playing with, just the bear necessities to live and go to work.

Once we find a house with a carhole, I should be able to start playing a little more with the Black Car.

For now, here's a pic of when Black Car lived on the left coast and got to play with a bunch of other Toys:


That picture was taken at the 2007 T.O.R.C. meet and if I remember correctly, PJ Bonifacio was still the owner of the Black Car. I think he had built the black Corolla and white Cressida that are both shown at the left.

JAF Emblem

Got the JAF Emblem in the mail today. Not normally the first thing I'd buy for a car since it's really quite a JDM-fanboy thing to do, but most of the classic Japanese tin seem to have them and how would I fit in if I didn't have one?


In any event, I didn't bother to clean it so it still has the authentic JDM road grime on it for that added bonus. It appears that there are bootleg badges floating around on eBay, but a quick look before buying and this shows all signs of being authentic with the way it is constructed.


So at least it's a real fanboy piece and not a knockoff.