My fenders look wrong

[Kristian_Wraae]

I found this:

------------------------------------------------------
ok... here in New Zealand we have a very large variety of mk3 bodies but here is how you can tell the differences on them regardless of what year the registration ticket says it is
(just as a sidenote these body differences may not apply to northern hemisphere, most of what is shown here is what japan sent to the southern hemisphere )
86 supra bodies....
aerial in back windscreen
body moulding looks like this on jdm models (usa used 87 moulding from 86-88)

windscreen washer jets are small stubby ones like this

86's also have a parklight switch whereas in nz in 87 they got changed for a coin slot (in the usa i believe they still have parklight switches)
86 supras are also narrow body (flat sides, guards aren't flared out etc)
here's a pic of a narrow body & widebody... you can see the yellow one has wider front guards than the white one

also as shown above... the white supra is an 86 but had the 89 bumper and spoiler conversion done... so 86-88 = yellow bumper, 89-92 = white bumper (if you look at the turn signals you will notice that they are exactly the same as the yellow ones.. 86-88 turn signals)
taillights look like this

factory 86 spoiler shown above
87 bodies...
aerial in back windscreen
87 moulding is exclusive, it is not on any other year... you will never mistake an 87 unless someone went through the trouble of changing it all (which i doubt someone would go through the trouble with)
87 moulding comes in 3 colours... burgundy, gray & blue
87 moulding pic

windscreen washer jets change for 89 to longer nice looking ones

as shown previous... widebody & narrowbody
all 87 supras are widebody from the factory
the yellow one is an 87

taillights and spoiler are still the same as 86

87's also came with seatbelt holders which the 86's didn't come with (in the USA only 89+ got seatbelt holders)

87's had a coin slot in replacement of the parklight switch (in nz, not sure of other countries, USA 87's did not come with coin slots factory)

88 bodies...
aerial in back windscreen
back to narrow body style
still retains coin slot
no seat belt holders in 88's
still have the newer style windscreen washer jets
still have 86 style taillights and spoiler
back to 86 style moulding

89-92 bodies...
aerial changes to an automatic one in the right rear quarter in spoiler
taillight style also changes
spoiler changes to a new 3 piece with spoiler light

body moulding changed

windscreen washer jets are still the long sleek nice ones
all are widebody (but..... generally the ga70 1ggte is an exception to the rule)
front bumper changed as well as turn signals
have a look at the front bumper and turn signals between these two.. the turn signals on the purple 89 are shorter and have little black grills rather than the yellow one which has one grill that spreads right between the two


if you have any other questions on body diff's post em up and i'll answer them the best i can

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I guess you are right.

[Kristian_Wraae]

When I look at the smaller fender on my car I don't think it looks exactly like the narrow fender from the 86 model:



My car looks like this:

[Kristian_Wraae]

If I measure the distance from the shock absorbers to the tyres I get this:





This means that the left tyre is 1 cm further out than the right relative to the shock absorber. I have of course made sure that I'm measuring at the same spot.

How is that possible?

[Kristian_Wraae]

When I look at the shape of the fender I don't really see that big difference:






I have never seen an 86 model with narrow body. Do the fenders on a narrow body look like this?

I talked to someone who said he thought that the bottom part of the left fender was not pulled out as much as it should and doing that would make the fenders look the same.

What seems strange to me is if both the fender and the wheel alignment is wrong at the same time. Of course if the wheel is wrong due to an impact and the fender has been replaced du to the impact it will make sense.

But as far as I can tell the car drives straight and stops straight too. I had a machanic testing it a few weeks ago and he said after driving it that the brakes and the handling were perfect.

[Kristian_Wraae]

I'm starting to go nuts.

Look:





Se the space between the side indicators and the grill on each side.

A lot less room on the left side (the car's left side)

Which side is the normal one (if any).

[Kristian_Wraae]

I'm going to pick up another fender today. Then we'll see.

I'll be back (must be said with Austrian accent)

[Kristian_Wraae]

Ok, I'm back.

I don't know if anyone here cares but the final verdict came today.

The car has been in a crash many years ago. It has been fixed so you can't see it (apart from the wheel of course).

What has happend is the the car has received an impact from the left which has shifted the damper towers a little bit to the right.

So everything on the car is straight except of where you bolt on the fenders. Suspension is perfect etc.

So what I need to do is to have the front straightend in a jig.

Bad news but it can be fixed (at a price of course....)

So normal widebody fender but bent car - I wish it had been the other way round...

[sportriderseattle]

Thats soo great someone finally took some close-up pictures of the narrow / wide -body differences. They really are pretty subtle. It just seem very strange that Toyota would have made two different fenders on the MKIII and I am glad we don't have the narrow-body style in the USA.

[Kristian_Wraae]

Originally Posted by sportriderseattle

Thats soo great someone finally took some close-up pictures of the narrow / wide -body differences. They really are pretty subtle. It just seem very strange that Toyota would have made two different fenders on the MKIII and I am glad we don't have the narrow-body style in the USA.

My fender is not narrow. It's the normal widebody fender.

The problem with my car is that it's not straight. The damper towers have been bent a third of an inch to the right. That means the fenders point slightly to the right on both sides.

I've talked to Toyota they have a straightening jig and they say they can fix it for $1000-$2000. So I'm going to have that done.

I live in Denmark and here cars are extremely expensive. The reason for this is our tax system.

We pay between 40% and 60% in income tax.

AND:

We have a 180% registration fee plus a VAT of 25%. So whenever we buy one car we actually pay for three. So everything here gets fixed. It's worth it.

Just to give you an impression of the level I can tell you that I have paid $21.000 for this car two months ago and that is considered cheap here......a car like mine (just straight not bent) will cost around $26.000 at a dealer.