DISCLAIMER: You're going to be crawling around under a car that's jacked up in the air. For God's sake be aware of what that means. Use a good set of jack stands and wheel chocks. The rearend is heavy; don't drop it on your face. You are responsible for your own actions, not me. Don't blame me if you hurt yourself trying this stuff.

WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THIS?

1) bigger brakes
2) 4x4.5" bolt pattern that you can actually find wheels to fit, unlike the weird-o 4x110mm of the 12A cars.

'KAY. I WANT IT. SO... HOW?

First, go read my page on upgrading the brakes to GSL specs, especially if you're starting with a '79 or '80 car. The procedure is pretty much the same, except that you'll be using the bits from a GSL-SE rather than a GSL.

For '81-4 12A cars, or '79-'80 cars that have been upgraded to '81-5 suspension, it's pretty much a bolt in. The only real caveat that I can come up with are that the '84 SE strut is about 5mm longer than the '81-3 strut. This affects cartridge swapping and purchasing. Tokico struts come with spacers for just such an emergency, however, mine were lost somewhere in my black hole of a garage. In order to swap my Tokico blue strut cartridges from my '82 struts to the '84 SE struts, I had to manufacture spacers. What I came up with was electrical conduit lock nuts ground down to fit inside the strut top gland nut. No problems so far. I don't know if this caveat applies to '84-5 12A struts as well.

Additionally, the front brake flex hoses are _almost_ too short, but there is just a little slack at full droop with thesterring at it's furthest lock.

The same caveat pertaining to the driveshaft and driveshaft flange on the rearend covered in the other brake page applies, as well.

That's it. Really. Follow the procedure from the other page, but using GSL-SE stuff, and you're golden. Then go buy some nice wheels. The same ones that fit four-bolt second-gens now fit your car, for the most part. Have fun!

Pictures!