ADL Mark

Good to know, thanks! They look pretty decent, and probably better than a cold and damp garage?

Thanks for the kind words guys! Good advice - a lot of the rear subframe (bolts and bushes) was refreshed about ten years ago, so are in reasonably good condition. Once the nicer weather is here I'll get under and have a better look now the body is sound, and see what needs to be done. Nooo, it didn't. I'm gonna be sore for a while Sadly, it won't fit in my tiny garage so I've got a couple of options to investigate. One would be to find a suitable garage to rent, another is something like an outside Carcoon as I've got access to a large driveway it could live on during the winter.

Eventually we gave in and Martin repaired the bumper as best he could. He wasn’t 100% happy with it, but it’s ok for now, and we agreed if I can source one at some point he will spray it up to match. Once the paint was coming on, it was time to get the wheels refurbished. One had been painted before and was a different colour to the others, and they all had kerbing or lifting powder coat on them. They went off to WeRestoreAlloys in Fife and came back looking sparkly, and were treated to new centre caps and lug nuts to finish them off. Finally, I’d asked Martin to get her MOT’d before sending her back down. In a final act of defiance, she needed two rear wheel bearings and a pair of front tyres. Otherwise, apart from needing the fuse to be popped back in to get rid of the TRAC light, she passed with no advisories. Last week I had the long-awaited call to tell me she was heading down on a transporter. Martin took a load of photos of her clean and waxed at his unit as it was unlikely she’d make it to Sussex quite as clean as she left Scotland. Eventually on Sunday she turned up, absolutely filthy from her 500 mile trip through all kinds of weather on the back of a transporter. The battery was flat, so we got my BMW up on the transporter to provide a jump, and I drove her for the first time in either months for a slightly elongated journey back home. Once there, despite the 3C weather, I got the hose out to get the worst of the dirt off. Once I’ve got the new battery on, and have had a chance to clean her properly, I’ll get some better photos. For now, I’m just looking forward to enjoying driving her for a while once the interior is back in, but there’s lots more to come. I think it’s time for some lowering springs to get the stance just right, I need to check some slack in the driveline (probably rear prop bush), refurbish the rear brakes, and then I need to address the ageing (and original!) turbos that are beyond their best. I’m still torn between hybrids or single…

I bought this car at the tender age of 23 back in April 2006, whilst in the middle of treatment for a severe illness, figuring that I should buy the car I’d always wanted whilst I was still around. Thankfully, I fought it off to enjoy the car for many years to come! She was completely standard when I bought her, two pervious owners and 105k miles on the clock. She drove perfectly, was unbelievably quiet, and I fell instantly in love. Her biggest claim to fame comes from the original owner, one Ukyo Katayama of Formula 1 notoriety. I’ve got a copy of the original log book with his name on it, and can only assume it was some kind of ‘company car’ from the Toyota-Yamaha relationship as he was driving for Tyrell Yamaha at the time. Fast forward to 2017 and 150,000miles, and following advisories on previous MOTs of increasing corrosion on the underbody, I put my hand through the offside sill whilst refurbishing the front brakes. Bugger. I’d been looking for somewhere to get the bodywork properly sorted for some time, after having a fairly disastrous ‘respray’ (read: blowover) in 2014 from a self-proclaimed ‘expert’. Stone chips around the windscreen had started to take hold, there was corrosion on the boot lid, and lacquer was starting to lift on the edges of the roof. This, all on top of the condition the underneath was in. A mate from work suggested a close friend of his, Martin. Having worked for Motorcare in Kent repairing, amongst others, high-end supercars, and also for Eagle, spraying their several hundred thousand pound restored and enhanced E-types, he seemed like the man for the job. Decent credentials, you have to admit. The spanner in the works was that he had since moved to Scotland to head up a race and restoration workshop near Edinburgh. Thankfully the workshop is owned by a parent company who deal with car transportation on a large scale, and therefore getting the car there and back could be arranged. After some discussion, a bucket-load of photos of all angles of the car, and a quick meeting whilst Martin was in Kent visiting family, arrangements were made for the car to be collected in May 2017. If I said I wasn’t terrified at the prospect of sending my pride and joy on a truck to somebody I barely knew at the other end of the country, I’d definitely be lying! With my heart in my stomach, I waved goodbye to her all by herself on the back of an articulated transporter, heading for bonny Scotland to finally get properly sorted. As soon as she arrived at his workshop, I got a text from Martin laughing at it being the wrong colour. The previous ‘expert’ had claimed it was darker than before because the paint had faded, apparently this wasn’t true, he’d just sprayed it the wrong shade. Goodness knows how.. Soon, she was next on the list for some attention, starting with a thorough look all over the car to see how bad things were. The answer sadly was; pretty bad. The corrosion was extensive, caused by general wear and tear, ten years living near the sea, and also poor repairs previous to my ownership. The photos arriving to my phone didn’t make pleasant viewing. I talked it through with my wife, as the extent was much worse than expected and therefore the cost of rectifying much higher. Thankfully, I have the most supportive wife in the world who urged me to carry on and get it fixed. In fact, she was more positive than I was, I thought things were too bad and it wasn’t worth it. She just said ‘you’ll regret it if you don’t!’. With that decided, the next question was how to approach it. Inner and outer sills on both sides were scrap, the arches were corroded, the panels behind the bumper also in very poor condition. I was aware that both front wings weren’t great, one had seen minor damage before I bought the car, and the other since I’d bought the car. Thankfully Toyota still sold front wings, and for a surprisingly reasonable price (you won’t hear that too often!), so two new wings had gone with the car. Pretty much every other body panel apart from the outer sills are no longer stocked, and the outer sills available didn’t cover the full length of corrosion. Given the costs Toyota had listed for some of the panels, I was almost glad they weren’t in stock! I looked around for a shell that parts could be removed from, but the cost was prohibitive, even without transporting to Scotland, thanks to the ‘buoyant’ used parts market for Supras. I discussed it with Martin and we decided it would be just as cost effective for him to fabricate new panels, so he got going doing just that. Exceptions here were a bootlid sourced from Ray (Radio on here), and a rear crash bar from Mike (Mike2JZ on here) – thanks both for trouble-free sales, especially Ray’s thoroughness of even sending a photo of the bootlid packaged up in the back of the Parcel Force van! Before long things were well underway, Martin keeping me up to date with a stream of photos of the work, cutting away, making new bits, and welding it all back together. Wings, spoiler and bonnet were sprayed off the car and were looking great in the photos. One exception was the front bumper that had received extensive damage in the past and wasn’t really fit for going back on. Another panel that Toyota no longer make, standard bumpers are hard to get, especially UK-spec. I spent a couple of months trying to find one without much luck, thinking that even a Jap-spec could have the headlight washer holes cut out to do the job TBC..

I thought the new Supra was going to be based on the new 8-series, not the Z4?

They're only about £150 new from Toyota, I bought a couple a few months ago, surprisingly cheap!

Bump

Hi Keron - sorry I forgot to edit the top post as I've found a crash bar. Still on the lookout for a front bumper though!

Bump..

BUMP - Still looking for a front bumper..

Hi, I'm looking for a front bumper, ideally want a UK bumper but realise they're even more like rocking horse poo than a J-Spec, so a J-Spec would do. Cheers, Mark.

Hi, I'm after either a bare shell or a front-damaged breaker to get a number of body parts for a restoration project. Must have undamaged and rust-free sills, floors, rear quarters and rear panel. Thanks, Mark.

Hi, Looking for a bootlid in good condition, preferably in red but will be getting sprayed. I need to get it to near edinburgh, Scotland where my car is having a lot of work done so ideally something located near to there or willing to package and courier. Only the metal bootlid is required, not the glass and hinges etc. as it is to replace a very rusty bootlid! Many thanks, Mark.

Hi Jonny, skin behind the side skirt and up to the lip joining to the floor pan. Mine have holes and the lip is in a bad state, I'd need them pretty much up to the front wheel arch? Any chance you can get some pics and let me know a price please? Cheers,

Hi, What's the condition of the outer sills, front to back?

Hi Parm, Do you have the bolts etc. that go with these (especially the rears)? Cheers, Mark.

Time for me to look sheepish.. I decided to take Keron's advice and check out the plugs and wires behind the ignition barrel so I took out the bottom of the dash and the kick panel, revealing another fuse box I wasn't aware of.. I'm sure you know where this is going! I got on my back with a multimeter and checked each of the fuses until I got to the very last one, a naughty little 7.5A IGN fuse that had blown out. Car is now running fine again A huge thanks to everybody who offered suggestions, and apologies for my stupidity!

How do I go about bypassing the immobiliser? I'm guessing it's not that easy, as that's the whole point of it?

Ok, I've now checked all the fuses and the relays and all are ok. There's power to the fuse box but the EFI relays aren't activating so that leads me to think either the ignition barrel or the immobiliser are at fault. When I put the ignition on I am getting the full range of dash lights though, so I'm assuming this is ok. Seems like it can only be the immobiliser, and it would be fair to assume that the EFI feeds were wired in to this?

Thanks for the reply, I've only just had a chance to look at the car. I've checked on the diagnostics port so far, nothing at B+. With the ignition on there is 14V at Tc (though only 11.5V at the battery?) and 11V at OP2.

Hi, My car died on the way home from JAE yesterday, the engine just cut out whilst driving along and wouldn't restart. There appears to be a lack of ignition power as my boost controller isn't powering up and my AFR gauge, although powering up, is not going in to run mode. I am getting a full set of dash lights and the engine will turn over. This is is how it normally goes if the immobiliser has not been disabled but the light is going out as normal. I've checked all fuses, my thoughts are going towards a faulty relay or immobiliser. Can anybody offer any advice please? The immobiliser is an Autowatch, I've no idea of model. Cheers, Mark.

The car isn't worth bugger all though Cheers for the help guys!

I had started thinking starter motor. Is there a way to test it? I guess not?

Ok, tried a jump lead between the neg and the lift hook and still the same, checked the voltage drop at the same time. It drops to a minimum of 11.5V and that's just after the glow plugs have warmed otherwise it doesn't drop below 12V. I've put the Passat battery on there and tried that but that wouldn't start it either, it just gently 'clunks' the starter motor. Not sure if it would start it though as it's only a 50Ah battery?

Haha, dare I ask why? The guy I spoke to was a knob, I had to leave before I told him where to stick his tester It's a 70Ah battery which should be enough? I'll try the jump lead trick and see if that helps. If it fits I'll swap the battery with the one in my Passat TDi and see how they both get on. Their "very expensive" battery tester showed it had more CCA than it's rated at and it's got a steady 12.8V sitting there.