rider

Miffed with my Audi A3 run around car for various niggles went to a Wolverhampton big ex-fleet car dealer yesterday and parted with £10k plus the Audi for a Mercedes C220 AMG which I'll be picking up in a day or two when the bank finally passes over the money. Elected for the diesel 170bhp variant in the end which is rapid enough and is supposed to return 50mpg+. Never having owned a Mercedes before, I decided it was time to finally got one now I'm old enough to enjoy it. If this one works well I may well be tempted to look at a C or an E63 for my when I'm even older non run about car. Got that big pension lump sum to get rid of in a few years time to think about.

A rare sight these days. Plastic and gauge pods not to my taste but might appeal to many (£20k). http://www.locateacaruk.co.uk/used-cars/toyota-supra-3-0-3dr-lichfield-201704274864475

Keron or Whifbitz will probably be your only hope of a part next day delivery.

I have a white car so I wanted to make the wheels darker. I elected for the two stage BMW shadow chrome (black base, silver coat) and the caps are slightly darker then the rest of the wheel. I have linked a picture, copyright Jake showing the fully painted wheel in a slightly darker slightly reflective chromed silver. You'll see the centre cap (not the ring around the cap) is quite a bit darker than the rest of the wheel. I prefer that colour over the original silver but that's probably purely because the wheels are on a light coloured car. http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=215694&d=1479225807

They are the same BBS alloys my Supra has been running for almost two decades. First thing is take care of the centre caps. There are three parts to those and the plastic will be brittle so tyre change numpties need to be told to handle with care. You cannot get replacements except for very occasionally the centres (20+ year old ones) will come up on the US eBay. When I bought my car in 1999 the wheels had a polished lip. These get ugly black stain corroded with time especially with water getting under the lacquer around the valve. I've had my wheels refurbed twice in 18 years. First time I had them diamond cut and polished back to where they were when I bought the car. Second time gave up on the polished lip and had the whole wheel powder coated. If you want to be getting the wheels done every 5 years or so then go for the diamond cut, otherwise its a lot less maintenance to get them powder coated. Had mine done must be 8 years ago now and still good. If you use surfactant chemicals to treat/protect the aluminium rather than lacquer you'll be needing to re-apply on a very regular basis. It also wouldn't look as polished as a shiny lacquer appearance would. I'd go with the recommendation you have been given, its cheaper too.

That's the SZ kit!

I think the original trophy blue was a 60's GM creation. Looking at the engine bay I'd guess the original colour was silver.

I'll buy it for £12k, will tomorrow be soon enough?

I just insured my 96 with similar distance covered for £24k on agreed value. That's what TT6 imports from Japan are costing these days. Insurance should always be the replacement cost, not the actual retail value.

I elected to go for SNR bearings. Not the most expensive but they have a very good reputation and not the cheapest either. Euro car parts sell them at a competitive price. The front kit part number is R169.52.

I use ToWeb. Really cheap and really good. Even for commercial sites. I used to use very expensive Dreamweaver software but ToWeb is really easy plug and play by comparison.

The shut lines look good on the tailgate but the edge to the right rear wing doesn't line up as it should. If you dont know the history of the car check the weld seam alongside each hinge which could well identify if the rear panel is factory or has been replaced following an accident. I cannot envisage that adjusting the hinge position will alter the pitch that is raising the tailgate on one side relative to the other unless you remove and shim the nearside hinge.

There does seem to be a lot more of someone told me its too cheap, so OK lets hike it then. I don't see a problem with it ahead of people making offers. Its when offers have been made and the oops I have reconsidered and decided it was to cheap after people have taken up the offer price that things aren't quite as they should be. Lots of people appear to have moved on from their word and commitment to its not a deal until cash swaps hands. Maybe the Super Mods need to get together and start looking into locking OP messages and making price changes only possible through new threads. That way any changes will be and remain on public record. The classifieds are a feeding frenzy these days and with a frenzy comes gazumping and backtracking. Thats only going to get worse if the cars become more valuable and OE parts become harder to get hold of. Trouble is you don't see many mods on here these days. Maybe the mod crew needs to be overhauled as well.

There is a 3.5" Veilside Ti Teardrop exhaust on eBay at the moment.

Quotes in for so far for £24k agreed value. Adrian Flux £192 Lancaster £231 Footman £241 LV £313 I won't be renewing with LV. Still awaiting Hegarty quote. May well go for the Footman as the insurer is Ageas who have a good customer service reputation.

I had the garage replace the dust shields and bearings on both front wheels seeing they were original ones on the car. Turns out the original, 21 year old, bearings had a fair amount of corrosion inside. Car is much quieter on the open road now with the new bearings. Going to have the back two changed next year, figuring all four on new bearings will either see the car through my lifetime of my life with the car. Also had new tailgate struts fitted as the old, again original ones would drop the tailgate at the slightest hint of wind. Car sailed through the MOT as expected. Mechanic did say the bearings were a pig, bitch, pain to swap out so glad I didn't decide to tackle that job myself. PS - Jake gave me an old set of struts to send off the SGS Engineering for refurb. So, if anyone else needs to replace theirs and wants a set ready to fit before removing their own let me know and they can have my old ones sent to them or direct to SGS. Only proviso being they then make their old ones available to others at no cost (except postage).

I always evaluate an insurer not on their price but on their customer service when you need to make a claim. I'd be happy paying a premium price to know any claim is dealt with fairly, quickly and without fuss. I went LV, not the absolute cheapest but they come number one in customers satisfaction surveys and they turn out some highly competitive prices to. You only know how good your insurance is, when you come to use it.

This is why people need to move to agreed value on Supras ASAP. There is an aero on eBay for £20k at the moment. Send them a copy of that ad to get them thinking. I'd venture they aren't going to know the brand sufficiently well to tell what adds value and what doesn't. But, if they are running the rule over book prices you'll probably be fighting up from £4k.

The last time I saw one of these advertised was on eBay Australia about 9 months ago. Unless one pops up from your request you'd be best lodging a forward order with the regular car breakers to get one in the pipeline. Stock air boxes, like gold dust. So are stock steering wheels. So are becoming stock road wheels. Already hard to track down, they are all going to be worth a little ransom in years to come.

You'd have to grab a bigger bag of cash.

I'm not sure the colour will be mainstream which could enhance the value to some and detract for everyone else.

If you are referring to the big red blob in the middle of the dial, have you checked that the brake fluid level is not low?

Even though Supra prices are on the rise I recon for £18k, even today, potential buyers expect pretty much everything working as it should and bodywork looking great. Parts like ABS sensors, Toyota only had one remaining (from 4) in stock last time I asked 4 months ago. You can't get boot plastic anymore either. So things not working or missing are increasingly going to create headaches or live with it for any new owners. I don't think its just me, but for around £20k I'd expect a all round intact and totally sorted car. Why not buy in a cheap NA and replacing your missing parts to get together a complete car. Then you'd probably rock your £18k asking price and either sell on or break the NA for extra cash back.

Just to add to some of the earlier comments. The Max ATF is purely for auto boxes. its a synthetic upgrade to a lot of the older mineral oil ATF's used in big American cars of the 60's. Synchromax, the hint is in the name is for manual gears in gearboxes that specify ATF fluids. ATF was introduced into manual boxes largely as a fuel efficiency measure over historic mono grade and later thicker (than ATF) multi-grade mineral and synthetic gear oils.

Is the hotel room booking for a double or twin. I could ask a mate if he fancies a run down to Germany but, although he is my mate, I wouldn't really want to share a bed with him. He is a mechanic so the handy kind to have around. Still wouldn't want to sleep with him though.