rider

The lips are like hens teeth, rare and damned hard to get. When I had a badger attack my car at 60mph on the A49 at midnight 7 years ago the front bumper had to be replaced (surprisingly little damage beyond a domed bottom run where the badger has disappeared under the car) and the lip had to come from Japan. Took weeks to get it, and that was 7 years ago.

One thing you'll find with the DVLA is they are on a fast turnaround these days, usually within a week. So long as you have an email copy of the NOVA from HMRC, not just a printout but a formal letter confirming all duty and taxes are paid then you are good to go. Assuming you have a MOT certificate to hand. All you need for the DVLA V55 is the MOT, Certificate of Insurance, Bill of Sale and origin title document. Plus a cheque for the road tax, envelope and stamp.

You may have picked the wrong insurer? When I imported an original Ford Mustang from the USA you always know that there could be issues with the NOVA release. So when I arranged insurance I did so on the understanding that the time limited VIN insurance would have its expiry waived should HMRC not release the NOVA in a timely manner. With me there was no problem, the NOVA arrived within 2 weeks. The insurer I used was Hegerty who did the transit insurance, VIN insurance and then onto the registered vehicle insurance. So, if you haven't talked with your insurer with regard to a flexible waiver on the 2 or 4 week limit, you really should.

According to the 'how many left' website half of Supra's of all vintages are now on SORN. As we are in the middle of the summer then you'd have to assume that the SORN figure is at its seasonal lowest. That's a lot of cars being parked up. It probably in many ways reflect my own ownership over 18 years. Originally the only car running 12k miles a year, now one of many cars pushing a few hundred miles a year. Don't think I'll ever SORN it though as cars tend to survive better if they are driven regularly. If you go back a couple of years ago the SORN ratio was more like 1 in 3.

Are you sure you have the correct filter fitted. If the filter is too short for the housing then the screw stem can seat on the valve preventing flow. Saw that on a MGB once.

It makes a big difference. When I first went looing for a Supra Mk4 in 1998 I had a run out in 5. The one I chose was so much more responsive than the other 4. A different beast entirely. It'd push BMW M3's to the side of the Autobahn acceleration wish between 100 and 150mph. I've absolutely no idea what has been done to my car as all looks original. It even has the cats. I did get around to rolling road testing it in 2008 and it was pushing out 330bhp at the drive wheels so would have been around 380-400bhp at the flywheel. My car has been 100% mechanically reliable even though it's now done 110K miles. Still on the same everything bar the normal service items and a clutch (OEM clutch lasted to 108K miles before it started slipping on hard acceleration). The great thing about bpu is you can have it looking stock which means no issues with insurance. I personally wouldn't go single, but that's only because I'm a lover of cars being pretty much as the manufacturer intended. If I wanted that much more power I'd go GTR.

Brasso is cheaper. Costs around £3 for a bottle.

That shit is expensive, just try some factor 40 suntan lotion instead.

That doesn't sound like a drip to me, its going to probably be the exhaust heat shield cooling ticking away. Its a common enough noise particularly when the shields and system are old.

"heavily curbed (previous owner)" I like you felt the need to add the additional information. Points to one careless previous owner. My car is a '96 still with mostly its original paint that is in great condition which maybe shows the benefit of a base colour over metallic and lacquer for longevity.

£88 is way too cheap for 6l of synthetic oil, filters for oil and air plus a set of tipped plugs. The platinum or iridium plugs alone are usually £7 a pop. Oil around £10/l. It just doesn't work out to the correct parts being quoted.

Maybe you could just try cleaning them up seeing you'd be taking the lenses out to replace them anyway. A mechanical rub with Brasso followed by a mechanical polish using a good car wax will restore plastic lenses to near new condition.

This is crazy. When I purchased a car from the USA the money was transferred to a ForEx company and there instantly, they transferred it to the US customer, there instantly. From start to finish took about 30 minutes. Anyone who cannot transfer money properly doesn't deserve to drive a Supra.

That must have been an airborne spin to cause that much damage to the support pillars on the roof. Amazing what can happen at 30mph.

Here is a link to a thread I wrote on my Mustang import from the USA that includes everything paperwork wise at the end of the thread. http://www.mocgb.net/forums/showthread.php?70186-New-65-Fastback-Just-Imported/page2 Actually, there are very few boxes you MUST fill out on the V55.

My ceramics are running well with 110,000 miles of spinning away happily. It probably just comes down to how often the oil has been changed as my car has been tweaked to 335bhp at the drive wheels so they are probably a tad over boosted. These turbos seem to go on and on if treated to good oil, having said that I'm thinking of going hybrid when they do fail.

The reason I've been putting off tackling the struts is that its described as a pig of a job, with seats out, panel off to get access to the retaining nuts. A US forum gives the procedure as: There are 2 bolts on either side of the hatch and 2 nuts on each side where the strut end connects to the body. You'll need to either remove that panel or gently pry it open to get a ratchet in there. How to do, first take the rear seats out, then take the side trunk plastic panels and rear side speaker panels out, then the rear side window panels out, that should give you access to that mounting area. make sure you dont pull too hard on the panels which means, there a bolt there somewhere. this job should take 2~3 hrs if you know your way around the car or 3~5 hrs if your new at it.... it a bitch, I know... There is another remedy that is often employed and that is to bend the rod back toward the tailgate. This has been reported as a semi-permanent fix to degassed struts. Lastly, I did contact SGS Engineering Solutions who do struts. For about £80 plus shipping they will refurbish or exchange your struts. Then need to recover the fixings. The tailgate is one big piece of metal though and the thought of changing both struts without even one strut providing assistance holding it up was too much. Maybe I'll just go bent rod?

If you find anyone selling them at a reasonable price for the pair let me know please. I'm bored with having the tailgate bounce off my head when a breeze happens to go past.

I have an Audi in Audi brilliant black that really does give a great black, I have a L200 that is also black but nowhere near as vibrant as the Audi. Still prefer my Supra brilliant white though.

Its got to be the rubbers need changing again, assuming you did the full set last time and not just the bottom one then you'll know the essential step to get the channel rubbers off. If you didn't change the channel rubbers last time then that'll likely be why the tailgate is rubbing.

I've had my car since '98 and I still love it. Drives great, looks great in its original paint and still puts a smile on my face. Maybe you just need to upgrade to a TT6?

As a Cat D non stock car its got to be a breaker. Maybe Keron would be best to give you a price if you don't want to do the strip down and parcelling up yourself.

Sounds like its acting as a heat pump. That would only usually occur if the refrigerant flow is reversed as the pressure drop on the suction side of the compressor the other side of a capillary or valve is where the liquid refrigerant boils and cools. Does it have a winter heat pump setting on it?

The compressor will cycle not on its own accord but when the pressure within the system attains a certain level. I don't know the specific settings to the Supra but the high pressure cycle on R134a in car air conditioning will be shut off on the compressor around 220psi and then come back on about 170psi if cooling is still required. At a steady state, off, it'll stabilise around 50 - 70psi across the system dependent on the ambient conditions on a properly charged system. The compressor starting and stopping is what it does and is supposed to do.