rider

A lot of Supras will have had sill welding by now and rusty tailgates. Unsurprising when they are close to qualifying as vintage cars.

18 years here, you guys are all newbies. Still got the same body kit, the same paint, the same wheels, the same engine, the same transmission, the same interior. The petrol is fairly new.

Why risk £3k on a short engine for the sake of £200 on a critical part? I'd only ever fit genuine Toyota, you can get knock off balancers from eBay sellers for half the price though if you really want to go cheap and take the risk. Chris's price is good, I bought one in from a Toyota dealer the USA for less but that took over 2 weeks to deliver and I had shitty Parcelforce pratting around import duty payment before they would onward deliver which accounted for half the time to deliver.

Get quotes from Hegerty and Chaucer who are two of the main classics insurers that both have excellent customer service reviews. I have the three cars on a multi car classic policy with Hegerty and the Supra on a separate classic car policy with Chaucer, all on agreed value.

Its a 30 year rule so definitely doesn't apply to Mk4 Supras just yet but its worth noting for anyone thinking of importing an older cars as the lower rate of VAT and Duty can make many £000's difference.

You have got a few things out of order there. All taxes need to be paid before collection from a bonded warehouse. The freight forwarder should have filed the necessary HMRC forms for you. I imported a '65 Ford Mustang last year. http://www.mocgb.net/forums/showthread.php?70186-New-65-Fastback-Just-Imported/page2 If you go onto the Mustang forum the import section has lots of information on the process and how to conduct the V55 UK registration. Just make sure you select the date range on posts to a year to get a large list of posts to read. You do need lots of form filling C384 customs release Historic Vehicle request form (essential for lower VAT and Duty payment on vintage vehicle - soon enough will apply to Supra Mk4's) If the HMRC agree a historic class they will issue a C386 You don't need insurance to pick up the car as you won't be driving it unless on trade plates which carry their own insurance. Insurance is advisory though to cover damage and theft of the vehicle. Some insurers only give you 30 days to insure on the VIN before it has to be UK road registered. That can be a tough time limit since you have to get the car through its MOT then file a V55 with all the required docs and have DVLA issue a registration number. So check with your insurer if there is a VIN time limit. Everything else is covered on the Mustang forum imports section in lots of detail. Its an easy process if you get it right, it can be very expensive if you get it wrong. Getting the HMRC to agree to a historical vehicle tax class on a vintage vehicle (which the Supra Mk4 will soon classify as) is absolutely crucial to the costs.

A year on I'm going to be increasing the agreed value on the insurance from £12k to £16k to take account of the strong rise in prices for TT6's that has continued over the last 12 months. I'll post what the new premium is when I have the insurance arranged. Also of note is that it is uneconomical to add the Supra to a multi car classic policy. So its going to remain on a stand alone 3,000 mile limit policy.

Don't think people tend to have these knocking around. Second hand people are asking £4k for these boxes. New they are around £6k so its getting a tough call which way to go. Probably its best to buy a car as a donor and strip/sell the other parts. As a post script for anyone interested in a new Getrag box the lowest price, excluding freight I've located in under £5k inclusive of VAT. Never used this company but they have been going 3 years and have a growing credit balance and rating so appear to be an OK outfit. Think I'd go for a new option rather than spend £3k+ on a well used example. http://www.importcarparts.co.uk/parts-info.asp?id=10550

The SARD k27 turbo conversion was being talked about around 8 years ago so it's likely to have a few miles behind it which is a positive in many ways as it shows its a good reliable fitment. It wasn't one of the big bhp conversions but it wasn't one of the cheapest bolt ons either. I'm surprised they haven't mentioned what the bhp is. May be 400bhp, maybe 450bhp could be 500bhp? I'd ask for a dyno run anyway just to know all is well and what your are looking at, for insurance purposes if nothing else. If its a genuine car then I'd be happy enough that its a reasonable price as top standard TT6s are now nudging that level and original UK spec cars are at or above that level. If you google the kit then you'll hit some Supra forum links from around that era. if it is the car linked above I do wonder though why anyone would take promo pictures of a black car in the wet. There is nothing like a bit of water to make a black car look its best. ultimately, I believe the most valuable Supras down the road will revert to stock to maximise their value so whatever is on that VIN plate will affect its long term investment potential. If its just to buy and drive then that isn't probably going to be an important consideration.

From the VIN plate http://mkiv.supras.org.nz/specs.htm

You may want to include other key information such as is it an auto or manual. If a manual was it a factory manual or an auto conversion. Is it a TT to single conversion or a n/a to single conversion. All these will impact the value for the vehicle along with normal things like HPI clear.

Does anyone know what the original tyre size was for the factory 16 inch rims to confirm if 225/50R16 is correct as the out of the factory size?

Is £51 OK for 7 rims and 6 caps?

Chris, I believe you are somewhere close to Prees. I'm going to see a mate of mine up in Whitchurch who is in the motor trade in a couple of hours if you PM your address I could pop in quickly to say hi and have a quick look at what you do there.

I just bought 7 X 16 inch rims including 6 centre caps off eBay for £51. Not seen them yet as a relative local to the seller picked them up for me but I should be able to get a good 4 set out of those and its an absolute bargain. I actually think in about 10 years time they will add £thousands to the value of the car which happens to be a totally original parts Supra at the moment, except for running on BBS alloys. After 18 years of ownership I'm going to be holding out a few more years for that really big ticket value I can see coming and I think the OE wheels are a key element to the package. I've been after a set for years but this lot came up at more than the right price.

As the Supra enters the vintage car era the historic value which usually translates into money value is invariably driven by originality. Of parts and to the specification as the car left the factory in terms of matching number mechanical components, original trim and factory colour. I'd venture when all the modified Supras have been mangled or scrapped the last few examples will all be original specification cars attracting big money. That'll be really serious money. One thing that is going to be really hard to find in the future, its getting hard now, is those cast off 16 and 17 inch factory alloy wheels. These will be key to the factory look and I recon people need to grab some while they still can before its too late if they view their Supra as a collectable classic.

From another forum - nothing to do with me just supplied for info. You need to pull down the plastic ring around the base of the shift knob, that should reveal a set of Phillips head screws which needs to be removed. Once they are undone, you should be able to remove the auto shift knob. Just watch out when you are pulling it upwards as the OD button will still be wired up and you may need to cut the wires to get the knob off completely.

Got myself a couple of quarts of Royal Purple Synchromax and drained the gearbox. I wonder if it stains the parts purple at all seeing it resembles blueberry juice? After squeezing in almost both bottles up a length of fish tank hose I had a bad case of palm cramp. I'm going to have to buy myself a 12V peristaltic pump sometime.

I've never regretted selling any car, but then I've never sold my supra

I used EBC replacement discs (non grooved) and red stuff pads. They have been perfect for my use. I spent about £140 from memory and they have performed well. Old discs rattled whereas these don't.

You need a Ballast so if it isn't inbuilt or you haven't plugged it in they won't work. Also, as listy says they need to be wired in to the correct polarity.

I don't think the OE units had codes, at least not as far back as 1996. My j-spec that I ran for years because although the radio was no good without a band expander it has the multi CD in the boot. It never required any code entry even after battery disconnect or change. I still have the redundant 2 cassette (4 per cassette from memory) with some CDs in it that I forgot to remove when I changed the original radio that I still have somewhere to. When I sell the car, if I ever do sell it I'll include things like the OE stereo, OE gauges and a set of original wheels so it can get back to stock. I think we will see more and more people looking for stock parts to at least have the stock option which usually means more desirable to the classic market.

I've fortunately only ever seen the oil pressure light come on any car at idle only and its always been the sender unit that's failed. You can pick up new senders for around £8 so I'd start there first rather than buying a gauge to check the actual pressure.

I only ever screw in oil filters one hand tight and they are always easily two hands removed next time. You only need to screw these things down sufficiently so they don't leak and it only takes a little force to seal effectively on the rubber gasket.

Opie Oils usually have good prices on Silkolene PRO grades, I go for the 40 weight myself.