rider

White tyre names can look cool. I think they look good on one of my cars. It does require a reasonable thickness of tyre wall though, I wouldn't try it on a 40 profile tyre.

Not sure cheaper insurance stands these days. My non-UK original is £220 on classic car insurance. Substantially less if I had it as my main driver.

I found once I'd wire brushed off an old lifted waxoyl coating that the rear sub frame was the most rusted part of the car. It's quite pitted in parts. Gave it a good dose of Aquasteel rust convertor followed by a thick coat of zinc etch primer and two coats of matt black paint. Decided not to re-wax. Not as surgical as your tackling but as good as I could get it with everything in situ. It should keep the rust bug largely at bay and I'll just check it over once a year now I have a lift to hand. Seeing these cars are now 20 year old relics people need to be on top of what's happening underneath.

Is £12k on the money for a 94 TT6 with a Getrag gearbox issue as these things are expensive to buy or repair and also with paint needed? If it sells please post sold as I'd really need to revisit my agreed value insurance level ahead of renewal. Good luck with the sale.

I was planning on a scissor lift but the ground works would have to be extensive to get it sunk to floor level. Also cheap scissors suffer a lot of failures at the pivot points due to not raised sufficiently before engaging the load (there is an HSE report online). The 2 post supplier turned up to survey the site, drilled a pilot hole that found the floor was 7 inch concrete and then sent his team over a few days later who just bolted straight onto the pre existing floor in 2 hours. You can get far better access to the underneath using a 2 post than you ever will from a scissor or 4 post. I'd look to hire a local garage lift if there isn't the required head room in your own buildings. Unless you are short or don't mind crawling around under a mid-rise lift.

I have a good commercial steam cleaner for my plant equipment and cars and may well give it a blast once I've got the prepped parts painted up to see if anything else comes to light. Only thing holding me back is there is no water drainage where the ramp is sited so it'd be a very wet floor. Maybe I'm just being lazy but I'd never go as far as seeking that new look underneath on a 19 year old car, not possible where I live with permanent mud and cow excrement on the roads.

Having bought myself a 2 post lift the first car on it is my Supra. Gratifyingly solid for its age still leaves some preventative measures that without getting up close and personal you'd never see for yourself. A main area for surface rust has been just in front of the rear wheels on the pinch seam and sill. Wire brushed and treated ready from zinc primer and paint. The brake lines look like new except for one area that isn't quite protected by the exhaust heat shield. All the lines have lost their coating protection for a length of around 10cm and are heavily rusted. I'm not doing anything with these as the plan is to swap all lines out for Copper next spring and also fit new flexible hoses at the wheels. Above the rear diff, the boot floor has some very minor rust pitting. That'll be treated, primed and painted. I decided I've got too old now to be rolling around garage floors and having a full height lift as well as giving a new angle on the cars makes inspection a whole lot easier and almost enjoyable. I'd recommend that anyone who has the space and hasn't got one, gets one (£2,000 fitted, 4T) or looks to hire some ramp time from a local garage. I had negotiated £35 a day with my local garage but in the end decided to simply buy one that I can use anytime.

Being a 1993 with cloth seats, if it gets £13k I'm going to have to revisit my agreed value insurance level. Hopefully the OP will post the sale price as that's always useful information for others setting their insurance valuation.

I almost went to the classic car show but didn't quite manage to get there in the end. I don't think the Supra Mk4 quite fits in that environment. Opposite the Imp stand it looks too modern by comparison and its Japanese which probably doesn't fit into the classic classics bracket. As for the condition of the cars it is always more interesting to talk with owners who have taken a car and brought it up to their standard whatever that happens to be and use it rather than parked in a garage protected from specs of dust. The best long chat I ever had with a classic car owner was someone with his series 2 Land Rover that his dad bought new and had been in the family for 50 years. Not a show car by any means but it had a family name, been pictured in many interesting settings and had a host of good stories. That's when you know a man and his machine are in perfect harmony and the machine gives the greatest joy to its owner.

I indulged in having a 2 post car lift installed earlier in the month and used it for the first time today. Having spent the morning clearing the way to the lift my plan was to get the Supra up on it and spend a few weeks fettling underneath. Giving it a good clean. Taking care of the surface rust, treating it and then giving it plenty of coats of zinc primer and black paint. Lifted the car up and the only rust I could find is on the wishbone arms. Thats going to take me maybe half an hour to wire brush down. The car is looking really solid underneath. I'm really pleased in one way but a bit disappointed in another as my Winter project has ended before its even started. There are no oil leaks, no rust absolutely nothing to do.

Two out of the three locating lugs do fit so all you need to do is cut off the third one and all is well. Make sure you buy ballast with the HID.

Anyone wanting the Toyota part numbers for reference they are 68950-19895 and 68960-19585 for the right and left struts. Price in the USA is $320 a pair or in the UK £300 a pair which is a little bit more expensive than importing duty paid from the USA.

Have SGS moved away from the supply your own for refurb that they were a couple of years back? The ideal way to swap out struts is one at a time so you have a bit of support for the heavy tailgate resting on your head which isn't possible if they both have to be sent off for refurb together. You'd definitely need a strong friend or 2 to help out fitting a strut to a strutless tailgate. The missus just wouldn't cut it.

I'd probably go for a US import. If these are the real deal they could be DDP priced around £200 on a 2 day express post and be less if shipped over with other parts on anyone's wish list http://www.suprastore.com/tosumkrehast.html

I contacted SGS a couple of years back and they will only refurb your original struts rather than supply new or do an exchange meaning you have to add your postage cost to their web price. That tailgate is very heavy without any strut assist at all so I never bothered. Their price was high when you consider I bought 2 new ones for my daughters Corsa for £14.

Seeing it was imported in 2009 it should have some traceable UK history. MOT runs out in January and its not currently taxed or SORN.

Why not just ditch the plastic plate and put a registration vinyl on the bumper, under where the Toyota badge would normally sit?

Keron has a few recycled ones for sale on eBay. Give him a call and ask about one with white buttons. I've owned my supra from nearly new and I don't recall the buttons being white white.

I've just purchased a 2 post lift so I can tackle all my cars underneath as well as I can the on top parts. I have noticed the exhaust shields on my Supra are quite corroded. Might post some pictures if there is nothing there that'd give nightmares. There shouldn't be as the only corrosion that ever gets a mention at MOT time is brake pipes and I'm covering that with copper next year along with new hoses.

Its true, they only tend to fail when holed or pulled off on speed humps and bumps.

You can always seek out a farmer or a farmhouse owner with a well aired secure barn or two. I have a 0.4 acre barn that we stored a 280 Brooklands Capri for someone over the winter and it ended up being removed 17years later. The car was fully insured under our buildings insurance so all the owner ever did was SORN it. With a good set of cats on the prowl there was never any rodent problem and we only charged £40 a month. The way Supras are appreciating, you'd be quids in putting it away somewhere, anywhere so I'd recommend asking around.

I have an ancient Ford Mustang on its way over to me that has just landed in the country that has a chromed up engine bay with pulleys, rocker covers and filters. I thought all this polished steel and chrome bling thing was just something the Amercians like to do. I guess you are hoping to get something like this? http://www.supraforums.com/forum/showthread.php?413960-Chrome-Won-t-Get-You-Home...../page4

There is a thread I have seen where someone stripped the belt mechanism and effectively retensioned the spring. Try searching google. Alternatively just buy new belts but then you will lose the date stamp on the belt which is a good way to backup age verify the car. There are also some 'tricks of the trade' applied to frozen belts of a certain age. The simplest is to remove it and put it into a hot tub of soapy water for 15 minutes. If that works then make sure you blow dry it afterwards and lightly talc up the belt

I've spent a small shed load of money with Inchcape Toyota in Oxford over the years but I'm finding its pretty hard to get anything out of them these days. Steve doesn't answer emails and the last three times I have tried to place phone orders there has been no call pickup in parts. On two occassions the receptionist took my info and promised a call back that never materialised. So I've, following the three in a row failed contact, been sourcing from Burrows instead who do tend to answer the phone and respond to email and will offer good discounts that have ranged from 10% to 25% dependent on if its fluids or parts as a price match or if you just ask for one. Its always good to have a couple of 'reliable' sources for bits. Especially when one doesn't seem to be bothered any longer. http://www.burrowstoyotaparts.co.uk/

I'd tend to agree but its possibly a factor in why after 110,000 miles the engine runs sweet and the oil level stays the same as when the engine is filled. Oil is after all one of the cheaper critical components within the engine and if you run a Supra properly, there's no point being cheap about it.