rider

Nothing like bringing an old thread back to life using more modern technology. I just changed my steering fluid using a Sealey vacuum oil extractor that is one of the lazy ones pulling a vacuum off the air compressor rather than the hand pump variety. All in it took 10 minutes to set up and 3 minutes to change the oil and a couple of minutes to get things back together and clean. I drained the reservoir using the extractor and then removed the top return hose. There are several pipes of varying sizes that come with the extractor and one went on the reservoir that I suspended the loose end from one of the bonnet catches. The extractor line went into the removed return line. Then it was a simple case of filling up the reservoir with the new oil (Castrol Transmax) and then switching on the extractor, topping the reservoir as the oil drained. With the clear pipe running off the reservoir return port there was no prospect of draining the reservoir. The oil in the extractor line turned a nice pink after around 750ml, I added most of the remainder to do the near 1l flush. Then I ran the oil down until it was level with the top of the return (visible in the suspended tube). Recoupled the return pipe to the reservoir using my finger as a temporary plug to minimise any spill (I had a towel under the reservoir that did get maybe 2ml of oil on it), then checked the level and it was at the correct cold level. After clearing up I then started engine and did a couple of lock to lock turn and an initial slight hiss quickly gave way to silence. No mess and a really quick job. I like my Sealey pump, very versatile with its 9l capacity.

That looks very facelift to me unless my eyes deceive me.

All insurance companies are doing strange things like the policy cancellation fee, of up to £60 I've read. I sold my Merc towards the end of a policy period and phoned the insurer to ensure there was no auto renewal. I never said I had parted way with the vehicle, to avoid any potential cancellation fees that it is unsure from the small print if it would be recovered by the insurer if it exceeds the residual period credit. The bod on the phone interrogated my for quite a period with 'are you sure you haven't sold it?' and 'is the car still in your possession?'. I declined to answer these irrelevant questions as I merely called to ensure their was no auto renewal. I think insurance has got so competitive these days that every insurer is looking for every creative means to screw every penny out of the customer they can and if they cannot do that with the initial premium it has to be through shoddy service and hefty penalties.

I have heard bad things about the auto gearbox from a higher mileage Q7 owner but that is nothing new or original with ZF boxes of a certain mileage. Happens in all cars that use the ZF particularly 6 gear but also to a lesser extent the 8 speed auto boxes. Although they are factory sealed for life if they have had an oil and filter change at 80k miles they will likely last a lot longer than if they don't. So the word is if you buy a car using a ZF auto transmission change the oil if it approaching or over 80k miles even if the previous owner says its been done. Only costs about £150 in oil, gasket and filter.

There is a set in Ireland offered for £400. I'll check my shelves over the weekend and if I have two sets I'll send you a PM with offer on one that will be much closer to what i paid for them than £400. These used to be pretty much give away when everyone was desperate to fit the facelift lights, how things have changed in but only a few years.

That write up is getting a bit old now, hopefully someone can give an fresh update on their phone and email journey sometime. The thing I especially like about Hagerty is they work with you based upon your own circumstance. My policy states that the cars I have must be garaged overnight when at home, obviously not if you are away visiting or on holiday with the car. I have more cars than garage space so they worked with Hiscox (the underwriter) to have a formal agreement that my covered and walled barn is a suitable overnight storage location. That is important as I have my ramp and tools in the barn so the cars can spend days or even weeks in there on or at the ramp. They also work with you on agreed values, none of this third party evaluation required. I just put forward pictures and detail why I think each of my cars is worth whatever and they have always accepted my desired valuation as the insurance agreed value, which comes down to what money I'd be happy to accept should the cars be a total loss or stolen. They are a company that seem to know their cars and more especially, know their customers. They always say you never really know how good an insurer or broker is until you need to make a claim and i have never made a claim through Hagerty, so I just place my faith in their generally very good online revues in that regard.

There are over 140 alloy grades of aluminium. These have been developed to give the best possible characteristics in a enormously wide variety of applications from decorative picture frames and strips through the aircraft fuselages. You seem unaware but these are not one and the same materials, they have been designed and then adapted with exhaustive application testing to give best results in their environment. So your decorative aluminium doesn't need to withstand any kind of stresses it just needs to look nice and look good; polish up nicely. Your fuselage alloy needs to be high strength, light weight and low corrosion. Onto crash bars, these need to be high strength and low corrosion. They also need to be deformable in the instance of an accident to lessen the force of impact on the vehicle and also the body hit. You can stretch a 7xxx grade alloy fully a third more before it'll crack than a 1xxx grade. That is kind of important if deformation is a key property and it is in crash bars. So, if you are making crash bars just like Toyota then you do maybe need to think which one of the 140 commercial alloys out there do I go for, the pretty one you can polish up nicely or the high strength deformable one? I'd suggest the logical solution would be to copy the Toyota choice if you want to be just like Toyota. Its what I would do, use the very same alloy material. That kind of takes the pin a tail guesswork out of it. Anyone who commercially retails has to be able stand behind and to support their claims, in a court of law if required.

That's a good result though must be a little sad to see something you've put a lot of work into disappear down the road. Seeing the buyer did travel a way did you get the asking price? I sold a piece of plant last week to a pair that drove 200 miles to 'look it over' and smiled when they started to negotiate the price knowing that anyone who travelled that far isn't going home empty handed. Although I smiled I did give them fuel money off seeing they were really nice people and I was asking quite a bit more than I paid for it. Maybe a smaller project next time? There is some good money to be had and hours of fun in old camper restorations if you are any good with upholstery and carpentry. I can see it now.

Crash bars are important safety equipment, for the car occupants, the car structure and also what is hit. They are formed from a specific alloy that is selected for its strength and corrosion resistance (used primarily in aviation and motor industries), it's not your average sheet off the shelf. People don't have a clue about the potential implications of untested safety equipment in cars. The industry deformation test has 100kg impacted at 16kmph. Now that isn't difficult to work out that its assessing a human impact and the damage a crash bar will do to a human body or legs. So, if your fabricated crash bar ends up taking out someone's legs because it is too stiff, or cracks and cuts away under the force of the impact you can imagine where that may end up. I'm sure no one would want to see that.

People should get some legal advice to look into the ramification of commercially supplying untested safety equipment. Probably adding a disclaimer along the lines of 'not for road use, for show purposes only' would cover you against any possible litigious action.

A quick read around the subject it seems beyond the actual physical design the composition of the 'aluminium metal matrix composite' (sounds complex) is critical in car crash boxes to give it the deformation properties over say buckling, cracking or tearing in a crash situation. So it is critical to use the correct grade metal, aluminium comes in so many guises from alloys to varying silicon levels.

This thread won't read as a flowing conversation because the comments were all replies to a thread started by another member on the titled subject. That thread was 'tidied' up at the request of the OP which meant the technical content discussed was in danger of being lost which some of us felt would have removed, forever, information that is useful for anyone attempting to fabricate front crash bars either for their own use or as a commercial operation. Is it really that simple to fabricate a crash bar? I would have though they have to be crash tested to a deformation specification under a given load so that they absorb the force of the impact preventing frame damage below a specified force of impact or reducing the damage above the specified force of impact. Otherwise just about any RSJ would suffice.

If you are staying in Shrewsbury I'd recommend the Albrighton Hussey that is located just to the North of Shrewsbury as somewhere that'd be a safe place to have the cars parked overnight. Its only a short taxi run into Shrewsbury if you want to do a few pints and curry in the centre. https://www.albrighthussey.co.uk/

I was quoted £349+VAT from Toyota last year and bought one from TCB for £148+VAT that is still in the boot of my Supra awaiting fitting.

Hopefully they are Supra specific as the front badge is a good amount smaller than other vehicle model Toyota bull horn badges. When I was looking to source a badge set i bought many too large Supra badges along the way. Seeing the badges are all plastic these days if you find it is oversized its an easy snip to remove any locators, the only problem comes if the badge is too big you may find it hard to centre it and completely cover the original badge holes.

Those plastic caps (actually I think they were squeeze open metal clasps) were for the original emblems that has two prongs for the front and three for the rear Toyota bull horn badges. Those badges, in chrome and gold disappeared a long time ago to be replaced by stick on plastic efforts. I've spend £hundreds on sourcing gold badges (the original pronged variety) ready for if my car ever has fresh paint. These are near impossible to find now, hence my spending £250 on one NOS gold badge and £100 for another in 2016. So it's spend a fortune or just go for the £15 or so black, chrome, grey sticky backed plastic badges or more rarely these days the gold stick on efforts. Buy a few if you can as they don't weather well and need changing every few years as they can wear and fade quite badly. Toyota haven't sold the original pronged badges for around 10 years.

It has got a lot harder to find interested suppliers over the last few years. I've had emails ignored by suppliers that I've spent £thousands with. Note the plural. It probably comes down to falling supply of parts meaning people have to work harder to track the parts down and when they do, prices probably put a lot of punters off; delivering f all for all the leg work put in. Supra parts are no longer the low lying fruit with easy pickings and profits to be had so sellers are probably focussed elsewhere with some nice juicy low lying fruit hanging out ready to be reaped.

That's the last thing you want to do when the bolts slide out like they have been freshly oiled after a bit of heat.

You could try these guys that are still showing as available which does surprise me so long after its been discontinued so best run a parts enquiry before ordering and doing a payment. https://parts.toyotaoffortworth.com/p/Toyota_1993_Previa/Heat-shield-INSULATOR--MAIN-MUFF/51546640/5832814010.html

No, the massive one just in front of the hanger. 58328-14010 Sits in white bit. The Main heat shield as its termed by Toyota.

They are the side ones you need to cut away and then heat to get the bolts out.

Did you manage to get a rear heatshield before they were no longer with us? I think I got one of the very last ones in 2017.

If you are on about the side cushions they are araldite in at the factory so you'll need to cut away the old ones and then heat with preferably a small gas torch the top of the bolt to soften the araldite. Once its soft they come straight out. The bottom cushions aren't glued in so should be easy enough to remove/replace.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel for Some A80 Supra owners from 2033. That's not really that far ahead. "the ULEZ charge doesn’t apply to any road vehicle that was registered before January 1, 1973. You can also apply for exemption from the ULEZ if your vehicle was built more than 40 years ago," You are exempt if your car is a licenced London Taxi. Not going to work for a Supra. Other exemptions relate to public service vehicles, again not a Supra thing, and suitably new clean running petrol and electric vehicles, again not a Supra thing. So all London owners, best park up until the car reaches 40 years of age. PS - I'm almost tempted to take my 1965 4.7l Ford Mustang to London just to spread the fumes.

Not many have a low end torque wrench so its finger tight (2Nm) and a 1/4 turn. Best to torque again after a run.