rider

The import duty rate on vehicle parts is 4.5%, VAT is payable on the part price plus freight plus duty. Then you have customs clearance charges applied by Parcel-force or Royal Mail. Couriers tend to include this in their price but if it ships by normal mail, say US Post, then it'll be handled by RM this side. If you can find a car importer who is willing to put your bits inside a car they are importing then you avoid any import duty charges and VAT. Some US car importers will work with you in this regard, but then you need to be willing to wait up to 3 months for your parts.

Thread on US Supra forum it flashes when theres a prob with trac control. ie trac motor not working, butterfly jamming open etc You could take it off and give it a clean up followed by a battery disconnect ECU reset and see if that resolves the problem.

You could just slap a nano rubber pad onto the dash.

The one on PH was around for a good while in the beginning of last year when it was first imported so its not really a recent import, like the ad says it is. It came with a poorly fitted veilside front bumper that just looked all wrong and the owner who was the original importer came on here looking to procure a OEM front bumper. He must have found one because it has one now. It was for sale a year ago for £22k from memory, but thats Supra inflation. It did hang around a long time first time it was for sale so that would suggest all was not perfect with the car, to justify the top of market price. It'd be worthwhile asking if the current owner is the one who brought it in and if they are that would say it didn't actually sell when advertised extensively over a three month period last year. If the current owner bought it last year, you'd be wise to ask why sell so soon after buying. For £26k as advertised or £25k your budget you are at the top of the market and have every right to expect close to perfection so don't entertain anything with a list of bad bits or questionable history for that price.

You can get a very nice manual NA for £8k or £9k and a decent one for a bit less. There looks to be a lot of damage and the collapsed suspension could have sent some serious force through the sub frame and floor panels. Looks like an original silver which has been sprayed black to a budget with plastic on and you'd assume also then with glass in. Due to its popularity at the time silver cars are now probably the least valued colour and that will always be reflected on the VIN plate. You have to be looking at least £2k in new and second second hand parts along with a cheap paint job to get it back together plus your time so if its a hobby project it'll be worthwhile. I would have thought £2.5k could buy it, £3.5k is a lot for a wrecked NA.

If the engine, the running gear (6sp and diff) and interior can be recycled it'd probably be a £8k scrapper (not a great deal more as none of the bodywork is worth a fig) so asking £7.5k means the seller is dreaming or very hopeful. Looks like it was a ragged track car that left the track in an out of control fashion.

You could see if you have any error codes, that'll let you know if its a faulty ABS sensor. If the ECU does say speed sensor fault then you need to unplug the sensors and check there is a resistance across the sensor leads of several thousand ohms to point to which sensor has failed. If there is no resistance or no circuit the sensor or wiring or pickup ring has failed.

If you buy facelift and keep the originals then you have all bases covered and you'll always be able to sell the spare set if you ever sell the car, probably at a profit to.

If you haven't visited your coil packs in a while you may well find the coil loom plugs are very brittle and you'll break a few pulling them off the coil packs. So I'd recommend you get 6 of the plugs in ready to change the lot out while you have the loom wires hanging. Easy enough to swap out, all you need is a very small flat head screwdriver and decent eyesight. You'll also likely find the 'number 7' loom clips trunking the coil pack leads are brittle and crumble when opened so it'd be a good idea to have a few clips spare. Generic will do if you are in a hurry as the Toyota ones took 10 weeks to arrive from Japan when i ordered some a few months ago. When you tackle the top of the engine be prepared for bits of plastic from the coil pack plugs and clips to fall into the spark plug recesses that will need withdrawing before you remove the spark plugs. Space is tight with the plug in place but you don't want bits of plastic falling down plug holes. There is a guide on this site on how to change the stem seals that includes all the part numbers required for tackling that particular job.

I've always found insurance companies totally fair. In any claim its always been dealt with quickly and I've always been left with the car fixed to the standard I required with parts I authorised. In the one instance of a total loss due to theft and non-recovery I wrote a letter to the insurer outlining why my car was excellent in every way and would require an excellent replacement to be equivalent and their assessor agreed with my well above market valuation to achieve this goal. The only caveat being I only ever go with insurance companies who have excellent customer service reviews from media and customers who then are not usually the cheapest quote on offer. As for agreed value being waived in the event of theft, my classic car policies (unless i've missed something in the small print) just have a higher excess for theft. With AF they tend have lots of little add ons so maybe its just another premium they apply to extend the agreed value to a theft total loss scenario.

Maybe some more bad news, their web site is offline. [ATTACH=CONFIG]226716[/ATTACH] Also credit rating withdrawn as annual filing report overdue. A company is allowed 9 months to file accounts after the year end, still not filed 10 months later.

If you can give me a delivered price on the steering column wiper and indicator stalks I'll dibs on that.

Its little consolation but you are not the only one to experience a non functioning unit. There is a thread on here from 2006 reporting a similar problem. No solution offered unfortunately but you could send a speculative email to the OP to see if they still have the same email address and did manage to resolve the problem you are encountering. You won't be able to PM them as the OP is a former member, from Ireland, but there is an email option on their profile which presumably still directs to their registered address. Or maybe you or some people you know, know who they are?

I bought in a full upper and lower OEM set for the front recently from TCB Parts, sitting in boxes ready to be fitted in the Autumn.

If they are stock in good condition there will likely be those with painted dash panels that they would love to swap with you.

When I imported a car from outside of the UK all the DVLA ask for is year of production and then input that into the V5. I gave the date of production as the date of first registration and that got logged into the V5 as 01/01. Yours has been logged as 31/12. Seems without the original bill of sale they go for the start or end of the year on whatever year is logged into the import documentation. I wouldn't bother contacted DVLA, they only input data and collect taxes and aren't particularly bothered about whats on the date of registration. Leave it for the owner to worry about when the cars reach 40 years old and they'll be wanting to get the tax and MOT exempt status as early as possible; that's a while off yet for your car. You can see from the how many left site that some Supras are listed manufactured as late as 2012, which is what will be down on their V5 document.

Run your frame number on the Supra Registry and that'll tell you when the car was manufactured and the factory setup.

Fit the timing belt so the valves hit fully open midway between TDC and BDC? There are videos on shimming with 2 thou increment shims with the head on after the cams are removed then reinstalled and rechecked. I was going to use as reference when I remove my cams later this month, obviously its using standard cams because no interference issues there with cam rotation

I was looking at Jap stock 2 months back and all seemed to have come fly with me wings and scoop the nearest whale front bumpers. Prices are going up much faster in Japan than here ATM so its getting rare to see fresh imports especially through the usual importer network unless its to specific order. eBay has a stock fronts surfacing at regular intervals so it'd probably be best for you to save a search on there to catch one when it comes up that suits what you are looking for in the location you'd be willing to travel to. You can get them still from Toyota but they aren't cheap. Great colour.

There are lots of Chinese $8 eBay specials masquerading and selling as £70 to £120 branded pumps. I wrote up this guide on how to work out a fake from a genuine Walbro that may be of use to you.

You can use my indoor 2 post full rise lift if that'd help. Actually, it really would help in this kind of task. To do the job properly you'd need a few days spare and to park yourself up overnight in a local hostelry or rent a cheap Enterprise car to get yourself home each evening. You'll need lots of sandpaper, sanding discs, wire brushes (all sizes). I use Aquasteel rust converter, dinitrol 3125, Zinc primer and then just over paint with POR or standard acrylic. With a smooth paint you'll be able to see quicker when rust returns that if you apply a thick coating. You'd need to decide how far you want to take it, which bits you want to work around and which you'd take off for better access. Side pods, hockey stocks, road wheels and heat shields are probably a minimum to remove but then you need to think tank guard and the ultimate would be sub frame off but then you are into a bit of a project that could run for weeks rather than days.

There was a UK Auto, low mileage though, listed for £29k recently that is no longer listed. So it may have sold. Maybe someone took a copy of that ad they can let you have?

If it were my car I'd be looking for £22k insured value. I had no problems with Lancaster agreeing a value I requested when I was insured with them 3 years ago. Cannot recall if I had to submit recent similar vehicle ads or just pictures. Think it was just pictures.

If it was only a puff of smoke after weeks of standing it likely wouldn't bother me but, a leaking valve cover gasket deep pooling oil into the number 6 spark plug recess does. Having a mechanic matey offering up free time to assist in changing out the stem seals (which really means I'll be assisting him) is an offer I find very difficult to resit. If it was just me, doubtless I'd replace the cover gasket and be more than happy to stop there.