rider

I have a very nice set of 16" wheels I have available.

I cannot see anyone throwing away the wheels and keeping the centre caps, hope I'm proved wrong. I think the 16" and 17" rims have different sized caps so may be useful to advise which set of wheels you are looking at for the caps?

Where pristine ones go, the rest tend to follow. There was a stock 14k miler listed at auction in the US this year with a sales price of $125k which reportedly got a bid of $95k. The £50k Supra is already here, in pristine form in the USA and Japan. I expect they will be somewhere else, price wise by 2025, way beyond £50k.

The cars will be at or around £50k by 2025 so £20k has the potential for a nice investment. For those not into selling it just means more expensive parts and more expensive insurance cover.

PM'd back

I've just bought today a HKS Hi Power Racing from a former trader on here who gave a helpful discount which is road legal with the removal baffle in place. There was a bill that didn't make the second reading this Spring in Parliament due to it falling due when the election was called but that was suggesting legislation that no exhaust noise should be louder than the OE setup. It was draft legislation so made no mention of whether there would be an age limit on vehicles covered by such a law were it to come to pass. If it ever did become law. It'd make sense to have a vehicle age limit seeing OE exhausts tend to no longer be an option after 15 or so years but the legislation is dropped anyway, for the time being. I did look at Tanabe myself and comparing to new US prices the system on here seems expensive second hand. I remember when old exhausts were, at one time, scrap exhausts.

You should not need to replace a hub at the same time as a bearing unless you've been driving around on a trashed bearing and its scored the hub. The bigger question with bearing replacement is whether to do it with the ABS sensors in or out.

If you drain the sump then you can stick a usb camera in there and have a look at what you are looking at. If its small then the draining would, you'd imagine, flush the rod to the proximity of the drain hole so you may be able to manoeuvre it to a position where you can tweezer it out.

I threw away my gold bumper badge as it got broken by the repair shop (broke the locator pins) when they replaced the bumper; damaged following a late night badger attack. Since then I've been using the nasty eBay plastic ones where the gold lasts a season or two before peeling off. I've just gone and bought a 90's soarer gold badge from the USA for $26 delivered. I'm sure they are the same part and will post back here when it arrives to confirm or otherwise.

Just to warn people about some potential issues with bespoke exhaust system suppliers. I had the stock exhaust replaced by a bespoke exhaust supplied and fitted by MIJ exhausts 10 years ago. I've removed their exhaust and in the process of reinstating things back to OE. MIJ butchered the exhaust hanger, cutting out the hooks and leaving the redundant base bolted in place. They cut away the heat shield leaving scraps under the bolts remaining and then welder their hanger above where the heat shield once covered. They also cut away the cat pipe protruding coupling locator ring for the crushable gasket and used a flat gasket to their own exhaust joint. None of it is irreparable but none of the changes MIJ made were discussed with me when their exhaust was fitted. The area above where the heat shield would and should have sat has weathered much more than the other side of the car which is protected by the tank down pipe shield. Presumably, Toyota placed a heat shield there for a reason. People should check what changes any bespoke exhaust fitter is intending to make beforehand because most will be like me and not get around to looking at the fittings unless the cars up on a ramp. Maybe MIJ just figure their exhausts will outlast the car and even after 10 years, it was still in great shape.

Anyone got a good condition second catalytic converter sitting around following a decat that they want to move on?

You'd be better pricing individually. I do doubt someone will be looking for all these parts collectively at E325.

Every day is a Supra day. Finished the drive shafts and heat shields. Pleased with the way the drive shafts turned out. Also applied a can of ABRO undercoating spray to all the inner wheel hosing exposed (not under factory protective coating) areas. Stuff smells strongly of fresh tar so its a high bitumen content product. Its very fluid so anything other than a quick pass with the spray turns quickly into a gravity led river. Its dulled the shiny paint down to a mat black bitumen type covering. Instructions do say not to spray anywhere near an exhaust system so its product specifically tailored to providing protection from chips, noise and corrosion in wheel wells. Looks a decent product though and US restoration sites tend to rave about it. Pictures of the drive shafts before and after:

You cannot buy the rear lower arms under the pre-facelift numbers anymore (discontinued). I bought the facelift part number lower arms and they look to me identical in every way to the pre facelift arms. All other pre-facelift parts (front and rear) were available 2 months ago.

IT depends how old you go as the mileage range is higher with newer models than the older original cars. I did ask a mechanic if he knew anyone with a Leaf and he said he did and the guy swore by it. Even the original Leafs were supposed to be good for 65 miles so on a 100 miles per week it should be a shoe in for you but for your longer run you would need a newer one. They were talking about a 200 mile range Leaf last time I looked, don't know if that's on the market yet.

Its any easy process, just fill out forms and send of some money and your current V5 that has the number plate assigned. You'll get a replacement V5 with the cars original number. It is cheaper though to put the number you want to retain onto another car rather than onto a retention. Placing onto another car is a one off payment whereas retention you have to renew and should you fail (or forget) to renew a retention its bye bye number plate. The process when I did it only took a few days.

Esp since MOT advisory was and

Another day and another play. Tackled the drive shafts and the two central heat shields today then washed out the cooler intake rubbers. The rubbers, in the kitchen sink while the wife is out. The mud inside had turned strangely concrete like so took a lot of scrubbing and a fair bit of splashing around. The main item was to start on the drive shafts, masking them up took a good while but I'm OK with that kind of thing. I was going to open up the black POR 15 for the non body bits but seeing there was a third of a tin of silver left I went with that. Using a disposable glove on the tin lid made opening the can straightforward, it would have been near impossible otherwise as POR 15 goes seriously hard when it dries. I love this POR paint, so little goes a long way which makes runs an issue but on shafts rotation and constant brushing stopped that. Did the road side of the 2 central heat shields as well and I'll paint these black (matt) along with the shafts (gloss) in a couple of hours, before the POR 15 paint has fully dried. I'm doing the heat shields matt black only because I have a new shield to fit where the old one was non-existant (made way for the bespoke exhaust hanger) that I added extra layers of paint to a couple of months ago that was matt black. Tomorrow I'll finish the parts up with painting the diff end of the shafts and the body side of the shields. Once the heat shields are done I'll Dinitrol the body side of the three shields before bolting onto the car. I've put back the hubs till the weekend which pushes the bearing and bush fit back a week but figured it'll be best to give the paint time to cure properly before the parts go anywhere near a hydraulic press.

Cannot see how it was a perfect runner is in any way relevant when the car has no running gear. Some sellers write the strangest things. Mind you, a rust free UK shell has got to be a big bonus. I suspect from the box of bolts and 'neatness' of the engine bay with intact loom they have stripped the car and moved the big ticket items on. Looks like it could be the high mileage by the seaside auto that was for sale in N Wales last year.

This car wont be making its way anywhere for a few more weeks yet, the exhaust is going to be the last thing to fit and that is looking like Christmas now if I stick with the Blitz option. I'm expecting once that is added along with other little things yet to crop up to the list of parts the final bill for the rear end overhaul will be over £7k, a little beyond what I was anticipating at the outset. I have started stockpiling parts for a front end revamp so I'm going to be running uncomfortably close to £10k spend. It is a very expensive refurb but all new suspension parts and bushes along with the shocks that were changed under 3,000 miles ago means the car should pretty much ride like a new car. Nothing actually needed changing out but the option we all have on fitting the car with OE replacement parts is a finite window of opportunity to spend lots. The rust work should give it a better chance of staying intact and having your own lift available to keep on top of things makes annual inspections a near pleasure. Is it worth it? I was thinking a few days ago on what impact all this work would have on the cars value and I agree, its not going to add much if anything. My biggest worry is that with all the throwing around on a heavy frame that the ABS leads could have got damaged and I'll have a bright yellow ABS warning light at the end of it all which could, if anything, detractover its pre refurb condition. Its clearly never going to be cost effective for anyone to do this but my hope is it ensures the car has a better than fighting chance of being a survivor for future generations. Its promised to my oldest grandson and he already calls it his car so I need to keep it in a condition he will be proud to own one day.

The original metal gold badges are long gone. The best hope for one of these is to find a Soarer being broken.

Second coat of paint applied today and looking like a shiny black hole under the car. All painting is now completed so I'll give it a couple of days for the paint to cure and then finish it off with the rubberised spray onto the wheel housing where there is no factory protective coating applied or remaining after I tackled the failed parts. I will apply a good layer of Dinitrol spray grease which dries to a resilient film onto the area directly above where the frame sits to give further protection and water repellent to this area that once the frame is installed will no longer be accessible or visible Onto the other parts, the heat shields are sanded and ready for prepping. Today started on the drive shafts getting them sanded down ready for treatment prior to painting over the next couple of days. It'll be onto the hubs as well tomorrow, which have been broken down to the constituent parts of backing plate, bearing housing and knuckle as these need to be finished by Saturday ready for their new bush, new shoes and new bearing fitting. The wheel bearings that were removed were the original ones fitted to the car and both had corrosion on the bearing face so were ready for a change out. Worked out the time involved so far on this project: Me 45 hours Mechanic mate 8 hours Welder 10 hours (including travel time) Total to date approx. 60 man hours Costs to date Bushes, arms, pipes, tank guard, tank straps and fittings Amayama £780 Toyota Oxford £2,880 TCB £450 Other Parts Wheel Bearings £190 Discs £100 Brake pads £120 Handbrake shoes £45 Drop links £60 Sway bar £120 Fuel pump £70 Fuel tank breather pipe (self fabricated) £25 Frame (second hand) £600 Frame prep £220 Materials Paints £140 Chemicals £65 Sanding discs £15 Outside labour Welder £200 Mechanic support (FOC) Total spend so far £6,080, that hurts.

Decided not to do the line swap in the end seeing the brake lines were replaced just over a year ago for copper lines and the fuel lines are all like new except for a very short run where it exits the under car protective ducting where there was slight surface rusting. I've sanded that small section and painted so I'll store the new set of brake and fuel pipes for some other time.

Did the POR 15 painting today on the Supra bodywork. The silver paint does take a lot of stirring as the metallic flake is pretty compacted on the bottom of the tin. POR suggest their paint should be stirred, not shaken; the opposite of 007. I assume this is to avoid air entrapment in the paint as any collapsed bubbles in a paint film would undermine the impervious surface coating that POR 15 is designed to provide. It takes a long time, far longer than I'd envisaged. Took almost 3 hours to double coat the POR 15. Its a very thin paint so a little goes a very long way. I was painting out of a 1 pint tin and still had a third remaining at the end of the paint. I like the POR 15 paint. I gives excellent coverage and being thin finds its way into all the tight places. I'm going to leave it for a couple of hours more, to let it get tacky then I'll apply an acrylic top coat. The recommendation from users is to wait till dry and then use the POR expensive primer or tackle it with paint while the POR layer is still tacky to aid adhesion so I'm going to do the latter. I fished out the bolts and retainer rings for the drive shafts from their overnight soak in POR metal prep and its a big fail as far as I'm concerned for the mPOR metal prep. The POR metal prep did nothing but turn the grey paint black and left the rust spots brown. So the retainers have been treated to a coating in aquasteel.