rider

Did the diff prep work yesterday with a wire wheel run over, chemical cleaner and then a coating in aquasteel. I've decided against POR 15 painting the diff because the paint is so thin and the surface so rough it'd just pool, run and drip uncontrollably. So instead doing a zinc primer and top coat repaint. Stuck on what top coat to do, the surface is casting rough so gloss black will probably look not quite right. I'm going to try a satin black first see how that looks and hold the matt black in reserve. One thing about underneath my car, its going to be various shades of blackness. Pictures of the wire wheeled diff, treated diff and as it presently stands, primed diff. While the diff is off I have had the vent valve off, it was stuck closed and a lot of bits came out when it was solvent bathed. Works fine after the clean and reinstalled. I've ordered in some Fuchs Syn 5 for an oil change on the diff so tackled the fill and drain plugs. Both plugs were bitches and took a few pulls on a three foot breaker to break free. Why garages do them so tight only they know, back in finger tight only and no sign of any oil seepage so they don't need to be 100lb/ft. The drain plug oil coating does look very black which is surprising seeing the oil was changed about 5,000 miles ago, or maybe I just paid to have it changed? I wont drain the oil until I'm done with the painting. After the diff is top coat painted, that's it for paint.

You'd think having the only Mkiv Supra in the World running on a galvanised sub frame has to be worth something for the novelty factor if nothing else. Other than that I'm not planning on raising the insurance agreed value above the current £24k level.

Last time I checked the alternator function it was 12.8V standing and 14.0V on idle.

Amayama is a bit like Russian roulette. Sometimes you will ask for a quote, to check parts are available and no quote ever comes through. So you go firm and order instead. They reserve the right to cancel and refund parts they can no longer source. Worst case I had last year was ordering some bushes and padded out the order with a lot of bits I didn't really need to spread the freight costs. Bushes got cancelled and the things I didn't need got shipped as you, unlike Amayama, have no option to cancel. So ended up as expensive freight for parts I didn't really need. People say Japan outlet is much more likely to cancel parts on you than the UAE outlet which I can confirm, I've had much more issues ordering from the Japan Amayama warehouse.

Had the final big ticket item turn up yesterday, a HKS Racing exhaust. Next day delivery, I cancelled my Blitz Nur order with Fensport placed in June as the exhaust has been delayed many times and has only just hit the water with a near to Christmas delivery date. The HKS racing exhaust looks a big exhaust, lets hope its not too noisy for the neighbours! Finished painting up both of the deconstructed hubs and the bearings and new bush are being pressed home on Friday.Started on the differential today which is the final item to prep and paint and that should be finished by Saturday. Then its just the reassembly to do which I have already started with the exhaust hanger and shields. The removed trim is awaiting new fittings, which should land soon having been ordered over 2 weeks ago, before going back onto the car so the end is clearly in sight now. Time involved so far on this project: Me 60 hours Mechanic mate 8 hours Welder 10 hours (including travel time) Total to date approx. 75 man hours (Ed China can rebuild an entire car in less time than that) 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 HKS Exhaust £720 Frame (second hand) £600 Frame prep £220 Materials Paints £140 Chemicals £65 Sanding discs £15 Exhaust putty, gaskets and hangers £30 Outside labour Welder £200 Mechanic support (FOC) Total spend so far £6,830, that still hurts.

Shropshire to Surrey home visits . Get a bed ready for him, that'd be an overnighter.

The diff is a solid heavy lump, I know - I'm getting mine ready for paint at the moment. So nothing in the diff or the frame its attached to is going to creak or groan on lifting a car. Needs checking out though till you are sure everything is there, in the correct place and secure.

That has to be the highest private ad price asked since 1999 for an auto Supra.

Are you sure? I hate to think what Mr T would charge for them but the part number is WCC69336U for reference.

Macs is a facelift cat which is in excellent condition and I can recommend anyone looking for one to go to him first. Unfortunately for me, according to a previous discussion on this site the facelift and pre facelift cats have slightly different angles such that the exhaust heads off pointing to the n/s wheel if I were to fit a facelift 2nd cat; meaning you cannot interchange the parts. So if anyone has a good condition pre-facelift TT 2nd cat sitting around after a decat, do feel free to let me know.

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.