rider

I just bought some front upper and lower arms from TCB. The lowers were £280 each.

Started to focus into some of the detailing for reassembly, the drive shafts are sanded down and prepped ready for prime and paint and got stuck into the drive shaft bolt and retainer rings this morning as the bolt heads and the rings were encrusted in a layer of rust. This part really does take a lot of time but luckily, its a part I enjoy. I spent over 2 hours just on the drive shaft fixings this morning to get them ready for the prep stage. The best way to remove surface rust I have available is immersion bathing in muriatic acid. After 20 minutes in the parts were fished out, water rinsed and wire brushed down then returned for another pickle. This was repeated again and all the surface rust was removed revealing the actual origins of the all encasing rust to be small on the retainers and the bolt heads. The picture shows the bolt retainers after the three time pickle treatment and ready for the next stage which was immersion in the POR 15 metal prep along with the bolt heads. I'll leave them there till probably tomorrow and then get them ready for the final prime and paint. I'm planning on giving the car a day or two to dry out before painting the silver POR 15. There is still a lot left to do on this restoration but I know after I get the underside painted it'll be quick from there with spray can top coats leaving just the diff, drive shafts and hubs to detail before the sockets come out again for the home straight onto frame bolting on of arms, hubs and diff.

Completed the two stage POR 15 chemical prep work over this weekend. First up with the POR 15 cleaner in a 1:1 with hot water as per directions. Sprayed, using a simple 500cc £2 hand spray, over the treatment areas with follow up wetting as per directions to keep the surfaces wet over the next half an hour. Then rinsed off with copious amounts of spring water from a hose. Second day, applied the POR 15 metal prep using a hand spray over the full treatment area followed by wetting for another 45 minutes (directions are for a minimum of 30 minutes) before washing off with a hose. To be critical it didn't look like the POR 15 metal prep did much if anything. What was brown stayed brown when it is supposed to turn black. The directions do say it is a product best applied in ambient exceeding 70F which it certainly wasn't today so maybe it was just to cold to get the etching and conversion chemical reaction underway to any visible degree. So, this afternoon I went over the treatment area again, this time using a paint brush applying aquasteel which is a product I've used a fair amount on my other cars and it does do rust conversion well. So treatment done, it'll be paint on the POR 15 silver next and then top coat in black acrylic and I've ordered in some rubberised spray to finish off the wheel housing areas where I peeled back the factory protected coating. Then it'll be onto the diff, drive shafts and hubs to clean up and paint. Then, finally, it'll be reassembly time.

Must have been taken down as inappropriate car porn.

That is correct, the other side of the wheel housing panels is painted and smooth, all the rust is contained within the exterior facing wheel housing panels and there weren't any holes before I went stabbing with a screwdriver. A simple, quick and easy fix would have been to slap on a cabin side backing of fibreglass via the air intake scoop access and a little bit of filler topped with under seal. If I hadn't have been able to locate a welder I would have had no choice but to do that as a temporary fix. Welder is one hole down and the patch looks very good so I'm feeling much more confident. Only being charged mates rates at £20/hr plus £20 for materials which is a bonus; his normal rate is £50/hr. Making him lunch now to keep him happy.

Welder has turned up as promised this morning which for anyone who knows of Shropshire Time is a big result. I can't bear to watch so left him to it and I'm on to take a cuppa over every hour. Fingers crossed he is good or I'll probably cry. Looking promising for the prep, treat and paint this weekend if he finishes it today. Decided to cut fresh metal into 5 places in the rear wheel housings, 2 holes and 3 areas where the metal is badly pitted and doesn't look like it has got another 20 years in it.

Thats fantastic value for money when you think of all the work that is required to strip down, prepare, treat, finish and rebuild and then the VAT man takes a big slug of the cash. As others say though, unless its a frame off it isn't a proper rust bust. I haven't found any rust behind the tank guard but plenty of established rust hidden from sight above the frame. £1300+VAT for a full monty rust treatment is such great value, it has me wondering why I'm doing it myself.

I'd go with this as well. I had the grooved ring on the bottom crank pulley break up after 18 years. Then you can get belt slip causing the burnt rubber smell and warning lights. You can crank the engine on a socket and bar and feel all away around the crank to check the pulley grooves are there and intact.

Doesn't look like there is any damage from the pics.

Sounds a bit of a stupid rule seeing all cars go out of production and France has a classic car scene run on recycled parts. Did a quick look around and there isn't anything that jumps out as a ban on aftermarket or recycled used parts. If anything, the opposite seems to be in force. Riveting read on the Opinion no. 12-A-21 of 8 October 2012 on competition in the vehicle repair and maintenance sector and the spare parts manufacturing and distribution sector And then there were new French laws introduced in January specifically to promote the use of recycled car parts to reduce carbon footprint. Energy transition for Green Growth with blurb

That's correct, there was rusting as the lifted protection was flaked back. If there is no lift on the edge then it should be safe to assume all is well underneath. As for lights, I think when the new metal is patched in then there will be a light in the distance. Once I can get on with the prep and paint it wont take long to bolt everything back in place.

I've spent over £4k on Mr T parts for the refurb from Toyota Oxford (£2k), Amayama (£1k) and TCB (£1.5k) and its not been a seamless enjoyable buying experience in any way. None are perfect from dropped orders with Amayama to small fill in orders given what seems low priority from the others. Even though the small orders are the small bits you missed following on from pretty big orders or things that crop up as you get into the teardown following pretty big orders. Its inconvenient because when you are into something is when you need the quick turn around to keep progress on track. Sometimes it can take over a week to just get a quote. I think I'm at the end of the buying process, thank god. That'll be it for the Supra as I've got a couple of mechanical things to do on other cars already planned for next year that are going to take the toys budget to the limit.

Both outer wheel housing panels are now holed in areas that were a week ago under the protective coating so its not side dependent. Areas to look at are below and alongside the cooler vent and then where the factory pretection ends which is about 4 inches short of the wheel arch all the way around from the front vent to the rear hockey stick. Check with a strong down light for any sign of a raised shadow on the edge, even if its the slightest shadow the coating then needs pulling off or if you'd prefer, well left alone applying the out of sight principle.

I ordered a long full run of the car fuel pipe from SM at Toyota Oxford. Came with a crush on it so its being replaced. While at that I asked SM to get me the second full run tank to cannister pipe. SM tells me its been curved in transit, presumably to fit an undersized delivery van, would I take it. I said no because these pipes are pretty hard to bend so there is no way back for it. Today SM says, via email, he can bend it by hand will I take it. I'm flabbergasted! I have ordered loads of things in for my Mustang from various US suppliers, some heavy parts, some delicate parts and some odd shaped parts. They have all been well packaged and arrived looking new. So far I've spent over £2k with Toyota Oxford and I've had a bashed fuel tank guard, rusty suspension arms and now being pushed to take bent pipes. Fuk me, whats going on?

Shit a rusty brick, I did say the metal condition behind the hard factory protective layer was worse than the unprotected part and it has proved to be much worse. Sanding the 12 square inches of rust unearthed behind the removed protective coating has shown its got much further to go and its turned into a rapidly developing hole. The picture below shows some unwelcome happenings underneath the protective layer,. The coating has lifted way beyond where the original coating edge has lifted as can be seen from the shadow on the picture. There is a lot more to be chipped away and that hole is fully 11/2 to 3 inches into the protective coating (4 - 8cm for those who don't know inches). You really would never know it was there unless you were on a mission to hunt for rust and get stuck in doing some serious digging, or aggressive stabbing with a flat head screwdriver and sander. Here is a picture of the hole and here is what the same area used to look like before I attacked it. There is no clue whats going on hidden behind the factory protective coating, not even rust stain runs. Gives the welder mate of a mate something to do I guess.

I think you need to bring over more than 6. anyone who has read my refurb thread should be worried about their tank guard and how long before it falls apart only to then discover its becomes another discontinued part. I have given my new guard three extra coats of paint and I'm planning on slapping 1kg of grease on the inside and behind the bumper before it actually goes on the car.

Guy responded to my thread has some. I decided to go for new in the end, they were £65 to give you some idea on cost of new. http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?345316-Wanted-Inner-wing-cooler-vents

Love it when these old threads pop back up. We are more likely to have sheep stolen around here than Supras but way out in the sticks the dogs sound off to any unusual noises and I doubt any strangers would want to come meet the 4 dogs unintroduced.

See if you can persuade Mark to put his black UK as the restored one seeing thats been mag featured and he did an on stands underneath refurb on it recently. He is fairly local to.

I like it, its modern design which probably means it will look really dated in 10 years time. You'd have to want a kit car to strap that much plastic onto a car though so why not just buy a real kit car for the price of that kit?

I have taken a couple of arms off the 110k mile sub frame that I pulled off my car and compared those to the ones that came with the low miler frame that I'm using to swap onto my car. My original hope when I purchased the loaded frame was to simply swap over stock and barrel the frame, hubs and arms that I purchased last year but once I removed the hub it was evident that the arms were in such a poor state that simply wasn't an option. Looking at the arms I have taken off my 110k miler the ball joints are still tight and the bushes take a good amount of force to rock the bolt. Comparing that to my new arms, the ball joint are not just tight they are as they should be and they take a good bit of effort to move and the bushes are also a good bit stiffer than my old arms. Looking at the arms off the swap frame they are plain shot. The ball joints flop around in their sockets and the bushes are like mush. Not sure what this tells me other then the ones on my car were in good shape after 110k miles and that those on the replacement frame either weren't actually off a low miler or had experienced a lot of unusual hard wear. Maybe they came off a everyday track car that had done 200k miles? Good news for owners is that after 110k miles the arms can remain in functionally excellent shape beyond the rust that has taken hold on all but the top control arm, particularly so on the inside face of the hub connection of the solid track arm.

Got all the new arms mated up with the right bolts, cams, washers and nuts ready to fit. I'm going to give it all a wipe over with a greasy rag before fitting and then seal off the bolt heads and protruding threads with a corrosion inhibiting grease so there should be no more rusty nuts and bolts for whoever revisits the arms. That will be straight after fitting when the alignment will be professionally set. Welder showed on time today which is unusual when you operate in what is called Shropshire time. He is going to cut fresh metal into the outer wheel housing panel on the drivers side sometime in the week so its looking like everything is still on plan to prep, treat and paint next weekend.

I'm with the cola and sponge pad on this. If its a 3" cat back I'd potentially be interested to.

The weight should be a give away. PS - someone wrote their stock spoiler was 2.8kg if that helps????

Got the arms sanded, rust treated and bush masked ready for prime and paint and my little helper turned up. The arms are a bit heavy for the painting line I've been using on parts so he wasn't really helping out this time with the full on claws into the masking tape. He's 16 years old now but was a hell of a ratter in his day, fearless, and we have shared many visits to the vet to get bits sewn back up; rats have sharp teeth too. He and his three furry friends keep all rodents out of the barns, there was no signs of any mice visits in a car we stored for someone for 18 years. I'll need to divert him with lots of food when I come to spray the POR 15 chemical two stage prep then hopefully he will take himself off somewhere else to sleep it off.