rider

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.

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.