rider

Not sure how many here own vintage cars and know what makes the classic market tick. With Supras there is enduring interest in how easily modded they are on a small budget and that is good because it means stock is Nirvana either a blank canvas to a modder or as a collectable icon to a purist. The big money cars in the USA and Japan now are all stock items, that is all people need to see to know where future value lies. How many Supra owners are actually in it for the investment though? There is a World of difference between maximising an asset to realising an asset.

If you have a few days free, do come around and show me how its done. I'm not going to change hubs or drive shafts or paint up the diff so its not going to be looking quite as black clean as yours.

I'm planning on standing the frame on its end after I fitted the cross braces this afternoon to aid frame rigidity and will be trying the sledge hammer drop technique again on the rear diff bushes. The front frame bushes when mated up looked to be quite a bit too large for the cups so I'm hoping the rear diff bushes will slip into place as easily.

Whifbitz will never knowingly be the cheapest and with UK brakes Toyota dealers (Burrows on eBay for example) are retailing them 20% cheaper. Second hand rotors and pads has always been a budget market.

PARTS UPDATE Finally had the parts picked up, the arms, bushes and fuel + brake lines. Paid the son in law £100 to go pick them up from Toyota in Oxford in his people carrier as I didn't want to risk the lines to a courier. They still didn't arrive in the best of shapes, the thin brake lines have lots of new curves over the schematic I ordered from, one has 20 curves which I recon is about 10 to many. Fortunately no crushes on the brake lines so I'm hoping they will straighten out when clipped into place. the main fuel line which is made of good gauge metal didn't fare as well with a flat crush on one bend. Its almost impossible to bend by hand so it must have had a major force applied to bend and crush. SM at Toyota Oxford sighed and promised to replace it, this time it'll need to risk a courier journey. SM was unable to locate a source for the RH rear frame and roll bar mounting bush (52205-14020) and the front diff mounts (41654-30010) but fortunately TCB came good with those so I did manage to cobble a full set of arms and bushing for the rear frame from Amayama, Toyota Oxford and TCB. though TCB do deserve particular credit as I pushed onto them the parts the other two couldn't supply. I'm sure there will be more parts I find I need when the original frame comes off and I'll start with TCB first. Tackled the main frame front bushes today with a bit of trepidation if I'm honest. Figured start off with the likely hardest first. I felt a bit guilty afterwards because they went in with commensurate ease. I greased the cups on either side of the frame that holds the bushing and used the side of a 15lb sledgehammer dropped onto the bush from about 30cm. They bounced out a few times until they seated but once seated it only took 5 or 6 gravity drops on the sledgehammer to drive them fully home. I was left feeling smug so figured I'd quit while ahead meaning I'll probably tackle the two rear diff bushes at the weekend if I find time. So far, so good.

Advert archive record - listed for sale in July 2013 as a TT6 Supra - weirder still

1993 Red TT6 converted to single in 2012 for £15k on invoices using a HKS turbo kit introduced in 2001 capable of 700bhp but mild tune 1.4bar 500bhp on this car. Car has MOT to May 2018 but not according to DVLA who list it as expired; last MOT'd in 2007. Weird. AJZ 9224 original registration K456PHT imported May 2000.

I have arranged that a mobile tyre fitting and alignment outfit will come to me once I swap out the rear sub frame on my car. Priced at £49 + VAT for 4 wheel alignment. Theoretically that means the car won't be driven around with who know what asymmetry on the alignment.

Just been checking Japanese listings, stock TT6's over US$30k becoming the norm even for more normal km cars. Wont be long before importers will be asking £30k rather than £23k.

Cue Laviina getting a lot of messages

Did a trawl for torque info ready for when I do a sub frame drop and came across this guide which has the spec for everything on the MkIV Supra. Handy reference material that probably everyone should save a copy of for posterity and reference should it disappear offline one day. http://www.2jzgarage.com/wp-content/uploads/Supra/Workshop_Manual/Torque%20&%20Service%20Specifications.pdf

I put mine down to probably a slightly warped disc moving the pad on the wheel rotation generating the knocking noise. It never occured at high speed only sub 30mph. Its easy enough to check if the discs are true by spinning the wheels with a something resting at 90 degrees onto the disc. Wheels off the ground its easier to check other things like your joints and wheel bearing condition as well as they can all lead to knocks and noises.

I had a really annoying knock on the front going over rough roads a few years back. No wear on the ball joint. Replaced all the struts and still had it. Then changed the discs and pads and noise gone, never to return. It was a knock that was louder and more likely to occur when turning left, for some unknown reason.

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?129221-Interior-blower-fan-only-working-on-slow-speed-ideas

Wraps are a fantastic addition to new cars that are going to see a bit of rough and tumble in their early years with higher than normal mileage. On older cars though the preconception is more its a cheaper alternative to a respray on flat or damaged paint. You can't hide imperfections with a wrap, like dings and rust, so if you have immediately pre-wrap paint condition pictures showing it to be fantastic then you could get away with leaving it wrapped. Without those to hand people being naturally suspicious will suspect the paintwork to be in poor condition.

There are such things as a pipe splice kit to fix a holed a/c pipework. Never a favoured concept of mine seeing it replaces one leak with two potential leak points but it does provide a solid coupling option to retain the original pipe.

Looks like 88716-1B210 ($15 in the US so probably £45 here).

Bonding isn't an issue if you use the right glue. A previous owner fitted a scoop to my jspec bonnet and its still there at least 19 years later having been subjected to winds of 158mph on several occasions running along the German Autobahn. Its probably very much down to selecting the right adhesive. I thought you could still buy a UK scoop, its was at one time only the under bonnet fixtures that were no longer available?

Looks like its missing the mesh which isn't just mesh but circle holes on the original. That'd be a hard part to replicate and stick on securely to withstand 150mph winds.

The Toyota boys on the NEC stand last November told me the Mk5 would be out in July. Guess they didn't mean July 2017.

The emisions must have been done for the US market. Found a figure quoting CO2 Emissions at 261.8 g/km for the TT. Might be better posting the question on the US Supra forum?

Its up to £7,600 with two days to go, well short of the £22k buy it now. It first appeared almost two years ago, I think we will be seeing this car advertised for a long time yet. Anything over £10k and the seller should just take the loss and move on.

Might be worth adding these are non-VVTi.

That's the conundrum. It doesn't make much sense when I have a full rise ramp, don't intend selling the car ever and it seems few Supras carry any kind of comprehensive history which doesn't phase people. The older a car gets, the less service history is relevant or adds value. its seems strange , I feel almost locked in to keeping it up for the sake of keeping it up when I could save probably £300 a time doing it myself.

All car prices have stalled or tumbled over the last three months, in line with the fall in consumer confidence.