rider

People will have noted from my underneath what parts needed thread that this is an impending job on my Supra. I obtained a replacement frame last year that was supposed to have been treated and powder coated. Having stripped the hubs and arms off yesterday I tackled some bubbles with a grinder on the frame and found it is literally covered in surface rust. Thankfully nothing that is heavily pitted below the very thick layer (over 1mm) of high build primer and silver paint top coat. There are clearly parts on a rear frame that no grinder or sanding can reach so I'm taking it off to Surface Processing in Dudley on Monday to have it acid stripped and then an electro treated coating as its going to be virtually impossible to get a proper paint covering into the closed sections within the frame. I'll fill those with thinned down primer and finish up the closed sections with Dinitrol spray after I have applied the final spray paint cover to the frame. Cost of the treatment is £165 + VAT. I'll post up pics of the frame when I get it back from Surface Processing and the final ready to fit frame after I have finished paining it. It's extra cash I was hoping I wouldn't have to spend but at least I'll know its all be done properly which clearly didn't quite happen with this frame when it was last refurbished. I have employed a mechanic to double up on frame swap over with me pencilled in start time mid September with put back together planned for around November to give time for any replacement parts and bushes to be sourced and the underneath bodywork to be cleaned, primed and painted. also swapping at the same time the tank guard (with new), front to rear fuel and brake lines and the exhaust . Additional Material

My car has never so much as blown a bulb let alone had the alternator fail. The only non serviceable part ever changed in my 19 years with the car has been the ac condenser that was holed about 12 years ago now and the SMIC two years ago only because the fins had turned to powder. I struggle to believe the Jap mileage claims even if supported by a piece of paper unless my import was the only car to ever have been driven on Japanese roads to anything like normal usage with 18k miles in its first 2 years. A 'low mileage' example like this car should only see age related issues, like the fins turning to powder on the SMIC. A new alternator is not the end of the World but a catalogue of niggles is not normal in Supra World. though if the car runs strong and fine then the little things can be sorted and once sorted it will be a fantastic car. I think people sometimes forget Mk4 Supras are an old car. When I buy a classic car it takes normally a year or two to get to where I want it to be but I have the expectation that no one else will have looked after any car to a standard I strive to achieve. That way the car only ever improves and gets to where you want it to be eventually. Amongst the collection of classics, the oldest car is 52 years old and I have never had any running problems with any of them. Perseverance and the money available to spend on maintenance is key to a content ownership of any old car, which includes the in its dotage Mk4 Supra.

I might have to delay the whole process. Stripped back the sub frame of the attached hubs and started to tackle the 'bubbles'. The sub frame was bought of a stripped car last year, low mileage recent import with a fettled and powder coated sub frame. Turns out its all high build primer and a good amount of rust. I'm going to have to send it off for pickling and maybe galvanizing as its probably no better than the one currently on the car in its current condition. If anyone knows of a good pickling house near to Shrewsbury please let me know.

My insurer charges has a call out fee on screens. Anyway, never done it before so wanted to try it out. There are plenty of tube videos on chip repair and I just followed one of those rather than reading the instructions which I couldn't read anyway as there were in about 4 point font. Maybe 30 years ago but not these days.

Do you need to remove the rear seat or not to get to the clips or grommet location? Or can you just lift the boot side panels and squeeze a hand in? We do need to take care of the ABS sensors as they are discontinued from Toyota apart from one of the four last I checked. Though I did come across a USA site offering compatible ones, still around £200 each. I did read a US forum thread where one commentator mentioned removing the two 10mm bolts holding the ABS sensor onto the hub and wiggling until it moved. Even forcing a small screwdriver down alongside the sensor to break the seal. Sounded drastic. Has anyone ever tried tapping or punching them out from the hub spleen side to gain a reusable sensor?

Done a search and nothing popping up. Looking at removal of the rear hubs and anticipating the ABS sensors may well not want to part from the hub. So what is the procedure to get at the clips inside the car so the sensor can come off with the hub?

I bought one of the Chinese eBay chip repair kits for about £4, took a while to arrive but applied it to my new run around that had, coincidentally, a big chip on the front screen. Results are really good, the very deep chip is now all but invisible and the screen surface perfectly smooth. I always like it when a cheap product outperforms expectations, reminds me of when I bought headlight lens cleaner from an eBay seller that turned out to smell and look just like Brasso, that worked a treat to. Shows you don't always have to spend big for top results.

Induction heaters for tricky nut and bolt removal are coming down in price and you can now get entry ones as cheap as £150. For the home mechanic it makes sense to have this in their toolbox rather than a gas torch. Has anyone bought and used the cheaper offerings from in particular INDUCTION INNOVATIONS INC? Most systems are still around the £500 mark and I guess you get more resistors for your money but for only occasional use £150 sounds a lot better than £500.

Not so much a stupid idea more a why would you bother, seriously? The climate control module isn't even rectangular to fit, neatly, a touch screen. Dug up a thread on this from 2011, seems it never got off the ideas board. Maybe it didn't work out? Maybe it just became too much trouble or a low priority thing? How about a decent HUD instead?

I'm not planning on doing the front canister end as all looks good to the front of the car, the rear is visibly where the bulk of the wear and tear occurs. I'm getting replacements for the hose couplings from the lines to the tank.

Just had SM come back and he recons he has scoured the Earth and sourced me a complete set of the 4 main fuel and brake lines. So I won't get to try my bending skills beyond the smaller brake pipe across the rear that I'll replace. Anyone thinking of doing this job sometime soon with OE pipework better look at ordering just about now.

When I get them off I'll have a look see if its something I will tackle or get one of the local garages to fabricate the pipes. If I do them myself and they look decent I'll take a picture or two. If they look shit, of course I won't . I re-veneered an entire dash, how hard can measuring up and bending a few pipes be? Still looking out for the fuel pipe sizes, the main fuel line seems to be 3/8th (AN6) but haven't found anything on the od of the return fuel line. Guess I'll put up all the measurements on the 15 year old lines corroded sticky when its all done because lots of people are going to have to end up making their own.

I've found out its 3/16 tubing. Question on the flares, single, double or bubble? Anyone know which?

I have had a quote for the lines from SM and asked that he verify all the parts are available before I pay money over as I cannot see the point in mix match self fabricated to OE, that'd just look not quite right so I'd rather fabricate the lot or none. I haven't heard back from Steve so I'm assuming he is too busy or its an no go. I checked US sites where one of the brake pipes was listed as discontinued and Amayama yesterday where three were down as no longer available. Pipe bending is a skill, I have lots of time and fine sand to fill the pipes with so you never know. Could become a cottage industry.

A typical water pump can move a maximum of about 7,500 gallons (28,000 liters) of coolant per hour, or recirculate the coolant in the engine over 20 times per minute. This means that a water pump could be used to empty a typical private swimming pool in an hour! The slower the engine speed, the less power is consumed by the water pump. However, even at 35 mph (56 km/h), the typical water pump still moves about 2,000 gallons (7,500 liters) per hour or 0.5 gallon (2 liters) per second!

There is a figure offered up by someone, likely an American. "around 0.2 usgpm/bhp at max revs." For your setup that'd be more like 200l/min which equates to around 30cc per pump cycle which doesn't sound unreasonable.

Looked into obtaining replacement rear to front fuel pipes (2 of) and brake pipes (2 of) and only 1 of the 4 is listed as still available from Japan with 3 now discontinued. So these are going to have to be fabricated. If anyone knows the od and id of the fuel and brake lines let me know so I can get the correct tubing (non corroding) ordered up.n Also what coupling nuts and bolts are required. Unless anyone happens to have a set of excellent condition pipes in stock?

With your a/c I'd look to a lack of power or failure of your pressure sensor/switch 88645-20050. eBay USA has claimed compatible switches for $6 or £230 from Toyota.

Your clutch won't engage if the system is very low on refrigerant. It doesn't take a high pressure to overcome the low pressure cut off which disengages the clutch, usually around 5psi to 9psi on the suction side and a standing system should be 50psi-70psi. The LP cut off is designed to prevent the compressor from pulling a vacuum on the inlet side which will draw in air a moisture through the hoses. To check your gas level easily you need to couple a pressure gauge into the LP service port.

Most of these are now discontinued. Does anyone know the od and id of the fuel and brake lines as they now need to be fabricated. Update - Steve Manley at Toyota Oxford has managed, according to a call to me today, to source a complete set of the four main front to back fuel and brake pipes. This is likely to be one of the last complete sets so anyone looking to do this at some point in the future with OE parts has a short time to actually source the OE parts.

I read a USA site that gave 600g as the charge weight in a Supra. If its blowing cold you don't need to re-gas it. You need expensive equipment to properly gas a car ac as it has a vacuum pump, recovery cylinder, weight scales and gauges. So if it isn't broke recommendation is don't try to fix it.

That's a result, I top my Supra ac up every 6 years. There are barrier hoses that are porous to refrigerant so it is normal to have regular, but infrequent, top ups.

There are a few of the yellow mods hardly attending these days, soon it'll be anarchy. Seems the forum is en-route to its tumble weed finale but hopefully it'll stay open for the archive knowledge base if nothing else.

I can see my underneath read end tidy up is a probably going to be poor second cousin by comparison. I'm adding a few bushes but they are mostly covered as the sub frame I got of Mikes black facelift strip had new bushes on the arms and decent arms to. I've taken on board doing all the fuel lines when the sub frame is off especially as the ones in place are corroded where they enter the protector. When you replaced your lines, did you also replace all the brackets or were the originals reusable? Adding all the brackets, grommets, screws and new protectors will add over £200 to the cost of parts so its a question worth asking.