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Homers '98 RSP TT project


Homer

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So far its gone well doing what needs to be done. Im commited so whenever Homer is available to do work on the car ill more than likely be available to help him out, i take pictures and send them to Homer each time we work on it so ill let him upload the pics

It needs some work but all round a lovely Supra. They look great in RSP 😍

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Todays update. We removed the smaller rear brakes from the rsp ready to be transferred to the silver car. Unfortunately the discs are pitted so will need to be replaced. 

Diff (B04D), driveshafts and prop are also removed and will be kept until I decide on what gearbox I’m going for. In the meantime the TRD diff and na setup will be put in.

We also also swapped out the old rear coilovers (unknown damper with stock springs) over to stock bilstein with I think CW springs. They’re a bit tatty but were cheap and work for now.

The one peice exhaust is also removed. Not sure if I’ll use it as it’s a bit noisy.

The subframe is very crusty and will need to be cleaned up, however it’s all solid and no problems found so far with the suspension

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Now the bad part. There’s rot in the Driver side sill and it will need to be cut out and new sheet metal welding in (not DIY, I’ll take it to a local body specialist that has restored supras before). To be fair the car is in good shape but the sills were a known issue. Someone has been using trolley jacks on the sills for a long while and wrecked them.

They actually looked fine but after some hard jabs with a screwdriver it was clear they weren’t. The holes are as much as we could dig out so that’s about the limit of the most severe rot. It probably makes sense to get the entire sill sections replaced.

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1 hour ago, Swampy442 said:

Rusty sills 😭😭😭

Yeah, bit surprised how bad they have got. It’s a major pita as it means I can’t just bolt it together and MOT it. I think it’s going to be at least £1k to get the welding work done to restoration quality. I’m not going to cut corners on any rust repair work. The plus side is this is the only real rust found so far. I definitely believe the facelift cars weren’t manufactured as well as the earlier ones. They always seem to suffer worse with rot, especially on the sills and rear spat area. 

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Hey Homer, great to see you and Kev giving the RSP some love. I still find myself with a strange attachment to the car as it's the reason I got back into Supra ownership after negotiations to buy it with Jason. 

Once I had it in my head I was coming back to the Supra world, it was going to happen no matter what. 😂

Getting back to your project, good plan using the silver one as a donor car. Do Toyota still do body sills? I'd look to replace the whole lot for new instead of patching them up. 

So, how many gearboxes has this car had once the final swap (or not lol) has been done? 😂

BTW, a quick FYI, the large UK Auto LSD goes incredibly well with the T56 in terms of gear ratios. 👍

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6 hours ago, Big Supes said:

Hey Homer, great to see you and Kev giving the RSP some love. I still find myself with a strange attachment to the car as it's the reason I got back into Supra ownership after negotiations to buy it with Jason. 

Once I had it in my head I was coming back to the Supra world, it was going to happen no matter what. 😂

Getting back to your project, good plan using the silver one as a donor car. Do Toyota still do body sills? I'd look to replace the whole lot for new instead of patching them up. 

So, how many gearboxes has this car had once the final swap (or not lol) has been done? 😂

BTW, a quick FYI, the large UK Auto LSD goes incredibly well with the T56 in terms of gear ratios. 👍

I didn't know about your link to the car, glad to hear it was an inspiration 🙂

Regarding the sills I'm not sure yet but will check. The bodywork place I use does coachwork and can replicate most parts to OEM standard. They're old school and their work is always spot on.

Also good point about the T56, you're right, it's a great match with the UK auto diff ratio and that is the exact reason I'm hanging onto it! By the time the car is finished it will be on gearbox 4 I think 😄

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1 hour ago, Homer said:

I didn't know about your link to the car, glad to hear it was an inspiration 🙂

Regarding the sills I'm not sure yet but will check. The bodywork place I use does coachwork and can replicate most parts to OEM standard. They're old school and their work is always spot on.

Also good point about the T56, you're right, it's a great match with the UK auto diff ratio and that is the exact reason I'm hanging onto it! By the time the car is finished it will be on gearbox 4 I think 😄

Sounds like the bodywork is in good hands. 👍

Yeah, I love the close ratio T56 with 6th being overdrive. Doing the manual swap on mine with the Grannas Racing kit really brought the car to life and reignited my love for it. 

4th time lucky buddy!! 😅

I look forward to more updates.

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Todays update is that the large brakes are now removed from the silver car and replaced with the regular ones. The big brakes will be used on the rsp with new pads and discs. Not many pics today, too busy!

Only one issue was one of the sliders was seized on the smaller brakes. Kev managed to get it sorted and working.

We were going to fit the large brakes to the rsp but after 5+ hours work in todays heat it was time to call it day.

Next job is next weekend where we will remove the Trd diff from the silver car and fit a standard open diff. Also take the stock UK exhaust off the silver car and fit an aftermarket one to it 

 

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Front brake comparison:

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My son adores Kev 😄

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2 hours ago, Big Supes said:

Sounds like the bodywork is in good hands. 👍

Yeah, I love the close ratio T56 with 6th being overdrive. Doing the manual swap on mine with the Grannas Racing kit really brought the car to life and reignited my love for it. 

4th time lucky buddy!! 😅

I look forward to more updates.

Good to hear mate. It’s definitely an option so when the time comes for the final gearbox choice I’ll be in contact if you don’t mind. It’ll be really helpful to get some first hand feedback on parts and costs 🙂

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Had another good day today, almost came to a stop when one of the sliders was frozen. The sun was something else today i tell ya 😂 looking foward to next time 😎 and Darryls son is going to be one clever kid when he grows up totally into all the fixing stuff and machines

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1 hour ago, Homer said:

Good to hear mate. It’s definitely an option so when the time comes for the final gearbox choice I’ll be in contact if you don’t mind. It’ll be really helpful to get some first hand feedback on parts and costs 🙂

Any questions just ping them over mate and I'd be happy to help. 

In a nutshell, I went for the Grannas Racing 700a kit and haven't looked back, tbh. Everything arrives on a pallet for you to drive away 6sp manual. It's a really decent, comprehensive kit. 

As for the heat today, I also couldn't do a full day on the car. I got the brakes off mine too and called it a day. 😅😅

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Todays update is nothing particularly interesting to see but still lots of progress made. Just a few more bits to sort out and I can get the silver car up for sale.

1) On the silver car the stock UK exhaust is removed and replaced with an eBay one I got off JamieP for a great price 

2) TRD 2 way diff removed from the silver car and replaced with an NA open diff. The TRD diff will go into the rsp.

3) New boot struts installed on the rsp. These were an absolute bargain, £20 from AliExpress and fit/work brilliantly.

4) Very tired Momo steering wheel removed from the silver car and replaced with a nice condition airbag wheel from a Celica 

Thats all for this week as I’m now waiting for a few parts to turn up. Also it’s too hot to be doing car work!!

We also got chance to have a good look at the underside of the silver car, it’s really in great condition and just a few bits of surface rust. It’s in far better condition than the rsp.

Thanks again to Kev for all the help and heavy work in the temperature today. We’re getting pretty quick at changing diffs now 😂 

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Yup another day of progress, and it was good. Yea diff removal and fitting has happened alot now haha 😎 will be sad to see the silver one go. Will be a beauty for the new owner but so will the rsp when its done. Looking foward to the next day fixing Supras 😁

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Quick one for this blog.

1) Black carpet is removed from the silver car and put into storage for the rsp. Forgot how long this takes to do!

2) Grey carpet from the rsp has been cleaned and put into the silver car. It looked pretty clean initially but the drain on the cleaner showed how much filth was in it.

3) Boot struts have been replaced on the silver car with new ones that work properly.

4) Rear GZ speaker pods have been removed and replaced with regular ones. GZ ones will go into on the rsp. I paid a fair amount for these way back when so don’t feel guilty about removing them.

Also got another chance to inspect the absolute bodge of a trans tunnel swap the previous owner was subjected to. Absolutely appalling work and it’s going to take a fair amount of cutting, grinding and paint to get it back to near oem. I still can’t believe a professional company did this and charged for it. Total monkeys. 

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Did a lot of work today on both cars but found something a bit odd on the rsp.

A new non-abs brake line was previously fitted to the car (with an old distribution block). Weird as it’s an abs car. Also brake line was tucked away under the cover but had nothing securing it. It would have rubbed on the suspension and chassis. Unbelievably dangerous work by the previous garage, again. Going to have to pull it all out and fit new dual lines. 

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Also removed the aftermarket lines for the fuel system. They split back in 2014 and just disintegrated when being removed today. Going back to oem lines which I’ve started to install. Both supply and return lines are rotted. They look nice but are useless.

Yet again, these aftermarket lines were not secured in any way and just lying over the subframe and suspension. Extremely dangerous work carried out by a “professional” garage. It’s not even difficult to do these these correctly.

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Quick update from today. Kev and I got the rsp raised up to begin the gearbox removal. It was an utter pain with the sloping driveway and after probably 7-8 attempts we got it to a place where it’s safe. It looks a big redneck but it works and is solid.

Managed to do some fact finding and it turns out the facelift subframes and suspension were kept in the car and not swapped for the UK ones as I was informed. This also means the missing support braces I bought don’t won’t fit. Kev found some facelift ones on eBay so I’ve purchased those.

Additionally it turns out the RZS has a weird configuration for the abs lines on some cars. The rear is not always independent and abs acts on both rear brakes at the same time. This explains why there is a single line to the rear and it appears factory. I’m a bit concerned this is going to throw the UK spec Ecu into an error but time will tell.

The auto shifter is also removed to get a better look at the mess of the trans tunnel. Lots of cutting, cleaning and repair work needed there.

Tomorrow is transmission removal and see what else we can get done!

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Long day spent on the rsp today and the good news is we’re almost at the end of the deconstruction! As always, massive thanks to @evinX for his time yet again.

1) UK auto box is removed. Will put this up for sale as I have no future use for it.

2) Aftermarket auto box oil cooler and lines removed. Will probably sell these too.

3) The part manual, part auto mess of a trans tunnel plate is removed! I have a new manual plate which will be installed shortly. The weld was up to 1cm thick in places so took an age to cut it out with first an angle grinder then Kev’s reciprocating saw. Got to get one of those!
Due to the extremely poor welding we lost about 5-10mm of the main tunnel around the back end, however this won’t have any impact to the strength or functionality. Still need to do some grinding and hammer/dolly work to get it tidied up and any remaining weld splatter removed. After this Kev will paint it with epoxy and then rsp paint.

With that done, the first stage of disassembly is complete and we can start rebuilding it. 

Short update but that took the best part of 7 hours 🙂

 

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