Homers '98 RSP TT project

[tayr]

I've just bought a set of Sills and rear air inlet bits of Nash - he does metal ones which is supposed to be straight weld in place. Obviously nothing for the inner bit, but the outer bits looks really good - think he had them pressed

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by tayr (see edit history)

[tomgeer]

On 5/23/2023 at 11:21 PM, Homer said:

Good and bad news on the rust repair…. 
- The front sills and jacking area are not as bad as first thought. The sills have collapsed from the car being jacked up in the wrong place multiple times. Thankfully the actually jacking area is fine and the thicker steel is rust free. These just need the sills straightened and re-welded.

- The rear sills have the same but there is severe rot in the structural steel heading up the chassis. He’s only opened up the drivers side but it’s so bad the screwdriver test managed to get all the way to it he interior where the rear carpet can be seen.

I had no idea it was this bad, but it needs to be fixed correctly so that’s what I’ve asked him to do.

I’ve asked for it to be fully repaired to oem standard but the cost is obviously quite a lot (well over £2k) for everything. All the repair panels have to be hand made so it takes a lot of time. Next update due in a week or two hopefully.

£2000 if the panels are being fabricated for that price sounds pretty reasonable, as a (former) welder fabricator that is a lot of work. 
worth doing right though to rescue another supra

[Homer]

On 5/24/2023 at 10:13 AM, tayr said:

I've just bought a set of Sills and rear air inlet bits of Nash - he does metal ones which is supposed to be straight weld in place. Obviously nothing for the inner bit, but the outer bits looks really good - think he had them pressed

 

Which Nash is it? There's one I've dealt with in the past and he ripped me off.

[rider]

Are the square clip holes in the ducting piece? Cannot see them in the far away photo.

[Homer]

44 minutes ago, tomgeer said:

£2000 if the panels are being fabricated for that price sounds pretty reasonable, as a (former) welder fabricator that is a lot of work. 
worth doing right though to rescue another supra

The panels are being made by hand, which is why it's costing so much. The chap doing it is an old school eastern European fabricator, he's come highly recommended.

[tayr]

2 hours ago, rider said:

Are the square clip holes in the ducting piece? Cannot see them in the far away photo.

Not sure but not a big deal to cut them in

 

2 hours ago, Homer said:

Which Nash is it? There's one I've dealt with in the past and he ripped me off.

restless kustoms nash. These were quite reasonable tbh, about £500 iirc

[rider]

It would be a precision job to cut in the square holes in the spot on correct position and also in the correct size to accept and retain the white clips to then have these mate up exactly with the trim clips. That is a lot of variables to get wrong measuring it by ruler and die or plasma cutting if they aren't machine stamped at time of manufacture. I suppose you could double side tape the trim piece if all else fails and rely on the two arch clips to stop it departing the vehicle.

[Homer]

11 hours ago, tayr said:

Not sure but not a big deal to cut them in

 

restless kustoms nash. These were quite reasonable tbh, about £500 iirc

Thanks, is that per side? I'll check with the bodyshop if they're needed 

[Homer]

10 hours ago, rider said:

It would be a precision job to cut in the square holes in the spot on correct position and also in the correct size to accept and retain the white clips to then have these mate up exactly with the trim clips. That is a lot of variables to get wrong measuring it by ruler and die or plasma cutting if they aren't machine stamped at time of manufacture. I suppose you could double side tape the trim piece if all else fails and rely on the two arch clips to stop it departing the vehicle.

I believe he's retaining that part of the metal, but I will need to check. Thanks 

[tayr]

16 minutes ago, Homer said:

Thanks, is that per side? I'll check with the bodyshop if they're needed 

£250 per side

[Homer]

After over 3 months the car is finally back from the bodyshop. All the rust repair is finished and I’m very pleased with the quality of work. It was only £2k in the end so considering the time that went in it was surprisingly cheap.

I don’t have too many pics to share as most of the work was done on parts that aren’t visible anymore.

So now we can start getting it MOT ready. There’s two main issues to solve - why the fuel pump system isn’t turning on and why it’s bogging down when switching over to warm idle.

After a huge amount of checks on the loom the fuel pump issue is now fixed. It turned out to be an issue with one of the EFI relays. Even though it was working normally it didn’t seem to trip when keying on. @evinX suggested swapping the two EFI relays over and it started working Next up is to figure out why it bogs down and stalls once it’s warmed up. ICV checks are next on the list.

Here’s only some of the metal that was cut out:

After pics, not the best but gives an idea:

 

It’s going to be tidied up a little bit and then fully cleaned and undercoated. All interior sections are rust protected. 

I also finally got a set of rear seat buckles. These were incredibly difficult to find but only ended up costing £20.

[Dieter]

very good that it was rust professionally with the grate 
and perfect that you found the fault with the pump...., with relay, yes I also had a problem with the indicator relay, I bought 2 new ones, but only one worked....... I think I will also buy a relay and a pump control unit as a replacement......., good luck, that you soon have everything done and can drive

[Homer]

Some great progress today with @evinX. It’s almost ready for the MOT. 

1) The issue with the stock boost gauge is possibly fixed. It’s now got a PIM signal from the MAP sensor going to the Series2 dash wiring loom (the UK spec car doesn’t send this to the dash loom as doesn’t have a boost gauge). Kev soldered a bridge wire from the Ecu loom to the dash loom to orange dash connector and now the gauge is reacting to pressure. It seems a bit lower than expected but there’s a thread in the tech section about that…

2) since the fuel pump Ecu is now working normally all the rear interior panels and boot carpet are now back in.

3) Rear seat buckles are installed and rear seats finally fully fitted.

4) Front seats are also finally fitted properly and seat belts are bolted in. 

5) Kev donated a new Veilside style gear knob to replace the horrible plastic stock one. It had also gone a bit tacky which was odd, not even sure it’s a supra one.

6) Replaced the aftermarket resistor pack mounting plate with an oem one. Just a cosmetic thing but it looks better I’m the oem place. 

7) Kev installed a pair of Supratronix bonnet struts. No more hood stick! These work perfect.

8. I still have an issue with it trying to stall out after it’s warmed up. I’ve checked the IACV resistances and they’re all at 21-22 ohms, which is exactly in the middle of normal. I guess next step it to remove it and check it’s not gummed up. A total pita from what I’ve read!

Resistor mount before:

 

After:

 

PIM wiring to make the stock boost gauge work with a UK spec engine:

 

Boot finished (missing some clips for the carpet, I have some somewhere!)

 

Rear seat belts and bench finished. Needs a clean…

Bonnet struts installed

New gear knob, need to sort out the gator.

 

[evinX]

Were almost there. Once the rough idle is sorted out were on the final few steps

That ICV is in a lovely place to loose some knuckle skin but we will do it!

[mharvey]

Great progress as always guys. Enjoying this resurrection thread

[Guigsy]

cant believe how far this has come.  if i knew you were after a rear seat buckle id have had a route arround in the garage. im sure iv got one...

[Homer]

Today @evinX and I started looking into why the engine starts to cut out once it’s warmed up a bit. I’ve gone through the vac lines and can’t see any breaks or uncapped lines so next step is the IACV.

During removal I found it was only bolted on with one bolt, so someone has been messing with this before. It looks like the bolt has been missing for a very long time as there’s corrosion inside the thread.

As expected it was caked with residue and the little one way valve was almost completely gummed up. These are been removed and cleaned.

 

Next is the test the IACV:

1) check the resistance across the 4 signal wires. These were all 21ohms which is normal (10-30 is in the manual)

2) check the IACV operation. This check sends power to each of the control wires to switch the iacv open or closed. No matter how we tried it wouldn’t close. You can hear the motor try to turn each time but it doesn’t move the valve. Either I’m doing this test wrong or this is the cause of the idling issues. I’m going to replace it anyway as they’re quiet cheap (well Chinese version anyway!) Video below showing the check process, is this correct?

Also had a visit from Adnan who used to be in the forum years ago. Awesome to catch up after over 10 years.

 

A very dirty one way valve, it also shows where the bolt was missing:

Removed and cleaned with carb cleaner:

IACV after a partial clean, it was pretty caked up as well:

 

checking the iacv valve (is this the correct way?):

 

[Homer]

Had another good day of progress with @evinX Todays main job was to try and resolve the idling issue. As mentioned above we thought we’d found a bad IACV, turns out I wasn’t testing it correctly and it was fine. A relief as they’re very expensive to replace!

During this process we found one of the coolant pipes for the iacv was leaking so decided to bypass it. It’s not really needed for British weather. We also cleaned up the surfaces and fitted the missing bolt. Kev also thightened up the throttle cable as it was very slack.

After running it up to temperate it finally settled out to an even idle and ran smooth for about 20 minutes. I think it was a completely fouled iacv combined with a small air leak that was the culprit.

I took it out on the short private road for a test drive, no issues found, it’s drives great and both turbos spool up well. No smoke either which is a relief!

We also got on with a few of the remaining issues for the MOT:

1) Installed all the driving light bulbs and replaced where necessary. We ran into an issue with the facelift lights so will swap from 9006(J?) to 9005 plug for the dipped beam. It makes it easier to find replacement bulbs. This will be completed next time. We have a small issue with the front fogs as the back plates are missing but I think we can make some from a set of prefacelift looms I have left over.

2) It was my birthday last week and Kev’s present was a set of Supratronix mats. They look awesome and finish one of the last bits of the interior.

3) Kev noticed that someone (not me, honest!) had previously fitted the front wiper arms the wrong way round. No wonder they were hitting the bonnet!! Previous garage strikes again… fitted new wiper blades, but decided to keep the arms off to repaint them.

4) Interior dome light sourced and installed

5) We found that the alternator is not charging the battery. The car had a brand new alternator installed 9 years ago but it’s possible it’s packed up after being left idle for so long. We’ll start testing that next weekend but this should be simple enough to fix.

6) Found some facelift wheel centre caps in a spare parts box so fitted those. Plus dozens of other little jobs not worth mentioning.

 

IACV coolant bypass with lines blocked off to avoid corrosion:

Supratronix floor mats:

 

Wiper arms on the wrong sides:

Testing the lights:
 

Off the driveway for testing driveline and brakes:

 

Facelift centre caps fitted:

 

[evinX]

And some vidoes taken today of her test runs, exiting times

Edited October 15, 2023 by evinX (see edit history)

[evinX]

Another run

[Peter P]

Nice one guys, coming along nicely. Keep up the good work and glad to see you’re making such good progress. Look forward to reading further updates. 
 

Cheers.

 

Pete 

[mharvey]

I think this Supra excites me more than my own. 
A real barn-find type build and it's fantastic, keep up the good progress.

[evinX]

Just now, mharvey said:

I think this Supra excites me more than my own. 
A real barn-find type build and it's fantastic, keep up the good progress.

It really was. I remember seeing @Homer a few times before we decided to bring her back. She was really sitting there derelict and the elements were clearly taking their toll. Its been AMAZING so far and it Truely is a Pleasure to see her move on her own steam,

Were on the last checklist now and wont be long before she gets he bill of health

[Homer]

Back to work today with @evinX and more good progress. Nearly there!! It doesn’t look like much but this took 6 hours.. we’re back at it again tomorrow.

1) Kev soldered in all new headlight bulb holders. This was supposed just be two but he found all the wires were extensively hacked, so decided to hardwire in new wiring with new holders. Lights are tested and all are working now.

2) I got on with the adding a fog light. For now I’m just using one of the reverse lights for this, but I’ll change over to the proper method when I get more time. Wiring is all in but I made a stupid mistake I need to correct tomorrow (terminal the wrong way round, doh!)

3) The boot carpet is now properly fitted and the tonneaux cover installed (like everything it needs a clean). I also installed the missing suspension caps which support the boot plastics. These were sourced for a few quid from a forum member. Also cut a boot floor panel from a bit of leftover plyboard. It’ll do for now. I’m still missing the foam section that goes behind the seat, I’m really struggling to source one so might have to buy a block of foam and make one.

4) Stereo cage is installed and dash wiring tidied up.

5) Passenger side window has never worked, we suspected a broken wire but all seems okay. After some testing we found the motor is starting to engage but then does nothing. It’s got a good 12v feed so I t could be a faulty motor but we need to check further.

6) Kev tried to install a pair of Hella horns I bought (One oem is missing and the other one looks like it’s been at the bottom of the ocean). However they have two terminals and no matter how we tried to wire them the horns were on all the time. The horn mechanism on the steering wheels appears to be working correctly so we’re not sure what the matter is. I’m going to order some single terminal ones and see if that fixes it.

7) The OEM hockey sticks and pods are now fitted properly after the welding work.

8. Fitted a new battery clamp I got from amayama.

 

Headlight work, messy connectors cut too short:

 

Old horn and crusty condenser (AC is a later project, will probably need completely replacing):

All working: 

Stereo cage in and wiring tied up a bit. There’s no speakers in the car so ICE is a later project:

New battery strap:

Missing rear plastic support installed:

Temporary boot floor and rest of the parts fitted:

 

Side pods and hockey sticks fitted:

[evinX]

She looks great, here a shot i got today with the sun setting over head