1994 UK manual restoration project

I bought this car at the tender age of 23 back in April 2006, whilst in the middle of treatment for a severe illness, figuring that I should buy the car I’d always wanted whilst I was still around. Thankfully, I fought it off to enjoy the car for many years to come!

She was completely standard when I bought her, two pervious owners and 105k miles on the clock. She drove perfectly, was unbelievably quiet, and I fell instantly in love. Her biggest claim to fame comes from the original owner, one Ukyo Katayama of Formula 1 notoriety. I’ve got a copy of the original log book with his name on it, and can only assume it was some kind of ‘company car’ from the Toyota-Yamaha relationship as he was driving for Tyrell Yamaha at the time.

Fast forward to 2017 and 150,000miles, and following advisories on previous MOTs of increasing corrosion on the underbody, I put my hand through the offside sill whilst refurbishing the front brakes. Bugger.

I’d been looking for somewhere to get the bodywork properly sorted for some time, after having a fairly disastrous ‘respray’ (read: blowover) in 2014 from a self-proclaimed ‘expert’. Stone chips around the windscreen had started to take hold, there was corrosion on the boot lid, and lacquer was starting to lift on the edges of the roof. This, all on top of the condition the underneath was in.

A mate from work suggested a close friend of his, Martin. Having worked for Motorcare in Kent repairing, amongst others, high-end supercars, and also for Eagle, spraying their several hundred thousand pound restored and enhanced E-types, he seemed like the man for the job. Decent credentials, you have to admit.

The spanner in the works was that he had since moved to Scotland to head up a race and restoration workshop near Edinburgh. Thankfully the workshop is owned by a parent company who deal with car transportation on a large scale, and therefore getting the car there and back could be arranged.

After some discussion, a bucket-load of photos of all angles of the car, and a quick meeting whilst Martin was in Kent visiting family, arrangements were made for the car to be collected in May 2017.

If I said I wasn’t terrified at the prospect of sending my pride and joy on a truck to somebody I barely knew at the other end of the country, I’d definitely be lying!

With my heart in my stomach, I waved goodbye to her all by herself on the back of an articulated transporter, heading for bonny Scotland to finally get properly sorted.

As soon as she arrived at his workshop, I got a text from Martin laughing at it being the wrong colour. The previous ‘expert’ had claimed it was darker than before because the paint had faded, apparently this wasn’t true, he’d just sprayed it the wrong shade. Goodness knows how..

Soon, she was next on the list for some attention, starting with a thorough look all over the car to see how bad things were. The answer sadly was; pretty bad. The corrosion was extensive, caused by general wear and tear, ten years living near the sea, and also poor repairs previous to my ownership. The photos arriving to my phone didn’t make pleasant viewing.

I talked it through with my wife, as the extent was much worse than expected and therefore the cost of rectifying much higher. Thankfully, I have the most supportive wife in the world who urged me to carry on and get it fixed. In fact, she was more positive than I was, I thought things were too bad and it wasn’t worth it. She just said ‘you’ll regret it if you don’t!’.

With that decided, the next question was how to approach it. Inner and outer sills on both sides were scrap, the arches were corroded, the panels behind the bumper also in very poor condition. I was aware that both front wings weren’t great, one had seen minor damage before I bought the car, and the other since I’d bought the car. Thankfully Toyota still sold front wings, and for a surprisingly reasonable price (you won’t hear that too often!), so two new wings had gone with the car. Pretty much every other body panel apart from the outer sills are no longer stocked, and the outer sills available didn’t cover the full length of corrosion. Given the costs Toyota had listed for some of the panels, I was almost glad they weren’t in stock! I looked around for a shell that parts could be removed from, but the cost was prohibitive, even without transporting to Scotland, thanks to the ‘buoyant’ used parts market for Supras.

I discussed it with Martin and we decided it would be just as cost effective for him to fabricate new panels, so he got going doing just that. Exceptions here were a bootlid sourced from Ray (Radio on here), and a rear crash bar from Mike (Mike2JZ on here) – thanks both for trouble-free sales, especially Ray’s thoroughness of even sending a photo of the bootlid packaged up in the back of the Parcel Force van!

Before long things were well underway, Martin keeping me up to date with a stream of photos of the work, cutting away, making new bits, and welding it all back together. Wings, spoiler and bonnet were sprayed off the car and were looking great in the photos. One exception was the front bumper that had received extensive damage in the past and wasn’t really fit for going back on. Another panel that Toyota no longer make, standard bumpers are hard to get, especially UK-spec. I spent a couple of months trying to find one without much luck, thinking that even a Jap-spec could have the headlight washer holes cut out to do the job

TBC..

Ouch, thats nasty!

Eventually we gave in and Martin repaired the bumper as best he could. He wasn’t 100% happy with it, but it’s ok for now, and we agreed if I can source one at some point he will spray it up to match.

Once the paint was coming on, it was time to get the wheels refurbished. One had been painted before and was a different colour to the others, and they all had kerbing or lifting powder coat on them. They went off to WeRestoreAlloys in Fife and came back looking sparkly, and were treated to new centre caps and lug nuts to finish them off.

Finally, I’d asked Martin to get her MOT’d before sending her back down. In a final act of defiance, she needed two rear wheel bearings and a pair of front tyres. Otherwise, apart from needing the fuse to be popped back in to get rid of the TRAC light, she passed with no advisories.

Last week I had the long-awaited call to tell me she was heading down on a transporter. Martin took a load of photos of her clean and waxed at his unit as it was unlikely she’d make it to Sussex quite as clean as she left Scotland.

Eventually on Sunday she turned up, absolutely filthy from her 500 mile trip through all kinds of weather on the back of a transporter. The battery was flat, so we got my BMW up on the transporter to provide a jump, and I drove her for the first time in either months for a slightly elongated journey back home. Once there, despite the 3C weather, I got the hose out to get the worst of the dirt off.

Once I’ve got the new battery on, and have had a chance to clean her properly, I’ll get some better photos. For now, I’m just looking forward to enjoying driving her for a while once the interior is back in, but there’s lots more to come.

I think it’s time for some lowering springs to get the stance just right, I need to check some slack in the driveline (probably rear prop bush), refurbish the rear brakes, and then I need to address the ageing (and original!) turbos that are beyond their best. I’m still torn between hybrids or single…

I'm certain a lot of peoples cars are a lot rustier than they think they are as Supras always hide rust very well from their outward body appearance.

It's always good to see a car being saved and I'd recommend doing the sub frames, the bushes and suspension arms while you can still get hold of the parts. I did mine at the back end of last year and some of the arms and bushes were difficult to track down via several sources but I got there in the end. Its not cheap, would probably add around the £10k mark to your rebuild cost if you have the frames renewed or refurbed along with all new parts, bolts and nuts but at least with the rear frame off you could also tackle any rust developing above that as well. You'd then be then looking at one of the very best UK Supras out there.

Wow! Fair play Mark for keeping at it in the face of all that, and I know that lot didn't come cheap I bet!

Really nice mate

Well done that is a love of a car right there!

I am thanking my lucky stars my UK tt6s are solid but the pictures just show how bad they can get.

It looks amazing now though I hope you are keeping it garaged?

Looks a very good job

Holy molyyyyyyy. Fantastic to see someone kill rot like that. Your a braver man than me sending it away like that..but well worth it. Happy for ya

Nice repairs, I've just had my sills welded up for MOT. It gets very disheartening seeing more rust popping up. The winter roads aren't kind to our cars.

Was nice to read through that, some great work been done to the car. Good to see it’s been sorted and still on the road for you to enjoy, fair play mate

Top job that she looks a beauty

Thanks for the kind words guys!

I'm certain a lot of peoples cars are a lot rustier than they think they are as Supras always hide rust very well from their outward body appearance.

 

It's always good to see a car being saved and I'd recommend doing the sub frames, the bushes and suspension arms while you can still get hold of the parts. I did mine at the back end of last year and some of the arms and bushes were difficult to track down via several sources but I got there in the end. Its not cheap, would probably add around the £10k mark to your rebuild cost if you have the frames renewed or refurbed along with all new parts, bolts and nuts but at least with the rear frame off you could also tackle any rust developing above that as well. You'd then be then looking at one of the very best UK Supras out there.

Good advice - a lot of the rear subframe (bolts and bushes) was refreshed about ten years ago, so are in reasonably good condition. Once the nicer weather is here I'll get under and have a better look now the body is sound, and see what needs to be done.

Wow! Fair play Mark for keeping at it in the face of all that, and I know that lot didn't come cheap I bet!

 

Really nice mate

Nooo, it didn't. I'm gonna be sore for a while

Well done that is a love of a car right there!

I am thanking my lucky stars my UK tt6s are solid but the pictures just show how bad they can get.

It looks amazing now though I hope you are keeping it garaged?

Sadly, it won't fit in my tiny garage so I've got a couple of options to investigate. One would be to find a suitable garage to rent, another is something like an outside Carcoon as I've got access to a large driveway it could live on during the winter.

Very nice work

Thanks for the kind words guys!

 

Sadly, it won't fit in my tiny garage so I've got a couple of options to investigate. One would be to find a suitable garage to rent, another is something like an outside Carcoon as I've got access to a large driveway it could live on during the winter.

I can vouch for an external Carcoon my mkiii supra is in one at the moment.

I can vouch for an external Carcoon my mkiii supra is in one at the moment.

Good to know, thanks! They look pretty decent, and probably better than a cold and damp garage?

Good to see it was repaired to decent standard and was at least repairable!

Holy moley batman that was one hell of a restoration there !! Great work.

Brilliant thread and stuff like this is what makes the forum great. Excellent work and great to see your dedication in restoring such a lovely manual UK car.

Hope you have also made a full recovery from your illness

Wow good on you! that car has been completely turned round, and the fact it has a story to you as well is even better that you kept the car going.

Lovely car, great write up and good to see it being well cared for. Also glad to hear your health is improving.

Keep up the good work

Nice to see it brought back to life

Wow what a job well done mate

Simply excellent. Most people would have re-shelled that, well done for saving it. I hope he filled it to the brim withwaxoil and also that the rest of the underside was treated and undersealed as part of the process. It would be a crying shame if all that good work was undone by hidden nastiness elsewhere.

Top work

Great work. A Supra does look good in red. Well done on taking the plunge to save it.

Definitely get an agreed value with your insurance company if you already haven’t ! If you have make sure you re negotiate the value after all that work.