HarleyFDMD

To add to my already very colourful engine bay, i bought some titanium coloured mikalor clamps.. keeping with the titanium/purple theme. I'd already bought some a few weeks back but hadn't bought enough in the correct sizes. But I've now replaced all of the regular jubilee clips.. Im sure my engine bay is considered a bit marmite by people.. i fully appreciate its not the typical all polished, or all black engine bay that most people tend to do (because either of those options do look mega!) I just fancied doing something really in your face!

Unfortunately i didn't get as long as I'd have liked working on the car this evening. I got the inner side of the sill reinforced and got the outer side reinforcement plate made but not welded on. The outer side will probably need to be double layered to bring it level with the inner as the floor either side of the sill doesn't actually sit at the same height. Meaning it'll be 6mm thick on the outer edge. Hopefully get that done tomorrow. In the meantime i gave it a thick coat of Jenolite to sit in overnight. As for 'Hockey pucks', i decided to weld 2 together.. making them 20mm Just need to get it smoothed out now.

Next job for me is to sort out my sills. I know this is a typical problem for many supra owners. The sills end up flattened due to poor jacking over the years and mine were no exception. I haven't jacked my car up on the sills in years because they haven't been especially healthy. I use the box section as seen in previous photos I've posted. However sorting out the sills has always been something I've wanted to do (just other things previously took priority) The drivers side rear sill is the worst, it had actually been pushed upwards into the box section. So not only did it need straightening but it also needed pulling out. I bought a slide hammer and a body work pulling clamp. This did a really good job of pulling the sill straight and downwards. I completely forgot to take any photos afterwards though! Just straightening the sills was never going to be enough though, although the clamp and slide hammer did a good job, it wasn't perfect. Also at this point the sill is still weak, jacking on it again would just flatten it again and i dont want to keep jacking on the box section. So i bought some 3mm sheet steel and some 10mm steel 'hockey puks' to reinforce the area and then make a proper jacking point on the sill. I made a good start this evening but again forgot to take any photos. I'll try and get it finished Monday evening now i think. Then will have to do the other 3 corners!

Very impressive work!

Today i replaced the clutch master cylinder finally. It was definitely due! used the Motul RBF700 and adjusted the clutch pedal accordingly. Really pleased with how the clutch pedal feels.. its always a worry when you fit a performance clutch as to whether the clutch is going to be too heavy or snappy or both. This spec 3+ is perfect. Light pedal and you can slip it whilst pulling away. After some spirited driving i do get some noise through the V160 with the Spec solid flywheel but its not terrible. One thing i have noticed is some vibration at 75mpg and upwards. Pretty sure its the propshaft and i think this is because i accidentally separated it whilst i was installing it and i've thrown the balance out by not putting it back together in the same position.. so that'll be the next job!! Also today whilst i had the titanium catch can removed i polished up the top and re-burnt it as beforehand it was pretty dull!

The detail!! Honestly the effort you're putting into this makes me feel ashamed of myself I like to think im doing a good job of my car.. until i read your updates.

I've had an issue with my clutch over the past couple of days. It keeps sticking to the floor. Seems worse during the first few minutes of driving whilst everythings cold. Im 99% sure its the master cylinder and i have a brand new oem one to fit. I would assume the one in the car currently is original and so 31 years old. So that's my job for the weekend and i bought 1.5L of Motul RBF700. I also bought a couple of decent quality .50mm T4 gaskets and 2 oil drain gaskets incase i blow one again. a few weeks back i also bought some titanium coloured mikalor clamps, i may have mentioned before but my plan is to get all the boost pipes re made in titanium. Still need to order a few more of the clamps in different sizes but i think they look pretty cool.

VID-20240325-WA0132.mp4 Ahh Mexico.. gotta love it 3 people deep, rear tyres down to 20psi. Mostly hooks in 2nd but still a fair bit of wheel spin.

Once I'd pretty much finished everything (with the exception of fitting the rear wheels, engine undertray and one of the clutch inspection covers) i fired it up to make sure everything was as it should be.. select all gears / check for noises and leaks etc. Everything with the gearbox was spot on. No issues at all and i was about to throw the rear wheels on and take it for a spin but i noticed the engine note sounded a bit different to normal. Sounded like the manifold was blowing, and sure enough it was Typical! The turbo to manifold nuts had come slightly loose and blown the T4 gasket. So i began to strip that down... fortunately i had a spare T4 gasket and oil drain gasket so i managed to get it all built back up. I had some locking turbo nuts too so hopefully they'll help prevent this happening again didn't get a final picture but it all went back together easy enough and i then got the wheels on the the other small bits finished and took it out for my first drive as a 6 speed! Clutch is smooth and light and the flywheel doesn't make any untoward noises (being solid rather than oem dual mass) so all in all very happy.. obviously it'll take a few miles of driving before its properly bed in so this may change! Still need to fit the new clutch master cylinder but I'll do that in a few days. The car feels faster than it did before, not sure whether thats because of the difference in gear ratios or maybe i just need to get used to it again. Being March.. meaning colder tyres and colder tarmac may have contributed but it was spinning the tyres much more than it did before.. just ripping!

Got into work early this morning to get this finished, removed the transmission mount first so i could finish the floor pan. Whilst i had the mount off i ran it through the aqua blaster to get it looking new again the rear discs were also looking worse for wear, they are probably 7 or 8 years old now but have covered very little mileage. I'll be buying new oem discs and pads soon but for the meantime i cleaned these discs up in the aqua blaster too and then re painted the edges. Then continued to get the last few bits done, heat shields, exhaust, driveshafts etc

Thanks mate I have that reverse light switch plug on my list of things to do today

I always find myself venturing off on some sort of excursion away from what i had originally intended

I then made a start on the ARP rear wheel studs. I decided to tackle this first as it was the job i was dreading most although it actually went very smoothly with the help of an old thread on here that i followed step by step. I also got the diff and shafts installed before tackling the clutch and gearbox I had some ARP bolts which i believe were designed as turbo to manifold bolts but they also happen to be the perfect size for transmission mount so in they went! Love a bit of overkill! Drained the old oil from the gearbox which fortunately was very clean, Good signs!

The following day i seam sealed the areas that i had previously epoxy primed. The tunnel itself would have been a waste of time to strip all the oem underseal off as it was pretty mint so i just gave it a top up coat of Buzzweld WAR. Tomorrow I'll also use WAR on the area i have primed once the seam sealer has set

When i removed the old gearbox i went on a side quest and started stripping part of the floor pan. I finished off removing this section of underseal and wire wheeled any surface corrosion down before using Jenolite to tackle anything that remained. Once that had worked its magic i used Por15 metal etch and then epoxy primed it I will eventually do the whole underside but its very time consuming so I'll be doing it section at a time. Whilst waiting for the Por15 to do its thing, i also got the new flywheel on using 271 loctite so it could then dry over night.