rider

I have a Japan fitted Blitz Super Sound on my car and it sounds like a angry camel snorting, its brilliant and adjustable.

That is a good saving for something that effectively does the same job if the pressure specs are similar.

You have to laugh or weep at the prices some people go for. I doubt he will get any joy at that price and sitting outside exposed isn't going to help the plastic condition over time. These, new were around £100 for the upper and lower cowls. You could always check the supply chain to see if any are still in the system, probably more likely to miss than hit seeing they are discontinued parts but here are a couple of starters for you here that still list the parts: https://carmarka.com/en/toyota-bracket-assy-45286-14939-c0 https://www.toyotapartsprime.com/genuine/toyota-cover_steering_column-4528652190c0.html https://www.toyotapartsprime.com/genuine/toyota-cover_steering_column-4528752200c0.html Long shots, but if you don't ask you'll never know.

I'd find the red leather a bit harsh on the eyes but I'm sure some people would love it. Its a really good price for a good OEM wheel so I'd say to anyone like me who couldn't live with the red it is not a difficult job to dye leather black, or indeed any darker colour than the base colour. You'd just have to forego the red stitching on this wheel to turn it fairly easily into a traditional all black wheel.

I've bought a few JDM parts from US breakers over recent years, mainly via the ebay.com website. What do they want with specific RHD parts? There aren't that many JDM cars in North America to cater to, especially ones needing things like column cowling. So, go and negotiate a deal you are happy with as they will not have a bus load waiting at the door for these parts. Or wait for a serviceable set here in the UK that may happen by next week, or in five years time. Payments are easy to arrange on Forex services at good exchange rates, none of this credit card or PayPal 3% foreign currency transaction fee crap.

FB set for sale

I just ran the part numbers and its giving 17450-46120 for both US and Japan market cars which will make your task of finding one a lot easier.

Is there a difference between US, UK Europe and Japan spec cats?

Seats do rarely give cover for a cars true age unless they have been redone and the bolster wear on the drivers seat is actually worse than on my 110k miler. But, the MOT history is hard to dispute and the gear selector and handbrake don't look particularly handled. Looks to be a bit of a bargain anyway at £33k seeing there is a much higher mileage UK TT6 advertised at the moment for mid 60's.

Loads up on eBay if Toyota don't come through. I got my set via TRD a few years back so you could try them. https://www.ebay.com/itm/164947710068

Last I checked you can still get the HVAC buttons from Toyota. Not cheap - around £70.

I talked to a Midlands outfit a few years back that was recommended to me by a well known car restorer to ask about this and the radiator fresh core and got told no can do. Wrong metallurgy apparently.

Supra badges are a bit of a mystery. Original ones were metal then they became plastic. Probably as part of the facelift weight reduction project. Amayama do stock the black pronged badge, p/n 75314-17010 I think. Other, non Toyota OE badges were just plain flat stick on variety, you'll see from the back of your badge if there were ever prongs that have gone or if there never were any there. A lot of original metal badges were binned because they fade over time and got themselves replaced by the new variant plastic badges, OEM and non-OEM. I paid comfortably over £100 for a NOS gold front a few years ago ready for if I ever paint my car as these were discontinued and unavailable probably 6, 7 years ago now.

And a pretty massive heat shield.

There are no screws, its threaded rubber that turns into a large hole in the cross member. That makes it very simple to adjust them up and down by rotating them.

You could always pretty closely eyeball it from a Supra sales brochure.

I wasn't aware that 040 super white cars ever came with black emblems, I always thought it was either chrome or gold with two mounting prongs sited at the top and bottom of the bull head. Original emblems tallied to original bumpers would have the two holes drilled into the bumper for the OEM emblem. For the definitive on position someone with an original bumper could measure the mounting hole distances to various points on the bumper. The other thing is not many emblems retain the original Supra OE dimensions which lots of years ago on a NZ forum post was given as 80x62 mm. Most badges are a few to quite a few mm larger. At the end of the day though, does a mm here or there really matter?

I've had a bit of an exhaust kind of rumble come about at tick over and actually traced it down to the bonnet vibrating, it was killed by pressing on the front corners of the bonnet. So I've replace the rubber bump stops 90541-15004 that are era specific to many Toyota cars and still available from Toyota. The bump stops I removed are rock hard, whereas the replacement are so supple. You can twist them, bend them and squash them. What a difference fresh rubber makes, I'd recommend people get a pair while they can from Toyota if your car is still on its original bonnet front corner stops.

You are very unlikely to find one in the trade these days but there are a few members holding a spare so hopefully you'll find someone willing to part with their precious part. It probably comes down to what you are prepared to pay. Denso were knocking them out for £50 a unit a few years back and Toyota were reselling them for £650. if no one comes forward you could always float out an offer that people just couldn't refuse then I'm sure one could be prised out of someone's hands somewhere. Try FB with a wanted ad as well, more people buy/sell there these days than on the forum.

There are a couple of good condition leather 3 spokers for sale on eBay at the moment, one sitting in Japan and one in Australia. Both up for a pretty reasonable £600 delivered UK. There will be taxes on top. The leather wheel is a discontinued item and the non-airbag variety is a rare sight so I'm surprised there are a couple of good examples up on eBay. Last I checked, you could still buy the composite alternative new from Toyota. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185286315971 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275074065054

I looked at GPS trackers and the key question with these rechargeable units is how often do you have to recharge them if you cannot wire them into the cars ancillary electrics. It has got to be hard to remember or be bothered to pull a unit regularly just to give it a recharge. Prices must have gone up quite a bit as the rechargeable units I evaluated were more in the £80 range. Though those were the 2g SIM units that you ping yourself with a SMS rather than a unit with a PAYG track option. Then I looked instead at hard wired units but in the end figured if the car gets stolen do I really want to get it back? If I had gone on to fit one, out of preference it'd have been a hard wired 2g SIM unit and they start at around £20 and go North from there with you adding in a PAYG SIM card.

There is a 10% EBC discount code running until the end of the 14th. CUPID10. There are people that rubbish EBC pads, I use them on the Supra and can absolutely confirm that they do work. Good for rotors and other stuff to.

The car with the strange rear light combination is back at Brightwell Auction for a second go this month. https://www.brightwells.com/timed-sale/5237/lot/553473 With the hefty buyers premium plus VAT on top its an interestingly high price guide at £35k to £40k. A tad optimistic I feel. If it does make anywhere near the estimate I'm going to have to have a word with my insurer.

Rarer than hens teeth. You see more sets come up in the USA but these are advertised at US$1,500 to US$2,000 these days.

One aspect often overlooked is the diff mount at the rear of the sub frame. The rubber goes a bit squishy when its aged and can lead to transmission hop with power on/off. When I did my underside refurb the only parts that looked like they needed doing were the two bushes mounting the rear of the differential. They were very soft and pliable compared to the new OEM replacements. If you can rig a camera underneath then you can check to see if you have any diff rocking/hopping going on.