tintinmt

Ref Royal - I have had two done - very well.

I have found this guy good for steering wheels - http://royalsteeringwheels.com/ D Class in Chobham near Woking have a very good reputation for upholstery.

Does anyone have recommendations on sources for 5 x 114.3 fitment BBS wheels, other than Ebay / Gumtree in the UK? There are so few available, I am seriously considering buying on Yahoo in Japan via a broker.

well... it's out. What a pain in the ass! I have spent so much time on this and used (and broken) so many tools, I can barely bring myself the think about it. Suffice it say that a Dremel type drill with a small stone grinding bit allowed me to remove the hardened tools that broke off in the bolt. I have no idea how I would have done it without. I also have no idea how that damned thing resisted all that I threw at it. In the end it had to be drilled, ground, filed and cut into oblivion.

Too late for this occasion but I recommend Venhill.co.uk as they were good when I had a set made for my Lexus. Made to order and quite reasonable.

Nice one. I found that changing the boot lid rubbers made a surprising difference. Follow the instructions in threads on here. I think the cars are fairly noisy at the rear generally though.

Look where it is now.

I will be going to Geneva next week and will put this on my list. I fear that the view will be a bit more cluttered by the time I get there.

Would anyone care to update this thread with recommendations or traders for Toyota fitment alloy wheels. I'm in the market for something like BBS LM 18 in a staggered set. Can't afford another set of original BBS but have another car on the way that could use something similar.

Yeah. Leaving it now is definitely the sensible option. I was clutching a straws for an alternative as it is bugging me a bit. Access is awful, so the only time it might make sense would be if the engine and gearbox were out - which hopefully isn't going to happen any time soon. As to why the extractor snapped - I guess the tool was crap. It wasn't as though I put much effort into it. Lastly, the reason the head came off in the first place was pretty severe corrosion just under the head of the bolt. It has eaten away at the top of the thread. Thanks for the comments.

Hoping for some inspiration in my battle with an exhaust bracket bolt. The bracket had snapped so I got a replacement from Chris. Unfortunately, when installing the new bracket the head of one of the bolts to the bell housing sheared off at the head. Access is tricky. I bought a stud extractor tool (the type where you drill a hole in the centre of the old bolt and then insert the tool which has a sort of reverse thread) I actually managed a reasonable hole but when I put one of the tools in and cranked it with a ratchet bar, the top of the tool sheared off in the bolt leaving me back at square one. Any thoughts on what to try next??

If you have history for the car and photos of it from the past I'm sure the current owner would be interested.

In my experience the boot rubber can cause a surprising amount of noise whilst still looking OK. It's not a particularly difficult or expensive job provided you follow the advice threads on here.

http://www.venhill.co.uk I used this firm to have some custom lines made for my Lexus. Nice quality, made to measure and quite reasonable pricing - I thought.

I love these wheels - which is why I have the same on my car.

We would have sent out a search party if we'd known where to send it. Nice read as usual. Keep up the good work

I recently did a similar thing - fitting Supra Turbo brakes to my Lexus GS430. I had a set of braided lines made up by a company called Vennhill Engineering in Dorking. Seems like nice stuff especially as the ends are adjustable to get the perfect fit. The price was comparable to standard equipment.

Hola

I sense that this might be concluding so I am going to share my very limited experience. I have a 1993 NA Supra and a 2003 Lexus GS430. For the Supra, I recently had all four calipers refurbished and replaced all four discs and flexible hoses plus a change of fluid. I was horrified by the condition of the calipers before refurb but I hadn't noticed any lack of braking in normal driving. As far as I know, the Lexus shares a very similar brake set up to the Supra. This is despite the Lexus surely being much heavier and considerably more powerful. You would expect that Lexus had fitted at least adequate brakes as standard. My current car and one that I drove new years ago, both give the distinct impression that you could arrive at a corner travelling too fast for the brakes to save you from the hedge or worse. This is probably a perception as opposed to reality, but I certainly felt it. My solution for the Lexus has been to fit lowering springs and Supra Turbo front brakes. This solved my issues with the car without a dramatic difference in any aspect of performance. My feeling is that the springs reduced the diving under braking and wallowing into corners. In normal road driving the assumed greater braking performance is probably more in the mind than anything, but it's still nice to have. I should say that the front discs and lower ball joints needed replacing so it seemed to make sense to do the additional work at the same time. Of course I'm now slightly worried that I should be upgrading the rear brakes. I'm going to be leaving the Supra brakes alone now but do plan to take it on a track day soon.

Welcome

They are different front (48157-24010) to rear (48257-24010). I bought from TCB recently. Have also seen them listed on E-bay.

I have sent Chris an e-mail as requested......

That would be appreciated.

Looking for a good used exhaust support / mounting bracket. Clamps the exhaust to the gearbox. Part number thought to be 17506-46180 [ATTACH=CONFIG]216188[/ATTACH]

Freehold unit / building for private car storage wanted. Suitable for 6+ cars Location - West M25 area junctions 10 to 17