SteveR Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 Lovely stuff. I will go back to page 1 and read the whole things ASAP as I suspect you're providing a handy guide for a lot of the restoration work I want to have done on mine! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwilkinson Posted Wednesday at 10:06 AM Author Share Posted Wednesday at 10:06 AM Small update. I've swapped over the yellow buttons on my heating and a/c control unit. I cleaned all the interior white plastic parts and used isopropyl alcohol to clean up the circuit boards. No gunk, just dust etc. The button caps clip off from the front. No need to open up the unit. I've seen others restor the white look by placing them in hydrogen peroxide and using UV light. I'll keep my old ones as spares and maybe give this a go to see how well they come up. I'm just about to strip down my steering column and refurb it. I then need to send a load of parts off for zinc plating and powdercoating - including a number of parts from the steering column itself. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TuneR Posted Wednesday at 10:35 AM Share Posted Wednesday at 10:35 AM Awesome, never realised the buttons were supposed to be white. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwilkinson Posted Wednesday at 10:56 AM Author Share Posted Wednesday at 10:56 AM (edited) 21 minutes ago, TuneR said: Awesome, never realised the buttons were supposed to be white. I'll have a go at the hydrogen peroxide today and let you know if it makes a difference. Will save everyone a few pennies, not having to buy replacement buttons. Edited Wednesday at 10:57 AM by mwilkinson (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwilkinson Posted Thursday at 04:12 AM Author Share Posted Thursday at 04:12 AM (edited) Old heater control unit buttons are in the hydrogen peroxide. Just need a few days in the sun to see if it makes any difference. I'll also put them under a UV light tomorrow if I think the sun isn't doing enough. Brake calipers are in paint. I got these images through from Kane. Edited Thursday at 04:12 AM by mwilkinson (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwilkinson Posted Saturday at 09:47 AM Author Share Posted Saturday at 09:47 AM (edited) No change in the colour of the buttons when left in the hydrogen peroxide in the sun. Have moved them under some artificial UV light. Update: Left them under the light for a whole day and no change. This isn't a solution to revamping the buttons. Edited Saturday at 06:03 PM by mwilkinson (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwilkinson Posted Saturday at 07:11 PM Author Share Posted Saturday at 07:11 PM Steering Column: So the next sub-assembly in need to work on is the steering column. There is surface rust on a number of the components, and I just can't put it back into the car like that. Pictures of the column at the start. I want to dismantle the column down to the point where I can refurbish the main steel frame. This basically means taking it fully apart. It's a bit daunting, and I can't find anything online where anyone else has done this. I used the workshop manual to do this, and followed the instructions step by step. Here are pictures from the dismantling process. Removing the back end of the loom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwilkinson Posted Saturday at 07:28 PM Author Share Posted Saturday at 07:28 PM The ignition barrel is affixed to the steering column using 2 x shear head bolts. The bolts can only be removed by drilling the heads and using an extraction bit. The next step was to remove 2 x pressed studs. This required a Toyota special tool, or my home made one Once the studs were removed I could slide the column out of the housing. Once disassembled this is all the parts. I've cleaned some up in the ultrasonic cleaner, and wire wheeled the ignition barrel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishieftrottle Posted yesterday at 07:21 AM Share Posted yesterday at 07:21 AM Cannot wait to see the assembly process with all the new shiny parts Great job, as always! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwilkinson Posted yesterday at 11:47 AM Author Share Posted yesterday at 11:47 AM 4 hours ago, Wishieftrottle said: Cannot wait to see the assembly process with all the new shiny parts Great job, as always! There are some limitations to how well I can refurbish this part. The plastic box on the main shaft has a series of pressed in metal fittings. I can't remove these so I can only treat any surface rust on the parts and clean them up. There are a few parts that have been hardened / tempered that can't be plated. These are the parts with teeth,that are part of the height adjudtment mechanism for the steering wheel. The plating process can affects bolt hardness and introduce an element of hydrogen embrittlement. This is why I won't use replated suspension or subframe bolts. It is possible to reduce the affect when plating, but this needs to be specifically discussed with you plating company. Finally, the main metal frame has hardened teeth, but also has bonded aluminium mounting points. I don't think these would handle the plating process, there may be some form of excelerated galvanic corrosion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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