Project Procrastination

[mwilkinson]

James (Retro Roadsports) and his dad (Clive), did a great job loading and transporting the car to me.

It was a team effort in the end with James, Kane, Clive and myself unloading the car and getting it into the garage.  But at last she was home.

 

[rider]

Looking at the body, you might want to ask Lee if he has a plan when he rebuilt that white Supra from the ground up. It'd make sense if there was a written plan of action to tick off as you go along and no point toiling over that if SRD have a tried and proven one to hand.

I can see you are going to have hours of fun ahead. 

[mwilkinson]

I'm good thanks Barry. I've got a plan and James from Retro Roadsports recently rebuilt Darren's (Wile e coyote) white Supra from a shell, so I can revert to him if I need help.

[raddys]

Are you building it all up yourself?

[Rob W]

Looks amazing mate, bet you’re over the moon.

Absolute stunning job done by the guys.

[mwilkinson]

45 minutes ago, raddys said:

Are you building it all up yourself?

Yes.  That's the plan at the minute.

[raddys]

39 minutes ago, mwilkinson said:

Yes.  That's the plan at the minute.

So cool, hats off to you!

[mwilkinson]

Small update from today.

The rear spoiler hadn't been attached to the car and I didn't want to leave it lying around as it will end up damaged.  So I installed it today with help from my wife.

These are the parts required to install the factory rear spoiler, other than the spoiler itself.

From the EPC.

The two white pins aren't listed separately on the EPC, so I can only assume they come with the spoiler itself.

We first put the pads onto the feet of the spoiler.  I cleaned these first with a 20:1 dilution of a general cleaner (G101) to remove any polish or waxes that might interfere with its adhesion.

I then installed each pad.  These are handed and as such there are different part numbers for each side.

Next I installed the locating pins, these are the white things which I said earlier must come with the spoiler itself as they aren't listed separately.

The arrow shaped end goes into the spoiler itself.  These are are the same part each side.

Next you need to place the two locating pin grommets into the boot lid itself.

The pointer on the grommet points inwards to the centre of the car.

You'll then affix the spoiler to the boot lid and click the locating pins into the grommets.

You'll then need to carefully lift the boot lid and install the 2 x bolts on each side.

You'll need an M10 socket for this.  These are an M6 bolt with integral washer and spring washer.

Once tightened the spoiler should be firmly affixed to the car and looking great.

Edited December 17, 2023 by mwilkinson (see edit history)

[mwilkinson]

I've also installed the internal support brackets.  These had been removed and sprayed separately.  I will have to remove these again to waxoil the chassis rails and reinstall the sound deadening.

Other than the brackets there are 14 x M8 bolts. My originals were fine so I've reused these.

As per the EPC.

The brackets go at the base of the b pillar.

I first had to clean out the threads.  Kane had done a great job keeping them clean, but the tapping was a worthwhile precaution.  You'll need an M8 x 1.25 tap.

You'll then need to install the brackets and the 7 x M8 bolts for each side.

Edited December 17, 2023 by mwilkinson (see edit history)

[Wishieftrottle]

...so cool... 

[Sheffy]

Love the flakes in that colour, looks absolutely stunning!

Also thanks for documenting this in such detail 

I'll probably put my car back together in March/April next year so this is going to help me a lot.

I was a bit confused about these brackets because I thought they only came with the targatops to reduce body flex.

But if the online part catalogues are correct for some reason the J-Spec liftback Supras did indeed come with these brackets but not the aerotops, for EU and US-Spec it's the other way around. Kinda weird.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Sheffy (see edit history)

[mwilkinson]

Thanks, appreciate the kind comment.

Both Supras I've owned have had the brackets.  However, they were / are cross over cars (1995/1996), so facelift body and interior, but with non-VVti engine.

[Homer]

6 hours ago, mwilkinson said:

Thanks, appreciate the kind comment.

Both Supras I've owned have had the brackets.  However, they were / are cross over cars (1995/1996), so facelift body and interior, but with non-VVti engine.

My 98 facelift, 94 aero top and 93 RZ all had these brackets.

@mwilkinson I can’t wait to see more pictures of the rebuild process. I am 100% saving and using these as a reference for when I start rebuilding my Supra properly. Great job so far and best of luck!

[mwilkinson]

I hope I won't disappoint.

I spent a good few hours under the car yesterday removing tape from all the bolt holes and then cleaning all the threads.  I'm documenting all the underbody bolt and grommet holes and will advise on bolt size and thread pitch.  I also intend on visually documenting all the body grommets and plugs with the associated part numbers.

I need to order some waxoil and sound deadening too.

[rider]

If you only plan on using the car in the dry then waxoil probably isn't really needed and it would hide away all the new paint which any onlookers or a future buyer would surely wow at, over say seeing yet another car with a black coated underside. There are other options that could well be worth having a look into seeing it is going to be an essentially dry use car. Some OEM's are fitting electronic rust modules to new cars as an aftermarket option so that could be a means to maintain the nice paint and where any rust then did happen by, that would be very apparent and could be nipped early.

The jury is out on the impact of rust modules probably at least in part because they haven't been around for that long. It'd be an easy thing to fit neatly and it'd avoid the slopping around with waxoyl to contend with on yourself and your garage floor. It is something I'd consider on a full body respray shell.

[mwilkinson]

It's only the box sections of the car that will get the waxoil treatment.  So it won't impact on any visible elements of the car.  The underside of the car is already stone chipped in black.

Edited December 19, 2023 by mwilkinson (see edit history)

[wile e coyote]

Just had a catch up

Great to see it coming together 

[mwilkinson]

Little update. 

I had a slight delay sorting out another project.

James at Retro Roadsports got a load of parts plated for me.  I got these back today.  I can now advance a number of the sub assemblies.

Edited February 19 by mwilkinson (see edit history)

[TuneR]

I aint afraid of no reassembly....

[Wishieftrottle]

very cool!

[mwilkinson]

Trying to sort through this lot is a challenge!  I'm not sure many of these plated parts will be used.  I just threw in a load of spare toyota nuts, bolts and other bits for good measure.  I've no doubt a few will come in handy during the reassembly, probably the M6 body bolts.

The proton pack is one of two I have.  They came via the Haslab crowd funding platform for the Afterlife movie. 

They have full light and sound.

I've got the PKE and trap on order through the most recent project they've advertised.

[mwilkinson]

So I spent today reassembling the handles for the car.

These are the main components.

The black plastic parts of the handles needed to be cleaned of any overspray.  I cleaned them and applied a few coats of Eastwoods Plastic Resurfacer.

I then cleaned out the threads for the M6 x 1 threaded bolt holes with a tap.

I also cleaned all the ancillary parts in my ultrasonic cleaner. I just used a solution of water and detergent.

I then inserted both white plastic handle guides.

I then had to install the latch mechanism and spring.  This is a little bit challenging, especially if you don't want to scratch the hell out of the newley refurbished parts.

I have a set of spare handles, so practiced this a few times on those before committing to these.

All the main door handle parts are handed, and labelled as such.

I bought some M6 x 3.5 cm clevis pins.  I threaded these and cut them down to 3cm to act as replacement pins.  I attached these and used loctite thread lock to prevent them from coming undone.

 

Edited March 1 by mwilkinson (see edit history)

[mwilkinson]

I then attached the backing plates.  These were also cleaned and sprayed with Eastwood Plastic Resurfacer. I was able to just pop these back onto the rivets.

I then reattached the clips for the door release.

I've used some castrol LM grease to lubricate the handle slide area.

I then found the two locks and placed these into the handle, making sure the two little plastic clips overlaped correctly.

You can read up on the rebuilding of the locks on page 12.  This included purchasing a new drivers lock and changing the keys / pins within the lock to match my car's original key.

Installing into the door is relatively straightforward.  Just 2 x M6 bolts with a 10mm head.  You can see both the bolt hole locations in the next two images.

Next was to affix the loom to the door.  There are three clips on each side.

Although not photographed, there are then two rods from the main door catch mechanism inside the door that must be connected to the handle.  The larger of the two connects to the door pull mechanism.  The smaller one connects to the barrel mechanism.

These are easy to connect up.

Finished product.

Edited March 1 by mwilkinson (see edit history)

[TuneR]

Probably been said before but incredible eye to detail, I'd also like to commend you on your small spirit level's tool storage. It definitely appreciates being level when not working.

[mwilkinson]

Good spot.

It's not actually part of the magnetic shelf storage, but just lives there when not being used.