Underside refurb

[tomgeer]

My car has been in dry storage for almost a decade, I’m just documenting this restoration work on the site for the sake of the cars service history.

I removed the rear subframe and shotblasted and painted all the components with POR15 paint and a Matt black top coat. I have used Superpro bushes all round, the ball joints were all in fantastic condition and did not require replacing so I decided to refurbish all the original suspension arm components and fit poly bushes. For the subframe I used genuine OEM bushes.

I was surprised at how solid the subframe was after removal, I replaced all the camber bolts with genuine parts from Paul at TCB, Paul also supplied the full Superpro bush kit, I have replaced the coilovers with tein flex and fit brand new 18 inch wheels “rota gtr-d” from Paul at Whifbitz.

Brake callipers have been fully refurbished and re painted in black, the calliper rebuild parts were supplied by Chris Wilson. I also replaced all the handbrake components courtesy of inchcape Toyota.

Whilst the subframe was removed I decided to replace all the brake lines and fuel hard lines that run underneath the car, I replaced the long brake lines, and fuel lines with kunifer hard lines re-using the original OEM covers.

I replaced the alternator with a refurbished unit form Lee at SRD and I’ve replaced every vacuum hose from blue to black silicone pipes.

In total I have spent around £10,000 restoring the car, I don’t intend to sell it but I thought it is interesting to document this work for future reference. 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by tomgeer (see edit history)

[TuneR]

Nice job, need to do similar to mine but need to do a seal in the diff as well. How does the Superpro kit feel, extra NVH, etc? Probably tough to tell in isolation given the amount of changes at one time.

[mwilkinson]

Did you document any of the brake and fuel line replacement?

[tomgeer]

7 hours ago, TuneR said:

Nice job, need to do similar to mine but need to do a seal in the diff as well. How does the Superpro kit feel, extra NVH, etc? Probably tough to tell in isolation given the amount of changes at one time.

I haven’t driven it yet so can’t comment, the car needs to go for geo set up and haven’t booked it in yet, I am intending to do the front end next and have all the bushes and parts to do that. I am told the Superpro bushes are very good and NVH is minimal, I was also recommended to fit OEM diff mount bushes as solid or poly bushes are the worst culprit for NVH.

I would be disappointed if it isn’t a noticeable improvement over the stock 1996 rubber bushes

[tomgeer]

7 hours ago, mwilkinson said:

Did you document any of the brake and fuel line replacement?

I didn’t really I’m afraid, once I start working I get carried away and keep going until it’s done or I’m told to get in the house by my wife . I just removed the hard lines whilst the rear subframe was off the car and used them as a template to bend the new pipes into shape. I reused the original rubber lines as there was nothing wrong with them (I think they are Teflon lined or something so sure they will be fine and worse case scenario an easy replacement at a later date. I attached a photo of one of the brake lines being made up as an example, just tape it together as you go so it keeps its shape. To be honest the original pipes weren’t in bad order but it would be daft to not replace them whilst access was easy.

if anyone is thinking of doing this themselves it’s straight forward enough. Buy a brake flaring kit and a little cheap pipe bender from Amazon and a few brake pipe fittings about £50 in total. Most of the bends can be formed by hand but you need a bender for the tighter ones to avoid kinks in the pipe.

The brake pipe sizes are 3/16 and the fuel lines are 5/16, the brake pipe cost £22+vat and the kunifer fuel lines cost £64+vat…. You need two packs of the 5/16 line. You will NOT be able to do this without at least dropping the subframe substantially to gain access, it’s much easier with the subframe off completely.

the most difficult part is putting all the little pipe clips and undercarriage trim back on at the end, this was fiddly.