Probby Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 (edited) Hi folks, Some of you may recognise the car in this thread as it's been owned by a few people within the forum (I won't post any names as I'll let them chime in as/if they wish) I suppose a litle background; I've always wanted a Supra but left it so long that I'd concluded it was either now or never - with prices on the rise I doubt I would have been able to convince myself to spend the money some are asking for these cars (In my mind they aren't exactly value for money right now, knowing what they went for only a few years ago !) I've not really purchased it as an investment (which I think in these times is rare) more as someone who's always wanted one and wanted to scratch the itch as it were. I was looking for a mechanically sound car that perhaps needed a bit of work or something I could put my own touch on. I've seen a lot of pigs with lipstick on looking at these, and other, classics so I guess what attracted me to this car is it was honestly advertised, warts and all, and it had a lot of history in terms of stuff on the forum and actual paperwork (again rare for fresh imports or flips) So I'll be largely fixing bits that are broke, upgrading bits I don't like and hopefully just enjoying driving it. Look wise I think I'd quite like it to sit in the OEM+ category so we shall see how financially ruinous that avenue turns out as and when. I'll post some of my more recent adventures when I get time Edit: Pictures below shortly after I got it home, unwashed and still full of stuff Edited March 17 by Probby (see edit history) 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probby Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 (edited) No Stereo Power So the first job I decided to tackle was the absence of power to the stereo, apparently the stereo hasn't worked for probably the best part of 10 years which, whilst I agree not entirely essential, I did quite fancy listening to the radio occasionaly but more importantly having some sort of hands free for my phone. I started removing dash panels to get a feel for the general state of the wiring. The car had aftermarket gauges, a boost controller and a turbo timer so there was a LOT of wiring under there, non of it particually neat and using the usual array of household choc block/lucas style crimps and of course twisted wires and tape. I didn't think this would bode well for the stereo. I was wrong. The stereo, bar a couple of wire taps (with obligitary live/chopped wires still present) was largely untouched. Checked the usual fuses but quickly found there was no power coming into the orange interior harness. Some further rather uncomfortable crawling around took me to the pasenger side junction box where I found my next problem -damp ! Having finally got hold of a JDM wiring diagram (with importantly, the correct wire colours) I found there was no power on the green connector located in that junction box. What I found was a bit of a shock, just that one pin had infact corroded and completely rusted out. Rather than try and patch this I set about finding the correct type pin so I could extend the damaged wire and re-crimp. This turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected ... The pin in question is part number 8100-0458 (T-083) (It's a Sumitomo Pin) I ended up ordering from auto-click.co.uk which fixed the issue. However I had a feeling the issue might have been caused, over time, by the damp in the car ... Edited March 17 by Probby (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probby Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 (edited) Wiring & Damp So my next job was to tackle the damp issue. Initially it appeared most of the damp was under the ECU but the carpet was dry (I found out the Supra's carpet is good at hiding damp, the plastic base the carpet is attached to does a good job of this) however the foam under this was sodden with water. On removal of the passenger seat I found that the rear passenger footwell was also swimming in water. But to get all of this out I really needed to finish the wiring tidy up I started when I began investigating the stereo issue. The car came with three oil temp/oil pressure/boost gauges which were of the older Blitz variety, These had been mounted in a modified Subaru (I think) triple gauge pod whcih was on the side of the dash. They all worked but they were past their best, they steamed up when the car was cold and were pretty hard to read and the mounting of the gauge pod wasn't really to my taste (it'd had been wood screwed into the side of the dash and rattled) I also wasn't a fan of the turbo timer, it was wired in such a way that the car could still be driven with the handbrake released and I didn't need it anyway so that was on its way. There was also a boost controller, which didn't control boost, but did have a helpful peak/warn boost feature. So that was on its way as well. I would ultimately replace these with three prosport gauges with peak/warn function for oil pressure/temp and boost readings. This is what I found under the dash And ... Much of this was twisted together and taped, some of which was fed by an unfused 60A supply direct from the battery. I have a real ick when it comes to bad wiring in cars so I set about disconnecting the battery and cut all of it out resoldering and fixing connectors as I went. I then made myself a junction box which would provide power to all of my accessories from this point forward, each circuit fused correctly... All of this took about 3 hours. And I hadn't even began to feed the new wiring/sensors for the new gauges yet Edited March 17 by Probby (see edit history) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarleyFDMD Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Probably not exactly what you had in mind to the beginning of Supra ownership! But i should imagine a lot of Supras suffer with this sort of wiring.. i removed a lot of similar wiring and connectors from my dash loom too. Post some photos of the car so we can all see your new purchase! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probby Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 1 minute ago, HarleyFDMD said: Probably not exactly what you had in mind to the beginning of Supra ownership! But i should imagine a lot of Supras suffer with this sort of wiring.. i removed a lot of similar wiring and connectors from my dash loom too. Post some photos of the car so we can all see your new purchase! It's nothing new to be fair, older cars suffer a little more in this regard(I believe) largely due to how long they've been around and simply because they were easier for people to dick about with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Glad you are enjoying getting your teeth into it, I have never been confident/capable re electrics hence why the radio wasn't even investigated/fixed, I only ever swapped in a Chris Wilson FDC for the HKS one when I was chasing the poor boosting initially. Once I sorted the boosting out by taking it back to just a restrictor ring and boost gauge not using the controller I left it all as it, just serviced it and did a few thousand miles a year, fun but uneventful bar the front bumper issues, minor speedbump scuffs me, crack/plaster a careless McLaren employee! It needed someone with the time and skills to give the tidy/tlc it needed so glad it's getting that. It might make you poor getting it back looking OEM but I'm certain it'll churn out the miles nicely in the meantime and thereafter. I'm not missing it as much as I feared I might (yet), the second turbo pull I'm trying to forget when in the very linear V8. I don't think Martin (guy I got it from is still active), Andrew (SupraAyf) definitely is and I'm sure he'll enjoy seeing it back to its former glory, he had it when it was a pristine fresh import, he got the kit all fitted and over serviced/barely used it, the best sort of previous owner!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probby Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 Hey @Scooterfancy seeing you here I know we've spoken about all of the above and plenty more over the last few months but just to be clear to anyone who might be reading this - all of things discussed in this thread were known well before I bought the car - the whole buying experience from @Scooterwas supurb - refreshing to buy a car with my eyes open and honestly that was one of the very big plus points around buying this particular car. Appreciate the great condition its been kept in from a servicing/mechanical perspective, it ran faultlessly on my fairly lenthy journey back home ! As for making me poor - it certainly is doing that - Supra tax is strong currently but I'm doing my best to keep costs under control. Mainly by lying to myself/my wife about how much I've spent As for previous owners, I reached out to @SupraAyfwho sent me some great pics of the car early on and filled in some of the blank re it's history. It's a great community here and it's been really interesting to see what the cars been up to. Heres to hoping I can only improve on what's already been done. Or not. We shall see 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter P Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Hi mate. Welcome and nice seeing another Supra being brought back to its former glory. Hats off to you as wiring is my cryptonite! lol. Much happier with the mechanical side, hence I leave the electrics to the pro’s. Like the junction box, very tidy. I’m guessing you’re still in the investigation phase as far as the source of the water on the passenger side. Unfortunately sounds like it could be a failed heater matrix which is well documented on the forum. How do you find the heater controls? Will it blow warm/cold etc? Another one could be door seals especially where the window glass contacts at the top as there is no frame. Just a suggestion or two to consider and check. Whatever the cause, I’m sure you’ll get it sorted. It will be worth it in the end mate, keep up the good work. All the best, Pete 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 Old thread and pics missing but hopefully helpful 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probby Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 On 3/19/2024 at 7:26 AM, Peter P said: Hi mate. Welcome and nice seeing another Supra being brought back to its former glory. Hats off to you as wiring is my cryptonite! lol. Much happier with the mechanical side, hence I leave the electrics to the pro’s. Like the junction box, very tidy. I’m guessing you’re still in the investigation phase as far as the source of the water on the passenger side. Unfortunately sounds like it could be a failed heater matrix which is well documented on the forum. How do you find the heater controls? Will it blow warm/cold etc? Another one could be door seals especially where the window glass contacts at the top as there is no frame. Just a suggestion or two to consider and check. Whatever the cause, I’m sure you’ll get it sorted. It will be worth it in the end mate, keep up the good work. All the best, Pete Hey Pete. Thanks for the kind words and the tips, when I bought the car the heater was perfect A/C was good, heat was strong so unless I've been incredibly unlucky I don't think it's that, you'll see the pics I'm about to post which strongly suggest it was the windscreen ... but nothing to say there isn't multiple leaks ! Re door seals, I did remove the passenger side seal and metal frame and seal behind the metal frame (as I have seen it before on Toyota's where water gets behind this bit and runs down the inside of the door and in. I also reseated the seal as bits of it looked like they were not in the metal frame. Water eh ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probby Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 20 hours ago, Scooter said: Old thread and pics missing but hopefully helpful Cheers Scott ! Unfortunately the wiring diagram is missing now (way back when machine doesn't have it either sadly) when I take the bumper off I'll have a proper look ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probby Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 (edited) Windscreen So a kind gentleman came and removed/resealed my windscreen on Wednesday. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find folks who will do this with older cars. Like alarms, everyone wants the easy money (cough, Ghost, Pandora) so I phoned about 10 companies (with either no reply or they just wouldn't touch it) before I remembered one I used by proxy for my Subaru when it was in for paint. Anyway, the screen came out in around 60 seconds (from my previous expierence, this is usually not the case!), the chap reckoned it was likely fitted by a body shop or similar; evidenced by the inconsistent bead and the fact that multiple parts of the screen had little or not sealant touching them. The roof appears to have been painted (I assume after some bonnet/roof contact) and the screen was put in on top of this. The old screen came out with most of the paint inside of the frame attached to it so I don't rate the paint/primer they used in any case Anyway, post removal You can see the bit nearest the tweeter is looking a bit sad, like it's been the conduit for quite a bit of water over the years. Perfect placement of that hole so that it leaks water all over the junction boxes below and ECU ... And the screen itself, immediately after it was removed, if you zoom in a bit you can clearly see where the selant is missing ... Anyway, after a brief tidy up, some primer and a fat bead of sealant the original screen (and rescued outer trim, highly unusual!) the screen was back in. I then made a brew and sat pouring water all over the car with a hosepipe for about 30 minutes. Not a drop in the car ... hopefully it stays that way ! Edited March 21 by Probby (see edit history) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probby Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 Quarter Glass/Rear Speakers So I thought I'd check to see if the quarter glass had been out any point and see what lived under the rear plastics (as I had to run some cables to the boot anyway) so I removed the remaining interior trim panels over the rear quarters. I was glad I did, both seat belt top bolts were finger tight and the passenger side only in by around 2-3 turns ! The rear quarter glass looked factory, I checked the bead with my borescope just to see it had sealed all around the window and all looked good (no evidence of water inside/or outside the wing) so decided not to go any further. However whilst sniffing around in that corner I found bead of butyl around the plastic splash guard that stops water getting into the drivers sealt belt mechanisim had dried out and crumbled. I gave all of that a good clean up and replaced the butyl, as well as throwing in a spot of sound deadening for good measure. I found a couple of fairly new looking pioneer 17cm speakers in the cages (complete with cross threaded/miss matched screws, I love the 90s) which I figured I'd keep as they were only rear fill speakers anyway and they looked ok. Having got the stereo working (and noted how bad it sounded) I figured I'd take a look at the front speakers and see what horrors awaited. Thankfully the original speaker boxes were still there but unfortunately, so were the original speakers - looking a litte sorry for themselves ... Must be those new first generation bluetooth speakers TB Developments bracket (and port blocking piece of posh metal) ordered as well as some Focal 4" drivers. Hopefully that'll do the trick. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraAyf Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 (edited) Poor Supie, this is the engine bay about 17-years ago when it had a Chargespeed bonnet fitted. .......and where has the time gone come to think of it!! It may be looking a bit sad for itself at the moment but I think the OP is the right man for the renovation job. Good luck, Andrew P S. Lots of top quality bling thanks to the really fine work of Colin and his magic fingers. Edited April 1 by SupraAyf (see edit history) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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