BigA

When you dont have a press make a buck instead. Just trying some metal forming techniques for the replacement of the rusty bung holes and seems to be working out OK so far.

Have mainly been doing a lot of stripping work on the wagon as of late and have been working on the rear tailgate section. Stripped all the sound deadening from the foot well area for the rear seat and found some more rust so have sprayed it with rust converter and working on some new metal to go in.

My replacement doors are all packed up and ready to be shipped from Australia

Got one of my badges ceramic coated in titanium which is the colour I want to for all my trim and I have to say it looks pretty good. Will be a nice contrast against the paint colours

Managed to score 4 doors out of Aus for $150 each from the same guy that supplied me my rear lower cut and the badge for my guard so I'm happy about that. Also hoping he has another mirror for my passengers side door

Bloody Aussie repairs. Hey let's rivet a piece of galv metal over this really large piece of rust, no one will know. Looks like this whole bottom section will need to be replaced.

So I found out yesterday that the back panel at the bottom finishes like that after one of the guys from AUS confirming it over FaceTime. Also noted that the tailgate on mine has a metal inner piece where it should be fabric. Will need to investigate that further. Also the bottom of the tailgate on mine has some riveted on metal that I assumed was factory and to find out it's not. More dodgey repairs by the looks of things and I'm scared to find out what's underneath.

Stripped off the paint in the rear tailgate area a d only found a little bit of rust on the lip that holds the rubber in place. But the bottom of the panel is pretty warped so will have to sort that out. Also been trying to find out if there is meant to be a panel at the bottom as it looks unfinished when looking at it currently.

I have been stripping out the interior as of late and sandblasting some of the surface rust that I have found. Also annoyed that the bolts for the front seats are located underneath the body and only one at the top on each side of the rear.

Got frustrated with the doors today due to the issues I have been finding as i have been doing the repairs. Metal is way to thin in lots of places so I am blowing holes through the metal even on the lowest setting on my MIG welder. Going to go back to my original option of getting the 4 doors that I had seen on Yahoo. Basically the doors are all warped right on the edges and issues on each of them that I have decided not to continue to try and repair them. I will focus on the lower sills and any internal structural rust that I have found and come back to external panels later.

Also created the rear lower sill including the inner structure which I will also have to replicate on the other side.

More patch work done today in the doors. Had to redo the rear door as I did a silly thing by putting to much heat into the panel and warped it. Just tacked in place for now and will gradually weld it this time to get even distribution of heat.

Tacked in one of the new lower side sills today after replacing some more inner structure on the passengers side. Some more fitment refining to do but I think it's going to look really good once done.

New piece made up for the rear tailgate. Just need to figure out a way of bending a 2mm edge at the bottom of it, but I think some flat bar in the vice should do the trick.

At the moment I am still weighing up best bang for buck. Looking at the toyota series engines anything like the 1jz/2jz is so expensive to buy and the 2gr-fse/2gr-fe option is hell of a lot cheaper. Hadn't really thought much on engine management side of things as I have e yet to get to that point. I have heard from someone who use to work for toyota is that the fe has better options as far as modifications you can do like cams etc and with the fse it can become a little more expensive.