Snoozin

So the engine bay thing kind of took off. Some egging on by a certain lanky Auckland member... Motor out. 20181216_135918 by Richard Opie, on Flickr You can see, there's multiple useless holes in the firewall. These include, but are not restricted to the original heater inlet/outlet, brake booster, loom, aircon and all the other weird shit that I don't need anymore. Same goes for the brackets on the firewall. So what next? KP61 Phone-1 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Trekked down to see @oftensideways with the KP in tow. For those of you who don't know Sean, he's a freakin wizard, and a top bloke to boot. Someone I am privileged to consider among my mates. He'd agreed to weld up the engine bay for me, and with Bex being away visiting her family over the break it was a great excuse for me to get out of the house and go for a bit of a drive. KP61 Phone-2 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I didn't really get many shots in progress, but here's what the firewall looked like when it was time to load up and hit the road (the next day, even!). All of the large holes have been filled with steel patches. MIG'd in place then TIG welded to finish. The little stuff with captive nuts on the other side have been filled by MIG welding. Then a bunch of hammer and dolly work to get the shape back. And so we took off home. Straight into @sheepers shed... as I said, this all happened a bit quicker than I am used to. KP61 Phone-3 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Front off, subframe and suspension out. Then onto the labourious job of prepping for paint. KP61 Phone-4 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is after the initial prep work for a coat of high build primer. You'll note the brake line holes and etc in the inner guards have also been filled. Thought it was a good idea while I was down at Seans to do it once and properly. This first prep really started to reveal just how good the job Sean did was. High spots at an absolute minimum - which is great, as these are way harder to fix than low spots, for obvious reasons. KP61 Phone-5 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Sheepers sprayed the first coat of primer on the bay that same night. Was a fairly long day, but super cool nonetheless to see an inkling of what the final product was going to be like while the primer was still wet. Promising. Of course, lots, and lots, and lots of sanding still to come... KP61 Phone-6 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is after a wet sand. A whole days worth of wet sanding. You can see all the red spot filler on the firewall. This is ALL WE NEEDED TO FILL IN. Let that sink in for a while. After the amount of welding heat and bashing that had gone into the firewall, the requirement to crack out the bog was slim to nil in the end. That's how damn good Sean is. Regardless of how good it was, I ended up with trench-hands from being in wet gloves all day, which was equal parts gross and hilarious. But then the second coat of primer went on... KP61 Phone-7 by Richard Opie, on Flickr HOW GOOD. The followup to this was pretty much a rinse and repeat of the earlier scenario. But with more hand sanding, and less power assistance. Definitely a learning process, figuring out how best to make the paper do the work, while maintaining a smooth surface ready for the base coat. KP61 Phone-8 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This was about the moment I began to properly fizz. Couldn't stay in the shed while it was being sprayed as I didn't have appropriate respiratory protection, but when the door rolled up... this shot of the bay coated in a colour matched red was the result. Not bad? Major tent pants moment was still to come, however. KP61 Phone-9 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Look at that! You could bloody go swimming in that gloss. Sheeper was a little bit apprehensive to try the clearcoat I bought (that was recommended by the joker at CarColors Albany) since different product can apparently yield very different results if you're not familiar with spraying it. But how good is the result, testament to the multi-talents of the lanky fella on the gun. A couple of runs for sure, and a little bit of dirt got in the paint - expected for spraying it in a garage. But nothing that can't be very easily fixed. Today was a day off working on it - from go to whoa this took 5 days in total. I'm heading back tomorrow to touch up the underseal in the guards and also reassemble the car, take it back to the shed it lives in and crack on with the engine while I let the paint harden enough to wet sand or cut/polish the imperfections out. Thanks for looking.

I fitted an adaptor from a GX81 with an auto box to my T50. Maybe it will fit a W series. It just screwed into the spot where the cable normally goes, and spits out the relevant signal. $20 or so from pick a part. I am using a Stack ST3800 series speedo.

It's a Starlet so it's worth maybe 1500 - 2k max.

Been a long time since I looked at this, due to obvious reasons. Anyway, pulled it out of it's corner in George's shed, and washed all the crud off it a short while ago. 20180520_122558 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20180520_122541 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20180520_130720 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Before it got put away, it has had a new/modified body loom by Nick the Sparky. All of the lights/wipers/fan/dash/fuel pump etc all works on it again now, battery is relocated to the boot with an isolator, various other things. The electric mirrors even work now, for the first time since I have owned it. I also installed finished the fuel tank, and sealed it with that POR15 kit. Made a right mess, and had to repaint it. Now it's shiny black with some metallic flake in it because the painter thought it'd be a giggle. Uh, did some other stuff too. Just a phone photo for now, but hopefully I can recommence with good shots in due course. 20180520_161320 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I've been pretty disillusioned with it, but have decided to try and have one last crack at being interested in it and if I can't make meaningful progress then it needs to leave my possession. But fairly confident I can sort something. Sheepers popped around and helped me take the engine out the other day, so I can bugger off and fill in all the holes that are in the bay.

^ I'm picking it's the cord, or the source unit has a cover or something preventing full engagement of the plug so only one contact is working.

Results speak volumes. That's goddam awesome!

Can you register it with a p/plate TOOTYM?

Yeh rogee.

Someone remind me, I keep forgetting.

Thanks man, appreciated! Good luck on making your trip!

That's the one that became Stans, right?

Hey mate, looking good and progressing quick! Could you let me know the make and part number of that idle control valve? Looks useful for my application!

I have some you can steal out of a KP.

This is good, old red RWD Toyotas marketed at women are the picks of the whole bunch.

Not overly. It's an '89 Turbo with low km. The final year of the turbo, all were turbo S spec. The watercooled stuff is beginning to follow it's aircooled cuzzy bros now though, partly why I got back into the market when I could.

It'll still cost another $86k in repairs and maintenance.

How does that even work, would the fluid just not take the shortest path to the nearest bleeder every time?

Yeah I mean the inside/outside bleeders.

Mint, cheers for that. So start with outside then go to inside. Sounds like it's tedious!

Seems to be running pretty well now, hot starts haven't been a problem again (yet) and it goes well. Have given it a couple of good hidings through some twisties, and now that I'm finally getting to learn about the car it's becoming more and more fun to hoon. So I went to Caffeine & Classics this morning, then decided I'd pull it apart. Again. This time around, a brake refresh. So first things first, acquire parts. Sterling Brake and Clutch sorted me with a set of fresh Zimmerman rotors, these are 298mm front and 300mm rear. Always a great price and the best service ever from Blair there, support the hell out of them. Great at finding stuff that no one else seems to be able to find. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-488 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-492 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I also bought a full set of caliper seals and dust boots, as I had some concerns the front calipers were sticking and causing uneven pad wear. Anyway more on that later. So I chucked al my gear in the boot, gathered up my tools and set off to George's place to chuck the car on his hoist and crack into it. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-498 by Richard Opie, on Flickr First up, here's a look at the calipers. Rears, grubby. Sort of underslung Brembo 4-pots. Handbrake is one of those internal drum kind. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-500 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-510 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Fronts, a Brembo 4-pot again. In this case I've got a bit of a problem with the clear coat going cloudy on both front calipers. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-513 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-521 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Fairly straightforward to remove really. Release the spring clip on the top, remove the wear sensor and pull pads out after pushing the pistons back. I was a bit agricultural and used a pair of polygrips to squeeze them back, as the plan is to refinish the calipers anyway. Front hubs look pretty boring, just an aluminium casting with a toothed ring on them for the ABS sensor. Rears are a bit more interesting, with the whole handbrake thing going on. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-526 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Some positives here. Studs are 55mm long (end to end) and I want to install some that are 10mm longer to accommodate some spacers before I eventually throw the 17" wheels on. Plenty of space behind the hub to install these without pulling the axles and making a massive job of it. Yay! Anyway, the calipers. Once I got them off, I thought I'd have a crack at squeezing the pistons in. They all moved fluidly in, and all the dust seals are in great condition. So I'm likely going to leave them be and not throw new seals at them... instead I'll clean and mask off that internal area before painting and it should all go to plan. A friend just drew up new decals for me too. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-546 by Richard Opie, on Flickr They might all look the same.... but here's the crucial difference between front and rear. Front - staggered pistons, with a 40mm and 36mm piston combo. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-559 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Rear, staggered again but a 30mm and 28mm arrangement. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-555 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Any tips on what to do when it comes to bleeding will be appreciated, I have never pissed around with a 4-piston caliper before with a bleed nipple on either side of the caliper. I'm guessing you just do it one at a time, but inside or outside first?

I'm available during work hours to head out that way if all else fails, I have calls out past Kumeu etc.

Would you be keen on a shoot and a story about Denis, the car, you and it's restoration for my NZ Autocar classics yarns that I spin? It's throughly interesting.

A protip, is put the ice into plastic bags. Makes it easier to manage and the result is the same.

Such a satisfying job to do.

Lifted from Audi basically.