rxtoy

Were you in the wagon with the oldschool.co.nz sticker?

There's a guy over east who's sent some that way, I'm not sure whether it's a few or a lot, I'm not keen on the idea, but at least they treat them right over there I think I've got a parts sedan lined up, my old MS55 has changed hands a couple of times since I sold it, and all the good bits are gone, but it will still have most of what I need, and the guy who has it currently has since bought a mint one, so I've just got to check it to make sure the chassis will work, then make him an offer. Trying to work out where the hell I can put it first though! Sedan when I had it I like the blue too, my stout is the same colour, but this will definitely need a paint job, colour will be a tough choice Cheers Matt

I am so happy right now. Almost justifies importing the stout so I can get side by side pics

Discussion //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/54756-matts-1969-50-series-crown-ute/

Advice/jealousy/comments welcome

I've been chasing a crown ute since I moved to Aussie 5.5 years ago, I actually checked out a real tidy one the first week I got here but it was in Bundaberg, I was headed to Perth, and the motor was fucked, so I couldn't drive it. Seen a few come up for sale over the years but nothing local, and the few ones I knew of that were local were all either fairly rusty or there's one that's absolutely mint, with a UZ swap, but way out of my price range even if he would sell Then there was this one. I actually lived with it for about a year in a house share situation, where the house owners son had a bunch of old Toyotas on the property. This was body off chassis and set up on a rotisserie, but that's as far as it got. I talked to him about buying it at one point, but he wanted stupid money because it was pretty clean body wise, and it was an M powered chassis, which are way harder to find than the R ones in ute form Fast forward a few years and it's up on gumtree for a grand, so I whip around to check it out. It's been out in the weather for the last 3 years after he had to move it when his parents knocked the house down, the rotisserie ends are still bolted to it, and they're plonked on top of the chassis, with straps holding it on. There's a bunch of extra surface rust, but the only holes I can find are a couple in the sills. It's missing a driveline but I'm not worried about that. All the body parts come with, there's a good tailgate, rear lights and rear bumper. Everything else I can get from a sedan if they're fucked so I'm pretty happy I've got a shitload of work ahead of me, and I'm really struggling with deciding what exactly I want to do with it, but IVE GOT A CROWN UTE!!!! Gumtree pic, it's been at least 5 years since I first saw it, and it has never been this assembled in that time When I went to check it out I knew it!!! Poor Ken Clint has got a hoist, and didn't want to give up his rotisserie ends so he got the body sitting back on the chassis before I picked it up Hi my name is Matt and I'm a crownoholic And at home next to the girlfriends Celica Initial thoughts are sedan chassis (get rid of the leaf rear end), MS112 diff and front brakes (already have the diff), maybe 17" widened steelies, maybe 18" billets (but I fucking hate polishing wheels), tidy up the body and paint it, maybe bags, probably 3RZ turbo, but it's all up in the air at this point This is a fucking massive project, it's going to take years, and a lot of $, and there will be a LOT of questions and upskilling. Lucky you guys are awesome and know what you're doing when it comes to old rustbuckets! Cheers Matt

So my Honda mad mate bought this off a motor museum as a painted disassembled project a couple of years back and has slowly been putting it back together. It's pretty much done but he's got a few other projects on and I've always wanted a 4 door life......... It's been in one of his friends garages so I've never seen it until yesterday, thought I should check it out and see if we could work out a deal. It's not definite yet but we are both keen on it happening, I just need to sell one of my other cars (modern junk, not one of the cool ones) to make space. Updates will be a couple months off, but I needed to share the excitement!!! Plans will be rego, wheels, low, then see whether I can do much performance wise with the motor. Not expecting anything crazy. Cheers Matt

So much for $80 for plugs, cost me almost $150. Trade too, saved over $50 on them. Running heaps smoother, but still getting ping. Also noticed some coolant under the radiator when I got home tonight, had a look around for a leak, then realised it was coming from the radiator overflow bottle overflow. Yes, that does make sense. So I pull the lid off and hello, some special cunt has put the cap on backwards, so it's filling from the radiator through the top, and can't suck anything but air back, and also once it pressurises it's forcing coolant from the bottom out of the overflow hose. I've also got a power steering leak, which is making it noisey as fuck. Drained all the power steering fluid out into a bucket, using the return line from the steering box. When I say into a bucket what I mean is fuck I made a mess. Next time I'll find a longer bit of hose to do it properly. Anyway, I couldn't find the leak, so I topped it up with fluid that's meant to stop leaks. I don't have high hopes, might just rebuild the steering box and get a new power steering pump, which was my plan for the afternoon but I couldn't find parts at my local parts store Pic from a recent outing That is all Cheers Matt

so i haven't updated this for ages because i'm lazy and photo bucket is a dick and life is busy and stuff that doesn't mean i haven't been doing anything!!! although to be honest i haven't been doing a lot either got the trans to the point where if it wouldn't go into reverse i could turn it off, then back on again and it would be magically fixed. no fucking idea how that works. Had an electrical failure just as i rolled in the garage one night, the night before dyno day of course when it was due to go on the rollers and i had already paid and the crown was out of action to take its place if it did fail. so i called my mate Aaron and he came round with testing equipment and we fucking searched everything to see why the hell the alternator wasn't charging. at all. spent almost 4 hours on it before realising that the dash had shit connections and put some contact cleaner on them and all of a sudden everything works again, hooray!!! so took it along to the dyno day with high hopes of 180 ish hp, nope, it only had 118.5. it did however sound AMAZING!!! but fuck, thats shit. so i pulled a bunch of stuff off the engine, basically all the stuff that i can check myself/replace before i take it in somewhere to get it fixed, if this doesn't injectors off and cleaned, computer out and Aaron replaced all the capacitors and shit that could fail because 90's toyota computer, i still need to replace plugs and leads but am super broke right now so they're on hold. checked compression. everything is good. so put it back together and took it for a few drives since and its still got detonation, and power seems about the same. will replace plugs next time i've got a spare $80, then its time to take it to the experts. or maybe i just need to hook up a check engine light and see what codes its throwing, but thats getting well outside my field of expertise but for some reason the auto/reverse problem is gone. well, its to early to know for sure but i've taken it for 6 short runs to various places and all without a single fail. which is a record, so i'm counting it as a win. cheers Matt

These things have been growing on me lately. There's a super clean one that gets around Perth: And a mates got one that's sort of for sale, and the late model version with IRS and 22RE, could be fun for khana stuff. But I always buy sedans and I want a coupe!!!

Also early mirage (1st gen) rear shocks are bolt in for the rear, I think you need to cut the mounting tubes at the bottom or something super simple like that. Keep some pretty short springs captive for uber cheap

Aren't they all coil? I swapped gsr rear into my ex1600 back in the day, was a bolt in swap Sweet find, they're fun cars with a bit of power

I think I worked out my problem. Of course, it was when I pulled the 4th drum off, so I figured I'll take them all into work and clock them all up anyway. Easiest drums I've ever removed At least it looks good! Can I glue these back on with something? Or pay someone? I really haven't got time/money to find new shoes and linings when it's getting a disc swap semi soon anyway Cheers Matt

Ha, I'm guilty of this in quite a few cases but pretty broke at the moment so being ultra careful with what I replace. Plus if I keep it I want to go discs so brake money is wasted money

There was normal free play until after the big run we did, which is where it started locking up. I'm not sure why this happened, but the master cylinder had a bunch of shit in there. I've been driving it round for years with no issues, rain and shine, although this is probably the biggest workout the brakes have had. There is some free play at the moment, it doesn't feel like quite enough but it's hard to tell with the brakes doing what they're doing. Will check/skim drums then check it again Cheers Matt

Ha, I'll be checking the run out. Been running a lathe/mill for the last 8 years, I'm not just going to dive in. Hoping that I haven't warped all 4, will only skim if/what's needed Pedal slack was good, but is not at the moment. Will sort brakes and then adjust free play.

Shitballs, skim or replace are my only options? I actually know exactly what happened now that you put it like that. I was parked in the inlaws steep driveway while waiting for the missus to grab the dog, handbrake needs adjusting so I sat there for ten minutes with my foot on the brake pedal. At least I can skim them myself at work, hopefully they're not to thin

so i had my RS41 Crown out for a cruise through the hills a few weeks back, it got a pretty good thrashing brake wise and on the way home random corners started seizing on (one at a time). i parked it up at the in laws because it was pissing down by then and not safe to drive it home. figured it was probably the brake master blocking up with shit because thats the only thing i could think of that would seize on individual corners at separate times. Went back and pulled the master off a couple of days later, brought it home, pulled it apart and there was a bunch of corrosion and shit in there, but the seals and bore and piston all looked fine. Cleaned everything up and put it back together and then ignored it because i was working on the hilux instead and i thought i had the problem sorted, just needed to put it back together and bleed everything up so today i went and did that. hungover. much sweating and banging head and getting dirt in eye. fun times. bled up nicely, probably the easiest car i've ever done. ran a container of brake fluid through the lines to get all the old crud out and pedal feel was nice. backed it up the driveway, then let it roll down and tested the brakes. THEY FEEL TERRIBLE!!! they're not soft, the pedal is just moving up and down as the wheel rotates, like one up and down per revolution. its a pretty significant amount, i'd say at least a quarter of pedal travel. fuck. someone suggested that i've warped a drum, or more than one. seems like a definite possibility. is there any other thing it could be before i pull all 4 drums off and give them a skim? i'd just do that and see how it goes after that but I'm running out of time before the in laws get home and its meant to be gone by then so i thought i should check other options cheers Matt

That thing is immaculate, I've enjoyed watching this thread and awesome to see it finished and being enjoyed

Before you start swapping mounts over check that the L200 centre won't fit in the stock housing. When I was diff hunting for my EX lancer back in the day there was an unconfirmed rumour that L200 ones fit

so i'd love to tell you all how great this thing is to drive and how much i've been enjoying it............ but that would be a lie. the lemonlux is still losing reverse intermittently. i can start it, go to reverse out of the garage, and nothing. try again the next day, exactly the same conditions, the thing hasn't even moved, and it works perfectly. can't bloody work it out. i had the sump of the box off again today, pulled the shift solenoids out and tested them, one seemed a little sticky but after a couple of tests it was working fine. not sure if i'm imagining it, or if i just made a shit connection the first couple of times with my car battery/cut off coat hanger test rig. sealed up the sump again and put it all back together, just waiting for it to cure then will top up the box with fresh ATF, again, and see how she goes. i'm also going to try disconnecting the speed sensor on the rear of the box next time it loses reverse, apparently this sends it into 'manual' mode, and reverse should work, if its a solenoid/electric/computer problem. i was also given a free A340E from behind a JZ, if i can't sort this reverse thing then i'm going to try swapping over the tailshaft housing and the bellhousing from my box and just use that, its an earlier version without computer control (apparently) so if i can make it fit then it should cause a lot less issues. fingers crossed i get a solution out of one of these options a picture of the lemonlux in its natural environment, up on jack stands in the shed: fucking thing. cheers Matt

Saw one of these on the weekend, was out at a mates dads workshop watching a silvia get tuned, walked out the back for a piss and voila: In Perth so no good for parts for you unfortunately Cheers Matt

Gearbox seems to be sorted, been for a couple of drives now and haven't needed to top up. So many noises though, there's a whine coming from the engine bay, sounds like a dodgy bearing so I pulled the front belt off and checked them all, idler bearing is pretty noisy so I'll find a new one tomorrow. Sorted the tail light that was out but I'm not getting power to the high beams, rather than blown bulbs so I'm not really sure where to start looking for that. Maybe the stalk, but what do I even check? They're shitty sealed beams so I think I'll try and find a replacement while I'm pissing around with them. Pic of dodgy bearing so not picture less update And pic of 2wd'd surf because this is what I really should do!!! Cheers Matt

I've never heard of to high octane causing detonation, is that a thing? The guy I bought it off said to use 98, I'm just getting to the point of looking into it a bit more myself. Cheers Matt

ATF topped up? Took it for a decent drive and checked fluids a couple of times, needed a bit of a top up once it was fully warmed up but seems to be holding its level. Told the gf I was going for a 15 minute drive, ended up just keeping on going, got home 45 minutes later. So much nicer to drive now that the ball joints are fixed. It still needs an alignment, and I'm getting some detonation under load too. Seems weird for a stock motor running 98, I'll have to join the lextreme forums (or is there a better option) to see what it could be. I also swapped wheels with the crown, love the look but I gained 500 rpm at 100kph which isn't ideal for a daily so I need a better option. Steelies and Whitewalls look great on the crown though so they can stay there. Cheers Matt