Toot Toot Timmy

Found some surface rust in places, under the fuel filler, next to the aerial on the a pillar and under the boot trim. I gave this a good wire brushing to remove the light stuff and gave it a liberal coating of Blackguard. This product seems to d the trick for me, just brush on a couple of coats and leave for 24 hours to dry and then paint. I used it on my last Corolla and the patch stayed dormant for as long as I had it. Great for small patches.

Also pulled off the faded grill and boot badges, masked them and gave them the first coat of red to give the GT more GT. Was going to buy new ones but they no longer make them. Took a hour to mask them so I hope it works out ok.

When cleaning the car I gave the wheels two soaks with some wheel chassis cleaner, Im not sure what it is as it was given to me unlabeled, whatever it is it works very well, im thinking you are meant to wear a mask when using it as when inhaled it robs oxygen like a looter in a riot. Third blast with the acid and a scrub with a wire brush on the stubborn stuff got the wheels looking good.

Moved onto the center caps, these looked crap. Gave them a quick sand and two coats of Duplicolor mag wheel paint stuff. This product is magic. Would trade again. A++++

Intense wash.

The car was covered in crap and had all sorts of residue stuck to it so first up was a pre soak with degreaser, I used Mr Mussel surface cleaner and sprayed it all over the car, I used heaps on the sills as they were messy as fook.

Next, fill a bucket with warm water and dishwashing liquid, I would never use dishwashing liquid in a normal wash but it is fantastic at removing oils, wax and other crap off the paint to leave a nice clean surface. I used synthetic a wash mitt. Im sure you all know how to wash a car.

Next step was the clay bar, these are easy to use and work a treat at removing the crap that sits on top of the paint like hardened water, sap, etc. You just spray on the detailer (you can use soapy water but the kit come with the detailer) and run the clay over the surface until you can no longer feel and hear it picking up crap, you would be amazed at what comes off and what colour the bar is afterwards, even on a seemingly clean car.

I also gave the sills a blast with Turtle wax Tar & Bug remover, they needed two soaking to get the tar off.

Removed some trim to hunt out rust, found a couple of spots under the rear hatch handle. Removed badge as well, this needed to come off for a repaint anyway and with all the crap removed from the back it will be much easier to cut and polish.

Result was a very clean uncontaminated surface ready for paint touch ups and rust repairs.

Haha well, leather is leather unfortunately and costs the same to install on a $100,000 car. Im trying hard to justify it on an old Corolla though.

These guys can do any colour you want, $1,400inc for the front seats, $2,500 full interior.

http://www.rve.co.nz/leather.html

If my local joker cant find the shade I want I will take it to them, they do a nice job.

Would have been swapped out at some point xsspeed, the leather lasted about five days if you looked after it, three days if you didn't look after it lived anywhere with sun in the sky. I'm not sure what animal they sourced the leather, i'm thinking its Axolotl skin.

I'm getting mine recovered, looking for some leather now.

Yea, would save a bit in gas also, small tank and long distance at 4,000 rpm gives it a short range. Think I filled up three times Timaru - Auckland.

Cheers, performance is honest to put it kindly, I have a race car for my fast fix so I just plan on keeping it all OEM and using it as an around town car. If a GT wheel pops up I will grab it but they are like you say bus like (due to no power steering I assume) and not the best to drive with.

XSSPEED. If it’s a NZGT 5-Door it should have the poo brown interior, different from the grey/red interior on the 3-door.

3-Door, my old car.

Here are some sales brochures on the AE82 GT models, first two are for the pre facelift, 84-86, the last few pertain to the facelift, the facelift cars introduced a new style front and other small changes, GT specific changes on the 3-Door were headrests with holes, a black stencil strip under the rear window with Twin Cam 16 quite large. The facelift also introduced a NZ designed front spoiler with brake cooling ducts. Geek note is that the facelift had a revised version of the original wheels, they were much simpler in construction and had a different offset

With the facelift also came the 5-Door lift back, this was retimed and retuned for NZ with help from Chris Amon.

Enjoy.

Cheers for having a look guys, did just shy of 1,700 km in two days no issues at all, it does have a rattle in the front but I will get to that, nothing major. Biggest isue was the POS radio that dicided to die 100km into the trip. Turned him off at Geraldine and he never turned back on. 1,600km with a 4AGE as a soundtrack.

My wife was driving at 110 and according to our GPS 110kph was actually 98KPH, at 125 kph on the speedo we were doing 110kph, 4,000RPM. All GT's I have had have optimistic speedomiters, hell they go to 240 and the car is only geared to do 197 haha!

Cheers Fuel, I had no idea, that would explain why they still suck even with new blades. Will swap them over... and paint the arms.

Its going to be a tedious and boring project but I like detailing and enjoy a challenge.

Tail light restoration. Very simple.

I was going to buy new tail lights thinking they would be cheap enough but TNZ didn’t have them in stock and were $500+ ex Japan so I decided to give them clean up instead.

I picked up a headlight restoration kit from Mothers that includes a drill mounted polishing attachment, some plastic polish, a microfiber towel and four grades of sand paper, I didn’t need all this stuff but im sure it will come in handy one day. You could just use a good plastic polish and a drill mounted polishing pad.

First steep was giving them a good wash with cleaner, I just used window cleaner. I then coated the light in plastic polish and let haze for 60 seconds before buffing over with the polish pad. I did this twice as the lights were heavily oxidised and faded.

Next step was to coat the lights in a sealer, let dry and then buff off, I gave them a second coating with Carnauba wax.

Also gave the front bumper indicators a once over.

Window cleaner and a brush, can use a tooth brush.

Same as on tail lights, quick coat of plastic polish and a drill buff.

Before and after.

So that took a couple of hours.

Most exciting thread ever.

Hi my name is Graham.

Picked up the 320,000km NZGT from Timaru last week and drove it back to Auckland via Arthurs pass. Its an honest car in good original condition, I cannot believe how well it drives for the mileage, a true testament to the previous owner of 13 years, a wife of a mechanic.

This is the fourth NZGT 3-Door I have owned, third in this blue colour, I won’t be selling this one.

NZGT was a New Zealand produced and styled car specific to NZ, the NZ cars are essentially a restyled and locally manufactured version of the Japanese import FXGT from Japan, the NZ cars received more of a European look with the same wheels as the European AE82 and similar non painted bumpers with Golf GTI inspired red detailing, it also received a bespoke to NZ Grey Leather interior with contrasting red seatbelts and carpet. The NZ cars also had unique to NZ colours.

I am no expert on these cars and would love to hear any information you may have on them, I know it’s no Porsche 911 but to me they are a very cool piece of NZ motoring history and have a lot of appeal to me.

Car is all original other than this Steering wheel, it also has power steering, an option I have never seen on a NZGT. I will be keeping this wheel on it as its much nicer to work with than the OEM wheel.

I will be giving it a mini restoration of sorts over winter, more a good clean up and thought it may be of interest here, I have a few detailing tricks for older cars and can recommend companies for this and that.

I will have the seats recovered, carpets re-dyed (red) and install a good sound system and alarm with central locking to make it more livable in 2012.

First mod was new wipers on the drive up from Timaru, drove the first 850km with 20% viability.

Next will be a good detail, I have just picked up a few bits and pieces to start on the detailing.

His name is Toot Toot Timmy and don't ever call him an FXGT

Rant/