Sheepers other MS75 crown coupe

[sheepers]

today was make a fucking stupid mistake day.

the hubcaps are your standard cheap chinese rubbish "chrome" that will inevitably go rusty in a few months. 

i got a price to re-chrome them and it was a bit beyond the budget at 500$.

 

each.

so Richie suggested i clear coat them to try and make them last a bit longer and that sounded like a great idea to me.

here is where things start to go wrong.

for some reason i thought that i couldn't possibly spray clear straight on to the "chrome" because it wouldn't stick long term and i also got the idea in my head somehow that if i sanded them with 1500 the clear would magically make the scratches disappear.

why the fuck i thought that i have no idea, it was approximately 1 microsecond after i started spraying  the clear that it became apparent that the clear was not some form of wizard paint the would somehow fix the surface and restore the mirror like appearance. 

honestly, what the fuck was i thinking.

anywho with this massive fuck up unfolding in front of me i had no choice but to suck it up and chalk this one up to blind stupidity.

i had already inquired about buying another set of hubcaps so i had a spare set and im still going to get another set but the ones i have currently, they are fucked. until i feel like spending 2k on re-chroming a set of hubcaps.

 

well, ive gone this far, i might as well paint them a colour. so i did.

i painted them black because thats one of the few colours i have and i thought id just try it and see what they look like. nothing to lose......

 

and amongst all that fuckery i put the back bumper on and polished some trim pieces and stuck them back on. im super happy with both the bumper fitments and the time i spent fucking around earlier was worth it. 

so it wasnt a completely waisted day.   

 

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[sheepers]

belt line weather strips?

is that what these fuckers are called?

anywho, it should come as no surprise that i cant just rock down to my local toyota dealership and buy new ones off the shelf. i cant buy new ones off any shelf because they dont exist.

basis sell a rubber bit which is similar and then you have to re glue it to your old fucked metal backing strip.

no thanks.

my 51 has some random aftermarket replacements that work perfectly but i have no idea where they came from they were just in a box of bits. 

SO, if you know of something that is close to these please let me know. im super sure that there are generic 70s american stuff that will work, i just dont know what it is.

door is 1050 long and obvsly i need to be able to put a curve in it to make it work for the back windows. the stuff on the 51has slots cut in the steel so you can bend it which is why i think its some generic thing. 

 

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[sheepers]

still cant find any door rubbers.

anywho today i made a parcel shelf.

it goes without saying the old one was fucked but not as fucked as it should have been given that its 50 years old.

as is the norm for this car with the old parcel shelf removed the steel was in perfect condition. i made a new shelf out of 18mm MDF because thats what i had.

made it in two pieces because its close to impossible to get it in or out if its one piece. 

couple of bolts to hold it down and we're in business.

tomorrow ill glue the carpet on and shes finished.

 

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[sheepers]

and now this.

 

massive thanks to the people who made this happen,

@JustHarry for hooking me up with the joker who had it.

Owen Flawes for agreeing to sell me his spare rear screen

@nzstato for collecting it, packaging it up and sending it up to me, what a good cunt.

 

but not @sheepers for breaking the first one like a fucking dick.

 

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[sheepers]

what a bloody roller coaster the windscreen instillation turned into. 

got everything ready and Nick the sparky came and gave me a hand and we put the back screen in.

then we went to put the front one in and it was way to wide at the top to fit any where near right so out it came.

remember this is the same screen that came out of the car so what the fuck?

closer inspection reveled some insights as to why the screen was a bit weird when i took it out. i never thought much of it at the time but the screen was sitting down in the bottom channel with what would amount to a gap (if it wasn't full of windscreen sealant) at the top. 

now i know why.

so, sand the edge of the glass with a DA sander and 80 grit to remove the 3mm a side that needed to not be there in order for it to fit. 

 

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that took a total of 4 hours to remove the extra width from the screen.

 

but, now it should fit.

 

so i trial fitted it and all was well.

except, remember the rear screen and how it was all good, done and dusted?

yea well i used the wrong mastic and the rear screen had to come out and i had to clean the shit off everything and clean the glass and get it all ready to do again,

except this time with the right sealant. 

 

so,

take two.

was all ready to re-install both screens with the right sealant and with the front screen fitting right, i just had to chamfer the edge of the glass where i had sanded it because it was a bit sharp and i didnt want to leave anything that could chip and start a crack.

so i sanded the edges, just like i had been doing for 4 hours and the front windscreen exploded.

 

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fuck i was pretty unhappy with life at that point.

so cool, id broken both screens out of the car. good one.

i cried into my beer for a while then i thought id just ask my mate if the parts sedan i had still existed. i had told him i was done with it and he could squash it about 7 months ago.

lucky for me hes a lazy bastard and he hadn't got around to getting rid of it.

so i went up to Kemeu this morning and got the front screen out of the sedan and now i have a front screen.

its the same (read wrong and still doesn't fit) brand as the one i had but this time i sacrificed the pins that hold the trim clips and just mashed it in.

so now both screens are in the car. the back one is super mint mainly because its a genuine toyota one and the front one is as good as its going to get.

cool, that will do.

 

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[sheepers]

its coming along.

im just tidying up all the little things that need doing.

ive got some generic belt line rubbers coming for it then i can put the door cards back on. the bumpers are away being chromed and ill get them back in a week or so.

not sold on the black center caps and i have another set on order should be here middle of next month.

i drove it up the road to get some milk and i fucking love driving this thing, its fucking slow but its cool to just cruze along in and i can see myself doing a bunch of Ks in this as soon as i tidy u the last few things.

believe it or not its still got a warrant!

 

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[sheepers]

got the bumpers back from chroming.

these pictures do absolutely no justice to how good it looks IRL.

 

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[sheepers]

Bought a momo steering wheel for it. 

I am actually in love with it. 

 

 

Also I'm posting this from my spa pool.

[sheepers]

spent all day fitting some door belt line seals.

it goes without saying that i cant buy any seals for the crown so i had to make do with what i could find.

i found some generic lengths of belt rubber on "better auto rubber" out of auz which were close enough and i coupled them with some generic felt bump things that are for american cars or something which i got at an american car importer out by the airport.

so, now we have some rubber bits, we have to make them stay on the car.

i recesses the screw heads into the felt bit by just cutting away the felt part where the screws are. works well and the glass cant touch the head of the screw.

drill holes in the door, screw the two rubber bits and the stainless trim on to the door. 

WAY harder than it sounds but got there in the end.

i also put some sound dead material onto the doors while its apart. might get some more tomorrow and chuck some more in the doors.

 

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[sheepers]

spent the day finishing the belt seal install and putting the door trims and whatnot back on.

i had to cut the steel bit to bend it so it would fit around the curve of the back window.

this resulted in the rubber lip being a bit distorted from bending it and its find of all over the show.

does anyone have any tips on how i can get the rubber to change shape a bit or relax it a bit so it sits against the glass?

 

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[sheepers]

car went to the paint shop to get the runs out of it and get the final cut and polish.

i went and picked it up last night and it looks amazing.

anywho, today  i wanted to fix the exhaust where the flex joint had worn through because its the lowest point and its had a fucking over judder bars and whatnot and subsequently has a hole it in.

 

 

step 1 - jack up your car.

this is where things went wrong.

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car slid off the jack on the way up. given what could have happened i got off extremely lightly.

it bent the radiator support up and bent the bottom of the radiator real bad. it also bent the bottom of the front bumper.

however, the radiator isn't leaking and the crank pulley is unscathed which is a fucking miracle given what happened.

 

i was able to bash the rad support back down and i got most of the bend out of the bumper so it looks fairly normal again.

fuck it could have been WAY worse..................

 

so yea, after dealing with that i moved on to fixing the zorst.

cut out the fucked bit,

 made a new bit,

tacked it in place,

remove zorst from car and fully weld,

add 4mm thick bash plate and put zorst back in car.

 

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then it was time to wax the newly polished paint.

that went well.

it looks pretty ace tbh and yea, i cant take a photo that justifies how good it looks.

 

but it looks good.

 

take my word for it.

 

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[sheepers]

things are pretty great with this car.

just got to sort out the seats and some carpet but thats for another day.

i bought some new rear disks for it a while back because the ones i had were turbo fucked. minimum thickness is about 11 mm and one was down to 9.

so yea, in they went. not a big job but still.

 

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[sheepers]

went for a cruze.

it was great.

 

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[sheepers]

in a week or so the crown is going to get the seats fixed and a couple of other things.

one of which is a carpet for the boot. i decided that the old sub box i had made took up to much valuable boot space so i made a new one that goes hard up against the back seats.

its out of the way up there and makes the boot much more usable.

so thats done now.

 

heres the old one,

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and this is the new one.

 

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[sheepers]

shit i forgot to post the pics of the seats and carpets all done.

lol, that was ages ago.

 

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[sheepers]

What the fuck is wrong with me. 

 

[sheepers]

It gets worse,

 

 

 

[sheepers]

So. 

Having already built a 5MG in the late 90s I already know how fucking garbage they are. 

What the hell am I doing?

The engine gearbox combo in this car is pretty rubbish.  A stock 4M coupled with a slush box is pretty awful at the best of times.  However this trans has really tall gearing which is great for crusing on the motorway but it's literally dangerously slow when you're trying to pull out of a side road or something.

I was thinking about engines for this car and hadn't really come up with anything that I liked,  then Brendan told me about a bunch of 7M turbo motor stuff he was getting rid of.  Around about the same time I went down to Yowzer's place to get something and we got yarning about a 5MG that he was going to chuck out. 

So Brendan dumped his 7M garbage in my shed and I bought the 5MG head off Yowzer.

 

My plan is to build what is effectively a 6M.

3 litre bottom with a 5M head. I'm going with bigger cams, bigger valves and high compression. 

It'll have ITBs and a cool looking exhaust. 

 

 

Don't get me wrong,  I am well aware that this turd won't make any power but I've resigned myself to the fact that if I can't make it go fast at least I'll make it look cool. 

So,  I have cobbled together a bunch of new parts for this thing. 

Major thing in missing is high compression pistons. Can't find anything as yet. I do have a new set of stock pistons which would run about 9.5 to 1 but I want to go much higher than that.

So yea, this will happen over the next few months,  or however long it takes. 

Oh, also the car will be manual with this engine. 

[sheepers]

So the journey begins.

I've started amassing the parts I can buy for this turd because why not.

The only problem so far seems to be a complete lack of quality parts available. The only things I've been able to buy for it are pretty average TBH.

I got a set of pistons for it made by ITM.

They're all the same size except for the ones that aren't. 

ITM made lifters, surface finish is rubbish

And will need polishing thus reducing the OD and allowing a drop in oil pressure in the lifter.

Rockers, again,  only made by one company. 

They're rubbish.  I have to hand stone polish the cam follower face because the surface finish is so bad.

In the picture the top one is as they were delivered, middle is mid polishing and bottom has all the score marks polished out

 

 

 

 

[sheepers]

Richie found me some genuine rockers on Amayama so i bought them.

anyone what a set of new hand polished ITM rockers......