BlownCorona Posted February 22, 2020 Author Share Posted February 22, 2020 Blocking is taking forever, but on the bright side I'm not finding any major dents that need remedial work, couple of depressions that another layer of primer filler will take care of. The rear half of the car and roof are done. Have yet to even lay primer on the doors and bumpers, hats off to the people that do this for a living. I need to get a move on cause the warm days are rapidly running out. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlownCorona Posted March 1, 2020 Author Share Posted March 1, 2020 More mind numbing progress. Shell, gaurds, hood and deck lid are done (excluding the ten thousand tiny areas that need some close finer attention) Doors in primer today. Still to touch the bumpers, sure am glad I left the most difficult for last Loosely hoping to be blasting some colour in 2 weekends from now. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted March 15, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 15, 2020 Colour went down on the backs of the doors and all the shuts today. 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlownCorona Posted March 16, 2020 Author Share Posted March 16, 2020 Doors back on. Feels great to be refitting parts. Alignment is pretty good, but will spend more time on this once the seals and rubber bump stops go back on. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted March 28, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 28, 2020 Finished sanding the primer to 600gr, which brings this era of my life to a close. I don't really remember a time I wasn't sanding the crown, but I now have a very large appreciation to how many compound curves and just how massive it is. Celebrating with a double whiskey and now looking at the forecast to pick a suitable day to spray this once and for all! Cheers 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted April 2, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 2, 2020 pulled the pin yesterday and painted the exterior. the basecoat went down beautifully. but i really made a hash of the clearcoat. quite alot of sags, and in hindsight, the lighting in the garage was shit so i couldnt see them forming and i think i was holding the gun too close. really took the fun out of it, however all it means is a bunch more colour sanding which ill tackle in a while once its gone nice and hard. on the plus side, the thing looks dead straight, really happy with the sanding job. have un masked it, which was a tour of all my fuckups, but ultimately itll come up awesome. the colour is amazing and i cant wait to see it in the sun. 32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted April 3, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 3, 2020 The clears a bit of a disaster really and reasonably gutted, so many things I'd have done differently in hindsight. But it's done. Drove it into the sun yesterday and it's not all bad news. 31 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted April 10, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 10, 2020 Spent the day refitting parts that I don't think will get in the way of fixing the clear coat defects. Really starting to love how this car is looking now. 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted April 11, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 11, 2020 I've packed it back away into the freshy tidied shed with the corona until after lockdown, to stop me getting impatient and trying to fix it without the proper equipment. I've got a couple samples of clearcoat, one about 3mm and one about 6mm (accidently too thick but still useful) sitting on the shelf to help gauge when it's set properly. But it's probably gonna be a few weeks still before I can even look at it. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted May 10, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 10, 2020 The clearcoat was such a disaster and although I had good success in sanding most of them out, on several prominent areas I had cut through to the basecoat. Which also cast alot of doubt on how thick the remaining clear was. I probably could have just touched up those areas, but coupled with a few other defects such as some spots that were a little light on basecoat that I wasn't sure how to fix, I made the call to restart the paint. So I set to cutting the whole car back and will hopefully learn my lessons from round one. The bumpers are good so I'll leave them as is, which will mean I've got heaps more room in the shed. If I hadn't already, this car is firmly cemented as a forever car. Despite the horrific amount of elbow grease I've had to put in, I still love it. Can't wait for it to be back on daily duty. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted May 23, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 23, 2020 New light bulbs, 4 times the brightness of the old ones, so good! (compare it with the above photos of the car mid paint job to see just how gloomy it was. Some pretty heavy duty heaters borrowed from work and screwed to the roof. Car sanded down and masked, cleaned a few times, will clean some more and tack cloth it in the morning before I spray base and clear for the 2nd and hopefully last time! 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted May 26, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 26, 2020 was hoping to get a bit of sun so i could take a photo for this thread. but redid the paint job, this time not being an idiot about things, and aside from some clear coat orange peel which is very fixable. its come out bloody good. i had also repainted the centers of the epsilons satin gunmetal grey which im also very pleased with. looking forward to seeing it in some sun to let that metallic shine! 34 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted June 20, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 20, 2020 Picked up some good quality window tint from @Archetype. As expected I wasn't able to do a good job of the rear screen and I'm happy to pay someone to do that later on, but the sides went flawlessly and I'm so pleased I opted to tint the car. Should help heaps with it being an oven in summer. The car is all but complete and back together, things lefts are to cut back the orange peel and buff it aswell as fit the manual trans. l 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlownCorona Posted July 4, 2020 Author Share Posted July 4, 2020 Chucked together a new parcel tray since the original once was crumbling into dust due to previous owner thinking the rear windscreen glue was optional. Real please with how it came out. I'm done with everything I want to do before the manual swap, so I'll quite likley take it into work next week where it will live while the new trans goes in. Nearly done (famous last words) 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted July 11, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 11, 2020 Crown is now parked at work. For perhaps the 2nd time, I saw it in the sun, mostly due to it being parked in a permanently shady spot at home. Love the color so much and am really looking forward to cutting out the orange peel and buffing it up real nice. Also finally bolted thr G-W Bellhousing that came with the car to my w55 I've had stashed away for a while, this is primarily the reason I even bought the car, the thought of a stick shift blown widebody Toyota was too good to go past. Planning on swapping the boxes over next weekend and then I'll be able to sort out the driveshaft, clutch and handbrake stuff during lunch brakes. 16 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted July 18, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 18, 2020 10 straight hours with my father and myself saw the auto ditched and the manual fully bolted into its new permanent home. The swap was very easy mostly due to me thinking about all the parts I may need and pre buying. This even included a new rear man seal because I figured now would be a good chance, looked like it was weeping a little too! The win of the day way the auto trans cross member being very usable for the manual, all that was required was mount holes drilled 30mm further up the chassis. Win! Other wins include the shifter poking through dead center of the centre console hole, and all the bolts being fairly straight forward to reach once the gearbox was unbolted and allowed to drop down at the rear. Good times ahead, with a driveshaft to be sussed and the rest of the clutch parts fitted, handbrake also needs a fitting and probably some electrical wrangling of the AT ecu. 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted August 14, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 14, 2020 Fitted the clutch master cylinder and made a hose up, possibly hasn't made a nice seal into the soft line but I gave myself extra length just incase. Havnt tried to bleed it up properly yet, was was weeping when I forgot I had only hand tightened it, unsure if the fluid hanging around is from this. But more importantly, got a driveshaft to suit. Now it appears this could be a well kept secret, a while back I saw a flash up on Facebook for someone looking for a w55 driveshaft yoke and someone claimed an altezza driveshaft would fit, before someone else told him to stop giving away their trade secrets. Anyway I grabbed a screen cap just incase I forgot, but also went looking online and couldn't find anyone mentioning they fit, took a gamble and grabed one from pick a part, and yes it did fit! The altezza front half was also really long, perfect for having shortened up to suit the crown. Dropped the whole lot into Circle Track here in chch and in a couple weeks had a shortened altezza front shaft (but longer overall than the original crown piece) and that coupled with the crown rear half and centre bearing all balanced up. Fitted perfect and officially makes the crown manual. Now to sus out why it won't start, fixup and bleed the clutch and fit the handbrake lever, so close! 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted January 13, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2021 wow havnt actually updated this thread in a while! the reason why it wouldn't start was because the starter motor fuse was blown. other things ive done since the last post include fitting the handbrake and having the cables modified to suit. as well as fitting the manual handbrake centre console. i also borrowed a commercial upholstery cleaner and went to down on the seats and carpets. they've come up really nice. i then had issues with idle, which turned out to be the ISCV super gummed up, aswell as the timing was set way too advanced, it now idles good, but i may look to install something like an apeci SAFC II to fiddle the fuel at idle just a little. after the idle was sorted and id kinda run out of other jobs that didnt involve sanding the car down again, i set to colour sanding out the orange peel, now i elected not to sand the paint glass smooth, but to leave an even and subtle texture to the paint, mostly because i did not want to run the risk of taking all the clear off, aswell as alot of oem japanese cars arnt glass smooth. i dont have any bar one photo of sanding the clear, but it was boring and tedious. After colour sanding i tested the process of buffing with meguiars 105 and 205 on the hood to make sure i was happy with how the car was going to look. i was happy! and getting pretty excited so i moved onto the rest of the car starting at the front and moving back with the 105 then went over the whole car with 205 which really brought out the shine and colour, i also set to refiting the remaining parts that i held off in order to make sanding easier. Then yesterday this happened, very pleased. the car is going straight back to daily duties. The car is in dire need of a proper wash to get all the sanding and polishing crud off the rest of the car, but here's a couple pics i took today while out. needless to say I'm extremely pleased, and other than the muffler failing, this project is complete. BOSS coffee can high stop light is a tacky feature i quite like. Plans now are to wash it, grab a decent camera and try get some nice photos, and then just drive it every day. oh and probably fit a new rear muffler that doesn't like the current one. 30 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlownCorona Posted October 22, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 22, 2021 Took this temporarily off the road to chase down an oil leak that was getting real bad. I presumed it was the front main seal, but after having the whole front of the motor off and then the sump, which had fuck all of the wrong sealant on it, concluded that this was likley the issue. Did all the usual servicing with the front taken apart. While I was in there I discovered the cambelt crank pulley was fucked, it was worn on keyway and the key itself was worn, as it turned out approximately 18 degrees of timing innacuracy. I tried to buy a new pully only for it to come back nla, and nothing second hand turned up in the short amount of time I wanted to wait, so I took to repairing what I had. Machined off the rear belt guide flipped the pully so it drove on the fresh side and made a new belt guide. Also ground up a new key that drives on the full width of the pulley. Also discovered the *slightly* harder to swap rear two plugs just hadn't been swapped. 6 new iridium plugs went in to replace this garbage. I also got sick of the cobbled together exhuast that sounded shit so ordered up some new parts, coupled with a hand made in Japan titanium rear muffler from Fabril Laboratory (little alfa romeo and general Ti manufacturing shop) sounds great now and quiet at cruise. Tucked up nice and high and havnt heard a scrape yet. Got some stickers And today, wofd, regd, cleaned and polished ready for daily duties once again 30 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlownCorona Posted June 6, 2022 Author Share Posted June 6, 2022 On 10/05/2020 at 14:14, BlownCorona said: this car is firmly cemented as a forever car. So yeah, im selling it. Mixed emotions really, i dont have any need to sell it but i would like to move onto other things, am asking quite a large number and if i don't get it then i have no reason to sell. I think most of the mixed emotions come from just how great the sale pictures came out. 4 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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