The Moonlight Collection

[mlracing.co.nz]

Panel Barry's been hard at work doing various small patch jobs and finishing up some chassis work on the Skyline as well as rebuilding basically the whole rear end. That's all very exciting but what's really exciting is this. 

The Ford Escort inner arches look like they will fit up really nicely with a little bit of finagling and a bit of extra metal. The curve is amazingly close. Might be a smidgen wide for the outer skin as I think it pushes it out slightly so it cannot join quite correctly but in the grand scheme of things I think that's fairly small all things considered. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

Back from WTAC and my wheel guy has completed the SSR MK3 wheels I gave him to put together a little while back. They ended up being 14x9 -22 and 14x9.5 -28 (approx). They're pretty crazy but also it's a problem and apparently I can't measure properly because the 9.5s will no way fit on OEM body. 

Because I'm kind of indecisive and trying to put a 155/65 on a 9.5 isn't working very well I asked to borrow a longchamp that he's just rebuilt in 14x9 -15 spec to have a measure up too. Might have to buy them, damn. 

Anyway, some photos of various fit testing with the 14x9 front and rear. I removed the springs in rear and disconnected shock so it's basically on bumps at that height, looks sick. But I think maybe a slightly less chunky tyre might be the go. Perhaps a 165 55 or something, not sure 100% on the sizes of tyres which are available so a bit more research required. 

Oddly the longchamps fitted better on the rear and the MK3 better on the front? Probably our measurements are off. I am definitely loving the longchamps.. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

I was just thinking I haven't heard anything from panel Barry for a while and then bing, email arrives. He's been busy. 

Passenger side is pretty much buttoned up now, the outer rear quarter is not welded into place so still the little touches to go but man.. what an improvement! 

And just a reminder of what it was beforehand. 

He's already charging away on the driver side as well so shouldn't be too long then it can go back together in the back end. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

Another timely update from Mr Panel Barry arrived today. He's finished with the rear arches now on both sides and has tidied up some of the other boot floor area bits too. 

He's now going around the edges of the rear quarters to tidy up the mess there so they well nice and line up as best as possible. Still a little work to do but it's coming along really nicely. As you can see it's pretty pitted and mangled before.

I think we're nearing the home straight for this rear end. The arches were one hell of a job and he's done excellent work.

[mlracing.co.nz]

Spent a couple hours at the bros shop getting some new tyres fitted up to the wheels for the Celica. Can't beat the quality of Austone, best $40 each ever. 175/60 seems better for the 9J than what was on it, and relatively little trouble fitting for stretched tyre. 

Don't they look nice shimmering in the sun?

So I've actually got a full set of MK3 as you would've seen in a previous post but because they won't fit on the factory metal I ended up buying the longchamps pair. Didn't think I would be into the different wheels on each but actually don't mind it. I think the front needs to come down a coil at least, it's just a pain in the ass to do it so maybe I'll wait for a bit and get the rear squared up first. 

After taking it for a bit of a blat around the block it seems like the only rubbing is on driver side rear so I will get an adjustable panhard bar to try pull it the other way around 5mm, should about even it out and hopefully not cause rubbing on the other side. I would like to avoid trying to roll the lip on the guards as I'm pretty sure they're basically made of bog. I'd probably end up cutting the guard lips if they become an issue. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

So the last post showed there was a rubbing issue on the right rear. The proper way probably would be to get the adjustable panhard rod to square it up but I thought of a free way to get by for the time being.

 

Spot the difference? Front and rear switched on the driver side. This works because there is around 10mm offset difference between the two. I'm sure there are probably some detrimental handling characteristics but driving up and down the road it felt exactly the same. The widths are the same after all. Looks even enough considering the car probably isn't even.

 

Not entirely the easy fix I was hoping for though.. with the change in offset now it rubs on full lock to the right. I smashed it down a little bit after which helped and probably made it less offensive so I don't care about it anymore. Maybe I'll smash it down further in the future if it really gets annoying.

 

This car has always had a super slow leak from the gearbox area too and I don't think it's ever had any kind of cleaning underneath; definitely not in my ownership. I didn't change this but I did douse the general area with brake cleaner and hosed it down to clean up possible areas of leakage. Perhaps it will show up next week so I can try to work out where it's coming from. I really hope it's not the output seal because that would mean it's probably never going to get fixed.

 

I also decided I'll paint these crusty seals with some bumper black paint. I do have some chromes for it but it's a windows out job so probably will also never get done. At least if they are painted black it will get rid of that yuck grey sealant.

[mlracing.co.nz]

No leaks so far underneath.. I haven't really driven it around since cleaning up though. I did have a closer inspection at the front arms and sure enough there are some lock stops on there. Both of them were wound right in so I wound them out about as far as I could without them falling out but still it hits the inner guard. I could get longer bolts or could just ignore it, probably will choose option 2 as it's the most cost effective solution. 

Also while I was in there I tried to replace the grease caps for the front hubs but seems like my replacements didn't fit so I just blasted the old ones with some super cheap black paint, turned out about as you'd expect. 

I'm thinking I need to find some proper toe arms for the front as those old style ones are a bit of a bitch to adjust and the toe definitely needs fixing up. 

lol S600 is so small

[mlracing.co.nz]

I found a use for the tyres that didn't fit properly on the Celica wheels.. these! They are 14x5.5 B-Type Watanabes which I was hoping would fit on the S600 but sadly the spacer adapters mean on the front no bueno. The spacer adapters are multi-piece (I think I posted about it somewhere earlier) and I had to get somewhat large ones to clear the nuts (deez). 

Why do I need spacers? Oem is 5x130 remember! Actually in hindsight probably looking for 5x114.3 wheels would have made adapters easier but the available range is way less. Well it looks cool but unfortunately couldn't really turn properly so had to put back the OEM wheels. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

Not much to update recently as I've been doing things on other projects too new for Oldschool but today I cleaned up Barry the S600 and put some of the interior back together as I'll be looking to sell it soon. Just don't get the time to work on it with the other projects and honestly it was more of an impulse purchase being that my mate had it available. 

So here's some beauty shots.. if anyone is interested or knows someone that may be, I'll be happy to assist with shipping to NZ. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

When I was back in NZ recently I made a trip down to see the old girl at panel Barry's shop. Nice place he's got and it's sure a long way out of the way! Can't imagine the fun transporters have going down there. 

She's come a long way and yet, there's a long way to go. We went over what's been done and what's still to be done and he was happy to show me things that he's worked on and the tools etc, nice guy and extremely knowledgeable. I'm happy the car is in his hands.

Next step once he has completed up the other rear arch edges and lined them all up is to put the car on a chassis machine to get it as straight as possible, he happens to have one in-house. While that process is taking place the doors will be dipped to see what we're working with as a couple of them are messy around the bottom and one for sure is definitely full of bog. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

Another Panel Barry update has arrived in my inbox. He's now finished up all the rear quarter work which was quite extensive. The edges were rebuilt on both sides as well as some of the inner parts where it met up with the side panel and inner arch to make sure it was seamless. 

Next step as mentioned earlier was to get it on the chassis machine which much to our surprised it seemed fairly straight but there was marks from where it had been previously pulled. Not really a huge surprise, the car is old so it would have been ambitious to presume it had never been in an accident before. 

He's also been busy doing some re-alignment on the side sills and the doors to make sure they all line up and close properly before having the doors dipped and see how much of them are just filled with bog.

He also found some damage on the chassis rail at the front and underneath a bit, probably from a forklift lifting it which is unfortunately common in Japan so that's being fixed up too.  

[mlracing.co.nz]

Last week I gooped the shit out of this wing on the Celica as I was sick of it just getting in the way of everything. I had to do a reasonable amount of trimming on the edges so it wouldn't hit the car when I shut the boot but now I can close the boot without contact on the sides. 

Now I have this overflow goop so not sure if I'll do a RWB style make a big goop line all the way along or just try cut it off.. I'm thinking I can just trim it. 

Problem is, this spoiler is warped to hell. That could be from a shit mould, could be from sitting in my warehouse/various places for 2 years; who knows. But there's a giant gap on the driver side now. Also I just realised how bad the boot is aligned LOL

Naturally I'm doing some sketchy shit to see if it fixes it, or at least improves it a little bit. I used some heat to try and relax the resin but it's pretty well set in shape so I don't have high hopes for it staying stuck down. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

Cleaned it up as best I could around the edges, still a bit poo but oh well, good enough. Looks like it'll stay on there so that's the main thing. I slapped it and said "that's not going anywhere" so I can't see it falling off. One day I might paint the car so it's the same colour. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

Goals for the Celica this year are get the wheels/suspension fitment all dialed and fix up the interior. The exterior panels are not great but also not really a concern for me this year. The interior however needs work. 

Finally I was able to find a parcel shelf locally on marketplace which someone had recreated and trimmed up really nice. Obviously it doesn't fix up the actual parcel shelf disaster but if I can't see it then it's fixed. 

Next I'll take it all out again including all the carpets, seats dash, interior panels etc and replace everything I can. The seat covers are all torn up and the rear seats need to be fully replaced due to the frames being cut up for roll cage installation. I can get new covers as there's a guy in Aus that makes OEM-spec stuff which is awesome. I believe the door panels and side trims are not too difficult to get either. I'm not sure what to do with the roof yet as it had some shanky carpet-type stuff put up there I guess when the sunroof was cut into it.

Any Toyota nerds able to decode the trim from this tag? I found the body colour which is that brown looking colour so I presume the trim will be the beige/brown interior that usually goes with it. Being that my car is red with black interior there's every chance this tag is not even from this car but be interesting to know. 

[sheepers]

@sleeektoy

[mlracing.co.nz]

56k Warning (hahaha) there's a few photos and a whole lot of carryon in this post!

As I mentioned before, this year is interior year for the Celica so the first thing to do is tear it apart. Unfortunately the front seat covers are pretty mangled, rear covers may be salvageable but there's a guy here that does really nice OEM-spec covers for front and rear so might just get a set of those eventually. I will need to get a new rear seat set before I can do that though as it's been bent up and cut for the roll cage that was in there before. 

This roll cage also means there were mounting blocks around the place like these ones which cause the side trims to be a little messed up at the bottom. I don't think I will be able to cut this one out easily so might just have to live with it.

I have to get all new trim panels anyway as you can see these are completely mangled. Thankfully these seem to be available as well. 

Something else that's mangled is what was behind the trim panel on the rear driver side. This window winder is stripped meaning the handle doesn't work. It looks like sometime in the past they might have tried to think about fixing this by cutting an access hole. It's not fixed so I don't really know what happened there but I would like to try and fix this so I can get sweet pillarless action. After I saw the dramas with getting in here from the Speed Academy videos maybe I'm a little bit happy they decided to do some bush mechanics on this part. 

Speaking of access panels, thought this was interesting. This car is perfect for running drugs as it turns out. In reality I think this may have been a hole for retractable seat belt? Unsure exactly as the replacement seatbelts mounted to this extra panel that bolts over the top of it, bit odd and probably put in for ADR approval or similar. Seatbelts will need replacement as well but I think I'll just pretend these cars did not have rear seatbelts and do the front only until someone tells me off. 

The front driver seat was interesting, I can't even blame anyone else for this one as I was the last person to put this seat in. Suppose I did the old "it's future Alex's problem", yeah future Alex isn't super fond of that as it turns out and yet, there is no effort to change habit. Threads are for losers anyway. 

Another thing to get sorted while things are all apart is the fuel system. Once upon a time an electric fuel pump was wired in, wiring job looks like something I would've rigged up honestly but it needs to be properly done. For one the pump is in the wrong place so that needs to be relocated and it's not on any kind of relay or anything so it runs all the time as soon as you click it over to accessory on the key; I don't think that's correct. I'd like to install a fuel pressure regulator as well to keep it in check. 

The roof lining has been cactus since I bought the car and probably has been screwed for years before. It's just some cheap fabric that has been kind of glued up there and would've been done when the sunroof was installed; probably in the 80s. I tore it all out and will have to work out a plan to replace that. I won't be coating the roof portion but I wouldn't mind slapping up some squares of sound deadening. 

Carpet needs replacement as well; I think this was a kit once upon a time but honestly it looks like leftover garage carpet, yuck. Replacement carpets are available in much nicer material these days. 

Also this white insulation looking stuff under the front got me a little worried. 50/50 on it containing asbestos according to Google images so I masked up with some gloves and tried to tear it out. Frustratingly it's stuck down really well on the passenger side so even with the wire wheel on drill I couldn't get all of the stuff off without spending all my life in there. It's good enough to coat over I reckon. Thankfully driver side was much easier as they were lazy with the application. 

I plan to remove the dash and everything anyway to get it cleaned up under there as there's a bit of messy wiring as well as the heater core seems a bit locked up (I can't change the heat on the slider) so want to have a look at that, or maybe remove it? Don't need heat if you don't drive it. 

You'll notice the little boxes in the front as well that I need to cut out which will be a super fun (not) job before I can start coating so that might be one of the next jobs on the line. 

That brings us to the end where it sits now. Stripped out mostly, vacuumed but not cleaned up yet. I will get the brush and anti-rust spray out for that little surface rust that's kicking around. As for the coating I plan to use bedliner then decide if I want to add additional sound deadening or not; haven't quite decided yet. Bedliner is hardy, it's fairly cheap and it will be covered by carpet anyway so should be fine. I haven't decided exactly how far up I want to go, whether I do all the areas without trim or just the floor areas. 

This is why I need to get the rear windows working, how sweet is that pillarless life. 

 

[mlracing.co.nz]

I might've jumped the gun on a previous post saying the car was quite straight, turns out there was a bit more to do.. 

Chassis rails were mulched from forklifts as mentioned earlier and once the car was pulled straight it was apparent more things were not in great shape. The side sills on driver side had to come off and be modified as well as the chassis rail torque boxes. Some more rust was found underneath (to the surprise of nobody) so they were recreated.

I was a little worried about this part of the b-pillar as it was pretty pitted originally especially where it connected down with the inner sill but that's looking much better now. Door gaps looking mint. 

So yeah these are the kinds of jobs which take ages but aren't really exciting to look at but needed to be done to ensure it can survive another 50 cycles around the sun. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

Two tasks planned for today, both failed. 

First task was to remove the dashboard. Reason for that is so I could check out some wiring behind it and also make sure I could eventually get as much undercoat sprayed up in as many areas as possible. Additionally I didn't want to damage it when trying to grind away the mounting blocks that were put in for the roll cage. After drilling out one broken screw and breaking the surround for the steering column unfortunately I did not get to take the dash out. I was thwarted by the choke cable knob that seemed like it was fused on by the nuclear power. I also didn't want to undo the choke cable from the engine bay and drag it all the way through as by this time my interest in that portion of the project had been depleted so I put it back together as best as I could and had lunch. 

I did find this gem under there which answers one puzzle about the headlights. 

After lunch I thought I'd see how I went with grinding away the roll cage boxes at the front. Unfortunately I could only access so much with the grinder and when I got to about here is where I gave up. Talking to some panel beaters the suggested method from a DIY point of view is reciprocating saw to get in as many cuts and angles as possible really and smash/grind out the rest. Just a shit job all around. 

Oh well, an excuse to get some more tools. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

Another email from panel Barry come through recently. He's been spending time cleaning up the sills and preparing for the final weld in as well as getting all the welds in the rear floor/boot area ready to support the rear end going back together. 

[mlracing.co.nz]

I picked up a saw during the week and had a go at cutting, didn't get very far before the blade decided to become smooth and basically just polish things. Smoke fell out of it too. So today I learnt there are different blades for cutting different thickness of metal. I've now spent my life savings again to buy a bunch of blades for chonker steel. If that doesn't work then I give up and will just get new carpet and cut around these stupid boxes. 

I did conduct a somewhat successful experiment with sound deadening though. I was reading about how to remove sound deadening without dry ice and this freeze spray stuff came up a few times so I gave it a shot. It didn't work too bad but it would be a ludicriously expensive way to actually remove large portions of sound deadening. Just getting the chips of this little bit used up the whole can. 

I haven't really worked out where the cuts for these boxes will be done but hopefully when I start to cut things it will make more sense depending on what access becomes available.