What did you do to your car today?

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Ditched my shitty Made in China Erisin Windows CE based stereo for a not quite as shitty Made in China Eonon Android one and painted my calipers red for ultimate rice spec (and the free +5hp the prepubescent salesperson at Repco promised me)

Isn't it an extra 25kW?

What paint did you use for the calipers? I've just stated painting mine with Duplicolor brush on caliper paint but these are off the car. Makes it far easier I think, never painted calipers before.

I think only the fluorescent pink adds 25kW, but that was a bit too gangsta' for me

I used the Duplicolor brush-on caliper paint too. Admittedly it was about 6-years old so was starting to get pretty thick but I thinned it out with some methylated spirits. That same small pot of paint has done 3 other cars calipers in the past and still has at least 3-4 cars worth of paint left. So much easier to paint it on rather than spray it on and have to mask everything off or remove the calipers. Doesn't leave any brush stroke marks and dries quick. Just don't do it when you're been drinking and you'll be allgood - Although since your calipers are already off the car you could be pissed as a chook and it'll still come out half decent.

[sergei]

I mean no offence (it is a very nice car), but I am surprised how tiny are the brakes!!! I mean for the power and weight of the car.

[Dell'Orto]

Going to pick my friends brains this week and see just how involved it is to get the front timing cover off, as I would like to replace that gasket along with the front crank seal, I figure now is a great time to do this, as I don't intend on stripping it down that far ever again haha

All kinds of jealous over this car. Dig 3TGTE's so much

[Kiwi-Corolla]

I mean no offence (it is a very nice car), but I am surprised how tiny are the brakes!!! I mean for the power and weight of the car.

No offense taken! . The brakes are the same size as the 2.4L Camry, which considering the extra power of the Aurion is rather ridiculous. When I first looked at that photo I too thought that the brakes look tiny, but the ring around the centre of the TRD wheels hides a lot of the brake rotor, which makes them look smaller than they already are. In reality the front brake rotors are 296mm in diameter and 286mm in the rear, which is ample for day-to-day driving, but with that deceiving design and an 18" wheel size, that shit starts looking like a 230mm 5A-FE Corolla rotor

Sidenote: It's worth mentioning that the TRD Aurion (Supercharged) has 325mm front rotors and are 32mm thick (vs 28mm), and have twinpot front calipers, so Toyota obviously decided that the wimpy Camry brakes weren't going to cut it when faced with an extra 41kW.

[sergei]

I mean no offence (it is a very nice car), but I am surprised how tiny are the brakes!!! I mean for the power and weight of the car.

No offense taken! . The brakes are the same size as the 2.4L Camry, which considering the extra power of the Aurion is rather ridiculous. When I first looked at that photo I too thought that the brakes look tiny, but the ring around the centre of the TRD wheels hides a lot of the brake rotor, which makes them look smaller than they already are. In reality the front brake rotors are 296mm in diameter and 286mm in the rear, which is ample for day-to-day driving, but with that deceiving design and an 18" wheel size, that shit starts looking like a 230mm 5A-FE Corolla rotor

Sidenote: It's worth mentioning that the TRD Aurion (Supercharged) has 325mm front rotors and are 32mm thick (vs 28mm), and have twinpot front calipers, so Toyota obviously decided that the wimpy Camry brakes weren't going to cut it when faced with an extra 41kW.

Actually 296x28 is not too bad , it just looks small.
I guess I am so used to seeing 326mm rotors with 4 pot callipers every day...

[GDII]

Ditched my shitty Made in China Erisin Windows CE based stereo for a not quite as shitty Made in China Eonon Android one and painted my calipers red for ultimate rice spec (and the free +5hp the prepubescent salesperson at Repco promised me)

Isn't it an extra 25kW?

What paint did you use for the calipers? I've just stated painting mine with Duplicolor brush on caliper paint but these are off the car. Makes it far easier I think, never painted calipers before.

I think only the fluorescent pink adds 25kW, but that was a bit too gangsta' for me

I used the Duplicolor brush-on caliper paint too. Admittedly it was about 6-years old so was starting to get pretty thick but I thinned it out with some methylated spirits. That same small pot of paint has done 3 other cars calipers in the past and still has at least 3-4 cars worth of paint left. So much easier to paint it on rather than spray it on and have to mask everything off or remove the calipers. Doesn't leave any brush stroke marks and dries quick. Just don't do it when you're been drinking and you'll be allgood - Although since your calipers are already off the car you could be pissed as a chook and it'll still come out half decent.

Good thing I don't drink then. I'm just taking my time on these. One per weekend and then a final coat the week after. I need something to do that's car related so spacing it out.
The tin does last quite awhile. I haven't used much. Very hard and brittle paint so I don't want to knock it on anything. I still need to rebuild the calipers once they are painted. Got all the seals waiting for them.

[MAC_HATER]

Musing with a good mechanic friend about how to remove the crank pulley off the corona resulted him in saying "eh, lets just use the starter trick" so we did that, and it sorted that problem instantly! haha

So we set cracking on replacing the Front main seal, the Water pump and gasket, fitted a new fan clutch at the same time, and fitted a new thermostat with gasket, changed the sparkplugs in the middle of all that too

Next step was to pull the cam cover and replace those gaskets, and holy shit I was in for a surprise:



I wasnt expecting that!


Its so ****ing clean! 31 years and 165,000km I was expecting sludge city with charcoal suburbs on account of the cooling system being so gross, but holy crap it blew me away



Was a great chance to degrease the cam cover while it was off, and this is how its sitting, waiting for the cooling system to come back to me so it can all go back together, get an oil change, and a test drive to the warrant shop as thats run out now too >_>

[GDII]

Damn that's clean. Such a cool car. Factory turbo Corona WITH a 3T-GTE. Not many like that still around.

[MAC_HATER]

I love it haha, Its the only one ive ever seen, and until I saw it, I never knew such a thing existed, some googling suggests there are a couple more in NZ, but are off the radar at the moment, I loved my old 3T base model poverty pack one years ago before Rot took its life, now having this one, its a bizzare sense of everything being just like I remember, only much better.
It feels like the old one, but better cause it has IRS, it even smells the same inside, but is better with the black instead of orange interior, and it still sounds a wee bit like the old 3T, but angrier on account of being twincam and more rev happy, and nearly double the power helps too! haha

Going to try and keep it straight and tidy, and just have fun with it

[Dell'Orto]

So much pine for that car.
Yesterday, filled the 5K with oil, primed it and fitted the dizzy. Not a heap left to do really, just need time/space/an unfucked hand

[wde_bdy]

Had someone wreck my front bumper while the wife was using my car. I suspect dealing with their insurance company will be 'interesting'.


Callum

[Flannelman]

Cam upgrade for the Levin is complete. Advertised duration stands at 280 with 234@0.050in Max lift is 8.3mm.
This was a regrind cam, just needed to sus some shims. All up, in the car for less than $400.

While no major difference below 4000rpm the top end is now much stronger. Still retaining standard ECU. I've managed 100km just today and fuel gauge is showing no sings of change from the previous blacktop/silvertop combo.

[Dell'Orto]

Changed gearbox and diff oils in the Altezza today, in preparation of a big roady. Also tried to change the drive shaft seal, and rounded out the last cap screw that holds the driveshaft to the output flange. FML.

[RS13]

I love it haha, Its the only one ive ever seen, and until I saw it, I never knew such a thing existed, some googling suggests there are a couple more in NZ, but are off the radar at the moment, I loved my old 3T base model poverty pack one years ago before Rot took its life, now having this one, its a bizzare sense of everything being just like I remember, only much better.

I turned a GT-T down for $500 in 2003.. immaculate, low-km and perfectly original, belonged to my flatmates brother at the time who just wanted to get rid of it due to no reg/wof.. I was saving at the time for his 200SX which I bought. The Corona ended up going to a mate of mine who ripped the 3TGTE and 5spd out for his TE71, junked the rest. Always regretted passing it up, I've never seen one as tidy as that since!

The amount of cars I passed up back in the day that are now super-rare and valuable makes me so disappointed in myself! lol.

[RS13]

Oh and to add to the thread, I finally managed (with Sergei's assistance!) to properly reset the fly-by-wire throttle in our RunX, no more hesitation off the line.. much nicer to drive. Its' the little things..

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Put some personalized plates on....because minor mind f*ck FTW!

[Kiwi-Corolla]

I decided to get the personalized plates remanufactured to freshen them up with the new font, and opted to add a couple of spaces between the zeros

[MAC_HATER]

That looks sweet fresh plates are always good

A friend helped me (as in did most of it) put in a more capable audio system into the Corona in the weekend

ended up buying this a few weeks ago:



We chose the Pioneer box speakers as the entire rear parcel tray had been re-welded shut as it was cut open by a previous owner, and must have been a "fix it now" item for the re-registration it went through at some stage, and we didn't want to re-cut it up if we didn't need to, and I cant stand those MDF carpeted speaker boxes you can get, they look horrid and remove all rear vision, so flat mount box speakers it is! and they look oh so period

My friend measured up and drilled the mounting holes for the box speakers and wiring for me, and I set to actually installing them, and running the cabling from the rear to the front along the OEM loom rails in the floor, so its all tidy and invisible, and while doing that I found a heap of smashed glass under the carpet, so its had new door windows at some point, once I ran the cabling for those, I pulled out the absolutely horrid Fusion 4" speakers in the front, and used a set of really nice Infinity speakers My friend had sitting on his shelf, and put them in place also

While all this was happening, My friend was fabricating up a custom set of DIN mounts, as the OEM ones were missing, and he pulled off some wizardry I cant comprehend as the mounts are all at strange angles due to the dashboard face, but once it was all in, it fitted perfectly, and I think its better than OEM

He then took the badly hacked up loom and converted it into a super tidy pair of ISO connectors, and it all plugged in instantly, and started working right off the bat, some tuning later, and I had a sweet stereo setup!



No more crappy fusion speakers and a $10 CD player that was so cheap it didn't even have anti skip tech in it haha

[Al]

The holes in a fixed parcel tray, like in a sedan, are within a certain distance to a seatbelt anchorage you have to fix it.

I failed a WOF about 12 years ago for the same thing. Bought the car like that, from a dealer three years earlier, passed every WOF at the same place that failed it. The only thing different was that I had taken the speakers out leaving the holes.

[MAC_HATER]

Yeah one of the previous owners will have cut them open to fit 6x9 speakers or something and the resulting holes were too close to the seatbelt anchors, and I suppose the easiest fix was to just fit and weld in new plate to completely fill the holes in, this was all done about 5 years ago according to the paperwork, when it was re-registered around that time