EightMegs

You're better off practicing on sheet metal off cuts, starting off with thick stuff and then going thinner. At the end of the day, as long as you don't start a fire, there are few ways welding can go wrong that can't be later rectified. You can always fill in holes with more wire.

For @Fumbler;)

Don't even think about asking a Toyota dealer for new bushes, they won't sell them to you on their own and will instead try to charge you €400 for two new arms. Go directly for aftermarket bushes, I've had good luck with Borg & Beck.

"Compatible" my arse. Fouls on both the spring and the top mount. Very poor out of Febest. The original is firmly in "NCT Fail Major" territory.

It was nice seeing you, REV, and Morris earlier! Thanks for the tea and the tour. Hopefully you'll have REV outside the chipper with your new fuel pump tomorrow.

I have recently discovered while replacing wheel cylinders that I am not strong enough to stretch the springs on my friend's LiteAce's rear brakes. So for the other side, I just wound the self adjuster all the way out and slid the wheel cylinder out from in between the shoes. Only two pipe clips snapped off, which was a better result than I was expecting. I also managed to bend a Halford's 10mm spanner undoing a union...

The brake shoe springs on a Toyota LiteAce have destroyed my fingers. Surely they don't need to be that stiff.

If it's got one of those Denso IIA distributors, the contact on the top of the coil is made of steel and liable to disintegrate. Have a nose under the cap to see if it's still there and not a pile of brown dust in the cap.

Is that an E90 Sprinter peeking in?

Some enterprising Russians have worked out how the old Toyota diagnostics protocol works but you'll need to make up your own cable and find a PC with a serial port. http://toyota.kgbconsulting.ca/wiki/OBD-1_Serial_Interface

I had a black one which has only recently been sent to the tip after a failed generator engine conversion when I was 14.

Maybe, I was thinking of swapping it with the Starlet once the Starlet is roadworthy again, but I don't plan on selling it any time soon, they're hard enough to come by.

Nope, I'm leaving it in the UK so I have something to use when I'm in Poole for work. Probably the first time an Irishman has bought a Carina in the UK and not immediately put it on a ferry.

My new Carina has landed courtesy of @castros_bro! In other news, the Starlet is back together again with a new bumper after I was defeated by an overtightened crank pulley bolt when attempting to change the cam belt. And there are now 2,500 miles on the rope holding the Yaris' exhaust heat shield.