Spottedlaurel

Camry taken for an MoT this morning:

Both the failure items as expected. Unfortunately I only found out about the headlight last night and it was too cold/dark to faff around changing it when I knew it would fail on the ABS light.
Pleased to find no rot/brake/suspension issues. Will get them to advise on what's up with the ABS and get it sorted. I have the spares car here if need be, although I do wonder if there's a bit of rodent damage.
I could do with getting it on the road again as I seem to be doing a lot of extra miles due to various dad's taxi duties, and it's not ideal to keep using the Sunny at this time of year.

Camry taken for an MoT this morning:

Both the failure items as expected. Unfortunately I only found out about the headlight last night and it was too cold/dark to faff around changing it when I knew it would fail on the ABS light.
Pleased to find no rot/brake/suspension issues. Will get them to advise on what's up with the ABS and get it sorted. I have the spares car here if need be, although I do wonder if there's a bit of rodent damage.
I could do with getting it on the road again as I seem to be doing a lot of extra miles due to various dad's taxi duties, and it's not ideal to keep using the Sunny at this time of year.

More kits:

1:24 Fujimi Nissan Skyline GTS Saloon (R31) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Hasegawa Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter quite an old issue, and a bit smelly, but it somehow seems appropriate?

More kits:

1:24 Fujimi Nissan Skyline GTS Saloon (R31) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Hasegawa Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter quite an old issue, and a bit smelly, but it somehow seems appropriate?

Got quite far flat & polishing the car today.  The bonnet, boot lid and drivers side are now complete.  About 6 hours of work.
First I spent some more time on the bonnet and got it looking better.  Pleased that most of the surface imperfections on this panel have now gone.

Next up was the front wing.  The shape of panel means I have to take more care and use a combination of machine & hand polishing.
First pass with 1200 to take the top of the orange peel off.  I then use the finish below as a guide coat for the 1500 grit stage.

Second pass with 1500

3000 grit trizact disk

6000 grit trizact disk 

Polish with 3M green mop & compound


Worked my way down the car and did the door and rear quarter.  The quarter took a long time, its huge!


Then the boot lid

That completes the drivers side.  I'll do the other side next week.

Very pleased with the result.  Removed most of the orange peel & surface imperfections in all the panels I treated.  Looks like a professional job now, amazing what you can do with the right equipment.  There were a few bits I was worried about but they just polished away.  Good learning experience all round, looking forward to the other side.

Camry taken for an MoT this morning:

Both the failure items as expected. Unfortunately I only found out about the headlight last night and it was too cold/dark to faff around changing it when I knew it would fail on the ABS light.
Pleased to find no rot/brake/suspension issues. Will get them to advise on what's up with the ABS and get it sorted. I have the spares car here if need be, although I do wonder if there's a bit of rodent damage.
I could do with getting it on the road again as I seem to be doing a lot of extra miles due to various dad's taxi duties, and it's not ideal to keep using the Sunny at this time of year.

Sorry to hear about the Granvia, hope you get it sorted OK.
Have a D-reg Sierra Base postcard shot to cheer you up:

A27, Worthing old postcard late 1980s by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
It made it to 1988. I'd like to think that the couple raising their hands on the left are acknowledging their appreciation of it being a Base.

More kits:

1:24 Fujimi Nissan Skyline GTS Saloon (R31) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Hasegawa Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter quite an old issue, and a bit smelly, but it somehow seems appropriate?

More kits:

1:24 Fujimi Nissan Skyline GTS Saloon (R31) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Hasegawa Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter quite an old issue, and a bit smelly, but it somehow seems appropriate?

Sunderland. 
 
Wheatsheaf Car Sales

 
 

 
 
H Young Motors

 
 
 
Vaux breweries demolition. 

 
 
 
The Old Twenty Nine. 

 
 
 
 
Is that a Toyota Crown Wagon?

 
 
 
The Windsor Castle

 
 
 
Millfield House

 
 
 
Empire Theatre

More kits:

1:24 Fujimi Nissan Skyline GTS Saloon (R31) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Hasegawa Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter quite an old issue, and a bit smelly, but it somehow seems appropriate?

More kits:

1:24 Fujimi Nissan Skyline GTS Saloon (R31) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Hasegawa Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter quite an old issue, and a bit smelly, but it somehow seems appropriate?

Lot of 6 cars for sale, best offer. I feel like this could be a great Autoshite community effort if you ignore the logistics behind it all. I'd take the Civic.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2430199217237136/

 

More kits:

1:24 Fujimi Nissan Skyline GTS Saloon (R31) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Hasegawa Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter quite an old issue, and a bit smelly, but it somehow seems appropriate?

Okay, so the Cable Truck was in there and has been secured - one cable drum was present and correct, but despite some frantic digging its twin could not be located in the depths of the tat box...


I'd made a note way back last year that you were also looking for the white and orange GMC wrecker and the red Dodge Daytona - if you're not any longer that's fine, but if so I'll pop them aside for you.
I only wish it was... sorry!
Pity no more...


Great builder's van patina, hey? Almost as good as the real thing!
Bingo bango.


Yours for a fiver the pair; not too bad.
 
I also pulled these Matchbox items from the 50p box, in the off-chance they would appeal to any on here:

I don't believe the green plastic skip belongs to the Ford Cargo - possibly pairs with the Corgi Juniors Ford D-series from last week? - but I found it at the bottom of the box while guddling for the Volvo's missing cable drum, and was jiggered if | was going to pay 50p for the skip alone... so clipped it onto one of the many Cargo skip trucks in there.
Holden Ute mentioned above did come away with me; also a reasonable Mercury Fire Chief and a quite decent Matra Rancho, with tailgate still in place.
[EDIT: all four now taken!]
 
The Charity Stall yielded these at 3 for £1 - a decent Astra plodmobile, a moderately atrocious Summer Toys Volvo 164, and a fairly comprehensively fucked Majorette Renault R5, which does at least still have its doors and so might be some use as a spares source.

33.333333333333333 new pence takes each of these, should you fancy 'em.
[EDIT: Renault 5 now allocated, and I might just keep the Astra for the time being...]
This Matchbox Battle Kings M3 Half-Track also cropped up in the 50p tat box - not really my thing, but with the rubber tracks still in place it seemed a bit too nice to get bashed around in there.


I'll doubtless have had my fill of this before too long, so if anyone wants it, let me know!
Lastly, while searching for the cable drum, I also turned up this:

Which I recognised as part of the load for the Matchbox Superkings K-20 DAF Cargo Loader and Pallet Hauler set (slightly damaged, sadly)...

And just by chance I happen to have a Lansing Bagnall forklift with me...

Lovely.

Okay so... we've gone from ZERO Assembly Questions to 65 Assembly Questions for response this week, so you can well imagine that's had something of a knock-on impact on my ability to lovingly photograph, edit and wax lyrical about tiny tat during work hours...
Here's a pictorial run-down of this morning's stall - I'll hopefully get a chance to come back and add in some more text later, but if there's anything here which you have a notion for, do sing out!
 
Tragically, all the good 1960s/70s Corgis from last week were goneski - just the repaints and resto candidates left on the main stall.

Other large-scale retro oddities were in evidence, too.

Tonka racing truck in good nick - I believe this had an unusual friction-drive mechanism where you would push it forward multiple times to get the flywheel spinning, then the truck would 'idle' until you pressed the yellow button on the roof, at which point it would engage the drive mechanism and it would shoot off across the floor at a rate of knots.

Haven't seen one for 30yrs+, but very vivid memories nonetheless...
Plenty of assorted aircraft, for those so interested...

Lledo Cargo Kings articulated trucks, and a Castrol 'collector set', featuring the somewhat rubbish Leyland eight-wheeler.

More Lledo stuff for very Llittle:

I was really into the early-90s Days Gone 'Vanguards Collection' - I remember seeing this Chevrolet van in the catalogue as a forthcoming casting  and nearly being sick with excitement.

I'm not really sure why, now - must have been a short-lived infatuation as I never did buy one, though I had a fair few Bedford O-type trucks, Minor vans, Morris LD150s and Z vans from the range.
50p Tat Box fun, then:

Mercury Fire Chief cars - early 70s and late 70s.

Loads of Super GTs in here, too - some in decent condition.

Holden Ute wasn't bad; EFE Harrington Cavalier coach missing tyres and some paint. Corgi GP Buggy did have its windscreen intact and might clean up ok.

My First Matchbox version of the Ford Utility Truck is a new one on me. You'll note that the small, easily swallowed aerial platform is missing... Red F1 car behind is by Playart.

Corgi SD1 and not-too-bad Polo in green. Matchbox dragster has wonky wheels but otherwise quite presentable. Iso Grifo is pretty far gone. I think that red thing's meant to be a Mustang fastback.

Somewhat of-its-time Nissan 300ZX, with those wheels. Very cool, despite much wear. BMC 1800 Farina has the bigger Superfast wheels and larger arches and is a viable resto; a trashed earlier version in gold discovered elsewhere in the box is probably only good for spares.

Some stuff has been procured from the box, as per last week's requests - @sierraman may be a happy bunny, anyway!
So while there was not a lot up top, I could see several crates of tat a-lurking beneath the stall...

Some good stuff in here from last week, but nothing new.

Likewise, you'll have seen these and all; I hadn't noticed the white Corgi Turbos Opel Manta last week, though.

Wasn't someone on here looking a Superkings hovercraft, for a slotcar conversion? Can't imagine he'd be looking very much for this.
Just time for a whistle-stop prod at the Charity Stall - a three-wheeled Bburago Suzuki Vitara (axle stub snapped), a Super GT Lamborghini Marzal in good condition, and a yellow Novacar Ferrari Testarossa were the dubious highlights here - also that MFM Rover 800 still available, though it is looking a bit worse for wear.

Sorry for the relative brevity here, but there's good news for @bunglebus and @Split_Pin coming up shortly...

Good old Medler's had a couple of those Cordias:

1983 Colt Cordia x2 c.1996 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
And a Tredia, of course:

1984/85-ish Colt Tredia Turbo c.1997 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
A page or two back I think someone mentioned the stack-light Mazda 929. We did briefly get the estate here:

1979 Mazda 929 Estate c.1998/99 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Good old Medler's had a couple of those Cordias:

1983 Colt Cordia x2 c.1996 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
And a Tredia, of course:

1984/85-ish Colt Tredia Turbo c.1997 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
A page or two back I think someone mentioned the stack-light Mazda 929. We did briefly get the estate here:

1979 Mazda 929 Estate c.1998/99 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Correct, and there were a couple of variants:

1974 Datsun 160J SSS (710), Billing JAE 2001 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Followed by this hatchback:

Datsun 160J SSS (A10) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter was one of my favourite Datsuns, I did around 20k a year in it during the mid '90s. Buzzer on reverse, as it was where first would be on most other cars thanks to that dogleg 'box.

I've made some more progress over the past two weeks.  Few more bits have made their way onto the car and I've started polishing the paintwork.
I've not polished the paint until now for two reasons...
I didn't have the balls to take 1200 grit sand paper to my paint job I needed to perform one or two additional bits of paint correction and they are now complete. (I missed a nasty ripple in one of the rear wings and needed to fix it).  Tried living with it for 2 months and couldn't stop looking at it all the time.  First up the washer bottle bracket which was very rusty/damaged has been repaired and painted.  I've already polished what I can of the engine bay.  When new the finish in here was very poor and it's one of the reasons for all those scabby Ford engine bays years later.  I've got a good coat of paint in here and it's shiny so I'm already beating the original factory.  I will continue to hand polish various areas under here as and when I get the motivation.

Next I've fitted the rear windows.  This is probably the worst bit of design on the whole car.  The window is held in by the pop out catch at the rear and two very small bits of metal on the B post.  With the window popped open it eventually falls out while driving so they will remain shut from now on!  This is a well-known fault with the face lift coupe.

I've also fitted the remaining trim pieces inside the rear of the car.  Starting to look quite nice in here now.

Polishing the paint is a slow and scary process.  I've never done it to this level before but it won’t polish itself so I've made a start.  All the bits I've put on the outside of the car so far have been chosen because they don't really get in the way of the process.  There is nothing fitted to the sides of the car so I have access for polishing.  
Here you can see the finish as it is off the gun.  Deep shine but plenty of orange peel and when you start looking there is a fair bit of dirt in places.  I expected this as I'm a novice painter.

First thing to do is use a de-nibbing tool to remove any spots of dirt & dust.  I'm using 2000 grit on the tool as it's what’s in stock.  You end up with loads of little dull spots after completing this.

Next I use 1200 grit paper on a DA with a soft interface pad.  This takes down the orange peel and also removes any small bits of dirt and dust.  Be careful of the edges!

Next I move to 1500 grit on the same tool and sand until I have a flat matt finish.  All the time I'm terrified of seeing primer but if you study the picture I'm really removing only the very top surface of the paint.  There is no danger of rubbing through provided I stay off the edges and stick to the method.

Next I move onto 3000 grit 3m Trizact disk.  This removes all the 1500 grit scratches and starts to move us back towards a shine.

After this I should have gone to a 6000 grit Trizact but I didn't have any.  I've ordered some so will have a go next weekend.  In the absence of those I moved to polishing using 3m green & blue pads/compounds and a decent polisher.

Not bad for a first go.  I didn't make any major mistakes but due to lack of confidence I've not fully removed the orange peel near the edges and a few small areas.  I also needed to spend more time on the polishing stage.
I'll revisit the again with 1500 and follow up with both Trizact disks.
Here's a comparison.  Before on the left and after on the right...

Will take me a few days to complete this, nice boost to confidence as I didn't mess it up!  Was more worried about this bit than the actual painting.

99.9% confident they were destined for racing. The bigger stuff was never so popular for export, even back in the '90s when the Sunnys, Violets and Corollas were commanding silly amounts and getting stolen as a result.
Having seen countless examples of these stripped-out for racing over the past 25-30 years, I'm pretty confident that the white bottom middle one is a Nissan 300C,:

1986 Nissan 300C (Y30) x2 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Had these consecutively, and an estate a year or two beforehand.
The rest are Toyota Crowns, bottom left one an early model:

1970/71 Toyota Crown 2300, c. 1994/95 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1978/79 Toyota Crown 2600 Auto, DFH65T (1986) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1980 Toyota Crown 2.8 Super Saloon, LDF667V (1988) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
On the subject of Crowns, here's a real oddity that found its way here. I don't believe these were officially sold in the UK, but they were importing Corona back then so maybe it came across for evaluation?

1967 Toyota Crown Deluxe 1900, PLK990E (1970) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Interesting to see a few of my photos/scans already on here.......
The Mitsubishi Colt 1100F was never sold in the UK, it seems that an example was brought here and given a road test or two but nothing happened until they started selling Colt (as a brand) around 1974.

1975 Colt Galant 1600 saloon c.1996/97 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Here's an early one that I used to see around the Stowmarket/Elmswell area.
The coupe version looks great:

Colt Galant Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
I could break AS with the amount of photos and cans I have on this sort of rubbish, so for now I'll just leave this here:

February 2016 Line-Up by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Four years later, only one of them has gone (LS400, still around though I believe?) and the rest are still here and working even if the Camry and Laurel are currently SORN and in need of being MoTed.

99.9% confident they were destined for racing. The bigger stuff was never so popular for export, even back in the '90s when the Sunnys, Violets and Corollas were commanding silly amounts and getting stolen as a result.
Having seen countless examples of these stripped-out for racing over the past 25-30 years, I'm pretty confident that the white bottom middle one is a Nissan 300C,:

1986 Nissan 300C (Y30) x2 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Had these consecutively, and an estate a year or two beforehand.
The rest are Toyota Crowns, bottom left one an early model:

1970/71 Toyota Crown 2300, c. 1994/95 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1978/79 Toyota Crown 2600 Auto, DFH65T (1986) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1980 Toyota Crown 2.8 Super Saloon, LDF667V (1988) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
On the subject of Crowns, here's a real oddity that found its way here. I don't believe these were officially sold in the UK, but they were importing Corona back then so maybe it came across for evaluation?

1967 Toyota Crown Deluxe 1900, PLK990E (1970) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Interesting to see a few of my photos/scans already on here.......
The Mitsubishi Colt 1100F was never sold in the UK, it seems that an example was brought here and given a road test or two but nothing happened until they started selling Colt (as a brand) around 1974.

1975 Colt Galant 1600 saloon c.1996/97 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Here's an early one that I used to see around the Stowmarket/Elmswell area.
The coupe version looks great:

Colt Galant Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
I could break AS with the amount of photos and cans I have on this sort of rubbish, so for now I'll just leave this here:

February 2016 Line-Up by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Four years later, only one of them has gone (LS400, still around though I believe?) and the rest are still here and working even if the Camry and Laurel are currently SORN and in need of being MoTed.

99.9% confident they were destined for racing. The bigger stuff was never so popular for export, even back in the '90s when the Sunnys, Violets and Corollas were commanding silly amounts and getting stolen as a result.
Having seen countless examples of these stripped-out for racing over the past 25-30 years, I'm pretty confident that the white bottom middle one is a Nissan 300C,:

1986 Nissan 300C (Y30) x2 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Had these consecutively, and an estate a year or two beforehand.
The rest are Toyota Crowns, bottom left one an early model:

1970/71 Toyota Crown 2300, c. 1994/95 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1978/79 Toyota Crown 2600 Auto, DFH65T (1986) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1980 Toyota Crown 2.8 Super Saloon, LDF667V (1988) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
On the subject of Crowns, here's a real oddity that found its way here. I don't believe these were officially sold in the UK, but they were importing Corona back then so maybe it came across for evaluation?

1967 Toyota Crown Deluxe 1900, PLK990E (1970) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Interesting to see a few of my photos/scans already on here.......
The Mitsubishi Colt 1100F was never sold in the UK, it seems that an example was brought here and given a road test or two but nothing happened until they started selling Colt (as a brand) around 1974.

1975 Colt Galant 1600 saloon c.1996/97 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Here's an early one that I used to see around the Stowmarket/Elmswell area.
The coupe version looks great:

Colt Galant Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
I could break AS with the amount of photos and cans I have on this sort of rubbish, so for now I'll just leave this here:

February 2016 Line-Up by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Four years later, only one of them has gone (LS400, still around though I believe?) and the rest are still here and working even if the Camry and Laurel are currently SORN and in need of being MoTed.

99.9% confident they were destined for racing. The bigger stuff was never so popular for export, even back in the '90s when the Sunnys, Violets and Corollas were commanding silly amounts and getting stolen as a result.
Having seen countless examples of these stripped-out for racing over the past 25-30 years, I'm pretty confident that the white bottom middle one is a Nissan 300C,:

1986 Nissan 300C (Y30) x2 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Had these consecutively, and an estate a year or two beforehand.
The rest are Toyota Crowns, bottom left one an early model:

1970/71 Toyota Crown 2300, c. 1994/95 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1978/79 Toyota Crown 2600 Auto, DFH65T (1986) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1980 Toyota Crown 2.8 Super Saloon, LDF667V (1988) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
On the subject of Crowns, here's a real oddity that found its way here. I don't believe these were officially sold in the UK, but they were importing Corona back then so maybe it came across for evaluation?

1967 Toyota Crown Deluxe 1900, PLK990E (1970) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Interesting to see a few of my photos/scans already on here.......
The Mitsubishi Colt 1100F was never sold in the UK, it seems that an example was brought here and given a road test or two but nothing happened until they started selling Colt (as a brand) around 1974.

1975 Colt Galant 1600 saloon c.1996/97 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Here's an early one that I used to see around the Stowmarket/Elmswell area.
The coupe version looks great:

Colt Galant Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
I could break AS with the amount of photos and cans I have on this sort of rubbish, so for now I'll just leave this here:

February 2016 Line-Up by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Four years later, only one of them has gone (LS400, still around though I believe?) and the rest are still here and working even if the Camry and Laurel are currently SORN and in need of being MoTed.

Correct, and there were a couple of variants:

1974 Datsun 160J SSS (710), Billing JAE 2001 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
Followed by this hatchback:

Datsun 160J SSS (A10) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
The latter was one of my favourite Datsuns, I did around 20k a year in it during the mid '90s. Buzzer on reverse, as it was where first would be on most other cars thanks to that dogleg 'box.