Dollywobbler's Daihatsu - MOT of fail

[bub2006]

Are the plastic covers over the lights aftermarket as I can't recall seeing them before?

[dollywobbler]

No. They all have them, but they're usually chrome.

[michiel]

Facebook thinks the entire back end of this thing is a face.

 

[dollywobbler]

No. They all have them, but they're usually chrome.

 

I was wrong. They don't all have them. I've utterly failed to find out where they came from. I found a picture of a Storia somewhere in the world wearing chrome trims. It didn't explain much.

[wuvvum]

That looks like a suitably daft purchase.  I found my Sirion to be a really rather charming little thing, if not the most manly vehicle I've ever owned.  As you say, the little three-pot is both amazingly willing for such a small engine, and surprisingly refined on long journeys.  Excellent on petrol too.  It's not the best-handling small car ever, and I found the steering to be rather over-assisted, but that was it as far as the downsides went.

 

I'd have another.  Although perhaps not one quite as individual as yours.

[beko1987]

We use AutoSmart "Tardis Solvitude" - it's like a somewhat overspecced tar & glue remover, I normally use it in a spray bottle and it more or less wipes off.

 

Dunno on it's availability in your neck of the woods tho DW.

Tardis again. Infact I use it more for removing sticky shit than removing tar on cars! Can be bought from any reputable detailing supplier (Elite Car Care, Autosmart direct, detailedclean etc)

 

Or WD40 and a good polish afterwards

[skattrd]

My Storia had the chrome trims on the front & rear lights when I bought it. I removed them and put them in the bin.

I'm not sure why they were fitted, maybe it was to hide the fact that the original JDM lights are not "E" marked.

[dollywobbler]

There are some quirks when it comes to UK type approval for sure. The front bumper only has a small, square place for a number plate, so it's effectively only held at the right hand edge and near the middle. And there's the 'last minute' rear fog light design too.

 

Today's plan is to tackle the wheelarch rot. Need to remove the plastic trim (that'll be the scary bit!), rub everything down and remove the bubbling paint, then slather Vactan everywhere, followed by a coat of zinc primer. Found a small tin of touch-up paint in the glovebox yesterday, but may need more. The priority is to banish the rust rather than have it looking immaculate again though. If I'm feeling brave, I may remove the sill trims too...

[brickwall]

I'm another who feels Daihatsu got a rough ride and fled the country. The Fourtrak was a very capable off-roader and their small cars ticked all the boxes. Shame really.

[dollywobbler]

Fourtraks are still very popular around here. Farmers haven't really found anything they want to replace them with and second-hand prices can be very silly. I've seen tired examples with stellar mileage sell for £2000. Makes Discoverys seem cheap!

[cort16]

The problem with brake cleaner and carb cleaner it's too solvent so is gone by the time it's done any damage to the glue. A rag with some thinners on it would do it but paint and thinners is a dangerous combo. I've had some success getting glue off with tcut or a wet rubbing coupound (as long as the compounds not too severe).

 

The fourtraks are great cars but they rust hideously. Mud gets packed under the plastic body kit and rots invisibly. There's one comes into the garage next door to me and it's about 40% fibreglass and expanding foam even though it looks great on the outside.

[alf892]

Thinners is good and won't hurt factory paint unless you keep soaking it - a quick wipe over is OK. I wiped over the whole of my Fiesta last week as it had been stood for 18 years and I didn't want too spend ages T cutting. It did make it go misty but this was easily cured with a (very) quick polish.

 

With chemicals I find the ones with the most dire H&S warning are the best/most effective. No warning + eco friendly usually shit!

 

Try a little bit first.......

[darkfour]

Lighter fluid (the stuff you use in Zippo lighters, not the one in the aerosol cans) is great at removing sticky stuff.

[dollywobbler]

Busy ol' morning. Started by tackling the rear arches. Was I going to get lucky and find them relatively solid? First step was to remove all the bubbling paint.

 

The top bodge job tools of a screwdriver and sandpaper helped get a reasonable finish.

 

I was going to remove the plastic trim, but quickly had second thoughts...

 

Guess my mate Dave will be getting some welding work out of this one!

 

Here's an answer to the query about boot size. Crap pic. Soz.

 

After a LOT of scrubbing, with Carb Cleaner, Brake cleaner, electrical contact cleaner and bug remover all having a go. I'm more impressed with how robust the paint is that anything!

[dollywobbler]

The car now looks like this.

 

Arse dragon still in effect. Rear spoiler removed as it's the only way to access the rear washer, which was hopeless.

[cort16]

The shite solution would be to just fibreglass that archcover onto the body. What rusty arches?

[vulgalour]

You must really like this little car, you've not hung about at all.  What's behind the central bar of the front bumper?  I've always wondered if you could just have the corner bumpers on these or if it hides an ugly crossmember.

[dollywobbler]

The shite solution would be to just fibreglass that archcover onto the body. What rusty arches?

 

It's an option! But there is rot creeping into the back of the sills, so it makes sense to at least properly sort that bit out.

[Junkman]

With chemicals I find the ones with the most dire H&S warning are the best/most effective. No warning + eco friendly usually shit!

 

100% true. If it doesn't kill kittens on the spot, it's completely useless for everything else, too.

[dollywobbler]

My arms hurt, but all of the stickers remnants have now gone and everything apart from the roof has had a coat of polish.

 

Not sure what to do with the roof. It looks like this at the moment.

 

The tailgate had some really nasty stickiness on it. Took AGES to get it off, using every potion I had available. While polishing afterwards, I noticed that some half-job had painted the offside corner. It's clearly taken quite a bump there at some point. The paint match is not perfect, but you can't see it too badly.

 

About time we had an engine shot isn't it? Just below the air intake pipe, there's a panel that has to be removed to access the coil packs which must then be removed to access the spark plugs. Sounds quite a bit of faff. 

 

I think they look good together.

 

View from my office window. 

[dollywobbler]

The one thing I'm really lacking with this car is a decent online community! Daihatsu fans are thin on the ground it seems. Skattrd - any recommendations?

[dollywobbler]

Already a member, know many of the folk who run it. Quite quiet, which is a bit depressing. Where's the J-tin love?

[Junkman]

In Japan?

[dollywobbler]

You're probably sick of seeing photos of this car. So try a video instead!

http://youtu.be/AYnJREh7gnU

[Mr Livered]

That video does give an impression of pleasing nippyness.

[cms206]

That sounds as good as it looks.

 

I HAZ AN TEMPTED

[skattrd]

The one thing I'm really lacking with this car is a decent online community! Daihatsu fans are thin on the ground it seems. Skattrd - any recommendations?

 

It's tricky for Daihatsus really.

There's DaihatsuDrivers forum thingy which can be a tad quiet at times

For kei cars it's KKITP, but a Sirion isn't kei

Your best bet is probably facebook groups - for me "Daihatsu Performance Enthusiasts" is fantastic as both UK X4 owners are on there, as well as BobF who is a fountain of knowledge on the Sirion rally and Nathan who knows lots about GTTi & general turbo nutter stuff. There's also some people from Malaysia on there who will sell and ship tuning bits to the UK, mine & Dane's new X4 manifold is coming from a Malaysian bloke on there ... I'd say try that one and go from there. People may be telling you to turbo charge the car though

[dollywobbler]

Thanks. I'll give it a go. I was wondering what one would go like with a GTti turbo lump...

[skattrd]

GTti lumps, CB80's are getting rare and expensive, the last one I had I sold for £500, then saw it was sold on afterwards for £600, Honestly I'd say stick with what you have and if you want better sell the car and get a Sirion rally with the re-mapped 1.3 engine, BobF can get 4-branch manifolds for the rally shipped from Malaysia for a quite reasonable price.

[dollywobbler]

But a four-cylinder engine is boring! I'm not seriously going to get into the tuning game. It's quite quick enough really.