Que Sera Sera ... serviced and normalising.

[skattrd]

Sunday 0730, skattrd_towers Lincs

 

 

0830 skattrd_sister's_house Lincs

I arrive at my sisters place to collect her husband who kindly volunteered to come with me for this collection.

The transport of choice, the boring

 

 

1100 Arrive Halesowen

I see the car, it looks bad, rust on arches, but the interior is the worst bit, filthy, missing a few bits of trim and white, very very white. Oh, hang on the plastic in the back is beige, has some muppet painted the front trim white? It looks like it ... what a twat.

I really should stop buying cars blind off ebay as this looks like a real lemon.

Anyhoo I had bid and agreed to buy it, so start the engine, drive forwards and backwards, yes the gears work, so the deal is done.

It's raining, so I put the wipers on and the drivers wiper disintegrates ... I'm hoping this isn't the start of things. A quick chat with B-I-L and there was an Asda just up the road so we agree to go there buy some wipers and grab a bacon roll.

 

1200 Leaving Oldbury Asda

No wipers were available so I swapped drivers side and passengers side wipers round and we head home. The wipers parking in the middle of screen is a tad annoying.

I cannot get over how white the dash is and how badly it has been done in places. I notice that the black paint on the hazard switch has worn off, that can't be a good thing, a well used hazard switch.

 

1230 M6 near Birmingham

The car drives ok, accelerates fine and with overdrive at 120 kmh it's doing 2700rpm, pretty good for a 1490cc motor. There's a bit of wind noise, but I cannot get over how shit the interior is, and it is so fucking white, and those damn wipers parking in the middle of the screen.

 

1300 M69 near Leicester

The car goes pretty well, I can't see the clocks because of the stupid, hideous steering wheel, and the wind noise is louder than the engine on overdrive. I certainly did not notice the car at 140kmh and doing 3000 rpm at that speed because that fucking steering wheel is in the way. I wonder how you get the wipers to park in the right place, surely it can't be difficult ...

 

1330 A46 Newark

Ok, so if you close your eyes, ignore the exterior, interior, that fucking steering wheel and just drive the car it's quite good. It accelerates well, changes as you want and expect and doing low revs with o/d it's probably ok on fuel. I hate it a bit less than I did at 11am.

 

1400 Skattrd_Towers Lincs

During the 200km drive home I have grown to not hate the car. There is a massive to do list, which includes a few parts that are probably quite hard to find being Sera specific...

 

Here we go:

First glance ... white

 

 

Hang on ... the white is flaking/peeling in  places

 

 

Seamless

 

 

The door struts hold the doors open ... barely

 

 

I wonder how bad it is when you look closely

 

 

There is one good point at present:

 

 

The engine bay is clean, the air filter looks new, the oil is clean, the aux belts look recent and the rocker bolts are shiny. I'm thinking mechanically the car has been looked after, despite the previous owner ruining the interior.

 

Interior parts required:

Steering wheel - needs replacing, looks like std Momo 6 screw fitting.

Wipers replace - 20" + 18"

Driver's seat belt + clip - fuck knows where they're from, but not a Sera

Nearside wing mirror + glass - glass yes, housing can be ignored a bit

Trim behind wing mirrors - small triangular bits behind where the mirrors bolt to car, missing

Cig lighter - None fitted, although the ashtray and car are full of ash.
Load cover - missing

Door struts - not urgent
Hazard switch - not urgent
Dashboard - remove, strip paint or flock
Centre console- remove, strip paint or flock
Tailgate struts - urgent they do not hold tailagte open

 

Mechanical parts required:

Temp sender - temp gauge not working

 

Exterior:

Wheels and exterior tidying ... If I decide to keep the car, and once the interior is less hideous.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Blimey

[cort16]

That interior is interesting right enough hopefully the paint will just all fall off . The steering wheel is a horror.

[Lord Sterling]

Wow man. Halesowen you say? You could've stopped by for tea and sympathy if you wanted. That said, I was being chauffered to Chez_Mo in a late 1950s Rover P4 so wasn't really around.

 

I reckon the paint will come off with some time and patience.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Dafuque?

[stillOrange]

I would try to modify it so that it can travel in time...

 

If you want to change that steering wheel.... it would look soooooo good in my white Triumph Toledo ....

[omegod]

Holy shit , someones nicked blind batmans steering wheel, he'll be fookin livid when he finds out,

[RoadworkUK]

That's crying out for a Moto-lita or Paddy Hopkirk steering wheel.

 

The early nineties vision of the future is rather more enticing than the 2015 version, I have to say.

[Station]

There's a yellow one in the scrappy near me. It's had a proper front end collision.

Quirky cool looking cars

[Sigmund Fraud]

Great stuff ! I absolutely love the styling of those Seras, it's mad enough to make me forgive their uber-bland running gear.

 

I was very suprised to see one in my local scrap yard the other day... Who in their right mind would scrap such a cool looking car ?

[skattrd]

Station/Sigmund, could you let me know which breakers had Seras in please as I have a small shopping list of parts I need (see above).

There is a breaker listed on ebay, but it's Douglas valley breakers. The last time I asked them for any parts for anything they were a pain to deal with and ridiculously expensive.

 

Cheers

 

Ps. If anyone has a smallish black (Momo type fitting) steering wheel available cheap lmk .... You can have the current one if you want it, apart from being hideous it's also quite knackered.

[KruJoe]

Chris, that's ghastly. I do quite like a nice Sera, but this one...

In which universe could anyone possibly think a white dash would be an improvement?

[skattrd]

On seeing it in the metal for the first time today I realised why it was relatively cheap (for a Sera).

 

A bit of time (I start a new job tomorrow so will have no spare time) and a small collection of parts should see this one returned to sort of normal without too much grief.... I know this is wishful thinking.

[Bear]

I've owned three Seras. They're great. Always check Toyota for parts before looking secondhand - the reason I got so into them was finding a battered bodykitted one, and being told the headlights were £600 secondhand. Went to my Toyota dealer and bought new ones - I think they were £140 and change each, but definitely less than £300.

 

With the doors - make sure the pivot at the top of the strut - goes into the door and connects to the balancer - is free to move. Usually they're stuck. They have a much more important role in the door mechanism than you might expect. kicking the balancer to move the internal weight and make the door rise.

[purplebargeken]

Daniel if you EVER go near the Toledo with a steering wheel resembling that abortion I will press the remote destruct button on the secret remote destruct unit on the Toledo. 

 

I have a new and quite powerful jet washer that might assist with the white whatever removal. I mean WTAF.

 

Interesting design otherwise. I hope it was really cheap. 

[Bear]

Oh, also, that roof spoiler on the rear hatch is R@RE L@@K ££££s. if it's not cracked and has both metal tabs fully intact.

 

Being an auto if the temp sensor is wrong, it won't engage overdrive, too.

 

(And man, I want another Sera so badly).

[gadgetgricey]

Surprised you did not pop to Halfords to get the wipers as they are on the same Island as Asda Oldbury.

 

As LS said, you should have popped in for a cuppa. Would have loved to have come with to see how WHITE that interior is.

 

Always fancied one of those, but never had the cahoones.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[skattrd]

I've just realised that I haven't posted a pic of the car itself, just highlights* and no there is no pez station shot today either.

 

 

Just look at those fucking wipers, sitting there, in the wrong place.

[UltraWomble]

I have no words, none at all - that interior.....

So here is a picture of Maggie Philbin talking about her 8 strap on boosters that she has.

[Cavcraft]

It's a bit like a really good looking transvestite: from the outside it looks ace, but open the flaps and it's a whole different ball game.

[Guest Breadvan72]

It's a bit like a really good looking transvestite: from the outside it looks ace, but open the flaps and it's a whole different ball game.

 

Straight to the quotes thread with you, you saucy little (Hillman) Minx!

[Guest Breadvan72]

Skattrd, that is truly gopping. You have my sincere condolences and awe.  You are the Mikado of Autoshite.  I will now commit seppuku in your honour, using a cheap-ass Happy Shoppa screwdriver set.

[skattrd]

Thanks Mr_Breadvan, I aim to please.

I sincerely hope to have it presentable before the end of the year (maybe not this year).

 

If the Umm isn't ready should I bring this to Chumley?

[Cavcraft]

No, you MUST make the UMM ready.

[Asimo]

I didn't know these existed; are they just a JDM Paseo with attention-seeking doors?

[barrett]

This really is flippin' horrid man. I think these little things are real lookers, too.

 

One hopes one of the aforementioned breakers will offer up enough parts to get this looking its best again. That will be really satisfying seeing this get sorted actually. Presumably whole new dash and door cards is the only way to go?

[Skizzer]

Well I think it's great.

 

Also, the interior will double as a brilliant skeleton / Imperial Storm Trooper costume for Halloween.

[skattrd]

This really is flippin' horrid man. I think these little things are real lookers, too.

 

One hopes one of the aforementioned breakers will offer up enough parts to get this looking its best again. That will be really satisfying seeing this get sorted actually. Presumably whole new dash and door cards is the only way to go?

 

I'm hoping to be able to remove the paint from the dash, centre console and the massive door cards. I was thinking of trying acetone to start with then moving on to stronger stuff if necessary.

If the paint removal is unsuccessful or results in a mess (quite likely) my plan was to get the the dash etc flocked.

 

I have to say though that it's a cracking little car to drive. The engine is really perky and the handling quite respectable. They produce 108hp from the 1496cc motor and weigh around 900kg.

[Honey Badger]

I'm hoping to be able to remove the paint from the dash, centre console and the massive door cards. I was thinking of trying acetone to start with then moving on to stronger stuff if necessary.

If the paint removal is unsuccessful or results in a mess (quite likely) my plan was to get the the dash etc flocked.

 

I have to say though that it's a cracking little car to drive. The engine is really perky and the handling quite respectable. They produce 108hp from the 1496cc motor and weigh around 900kg.

 

 

Acetone might melt the dash plastics if they are ABS, Xylene would probably be a better bet as it's oily and doest dry as quickly and seems to remove all kinds of dubious sticky substances at work, try in a well hidden area first though.

 

You can solvent weld plastics with Acetone so I wouldn't let it near any dash plastics

 

Wear gloves.

 

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Painting+%26+Decorating/d150/Metal+Paints+%26+Primers/sd3152/Xylene+Metal+Paint+Thinner+500ml/p93666

 

Cracking car by the way, are you going to move anything on from your fleet?

[skattrd]

Thx for the info Honey Badger, much appreciated.

 

Fleet movements, I was going to sell the Aerodeck, but I drove that yesterday and I really do like it, so that might now be staying. The Merc was supposed to be going, but it's useful & reliable, so might stay. One of the Storias will have to go as owning both is a bit of a luxury. Most of the others are keepers, or need work before moving them.