Shite Down Under - Elderly Motors For Elderly People - Well Sprung

[MorrisItalSLX]

A chap in the Facebook group for this generation of Corolla was selling off his collection of spares, one of which caught my eye. The posh Corollas came with a raised centre console lid with an additional storage bin that doubles as an armrest. These are very thin on the ground as the lid snaps off, and if they do come up for sale they are usually grey or black. So imagine my surprise to see a brown one in the pile of spares for sale.

The standard ‘poverty spec’ lid:

And the prestige version:

With capacity for four cassette tapes, plus room for trinkets:

Note the small lip on the base that perfectly holds a tape, this now brings the dedicated cassette storage up to sixteen tapes.

[MorrisItalSLX]

Another small job ticked of the list today. Last week one of the windscreen washer jets snapped off where the rubber hose slips on, rendering the washers inoperable.

My side of the road fix involved whittling down the body of the jet with my Stanley knife so the hose would fit over it, this worked but as the jet now had no locating clip it would move around and poke out of the bonnet.

So a trip to the local Toyota dealership later and I had a pair of new jets (that cost far too much for two little pieces of plastic).

The added bonus of the new jets is they have a rubber gasket to stop them rattling in the bonnet, I’d imagine mine had rubber gaskets at some point but these had long since perished and disappeared.

Minor adjustments were made with a pin and they work flawlessly.

[MorrisItalSLX]

A photograph taken by a sad man:

A photograph taken by a very sad man:

[mat_the_cat]

Very sad...

[MorrisItalSLX]

3 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

Very sad...

I am not alone in this world.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Count me in too

[Jon]

And me:

[mat_the_cat]

14 hours ago, Jon said:

And me:

Good planning. Although not quite the same level as this...

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

Good planning. Although not quite the same level as this...

I dunno, I was looking at your picture and thinking you should of had the speedo pointing at 222 km/h as well, I mean you of all people have the one Hyundai Stella that probably could achieve such a shot

(I was also going to say the same to @MorrisItalSLX but he gets a free pass because I realise his speedo only clocks up to 180 km/h)

[MorrisItalSLX]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I dunno, I was looking at your picture and thinking you should of had the speedo pointing at 222 km/h as well, I mean you of all people have the one Hyundai Stella that probably could achieve such a shot

(I was also going to say the same to @MorrisItalSLX but he gets a free pass because I realise his speedo only clocks up to 180 km/h)

I did cross my mind to be doing 22 km/h at the time, but common sense prevailed.

[mat_the_cat]

9 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I dunno, I was looking at your picture and thinking you should of had the speedo pointing at 222 km/h as well, I mean you of all people have the one Hyundai Stella that probably could achieve such a shot

Not my picture I'm afraid, just one I pinched from the Internet. And I passed that particular milestone in the Stellar sometime in summer 1998, so long gone now...

[GR8 PL8 M8]

12 hours ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

I did cross my mind to be doing 22 km/h at the time, but common sense prevailed.

It didn't for me!

If only I'd thought to time it to the temperature and change the clock... (Although the temperature reading was only in full and half degrees, so it still wouldn't be perfect.)

[MorrisItalSLX]

I’ve always been a fan of driving lights. I think they look the ducks guts and are a practical accessory for the night time driver. Did I forget to mention they are as cool as penguin piss?

I picked up a set of Hella Comet 550s second hand at a garage sale for next to nothing a few months back and I finally got around to fitting them.

Wiring was done as per this diagram:

And I’m sure you’ll agree that the finished article looks the part:

Oh yeah!

[vulgalour]

This would really benefit from one of those massive clear plastic wind deflectors on the driver's side.  Not a modern tinted slimline jobby, it has to be the big oversized clear one as seen on many an elderly Australian motor driven by an even more elderly chain smoking Australian with a chip on his shoulder the size of New Zealand.

[MorrisItalSLX]

17 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

This would really benefit from one of those massive clear plastic wind deflectors on the driver's side.  Not a modern tinted slimline jobby, it has to be the big oversized clear one as seen on many an elderly Australian motor driven by an even more elderly chain smoking Australian with a chip on his shoulder the size of New Zealand.

Big enough for Sir’s liking?

[vulgalour]

Perfection!

[MorrisItalSLX]

Night time action shot:

I found a set of clear protective covers for the Hella Comet 550 on eBay to help protect them from stone chips, but mainly for extra giffer points. A set of proper Hella covers would be the ultimate giffer accessory, but I couldn’t be bothered taking them off every time I drove at night.

[MorrisItalSLX]

A brief update on proceedings.

The interior light lens turned to dust, so a second hand one was sourced.

A tip run was undertaken, a double mattress does fit in the back seat.

And more kilometres have been covered.

Servicing and registration takes place next month, which could be interesting.

[MorrisItalSLX]

I’ve been a bit slack on the updates, so here we go.

July:

Registration inspection and servicing was due, so it went in for both to be done. Registration was passed, but it was noted that the tyres are getting low (which I was aware of), the front brakes were low (which I suspected would be the case) and that the steering rack is leaking very badly (which I was not aware of) and would need replacing. Bugger.

August:

Back to the mechanic for the steering rack and front brakes to be done. A reconditioned steering rack with new inner and outer tie rod ends was sourced as well as new updated rack mounting bushings as they are a weak point for becoming loose and allowing the rack to move side to side when steering. New discs and pads fixed the front brakes.

September:

I noticed what I thought to be an exhaust leak. Traced it to the manifold, a bolt had backed out.

The bolt in the right hand side was completely out, held in place only by the heat shield. I’m amazed the heat shield unbolted without shearing a bolt, given how rusty they were. Bolt back in and the other bolt and nuts nipped up and exhaust leak gone.

I also seamlessly repaired the cracked washer bottle with 10 year old type N plumbing glue I found in the shed.

Turns out it is the perfect thing to fix brittle washer bottles, would recommend.

[MorrisItalSLX]

October:

Recreated a photo from February 2023 with the local gold Camry, which has had a questionable accident repair on the drivers rear corner since I last saw it (note non-matching tail light).

And a mileage update.

November:

A brown steering wheel popped up on eBay for a reasonable sum. I had been looking for another one as mine has suffered from the sun and 35 years of use.

It must be from a low mileage car as it is in excellent condition, with the exception of the horn pad which has broken its clips which they all do. The original horn pad currently fitted is held on with blue tack.

The issue is the mounting clips which snap off, a bit of poor design. So let’s fix it.

I drilled a hole between the mounting holes for the plastic mount that the horn pad locates in.

Plastic mount fitted and drilled.

Hole drilled in the remains of the horn pad mounting clip.

Screw test fitted in horn pad.

Horn pad screwed to metal frame.

Fixed.

The only downside to having the horn pad screwed to the frame is now to remove the steering wheel you have to unscrew the frame from the back of the steering wheel, rather than unclipping the pad.

It should be noted that I have not yet fitted the new steering wheel, for fear of wearing it out.

[MorrisItalSLX]

December:

Rear brakes were sounding poorly, so in for an oil change and rear brake shoes. Noise gone and handbrake is better than it has ever been.

January:

New tyres were finally on the agenda.

Five new Toyos fitted, gone from a 175 to a 185 wide tyre. These are the specification of the tyres fitted to the SX Corolla.

You may not the centre caps are not fitted. The brittle old plastic has not responded well to being disturbed. I am in negotiations with a chap in the club who is 3D printing the plastic component to rebuild the centre caps.

February:

It was discovered by the tyre fitters that one of the shock absorbers was weeping, I has also observed that the front springs were weak. So I went on a spending spree.

Shock absorbers, springs and top mounts, front and rear.

I shopped around and got Japanese made KYB shocks and Australian made springs. I did contemplate lowering springs, but I am a giffer at heart and didn’t want my gold and brown Corolla to look too cool.

All this was fitted on Friday, along with rear anti roll bar drop links as one snapped off when being removed.

Testing thus far has been limited, but initial impressions are very positive.

[MorrisItalSLX]

Exciting development with the centre caps.

[MorrisItalSLX]

Centre caps now fully assembled, looking very sharp.

The chap who 3D printed these advised that they should be painted a champagne silver, to best match the original finish and the wheels. I settled on Satin Nickel and it looks just right.