Project Tacuma

[purplebargeken]

Will do!!!

[purplebargeken]

Spent from about 11 to 3 on the Tacuma today. I used some 3M cutting compound, Megiars clay bar and proper clay lube and some Auto Finesse Tripple polish.  

I debated using some Super Resin stuff but thought I'd give the Tripple a go. 

The car had been covered in shite due to being stood for about 18 months or so and was quite grimy and grotty.

I had just chucked a couple of buckets of Corporation pop and some Verso over it and wiped it down. The only bit I haven't done is the roof as I'm a short arse nowadays.

It got rid of virtually all the shite and I went to work on the paint with the clay bar and it yielded a pretty good finish. This revealed some scratches and stuffs which you would expect really. I needed to work on the paint to get it looking even better and used the Meguiars drill based DA pad.  I've used it on a couple of cars and the results are pretty good, obviously not as good as a proper DA but for everyday home use it is a good'un.  One charge of the drill got just over half the car done.  The normal crap came off just lovely and I wanted to target some specific areas which were marked by something. No idea what they were caused by but the marks needed to fuck off. 

So, DA pad and some 3M were used. This is a before pic, you should hopefully be able to see the marks.

 

 

 

This is about two light passes with the drill and stuffs:

 

This is with it all wiped off. It was clayed after I took the picture and polished with the Tripple:

Not bad really.

[purplebargeken]

The alloys had some polish applied and have come up really well.

The whole car just gleams now. It looks lovely.

 

I went over the plastic headlights with the DA and they looked even better, very, very clear indeed. Lovely. I tried a bit on some very badly tarnished Freelander headlight section belonging to one of the nice families in the blocks.  What do you reckon?

 

I turned my attention to the rear interior of the car and lifted the rear seats forward which was easy and took one out, again very, very straightforward. The underside of the seats and the floor was immaculate. I'm pretty much certain that the car has never had it's rear seats folded up and removed. It was all unmarked and spotless. 

Cubby hole!

 

 

 

Last one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[purplebargeken]

It is a really well put together car. It feels solid, the trim plastics are miles better than the stuff in my old Hyundai i10 too.

[purplebargeken]

One negative point though. 

Why no flat floor?

I could probably kip in this if I took the passenger front seat out and put stuff in the dips in the floor lol.

This is a lonely thread ;).

[purplebargeken]

Well battery fitted and the car starts like it should. Lets see if it will hold charge.

[purplebargeken]

Aircon seems to work, it is pushing out cold air, not at instant icy death levels but enough to suggest it functions.

[purplebargeken]

From P to D seems a little clunky. I will check the fluid level. Might also be so from being stood so long??

[Wingz123]

Bloody nora ken, that looks bloody amazing! Keep the updates coming! 

From now on though itll have to be the two bucket method done by you to keep it looking like that.....

[bezzabsa]

feel free to practice some more o n my picasso....its minging at mo due to xmas and shite weather!!!

[Wingz123]

1 hour ago, purplebargeken said:

From P to D seems a little clunky. I will check the fluid level. Might also be so from being stood so long??

I'll help you do a fluid change if you should so want to do that....

[purplebargeken]

Cheers fella, think I will take you up on that offer. The handbook doesn't make any mention of checking the level. Hope it isn't one of those sealed for life things. Will need to check.

 

[purplebargeken]

Hmmm. 

There is a plug located where the right side axle shaft enters the transmission it is above the pan. To check the fluid level of the transmission the engine must be at operating temp and the vehicle must be level. The must be running and the transmission in park, the plug is then removed and if transmission fluid starts dripping/leaking out it is full. If not transmission fluid should be added till fluid starts leaking from the plug hole, then just reinsert the plug and tighten. Generally this is done with the vehicle on a lift in order to access the plug, you might be able to do this if you have enough room to access the plug remember the vehicle must be level.

[purplebargeken]

feel free to practice some more o n my picasso....its minging at mo due to xmas and shite weather!!!

Bring it down!

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[Wingz123]

Havebyou got enough axel stands? If not I'll bring some.....It's a ZF gearbox in these and changing the fluid looks to be pretty straight forward as long as we can get the car up high enough and have plenty of light.....

Can you confirm what fluid it takes? Standard ATF I guess?

[purplebargeken]

It takes Dexron 2 II seemingly. I'll grab a litre.

I have only 2 spare stands, two more being under the Toledo   

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[purplebargeken]

1 litre should be enough, right?

[Wingz123]

5 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

It takes Dexron 2 II seemingly. I'll grab a litre.

I have only 2 spare stands, two more being under the Toledo   

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I'll bring all my gear, got ramps and axle stands. ?

[Wingz123]

2 minutes ago, purplebargeken said:

1 litre should be enough, right?

I think it'll need more if you want to do a drain and refill. I'll have a look and see if I can find out the quantity.

[Wingz123]

It takes 6.9 litres apparently - it is the ZF 4/1 gearbox and they reckon to change every 15,000 km (9,000 miles) or 12 months.....who the heck in the history of Tacumas has ever done that ?

@purplebargeken If you want to grab a litre anyway Ken for top up purposes we'll give that a shot.... and a small diameter piece of pipe (longish - we'll run it down from the top rather than pump it in from underneath) and a small funnel to allow the fluid to be poured into the small diameter pipe.

Here is a top up.... (yours is same GM box as this)

Here is a full flush and refill - 

So the choice is yours mate....I guess it depends on whether you want to keep this for yourself long term as to whether you shell out on 7 litres of fluid....I doubt it's ever been done.

There is also a filter to change too by removing the pan.....apparently the gasket is reusable. 

[purplebargeken]

The videos are really helpful, I suppose replacing as much of the fluid as possible would be sensible. 

Filter availability seems a bit...... limited however.

The draining is going to be problematic without something like a Pela, as there doesn't seem to be an actual drain plug at the bottom of the transmission sump. Urrghhh.

What do you reckon?

[Wingz123]

We could undo one half of the sump pan and allow the tilt of the pan to drain some of the fluid to a stage where I could support the remainder of the pan and lift it down slowly supporting it with my hand...... ?? Of  course with a washing up bowl or equivalent to avoid making a mess on your floor 

[Wingz123]

At a Norauto.....bit expensive in my opinion but yeh.....

[purplebargeken]

Might have a look in the lock up. I think I used to have a pump syphon type thing. However, I could also have just imagined it.

[Andyrew]

This is one mighty clean steed. 

Top work dude.

[purplebargeken]

^^ Cheers mate. It really, really is clean. I spent about 5 hours just faffing around with it today as I just didn't want to be cooped up in the house, mood was low and I just didn't have the fucks. 

I dressed the trim bits and as a result the car is absolutely gleaming inside, if I had access to a vacuum I'd have it 100% sorted.

There is a Kosovan Kar Wash about a 100 feet away, just literally across the road, I am tempted to lob it in there but no doubt as soon as I put a tyre on the public road, the whole Met Police force would just happen to be passing on the way to a doughnut and coffee convention and I would get nicked. Sigh. 

[Wingz123]

5 minutes ago, purplebargeken said:

^^ Cheers mate. It really, really is clean. I spent about 5 hours just faffing around with it today as I just didn't want to be cooped up in the house, mood was low and I just didn't have the fucks. 

I dressed the trim bits and as a result the car is absolutely gleaming inside, if I had access to a vacuum I'd have it 100% sorted.

There is a Kosovan Kar Wash about a 100 feet away, just literally across the road, I am tempted to lob it in there but no doubt as soon as I put a tyre on the public road, the whole Met Police force would just happen to be passing on the way to a doughnut and coffee convention and I would get nicked. Sigh. 

I'll have my plates with me if and we'll take it across if u want Ken

[purplebargeken]

Would that be ok mate? Brilliant!!! Thank you so much. That way it will have all of the gunk taken off the roof as well. Fabulous!!

Lunch will be on me! Hope you like kebabs

[Wingz123]

Just now, purplebargeken said:

Would that be ok mate? Brilliant!!! Thank you so much. That way it will have all of the gunk taken off the roof as well. Fabulous!!

Lunch will be on me! Hope you like kebabs

Yeh of course mate, no worries. I'll be on my healthy eating!!

[purplebargeken]

Kebabs are healthy with plenty of salad