New J-tat, Daihatsu Charmant

[stoterstangen90]

Good friend of mine bought this From Marktplaats.

 

Nice car with a lot of rust on the A and C pillars.

 

 

 

More pics will follow

[Spottedlaurel]

Hirst's gonna like it! Rare now in NL?He might like to sign up to www.oldjapanesecar.com/forum (blatant plug).

[Guest]

AAAARGH! Superb! Let me know if he ever wishes to break it as that would provide me with many spares! I would prefer if he keeps it on the road though.

[stoterstangen90]

AAAARGH! Superb! Let me know if he ever wishes to break it as that would provide me with many spares! I would prefer if he keeps it on the road though.

He wants to keep it on the road.it's tested 'til november 2008

[Guest]

That's even better! If he gets stuck for parts, he can ask me.

[seth]

AAAARGH! Superb!

 

Calm down dear. It's just a Daihatsu!

[michiel]

Damn, I was about to buy that one, the seller was really really slow, took me two months to sort of set up a meeting and then I came to my senses... (don't buy a second car when you haven't got money/storage/still live in Amsterdam) Glad I didn't now, I don't like rust. Good to see it got sold to an enthousiast! Where will it go to?

[stoterstangen90]

To Lelytat. To a good friend of mine, with a volvo 740 turbo, 2 Lancia Thema's turbo 16v, a Fiat Croma Tdid, a Citroen Xantia and a Toyota Celica Ta23

[ashmicro]

Haven't seen one of those for years! That was the first car I ever serviced (when I was 15). I put too much oil in it...

[mouseflakes]

Charmant, mutha-f*cka!

 

 

To Lelytat.

Is that another of Electric Ladylumps' usernames?

[Guest]

You wouldn't believe how many times people have used that joke.Oh, alright. Twice.

[mouseflakes]

You wouldn't believe how many times people have used that joke.

And I bet it gets funnier every time you hear it?

[Cheggers]

I guess he means Lelystad...a sort of Dutch Crawley if you like, but with a marina (no, not a Morris, a car park for boats).

[stoterstangen90]

I guess he means Lelystad...a sort of Dutch Crawley if you like, but with a marina (no, not a Morris, a car park for boats).

Lelystad indeed

pictures

 

[Guest]

Strange how it rusted on the pillars like that, mine are fine! The areas of rust on mine were rear arches and front valance seams.

[web]

Funny, the wheel arches on this one are fine - usually the first to go on an old Jap though.

Damn, I was about to buy that one, the seller was really really slow, took me two months to sort of set up a meeting and then I came to my senses... (don't buy a second car when you haven't got money/storage/still live in Amsterdam) Glad I didn't now, I don't like rust.

You don't like rust and you were going to look at a 25 year old Japanese car ??? Where's the logic in THAT?BTW she was just stalling until she found a local job and didn't need the car anymore. I don't know why she advertised it before actually wanting to sell but oh well. One day she just e-mailed me, saying I don't need the car anymore as of today - please come over ASAP. So I did, and bought it on the spot. For less than a year of my Volvo's road tax - what have I got to lose? (note the Charmant is tax free, being 25 years old, and is the replacement for my Volvo)

[stoterstangen90]

Welcome Web

[michiel]

Good work Web and welcome, and I know, I should have expected some rust. She told me there was a hole in the rear but 'otherwise it was perfect'...

[web]

Well yeah the 'side pockets' in the trunk are pretty much missing, at least on the right - the left just has a big hole. But that's relatively easy to fix. The pillars are the real problem. Also the front windshield has several cracks, some of which look like they might have been caused by the pillar rust pressing at it. No matter - it would have to be removed anyway, to fix the pillars properly.I think I'll book it in for an oil change at KwikFit so I can get a good look at the floor pan and see if it would be worth such an investment, or whether I should just drive it till MOT (APK) runs out and then part it out.

[mk2_craig]

Wonderful lineup of tat there, well done lads!

[web]

Washing it was a good idea. The fact that half the water I used to rinse, ended up inside the car, is a minor detail.

 

 

Welding classes here I come!

 

 

I think this car has a disease you could call the tar-typhus. Wheel arches that look really good, until you notice tiny specks of rust, and the ends of two sheets of metal slightly peeling apart. I should have taken a picture, now you'll never believe it looked so well. After peeling away large sheets(!) of tar/bodycoating, especially the right rear wheel well is quite far gone. Hard to tell without peeling, totally impossible to tell with the wheel on. So I couldn't possibly have spotted this when I went to view the car.

 

Much of the seams crumbled at a touch. An evening of peeling probably lightened the car by several kilos of rust, bondo and other junk.

 

Removal of backseat and boot lining revealed a few little holes. Even knocking with a screwdriver felt good, but that was due to the bucket of white glue someone seems to have deposited on the wheel arches. Looked like it had been that way for a few years. Someone must have thought sealing it from the top would stop the wheel wells rusting? In reality, it only accelerated the rust, because it did a good job at trapping water.

 

The classic magnet would have helped here too, because part of the wheel well did not have metal left between the white goo on one side and tar on the other side. Neither prevent rust, they just accelerate it by trapping water. Also the rearmost 5-10 inches of sill on one side are nothing more than a layer of bondo on top of swiss cheese. I did notice some minor rattlecan paintwork, but didn't have a magnet on me and it looked straight, so I figured it was just repainted after sanding off some surface rust. I thought magnets were outdated - well, not if you're looking at an outdated car!

 

 

As you can see the wheel well is almost fully detached from the floor pan. Well, leave out the "almost", because the hole extends all the way down into the back seat area. Bouncing on the bumper while looking in the trunk is quite interesting, too, you can see the whole wheel well bounce up and down with the shockdamper that's attached to it

 

The spring seats seem to be less than optimally attached as well (1st pic), but they don't move around. Probably because they are attached quite solidly to the chassis rail right next to them. And that chassis rail is fine, just like the rest of the sills and floorpan. It's "just" the wheel wells and suspension mounting points that need attention.

 

Thanks to this tar coating nobody ever did anything about it. No trace of welding anywhere on the car. If I hadn't given it a good check and peeled away all the loose tar, I'd probably ended up with springs in the trunk real soon. I've always been an advocate of rust protection coatings that you can SEE through - this car only confirms that judgement further. That could have prevented the dangerously weakened suspension mounts that this car definitely has. No hard feelings towards the previous owner though - this is much older. The one thing I feel bad about is that she 's driven it like this for two years, and could've driven it for another year, because this death trap had just passed MOT / APK!

 

The good news is, I do think I've seen all of it now. Had both ends of the car on stands and went over it with a fine tooth comb. Lost count of the number of holes though, but apart from the rear suspension and the pillars that I already knew, nothing really difficult to fix.

 

I'm not gonna drive it much till at least the shock mount is reunited with the rest of the chassis though, but it'll make a nice welding practice project.

 

But if you think it's put me off... no way ! I still think it's a fun little car and now it's a nice welding class project too And if I blow it, who cares... most people would've junked it anyway.

[mouseflakes]

Crikey!! A few positive notes...It looks like it's mostly accessible from both sides.I imagine it's thicker steel here - easier to weld.The appearance of the finished repairs wont be so important - just make sure they're strong!EDIT: ...and the car looks great since the wash!!Agree about the rust protection - I sometimes just smother my welded repairs with pink finnegans - then I can see what's going on and, if it ever does ever need welding again, I won't have problems with cleaning off volatile, flammable goo first.

[michiel]

Am I glad I didn't buy it... Good luck, hope you can fix it. Maybe I can buy it in a few years when it's hole-free

[web]

Yeah it's pretty much accessible from both sides, although to do the job properly, I'll definitely have to remove the spring and shock absorber. Which is no big deal if the bolts aren't rusted solid. Yeah right... so I'll be spending the next few days with my friends Penetrating Oil and Mr. T. Orch... that is if I'm brave enough to take a torch to a bolt near a floor pan with a thick layer of tar :shock:Actually the spring will drop out with just the shock absorber out, and I'm pretty confident that should happen without too much fuss, but I'd prefer to drop the whole rear axle assembly, for better access.

[Guest]

Let me know if you get stuck at any point, I have a Charmant dealer manual with lots of handy diagrams/info for everything except the engines (which are in different manuals I don't have).

[stoterstangen90]

The Rustbuster is coming.....The charmant need it....oefffff

[web]

ss90, just wait till you see it in person 8)Hirst, any scans of such material?I do have a Toyota EPC that might still have some TE7x Corolla body diagrams, which should be the same for the floor pan / wheel well area. Who knows, I might be able to order a whole new wheel well (Yea, right...)If you need 1.6 engine info, I have plenty of that in Toyota manuals. Nothing about the 1.3 though - not a Celica engine. None of that is digitized unfortunately.In the meantime I've taken the radiator to a shop to have the leak repaired - not investing in a new rad just yet... that money is better put towards some panelbeating/welding classes

[Guest]

No scans as there are hundreds of pages, but if you want any specific bit doing I'll sort it out!

[web]

Last night I was going to give it a first soak in penetrating oil, knowing the control arm bolts never come out easily.

 

I've tried it before on my Celica and gave up after three days - I'll need a torch for that one. I've also got an AE86 axle tube lying around with two out of four cut-off control arms still attached - and not for lack of trying. Torch required there as well. The nuts come off just fine, but then the bolts won't budge - rusted solid inside the control arm bushes.

 

And what do you know... three out of four control arm bolts (axle side) on the Charmant slid right out! That includes both on the passenger side, where the worst body rust is at.

 

Neither shock posed a problem either, and the panhard bar came out without issue too. The fourth control arm... well, I have to move the jackstand for better access, so I haven't made a truly serious attempt yet. Instead I tried the body side bolt on the same control arm and... that too slid right out!

 

Basically that means I can drop the whole axle whenever I want! This car wants to be restored...

[King Maz]

That's great to hear.You can't imagine how pleased I was to hear that Hirst has a scabby foreign correspondent.