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Bangkok Shite: Toyota Corona Liftback


Conan

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Replaced the rear shock absorbers today. I ordered good quality Tokiko (OEM) shocks online for £30 a while back but only got the chance to fit them. I sent the car to a trusted suspension shop.

Guess how much they charged me. 

...

Five.

Fucking.

Pounds.

Granted they're extremely easy to replace. Still I wouldn't do it myself for the sake of £5.

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How the fuck does this thing even run?

It seems the future is now. Water-in-coil ignition system™.

Found this out by doing a tune up. Got a new coil, HT leads, spark plugs, dizzy cap, fuel filter, etc.

All done and it runs exactly the same.

Edit: Maybe it's oil and not water in Ignition Coil? It looks old as shit regardless.

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Did the gearbox oil and differential oil today. From the condition I'm pretty sure the last time anyone's been there the dinosaur that's in the oil still roams the earth.

I can report that after the change it drives exactly the same. Still noisy, still smelly, gearbox shift quality is no different.

Well, it is a Toyota.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cleaned the carb, replaced seals. The automatic choke wasn't even connected but it is now. I'd still rather have a cable.

There's nothing wrong with it before. Just felt like doing it. Got new ethanol grade fuel lines again because the one I've put on it before was shite. Not that it'll be run on E10.

This car works so well that I use it as a daily for a week. I don't commute often but it's great having machine that's able to do it in style.

I also have to report that this car gets a surprising amount of attention. I've had more than 3 occasions where people came and have a chat about it. One guy told me his granddad had a facelifted Liftback for 30+ years which got scrapped because of rot. He was absolutely delighted when I told him he can sit in it. Another guy talked to me for half an hour about the 3T engines in these. People seems to love it everywhere and pleased that there's one in somewhat decent condition.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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First FTP. Lovely. First time riding as a passenger but it wasn't on it's own power.

I've been using this as my main car basically. I don't normally commute but sometimes I have to use fleet vehicle for a few days. These would be at designated parking area 30 miles away so it's an excuse to use the 'rona more often, and the paintwork is shit enough that I don't mind leaving it in public space.

So I got one last week. I grabbed the 'rona. Visited the motorway service station for a snack because I was running way early. When I'm done I got back and it starts okay. I didn't make it out the slip road out of the area. It just stalled.

Luckily, motorway recovery vehicle was just coming out of the same slip road I was on and the guy realised pretty quickly what calamity I was in. They stopped but we couldn't find the exact cause apart from me noticing pez appearing not to come out of the electric fuel pump and into the filter.

At this point they suggested they would tow the 'rona out of the motorway system either to a waiting area or a nearby garage. I told them to get me to the nearby garage and it'll be alright. Didn't take long. 15 mins tops.

When we got there the recovery vehicle left I waited for the mechanic to assess. When the guy came over he's clearly and totally not familiar with older vehicles or more specifically carburetted one. It was obvious at that point I knew more than the mechanic at this game.

It was okay though because while I waited I tried to start it again and the 'rona runs 100% fine.

So I just thanked the guy and left. Onwards to my destination. Got the fleet car. Drove that for a few days. Took it back and drove the 'rona home.

It's fine. Didn't FTP again.

The only explanation I could think of is that on that particular day it was blazing hot. I drove it to the service station at quite a rate and turn it off immediately when I arrived. The engine bay was very warm when I set off and maybe it got vapour lock? Or the electric fuel pump doesn't work too well when it's too hot. Regardless, I got a new fuel pump. I couldn't be arsed to fit it yet but it's here. Maybe I'll just do that and if it happens again learn not to drive when it's hot.

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I did some more tweaking of the fuel delivery system. Changed the filter location again, replaced one of the fuel line again. Found that I've put the fuel filter on backwards so that could explain running issues. Although as I've said it ran just fine 99% of the time when it was wrong so now that it is correct it should runs even more fine, like 99.8% of the time.

This big long box also just arrived.

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What's inside I wonder? Mince pork?

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AH SNAKES

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SNAKES FUCKING EVERYWHERE

SSSSSSSSSSSS

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  • 1 month later...

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This is Memorial Bridge. A drawbridge which's been open since 1932 but isn't lifted regularly anymore. Thought it looks cool.

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This car is absolutely reliable 100% tip top mechanically. Cosmetically it could do with a sparkly stick and a lick of paint, but that's for the future. It's runs too well to be laid up for weeks right now. Maybe later this year.

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It now also has a big aluminium radiator and one new cooling fan. More cooling fin, wider, thicker, more actual coolant capacity. It's so thick it's probably good enough for 300hp engine. In all fairness it's way overkill for this engine but it's £170 so there's no point faffing about with anything less.

Well it'll be adequate for when I put twin sidedraft on this thing.

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Did some more works today.

Yesterday I was gonna use the car for night run but when I went to start it I found the headlamps were not illuminating. It was dark out so there's no point in trying to diagnose.

Guy who put the radiator in noted that there was quite a bit of crud in the cooling system. It's 42 year old iron block engine so that's to be expected especially when I got the car there wasn't even glycol in it, just plain, hard water. I've drained and refill the radiator when I got the car 2 times and got a lot of the murky rusty water out but not all of the crud. The shop told me they chuck some radiator flush in so I have to drain and replace again today.

I did the first drain and refill with just tap water. Bleed for 15 mins and drove the car 20 mins. Come back, drain and refill this time with some genuine Toyota pre-mix so I don't have to faff about with trying to get a hold of distilled water. It's all good now but the next change will be I reckon in 6 months time then it can go to proper 2 years interval (saying this like I'll be keeping it that long).

Then I started diagnosing as to why the headlamp wasn't working. I went through every relay there is in the engine bay. (There was, all in, 8). Not a single relay is labeled as to what they do and there's way too many wires to run them through.

I hit every single relay just to see what happen. The headlamp suddenly came back. I tried high beams. Nope.

I hit the suspected relays again. This time the headlamp doesn't work, but high beam which turns on all 4 lamps at the front works.

At this point I decided I'm going to put the high beams on and unplugging each relays to find which one it was. As it happens, all the relays that have new and easily removable plugs are not forward lamp relay. It was the one without the nice new plug but instead individual wires.

I randomly removed one of the wire running to that relay and found it to be exactly the same. Everything working except main driving lamp, even the main beams still working. Maybe it was the other relay. So I plug it back in but the small individual connector was clearly loose and a bit corroded. At this point I thought surely it cannot be that lucky, but I was lucky. Plug that wire back in and the headlamp is back.

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I knew exactly how this tall farang felt on that day.

I use some pilers to make the small connector a bit tighter and it's still working as it should. Dipped beams, high beams, sidelights, all rear lights.

Then I notice one of the side indicator isn't working. I thought to myself at this point, now that is the reason why one of the indicators was indicating slightly faster all this time.

I run removed the offending lens to find that there's nothing wrong with it. So I run the wiring back to find one of the connectors to be a bit iffy, a bit corroded. Some light cleaning and it's working again! Look at the above picture again. Yay.

I like having cars with correctly working lights. Seeing cars on the road with non functioning lights pisses me off. I'm sure others are the same.

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Cheeky cunt blew it's rubber brake lines. All 5 of them. Caught it before I cannot stop though.

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New one put in. Exactly the same as 1974-1987 RWD type Corolla so very easily sourced replacement.

It's now also got a rev counter. For counting revs.

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More shenanigans found as when I've rev it out to the max speed indicated for each gear on the speedometer, it's only 4,000rpm. FOUR THOUSAND.

Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro.

What's this? 1947 Crosley?

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  • 3 months later...

It's been months without an update. So here is one. These pictures are literally from today.

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I found the actual correct type original steel wheels (confirmed because it matches the spare) for £50. For such a hen's teeth object I consider this a huge score.

Then, the actual reason why the updates has been very sparse.

This car has not been driven since late August.

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For more than 2 months this car's been in the bodyshop. It's supposed to be stripped to bare metal, welded, and a repaint. Not great timing you see, because for the past 2 months it was a monsoon season which means bodywork like this cannot be done without it effecting the end result. The work you see above got started 4 days ago.

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There are signs somebody was here before. This has always been very obvious even without getting the paint off.

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This bit here was covered by a trim piece. The rust's there because water did collect here quite a bit under the trim. It didn't get inside the car however, and that is a very good thing.

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Everything considered this is still a very solid car. Incredible as it's turning 43 very soon. These are all surface rust which can be remedied relatively easily.

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Again, signs somebody was here before. I believe the black marks are from previous repair, possibly chemical ones and not actually electricity. This actually resulted in paint peeling off which led to more rust. Also why this needs redone eventually.

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The absolute worst bit of this car is the roof. This hole actually leaked water in as well. And the filler thickness is of comical level. One consolation is that it's only the roof that's like this, the rest of the car only got a light skimming before. It can be fixed.

This car should be shining, shimmering and splendid again by early December.

For those who might be wondering, I've been quoted about £1,400 for all this work. More than what I've paid for this car.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I went to see this car today so a smol update.

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The worst of the rots have been welded. The progress so far I'd say is very good, although the early December target still isn't a sure thing.

The guy working on this told me very remarkable how little fabricating and welding it actually needed especially for a car this old.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Smol update.

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A good haul of parts seems to always come near the finish line, or at least, if the repair's done anytime soon I'll be able to continue without pause.

Quite pleased with everything that I've manage to sourced.

New shock absorber cartridges, never had a car with serviceable struts before so I'm pretty intrigued as to how and why this came to be. If I were to guess when shocks technology got better, they can make them smaller, so instead of servicing the original components inside they just put a thinner unit in it's place. It was supposedly cheaper than replacing the whole unit like most modern cars, but I would not have guess that from the price I've to paid (exorbitant).

A pair of top mounts to go with that. Left and right uses the same design, and yet I could only find each of a different brands, which should be an indicator of how much a pain in the arse finding parts for it is. I'll also replace most of the other front suspension components such as ball joints and bushings, luckily those are the same with the much more common E70 Corolla so not too difficult.

Not pictured is a working front seatbelt. The one on the car just reels freely so I might as well go full 1980's and not wear them. A working belt would make me less anxious.

Headlight bezels, the front offside bezel is broken at the top (I have not a clue when this happened, I went back and look at pictures and they weren't actually broken when I got the car). They need refinishing though and I have yet to find a solution. They're chrome-painted plastic.

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Another set of centre caps for the new wheels. The bottom row is what they came with and although I'd have been okay with them they're clearly not the best, and now I have spares if some goes missing as a bonus.

A few other things I've also ordered but not arrived yet. A new antenna, maybe a bit pointless as the radio doesn't work, but half broken one on the car always irk me so...  and a new interior ceiling light as that's always been missing from the car. They still make new ones of both, thankfully.

Tomorrow I'll be checking up on the progress and will report again.

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  • Conan changed the title to Bangkok Shite: Toyota Corona Liftback
  • 3 months later...

It's been a pretty hectic few days mostly taking care of little jobs.

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This is how I got the car back, btw. I removed the side protection strips and badging to put on myself in fear of 1. not being put back on correctly 2. unobtainium items going missing. But I did told them to drill and put fender mirrors on which they promptly did.

There was quite a few issues to sort out.

Got the car back, the front left indicator wasn't indicating, the side right indicator wasn't either. Loose wiring for both. Soldering session sorted that out.

Replaced the antenna as well. But considering the speaker doesn't speak I didn't wire it in. Don't want to dismantle half the dashboard to do so.

I then went and got this thing an MOT, of which the car passed. But then I noticed the brake light wasn't illuminating either but the taillight was. That was just a fuse which I had a spare. This car use those classic glass fuse.

The day after that I put the new, correct type steelies on. Most wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

I then had the air-con regas. 7 months stationary means this is necessary. It wasn't blowing as cold.

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Also, the boot lock was broken. The barrel arm came loose from the latch. Reattached and it's working fine now. I then put the interior trim back together.

Today the front shocks got replaced. It's a strut insert type which is interesting. Along with the top hat of course. The front shocks have been borked since day one so it feels really great especially that I've already replaced the rear.

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They seems to be original, it's a serviceable type which I reckon have been obsolete for over 30 years. These day the strut insert replacement seems to be the norm and nobody rebuild the originals anymore. I reckon it's a pretty clever design that became a thing only because shocks technology improved.

Tomorrow I'll be doing the gearbox mount. There's a bit of a noise coming when decelerating which wasn't there before so that'll be the start.

I'll also send the new front headlamp surrounds to be chrome painted so I can finally replace the broken one.

Oh and I changed the oil and filter as well. 5W-40 Synthetic. The oil change was pretty interesting as well because I got this little drain valve thingamajig which is mainly invented to prevent stripped thread. I love them so much I put it on all my cars now.

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