I fear it will be next year before I can paint her. But it'll be glorious!

Right! I'm heading back to work on the car this weekend, but it will be a secondary thing, as I'm taking my Yamaha Thundercat's wheels with me. I'm gonna clean 'em sand 'em and paint 'em silver!

This post has been edited by Edser: Mar 16, 2013 - 10:25 AM

I painted my Thundercats wheels this weekend. I think it's a big improvement, looks so clean. Here's the before pic:




Here's the after pic:




This post has been edited by Edser: Mar 16, 2013 - 10:27 AM

Since I have no money at the mo, I thought I'd get to work on my lights - see if I could make 'em look a bit better. This one is the rear right tail light. It seems to have had a close bump/scrape. It's all a bit broken. I pulled this broken bit out with tweezers.

So I glued the piece back in with superglue...

Bit of sanding...

Then a bit of polishing...

Bit of black paint...

The crack is still visible, but its a huge improvement. Then I got to work on the scrape on the left tail light.
This is the scrape:

After some polishing:

Voila!! Scrape gone!

I also sanded off all the numbers and things on the red areas, and polished the whole surface until really shiney. Looks like new!

This post has been edited by Edser: Nov 28, 2012 - 3:43 AM

Very good with paint and restoration I see... keep up the good work!

Cheers!
After the rears turned out so well, I got to work on the front indicators (turn signals).
This is a pic of a polished one on top of a untreated one just off the car.

I sanded it back with some 400 grade then 600 and finally with some 800, then polishing with some random polish I found.
Did the whole job while drinking a mix of red wine and Pepsi light while watching tv on my pc last Saturday night.

This is the end result:

Its not bad I think, there was some very bad pitting (stone chips or really tough insects), and I couldn't smooth it all away without spending a long time sanding, and I was already quite drunk, so I'm pretty happy with the results, although not with the hangover.

I noticed that my reversing light looked sort of dirty, so I popped out the bulb to see, and low and behold I found this:

So cleaned the bulb and got to work cleaning the inside of the light with Q-tips and window cleaning liquid.

The one on the left has been cleaned. It really makes a big difference, tho you can't really tell in the photos.

Its been a long cold winter, and I finally got back to visit my car. There has been a lot of construction work going on in the garage where I keep it, everything's covered in a thick layer of dust. It is covered with an old bed sheet, but the dust gets in everywhere, all around the engine bay and on the wheels.
So I popped the lid and started scrubbing the engine bay. Can't really tell in the photo.

While I was there I uncovered the Datsun (yes it had a dust cover - not that you can tell - it was sooo dusty). It looks so good, such car-porn. It's just sick. So I stood there and looked at it for a while, in a kind of wierd pervy way. I took some photos for later.



Later I also took out the Celicas interior plastic panels (they are just dumped in the boot) and cleaned their insides, as they were kinda brown and dusty. I'll be clipping those back in when the cars painted.
Roll on summer!

It has been two years, and I have finally got around to getting some paint on the car. I was determined to paint it a get it on the road this summer as I finally got a job. Still, the job means I have very little free time so its going to be painted in my local paint shop at a cost of 1100 euros.

This is the car before being sent off for paint. I replaced the boot lid as there was rust around the window. I found another black Celica in a scrapyard 30 mins away and he sold me the whole lid with spoiler and badges and brake light complete for 60 euros. He even gave me the fuel filler flap for free when I asked. So nice. In the photo below you can see the old boot lid in the background. It was so easy to fit, plug and play, although it was quite heavy and my girlfriend and I struggled to line it up. Used a wooden board to prop it open while she held it steady, and I tightened the bolts.

I finally pulled off the window trim and side repeaters. I have cleaned them up and they are waiting to be refitted.
I won't get to see the new paint until nearly October as I am going on holidays. I can't wait!

Yippee! Car has been painted! I just went to see it and this is what I found:



I left the car with all the parts to be painted in the boot. The painter didn't believe me. These Celicas are quite roomy you know?
So I set to work on the back of the car for some quick results. Stuck the lights back on, the Toyota badge and the brake light. That's my dog in the background.


Then I got to work on the nightmare front end. A design horror for sure. Putting on those 3 side nuts of the bumper was an hour long challenge.


Finally, I screwed on the indicators, clicked in the side repeaters and attached the fog lights.

I also changed to numberplate for a cleaner plastic one. The ABS plates are something of a novelty in Spain, and have only fairly recently become legal.



I still have lots to do. I need to screw all the under plastics together, and bolt on the freshly painted front splitters. Then attach the electric aerial, put all the interior plastics back into place and stick on the Celica and small Toyota badges.

This post has been edited by Edser: Oct 18, 2014 - 1:27 PM

A long time coming... but worth it! Hope you get some great use out of it this summer!

That looks great. I particularly like the work on the rear lights, I might have to have a go at polishing off all those marks from mine......hope I don't balls it up.

Nice job.

looks great! now drive it!!!

Its great to nearly have it going again, and this time looking goooood. Still, there's some work to be done. This arrived in the post the other day:

A CV joint and the boot kit for the other side too. They aren't the same but I suppose it doesn't matter, they are from different manufacturers. I got them on www.recambioscoches.es which is all in spanish but is located in Germany. The box took about a week to get here to Barcelona, although I ordered it on Thursday and it was only sent on Tuesday arriving 2 days later by UPS Standard. The cv joint cost 50.37 euros and the boot kit for the other side 8.22 euros, including postage giving a total of 80.85euros. I just hope they fit!

This post has been edited by Edser: Oct 11, 2014 - 11:15 AM

Wow! I think I've struck gold here. I went on to Milanuncios.com and saw an ad for breaking a Celica. I saw it appeared to have leather seats, although this was not stated in the ad, and so I mailed the guy about the seats. He said the seats and door cards were 550euros. I went to see them today and lo and behold, not only were the seats real leather and stunning, but the door cards front AND REAR were covered in stitched leather. We settled at 400euros for the lot, and I went home a happy man with a boot load of leather goodies.
The leather is very good, only one tear in the drivers side, but they need softening and a new colour as there is a lot of sun fading especially on the top of the rear seats. I'm thinking of a BMW red colour would look good in my black car.

What do you guys think about the change of colour?



This post has been edited by Edser: Oct 18, 2014 - 1:34 PM

Left boot is inner & right is outer. Make sure when you're replacing them you put the metal ties on at the right moment so you don't have to remove it all again.

>

Um, actually I bought them online and they are both supposed to be outer boots. The CV joint came with one, and so I got a separate boot as well. I think the inner boots are in ok condition.I didn't order the inner ones, though I probably should have.

I started cleaning the leather interior. Its pretty filthy. I don't think the previous owner cleaned them often - or at all!


These are the back seats, not so dirty really.

The door cards were very clean too, not much to do there.
The upper part of the door card is covered in leather with only the pocket and the handles not covered.


The front seats are very dirty. I'll upload pics of those later. I need to get the drivers side bolster repaired. I haven't found and unwelcome surprises, so I'm still feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

I'm still thinking about the new colour for the seats. I'm pretty sure deep red is the way to go. I don't think I can stomach this orangey tan colour. If it were a bit browner and paler, maybe.

This post has been edited by Edser: Oct 21, 2014 - 3:21 AM

that is some custom leather, pricy, but well worth it. looks comfy...

>

Yeh I thought it looked a little too fancy to be stock. Someone must have been feeling very flush... I do hope it's comfy, I won't get a chance to try it out for a few weeks, maybe a month.

Some goodies have arrived!!!
I picked these up off Ebay or Amazon or something. I think they'll look pretty sweet.
More goodies will be arriving over the next week or two. I can't wait!!

Nice work. Love the seats

>
Cheers thanks Msk59! Its been a long wait, so close to being back on the road now.

More goodies have arrived! I'm a shocked at the speed, I only ordered them two days ago. I guess they came from Valencia, and that's not too far away. A 5 hour drive from Barcelona.

So this is the Leatherique Restoration kit. It comes with everything I need to make my skin look dark red (Marroon 242) and make it supple and newish again.


I dropped off my drivers seat off at the leather shop Tapicería Meridiana to get the leather on the side of the seat replaced. The colour doesn't matter too much as I am changing the colour anyhoo. I'll get it back next Saturday.

This post has been edited by Edser: Oct 24, 2014 - 12:55 PM

The last few days I've been cleaning and preparing the leather for a colour change. So I finally started with the door cards.
The colour is pretty much what I was looking for. I think it looks good.

wow, what an improvement, i am amazed. does that thing wear off?

>

It's supposed to last a lifetime, but I've got a friend how changed his seats from grey to black and he says that it can wear in some places.
I'll keep the bottle in case I ever have to touch up a worn area.

Just found a fiver when taking my seats apart. It was jammed into the back of the swivel mechanism. WooHOo! 5 euros discount! Just got to do some money laundering (Harr Harr!)

This just arrived! Looks really good, very classy.

It goes quite well with the new leather colour.

This just arrived!!

Finally the time has come to move the car from its place of hibernation in Lleida to its new home in Barcelona. I couldn't get the cv joint fixed in time so that'll have to be done here. I also need to prep the car for its car test.
I took the car out for a wash.



Here it looks nice and clean.


The dog seemed to like it, although who knows.


I haven't put the interior back in as I am still working on the leather seats. I drove home with no way of opening the windows or adjusting the mirrors. A/C worked great though, if anything it was a bit too icey, and I had to turn the heat up a little. The front seats in the car are the same as the leather ones but look to be in better condition (bases are all scratched and rusty) so I may just swap over the new leather parts to the original seat bases. should be easy, as there are only 4 bolts holding the base and 4 attaching the seat back. I'm not sure how they are attached to the floor, but I bet they will be easy to take out.

While I was out Lleida way, I picked up a 2001 steering wheel in Tarrega for 70 euros. I'll be re-trimming this in leather with red stitching when I can. The badge is a bit worn, maybe I can paint it or replace it, I don't know. I have been unable to find a badge for the front bumper, but I'll keep looking as it looks naked without one.