Red Rocket Red Rocket......With inappropriate hand gestures

[slide86]

Now that I have sold my JZX100, I was in need of a reliable daily. I had been trolling gumtree and ebay for a while in search of something appropriate. I was really after an ae92 with a smallport in it.

I cam across this gem in the rough in the South of Adelaide. Starting bid on ebay was 99c.......I couldnt refuse. After some furious bidding whilst i was in the middle of a coal mine trying to get 3G reception on my phone, i was the succesful bidder, a touch under $600. I arranged with the seller to hold the vehicle until I got home from my 2 week swing.

Only going by the pictures on ebay, a picture DOESNT tell 1000 words. I arrived to collect the car, the paint was bad, the body was average, the interior was messy, the battery was flat and there was many oil leaks.

Anyways, lucky im a mechanic i thought.........So with no current rego i organised my tow truck friend to collect and leave at my place whilst I went back to work for another few weeks.

Fast forward 2 weeks.........Coming home from work I was excited to screw some number plates on and go go go........this wasnt to be. Getting 20kms into my 300km drive home, the engine almost literally fell out of the car, 2 engine mounts were completely stuffed......not much actually holding the engine in the car. Limped home, left the car at the local garage and went back to work........again.

Another 2 weeks passes.......I collect the car and load it up with many AE86 parts to bring home so i could get some work done. Its always nervous driving an unfamiliar car that far at night, knowing it has let you down in the past.......I wasnt bonding well with this new gem. That 3 hour drive, I learnt many things about the vehicle, and no radio or cd player didnt help.

Things I discovered needed attention:
CD player install
heater controls inop (cable not secured under dash)
Needs wheel alignment......badly.
hatch doesnt close properly, so door ajar light always on.....and leaves interior light on to drain battery.
oil pressure gauge doesnt operate, jammed in max position.
water leaks in through hatch, carpet stinky and dirty.

But i did get 7.5lt per 100km on the drive home, and the smallport pulls like a freight train. Not bad for a 325thou engine.

Here is the gem in all its glory:

[slide86]

A nice sunny day here finally meant I could spend some time attending to the tatty nature of the exterior. Some time ago i purchased a Meguires paint restoration kit to repair the surface on my JZX100.......I never got around to using it before I sold the car. I figure ill give it ago on the shocking paint on this car.

The paint had been left unattended for a long long time. I wasnt sure how this was going to work, but this is the ideal platform to test my detailing skills.

I started with this......you can see how the bonnet is pretty bad:





After an hour and a $40 orbital polisher I purchased, this was the result:





I was VERY impressed, tomorrow I will tackle the roof and the front guards.

I also purchased $6 worth of degreaser to tidy up the engine bay........

from this:



to this:



By no means perfect, but alteast i can tell where the oil leaks are coming from now.

[slide86]

The sun has taken its toll on some of the interior plastics, and it was annoying me. Apparently this is a common problem with these cars, I could have tried to source some better condition plastics, but this is just a daily and I dont want to be spending much $$ on stuff like that.

So whilst i was at my local autopro, I picked up this stuff:



Starting out with this:



You can see how discoloured that panel is, and it was leaving alot of crap on the carpet.

I removed both sides and set about roughing up the surface and cleaning with prepsol:



The difference after just one coat of paint:



And finally, a nice change, its not perfect, but its alot better than what was there:



Whilst i had the paint out i tackled some of the pther plastics that had gone down the same weathered path:

This:



To this:

.


One last thing to round out the day (and hide the smell of the wet carpet!)

[blake.]

I hate how those b pillar trims do that.

[slide86]

I was quite surprised at the amount they had faded and gone chalky.

[slide86]

One thing I have started doing on all the vehicles I own is cleaning out the inlet manifold and throttle bodies. I have had some good success using the Nulon upper engine cleaner on my Chaser and figured for $9 I cant really go wrong.

I gathered the required tools:



and the product:



And started out with this:



Removing the plug cover and removing the spark plugs I found they havent been changed in quite a while, thats a job ill be tackling very soon.



Whilst I was removing the plugs I had already removed the intake pipe and coated the throttle butterfly to remove all the crap that had built up in there over time. This spray comes out as a foam and reacts with all the muck and works quite well at removing all the build up.



Once I had sprayed a few seconds worth down each spark plug hole, to remove build up on the top of the piston and combustion chamber, I refitted the spark plugs and fired the engine up. It tends to run a little rough, holding the revs up around the 1500rpm works well. Be prepared for the smoke out the exhaust.

Now that I still have half a can of spray, I removed one of the bungs on the inlet manifold. With the engine running and holding the revs up, I sprayed the remainder of the foam into the inlet manifold so it could be drawn through the intake and into the engine. It makes quite a bit of smoke out the exhaust as its being burnt, but its also cleaning a heap of muck out of the top of the engine.
Once the can is empty, simple refit the vaccum cap and go for a quick squirt.

I really noticed the difference on this car, it idles smoother and seems like it revs a little more easily than before. I think its a cheap and easy maintenance item with gains to be had.

[AJPS]

their engine treatment isnt bad either

looks like its coming along

you should work on your 'other' red car

[slide86]

My girlfriends Echo you mean???

All the cars in our family are red Toyota hatchbacks......LOL

[slide86]

Something high on the list of jobs is the stereo.........or lack of one. Was the FIRST thing I noticed when I got the car, some muppet had "removed" the previous head unit. This had included removing the actual OEM brackets that would hold any sort of radio in.
Then there is the additional loom they had spliced into the factory harness. This actually was a blessing because they retained the factory radio plugs, this will all become clear shortly.

So this is what we started with:



Its also worth noting, the trim around the radio that goes up and around the dash cluster had been broken in half by some one with no idea how to undo screws. Also note the additional harness spliced into the factory harness.

Whilst this was all apart I also tackled the problem of the inoperative heater controls. When trying to change the temperature or position of the vents, it just felt like i was operating a stick in a bucket of grease. Apon pulling the dash apart and removing the heater controls I found that all of the clips that hold the cables in place have been broken (highlighted by the arrows). This means that the entire cable is moving instead of actuating the required cable:



Here is the non genuine harness and me removing it from the vehicle, this actually wasnt the worst install i have seen, and only took 10 minutes to remove:





So back to the OEM radio plug. I have recently become aware of these FANTASIC aftermarket harnesses that adapt a stereo to the OEM plug using all the original wiring. No cutting, soldering or splicing. It literally takes 20 minutes to get a radio installed and the beats cranking:



And the stereo in question, for $100 it has everything I need:



The harnesses click into place and create a no fuss setup:



As I said, there were no brackets to actually hold the unit in place, so off to the local wreckers I went. I live in the north of South Australia and the wreckers in my town is very limited.......lucky I found an AE92 CS that I was able to pillage parts from. I got me two brackets:



I find it totally awesome that the manufactures of these stereos manage to get the mounting points the same as most makes of vehicles. So the brackets simply bolt upto the side of teh stereo with the screws provided:



The last thing to take on was the broken dash facia. Whilst I was attacking the AE92 at the wreckers I grabbed one of these......hell I had to remove it anyways to get the heater unit out.

Its not the same colour, but thats nothing a can of black vinyl dye cant fix:



The result, a new stereo, working climate control, and an uncracked one piece dash facia (it will be painted tomorrow, this was just a test fit)



Now, if only I had remembered to get the steering column covers from the wreckers.

[fappy]

Looking good dude. Those pillar trims scrubbed up good, I've got an ae92 gti and the trims on mine are a lot worse than what yours appeared to be.