Gruks SW20

[ClanFever]

Thanks for the update James, I love the little goodie selection you got! All great stuff

[85AW20v]

The different ride heights might also be contributing to the brake imbalance due to different weights on the wheels on the ground.

[gruk]

The different ride heights might also be contributing to the brake imbalance due to different weights on the wheels on the ground.

Good point. All the more reason to sort it out quickly. Now to find time...

Cheers guys, you've given me heaps to work with

[gruk]

So in the end I’ve moved to ditch the coilovers. Have some shocks on the way.
Big news of the day though is actually that I’ve got my heater control working! The slider didn’t move and temperature had to be adjusted from the frunk.

It turns out that the plastic inside the temp selector slider has broken, the little ball bearing in there had been displaced so it couldn’t move freely. It took a bit of work to clean out the 20 years of grease and filth, and a little superglue, and some black oil paint marker to touch up the worn buttons but it’s operating properly and looking good. Very pleased to have that sorted.

[gruk]

Decided to restore the old amber indicators today while the kids were napping.
I think the previous owner tried to blacken them, and they were well scuffed - probably tried to unblocked them too.
I hit them hard with scotch bright to get the stains off, then used a turtle wax headlight restoration kit I had sitting around- using 4 different grits to wet sand, then the polishing compound. Finished off with some clearcoat.

Really happy with how they came out. Not sure if I’ll ever use them, or sell them but it was a good little Saturday project.

After:

Before:

[GDII]

They look great! Good to see a set of NZ new lights restored!

[gruk]

Had a day at home today so I had a go at clearing up the tail lights which were a little scuffed.

Before:

After:

Same method as previous but skipped the scotch brite as there was no blackening on these guys. Came out pretty good!
Looking at the housings I can see that a previous owner tried removing these without removing the screws. Little chips off the plastic and paint. Some people!

I found a little of the abrasive compound on the black trim around these lights really brought them back to life. I’ll try it elsewhere at some point.

[GDII]

Very nice! Nothing irks me like dull SW20 lights!

[gruk]

For anyone who's interested, here is the price breakdown and timing for ordering koni yellow struts and eibach lowering springs from MR2Heaven:

14 Sept 2020 - ordered NZ$1603.62
23 Nov 2020 - MR2 Heaven acquired stock and sent - postage NZ$304.91
09 Dec 2020 - UPSFlyways received shipment and posted invoice for customs duty etc - NZ$237.84

So all up it cost me $2146.37 for the struts and springs, and I waited about four months for delivery

Additionally I needed to purchase some shock housings which I grabbed from Car Parts Canterbury - $100ish
and from Toyota I grabbed some top hats and rubber spring seats - $390.20

So all up the spend was about $2,636.57 - keep in mind this price will be greatly affected by exchange rates so your mileage may vary. Would have been about $1000 cheaper to just go for coilovers again but I'm keen to get rid of my cert plate.
Now I just need to install them

[gruk]

First drive on the new suspension today. It’s like a whole new car. Feels amazing.
It turns out that the sway bar links were previously backwards- the fronts were on the rear, the reward on the front. As such they were bent link bananas on the front, and probably had something to do with the zero play in the front, and the clunky noises on bumps. Makes me wonder about the actual state of the coilovers that I’ve removed. Could be fine after all? I’ll give them a cleanup and have a poke around.

Next step is to sort out the cert, then it’s warrant time! Can’t wait to get it out on the open road again

[GDII]

Good to hear!

How you mean the swaybars lnks were backwards? Coilovers require short front bars that tend to match the rears. 200mm vs the 250mm OEM.

So fronts OEM are 250mm and rears OEM are 200mm. When you change to coilovers the rears can be kept and the fronts need to be changed. The OEM REV1 links are twig thin and will bend even with standard suspension.

[gruk]

The mechanic told me that the rears were on the front and the fronts on the rear. What you say has me wondering if that would have made a difference...
Either way, it feels good now:)

[GDII]

It would mess with things a little bit and making them bend for sure but your coilovers were super stiff and worn out. You'll have to take me for a ride when it's back on the road. Keen to feel the difference.

[gruk]

Cert plate removed!
One step closer to legal...

[Trotbags]

Nice work. Getting the cert plate removed on Yellow is one of the tasks I will need to get done too. I assume just book it in with a certifier and take it from there?