Drax's 87 SC - The Green Mile

[Drax]

Been thinking I should do this for a while.

My last adventure was in an 84 N/A that sadly rusted through before I caught it, so when I found this SC manual I was more than happy. More so when I noticed the paint job was the same. It was a sign...

After getting the old girl up I gave her a good old service, as you do, which sorted some performance issues. After a week or two, she stared to stall under braking and idle. Found a few perished hoses to eliminate which improved things, but she still would not idle. After testing, found the TPS to be faulty, and very happy that the TPS from the N/A was the same.

Currently she is now in the panel shop getting rust removed and metal put back in place. No too major surgery but a job done right is the job to forget about.

This is how she was before I put new springs in the rear to replace the compressed ones

crop_ContactPhoto-IMG_20150730_070451.jpg (70.56 KiB) Viewed 2879 times

Not bad in a sense but also not good for the old toe arms apparently, and not much of one for a permanent launch look.

Will put up rust photos when I get them from the panel shop.

[Statek]

Ahhhhh memories I really like the Sherwood AWs
Interesting, it's got the pre-FL vent.
Good luck with the car!

[Drax]

Cheers Statek

She is at Pedens Collision Repair in Huntly, for those that may like to know. They outsource the rust work to a waikato local I can never remember the name of, but I have so far only heard good things.

Will post the before and after work when the job is finished. Its about $1675 incl of work and only priming and sealing at this point. More work may be found and she will need a respray of clear at least on the roof.

In the meantime will be getting a tail light gasket set from twosrus as the old ones are shot. Excluding freight will be around $50, though to get them from Toyota is $50 each ex Japan over a 10 day service. Should probably check Amayama as well come to think of it...

[Drax]

Well I now have the Green Mile back and up in Auckland.

Here are a couple pics of what was done..

Left hand sill

Right hand sill

Aerial - Roof

Boot water channel

And big ups to Mr Shiny for the Tail Lights. Look brilliant now



Pedens went and also touched up what small areas in the boot as well for what was acessable and also in the frunk.

The Port Waikato run was a good day, though ran slightly foul finding that the coolant overflow tank was quite full after zipping up to the sand.

Attendees

With the the help of Charlie and his bleeder hoses, we found that there was a large air gap in the radiator to be relived (Should have thought to bleed the system just in case after replacing a not so good sealing rad cap ). We had a fair amount of bubbles when refilling that would indicate that the head gasket may be gone, not so good

After another bleed and testing this week, it appears that what may have been thought to be a blown head gasket was just masses of air. The thermostat does need to be replaced as well as it is stuck open (Coolant circulating while system is dead cold). Will still get the system pressure tested though just to be safe.

[MIKEP]

It looks great Joel and im glad you don't have to get a head gasket done. Yours is a really unusual car . Its an 87 but has roof mounted aerial and a side air intake like an NA . Go figga . I am never surprised now by what they did between years Great to see it on the road again.

[Drax]

It is of the unusual. Had a chat with the boys at Waikato Toyota, found out that she is right on the build month change over, hence why its interesting how much of the A series gear is used rather than the B.

Put a rad pressure tester over the system after Christmas and found that there was a persistent leak as the system went over 9 psi. Under that, there wasn't much to write home about. Two culprit area's were there heater hoses for the idle temp sender and I believe the thermostat housing. I have replaced the hoses, but have yet to remove the thermostat housing. Hopefully do that in the next couple weekends, then test again.

[mickeyduck]

I suspect you'll find there's no thermostat in there Joel. I'd suggest you get a new one anyway...

It'll be nice to see you on a run again when you're able.

[Drax]

Be good to get on one again

On a side note, who has had the personalised plate 'GRRRRR'?

Remember seeing that name in the forum as well, so it would seem that this car has been in the club at least once.

[mickeyduck]

"Grrrrrrr" is Lee. I don't know if he had that as a license plate or not...