Elvis - Matt's 1988 SX auto

SO I finally got my butt in gear and started getting things happening to get this car back on the road;

It now rolls on a set of 7th-gen 15's courtesy of forum member just_ace.

I've repaired the wobbly shifter mechanism, though in the process I lost a tiny spring out of the overdrive button, so I've got to either find another button or rig a solution (I'm thinking a cut-down spring out of the end of a biro might do the job)

I've repaired the previous owners extremely poorly installed interior door lights - he had removed the red lenses, replaced them with white lenses that didn't fit properly and put horrible blue globes in them, then threw it all back together with the wrong screws... kids these days eh... So I've reverted it back to factory red lenses.

I replaced the passenger side interior door handle with a non-broken one (I'll have to find another one for Overtime now though....)

I've made a good start on the body work - I picked up a complete drivers side door for $50, it's from a pre-facelift with manual windows so I've gutted it and will swap all the internals over with the door currently on the car when I've got it painted. I was hoping to be able to just sand the old paint down and give it a quick spray but the paint on it is absolute rubbish, it's very thin and full of bubbles, I think it's had another backyard spray job at some point in it's life, lol... so I've had to take a lot more material off it than I wanted to, it's taken me two days and it's still only in hi-fill. Hopefully can get some colour on it tomorrow.

Continuing the bodywork, I picked the most rust-free passenger side mudguard from my pile of spares, repaired it's one small spot of rust and then gave it a sand and prime, the paint is much better than on the spare door so it's been much easier to prep. I've also pulled the sunroof out and set to work removing the rust in it. Half an hour with a wire wheel and a grinder and I've removed as much as I can and then treated it with rust converter. Tomorrow fill, sand, prime, etc. Had the windscreen pulled out today (I was going to do it myself, but the cost of the tools was about the same as the cost of just getting someone to do it for me, so I took the easy way out), have taped around the window trims and covered the hole where the sunroof was, next job is get started on the little bits of rust around the screen edges then I'll re-paint the whole roof and A-pillars.

So that's where it's at for the moment. Hopefully a big update with some pretty pics in a few days

 

Thanks Steve, it's painfully slow but I'll get there. I foolishly thought that with my three days off last week I could prep the first day, paint the second day and re-fit everything the third day and everything would be good to go. Ha! I reckon I've got over 20 hours in the three panels I've been prepping and they're still only in primer, the sunroof and door are good to paint but the guard still needs work - it has had a small biff at some point which flattened part of the wheel arch, which I didn't notice it until I primed it but now of course it sticks out like a sore thumb, so I've been slowly building it back up to the right profile, it's probably still got a few hours work in it before it'll be done though...

Oh, and...

.... oh dear, the bit of rust wasn't quite as little as I thought...





It's rusted at the site of every one of those stupid clips that Toyota used to hold the windscreen trims in place. Needless to say they won't be making a return, my windscreen guy has a rubber surround to suit ready to go when I get the screen put back in.