Wheel mocking up is genius, why didn't I know about it sooner. Have to do it for the new wheels on the Datsun. How do you account for suspension travel? Your fronts look like they could rub without rolled arches at full drop, but I know you are more careful than that.
Good luck with the new job
When you are settled I'll have to pop over and rerecord our podcast, although we'll need to be exhausted and full off good pizza
Good evening all, I have managed a couple of hours each weekend around family time and sorting out things from the past / coming week. I won't lie, this temporary commute is pretty killer! I am leaving at 4am on Mondays, two hours fifteen to get there, staying at my sisters place during the week then driving home on a Friday evening, the same journey as a Monday but it takes four flipping hours!!
Oh well, hopefully our place will sell soon as we can move down there
So, the important bit, Celica progress
I will start with the steering column. After tacking it all in place last weekend, the test was a little underwhelming, mainly because it still felt tight despite minimising the angles. During this week I did some research and remembered that you have to line the joints up, otherwise the speed difference that is present on the input and output of the joints is not compensated, something I knew already but managed to forget!!
So I trimmed back the tacks and realigned the joints, the vice is clamped on the flat side here so can be used to line up the joint
As close as I can get it by eye
Then came the difficult bit, welding joints with rubber seals and full of grease. I read that you can submerge the joint in water and then weld, keeping the joint cool. I immediately hit issues as the water boiled and the steam and water capilliaried through the join and ruined the weld Second idea, wet paper towel wrapped around it, 10mm weld at a time and then submerge the joint (not the weld) into a pot of water as quickly as possible. This worked
It worked with no dramas, and here it is installed
One of the things that was ordered and arrived whilst I was away, was a little ultrasonic cleaner. The titanium valves that are used in this head are brilliant, light, tough and well specified by Toyota, but they are also picky little buggers. Titanium is susceptible to cracking through chlorine based chemicals and any surface abrasions, so no harsh cleaners and no abrasives. After some searching it looks like people have successfully used ultrasonics to clean them, so I thought I would too
Bench cleaned!
Head coming apart
The exhaust valves are as expected, covered in a hard coating of combustion deposits, the inlets were just burnt on carbon.
Light too Stock exhausts are around 45g, these are 26!
Fizzing away
It took much longer than expected, but after about 5 hours of buzzing this is what we are left with. Not perfect but also much better than before Now the other 14 need doing
So I have managed to get the front suspension built up properly and torqued to spec, took the chance to fit these too -
Stainless crush tubes, top quality and from a gt-four garage, so supporting the community too
The drivers door is pretty much built up now, only the interior panel needs fitting and the hinges. I took the outside trims and gave them a wash with soapy water, it's bits like this that will make the car.
The original engine has gone to a new home, to be loved and turned into a monster for it's new owner. That and the kart being sold, means that garage space was freed up. The new block was bolted up to the stand and the work could start in earnest.
I started with a good clean an inspection, all the old gasket material was scraped off and I also too the time to remove some flashing that was left from the casting process, it's been in there for tens of thousands of miles, but I just don't like the thought of it being there -
I took a small drift and gently tapped it, it was so weak it hardly needed tapping! It just fell off and left a nice clean edge
I then turned the block over and decided to lap the fire face in using wet and dry, make sure it was totally clean and flat. I used a 20mm thick bit of ally plate, deburred the edges and then used 1000grit wet and dry and curse word loads of wd40 -
only the best for cleaning it off
left a really smooth polished surface
After dousing the bores with WD40, then de-greasing followed by even more WD40 I could think about the next step, gapping the rings.
I did lots of research about gaps, and made sure that I was happy with the Pankl recommended specs, 0.477mm top ring, 0.58-0.68mm middle ring and anything over 0.15mm for the oil control rings. It took me a while to get a comfortable set up, ended up with a steel plate, clamped in the vice with a bit of cloth and some 360grit wet and dry. The rings were then drawn over the W&D outside to inside on only one face, I measured about every 5-10 strokes depending on how much needed taking off. The first one ended up going from about 0.43 to 0.51 in one go, so it is gapped a couple of thou bigger than the rest, no great shakes though, bigger is better than smaller
I then put them in the bore, and slid them down to the same point every time, I used the skirt depth to ensure this. Feeler gauges were a tight slip fit.
Took about 3 hours end to end, they are back in their boxes now ready to the final fit.
I took the crank and cleaned that up next, the bottom of the engine was rinsed out with WD40 again and the bearings test fitted. I used lucas assembly oil for the engine, stupidly sticky stuff and will never run out The crank was popped in and first of all the end float was checked, thrust washers installed, dial gauge on and the crank moved back and forth. Result... 0.05mm, ideal
Next up is the mains clearance, plastigauge was used for this, everything lubed up and popped together, torqued to spec and then taken back off.
Clearances ended up being 0.045 to 0.055mm, ideal
The book spec is 0.025 - 0.044 for a new engine and up to 0.08 for service specs, as a hard driven and hard revved engine, just over build spec is bob on.
The wax is a bit of a dick to get off, I used a piece of plastic chopping board to remove it, hard enough to remove it but not so hard that it marks the crank.
Little update, things are hard here, really struggling with the time away from family and the painfully irregular routine (I am very routine driven!).
Soooooo, I ordered wheels Straight from the ole US of A! They are very similar to Fifteen52 Turbo Mac wheels, however Turbo Macs are not the right width or offset, and these are
So postage was a killer, import and tax duty not so much.
I do not have any time at the moment to work on the car, after a particularly hard day and evening falling out with the wife, kids that won't sleep etc etc I needed a boost. So I took myself out into the garage after everyone had gone to bed. I was out there until 1am tinkering and felt better for it.
I did a trial fit to the car, they fit like a GLOVE. So much so that the fronts are real close to the caliper, but a Jrevillug said "clearance is clearance!".
I put a little 3mm spacer on the rear to increase clearance to the strut, mainly for the tyre as I know it will be close. This is how they sit on the arches
Front
Rear
Today I took some time to refurbish items before they went on to the front bumper, rebuilding items like this frees up space in the garage and is a quick fix to feeling like progress is being made. I used all stainless screws on the lower plastics after cleaning and treating them
I was missing one of these little clips on one side, disappeared into the ether
After a bit of hunting around the garage, I realised that the clip for a ziptie was a perfect replacement, in fact it works better than the OE one!
The indicators were rather shabby too, years of dust abrasion and stone chips. I took to them with some 240 wet and dry, then 600, then 2000, finally some megs ultimate compound. They are not perfect, they need a final machine polish, but the finish is acceptable for me.
The top grill was treated and the number plate fitted, finally the toyota emblem
Lastly, the exhaust center section was cleaned up and fitted to the OE rubbers. The prop was also bolted up to the diff and the two middle bearings.
I do love these V-Band joins
Sooooooo, this week will bring tyres, wheel sealer, and booking the glass man to fit the screen / side windows / bootlid glass. I will also chase up the black bits from the painter and put in and order for a few bolts and things
Thanks guys, back to work again now, so no progress for at least a week, maybe two as I think I am staying south this coming weekend Its really getting me down.
I feel like I'm seeing something reaaally special in the making, I hope you are ready for the love this car will be getting once it hits the shows, in the meantime stay strong and keep at it!! It'll be worth it
Thanks guys, back to work again now, so no progress for at least a week, maybe two as I think I am staying south this coming weekend Its really getting me down.
<3 you dude. Hope it all comes good soon with houses and stuffs.
Thanks again guys, I know it will get there, I just need to relax and let it happen in line with life. Not easy as I would love yo have it done NOW! The fact is life has been putting the brakes on at times.
You know the bit that hurts the most? Seeing more and more cars painted my colour, seems it is becoming quite popular. Mostly on "look at me" cars without much substance
This is all looking great work.Wheels are certainly different too and look very cool,I like them.I had a 205 myself about 4 or 5 years ago,it ended up being bought by a guy from Holland as i wanted to get my 162 project really going,so kind of reluctantly moved it on.Was a really good car,replaced clutch and brakes and a lower arm but that was all it needed,the body was immaculate and in a rarer colour,Seaspray Pearl.
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Second idea, wet paper towel wrapped around it, 10mm weld at a time and then submerge the joint (not the weld) into a pot of water as quickly as possible. This worked 
Its really getting me down.
