oli8925's Car Diary - New JDM Arrival

The T25 is slowly progressing. Still at the body shop so now overschedule but to be honest that's fine with me for now. Otherwise little bits and bobs are being done as and when. The pop top was disassembled, the vinyl headlining cleaned up and reassembled with new insulation and carpet (not fully trimmed until it fully goes back together)




And the van itself is now in primer with guide coat in the process of being flatted back.



Another couple of months gone and no more progress on the 9000, although I have been busy. I've been unhappy about my car situation for years now and have constantly umm'd and arr'd about changing things up but had always found a reason to be sensible or concerned about regretting the decision. Finally that changed and I took the plunge.

It unfortunately had to start by making some space, which meant the old faithful grey 9000 moved on to the scrap yard in the sky


But not without taking as many useful parts as possible first, including the B204 for a rainy day


Next to go was the 9-3 on behalf of my dad. Have to say I wasn't sad to see this go. Not the car for me.


Also up for sale was (is) the MX5, but that's yet to sell and to be fair to the market I advertised it with a fault or two I still haven't got around to sorting, so I need to get on with that as soon as I have time. Despite this the market does seem to have stalled in the last few months so maybe it will stay for a bit longer.

And then after what felt like ages of waiting I finally got to pick up my new car


Welcome my 'new' 2002 Toyota CROWN Athlete V estate. Images from the dealer



She's not without her faults and isn't a particularly cheap or sensible choice in the current climate but I've passed up on too many bucket list cars over the years (MNP R33 GTR for £13k still hurts) so felt I needed to take the plunge before it was too late. As the Athlete V this has the 1JZ-GTE, VVTi single turbo as opposed to the earlier twin turbos. It's a lovely barge and wafts along really nicely, even if not quite as quick or 'fun' as you might think, it's still fun in it's own way and makes all the right noises. It's also quite looooooong, I feared it might not fit on the driveway but thankfully does...just


One of the first things I did was remove the light tints and the sun strip. In my opinion this cleaned up the look a lot, and close up the wrap looked a bit aged




Got a few layers of wax on it as the 9000 has made me paranoid about old, black paint. It's developing quite a shine now


And last weekend I changed the head unit out for a UK one. As much as I loved the authenticity of a Japanese HU, and it was a really good unit, it was a bit of a pain to use. This was accompanied by the obligatory tidy up of wiring



Rewired the import-installed fog light from the right hand side reverse unit to the lower inner tail lights. All eight tail lights are dual filament bulbs; all work as side lights, the top rows work as brake lights, and I now have the lower inners working as fog lights which I think is how the factory wired them with the optional winter pack. The reverse light was reinstated as such and the dodgy, ancient LED bulbs replaced for new Osram items which are actually visible in daylight


Next I replaced the old rusted reverse camera with a new one. Really fun job running the wires through the tailgate and trim down the length of the car, nope, but actually everything came apart really easily and was great to work with. Swapping the head unit took a bit of fiddling, and while there I removed 6 of the 7 antennas stuck to the dash and windscreen which mostly turned out to be the aftermarket Japanese TV receiver, so all of that and it's miles of redundant wiring were removed.



The £3 haul was a nice bonus, although I think the kids have already stolen it.


Imminent plans aren't too much. I'll be giving it a good service and gearbox flush, there's a misfire under hard acceleration at around 4k to fix which seems to commonly be the ignition system so new plugs and leads have been ordered. Following this I'll move on to coils, VVT solenoid and, another job that's on the list anyway, making a cold air box for the air filter and extending the pipework. I'll also remake the ignition coil loom where it runs under plug cover as it's heat damaged and doesn't look too clever. I also have an Aero package wing for the tailgate as it looks too empty without, and will order a load of little bits and bobs from Japan, most notably all the bits to install cruise control as it needs it really. We'll have to wait and see what longer term plans develop.