Hey everyone,
I think I had a build thread I made here years ago, but I've decided to make a new one. This isn't going to be a build thread like most of the other's here with high HP goals etc. This thread will mostly be me posting pictures of the car, and little mods I do to it as I go.
This thread will be for my 1987 N/A Sport Package Amethyst Metallic Supra. I've also got a 2001 4x4 4Runner that may make a guest appearance in here every now and then.
Here's the Supra to get you attention haha.
Here's the 4Runner.
Here's a little background info on the car. This was my first car, and I never plan to get rid of it. My dad and I spent months looking for cars online for me before I turned 16. We had seen this Supra posted for sale at the same dealership for months, with a very high price tag. They lowered the price a little we noticed one day while browsing cars.com, but it was still out of our price range. We made a call to the dealership and they seemed very eager to get the car off of their lot and out of their hair. (Probably much more interested in seeing how many Camry's they could turn over rather than a 23 year old Supra they had on the lot. They came down on the price considerably, and we agreed to take the car assuming everything checked out and the car was as promised.
Well we got there to look at the car that evening, it was a 2 hour drive to this Toyota dealership, and we were somewhat disappointed. There was some paint damage on the driver's headlight cover from where we can only assume the dealership tried to jump the battery backwards because it was quit cold that day and the car had a brand new battery. They had also said on the phone that they had proof that the timing belt had been changed in the car, which they did not...
We didn't buy the car then and I left fairly disappointed. Then about a week later the owner of the dealership called back and said he had been out of town due to a death in the family and that they really wanted the car gone basically. They came down on the price to what we felt was reasonable so we drove back up to Nashville to buy the car. I was ecstatic!
I am the second owner of my Supra. The original owner had the car for 23 years and put only 70k miles on it. She averaged about 3k miles a year... The full story on the original owner goes like this. The original owner was an elderly lady whose husband was a part owner in the local Toyota dealership. He bought her the car, and it was safe to assume they had money, seeing as how these cars were not cheap when new in the 80's and I found a country club pencil in the car while ripping it apart to change something haha.
Her husband had passed away a few years before I became the owner and she lost interest in the car, so she traded it in to help fund a new Camry or something boring for her daughter. I have a copy of the original title from before it had to be turned over so it could be titled in my name, and you can see that it lists the mileage as 10k, so this supports the idea that her husband was a part owner in the dealership and she drove the car as a dealer car for awhile.
Well, that's enough of that. As of now these are all the major maintenance things/mods I have done to the Supra.
Drivetrain Maintenance:
Replaced clutch master/slave cylinder and clutch
Replace power steering high pressure and return line
Add power steering filter and switch to synthetic
Replace brake master cylinder
Replace valve cover gaskets/ distributor gasket/ spark plug valley gasket
Replace fuel pump (Denso), fuel filter, and FPU VSV
Install Fumoto drain valve
Replace Muffler and resonator (MagnaFlow and FlowMaster HushPower II respectivley)
Suspension:
Replace tires (Goodyear Eagle GT, 225/50/16)
Poly sway bar bushings/steering rack bushings
Interior:
Replace hood/hatch lift struts
KevinM 6.5" Pods w/ JBL Speakers, Blaupunkt speakers in back
Kenwood DDX371BT head unit
Tinted all windows 32%, windshield 50%
Replaced inner mirror caps
Redline Leather Goods shift, ebrake, and center console cover
TRD shift knob (genuine)
BMW cupholders in console (e36 maybe?)
Fading footwell lighting on each side
Body/Exterior:
Replace hatch bump stops
Replace taillight gaskets
Paint wiper arms (all three) and windshield cowl
Euro turn signals/ bubble makers
HID projector headlight retrofit
The Supra currently has 91k miles on it and I've started driving the 4Runner more. It helps me keep the Supra out of unfair weather conditions and also keeps the miles down on it. I've put over 9k on the 4Runner in the last 6 months...
So here are some of the pictures the dealer had posted online when the car was for sale. This was the first time I remember seeing a MK3 Supra, and this was the first time I saw what would become my car.
Here's some pictures over the years of the car.
(She sleeps in the garage now)
(all the snow pics were just a few weeks after I got the car)
Here's some pictures of my projector retrofit.
Footwell lighting
Tinted Windshield
Another of the windshield
Painted wiper arms and cowl
Vinyl wrapped corner trim pieces
Euro corners
Kenwood Headunit
Engine Shot
Magnaflow Exhaust
Here's some interior shots.
The following picture's are the most recent pictures I have on my photobucket of the Supra. I don't believe I've changed anything since I've taken these pics. They are from early this spring I believe.
Right now the car runs very well. The only issues with it are it needs valve stem seals, a timing belt sometime (preventative), and it has a heat soak issue that I can't seem to figure out.
I'm not sure if the valve stem seals are something I could/ would be able to take on myself, and if I end up paying a shop to do it I may pay them to do the timing belt etc. at the same time since half the work is already done to do the valve stem seals.
The heat soak issue is strange... Basically when the car has been driven somewhere and is fully warmed up it runs fine, but when I come back to start the car and it has sat for 20 minutes or so it won't want to hold an idle until I give it some throttle and then it will idle after a few seconds. I've replaced the fuel pump and FPU VSV hoping they would solve this, but they did not. Now it's down to a leaking FP regulator or leaking injectors. I haven't looked any further into those two possibilities.
My future plans for the car are undetermined. I plan to keep it mostly stock and just do small modifications here and there, and basically continue to keep up with the excellent condition of the car and update it with modern features etc like I have done some already.
I would like to replace the suspension at some point, but I'm not sure which route I want to go. I have contemplated Bilesteins, and lowering the car a very small amount with them, or the Illumina II's(if they ever come back) and possibly 89+ springs because all lowering springs I've seen lower the car too much for me. I may put aftermarket sway bars on it as well to make it handle a little better.
I have contemplated replacing the sawblades with a more modern looking wheel like TT wheels, 5 spoke MK3 wheels, Acura TL wheels, or possibly aftermarket wheels maybe. Whenever it comes time to change the brakes I will most likely just replace the OEM brakes with upgraded pads and rotors to maximize their ability.
The front and back bumpers are also slightly faded, so I would like to get them repainted at some point along with the headlight cover that has the slight paint damage to it. It really isn't that bad. You probably can't see it in any of these pictures.
Sometime I also need to do the foglight rewire because they don't function quit correctly with the projectors. I may put yellow bulbs/capsules in them at the same time. I may also upgrade to the 89+ taillights sometime, and am possibly looking at putting some sort of a spoiler on the car. Whether it be on the hatch, or one of the KevinM visors.
Sorry for the super long post. I'm sure there's stuff I forgot that I will add later. Congratulations if you read through all of it! If not I hope you at least enjoyed the pictures. You basically learned what the last 4 years of my Supra ownership has been like. Feel free to post any comments or questions you may have. I am also open to suggestions if you've got any.
Thanks for taking the time to read through here!
I think I had a build thread I made here years ago, but I've decided to make a new one. This isn't going to be a build thread like most of the other's here with high HP goals etc. This thread will mostly be me posting pictures of the car, and little mods I do to it as I go.
This thread will be for my 1987 N/A Sport Package Amethyst Metallic Supra. I've also got a 2001 4x4 4Runner that may make a guest appearance in here every now and then.
Here's the Supra to get you attention haha.
Here's the 4Runner.
Here's a little background info on the car. This was my first car, and I never plan to get rid of it. My dad and I spent months looking for cars online for me before I turned 16. We had seen this Supra posted for sale at the same dealership for months, with a very high price tag. They lowered the price a little we noticed one day while browsing cars.com, but it was still out of our price range. We made a call to the dealership and they seemed very eager to get the car off of their lot and out of their hair. (Probably much more interested in seeing how many Camry's they could turn over rather than a 23 year old Supra they had on the lot. They came down on the price considerably, and we agreed to take the car assuming everything checked out and the car was as promised.
Well we got there to look at the car that evening, it was a 2 hour drive to this Toyota dealership, and we were somewhat disappointed. There was some paint damage on the driver's headlight cover from where we can only assume the dealership tried to jump the battery backwards because it was quit cold that day and the car had a brand new battery. They had also said on the phone that they had proof that the timing belt had been changed in the car, which they did not...
We didn't buy the car then and I left fairly disappointed. Then about a week later the owner of the dealership called back and said he had been out of town due to a death in the family and that they really wanted the car gone basically. They came down on the price to what we felt was reasonable so we drove back up to Nashville to buy the car. I was ecstatic!
I am the second owner of my Supra. The original owner had the car for 23 years and put only 70k miles on it. She averaged about 3k miles a year... The full story on the original owner goes like this. The original owner was an elderly lady whose husband was a part owner in the local Toyota dealership. He bought her the car, and it was safe to assume they had money, seeing as how these cars were not cheap when new in the 80's and I found a country club pencil in the car while ripping it apart to change something haha.
Her husband had passed away a few years before I became the owner and she lost interest in the car, so she traded it in to help fund a new Camry or something boring for her daughter. I have a copy of the original title from before it had to be turned over so it could be titled in my name, and you can see that it lists the mileage as 10k, so this supports the idea that her husband was a part owner in the dealership and she drove the car as a dealer car for awhile.
Well, that's enough of that. As of now these are all the major maintenance things/mods I have done to the Supra.
Drivetrain Maintenance:
Replaced clutch master/slave cylinder and clutch
Replace power steering high pressure and return line
Add power steering filter and switch to synthetic
Replace brake master cylinder
Replace valve cover gaskets/ distributor gasket/ spark plug valley gasket
Replace fuel pump (Denso), fuel filter, and FPU VSV
Install Fumoto drain valve
Replace Muffler and resonator (MagnaFlow and FlowMaster HushPower II respectivley)
Suspension:
Replace tires (Goodyear Eagle GT, 225/50/16)
Poly sway bar bushings/steering rack bushings
Interior:
Replace hood/hatch lift struts
KevinM 6.5" Pods w/ JBL Speakers, Blaupunkt speakers in back
Kenwood DDX371BT head unit
Tinted all windows 32%, windshield 50%
Replaced inner mirror caps
Redline Leather Goods shift, ebrake, and center console cover
TRD shift knob (genuine)
BMW cupholders in console (e36 maybe?)
Fading footwell lighting on each side
Body/Exterior:
Replace hatch bump stops
Replace taillight gaskets
Paint wiper arms (all three) and windshield cowl
Euro turn signals/ bubble makers
HID projector headlight retrofit
The Supra currently has 91k miles on it and I've started driving the 4Runner more. It helps me keep the Supra out of unfair weather conditions and also keeps the miles down on it. I've put over 9k on the 4Runner in the last 6 months...
So here are some of the pictures the dealer had posted online when the car was for sale. This was the first time I remember seeing a MK3 Supra, and this was the first time I saw what would become my car.
Here's some pictures over the years of the car.
(She sleeps in the garage now)
(all the snow pics were just a few weeks after I got the car)
Here's some pictures of my projector retrofit.
Footwell lighting
Tinted Windshield
Another of the windshield
Painted wiper arms and cowl
Vinyl wrapped corner trim pieces
Euro corners
Kenwood Headunit
Engine Shot
Magnaflow Exhaust
Here's some interior shots.
The following picture's are the most recent pictures I have on my photobucket of the Supra. I don't believe I've changed anything since I've taken these pics. They are from early this spring I believe.
Right now the car runs very well. The only issues with it are it needs valve stem seals, a timing belt sometime (preventative), and it has a heat soak issue that I can't seem to figure out.
I'm not sure if the valve stem seals are something I could/ would be able to take on myself, and if I end up paying a shop to do it I may pay them to do the timing belt etc. at the same time since half the work is already done to do the valve stem seals.
The heat soak issue is strange... Basically when the car has been driven somewhere and is fully warmed up it runs fine, but when I come back to start the car and it has sat for 20 minutes or so it won't want to hold an idle until I give it some throttle and then it will idle after a few seconds. I've replaced the fuel pump and FPU VSV hoping they would solve this, but they did not. Now it's down to a leaking FP regulator or leaking injectors. I haven't looked any further into those two possibilities.
My future plans for the car are undetermined. I plan to keep it mostly stock and just do small modifications here and there, and basically continue to keep up with the excellent condition of the car and update it with modern features etc like I have done some already.
I would like to replace the suspension at some point, but I'm not sure which route I want to go. I have contemplated Bilesteins, and lowering the car a very small amount with them, or the Illumina II's(if they ever come back) and possibly 89+ springs because all lowering springs I've seen lower the car too much for me. I may put aftermarket sway bars on it as well to make it handle a little better.
I have contemplated replacing the sawblades with a more modern looking wheel like TT wheels, 5 spoke MK3 wheels, Acura TL wheels, or possibly aftermarket wheels maybe. Whenever it comes time to change the brakes I will most likely just replace the OEM brakes with upgraded pads and rotors to maximize their ability.
The front and back bumpers are also slightly faded, so I would like to get them repainted at some point along with the headlight cover that has the slight paint damage to it. It really isn't that bad. You probably can't see it in any of these pictures.
Sometime I also need to do the foglight rewire because they don't function quit correctly with the projectors. I may put yellow bulbs/capsules in them at the same time. I may also upgrade to the 89+ taillights sometime, and am possibly looking at putting some sort of a spoiler on the car. Whether it be on the hatch, or one of the KevinM visors.
Sorry for the super long post. I'm sure there's stuff I forgot that I will add later. Congratulations if you read through all of it! If not I hope you at least enjoyed the pictures. You basically learned what the last 4 years of my Supra ownership has been like. Feel free to post any comments or questions you may have. I am also open to suggestions if you've got any.
Thanks for taking the time to read through here!
