New Guy - DeSloths Aussie MA70 Project (56k Warning)

[DeSloth]

Hey guys, I only just introduced myself - but thought I would show some progress pics of what I am doing with my car. :icon_bigg

She is a 10/88 Aus delivered MA70 (er... MA71) with 5spd & 7M-GTE.

Had aftermarket wheels and a few light performance mods:

Apexi Shocks
K&N Airfilter
Trust Intercooler
Turbosmart Boost Controller
3" Stainless Exhaust

The car will be an on-going project, fixing things as they break or as I feel the need. No performance enhancement for the time being - I have very limited budget and time. I plan to own the car for a while, so plenty of time for great fun later.

I've already done a bit of asthetic stuff - so updates will be rapid while I add all of those, but will slow down to real time shortly.

Anyway, that is enough blabbing - we all want pictures!

I actually purchased this car during university swat-vac week (intense cramming week), so it sat for a little while due to said studies.

I opened her up to grab something and discovered a great sodding pool of water in the rear of the car. Close to a weeks worth of leaky-hatch fun. :thumbsdow

I'll omit the photo of myself in the university wife-beater singlet - but here are a few of the mess and resulting job of drying, cleaning, prepping and painting the hatch. I think I have nailed down the leaks, but that can come later.

Pics


Son of a Bi....

Mmmm. Wet carpet.

There was minor rust in the tyre well. This was completely sanded, treated with rust converter, and sanded again. I then decided to smooth out the mess and paint it all pretty. Paint used was KillRust gloss enamel (matt then the actual gloss). Was applied with a brush and was a pretty unpleasent job.

Fairly much prepped

Painted with the matt finish

Decided that wouldn't cut it, so picked up some gloss and tried again - much better

 

[DeSloth]

More interior came next. I removed the nasty CD player, and took out the seats etc. to give it a really good clean.

The 'do-hickys' which hold the seatbelt so it can be easily reached by occupants was in pieces, so I decided to make my own. I realise they are completely different to factory, but hopefully they get the job done. Also, this little project completely sucked - I have no idea why I didn't just BUY these from somewhere / someone! :nuts: Anyways - they are cast from polyester resin with chopped glass fibre. I had no idea what I was doing, but meh.

Mold has been made here and I have just poured the resin.

Resin has set and mold opened

Yeah that is going to need some more work....

Fairly much complete. Holes to be added, but otherwise good to go.

 

[DeSloth]

Still inside the car, I replaced and cleaned up a bunch of different things. These included the TEMS controls and the old dodgey shift and handbrake boots.

I ordered the boots of these folks on ebay, and would absolutely recommend them to anyone! Awesome quality, crazy price and were MADE (I ordered specific colours) and sent to my house from the UK in 7 days. Feel free to PM me for the Ebay Link (Zero affiliation, just a really happy customer). I don't know the trading rules on here 100% yet, but can post if it isn't a problem.


Pics on arrival

Dodgey photo freshly installed

TEMS control swithes came apart really easily and here they are before paint.

While I was enjoying the paint fumes - I also painted my wiper arms and the lower windscreen cover. Paint used was Plasticoat - shall see how it holds up.

 

[suprastanger507mgte]

Nice work man. Car looks good. Nice work on the seat belt guides.

 

[DeSloth]

Thanks It was so much more painful than expected, though! Here's a couple more cross-posts to bring progress up to where it is at now.

Following this meal and a whole lot of stomach pains, I continued on the inside of the car.

Installed my alpine stereo, and put the seats etc. back in. All carpets and fabrics were cleaned as well.

The alpine came out of my existing car. Worst_job_ever! RHD kthx.

Much Better

Car is back togethor with clean CD install and the new shift + brake boots visible. RHD Pride

I also spent a great crapload of time sussing out and installing a relay in order to make the power antenna work as it should (supra factory jobbie is a bit odd and needs the relay). Anyways - turns out the darn thing was broken so a bit of effort wasted.

Antenna wasn't going to be left stuck up in the air though - so it was removed, the spoiler shaved and a replacement solution put in place. The flat antenna is completely hidden by the spoiler when installed. Pics do the talking.

Not as good as factory, obviously. But picks up FM easily and I usually listen to CD's in any case. I couldn't find anything at all related to the 'rear window' antenna I am supposedly meant to have.

 

[DeSloth]

Aren't I making spectacular progress! :naughty:

My headlight cover had been under a ute / truck / ??? and had a nasty scratch / dent. This was knocked out, bogged and sanded.

The corners of the rear hatch glass were a bit ugly, so I painted those too.

Some more work happened in the hatch area also - just some boards to cover everything up neatly. Carpet etc. to go over the top of this obviously.

I will be using a space saver (+ can of tyre goo), and the child restraint points will be used as quick-release for a sub box.

 

[DeSloth]

I can't help but feel I am spamming the hell out of the boards. Sorry.

This should make up for it. Any A70 owner should know exactly what these are. Woohoo! Acquired off these boards from Wolfie308. It was a pleasure doing business with him and these were easy to install. There was a bit of playing around to get all the surfaces flat - but nothing that a bit of time and patience can't fix.

I also picked up some clear fronts off the Aussie forums. I guess they are available elsewhere also.

Mockup - fit

eh ladies, how you doin? :attention

Forgive the fact my car appears to have been punched in the face. As outline above, the headlight cover has been prepped for paint.


Here is a pic of the OEM front for reference. I think it is an improvement over stock, anyway.

 

[suprastanger507mgte]

Yup...definitely some wonderful progress. The clears goes very well with Silver and lighter cars.
I see you live n the tropical side....

 

[DeSloth]

Last post for the time being.

I was missing the trim down one side of the car - not the entire mouldings... just the strip of trim.

Booo ugly!

I looked around a bit, but decided to do something a little different. This is still a work in progress and has been a whole buttload of work! The mouldings were removed from the car. They are going to be trimmed and bogged to give this shaved appearance (this cars trim was photoshopped)

[This car might belong to someone on this forum, I can't remember as I have had the picture saved for quite some time. I'm sorry if this is a problem - PM me and I will happily take it down]

Car minus the mouldings. Poor thing :sad: Tape is to protect my doors from garage walls.

1st pass of bog

Another completely horrid job. Many, many hours have been spent at this point.

Remaining updates to come as they occur

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

Very nice

 

[DeSloth]

Yup...definitely some wonderful progress. The clears goes very well with Silver and lighter cars.
I see you live n the tropical side....

haha thanks again. Just taking the piss with my posting an entire month of updates in 30 minutes. :icon_razz I just had a flick through your gallery - those are two seriously hot cars! I like the wheels on the '92. They really fill out the guards nicely.

Yeah Brisbane is on the east coast of Australia, close to the border of QLD and NSW and is subtropical. Unfortunately, most of the east coast is in the grip of a really, really bad drought at the moment. 140L per person, per day water restrictions for my region. Of course, this didn't stop it raining for an entire week and filling my supra with water. :biglaugh:

 

[JB91389]

Keep up the Great work!

 

[SupaMan]

nice job! i like where this is going keep up the good work!


that antenna is trick ive never seen anything like that before!

i also like how youve painted the rear hatch area and some of the other parts on the car.

 

[mkIIIman089]

I really like that antenna idea!

 

[foreverpsycotic]

how much would it be for you to ship a set of those seatbelt guides to 06851, in black and finished if you would.

 

[smokey]

lovely work mate *thumbs up*

 

[DeSloth]

how much would it be for you to ship a set of those seatbelt guides to 06851, in black and finished if you would.

Sorry man, but it was a mofo of a job - I won't be doing it again. This is in addition to the fact one of the moulds got broken.

And thanks for the feedback guys

 

[CACressida]

Very sexy, 2 thumbs up!

 

[spipedong]

I'll take those stock front signals, and the markers too

 

[DeSloth]

Orange Side indicator lenses are destroyed in changing them to clear. The back housing is re-used, and the lense replaced with clear. Front signals have crazy demand in AUS, so will keep that sale local.

I have a few more quick pics. Uni has gotten a bit intense so progress has stalled unfortunately.

However I did manage to get my rear speaker covers painted. They were blue and rusty - now black and shiny.

A good and understanding friend also purchased me a 'car-warming' gift. It is a 1988 Toyota Supra Brochure! It's from the US of A, so a few things are a bit different - but still - stoked! Has heaps of cool info on performance etc. as well as pretty pictures.

Also, although I mentioned my immediate goals for this car didn't include performance - I stumbled across an old Dyno Graph when going through previous receipts etc. It is 12 months old and was done by 2 owners prior - but whatever! This is someone else's hard work, but can't hurt to have as a reference.