**UPDATED** 1991 Rev 1 (Beastly V6 1MZ-FE VVTI) **UPDATED**

[KarlBristol]

They are E marked and were sold to me as being road legal

If you have a look at the photos the sidelight section isnt actually very tinted/if at all. As such I presume that it will be fine.

Fingers crossed

[StuRobinson88]

sounds like you'll be fine if they are e-marked then mate

[DAN_REV1_TURBO]

Unless they were E marked orignally then tinted at a later date as RedMR mentioned. I`m taking my blacked out rear lights off when I get my car back cant be bothered with the hassle now.

[craig]

Unless they were E marked orignally then tinted at a later date as RedMR mentioned. I`m taking my blacked out rear lights off when I get my car back cant be bothered with the hassle now.

The crystal lights off ebay are E-marked, I believe. But I don't believe it's a genuine E mark, and think that the E mark is just part of the mold the lights are taken from, if that makes sense.

[KarlBristol]

Well today has been a long day indeed, with just shy of 12 hours working on the car - and its still not all done

I started with the easy job. I dropped all of the underpanels and started to replace the burnt out handbrake cable (old and new):



Old cable out and completly un-usable:



The entire length of the cable had been burnt out, its just lucky that the fire didn't spread further. It was a quick and easy job and I'm pleased its been done.

Then I spent several hours ripping out the Alternator, and the Alternator bracket. All the bolts were seized up and its quite a constricted area to work in, so it took a while. Everything got cleaned up and then the new and old Alternator got placed side by side:



No prizes for guessing which one is the old one!

It turned out that I had a bad oil leak that had been seaping out and into the Alternator. This caused it some problems.

I took the old alternator apart to find that some of the electrical points had shorted out. Stripped it down further to find that the bearing was also on the way out - no wonder it made a bit of a racket! lol.

You can see some of the burnt electrical points here:



I spent a while seeking out an oil leak and eventually found 2 oil leaks on the side of the manifold gasket. This was due to the bolts not being correctly tensioned. I then proceeded to tighten these up and clean up the dripping oil - voila no more engine leaks!

After lots of swearing and shouting I managed to re-fit the new alternator. Fired up the car and instead of a few engine lights coming on weakly until revved they all lit up very brightly - and they didn't go out when revved! My minor problem had just become a major problem.

After a long time of fault finding I reset the ecu. Whilst doing this I looked at the fuses and the ecu fuse had blown. I stuck a new fuse in, re-connected everything and the car is workng spot on! Engine sounds like new and runs far better than it ever has before. I am so happy!!

The engine fan still doesn't work when the car reaches temperature, but this will be looked at the next time I work on the car mechanics/electrics.

All in all a very good day that solved a lot of issues. I took a few quick photos of my clean engine bay and then called it a day:






Hopefully the car will be ready and running well for Japfest

[craig]

Well done mate, always nice to iron out known issues

[KarlBristol]

Well done mate, always nice to iron out known issues

There's just the fan left thats faulty and then I can get to improving rather than fixing again (such as fitting my polybushes!) I can't wait

Its had a few close calls, but I think this car has been rescued from the brink and is now here to stay

[KarlBristol]

A few more little jobs done today. Firstly I had this delivered courtesy of CJ:



My interior therefore went from this:



To this:





Unfortunately the wiring is different and so I need an adapter. So the stereo is half way there! lol.

After that I had a look at my sunroof, which has unfortunately seen better days;



I took it out to be met with a very dirty underside:



I spent some time and cleaned up this area properly:



I had a proper look at my sunroof plastic which was tired, grey and badly marked. This obviously makes the car look a lot older:



I rubbed the plastics down fully, and masked the glass area off:





I then used my black high gloss exterior car spray to refurb and protect it:





Here it is when its dry and the maskings off:





A vast improvement on the old tired mouldy plastic!!





I intend to re-do all of the plastic window trims around the car in order to update, protect, and modernise it. I had a look around the car and my eye got drawn to the horribly rusty front tow hook:







It got a long rub down and repaint in gloss black:





I've still got to sort out the re-paint the rear tow hooks and also re-paint the rear exhaust guard. I also intend to have a look at the window plastics

[jack-p]

Great progress as usual Karl
Was it a special paint you used on the sunroof trim or just a black paint? I'd like to do my door trims but don't want it to look obvious I've just painted them!

[KarlBristol]

Great progress as usual Karl
Was it a special paint you used on the sunroof trim or just a black paint? I'd like to do my door trims but don't want it to look obvious I've just painted them!

Its a high gloss black exterior car paint. Its a good colour match to things like the window vents.

It took an entire 300ml can to do the sunroof surround. I've ordered another 3 cans to do the window surrounds - I'll email you the link mate.

[craig]

Good stuff mate, I need to get the weather strips across the top of the doors done, as they're a faded grey/white colour.

[KarlBristol]

Good stuff mate, I need to get the weather strips across the top of the doors done, as they're a faded grey/white colour.

Thanks bud - I'm really pleased with it, it lifts the car alot. TBH it was a trial for the rest of the sills.

I now intend to do the top weather strips and the ones along the bottom of the window as mine are the only thing that really lets the bodywork down. I have the paint on order already . The rear quarters are like new still

Watch this space... Its joining the other millions of things that I still have to do on the car, lol.

[StuRobinson88]

another quality installment!!

good work, that man.

[KarlBristol]

another quality installment!!

good work, that man.

Thanks for the kind comments mate - can't wait for my next set of rest days so I can crack on with it again

[riot68]

Great work fella, glad your issue has been resolved...

[KarlBristol]

Well I'm on night shifts atm, but with the beatiful sunshine we've seen outside I couldn't help but work on the car for a couple of hours

I opened the engine bay and was dissapointed with how my x-bar was looking. I'd originally sprayed it up with heat resistant paint in matt black but it wasn't faring well:



So I set up a make-shift spraying area in my garage and set about rubbing it back and respraying it to match the car. I figured that if it was colour coded and lacquered it would brighten up the engine bay and should be easier to keep clean



Whilst I started laying on a couple of coats onto the brace itself I also sprayed up the nuts and bolts to match:



As the paint would take a while to build up through the layers in order to get a good finish I thought I would work on the car window strips...

This is how it started:







The tops especially were quite blotchy:



I took a long time and started to rub all of the rubbers back ... then came the masking!! I heard that its nearly impossible to put these trim strips back once once removed so I thought I would use my masking and spraying in order to do it in situe.







Then came the first 3 or 4 coats
I did 7 coats in total in order to get a nice smooth finish







Here is how it looked from a distance







I will need to re-do the passenger side in the next couple of days as its currently looking like this. I will eventually do the windscreen surround aswell:



Once dried and lacquered I got the x-brace out of the garage to admire my work:





Fitted:







I didn't have time to start the other window trims but was bored, so played with a few bits in the engine bay. I took the coolant filler cap off with a view of rubbing back and polishing it up:



After an hour of cleaning I realised it wouldn't get any better than this:



So I turned to the spray paint and started again, which resulted in this:









I don't think its too bad considering it was technically the middle of the night for me. I can't wait to really rip into the car on a day I'm not working....

Hopefully I can finish the window trims tomorrow

[StuRobinson88]

good work, AGAIN, man. patience is most certainly a virtue.
on a lighter note, we have just gone down to second place in the premiership, not good times tonight!!!

[riot68]

You sir are a man possessed...

[KarlBristol]

good work, AGAIN, man. patience is most certainly a virtue.

Thanks bud, its getting there bit by bit.

Managed to roll out of bed and do the passenger side window trim today





Here it is all finished:





I intend to do the windscreen surround, rear lower grill and also the rear tow hooks ... roll on my rest days

[riot68]

Now you've given me another thing for my to do list! ...