Supradupra.com 2.5TT Aero Limited JDM refurb

[supradupra.com]

Thought it was about time I started a build tread as this project is now well underway.

Introduction:

As many of you will know I had a prang in my last Aero & thanks to H&S bu1l**** the vehicle was written off for no good reason - see THIS thread for further details.

Ultimately this lead me to try & find another of these rare beauties which, by some abnormal twist of good luck I managed to do!

The car is a 1991 JDM Aero Limited edition fitted with an auto 1J-GTE power plant.

The car was imported into the country in 2005 has covered around 70,000 miles with a full Jap service history to boot.

The car was standard when I got it with the only mods being fancy wheels, an aftermarket air filter and blitz dump valve - which was not even connected to work.

Here she is before the refurb.




Action plan:

The plan is to refurbish this car from the wheels up. This work will include:

• Complete underside strip, resealed, waxoiled & restored. Will be forming some rear plastic arch liners too.

• Complete suspension rebuild front and back, full polly pushings, Tokico TEMS shocks, spax springs, strut braces & anything else which requires replacement during build.

• Uprated brakes with larger fronts, stainless hoses - investigating kits at present.

• Swapping the engine to the spare hybrided unit I have here. The aim is for around 450BHP or over if possible and reliable. This will be fitted with larger injectors, induction, MAP, exhaust, Koyo rad Walbro, 2J intercooler kit (allegedly fits) & standalone ECU - currently reseraching systems & pricing up.

• Manual transmission swap using 1j bellhousing, flywheel, Sports clutch, manual prop & pedal box.
  

• Full respray less engine bay, my aim is for the Aston deep grey titainium metalic as used on the DB's etc as this will really bring out the lines of the car. I shall be stripping the car down to no trim & removing bolt on items so they can be sprayed properly. Color coding the side mouldings but keeping the clear part of them unpainted.

• New front grilles - thinking along the lines of stainless diamond mesh in the 2 small grilles and the main lower intake - sort of XKR style. Thinking the black B pillar external vents may look pretty good in powder coat chrome or brushed steel finish if possible?

• Chrome alloys - same style as on car now but shinyer lol. will stick to 18" as 19's would dent on the first day out round here!

• Full LED conversion externally, HID main lights, hidden LED side markers built into side trims.

• Various internal custom electronics, aiming for a very factory look this time, less xmas tree. Much of the control etc will depend on what standalone ECU I opt for and the controls it requires.

• Complete ICE installation, music and vision.

• Interior tart up - tho very little is required as all leather is good with very slight wear and sued just needs a brush up. Would like to look into cost of having dash covered in something like alcantara or sued.

The story so far: 21/04/09

My write off has been totally stripped to the bone - not a single clip, bung or bolt remained on that vehicle, even body panels have been saved!

Can I just politely ask now, please kids don't deluge me with questions about spare parts at present. As and when parts are sorted I will post up items. Thanks.

These are sad photos but, I wanted to show people the additional bracing clearly visible in the Aero chassis.

Here you can see the additional bracing in the rear arches which also latches into the doors by a bracket when they close. The brace directly below the top shock mount is always present.




And again, at the bottom of the A pillars you can see additional bracing welded behind the kick panels. The sills of the aero cars are also a much heavier grade high strength steel compared to the hard tops which are standard body thickness.




With this shell now gone and boxes of parts at my disposal the strip down of the black car can start.

I have decided to do this in stages:

1)Strip and rebuild the suspension, mod the engine, paint & seal the underside and refit all.

2)MOT and shake down of mechanics, tune.

3)Strip interior completely & remove. De trim the car and get car painted with strict instructions not to over spray the underside!!

4)Put it all back together with custom electronics, ICE and enjoy it!

The reasoning for doing it this way is I feel the car is most susceptible to damage during all the mechanical work so, better to do all that pre painting!


General shot with spare power plant on wheels This 18 year old virgin is about to have it's undercarriage serviced.




Rear underside stripped down, thanks to not being in the yUK for long the underside is rust free & came apart a dream.



**

[supradupra.com]

Little tip for emptying & cleaning the fuel tanks without getting covered in the stuff -

Drop tank full, complete with filler neck & electrics.

Tape up the 3 pipes and clean the thing now, wile its sealed up, jet wash, scrubbing brushes whatever, the top will be filthy!

Attach a piece of hose pipe the the outlet nipple - just pushes on. Pop the pipe into a receiving petrol filler or container.

Put some crock clips on the pump power leads - make sure they won't short then, run the thing off a car battery - again keeping sparks away from fuel vapor!!

It just gently empties out the tank to just a few liters. these can then be emptied into a bucket by removing the filler neck - real clean and easy compared to using the drain bung! Leaving the opened tank in direct sunlight for an hour or so will then evaporate any remaining fuel leaving the tank safe and dry.


This tank is in near perfect shape & only requires a little clean up and paint. Walbro needs fitting into here before refitting & will prob clean the sender unit too for good measure.




Like a numpty I forgot to loosen the drive shaft mounting bolts & hub nut while wheels were on, this could have been a problem had I not found a large shelf bracket.

2 holes later & this proved an absolute dream bit of toolage allowing me to lock the drive shafts just like that. Simple solutions are the best




Got the rear sub frame completely stripped on Sunday down to a giant jigsaw. No busted nuts or bolts, the rear lower cam bolts were the only 2 that gave me any hassle at all but, after a bit of persistence came out no problems. & yes - I have marked parts left and right although, after this the car will be realigned fully.


Behind the stripped sub frame is a complete one just for interest.




Interestingly between the earlier (in bits) and later (behind complete) sub frames I noticed one slight difference.

It seems the rear strut rods on the later car have a definite deliberate bend in them where as the earlier 91 strut bars are completely straight. Why this who knows, possibly the bent one offers a degree of "spring"? Alternatively there was a factory Friday fook up, they were too long so a slight bend was incorporated so they fitted

That's it for now, lots of cleaning up and bushings to remove next! Updated then.



Update: 10-05-2009.

So, been a busy week and a bit.

Remember that dirty rear sub frame? Well it's now a rather nice collection of uber clean colour coded chunky bits of metal which, I have to sadly admit, are rather nice just to touch and feel Shame they are gonna go back on the underside of the car really!

I have not skimped, every single item, and I mean EVERY single item from the smallest bracket or clip rite up to the fluid line umbilical have been painted in about 5 coats of hammerite.

I am determined for this vehicle not to rust!

The polly bushes are all in and ready to go. I will coat the sub frame with waxoil too during fitting for more rust proofing.

Thought I'd mention this too as, it's not obvious & you'll think your one bush short. One of the bushes on the rear hubs is not a bush at all and is in fact a ball joint. It's item number 42210 HERE All you need to do with this is pull back the rubber and refresh the LM grease inside.

If this ball joint is worn it can cause a "clacking" sound under braking etc.


I will probably offer the sub frame up empty then bolt all the parts back on once it's fixed to the car as it's all jolly easy to get to and means I don't need to wrestle with a huge lump of rather heavy metal!

So, here are all the shiny parts so far:




Sadly, I forgot to put the upper wishbones & all the restored bracketry into this shot, which is a shame. I actually polished the upper wish bones to a bright silver (not mirror tho, that's OTT) and clear coated them.

The fuel tank has had around 6 coats of paint, again, I am determined to rust proof this vehicle as much as possible!



I am just awaiting the Walbro pump for the tank, then it can go back in.

I did get taken in by the choice of paint colours so, red pipes are fuel, yellow are vapour and blue is brake


I have put the first coat of under seal on the rear part of the car. going to put a second coat on in places for good measure despite most of it being covered in thick rubber already. I have left the bottom of the wheel well until the fuel tank goes on otherwise I come out from under the car looking like a coal miner!




After the success of my DIY rubber rear arch liners I thought I'd have a go at trying to remould a pair of front wheel arch liners into the rear arches.

This I managed to do with some degree of success. The plastic if vacuum form stuff so, can be reformed with a heat gun and thick gloves.

I have managed to form these into the arches picking up on stock fixing points in the rearbarch & only requiring 2 additional ones to be drilled.

This will keep the dirt from being driven into the weak spots of the rear arches.




That's it for now. When my bits arrive from SSI I can fit the walbro and bolt the gas tank back up. Brakes etc are easy stuff. after that the project moves to the front sub frame and engine removal

I am now off to rehab for a few days to get over my solvent abuse problems from all the degreasing and painting!

[supradupra.com]

Update; 27-05-09

So, another 2 weeks passed but, had some time to play with the car.

To finish off the preparations of the rear sub frame I had the rear callipers to deal with. Once the 3 layers of paint had been removed (yellow, silver & red) I was absolutely gob smacked by the condition of the callipers underneath.

All I have done to these is paint strip them - that's it! Not a hint of rust! The pistons were all greased up behind the boots so, just pulled out with a pair of snipe nose pliers as a lever - incredible! Always wondered what all the bits said

I had to take a photo just because the condition was so incredible. The fronts are the same.



So, not much needed doing to these at all bar painting and cleaning of some of the components.

This is where my OCD clearly comes out as I set out the parts in a little display That's everything you should find on the brakes. Usually the steel shims have dissolved in the yUK thanks to our siht weather and evil salt.



The hand brake stuff was all in great order so, that's all back in and fitted now. All adjusted up too - all easy stuff.




All suspension members have been fitted now, the car put on it's own axles and the whole lot torqued up correctly. Fook me do these things - particularly the cam bolts, torque up hard. About the hardest an 11 stone stick man can manage in fact!

The suspension really is tight with the full polly kit. You can't budge it when jacked up like you can on the rubbers. Only when the cars weight is on it does the suspension move!
went together a dream tho.



Plastic liners now have fixings as if factory. will finish off the edges later in project. They have cleaned up well tho with various cancer inducing chemicals.

Few shots of the subframe refitted with nice shiny bits: There must be an extra few KG just in paint and wax oil applications!







I personally found the easiest thing to do was to fit the subframe up empty as, it's fairly liftable on your own. Because I'm at home at funny times there tends to be nobody for help so, I have to find ways to do all this one manned if possible.

I managed to fit the diff on my own too by using the grab and roll onto chest method. Wedging my arms against the floor I was then able to lift it into position, hold it there and get the bolts in.

Interestingly that thing weighs 10 stone! I had to sit down for some time in a darkened room after refitting the diff and frame!

Just need to fit the fuel pump into tank when customs stop holding us all up & the rear undersides complete.


Next up - the front end. Should start stripping this down, well, in a moment



Update: 12-06-2009

Thought I'd add a few words and pics quickly this evening before I let my hair down, not that my hair isn't constantly let down - by my face...

Thanks for all your feedback, it's good to share a passion with people, obviously not top much passion, we don;t want our own pandemic!

So, the back is pretty much done bar the gas tank which, with the arrival of my latest toys, shall be this weekend.

My attention has now turned to destroying the front of the car. So far I have stripped the front sub frame down on-vehicle, as this made it far easier than wrestling with it unattached.

Everything came off super easy. Cracked off the cam bolts and the loewer wish bones just swung down free, which was a relief.

Everything is in the same good nick as the back of the car.




I just have a couple of bits to disconnect on the engine then, once my friend drops round the crane I can lift it out and get it on the trolley.

The front nose cone parts are so perfect it's untrue, seems a shame to pull them apart but, in the name of restoration I shall be stripping out all the coolers etc and doing things to them.

I would like to fit a shiny new intercooler but, need to check on fitment of 2JZ kits.




I received some nice new parts this week in the form of the Aeromotive regulator, Walbro and SARD injectors - which happily come with replacement plugs for the loom 0) Cheers Marty.

Since the suspension is in small pieces it seems silly to refit old stuff so, I purchased one of THESE kits from the US. 1 Week later it landed in Farnham.

Now, for some car porn blatantly made to look even sexier with use of pussy..



My pussy can clearly be seen gaping at my nipples, yes, my nipples - grease nipples on the new lower ball joints!

Can't remember the last time I saw such a sensible device on a car ball joint & these are cheap!


Anyway I digress, one other pornographic image which has also crept into Supradupra HQ is this fine craft:



A thing of beauty & I thank Kevin and Sheila very much indeed for this :

So that's it for now. Got to cut some more bushes out, uuurgh.



Update 05-07-2009

Have to be honest, with the sun coming out my attention turned to swimming pools and solar water heating recently but, I have managed to do a few things to the car.

Got the Walbro all fitted into the FP assy and back in the tank.




Tank all put back together and refitted back on the car now which is a relief, I kept moving that thing around daily!

Yes, I am sad enough to have re marked the white chalk lines on the rubber cushions as they were new from the factory



Pushing the front suspension bushes out was pretty easy TBH, the top wishbones just popped straight out in the vice.




The lower ones took a little chiselling to push back the metal collars then, with help from Mum, they just pushed out in the vice with a nice healthy crack, we all like a nice healthy crack....



At some point, presumably as a joke, someone filled all the ball joints with poo. This I have now removed and replaced with fresh grease. I also replaced any poor condition rubbers at the same time.





After this they all got cleaned up and painted ready for refitting.



Few more shiny bits. Gave the prop shaft a birthday. Wishbones all painted up and polly bushes fitted ready for installation later on. Everything bagged up and stored now until ready.



My "hover mode" is coming along nicely too



That's it for time being. I am still awaiting the loan of the engine hoist from my friend, once I have this I can pull the engine and remainder of sub frame.

I have pulled the steering rack and am currently attacking that.

[supradupra.com]

Update 11-07-09:

As a continuation of the ongoing refurbishment of my suspension, I wanted to fit poly anti roll bar bushes to the supra.

Now, finding ones for the front was not a problem, they are off the shelf even in this pathetic c U ntry so, I just ordered a set from HERE Job done.




The rears however, seem not to exist as far as I can tell. There are some complete rear anti roll kits which come with their own poly bushes but, I was unable to find any - bushes only listed for the rear bar of the MA/JZA70 chassis - definitely not here in the yUK.

So, what I did was measure the diameter of the rear bar then, took a shot in the dark/educated guess as to which other car may have similar bushings & ordered a set of THESE from a Celica. I know there are several "universal" fit bushes out there however, the Celica ones are considerably cheaper

Now, as you can see from the pic below, the Celica bushings fit slightly differently compared to the standard Supra rear bushes however, with a small modification to the bracket, the Celica bushes can be made to fit perfectly.



(Top) the standard Supra bushes fit internally to the brackets, held in by the folded part of the clamps where as the the Celica ones are the more "standard" fitment (bottom).

By cutting off the folded part of the rear brackets the Celica bushes fit perfectly to the Supra chassis.



And fitted on the bar they looks factory too - perfect retro-fitment.




So, I'm now happy (figure of speech obviously) I have a full set of poly antiroll bar bushes - woo!



All fitted up to the rear sub frame, pretty colour too



Some smug bu9ger will now post a yUK link to somewhere that sells supra rear bushes lol.

[MKIII]

nice one Stuey, plenty there to keep you occupied mate.

[Karma Supra]

Maaaaaaaaaaan.. I want a supra to take apart and play with again!

Good work!

[martin p]

All Bow to King Stuey! I saw the car when you collected it and it looked good, Cant wait to see the transformation.

[Stevieboy]

Great start to the thread Stuey. Can't wait to see it at the shows in the near future when its finished.

[mrroverrover]

Yes looking very nice. So good to see so much enthusiasm for a mk3 where as some just think of it as a cheap fast car, trash it then scrap it when they get a bhg

(That wasn't aimed at anyone in particular btw, just generalising )

[mark]

Glad to see you're underway!
Your enthusiam seems limitless! I bet your build quickly overtakes mine, even though I've cut a lot of corners!
Is the the C12a polished pipework coming into play?
Have you sorted a bellhousing and flywheel etc?

[supradupra.com]

Thanks for all the encouragement kids, I am hoping out of all of this much of the information gathered will help others out too.

Oh yes Mark, all the polished bits are staying on the engine and being used in all their glory plus much much more - thou I will probably opt for powder coating over polishing parts, the finish seems a bit more durable IMHO.

I was luck enough to have a customer who offered to get the bellhousing, flywheel & nuts from toyota for me on his employee discount, saved a little cash there.

I have taken the manual box off my 7M already & the associated pipework, pedal box and clutch - which is in perfect condition still as only done a few thousand miles since going in that car.

I managed to get some of the rubber bushes out the rear sub frame arms last night, took an hour and a half to do all the control arms.

I think I may well just take the wish bones and hubs to a local shop to push out tho as TBH removing the things at home is a PITA.

The hub to spindle bush requires a real meaty puller to allow the bush to be removed without removing the bearings etc, my pulling power is sadly limited!

[adi]

the polished bits need redoing every year, so powdercoating may be the best option (but buff them first obviously). Some say that clear powdercoating yellows after a while, thats why i never got them done.

Did you find much rust or anything on the shell/body of the white one? i know none was visible, but theres normally some lurking..

Oh, and its up to you, but if you're using the engine from the white one, i suggest a stripdown first... there are signs of neglected oil changes, and crud may be lurking. Personally, id do this anyway, but i know its gonna be more expense and time which you may not want to take on.
PPS remember there's a stripped thread on the rear turbo !! might be best to helicoil or tap out larger or something..

[supradupra.com]

Hey Adi, I remembered the turbo bolt lol, I have purchased a tap and die set to tackle this & any other threads that may require sorting through the build

I am not going to worry about stripping down the shiny 1J at the moment, it is just not cost effective disturbing all those expensive gaskets + like you say it's mega additional cost and time & I want to be able to enjoy the car this summer having been without for so long now.

Having run the engine etc we are pretty happy it's good to go & I can more than live with it's little oddities particularly after nursing a 7M for 11 years

I currently have 1 spare complete 1J and the spare block from you so, if problems occur & when I want to recondition an engine I can do so at my leisure, the engines are so easy to remove I'm happy taking this on at a later date if needed.

White car wise, no, there was very little rust at all, just the odd bits forming behind the wheel arches & the rear arch under seal had just started to crack allowing water to start seeping behind it as they do.

Really it was all very good and a real shame to have to part it but, don't get me started on that again!

I even saved the aero roof sections, you never know someone may want to do a conversion.

I noticed the ally has to be regularly polished, it seems a shame to powder coat that too but, as you say it may well work out better in the long run.

[adi]

funnily enough the polished bits get mucky if you dont use the car.. the heat must keep them shiny somehow.

[supradupra.com]

I bought a small buffing disk from Halfrauds last week to re-buff some of this stuff - it's the most useless piece of sh!t in the world & if it was not for the fact it would cost me more in petrol to return it I would - the thing strips it's self apart into bits just spinning on the drill - another non product!

What did you use to get it all polished Adi? I find Autosol brings it up good, it's just laborious of co****