tincan

Gotta love the Loyale Wagon running over (and getting stuck on?) the Celebrity. Irony in it's finest.

Between last night and today, more progress. Removed wheel wells, tied up wiring harnesses and hoses for the washer, touched up areas on the frame/underbody I thought could use it. Opened the lower duct of the intake pipes, drilled holes in filter box to account for the possibility of water being sucked in. Primed/painted the air dam, quickly. Sanded and primed a rusty area of the passenger fender. Removed remaining trim and clips in body. Removed 2 of the 3 remaining mudflaps. Also, discovered the headlights are from an '89 Subaru RX, via bottom of housings. At least they cover the "dam-less headlight" part of the project. Plus, there are two bolts on the front of the fender that were the bane of my existance for about an hour and a half. Total time: 10 hours, start to finish. Very sore, but taking the car out for a drive now that it's finished...

Nice hatch there. Very clean for it's age. How many miles? Out of curiousity, that's $300 per spring, right? Are they fitted to stock type struts?

Wait for it.. Wait... For it... Okay here we go. Took a nice ride out to NJ yesterday, and recruited my friend "Warlock" to help me do the trim removal. 3 hours later... The 20 year old dirt became visible once more. With some patience between us both, we free'd the trim off the front doors with minimal scratching (not that it mattered). Decided the "freshly removed trim, 20 year old grime" look wasn't working out. So we plugged the holes with duct tape and washed it. Half hour later... Hm. Well now. Success. Today it received some tacky, cheap stickers. So after filling the tank and heading home, laden with the extra weight from the fuel and tools, I noticed it doesn't catch as much drag from air flowing off the sides of other cars. Still to come, removing fenders and the trim on those, as well as the mudflaps. Then doing the bondo work for the holes, and at the same time, some of the rust on the edges of the doors. Plus the bits of left over adhesive... In the meantime, fixing the pullstart on the 200 S. Probably Thursday.

Uglier than ever. Proof that even snow tires and a good driver can't avoid stupid. See huge "Passat-shaped" dent. Gone is the rust coated hood in lieu of a two-step prime coat. Hood pins? Nope! Long live wingnuts. Now at 144K. Yeah, I'm going to keep it around after all. 20,000 miles in a year without a single break down or major repair isn't worth giving the chopping block.

Did I... Die, or something? Actually life happened. Repeatedly. Car sat in the snow from November to February un-inspected. Promises of exhaust work and repairs were negated. Many snow days were spent on ATC's. Then got cuffed up the first ride of spring for trying to model safe riding on roadways. Funstuff. Probably a lot of stuff missing here, but I digress... The Loyale now has 77000 miles. Timing belts done just after last update. It's got all around new brake parts. New hoses, new thermostat. New plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. One new axle. New ball joints, and an alignment to improve the handling. The A/C is freshly evac'ed, oil'ed, and retrofitted/recharged to R134. The recent K&N Filter was well received by the engine, after some patience in getting it into the box correctly. The first drive with it in, the throttle response improved, as well as the gas mileage. Won't start throwing out numbers until I tank it up fully, but after 4 gallons in an empty tank, it's over the 200 mile mark with an 1/8th on the gauge. Previously, it always got 43mpg. So, reading over ecomodder.com many times over, I've decided on taking that approach to modifying the car. It's already lost it's rear seats and one external mirror. Next to come is removal of the plastic body trim down both sides of the car, and shaving down the edges of the bumpers where it protrudes out alongside of each fender. Other areas could be touched on, but, those are the primary. I might be going out on a limb, but, any of you doing aluminum work, that window louver project is something I want to approach. If you're interested and local, or can do a mock up, let's talk.

Cool, really appreciate the info on all this, guys. I'm going to order the parts from my upstate dealership. They have stock still and even though the prices are higher, since they're new, unused parts. Am I reading correctly that wagon springs are accepted by the sedans? I know I read up about them being "stiffer" for the rear, but what about the fronts? Again, thanks a lot, guys.

Try $90 a piece from a Westchester dealership. I'm not all knowing, so how should I know where to call without a recommendation?

If i hadn't tried both, I would say that'd be feasable. Except they told me the car and its parts are "obsolete, phased out", and gave me a hard time asking for anything.

Yeah okay, no cherry bomb yet, no wagon. Got the brakes in the car and spent the last four days cleaning the garage out, so now I have space of my own to do whatever with. Not to mention i get to scrap everything metal in there and profit. After reading the welding threads, decided to wait and not spring for a cheap welder, especially since I rather detest HF Tools anyway for mostly selling junk. HOPEFULLY the cherry bomb goes on Saturday. It was supposed to be on last Saturday, but the person who was helping me decided to run his mouth all morning and the moment i made one comment, he threw me out (then stole half my tools). F'in NY hillbillies. Dish it but can't take it. Haha.

Will this work? My fronts are taking a dump and no rockauto doesnt carry any for the Loyale.

Well if it hadn't gone to white smoke until recently... From what I remember, cranking an engine can cause arching of the plugs to the cylinder head... That alone, after so long, can ruin head gaskets. On the other hand, just go back to ODB1 when you have time again. If it ran before, the least you could do before giving up is try putting it back to the way it was before dumping the project. Just a suggestion as a last resort. I can only imagine it's very frustrating, but, it ain't over 'til it's really over.

White smoke... Sputtering... Couple fires... It's checking out normal on all ends... Have you, by any chance, checked that the heads/gaskets are seated properly? Perhaps you tore or misaligned the head gasket while putting it together. I could see why it might happen if you had the engine "upright", as gravity could assist it pulling out of place. I just figure, well, you've checked everything else, and that's the only thing I could see otherwise that could keep your compression lower on two cylinders and higher on the other two. Worth checking...

All these emergency slow downs and quick light changes (you know, all these ticket cameras are a real f!@#$n' pain!) are putting a lot of stress on the rotors and steering rack. I wonder sometimes, is there a gremlin who watches the cameras, looks for "beat" looking cars simply to change the lights to see if their brakes fail out... Haha. Maybe too many spy movies! Sense of humor is required for mechanics. Even the instructor keeps saying so.

This upcoming week, I'm putting in the "new" calipers I ordered from RockAuto. Unfortunately, one of them is missing the bracket for the hill hold cable. Thankfully, I can simply re-use the one in there now. This is after I get the garage cleaned up, set up, get done with class, study for academic classes, run around like a chicken on its way to plucking, work out how Im dealing with the upcoming wagon purchase... Life is a juggling contest! Pics later this week for sure!

Ah... these things are practically tanks. I have seen all three of these in their respective episodes. The bottom one went through a lot of torture. Based on the challenge, the team was not allowed to use any replacement parts, and only basic hand tooling to make repairs. They drove it onto the stage floor just like that. Even most american trucks wouldnt survive half of what they put that thing through, including the epic building drop. The second was put up against a Land Rover, and I believe a land cruiser from the seventies. I dont remember who came out on top. The topmost revision was very impressive, though purpose built with the intent of reaching the north pole. The fact it made it was astonishing in itself. I have a lot of respect for the Hilux. Good luck with yours, and keep it washed so it doesn't rot away. It looks as if it has had its own adventures with the mismatched bed.

Removing the front seat is also a huge help if youre having trouble getting under the dash. Surprised that no one else mentioned this. :-p

I've changed the rotors/pads in my Legacy about 3 times since 70K... Mostly due to emergency stopping in LI due to people who can't judge space/speed from another car. Like they all said, just replace the parts, even go one better and flush the fluid. I'm sure it will help wonders once I do it on both of my Subaru's.

Check your struts/coils and control arms. I know when the ones in my EA82 went bad, it was like that. Rust and wear on those parts I would imagine are likely the culprit.

Went to the shop today to give my uncle a hand with the diesel trucks, strolled over to the junk yard around lunchtime cause I wasn't liking how the Ziex tires were sounding on the ride in (They are really shot). Picked up two holdover tires, the "beater" rims that were attached, 10 lug nuts for them, and 20 lug nuts for my Impreza rims. $200 later... I have (slightly) better tires and no longer have an annoying pull, warble noise, or trouble braking. Even though I hate how the rims look...