How many times were you stuck in it because the curb was too high andy ou could not open the door ?
or change gears and grab the door handle !
How many times were you stuck in it because the curb was too high andy ou could not open the door ?
or change gears and grab the door handle !
californiamilleghia said:How many times were you stuck in it because the curb was too high andy ou could not open the door ?
or change gears and grab the door handle !
None yet for both situations, the shifting with left hand really was easy to adjust... my main issue is turning on the windshield wipers when trying to use the turn signal, that one habit has been much harder to break. Also "centering" yourself in your lane is different, because you are on the right hand side of the car, your brain wants to position you the same as with a LHD vehicle, which means you tend to drift too far to the left. The final unique circumstance is the challenge you find yourself in when you need to do something that is made for a LHD car, for example the parking garage at work requires you to scan your badge to open the gate... not easy when you are sitting on the opposite side of the car. I bought a "grabber/reacher" from Amazon and use that to scan my badge or grab food from a drive thru... it works fairly well but you get funny looks from people.
In reply to Kenny_S2K :
From my angle, it looks like the outline of a guy with a turbo for a right shoulder and a paint gun in his hand.
It's been a long time since I've provided an update on the car, I've been making steady progress but have not been documenting it on here... so it's time to get you caught up.
After the oven cleaner "cleaning" started to address some of the other problem areas that were hidden under 28+ years of JDM grime. First up was the cover that mounts between the two camshaft covers. This little plastic cover protects the spark plug wires and cleans up the look of the engine. As you can see the cover had seen better days it was warped and cracked and looked terrible.
The little aluminum plate that sat on the cover also needed some love, it was worn and stained
I ordered a new cover, but the plate itself is no longer being made, so I decided to fix it with some elbow grease. I sanded off the old logo and polished the aluminum until it looked as good as new. Had a buddy create a replacement decal for the plate.
Up next was refurbishing some of the hard coolant lines that ran on the front of the engine. Pulled the hard lines, degreased and cleaned, then sanded down in prep for paint
Painted the part with Rustoleum flat black paint
Next decided to tackle the timing belt cover, this was in pretty rough shape as well.
I had ordered a new one from Suzuki, but decided it was a little plain, so wanted to "spice" things up. I taped off the front and had my wife paint the letters
Next decided to take out the turbo to check on its health, and all of the related components... check out this size of this thing
The turbo was covered in grime, but looked to be in good shape, so I cleaned it as best I could
One part that did need to be addressed was the coolant lines to the turbo, they were pretty corroded and had some pinholes due to rust
Dropped the part in an old pot filled with CLR to get rid of the rust, then cut off the corroded portions and used a flare tool to recreate the flared ends
We were now entering the summer months, which can be pretty unbearable here in Texas... so one of the advantages of having a tiny engine, is that you can put it on a $10 furniture dolly and roll it into your living room (I have a very understanding wife)
Now I can wrench on the engine in comfort all while watching Roadkill!
Next I took off of the timing belt cover in preparation for it's replacement
As I also needed to replace the gaskets on the camshaft covers, I needed to take off the cam gears and timing belt cover backing plate as well
Things were pretty grimy, and evidence of the oil leaking from the camshaft covers was evident
I then reomoved the cam covers, and as can be seen here, the gaskets were beyond flat... in several areas they didn't even extend past the metal case. Oil easily seeped past the gaskets and leaked all over both sides of the engine.
The cam covers themselves were in really rough shape, the paint on them was flaking off in many areas and they were covered in oily grime
I decided to tape them up, degrease, clean, and sand them down in preparation for repainting with VHT Wrinkle Plus paint
Next hit them with VHT Wrinkle Plus paint in red
After drying the "wrinkle" action achieved was not exactly the look I was going for. I may have gone a little too "thick" with my coats, even though VHT tells you to spray it thick.
I decided to polish the letters and lines on the cam shaft covers, I used a razor blade to remove most of the paint before using sandpaper
The final version... still need to touch up a few areas, but a huge improvement from the flaking paint that was there before.
Next I decided to do the same for the intake manifold, but this time with VHT Wrinkle Plus in black
This time the wrinkle texture was much better, and more like what I had expected
While the intake manifold was curing, I decided to tackle cleaning and painting the engine block and suspension components that were showing signs of rust
After degreasing/sanding/cleaning I used a small brush and Rustoleum flat black enamel to paint everything
Up next was the water pump, I was expecting to find some gunk in there due to the sediment and rusty water/coolant I had found in other areas... but I was not prepared for the nastiness I found
As best I can guess, someone ran this thing on regular tap water... and an iron block with tap water just don't mix. I did the best I could to clean out the gunk, I don't want to clog my new radiator. Once I get the camshaft covers, and intake manifold back on, I am going to wheel the engine outside and try and flush out the coolant passages as best I can.
Now it was time to move on to some suspension components. The sway bar endlinks were trashed, so I removed them and replaced them with new OEM parts
That pretty much brings us to current day... coming up I will be replacing the motor mounts, installing new water pump and timing belt tensioner, and putting the engine back together.
I am still amazed the car ran worth a damn with the water pump in that condition.... That's amazing...
In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :
I am as well... though I am glad now that I took the time to pull the engine, or none of these issues would have been apparent!
I use a heat gun with a wide tip on it when I do the VRT wrinkle paint. Gives you nice small uniform wrinkles.
In reply to brad131a4 (Forum Supporter) :
Good to know! It was my first time using the VHT wrinkle paint and I think that is evident from the results. The intake manifold came out exactly how I wanted, but overall I am happy.
Nice...I like the way your car looks in white with the color matched roof! It also looks like you have a done a fair amount of work refreshing old parts. I just ordered a Cappuccino myself and I'll have to keep this thread handy for when mine arrives and I can start going through it. Keep up the good work!
This thing is super cool. Great job getting it back into excellent condition.
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) said:Nice...I like the way your car looks in white with the color matched roof! It also looks like you have a done a fair amount of work refreshing old parts. I just ordered a Cappuccino myself and I'll have to keep this thread handy for when mine arrives and I can start going through it. Keep up the good work!
Thank you! I have a bunch of progress I keep making in the background, just haven't had the time to document it on here.
tuna55 said:This thing is super cool. Great job getting it back into excellent condition.
Thanks!
I need some updates on this! Also-how tall are you? You've got me yearning for one!
I'm sure it's long past that point but every time I see the rust in the cooling system I want to throw my hand up in the air and yell out loudly "don't forget to change the freeze plugs in the block too". I know they're going to bite you if you don't.
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