(yet even another) It followed me home..... (aka Why not buy a Supra part 2)

Okay, so after lusting after this exact car since December.... I finally went up to Seattle to get her and bring her home :)

I had driven up two weeks ago to give her a good look-over. The guy who owned her moved across the country, so I met up with his brother at a storage unit outside of Tacoma. I brought a purse full of tools, my super bright flashlight, jacks, and jackstands and gave her a full look-over. I spent about 3 hours poking around and discovered a laundry list of things that she needed to make her a decent daily; except I couldn't find a quick and easy solution to her idling issue, which I thought may have been caused by some phantom vacuum leak somewhere.

I had spent the next 2 weeks looking up the repairs on Alldata, and ordering parts through my work. Parts weren't too expensive, and even the timing belt job was only a B level technician job.... pretty straightforward... I decided I could probably be able to handle her needs. Plus, compared to the VW, she seemed much lower maintenance.

After making a quick stop at Jiffy Lube*, I drove her straight back to Portland. I pulled into my girlfriend's house around 7pm. She has this really nice covered area (I am not allowed to work on cars in my apartment parking lot) that is lighted, and so she let me hang out for a bit. Her husband has an air compressor and air tools that I borrowed, and in 2 1/2 hours, I had replaced the #3 cylinder head gasket. It is a cover and gasket in one, and is often overlooked and mistaken as the side valve cover gaskets leaking, but these 4 plugs on top of the head, see picture here: (see to pand bottom of this crappy cell phone pic)

leak oil down into the spark plug tubes, and formed a puddle deep enough to almost completely fill this area. The insulated end of the plug wires was also cracked (have to replace those later today).

Amazingly enough, after doing this her hiccup at idle went completely away.

Look out, PIR! You'll see us at a few Auto-X's this year!!!!!

• (Oh, and note: No, I absolutely did not anyone else, especially the dudes at JL touch her! I did however, stop by one that was entirely dead on a Sunday afternoon, and pay the guy to let me change my own oil and check my trans and diff fluids. Probably such a liability, but between the 2 of us, the guy couldn't say no, and I didn't want to drive almost 3 hours on 3 year old oil - she deserved some fresh fluid)

looking good!!

Nice! Those are pretty cool looking cars. I had an '88 turbo once, purchased with a blown head gasket and sold with the same because we needed to move and I was still too much of a wrench noob to fix it quickly enough.

anjaloveshervw wrote: I brought a purse full of tools

This is my favorite part of the story! Looks awesome, I've always loved these older Supras! Can't wait to see what you do with her!

I've always liked the looks of those.

Showing my age here, but I remember when the Goodyear Gatorback made it's debut as the OEM Tire on that Supra. High Performance tires were pretty new back then.

< I pulled into my girlfriend'shouse around 7pm. She has this really nice covered area (I am not allowed to work on cars in my apartment parking lot) that is lighted, and so she let me hang out for a bit. Her husband has an air compressor

interesting.
Always liked the Supra. Good luck with it.

Aspen wrote:

< I pulled into my girlfriend'shouse around 7pm. She has this really nice covered area (I am not allowed to work on cars in my apartment parking lot) that is lighted, and so she let me hang out for a bit. Her husband has an air compressor

interesting. Always liked the Supra. Good luck with it.

indeed, thats where i got stuck in the story.

looking at your picture i wish i was 25 years younger because i always dreamed of meeting a woman that carried tools in her purse.... .........great story and work keep it up

Boys are all 12 on the internet.

Cool project, hope to see more as it comes along!

You rock, Anja. And don't let all those infantile "Your girlfriend has a husband?" comments phase you.

Cool project; can't wait to see what you do with it.

Nice, always liked these!

To make this car faster you basically have to overpower the weight with hard suspension, wide tires and big boost. The only easy-to-lose weight is the ultra-heavy stock front seats...after that it gets a lot harder and more expensive: http://www.supraforums.com/forum/showthread.php?473930-MK3-Track-Car-build&s=3fa5ab7b78eca9acb19d93456a5343b2&p=5722276&viewfull=1#post5722276).

So now it's anjaloveshersupra, right? Cool car!

Brokeback wrote:

Aspen wrote:

< I pulled into my girlfriend'shouse around 7pm. She has this really nice covered area (I am not allowed to work on cars in my apartment parking lot) that is lighted, and so she let me hang out for a bit. Her husband has an air compressor

interesting. Always liked the Supra. Good luck with it.

indeed, thats where i got stuck in the story.

I guess some of you guys don't know that it's kosher (and completely normal) for women to call their friends-who-are-girls "girlfriends"...get your heads out of the gutter guys!

Honestly I don't know any guy working at a jiffy lube that would turn you down if you showed up willing to pay to use the bay to change your own oil. Its true all guys are really 12.

sethmeister4 wrote:

Brokeback wrote:

Aspen wrote:

< I pulled into my girlfriend'shouse around 7pm. She has this really nice covered area (I am not allowed to work on cars in my apartment parking lot) that is lighted, and so she let me hang out for a bit. Her husband has an air compressor

interesting. Always liked the Supra. Good luck with it.

indeed, thats where i got stuck in the story.

I guess some of you guys don't know that it's kosher (and completely normal) for women to call their friends-who-are-girls "girlfriends"...get your heads out of the gutter guys!

I actually assumed, in a sexist way, that the OP was a dude. My bad.

In reply to Aspen:

Haha, I'm just messing with you guys...no prob...

Awesome. I'm glad you pulled the trigger on that one. My mk1 mr2 got me to start lusting after other old school 'Yotas, so I'll just live vicariously through this build for a bit. Good work getting her home and looking forward to the updates.

probably one of my all time favorite cars of all time in the universe...that was the first car I ever bought in Gran Turismo...same color and everything lol. That will make for a RAD daily. I haz a jelly!

Awesome cars and great buy. I've always loved looking at them but haven't ever had the chance to drive one or buy one.

Edit: Actually, I think my GS430 is basically a 4-door Supra platform but with the 3uz v8 instead. Heck of a car so far.

Love the wheels, A little body work and paint and that thing looks finished on the outside.

Girl with car has that hot rock chick thing going on, But yeah nice car too

Very nice. Plastidip paint job maybe?

pinchvalve wrote: Showing my age here, but I remember when the Goodyear Gatorback made it's debut as the OEM Tire on that Supra. High Performance tires were pretty new back then.

Also OEM on my '86 Shelby Omni GLHS. An excellent, sticky tire it was, too.

I like these, but I hate Toyota electronics of almost every era. Had a bad experience with an Alltrac Celica. Never again.

Should be a fun car. Wheels are pretty period-correct, too.