Dude honestly it's financially smart to do something to your car, get it how you want, drive it into the ground and then move on later. With all the money you spent and stuff it's just not worth getting rid of it. Get your money's worth and save it for something nicer down the road when the time comes. If there is anything owning a little 8th gen taught me, it's to be happy with what you have and get the most out of it.

That doesn't mean you should keep throwing money at it though. Like I said, pick a place to stop and be happy. Enjoy your car. Repair the minor stuff that breaks. Save your money for something awesome (and don't touch it!) when you are forced to get rid of it.


I sent you a hopefully helpful PM about the airbag just now.

Keep on Corollin' as the guy who did a video review on my car says haha

 

EPC & Techstream are up.




EPC is the Electronic Parts Catalog for Toyota. It's a helpful tool because it is dealer software that allows you to get part numbers that pertain to your vehicle via VIN number.


Techstream is the dealership software used to interact with the vehicle; i.e. read fault codes, change features on newer toyota's, etc. Quite a handy tool.


TIS is basically repair instructions but I believe it is subscription based and has been for quite some time.


All of these are extremely helpful tools for a DIY'er looking to get serious.


Another good video...





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~






Yes sir, you've been extremely helpful on multiple fronts! Much appreicated.

Hmm... i think its time to autocross it later this season! I always have my little toy if I get that manual trans urge






I think my problem is im starting to really like this little car. Shes like that low maintenance woman thats not a super model but shes cute, doesn't complain all the time and takes care of you.

 

It is a dirt bike or supermoto they say

I say its more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. Yes this car oddly surprises you where other cars fail. It really just needs to have the suspension dialed in and some good tires and it would handle pretty nicely. But these brakes do fade pretty easily and the lines are definitely a bit soft, I really need to figure out a brake swap. Going to prepare my car for SCCA GTS3




Anyone know how many cells the OEM cats are in these cars? 2" piping correct? Longer tubed headers might be in the plans but I would need to cat/resonate the rest of the system so the sound doesn't get affected much. I really don't trust this ebay monkey metal, its gunna be a pain in the arse to weld that im sure.



As a community I think we really need to crack these 8th gen ECU's so the fun can begin. If I can figure out the ECU I will do headers and a wideband o2 set up. Next project is getting tech stream working and connected to the car; installing windows on a spare laptop and v9.00.025 attempt underway. I don't know if a ******** 1260 cable will work but i'll give it a whirl. Is G A L L E T T O like an italian bad term or something? I thought it was fancy ice cream. Toyota cable en route, hopefully one connected to the car I can work toward getting into the ECU.

 

It is a dirt bike or supermoto they say

I say its more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. Yes this car oddly surprises you where other cars fail. It really just needs to have the suspension dialed in and some good tires and it would handle pretty nicely. But these brakes do fade pretty easily and the lines are definitely a bit soft, I really need to figure out a brake swap. Going to prepare my car for SCCA GTS3


Anyone know how many cells the OEM cats are in these cars? 2" piping correct? Longer tubed headers might be in the plans but I would need to cat/resonate the rest of the system so the sound doesn't get affected much. I really don't trust this ebay monkey metal, its gunna be a pain in the arse to weld that im sure.



As a community I think we really need to crack these 8th gen ECU's so the fun can begin. If I can figure out the ECU I will do headers and a wideband o2 set up. Next project is getting tech stream working and connected to the car; installing windows on a spare laptop and v9.00.025 attempt underway. I don't know if a ******** 1260 cable will work but i'll give it a whirl. Is G A L L E T T O like an italian bad term or something? I thought it was fancy ice cream. Toyota cable en route, hopefully one connected to the car I can work toward getting into the ECU.

I honestly have no clue about ECU's... Im not sure how people "get into" them in the first place. But yeah if someone figured out how to reprogram them that would be amazing after all of these years.

brakes -- I put Hawk HPS pads on mine and some ATE type 200 brake fluid. The drums... well theres nothing you can do about them really, get rid of them if you can. (I want to do this but so hard to find the parts you need, theres 0 90's celicas in any junkyards around me). Brakes with the better fluid do fade a lot less. Haven't had a problem with them ever since I did the fluid. Those pads are great but they are noisy sometimes.

no clue about the stock cats. 2" piping is correct. Most people seem to go the 2.25" route for a proper upgrade (i think magnaflow once made an entire exhaust for our cars this size, i.e. header back)

I'm still sticking to the SCCA H stock class for my car if I can.. really dont think I can beat anything outside of it even with some modifications. Will have to see this sunday though when I finally get to use my good tires for autoX!

 

Couldn't agree more with bcredeur97, be happy with what you have and where you want your rolla to be. When I bought my a few years ago I was quickly brought down to earth with a post from someone that said "trying to make a slow car go fast is expensive (time and money) and not always easy and it's better just to buy a fast car and make it faster"

My advice is to keep the car and not go crazy but have fun with it. I love my rolla!

 

ehhh I just won an autocross in my 8th gen if you haven't seen my post yet. Doesn't take much to make a slow car fast, at least not in a straight line anyway.

 

Bro, just saw your video, some sick driving! Congrats! I didn't know my rolla could do that...lol.

 

Flashing Seat Belt Reminder Fix

My 98's seat belt reminder light flashed 24/7 on the cluster if the key was in, whether you where buckled up or not. I found out on 98-00 corolla's this was triggered from the drivers seat belt re-tractor, once the belt was pulled out a certain amount it would send a signal to deactivate the light. The proper way to fix this is to purchase a new seat belt and install it. I chose to not spend $50-60 as thats not something I would trust to get a knock off of.


To permanently disable the reminder light. I cut the wires at the connector on the retractor and soldered them together. You could use one of the crimp connectors but those allow moisture and air to get to the wires which can lead to corrosion. The connector is circled in the picture and I believe is the only connector on the seat belt. 00-02 vehicles use a different seat belt seat up so this does not pertain to those vehicles.

Before doing this make sure this feature isn't needed for inspection or something in your state.

Found a box with inner and outer tie rods.

 

Painting & Some Bodywork.

I'm going to outline some of the painting deal in this post.

First and foremost your air compressor is the heart of any paint system. The Compressor im using is a little Senco 2.2 CFM guy. This is why below what is required to paint but I can do a moderately decent job with it. And I run some serious air tools off it like a SnapOn MG725 which dumps the compressor in about half a second. But it has no problem cracking bolts loose if you want to wait for it to load back up. I strongly recommend getting an air compressor as it can help out with a whole lot around the house. A bigger better compressor that moves over 6.5 CFM should allow you to paint HVLP no problem.

https://www.google.com/search?q=PC0...m=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLr5jK7dXOAhVCrRQKHU5UC8UQ_AUICCgD#imgrc=dafnqUQdewmsGM:



What you will need;

Air Compressor
Hose
Filter
Regulator
HVLP gun
Masking equipment
And most importantly a respirator


For hosing im just using something like a 50 ft standard air hose and a 25ft air hose. In between them I have a filter/regulator that collects moisture and such, bought from eastwood its about 60-70 bucks I believe. You can go cheaper but its convenient. For a gun I have an Eastwood Concours gun which is pretty decent however veteran painters will tell you a cheap 10-15 dollar harbor freight gun can do a hell of a job. For a respirator read the back of the box to see what its for, there about 40-60 bucks and save your lungs so you can smoke more smokes! Optional you can buy a coverall jumpsuit deal for like 10 bucks I dont remember how much they cost but its nice to not have to change into painting close all the time, although it sucks when its hot out.

Now for masking you can do this however you'd like. Some painters tape and plastic drop cloth, etc. Get creative. He'll ive used newspaper but you might want to test it out so you dont have stuff run through onto something important. I also bought a pop up tent with walls for this deal.

Depending on how your painting you could need a primer & thinner, paint and reducer, clear coat and hardener. Flex agent additive is helpful for rubber panels that'll bend/flex/etc.


All in all its probably around 1,000 bucks to get into it BUT things like an air compressor are multi purposed so I won't really consider that a cost so you can subtract that from the 100 bucks. If your building a motorcycle or another car or have a couple projects, old hot rod or something. This could deffinetly save you some dough in the long run versus finding paint matched panels to purchase second hand or paying someone to spray it.


So anyway why i'm painting the corolla... peeling clear coat, chips and scratches are starting up a rust factory which will ultimately kill the car before the engine gives up.



DS rear quarter popped it back out close enough with a piece of wood 2x4 and a hammer. Then used a $1 screw driver I got at home depot and headed up the metal and pulled it out. Then electrical tapped the back part to use as a tap down tool.

A deer jumped out on me and took a decent tap on the ass. Maybe he learned a lesson. Need some deer whistles.

Clear coat peeling

More clear coat peeling

And clear coat peeled.

 

Tri-Spoke Steering Wheel Swap

I picked up a 00-05 celica tri-spoke steering wheel in the junkyard. If looking to do this swap I would strongly suggest getting the whole set up from a Gen 8 Corolla S. Here's why...

I used a Celica airbag which has a different connector then the 98-00 corolla's. So I found an aftermarket 00-02 Corolla S clock spring on ebay for $18 new, which should make the airbag plug and play. However the cheap clockspring came with its pins all messed up when I received it. I already bought an air bag repair harness from a Toyota tech and made a pig tail of the end that connects to the airbag and replaced the original connector on the aftermarket wheel with the factory toyota part. All works fine on the airbag from. When I used the original connector I was getting faults on the D-squib line. The ebay ad says this clock spring works with Tundras, Tacomas, solaras, camrys, all from around the same era. So you may be able to scavenge a clock spring from there.

Next is the cruise control set up and horn. The original cruise control stalk can be wedged in there but it will be loose and rather ridiculous to attempt to use. However the horn will work. The problem is the corolla's have offset mounting holes for the cruise control stalk it appears. So I am still working on rigging a celica stalk to work with the set up I have. However there is an extra wire I am going to need to figure out what to do with. More on this later.


This is the Celica Cruise Control Stalk Connector that goes to the clock spring. Its different then the 98 Corolla Clock spring so it doesn't work. I wanted to take the pins out of the connector but without much luck I ripped it apart. Apparently on the top side of the photo there is a little plastic tab that gets pushed up as you slide the terminal in and then pops down into a channel to like the terminal into the connector. So you need to lift up on that tab inside the connector to release the terminal. No luck with needles yet and my tools haven't showed up yet.

This cut away was hard to do with no gloves a pick, razor blade and Gerber pliers.

Celica/Corolla S Steering Wheel junkyard pull - $15
Celica GT Airbag (#8414902) - $50 ebay
Airbag Connector Harness (#09082-00760) - $10 donation made to toyota tech
Airbag mount torx screws - $1.80 ordered from toyota
2002 Corolla S Clockspring - $18.00 ebay
98 Corolla Cruise Control Stalk - $30
00-05 Celica Cruise Control Stalk - $30



All in all not bad for under $100. Nice leather wheel, gives a whole new personality to the car with nice 3 & 9 'o clock hand positions.

 

Personally if it is a good shell, why not do a 2ZZGE swap?
If you want performance, doing the swap, doing a fully suspension setup and enjoying it are always cheaper than buying another used car.. at least with this one you know what you have..
Buying anything else used, even if it is 9000.00 it is always possible that it will have issues..

 

I actually like the fact that it is non-vanos (or non-variable valve timing), if I can crack the ECU I might pony up for a turbo kit down the road. I thought about maybe swapping out for a newer corolla as the beater, that has nice leather seats and all that jazz, more aftermarket support as this is currently my only vehicle but I soon realized it would negate all the purpose of a beater. I would have to be nice too it if i did that, not rip the nice leather seats, etc. Tires, brakes, all parts cost real money with 16"+ wheels, etc. And yes like you said the money pit starts again. I can save more money with this car and start a little piggy bank for another 90's M3 or something else to keep as a nice day car. I mean $1500 for 50K miles in about 4 years on an 18 year old car is very good, even though for a corolla not really. Actual necessary repairs was about <$500 for 50K miles.



Anyway its time to look at the next 100K. I have some oil leaks and I believe a transmission leak. So far what im looking at I believe is the valve cover, timing chain tensioner, timing case gasket and possibly a rear main seal (?) maybe.


In this picture I have a decent amount of oil sweating out from what I believe to be the chain tensioner (circled)

This is the other side of the above picture. Circled to me looks like a timing case but looking at the diagrams I can't seem to find gaskets or a part number. Is this indeed a timing case? And how do they seal it, gasket or goop or just smooth surfaces?

I must be blind I found the timing case diagram. But still I see no oil pan gasket, nor do I see a timing case gasket... uh oh :|

It might be this chain tensioner leaking down all over the place. I had some trouble finding the part number but I think this is it.

90301-22013 - Timing Chain Tensioner O ring

Should be the o-ring circled in the picture below. It doesn't apply to 98 corolla's in Toyota EPC but I would assume its the same. I ordered one so we'll see.

 

How To Crankcase Vent Hose

The crankcase vent hose on the valve cover was leaking oil all over the valve cover. Not a ton of oil but enough to make it messy and I dont care enough to wipe it down every week. I found the grommet on its diagram in EPC pictured below. Its like 2-3 bucks with a huge dealer mark up. Regardless for the cost of 6 smokes, I don't mind knocking it out.

90480-18001 | Part number for Vent Hose Grommet - 12204A

Found these part numbers for an OEM engine refresh gasket kit from toyota.

04111-22040
04111-22041


The old one was brittle and really jammed in there. Use a curved pick to pull it out from the inside. Be gentle and nice and easily wiggle it out from all around the hole. Hopefully you don't get a ton of gasket debris falling into the cylinder head.

Unbolt the cruise control box and swing it over to the airbox side to give yourself some space to work.

Take a picture and remove the ignition wires


Carefully wiggle/pull vent hose out

Replace gasket and reinstall all parts

 

Next topic on the airbag front, if you disconnect the front seat connectors does the airbag become INOP? I'm trying to remove the front bumper without disconnecting the battery cable. And I can't find a location of the airbag sensors. Lets see if I have to buy new airbags!

 

I may be wrong but pretty sure the sensors are just g force sensors requiring a sudden change in g force to fire. Removing the bumper is a few clips and bolts unless your a madman with superhuman speed no airbag should deploy. Still why fear disconecting the negative cable just in case?

 

Yeah theres nothing there like most other cars. Reading some quick DIY guides stressed it more than any other car so it got me wondering. I was interacting with the ECU and couldn't interrupt it. Bumper came off no problem.

 

Next project is some body work. How thrilling my rear quarter got pushed in on the drivers side when I was messing around in the snow. Hammered in back out with a block of wood and now going at it with my PDR rod to get it alittle closer before sanding all this rust off and adding some bondo.


I didn't see anything for rear bumper removal. My car had 10 bolts you hit from the inside of the trunk and two clips on the outside underneath the chassis. 3 along the outside part of the tail light and 2 underneath the rear trim piece. 2 on the inner side of the tailights.

 

Hi

Could you please tell me how you replaced the break lines? Do you still remember witch tutorials you followed?

Thanks

 

I kind of did a hack job on the brake lines, ive been a tech for BMW for about 8 years so i just kind of winged it.

Where are your brake lines broken?

Mine where rusted out on the bottom part of the car that you can see if you get underneath the car so I just cut out the broken section and patched that section. Which is only a temporary fix and not 100% safe but I said screw it because im the only one who drives the car. Anyway if you want I can see if I can make a little DIY for you this week.


What I used is Nickel Copper Brake Line (NiCopp), because its somewhat bendable so its easy to work with also it doesn't rust. Like this stuff but thats not what I used, I just grabbed stuff from my local parts store ( i think it was an autozone type store even.)

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...9BRCN0ozIifTI6_cBEiQAD9gNsQY0Lp1EtKvmxoBkZSRCvJITvbyKg9OkNcEHu6BQgkAaAmJ48P8HAQ

The proper way to do it is to flare the ends of the brake line so it wont leak. I just used compression fittings though which don't require you to flare the ends of the lines but they also don't last forever. So this could be a safety concern for some.

These are some flares...

Then compression fittings look like this one. Although this isn't one for brake lines. They are known to fail and leak as they aren't a permanent solution. Although mine have done about a year and a half.

http://www.autozone.com/fittings-an...tting/ags-brass-compression-union-not-for-brake-lines/846261_0_0/?checkfit=true



The proper way to do it is to replace the whole brake line from the master to its respective wheel but I wasn't going to bother for my corolla. I drove too work for two weeks without issues. However if one area rusted I wouldn't be surprised if another area is close to rusting as well. I live in an area where the salt the roads every winter.


Also just used a cheap brake line cutter, these are like 6-7 bucks USD at your autozone, napa, etc type store.

 

This guys freaking hilarious but this is basically what I did.

 

Thanks 336Racer

My car has lots sentimental value to me. It was the time were I felt the time is my and my alone. I worked nearly 70 hours a week helping my dad while I was Going Though collage. Lost over $10000 scholarship money the second semester. Chose the major my roommate had...

Plus I enjoyed it since it was my first car.

I got all the paints and primers, I am going to paint the entire car if I can fix everything.

I won't drive my 3 1/2 son on the back but I am going to use it as a delivery car if my plan go smoothly.

The car only has like 120000 miles and it drives fine. It just won't pass state inspection because of the break line, fuel line and maybe steering rack & pinion. couple place say it does not need it and one place says its leaking and another place say it needs change when I told them about the previous mechanic said it needs changing.

I plan on jacking up the car and place the body on those 12x12 cement squires high enough for me to work under. "On the place were I would place the car jack."

 

I hear you. As long as you don't drive like an idiot and understand what your doing to the car and how the system works theres no reason to not go for it. A flare kit isn't too expensive. Maybe 20 bucks or so if you want to go that route. But even just watching youtube videos and watch a few of them and you should get the jist of the whole thing. Its really pretty simple.

Testing the system should be the most important part. Then take it easy for a few months driving the car while you really test it out.

As for painting I might throw up some more pics of the stuff im doing but im not sure if anyone cares or not. So I haven't bothered. I was thinking of maybe doing a this happened because of this, etc.

Good luck. It should cost you around $50 bucks to patch them up. I also keep a little bit of brake line in the trunk because ive had the muffler bracket screw rust out before and ended up using the tie downs from the trunk to hold the can up to get home. Took 3 of them because they kept melting


Good luck, let me know if you have any questions. Also make sure you get the same size brake line. I don't recall which it is off hand.

 

Wash the headlights or car.. whatever before you do it so you don't pick up debris in the buffer and scratch the lenses. Painters tape can save your paint from the buffer. I just took a yellow sponge and water and wiped the headlight down so I didn't burn anything into the plastic with the buffer. Factory paint is poor, you might want to put some painters tape on the bumper and hood so you dont polish a low spot on the bumper/hood/whatever you hit.

Any headlight restoration goop in a bottle or polish and a harbor freight high speed buffer.

Put your hose on mist and keep the lights wet so the buffer glides easier and run the buffer on them for short bursts so you dont burn in. Apply more water as it gets less wet.

New lights are cheap but if you have a buffer and some sort of polishing stuff lying around the house. We'll that's $60 bucks I haven't had to spend yet. They look good, takes 15 minutes, about a year later they look fine. This plastic will melt if you don't have enough water and get it too hot, like any other plastic but this stuff isn't that robust. Not enough people do this; old econo jap cars and old Mercedes are the worst. Always see those fogged yellow headlights on them.

 

Passanger Mirror Replacement/Disassembly

In my painting post you can see my mirrors are fading, the painted part. The glass actually fell out and it was epoxied back into place on top of that so it does not move with the power mirror function. I had bought a manual mirror in hopes of removing the glass from it but it broke in the attempt. Apparently the glass itself isn't really supposed to be replaceable. So I went at it again buying a $25 powered pass side mirror on ebay this time. Now I want to paint it to match, but would rather do so with the glass out so I don't have visible edges that where taped when you move the mirror. Here is what I found so far.

Now i'm not positive if it is a direct copy of the stock mirror with inferior parts or not. But potentially you could take the guts out of the ebay one and put them into your painted mirror. I don't know if it'll work like that though.

There are 4 screws on the part that attaches to the door.

There is also one hidden screw behind the mirror, on this ebay set. You either need a bent screwdriver or a flexible one or a special tool. I did it with a regular straight philips screw drive, gently bending the glass ever so slightly to get some grip on the screw and carefully broke it loose at a sharp angle trying not to strip the threads. It took forever to get it out doing 1/20th of a turn each time and is starting to strip ever so slightly. Not enough to really be worth mentioning but the hardware atleast on the ebay mirror isn't great. You may be able to heat up one of those $1 home depot screw drivers and bend it to make your own special tool.


Once all these screws are out the mirror will be able to slide out with the motor and all the guts attached. Leaving just the housing, however there is one more problem. The connector won't go through the rubber mounting gasket for the mirror without ripping it up. So there are two viable options cut the wires and reconnect them when your ready to assemble or remove the wires from the connector itself.

I grabbed a steelman terminal release kit, like this one (its about 100 bucks but you might be able to buy a single i dont know. Maybe call steelman and say you need a replacement. I used number 22.) I originally tried to go inside the connector and push it up from there but that didn't work and kind of mangled the connector a little bit. So i ended up going alongside the contact and pressed against the plastic holder and pressed it up and out. You can see where the hold down pieces are on the plastic. If i remember correctly I went in from the front with the tip of the tool facing downward and the hump on the tool pushes against the plastic of the connector to release the terminal.

The tool kit I used. I think they are like 102 on amazon. Its a steelman set. I've done a far amount of automotive work and will do plenty more so I have no problem building up my tool box. You may be able to find something to simulate this if you don't feel like spending money on tools.


http://www.tooltopia.com/steelman-9...-BRD1xu3qw8uS2s4BEiQA2bcfM5IfUNSWYuW5tXi-vXbyJuI8UkjZHTEMLFBuRof2LwMaArLd8P8HAQ



Now the mirrors ready for paint.

 

Welp, I just messed up and wasted $35 worth of paint. I just mixed my color mix 50/50 with lacquer thinner instead of reducer. Said f#%k it and sprayed it anyway.


I didn't really take to many pictures cause I was busy painting all day and now im waiting for it to dry enough to throw it back on the car. But I had this spider crack deal from an impact, which I thought was just in the paint but it turned out to be a real pain in the butt to go over. I sanded the hell out of it but couldn't get through. It made the primer stand up there so I just kept sanding it lightly and piled the primer up.

I have a nice drip finish with the clear coat cause I couldn't really set up the gun right with the new tip I put in it. I don't think I have enough air pressure but well fix that later. Lets see how it looks tomorrow.

 

RF fender now

 

When pulling off the fender a lot of 20 year old plastic pieces where brittle. I needed 4-5 pieces in total, at dealer prices toyota wanted about 5 dollars a piece for the clips. Thats probably going to be a $30 bill so I found these on amazon.

These also hold the fender in

https://www.amazon.com/Teenitor-Ret...E1BU/ref=sr_1_8?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1473703872&sr=1-8&keywords=90467-07166


These where for the bottom part for the front fender trunk side.

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Rep.../ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1474410958&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=90189-06065





__________________________________________________________________



Also how much would you value this set of MR2 wheels at? I picked up the pair to use as winter wheels when I only had one set of wheels. I'm going to be asking 50, fair?

I gave the one on the bottom more of a scrub then the top because the top one's tire had a bubble. They where just winter wheels I used for 2 seasons total of about 7 months so I didn't clean then that much. There is some oxidation but $25 each for 2 aluminum wheels doesn't seem to steep.

 

I don't think I added anything about the painting deal but here's what I learned from my HVLP experiances.


All factory paints fade from the day they get painted. UV rays from the sun and other elements beat the paint up so its pretty much impossible to paint an old car part with new paint and get it to match the old paint. You have to do a blend but I don't have the space to paint the whole car so I just take panels off and take them into my booth to spray and throw them back on. Its good enough for me.

When you paint you have to let each layer dry and cure properly so it can let all its gasses out. This seems to be solvent pop because I put the clear coat on with the color coat practically wet. I was in a rush and did everything in maybe 6-8 hours on this piece. Once you lay the color coat down its supposed to since in a good environment for 24 hours to fully cure and let all the solvents out. No big deal, i'm learning by jumping in the deep end. I'll respray it again this summer most likely. This solvent pop only showed up after I hit the panel with the buffer like crazy. I put the clear coat on heavy and went to town with the buffer only a couple days after I sprayed it. If it was a show car I would let the car sit in the garage for like a week after being painted. But its not and I ain't got no hot rod.

Also any bondo type stuff needs to cure aswell, there are lots of dips where the bondo is filling in little dings. My guess is due to shrinkage as it cures.

The rear bumper came out a bit better. I messed up mixing the color coat and mixed it with lacquer thinner instead of reducer. I wasn't about to throw out $10-20 worth of paint so I sprayed it but it turned out pretty good. Better then the fender. A gallon jug is $10 at home depot vs 25-40 for reducer at a auto paint store. On a ferrari i'd be buying top notch products but for a corolla I think im going to keep running the lacquer mix in the future.

After buffing the edge of the trunk and right side of the bumper, its a rear spot on match. The factory clear is real thin on this car so I can't buff the rest of the car to bring some more life into it.

The main reason was to kill the rust as that should be the ultimate death of these cars. However the paint matches a lot better today then it did a couple days after I sprayed it. Below is right after I sprayed it.

I'll get a picture out on the road soon to compare.

 

We'll i'm screwed now. Simple jobs gone bad, I still have no space in the garage its so jammed up I was putting parts down in the garbage bag till I had to put them back. I did the belt tensioner, alternator fuse, right side control arm and just now the rear brakes.

Tensioner was alright but there is really no space to work in these cars.

Got the alternator fuse out, replaced it and button it back up racing the clock. Turn the key and no dash lights, etc. Checked the fuse box, the whole front junction box behind the coin tray has no power. I start looking up the wiring diagrams for awhile, give up cause the toyota manual is too big. Go back down and think I never tested the fuse before putting it in so I took it apart again and find this. I tell you with the work space being so messy I am making a lot of mistakes these days.

There are some things you just cant cheap out on like bleeder valves. The aftermarket caliper's bleed valve got stuck after not even one full winter and snapped on me. Trying to extract it I think I messed up the threads. New caliper it is, what a pain in the butt though. The original bleeder valves still worked great after 18 years, I snapped only one in 20-25 degrees F.

Pass rear drum was grinding the front shoe and on the drivers side the front shoe was almost gone aswell. Not the rear's though. I changed them anyway but they where about half life it seemed.

By the way, if anyone is wondering the bolts you can use to remove the drums have a 1.25 metric pitch. I don't know the size but I think its m6-m8 if I had to guess. Found stuff that worked great in the spaghetti pot I have of spare hardware from this stuff. Made getting the drums off a breeze although pbblaster, BFH, prybar and torch where cracked out for the first time I had no luck with that. Threaded the bolt it to give it a little pressure then gave it a few light whacks with a little hammer and they popped off no problem.


My parking brake is horribly out of adjustment now. With the car in the air the R/R grabs a little but it isn't doing much. And the ebrake feels similiar to the brake pedal if the system has no fluid/pressure. Are these supposed to be self adjusting shoes? I screwed the thing with the wheel on it pretty much all the way in to make it easy to get the drum over the shoes. Will it work its way out or should I try to adjust it out a little more by hand?

 

What I do.

Normally you need to screw in the adjuster just to get the drum back on. The hub will spin freely. Pull the drum back off and move the adjuster out some and put the drum back on and see how it spins. repeat till the drums barely go on and there is a little drag in the hub. Put the wheels back on, start the car and pump the brakes up. When you have a descent pedal take it for a drive somewhere you can speed up and hit the brakes. When you do this in reverse the adjuster will do its thing and you should feel the drums begin to grab better. It may take quite a few iterations to get it right but you should feel when all the brakes are gripping properly.

Make sure you have stopping power before driving the car and do the rest at an area you can drive in reverse and hit the brakes. It looks hokey but it works.

 

I'm not sure if I messed up the ebrake or just misaligned it. I did the left side first then had to move the car to make space on the other side, so while I was moving it I said let me take a spin around the block. Everything was kosher but I gave the ebrake a pull and heard a little snap. I got back and got both sides up, did the right and then looked at the left to see if something obvious happened. The rear sided shoe on the left was misaligned at the bottom. Completely out of place, don't know how the drum made it on. Reset that and put it back together. Everything is fine until the bleeder snapped I took a drive and the pedal is lower then before but got slightly better then before. That's when I started bleeding the brakes and the aftermarket front caliper bleeder snapped on me.


I didn't even bother going to the parking lot to do some reverse work because I wanted to flush the brakes first. Anyway will see what im going to do about the caliper in the morning. Once the caliper is solved i'll go at the brake flush again. And then maybe go for the wheel. Its not moving easily and I took it all apart and cleaned it up. I didn't want to use pliers and mar up the teeth but we'll see. Now that everything is fresh the drums are a lot easier to work with. Re-doing them should take like 20 minutes once the chassis' hits the jack stand, until they rust over again.



By the way for anyone, I bought this adapter for my motive bleeder which works nicely with the corolla reservoir. Its supposed to come with a chain and two threaded J-hooks, etc. I don't know why that one doesn't have anything pictured. Anyway makes bleeding the brakes pretty simple and a 1 man job. The harbor freight vacuum pump isn't that great. This set up worked great! Put some DOT 4 I got from BMW in there and did a good old flush.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Motive+Produc...FBRCqt8jVsoDKoZABEiQAqFL76Ke8fQtnobRANK6QHTOLs_H_qKtxjk81VjMJVACi_yIaArpG8P8HAQ



Oh and some reviews on parts;

1A Auto or something I think its the company, sells a lot of shit on ebay. The master cylinders in their rear brake drum kits are junk. The design doesn't utilize the toyota factory spacing which holds the cylinder in place and the part that protrudes out of the dust shield is too close to the two bolts to hold the cylinder in place. Making it so you can't use a socket and have to use the open end of a box wrench. For 1/8th turns to tighten it.


Detroit Axle Control Arms - I don't have even 600 miles on them, but they appear to be a decent quality product. And $25 a side didn't say they included the outter ball joints but they came pre-installed on the arms I bought. Maybe an accident, im not sure. So far so good, I have confidence in this part but will report back in 20 & 50K miles. 'Merica holding it down!

Car Quest Front Rotors - I haven't mic'd them yet but they are most definitely warped. Now the control arm/suspension/rear brakes going out could have assisted in that but I still don't feel as if they are the most solid rotors and cost to much for that. That's just my opinion. I may buy another set after the suspension and brakes are taken care of to put them too the test.

 

I have no lighting right now either and I didn't look at the wheel on the drums well enough I guess. I took them off and hit it with the screwdriver and the ebrake is coming back. Its not where I would like it to be but having done two calipers and taking the drums off like 10 times, its good enough for now. Brakes feel better but I still have that master cylinder/brake booster issue I have to look into. Thats going to wait till I clear out the garage. I cant be doing job like that in there again with it like this.

Thanks for the advice.


By the way the part with the wheel, I unscrewed all the way and there was a ton of brake dust / "gunk" in the threads. I used some brake cleaner and cleaned them up and I think it made them work a lot smoother. This is just a guess but the low brake pedal may have just been low brake shoes in the rear. The ebrake was working fine so I didn't think the rear drums would do that. Maybe the adjuster got "stuck" with that gunk and caused the extra pedal travel.

 

Spun it out a little more by hand when I was doing a brake flush and the parking brake is engaging now but really not enough to use in an emergancy or in motion going down a big hill. Guess it needs a little more adjustment.