1971 Toyota Corona

Update: 30 April 2005

So I've pulled the rear drum brakes apart and put them back together again with new brake cylinders and restored brake linings and revitalised the brake lines with new brake fluid. I took the air filter assembly off the carburettor and replaced it with a "rangi mod" (pantyhose over a bottomless container sitting on the carburettor). Sure makes the induction noise sik at full throttle! I am respraying the car a dull grey with spraycans although I am not bothering to bog the dents, just the holes! I found an awful rust area under the front right passengers door hinge. Not good, not good at all.

Update: 29 February 2005

It was time for another visit to the legislation centre for a warrant of fitness. Their rolling road system detected that the car's rear left brake drum had poor performance causing an imbalance between the left and right brakes under braking. The figures on the first test were: LF 220 RF 220 LR 100 RR 180. It was time for me to get my hands dirty again. The left rear drum brake wheel cylinder was leaking and contaminated the entire drum with brake fluid. So I learnt how to pull the entire brake drum apart and clean it out, drain and bleed the entire brake system and lose performance in the rear brakes, which obviously was not what I wanted. Well, I don't know how I did it but on my third attempt to get the car through the warrant, the guy passed it when it was reading LF 220 RF 220 LR 100 RR 100. Obviously I solved the balance issue but I was suprised but stoked as well when he was happy with a significantly lower resistance on the rear than the first test would suggest with the RR 180 reading. So now with the new warrant in place, I will pull the rears apart again, give them a really good clean out with new grease and see if I can improve the resistance. Really I should replace the contaminated brake linings but hey, if it's a pass, it's roadworthy.

Update: 15 February 2005

After cruising around for a day and most of the night, the engine decided to overheat. Well I guess the problem was more down to the radiator cap being improperly seated which over time gradually allowed coolant to escape through the overflow before it is technically allowed to. So with very little coolant in the radiator I guess it was no surprise to have overheating problems. I stupidly drove it home that night even though it would cut out on me and ping at 2000rpms. But having just replaced the spark plugs today, it doesnt miss a beat anymore.

Update: 20 January 2005

Having fixed the leaking heater hose I have now put most of the interior back together again. I decided to turn my attention to the engine by starting with a full oil and oil filter change. What an adventure that was. To turn the oil filter out I needed to move the distributor out of the way. I ended up pulling the distributor right out of its gearing and stuffed up the timing and all. So after a few attempts to get the timing right and remove the severe pinging that was occuring when I didnt have the timing right, I got everything together and now the timing is spot on and the car runs beautifully! Power is good!

Update: 02 January 2005

I managed to sell my Honda Prelude for $1200 which was a bit on the low side but if you gotta sell, you gotta sell. So without a running ride I had to quickly put the Corona back together to be able to go out on New Years Eve. It turned out that the leaking heater hose inside the car was only down to a loose hose clamp. I was very relieved to find that a few turns of the screw had the clamp well and truly fastened - problem solved.

Update: 20 December 2004

Since the purchase of the car, I have managed to get the engine running on all four cylinders again. It seems that a wet spark plug in cylinder two was to blame and with the car having run on three cylinders for a few months, plenty of smoke bellowed out the exhaust at first. I was stoked to be driving the car at full power!

The other day I went to "show off" the car to my best friend and on the way to her place I could hear water gushing around as I feathered with the throttle. Looking to my left, radiator fluid was leaking out of the pipes leading into the car's heating unit. Needless to say, the passenger's floor is now a little grubby and is very damp. Only a cup full of fluid at most but theres some work ahead to fix the pipes up. At least my friend really digs the car and shares the same vision for potential as I do. She even volunteered to sew the interior together for me.

So needing to isolate the leakage, I finally got my guts into the car and removed all the seating and interior door frame trim, and took out the instrumental panel. I also removed the upper dashboard trim which was very unsightly having cracked away after many years in the sun. While I was at it, I replaced the window wiper rubber inserts so I could see more clearly in the rain!