Curse of the Cressida

[battleaxe 0]

super basic update as all of this is maintenance and minor improvments after driving it for 300kms.

noticed one side marker and one fog lught were out.  I replaced all the position markers with LEDs and the fog light that was out was hodge podged to use the old style h3 bulb with a lead on it.  luckily i had a spare for the supra from hella so i popped that on and voila, working lights in the front, which is nice cause the oem headlights are not great.

 

 

next thing was the thermostat. noticed it would get to the first bar on the coolant temp gauge but go no further.  heat was good, not great, but was alright for our 5-10C temps.  I got a thermostat just to try, and sure enough, the oem one was not working no more.  massive quality difference in the gates one i put in, so an oem one may be in its future when it goes for a major service if it ever gets into my truck.

 

after this is was basic oil change and filter and plugs.

 

 

thinking about getting some chunkier 17s for the R33s and put those on this car if the car makes it into the spring.

 

 

and the un sung hero, the 415k km CRV, that just keeps on going.  Great to and from vehicle, not great on gas in the auto trans, but theyre easy to work on, parts are cheap and still at this mileage the motor is surprisingly peppy, the trans is its downfall in this vehicle.  The awd..."awd" works alright too for our 5 days of snow here.

 

 

does need the 1/4s rust removed and the rear oem tinted glass put in but thats about it for that car.

[battleaxe 0]

really been lacking motivation to do much of anything lately.

started with getting some tents.  put them up with some friends on the wettest day all year.

they were up for...3? weeks...then we got snow fall, which started fine, brush it once before work and once when i get home from work.

 

 

But one night it really came down and i came down with a bad headache, and went to bed at 7pm. looked outside and thought it was fine. woke up the next am at 5 or so and found my tents collapsed. great. the one day i needed to brush the snow off 6 times in the night, i get sick.  oh well, damaged the shit out of the cars and knicked the truck.  The plan was always to remove the tent part and reinforce the roof and walls and put metal sheeting on so this wouldnt happen again.  I priced out your average metal tent with roof and it started at 1500 for a single 10x10.  i got both of these tents for 550? and i figured i could throw less than 1000 at some square tube, paint and metal sheets.  Now i have enough materials for 1.5 tents lol.  Plan for the worst, hope for the best right?

 

 

eventually after the snow left, i started to pick up the pieces.

crv started leaking water by the buckets just behind the crank seal.  figured since the entire cooling system froze, the water pump went bust.   after a variety of top ups and hose repair/replaces i guess i got the ratio messed up by only filling it up with water. turns out it was just the sealant the last owner used to put the water pump on failed.  so i threw a timing belt and water pump at it, plugs, heater hoses, all the maintenance and then gave it a wash.  runs like a top now..again

 

 

apparently these have cabin air filters, who knew, all the old owners sure didnt.  i planned to just swap the fan as it was weak, this and the 20+ yrs of leaves were the reason for the lack of air flow lol.

 

 

trucks alternator was also toast, so i replaced that as well and topped up the battery, it now runs good again...back to zero.

 

 

The lexus has had leaking tires since i put the studded ones on, turns out the small sticker in the inside was causing the leaks.  so while i had them off, i wanted to see the chonky re71rs on the cr kais and how they would look on this unit

 

 

currently it still needs an alignment, non studded tires, when it brakes it pulls to the right, the lamp failure box in the back is not working (tried multiple repairs and none worked, im also stupid) so i dont have brake lights, so im not too keen to be driving it like that.  Outside of the motor, i have no intention to put money into it so i may use it for short trips only and then swap to the truck until we start seeing 10c temps where the cressida may be able to be used as a daily, as i recently bought a new battery for it too cause the old one was 10+yrs old and i am hoping this is the part of the poor starting amps it puts out.

 

also, it costs at minimum 1k a yr to insure a car here, no multi car discounts so to insure the 3 dailies i have, is just over 3k/yr.  I only bring this up as I am one of a number of ppl on here with a staple of cars (mine being bargain basement garbage) and was curious what others pay for insurance as it varies by state/province.  Really wish we had a insure the driver, or insure a single plate policy and put it on any car you want.  Sure would help me to enjoy these cars instead of letting them sit and rot all the time.  Taking a car that sits for 6-12 months and then want to daily it...theres some real hard growing pains there to make it safe to drive day to day and drive to work without issue/s.

[battleaxe 0]

a year of posts in a few minutes lol, giver a send off then eh

[Jason 0]

My dude. I appreciate your commitment to keeping these piles of shit rolling (rotting) but your ADHD has got to be pinging out of control. 

And don't take this as me hating on you or your stuff. It's purely concern.

Have you thought about selling 4 of them and getting like..a 2020 corolla/camry to carry the kid and wife in?

D21, Civic, CRV, LS400, Cressida, 240, Celica, Kawasaki....is there something I'm missing?

For real, do a real honest inventory of what serves you and what you're serving. Do you need 3 different cars for track days? Do you need 3 family haulers that aren't modern crash safe? 

Does it make financial sense to send any of the Civic, 240, Celica or Cressida packing given the current all time highs of parts prices and demand for tuner cars? The CRV would probably fetch decent money too.

I hate most new cars as much as the next enthusiast, but man something has to give. The dollars and more importantly with a young family is the time you're spending is insane. I need an outlet too, but the amount of your life you're burning is incredible. 

[Gordo 0]

Like your collection !
I almost bought another X8 (#5), but the ass hole backed out of the deal.

Had an '02 5-speed CR-V, was fun after I completely rebuilt the engine. Yes, that hydraulic rear end that does the 4WD function works great.
Went through Texas mud really well. Still have 2 quarts of their special fluid.
Unfortunately the left front wheel found a huge chunk of concrete on an off-ramp one night, and tore the whole suspension off.
Insurance bought it. Maybe should have kept the engine, 5-speed, and rear diff for one of Rue's projects, but working 12 hour days kind of cuts into salvaging time.

Have a Land Whale now (land cruiser), so if I want to trailer the X8 to an event, or to haul more project cars, I now have the towing capacity.

Oh, and still have my crunched Datsun truck, just trying to find a good box for it.

People like Jason, and my neighbors just don't understand...

[battleaxe 0]

21 hours ago, Jason said:

My dude. I appreciate your commitment to keeping these piles of shit rolling (rotting) but your ADHD has got to be pinging out of control. 

And don't take this as me hating on you or your stuff. It's purely concern.

Have you thought about selling 4 of them and getting like..a 2020 corolla/camry to carry the kid and wife in?

D21, Civic, CRV, LS400, Cressida, 240, Celica, Kawasaki....is there something I'm missing?

For real, do a real honest inventory of what serves you and what you're serving. Do you need 3 different cars for track days? Do you need 3 family haulers that aren't modern crash safe? 

Does it make financial sense to send any of the Civic, 240, Celica or Cressida packing given the current all time highs of parts prices and demand for tuner cars? The CRV would probably fetch decent money too.

I hate most new cars as much as the next enthusiast, but man something has to give. The dollars and more importantly with a young family is the time you're spending is insane. I need an outlet too, but the amount of your life you're burning is incredible. 

You're not wrong.

S13 is long time drift car I want to finish, and make nice..finally paint a drift car.

Supra is the classic and car I'd like to drive on weekends as I don't think I'd drift it much after this.

Cressida...really fucking hate this car but I want to finish it and enjoy it..finally. I don't like it because of the no start issue being random. Honestly I'm out of ideas after I swap in this new battery.

Civic is my basic daily that always works, real cheap on gas, I have no big plans for it other than continue driving it forever.

D21 is a truck...everyone needs a truck. 

Ls400 is a motor swap with functional wheels. I made it better because I wanted to drive it around safely and test the motor to swap it to the d21. I have put only that basic maintenance to the motor as I will use that motor...the chassis, I don't care about and why I keep driving it at this point, coming to an end soon.

Crv, it's the family hauler that just works, good in snow, cheap enough I don't care if it gets hit etc. It's up to date with all major maintenance and if it gets destroyed, who cares.

 

Do I need 3 drift cars? No. But up to last year I drove every year and haven't stopped since 2008, and have driven a lot of different vehicles and adapted my skills to reflect that. I will never be able to justify my choices, but I always have transportation when I need it.  I work on one car at a time so I'm not overwhelmed outside of maintenance or items that come up. I've thought about selling nearly all of them and cashing out and buying a newer car, but like...fuck my life. That's a large loan, debt, never been in debt outside my mortgage, and it will break down and will have to be serviced at a dealer as I will likely be unable to fix due to modern changes, no dip sticks, everything being digital and needing a machine to do the task... am I really ahead? And to buy back in to this non sense...might as well take out the same massive loan as these new cars.  I work for our government insurance here, i am an estimator and see the damage to all kinds of cars, read all the files, and modern crash safety is...different. This isn't a 70s Japanese car that folds in half, and it's not a 70s American car that doesn't move and breaks your body.  I get where you're coming from and take no offence as this is the common reaction to me still doing my hobbies and also having a family life. I haven't touched cars in a few weeks and at that time I had to as the crv needed a water pump, so I did a full service. I spend a couple hundred bucks every few months if that and haven't made a big purchase, $1k+ in nearly 4 yrs. the ls400 was $750 and I'll be able to make that all back by selling the cats, parting out bits and pieces then junking it.  And all of last year I didn't do any driving as she was born in July.  My focus is on my family and leave my hobby all the time. 

 

Cache 22 of being a moron I guess.

 

 

That bike can leave any day and I wouldnt care as I'll likely never go for my bike license..again

[Jason 0]

You don't have to justify it to me or anyone. I do agree there should be a truck-like thing for everyone. It's a tool that should work well.

 

Maybe that's the family hauler that you're looking for. Newish tacoma 4 door/GX something something/4th gen 4Runner. Old enough you can service it, new enough it doesn't fold in half. 

 

I'm still hobbling a 98 4runner down the road daily, the Cressida is back in perpetual project money pit mode, and I have 4 motorbikes of which I'd like to sell 3 or all and get 1 nice one. Less stuff, nicer stuff. TBH if the Cressida got wrecked I'd be looking at getting rid of the 4Runner and getting a Macan turbo to work double duty of fast nice and enough space to go to Lowes. And if when it breaks just pay someone to fix things for me. Like I've been doing half the time anyway cause my garage doesn't have the space and getting the starter from under the exhaust manifold and around the frame rail is bullshit. 

 

Also don't take advice from Gordo unless it has to do with leaving the great white north, building go-kart engines, or guns. 

[battleaxe 0]

definitely not leaving the great white north as our families are here, we own a house and baby is growing up.  Wouldn't live anywhere else other than the UK, but really that's the same as here but with more rain.  My wife has family over there are we were going to see them in 2020 then the world shut down.

 

I would get a Toyota tomorrow if the prices weren't so insane on them and the maintenance was actually done.  Common issues with Toyotas locally (and Honda's) is that people think they don't have to due routine maintenance and then they have 300k on the clock and everything needs replacing/leaking/not working.  4Runner's always cross my mind but man they're in terrible shape up here, or someone wants 20k for their not rusted one (2nd/3rd gen).  BUt really, outside of the actual 4wd, there isnt much difference to the crv in terms of space, useability and capability.  I also prefer the look of my CRV to the comparables.  So here I stay.

My mum did mention shes looking to give us her 2013? Ford Edge.  Its fully loaded and a nice looking vehicle.  Its still new enough to be nice and modern, and looks to be serviceable too.  She's waiting for cars to actually be available at the dealerships to do this whole thing so I'm not holding my breath.  At that time we will change some things up around here too.

[battleaxe 0]

and just like that, sold the bike

[battleaxe 0]

i took some time away from cars after the tents fell down on the cars.  i have since sold what remains of the tents for $150 and am getting a quote from a guy who does metal enclosures.  its been a few weeks so im not holding my breath he makes it any time soon.

been busy being a dad and have little time for garage activities, however motivation was at an all time low as my garage was full of non sense and my cars kept needing maintenance and not "fun stuff."

first thing was to sort the garage and shed at the same time so a lot of back and forth.  shed is still a catch all but all items are useful still and what junk is in there is temporary.  sold a bunch of stuff from in there and tidied up a bunch, put some tools in there for easier access.

 

garage as of a couple days ago.  sold the bike, put the boards in the shed after I sold the air scrubber and removed the motor from the lexus.

 

 

this back corner is a bit of a mess with all the drawers. it was organized until i added this rather large sony Trinitron.  i have been after one for a while for my old game systems and this was free, took nearly 3 months to get as they live on a remote island and only come to this island once a month.  for whatever reason i had been hooked on these old style of Trinitron as it has a lot of inputs in the back and my uncle had one when i was younger and just always wanted one...seemed to pair perfectly with the sony playstation...nostalgia is a hell of a delusion.  currently it is hooked up to my VHS and my old options are what get played in here.  My house is too small to put it in the actual house, so here it is.  House is 1085sq ft, she tiny, and it houses 2 adults, 1 baby and 2 cats.

 

Supra hasnt had anything done to it since i started putting the engine bay back together months ago.  I have oval tube on order and its back ordered but I have been messing about with the integra air box, got a new filter for it and ill come to a conclusion on that soon.

 

Cressida has been put back on the road and I have been dailying it to see what new problems it has developed since sitting there since Oct 2020.

 

First up was replace the very old battery as this was the last part of the puzzle for the poor start, currently it starts very good and strong.  Steering has felt weird since driving it around, found a loose castor rod nut, and the diff is rather chattery (going to change that soon), and the brakes..brake, RR, was dragging.   All 4 brakes were cleaned, lubed and bled.  Raised the rear 10mm as the front was a little higher so this should even it out some more.  Raised the exhaust while I was under there as a temp fix as i plan to clock the tips correctly once I finally put the short jzx bumper on the rear.   I removed the power steering cooler to see if the system would bleed, sure enough, it did.  i had it going from the reservoir to cooler to pump and i think the vane pump sucks and it was causing constant air to be generated.  It should work on the low pressure side as its on the push side but thats for another day.  Bled the clutch while i was on the bottom and the fork fell out...so i lubed that all up, ordered some cover plates for the r box, and then put the fork back in and continued to bleed the clutch.  feels a lot better to shift now oddly lol.  still some more things i want to sort out but theyre small and the car functions currently.  Need to put miles on it cause it just sits there.  sadly its nuclear summer now and it generates a lot of heat 😕 but it stays cool so thats what matters.

 

 

civic shifter had been feeling poor for a little while now so when i had it in the air last time i took a look. one nut was missing, and the other looked like it was ready to break.  i popped it out. took the remaining nut off, welded the top so the captive stud was actually captive. put a new bolt in and lined it up, welded and ground that down, shot it with black, got new crush washers and nuts, cleaned the shifter itself, lubed that all up and popped that back in with the oem shift knob to change it up a bit.  while i had the paint out, i splashed some black on the wiper arms as they were nature polished

 

 

crv has been a non stop fun machine with random failures. the latest has been the fan sensor, it gave up the ghost after 425k kms and has overheated the motor for the tenth time now.  already got a new one and looped the fan for the time being so it wouldnt leave my wife and baby stranded in this heat.  its not a huge deal as the oem rad and system works so well the fan rarely comes on, but when it needs to be on, i really need it.  we went camping in it a few months back.  going to get the ac checked out and refill it so might have a few days of ac

 

 

whats been taking most of my time has been the LS400.  i started parting it out and then took the motor out. its heart breaking but the parts have gone on to help save and make a few LS400s a little better with her parts. little over doubled my money and got a free motor out of it so thats a win. covers the loss of the tents at least....ahh yes, the feeling of going back to zero.

just started tear down on the 1uz to clean it up and get some paint on the valve covers so it may look fun while it sits there forever.

 

 

looking forward to this going away.  Id get another LS400 for keeps some day.  They are a very well built car and appreciated how nice they were to work on and take apart through all of this.

[Jason 0]

where did you get the HKS file? is that just vinyl? kinda wanna do my valve covers like this--but also kinda just want something simple and get the Weld coil cover. 

[battleaxe 0]

Hks file? That's all paint my dude. I think I did green, purple then black then flake in clear then clear. I hand cut the tape to apply, staggered them...really should have looked more at the photo as I did it incorrect. I'm still happy with what I did but it could have been more fun and wild..but I like how simple it is. It really pops when I open the garage door so mission accomplished. I did a Jun coloured one for the civic, silver green and yellow in the same splash graphics. Richard Rabe has got to be the best at the hks livery painting though. I plan to do a zebra paint job on the 1uz covers. I'll see how that goes. Got a plan in mind for that already

[Jason 0]

I don't have the patience for that. I assumed it would have been cut vinyl, paint the base, lay out vinyl, paint, lay out vinyl, paint, lay out vinyl paint, etc etc etc for every layer. Hand cut sounds like a gigantic pain in the ass. Good on you. 

[battleaxe 0]

what would make the most sense in your scenario is to paint it black, get pre made vynil of the colours (im missing the orange lines) and then apply them. when not feeling it no more, its still black after you remove the vynil

[Jason 0]

it'd probably shrink or peel off with the heat. I'll end up getting them hydro dipped or painted and getting the weld valley cover 

[Nigel_Vertigo 0]

Love the CRT. I've got 4 CRT TVs and one computer monitor now that I use as a second display. Nothing like playing old consoles on them.