Updates on Gojira Toyoda

Goin Green!

It's been awhile since the last update, reason being that progress has been crawling along at a snails pace. That being said, February, March and April have been pretty depressing months for both me and the car.

The Cleaning & Painting Crew: Yao Loong, JP, Wei Hong, Choong Shyr(not in pic)

There have been a few bright moments lately with the engine being dropped out, allowing us to clean 26 years of built up sludge and silt, before prepping and painting the engine bay.

Chrome Sprayed Power Steering Box

Took the opportunity to spray the power steering box to make the engine bay look as fresh as possible, on a super tight budget, we got the master brake cylinder as well, but I did not snap a picture of that.

Lots of hoses and piping to be replaced

In need of some new bolts, pipes and hoses as well as rubber strut mountings and struts, and springs, and...SIGH... a lot more things. But we're getting there.

EP Racing Fender Bolts replacing the stock steel items.

With the engine bay all bright and pretty, we test fitted some shiny new anodized aluminum billet fender bolts from EP Racing to replace the rusty and heavy steel ones. Looks good right? We'll i think so at least.

Close Up Of Matching EP Racing Fender Bolt

Also really stoked that I managed to pic up a original set of staggered old school 1st generation WORK REZAX 3 piece rims which are 8jj front and 9jj rear. They are a little rough, but with some paint and polishing they should look really good and bring me a lot closer to achieving that slammed old school JDM look I'm after.

Hopefully it will look like this in a month before i spray it black =)

Operation AllSpark

It's been a year since the last post. Could do nothing to the Cressida due to a lack of funds and the right engine.

Death Of The Cressida ?

After a long wait, i was really looking forward to having the Cressida back. Never did i think it would be in this way though. When i went to pick the car up, the car wouldn't start, or crank. There was absolutely no life when i turned the key.

The guy doing the welsing told me he had some mechanics and wiremen come over to check it out, but no one could figure it out. I really wonder what i am looking at here. A 500 dollar wiring job or a 5000 plus engine transplant. I would like to transplant a new engine if i could, but at the moment it's not within my budget yet. SIGH.

So i eventually got the car towed to my trusty mechanic for him to have a look at it. We'll find out what the diagnosis is in the coming weeks. DAMN! I think i may need to start a Cressida heart foundation and solicit donations for the heart transplant :P

Cressida Continued - Bodywork Updates

Naked Rear. Obscene Exhausts.

 After a week in the bodyshop, the Cressida’s body work seems to be coming along well with most of the metal replacement work around the trunk area done. Just a few spots left to go before moving on to the rest of the car.

Bling Bling? LOL

Pretty happy with the work done so far as the guy doing it has carefully cut out the rusty bits and refabricated  the sections and welded them in as opposed to just welding on top of the rust which is a common shortcut done by sleazy body shops.

 The shortcut method I mentioned will not only result in the rust resurfacing soon after, but also lead to the rust spreading it’s deadly disease to the rest of the body work like a cancer. Good thing the guy takes pride in his work.

Rust Particles Everywhere!!! 

Just a little bit of trimming needed to the original panel and were good. I will be doing this myself once i get the car back to keep costs down. I will also be checking out for minor surface rust spots and removing them before coating the prepped surface with anti rust and a generous helping of undercoat. 

Possible sign of an old accident in the Cressy's early years.

This is a view of the rear where the lights are supposed to be. See how sneaky rust can be. Tsk! Tsk!

So yeah! That pretty much sums up the week for the Cressy.

No more "drainage" holes

Things look like they are going well. Can’t wait for it to be completed at the end of the month when i come back to KL !

Cressida Continued

Booked for complete body job @ secret location in Cheras

It's been a good couple of months since i did anything of serious value to the Cressida. I have reasons for this,
one was that i really had no time, and the other was a lack of direction and limited funds.

TOYOPETS

Been rather depressed the last few days, so it was good to see the Cressida again. It somehow always manages to cheer me up =) I think i'm now an official Toyota fan-boi. I have 3 Toyota's OMG.

Well, it will soon be 2 once i'm done cannibalising the GX71 Cressy. Anyway, Rumble Bee is running fine again, autobox is working OK. I'm still gonna do the gearbox swap anyway. However there are still a few things that need doing before this weekends mandatory government inspection for used cars, JPJ and Puspakom.

EPIC Weekend Adventure - Parts Car

Decided to take the parts car to the shop with Ben last Sunday. I decided to take the risk to drive 20km with a messed up con-rod bearing to see how reliable this old Cressy was. I wasn't interested in the engine anyway.

The perspex windshield was really blurred and messed up, i decided to take it off. After a few km our faces felt pretty numb. Quite a bad idea in hindsight.