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No chance, freq. It wouldn't do well in that particular venue. I am a big fan of the site, though. My Miata could end up there some day. They seem to do well there.
Paint job is ok from 5 feet. Lots of tiny trash that needs to be buffed or wet-sanded out. A few flaws here and there but no runs and what little rust was there has been effectively dealt with. Seats turned out really nice with original stitching pattern and cloth/vinyl combination. Color is a little bright but we must have gone through about a thousand samples. You just don't find this bordello rose maroon any more.
The one seriously rust infested panel, the front upper skirt behind the front bumper, was removed (it bolts on), media blasted, and zinc treated prior to paint. But I'm still looking for a replacement. The new seats do make some other interior bits, like the carpet, look pretty tired. Not sure what, if anything, I will do about that. Paint shop hooked the headlights up backwards so the dims didn't work. Fixed now. Otherwise they did a nice job of taking care of parts, no broken trim or badges. There is some overspray here and there on the windshield and hatch window gaskets because they are so dried out at the edges in some sections the prep guy was afraid to mask them to the edge. But I think I can fix that. Need to paint in the "LX" and "5" of the "5 Speed" badges in red. I also need to install a new coolant temp sending unit. Gauge reads low even though temp at the thermostat housing is about what it should be when the engine is fully warmed up. Could be the gauge but you can't get those any more. NOS sending units are still available. Found NOS coolant hoses and a hood release cable in Australia so I bought a set just to have. Also some SolGrip EPDM adhesive. Rear window seals need some help staying in place. Now if I could just find a right side rear view mirror.
Lots of little things left to do but it drives great and is coming along cosmetically. Today I replaced the hatch struts and worked on missing interior trim fasteners and seriously sun-damaged rear speaker grills. It was a foggy morning in Gulfport when these were taken. I'll get some more when the weather improves.
tof best wishes on your project. Its funny how certain cars stick in one’s brain. I purchased a used 1972 Toyota Corona MkII after the price of oil sky rocketed in 1973. Got it from my wife’s friend who's husband was stationed in Japan and had shipped it to Michigan. People were dumbfounded at having to pay double what they were used to paying at the pump. It turned the automotive marketplace upside down and it started my life long respect for Japanese cars. It got great mileage and was solidly built. It was called the deluxe of budget compacts. When first produced in 1965, Corona was a milestone car as the first Japanese car produced with the US market in mind. The MkII was a more luxurious, slightly stretched version of the more common RT40 Corona. The MkII was exclusively sold at Toyopet store locations in Japan. This was one of my favorite cars and obtained at a great price. When I sold it five year’s later I recovered my full original purchase price after logging 80,000 miles. I turned around and bought a 1977 Toyota Celica Liftback, which could not begin to equal it in driving experience.
This model was built in Japan on the T-series Corona platform whereas US sold cars were built on the larger X-series platform. I was taking a night class in auto mechanics during this time to keep an MGA on the road (image that). I did minor performance tuning on this car like a curve kit for distributor, etc. In the winter I did organized ice racing on a small lake with it. This little car, like I said, is stuck in my brain. Boy, would I ever love to buy it back.
Dave, we bought a later Corona new in 1974. It was brown and featured the first automatic transmission, which I was not crazy about. But otherwise the car was really well built, drove pretty well, and got good mileage. But I traded in an Open 1900 Manta Coupe which is something I will always regret.
And like you, we also had a second gen Accord. Brown hatchback. Fully loaded, of course, to maximize dealer profit. Alloy wheels (my first), and one of those crazy slatted black sun shade things over the hatch glass. That car was my first Honda and was a revelation. It drove like nothing I had ever experienced. So tight and so eager to get on down the road. It was a five speed. Put 70K on it before trading it in on an original Toyota mini-van. Another mistake, maybe, but that little thing had rear wheel drive and tons of room for a young family's needs.
No, that's not Sandy or me in our younger years. Just a Toyota promo pic.
That mini-van looks like a blast from the past. My Corona was a 4-speed manual, 1.9L 18R-C overhead cam 4 that weighed 2,225 lbs. No reason it should have been such a fun car but it was. I had both summer and winter wheels; in the winter it had snow tires on all four (a requirement in Japan I was told). Here's the same car after I repainted it. Why I repainted it is a story that will cost you more than a 6-pack. In this shot it has the original wheels with the snows.
12-02-2016, 02:46 PM
