gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Aren't we all like that ? hahaha... well regardless , it is always the best for the SCs we are after. It's that love for the car that drives us to give it the best .

Yeah as Ali also said the old bumper can look good especially one with the removable center piece for the intercooler to shine . Looking at old pictures, that 92 being lowered with a lip looks good. It reminds me of these pictures ... maybe I can install the 96 bumper on it where the lower center grille is removed to show off the inter-cooler which makes it more look like a muscle car . And when you don't want to show it, just put back the lower center grille.







Then let's see how the APTech wide body kit pans out. If it comes out well , I want one of the 1992s to have a wide body since the quarter panels are being cut to make room for wider rims/tires . The 97 5 speeds should not be mutilated and deformed. They are unique and rare for being the last original SC300 5 speed so they should stay in their original 1997 look or form. Keeping them in their original form will hopefully hold their value for eventual collectors if they ever become one , who knows. That is why I have been storing the original 1997 Black Body kit of the Black Pearl.

So maybe the Old Man Tan can have a full APTech Wide Body Kit so I have a wide bodied SC then keep the second 1997 SC300 5speed just really stock 1997. So I will have a 92-96 look , a 97 look , an APTech (auto couture) look and a full wide bodied SC with all APTech kit. Got all variants and the only thing I am missing will be a 2JZGTE SC 430 . I haven't scratched that out yet . And they all have different variants of 2JZGTE / NA-T setups.

Am glad I haven't gone into the cosmetic / painting of these cars. Wanted to see what APTech has still in store for us so all the cosmetics can come later when everything I want to put on these SCs are done. Not in a hurry after all. Got my MKIVs to play with.

Right now , slowly I am having a clear mind on which SCs to keep out of the 6 If I have to absolutely only keep 4 or 3 or 2 . I should simply stop wanting to keep them all. Got them prioritized already in my mind taking into consideration why I have these SCs. I should have my powerful sleepers first. It was why I went back with the SC, to have powerful sleeper cars , one auto and one 6 speed SC at least. So which ever is able to better support my ego on the streets is first on the list. I didn't build them to be "look nice cars" though they should be , hahaha. I have the MKIVs if I wanted people to break their necks trying to find out what car I am driving while on the road. I have seen a lot of people trying to look at the car probably wondering what car I am driving when on a MKIV. Looks like a lot of people have never seen one in person or simply love the looks of a MKIV. Well with their production number at around 12,500 . It probably is.

Ezroni

man you are making me want an older SC and a supra so bad

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Get a MKIV now if funds is not an issue . If bought at a good price from someone in need, they can still be a good investment since their prices are still going up so far . Until when ? Who knows ..

Lucky to those who got theirs in the past , most will definitely make money after having enjoyed the car. 8-10 years ago , a stock 6speed TT MKIV you used to be able to get them at $16-20k .. now you are lucky if you can get one at $35-40k. A stock Auto TT MKIV you use to be able to get them at $14-18k .. now you are lucky if you can get one at $25-30k. And these are stock configurations .. well built ones , you are looking well above $40k depending on what is on it. Just glad got all the four 6speeds I have now , which are all built , before prices started skyrocketing . I had 9 MKIVs in the past 10 years and wish now kept them all.. hahaha.. and I would be making good money on them all now . I don't ever see the SCs going into the same direction ... prices sky rocketing. I maybe wrong , I hope I am but I really doubt it .

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

The less attention you get on the street in a fast car the better.....especially from cops. If you have a loud exhaust, bodykit, and bright fancy paint, you'll have a fun time on the streets here (sarcasm) with everybody staring and every cop wanting to pull you over for illegal tints, loud exhaust, and no front plate.

I've driven a few exotic cars for customers and in the several occasions, driving only half hour all I remember is how annoying it felt to have everybody staring, signaling for you to roll your windows down so they could say something retarded like "You wanna trade for my minivan? Or... What is that thing?...or "Wanna race?". I get it, most people are not used to seeing a Ferrari or a modded R8, but good god I don't think I could have a car like that. It got old REAL quick. You'd think you'd see that kind of behavior in the middle of Hicksville but not minutes out of downtown Chicago where cars like that are fairly common.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

You are perfectly right !!!

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

Its hard to do when you have/own like 26 SC's in the yard. Always turning wrenches and finding/trading parts. LOL

I see you are still hard at it. Been awhile.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

All these work I am doing for the second 1997 SC300 original 5speed better be worth it . As I go through this car slowly , I see things that I want to change just to get it to a point that who ever owns it has less to worry about . If only I don't have everything for this car , it could truly be expensive restoring this car .

So far I have replaced :

* All wheels and tires since the old were all bad
* Front Lights / Radiator Support with locking mechanism
* Radiator / Hoses / Clamps / Tool Tray / Reservoir
* Windshield wiper fluid reservoir
* AC Condenser / air redirector
* AC Lines and filter
* Head Lights
* High Beam Lights
* Power Steering Cooling lines
* Engine Bay Full Wiring System with Fuse Box
* Front Bumper with Grille
* Fog Lights
* 2 Horns and Outside Temperature Sensor
* Driver and Passenger Air Bags
* Antenna
* Radio and CD changer
* Brake Master Cylinder
* Steering Column

On the process of doing / replacing :

* Any bare metal under the dash needs to be replaced or sanded down then painted to take out surface rusts and avoid future recurrence(dang ...lots of work on this one)
* All Cylinder keys (steering wheel - done , glove box , driver and passenger door , trunk-done , gas and trunk lock - done ) to be replaced since I got this car without a key.
* Rear Tail lights since left side has small crack on the cover.
* Install a known good running low mileage engine for now with all its accessories plus the original W58 5speed transmission and clutch so my wife doesn't call it a junk car

Am glad every thing written above I have them from my parts cars or it will cost a lot of money buying them one by one.

Next on the line to be done :

* Change Front Windshield
* Paint Job .

* Old Engine rebuild to handle +1250rwhp with GE VVTi Head and with a built Tremec Magnum . The way I see it , one built 2JZGTE with an ATF Built Auto Trans and these two 1997 SC300 original 5 speeds will be the three SCs that will ultimately be left with me as time pass. So I will build these original manual trans equipped SCs as real sleepers with stock 1997 body , one with a +1250rwhp 2jzGE VVTi / Tremec Magnum 6 speed and the other +1400rwhp 2jzGTE VVTi / Getrag V160 6speed. I would like to harness the pros/advantages of the VVTi system on these 2JZs.



Removing the old steering column, I find surface rusts on metals under the dash like dash cross support and anything that is bare (no paint) so I am replacing all those with what I had from my parts cars. A car that sat on the open for 18 months will surely have surface rusts because of the condensation and the car not being started to heat up the interior thus that condensation starts up rusts. Am glad this car do not have any stubborn rusts anywhere on the body .







Old and Damaged Engine bay fusebox and wiring removed and replaced . Old and Replacement Steering column ...

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Dang .... how are you my friend ! Long time no hear. Hope everything is good with you . I did change my phone number . I will PM you.

Ezroni

haha funds ARE definitely an issue at the moment.. still finding things I need to fix with my SC. but when i do finally get a supra believe I will not be reselling it!!!


it's really amazing to me how you and others who work on their cars knows what all these things do ^ ... to me it just looks like a bunch of wires, metal, plugs... most work i've done was build a gaming PC but compared to fixing cars that's nothing lol

ThomasGS4

iTrader: (19)

Nice work, gerrb!

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

thank you guys !

@Ezroni , for all the more than 150 cars / trucks / suvs I have owned in the past 30 years... each time I bought one I said to my wife I was keeping it till it can't run anymore . None of them happened so I stopped saying it whenever I get a new car. You don't know what life brings ahead . We always say , I will never sell this .. but for whatever reason you do sell it. Heard the same sentence from quite a number of MKIV owners , lol , but now their MKIVs are gone .

Just like you I have never worked on cars till 5 years ago ... just 2 years shy of my retirement at 50 yrs old. I was in the Information Technology / Computer Field all my life since I started working . But bad experience in wanting a high hp car made or rather forced me to learn . People who I thought will do me good didn't so I said , if I can't work on them , I am not playing with them. There are a lot of fake people in this industry . They pretend to help but instead all they care is what they can get out of you. That brings me to where I am now , am able to tear apart a MKIV and an SC in pieces to the last bolt and last wire and be able to put it back together . Learned with the help of some good people who were willing to help me learn. So you can do it too. That was the purpose of my own build thread and wiring DIY thread as I mentioned somewhere at the beginning. To help other build the courage to work on their car . It is not rocket science . Both threads having tons of views , it is so nice to hear from people that my threads have helped them a lot.

It is very fulfilling to know that you built your car and not paid someone to build it for you and to know what to look at and work on when it breaks down on you. The only thing , performance cars ... as you go faster and have a more powerful car ... becomes addictive . You want more and more as you go . You never are satisfied with having a little bit more power .

Blkexcoupe

iTrader: (8)

I would have never guessed you've been turning a wrench yourself for only 5 years. With the amount of builds you have done and the amount of information you provide, I would have guessed more than double that. I use this thread and your wiring harness thread as references all the time as I plan out what I want for my car power wise. I'm preparing and researching for both options of na-t or an aristo swap, so I can do a cost/benefit analysis a lot quicker once things go wrong. lol

I started a build thread for my car to document all the things I do to my car. It's useless to 95% of SC owners, but for someone who is looking for the information it might be useful in the future. I started working on cars using information I learned from forums and other websites on the internet. I started when I was 15, and I've continued to learn new things for the last 14 years, so anyone can do it. You have to be willing to learn, have some patience, and know that mistakes happen.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

Yup, good advice!! Just start turning the wrenches.. the minute you think you can't do it is when you won't be able to focus on seeing the right solution. Confidence is half the battle... even when the solution is not readily apparent.

I used to get upset and worried when I first started wrenching thinking I would encounter some problem I couldn't solve... well what I learnt is that no matter how many times I felt like that (and I got myself into some real pickles quite a few times), I would always be able to solve it with some more time or research. Now when I encounter a new problem, I actually get excited because its one more thing I will have mastered when I figure it out... and thats how you get to the point where you can take a car apart and put it back together and have fun doing it too!!

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

That is right guys ... just got to have the courage and do it. Besides nobody will take care of your sh?t better than yourself. One thing , aside from knowing how to tear apart and build my toys and their engines , I really want to learn how to paint. With so many SCs I need to get painted , I believe I will save a lot if I learn how to do it and I can repaint any time I want . Do I have anything to loose ? If I am able to tear apart and put together my toys now , I believe painting won't be hard with the right equipment.

So, yesterday I was dicking around or rather practicing how to paint. It is all about practicing when it comes to paint.... preparation of the part to be painted then actual painting. Got nothing to loose so I might as well learn, practice and do it . I wanted to save by not spending for another bumper for the 1997 5speed so I have decided to paint and practice on the 96 bumper which I always loved because of the removable center piece where you can show off your inter-cooler. I will install it on Red Mamba II .. bring back the RM2 muscle look as shown above but with a 96 bumper and which Craig and Ali wanted. Well I liked it too after all.








And now my second 1 of 120 is more looking like a 1997 SC300 5speed ...far from the car that looked like it was heading to the scrap yard.








Next is got to get the engine with 108k miles ready , take out oil pans , drill the oil return and mate it with the transmission (who knows I might boost the stock engine before installing a built one) so I can get this damn car running at least stock for now. Hope to get it running before Christmas and that will be my Christmas gift for myself .. a second running 1997 SC300 5speed .

Blkexcoupe

iTrader: (8)

The only things you have to lose are time and money. Money on additional paint to fix your mistakes or money on better tools if you cheap out in the beginning.

Painting takes a lot of time and patience. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are will dictate how many hours you put into each paint job. Bodywork and paint are still new concepts to me, but I'm slowly learning on a s2k that my friend crashed into a wall when he spun off the track. So far I've learned:

1. have a dedicated area to work because sanding dust gets everywhere and if necessary build a make shift paint booth with pvc pipes + clear plastic to contain everything
2. buy a full face respirator because safety goggles and a simple respirator aren't enough to protect your eyes from the fumes (I'm using the weaker CA approved products)
3. buy a fan that can flow a lot of air for proper ventilation
4. a huge air compressor is required to maintain proper flow

We chose to try plasti-dip the s2k instead of traditional paint because we don't have access to a proper paint booth and it is reversible if we screw up. There was a learning curve with the dip that we didn't understand until it was too late, so the car came out really rough and looked like a zebra. In the end we decided that the dip would go in the trash and we wasted about $400 worth of product. We'll be going for attempt number 2 in a couple of weeks, so hopefully it doesn't suck.


I would stick with your method of practicing on parts for now. If you paint a part and its bad, then you only have to strip the paint off of that one part before starting over.