Hi, My name is Basset Popal, I'm 16 years old, I live in Seattle, Washington, this the Build thread for my Corona:
I bought my 1977.5 Toyota Corona 20R 5speed on Saturday 05/26/12. With x24k miles on its 5digit dash. It has a Strong Running Motor and very straight body. I drove it from Lynwood, WA to Renton, WA on the freeway with no issues. Needed a some work like the rust holes in the edges of the trunk, parts of the interior and dash was taken off and was laying in the trunk. Needed Carb work, Paint, and emissions lines plugged. It seemed like the last few owners did not bother washing the car, cleaning the interior, or even take care of it properly in years. The interior was seriously F***ED UP. Fast Food wrappers, over $2 in change, rocks, leaves, ketchup packets, and a zillion tiny things scattered all over the carpet. It was the dirtiest I've ever seen in any car. First thing i did was vacuum the interior and take out all the parts scattered around in the rear seats and trunk and organize them into boxes. Then i pressure washed all the moss, dirt, and other dirty shit growing along the exterior trim, windows, hood, and engine bay.
My goals for this is to be a nice clean stanced classic Daily Driver
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6/4/12
oh... if only i took a picture of what the Engine bay looked like before... you would have cried from how dirty it was...
This is how it looked like after pressure washing the gunk down. Still not very pretty... but whatever.
my trunk, full of some teasers...
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6/5/12
Cleaner Pic
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6/20/12
Got some stuff done
-Brushed/Polished the valve cover, and got rid of most of the gunk.
-Bought a bunch of spray paint- Cans of Rust-Oleum Dark Grey/Black Primer and other colors.
-Bought Rotella T5 Motor Oil with a Wix oil filter
-Bought sand-sponge, shop towels, and masking tape.
Took off the bumper covers, and bumper to sand down the rust and re-paint it...
It took me about an hour trying to get the bumper off... I Broke about 10 out of 30 bolts on the bumper alone from all the rust.
Once i finally got both bumper pieces off, i took off the grill, outer headlight covers, and decided to sand and re-paint them too.
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6/22/12
Sanding was basically done. Just needed a few more touch ups.
The dam rear end is rust city...
I set up a painting booth behind my dads workplace in one of those white plastic car tent/garages.
all the parts just layin there
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6/25/12
Painted the primer layer. It was still drying off, but i have to admit i did a pretty shitty job. There were a lot of run offs and uneven spots. I will just sand down the bad spots and even everything out before I give it another layer, and the next layers to come.
Right before the paint
After (Still drying off but still very uneven)
I ended up scuffing up the paint until it evened out. It was even, but i hated the color.
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9/4/12
After a few more days of trial and error with spray paint, i decided to do it right. I ordered a paint gun, and got 1 gallon of 1 stage gloss white paint to finish it up and lay it over the primers. From July to September, i didn't have many chances to work on it, so progress was very slow. But finally on 9/4/12, i finished up the paint. I have an entire paint theme set out in my head, and it will be going under a crazy transformation. But it will take a while. So until then, here's a teaser.
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October 2012
I basically rolled around like this, still needed work and i felt like it wasn't done.
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11/3/12
I finished sandblasting the wheels (Cressida SnowFlakes) that night, and the next day i powdercoated it 2 stage Deep Candy Purple.
This was the halfway point when sandblasting. I'm doing all the work at MeisterWerk garage.
Finished Product
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(today 11/16/12)
I got the wheels on and they look great. There are a lot of other things I've done to the exterior since then, but i haven't got a chance to take some recent pictures.
But now, I'm having a crazy problem with the 20r Motor... It keeps misfiring. I replaced the Spark Plugs, Spark Plug Wires, Distributor Cap, Distributor Rotor, Ignition Coil, EGR+Emissions Delete, and Removed the Catalytic Converter.
It all started about a month after driving the car around. It would barely ever happen, maybe like one quick studder after driving around for 30 minutes. As i kept driving i noticed that once the car warms up (but the thermometer never goes past half) it would start studdering and misfiring. As time went by, it would happen more often and sooner. From 30 minutes, to 20, to 10, to where i could barely make it school. A week ago it started misfiring within 5 Minutes, it started to lose the spark in one cylinder (I could smell the unburnt fuel) Then After one cylinder is completely gone, another cylinder stops sparking, and it's barely running, and usually shuts off right then. NOW, right when i turn on the car, it's running on 3 Cylinders.
But get this, When i reach down and pull UP/Left on the distributor itself (not the cap) it starts firing on all 4 cylinders and sounds perfectly normal. (the distributor doesn't actually move, bolted tight) The Distributor Timing is at the most Upward/Left Position that it can be and is bolted on tight.
The only way I dealed with it was leave it for a few hours to fully cool down and run it again at cold start.
I don't know what the problem is. My current guess is Distributor, but the only ones i could find online are Used ones for <$75, a $250 modified oem one, and a $350 1 Piece Racing DUI HEI Ignition Distributor.
I tried adjusting and tuning my carb a bit to fix it, but it didn't help. I don't think my timing is an issue because i ran the car for a month straight without ANY engine problem at all. And i honestly have no idea how to do a valve adjustment or to check and see if that's my problem.
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Criticism, Idea's, and Help is appreciated. Thanks.
