Old Cars/Trucks Restoration and Modding

[greenpondmike]

That's good SilverFox. I guess a 1953 chevy might be similar. My dad used to borrow a 1953 chevy from my uncle every now and then. It had the starter switch on the floor. I was a kid back then and loved to play on it. I hated it when dad had to return it.

 

[greenpondmike]

I talk too much, so y'all carry on while I read more and talk less.

 

[greenpondmike]

Anyone else out there doing any restoring and modding?

 

[bykfixer]

I took delivery of a 2004 luxury sedan. 2004 is not "old" to folks like my boss who restores late 1950's early 1960's Pontiac muscle cars. But it's only a few years from being deemed an antique so to me it's old.
Unlike my grandmas 1966 Lincoln that did have A/C but no seat belts because at that point seat belts were an option, this one has "dual climate controls", heated seats, bright light sensing rear view mirror and a bunch of other cool stuff now considered normal in todays rolling appliances once called automobiles.

Research so far has revealed there are some common things that plague the Lexus/Toyota vehicles to this day. It always daunts me how a solenoid that gives trouble in a 1973 Bronco still plagues Fords to this day. And yet since Lexus used the same parts in some cases I know how to fix it. So when the dual climate control gets stuck on heater I know how to fix that because my 95 Ford Ranger and my 97 Honda Prelude had the same mechanical issue. It's either rust in the bicycle brake cable type cable that changes how warm or cold air enters the system or it's a plastic worm gear is broken. Now in the case of the Lexus it could be an electric sensor is dirty so it is blind to the temperature inside the car and thinks the cabin is warmer or colder than it really is.

The challenge is not what is wrong. The challenge is getting my bloated carcass up under the dashboard anymore. The whole thing boils down to whether or not the car starts, or runs without spilling fluids like crazy. If it reaches that point I'll just pass it on to the next dummy. I call it my latest money pit but with lessons learned from previous projects the pit should be fairly shallow (knocking on wood).

It's pretty satisfying to take on a project once begun by my oldest son.
I told a friend not long ago "it's gratifying to know your kids have better transportation than their parents".

 

[greenpondmike]

That's a nice Lexus bykfixer. My wife has a 97 avalon. The seats and door panels are ragged out, but it is still a smooth riding car. I said that because I heard the avalon is midgrade between the camry and the lexus. I think the mid 2000s v6 engine is one tough booger. When I worked in Adger out in those abandoned mines there were several toyota pickups that had that engine and they really dogged them, but they held up. One 4 wheel drive lost a rear axle, front axle later on and then a transfer case. The engine held up. I think those are the same type engines as in the cars.

 

[Nitroz]

Not exactly old but my son and I swapped the engine in his 2007 Mazda 3 after it overheated and killed the head gasket. With 170,000 miles on that engine we opted to swap in a 2015 Ford Fusion 2.5 with 56,000 miles that we scored from a junkyard for $320. Cheaper and easier to do than fool around with replacing the head gasket.

Out with the old.

Old engine

New engine

BSD delete

New engine timed and installed

Shop dog

 

[bykfixer]

nice Nice NICE!!!

 

[greenpondmike]

Yes sir!

 

[greenpondmike]

Wow, dual cams. That is the longest timing chain I've ever seen. What does that short chain at the bottom run- the oil pump?

If you don't mind me asking, what is BSD?

 

[Nitroz]

Wow, dual cams. That is the longest timing chain I've ever seen. What does that short chain at the bottom run- the oil pump?

Yes, oil pump. The nice thing is he got a little horsepower bump from the engine swap, 155hp to 175hp.

If you don't mind me asking, what is BSD?

Balance shaft delete. Ir weighs 19lbs. Deleting this make the engine rev up a little faster. I have a 2007 Mazda 3 hatch and I can tell a difference in his car vs mine.

Here's my car.

 

[greenpondmike]

The picture of your car hasn't shown up yet, but I'll check back later. Thanks for answering my questions. That was a good deal on that engine. It's also so clean. Makes me wonder what brand of oil the previous owner used in it.

 

[Nitroz]

See if this works.

 

[greenpondmike]

Yes. That's a nice car

 

[rebelbayou]

Just got through restoring my 1968 camaro that I have owned for 32 years.

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[greenpondmike]

Wow, that is a rally sport convertible.

 

[bykfixer]

Just got through restoring my 1968 camaro that I have owned for 32 years.

Are you ever truely done?

My boss told me "you are only done when it's in a museum, because then you can't work on it".
His first car was a 63 vette that he just began restoring for the 3rd time. It was white when new but he wanted it corvette blue (as in dang near silver) then he went back to white. Apparently he likes the silver look better.

My neighbor has a 68 camaro that was bought new and it sits in a garage in original condition because the guy said as soon as he started working on it he'd probably never stop. If you could see how nice the car is you'd probably think it doesn't really need restoring anyway.

 

[Nitroz]

Just got through restoring my 1968 camaro that I have owned for 32 years.

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Now that's awesome! Beautiful car.

I would be afraid to drive it because the war people drive.

 

[Nitroz]

Yes. That's a nice car

Thanks! It's my daily shuttle. Stick shift and a blast to drive.

 

[bykfixer]

The last one I had that was a blast to drive caused me to limp each time I pried myself out of the cockpit.

I've gotten so used to stepping sideways into crossovers or up into pickups that it's a bit odd climbing in and out of a sedan. I've also noticed that unless you park your "car" away from the areas closest to stores you are visually blocked when leaving by all the suv and truck traffic in the parking lot. Even crossovers like my wife's Escape blocks my view when backing out of a space. I just ease on out waiting to hear "honk". I had forgotten why I always parked the Preludes so far away from the door of a store.

I joined a car forum for the Lexus to get tips on what goes wrong and how to fix it. It's weird to see the changes in what people consider "an issue". Like in the old days when the wheel screeched or there was an annoying rattle under the car that was "an issue". Nowdays it seems that when to touch screen dvd player takes 2 seconds to work or the air conditioned seats play out that's a huge problem for some. When the complaint is that the electric doors won't lock via the keyfob I remind them that the smash n grab thief don't care if it's locked because they don't mind breaking glass one bit so leaving things worth stealing causes you to have glass to clean up later. (Learned that the hardway.)

Now one cool thing about a car forum for post 2000 vehicles is cheat codes. You can learn stuff like holding down the door unlock button and pushing the volume knob on the radio 5 times quickly can change the door open chime or change how long the lights stay on after you exit the car (or not at all.) Mine has a feature where you can do the hokey pokey or something and the windshield wipers move away from the window 2 inches for when it snows to make it easier to remove the snow around them. The blades themselves still work like normal. It also has a trunk lock feature where pushing the trunk release does nothing so if your electric door locks fail a would be burglar can't open the trunk without the key.

One feature I though I hope I never need is a trunk open handle inside the trunk. I suppose that's incase you somehow manage to lock yourself in the trunk? If I'm ever abducted and shoved into the trunk that'll certainly come in handy. I figure that feature is due to somebody locking themself in the trunk and sueing Toyota (and winning a big pile of cash).

One feature I'm not looking forward to fixing someday is all of those sensors. Good gosh!! My 95 Ranger pickup has one sensor for gasoline fumes escaping. Now you get to guess where they escape from when that thing throws a code. Gas cap? Filler tube? Charcoal canister? Vaccum leak? The sensor itself? But with the Lexus there are sensors galore for that. Each one being $100 or more. Yikes! Luckily it's usually a leak it sniffs out and not the sensor itself in most cases.

At the car forum there is the usual "want turbo……cheap" groopies and "what 22 inch wheels will look best on my car" types. And you get the "my a/c fan stopped and I've searched the internet for hours" enquiries that an actual 24 second search yields 45 threads on the matter. Now one reason CPF is so great is that the staff here keeps things on the rails so searching yields answers instead of 2 potential posts about the issue and 24 pages discussing everything from rocket launchers to grandmas raisin cookies.

Nowadays it's all about youtube videos which is great when you just cannot figure out how to remove a hidden screw (provided the person putting it on actually shows you that part) or when need to see something done visually. But the step by step how to with photos is still pretty handy. You can read at your pace instead of "wait a second, what was that again, the what?" and you have to rewind. Another thing too is "likes". It used to be someome who gained from your input would "rep" you. That was that. No frownies, or thumbs ups or hearts. You either had a good rep (green) or a bad rep (red) or not at all (usually new folks). But like any forum it takes a bit of time to get to know the place. It's like taking on a restoration project with an unfamiliar brand of vehicle.

My former boss restores cars from the early 1960's. Mostly GM. He's an expert about particular models stem to stern and each square inch in between both inside and out. Dude has cars in museums and has been featured in magazines galore. But when his wife wanted to restore a 57 VW bug he joined a VW forum and quickly put together a prize winning restoration. When the pandemic hit he could not get a haircut. Barber shops were shut down. I asked why he doesn't get his wife to cut his hair. He responded that after selling her prize winning VW at a car show while she was in the ladies room he was afraid to let her get near him with scissors. So he joined a barber forum. It became pretty obvious he should stick with fixing up old cars when he came in the door one day with one sideburn obviously longer than the other. He comes in one Monday "good morning, shut up"…… perplexed I asked why the long face today and he replied "last night one side of my face slid down"…… eventually he found a black market barber through the forum. lol. Now he just buzz cuts his head and wears a ball cap.

My first project for the Lexus is to polish the black finish without having a million white dots on the hood from the tiny chips in the finish up front. When I scoured the hood of my Prelude and got the oxidation off the paint was yard stick shiney again. Yet after applying wax there were a thousand tiny white dots of dried wax because the paint looked like someone driving the car had followed a dump truck leaking sand all over the road for 1000 miles. It was bad. I also discovered that seemingly thousands of water drops had merged with the clear coat on the trunk. From 20 feet or more it looked great, but at 5 feet or less the finish of the car was an awful site.

No biggy really as it didn't affect how the car drove but it was just dam difficult to know that in some ways the car looked better with a dull finish. I even contemplated spraying the car flat black some day. But then the head gasket popped and that was that for that project. So lesson learned I searched the Lexus exterior for chips, scratches and water spots and found it's not so bad but minus an overspray of Onyx black paint it might turn out ok without having to spend hours and hours with a toothbrush removing tiny bits of wax everytime I wax it. Had the Prelude not been so break down prone I would have eventually wet sanded the finish and applied a new clear coat. But with the Lexus I'm going to try black car wax. Idea being it'll mask the small stuff like swirls and tiny chips in the paint. It seems to come down to super shine or a good shine. Super shine with all flaws laughing at me each time I get near the car or a good shine with most flaws being masked.

I could do like my neighbor and hire somebody to detail the car while I drink beer in the garage. First off I don't drink beer. Second, I don't have a garage. But more important, it aint no fun handing a stranger $75 to do something I enjoy doing. But what I may do is hire somebody that knows their stuff to do it the first time and use their technique after that.

The car will spend most of its time under a cover so it really doesn't matter anyway. And I don't want to be one of those "step away from the Lexus" types who freaks out whenever a kid rides near it on a bicycle. It really comes down to whether the darn thing starts and drives from point A to B and back without something catastropic taking place.

 

[bykfixer]

I'm supposing most reading this have heard of Takata automotive air bags causing injuries across a wide spectrum of automobile brands and models. Auto makers often buy some of the products in them from one or two sources who specialize in that product.
Hitachi makes many of the wiring harnesses that go into automobiles since at least the 1990's, maybe longer. That means the clips too. And often when assembling said harnesses at warp speed things can go wrong like when crimping a pin to the end of a wire the tool can pinch too firm and break strands. It's not noticed until later on when places like opening and closing doors bend the wire harness. Not if all 12 or so wire strands inside the cable are ok that thing can bend back and forth for decades with no issues. However if 6 of the 12 were broken when the pin was pinched onto the wire then the lifespan of a bending wire is greatly reduced.
Now finding information for replacement parts can be daunting. What is the terminal block part number? What is the pin that goes into the terminal block part number?
Toyota put out a repair manual that identifies the terminal block, the pin number and has instructions on how to remove and replace them.
https://www.toyota-tech.eu/wire_har..._source=LexusOwnersClub&utm_medium=ForumLinks
Being Mazda, Toyota, Honda and others use the same stuff you can use the manual to find out how to fix broken door wires in other vehicles besides Toyota.
Hope you never need this info. Ugh! But if suddenly your electric lock, power mirror etc quits it may be that the wire broke at the connector.

Like this.