Spannerhead Dot Com

Made the unpleasant discovery that the car has been repainted. There’s a run just behind the driver’s door:

and the LS stickers were (poorly) masked instead of just removed and replaced afterwards.

Otherwise it’s a decent job. Would I like a glossier/original finish? Sure. But at least the clearcoat is intact.

Lots of work to do in the engine bay:

I got him up on jackstands on Friday and started removing parts. Canadian winters have had their way with everything under there. Exhaust leak, check:

Managed to get most of it off, but the studs securing the downpipes to the exhaust manifolds snapped immediately, so I had to rip off the intake manifold and remove the exhaust manifolds also:

Fortunately, thanks to a combination of heat, penetrant, just the right socket extensions and a lot of patience, all 14 nuts/bolts came off with breaking any. So the engine will not have to be pulled (yet).

At the rear, 3 out of the 4 subframe mounting bolts snapped:

A nice neighbor came off and welded nuts onto the bolts so we could get them off with the air gun:

There’s also a good bit of rust under the shock towers:

Wire brushed it and hit it with a couple of coats of POR-15.

And I finally got the fuel tank off earlier this evening:

Some rusty patches above the tank, which I’ll also wire brush and treat:

I’d like to powerwash all the undercoating off, but I think that would take something stronger than Simple Green; probably some scrubbing action, which I don’t have time for at the moment.

Very close to being able to start reassembly, which should (hopefully) go more smoothly.

(I only had 1/2 hour):

• Removed window stickers and ’90s cell antenna
• Swapped on Megumi’s ’95+ wheels
• Slam-dunked sunroof shield into trash can

No scratches under the sunroof shield, unlike with Megumi. There’s a line of dirt, but it will clean up/polish out.

Next up: Prepping Megumi’s fuel tank to be swapped over, and starting on the interior deep clean.

So, this is Nori. He finally arrived early this morning. He needs a lot of help.

Nori is a ’94 5-speed V6. He was originally a Canadian-market car (hence the “Mystère” trunklid badging). I bought him from the original owner. He has 270K km (~170K mi). He spent the first ~6 years of his life in Canada before moving to Fort Myers, Florida, where he was driven until 2010-2012, when he was parked.

I had planned to drive him up here to Chattanooga, but he wasn’t “ready for prime time” and so I had him shipped instead.

He’ll be getting Megumi’s 108K mi engine/trans + a host of other non-rusty parts, and a thorough clean.

Current (known) issues:

• Massive exhaust leak
• Marginal brakes
• Rusty undercarriage
• Completely dead shocks
• Speedo inop (cruise works, though, so I think the speed sensor is OK)
• Fuel sender inop (seized b/c of bad gas?)
• Shifter bushings shot
• Needs a tune up
• ~3 small dents
• Cat scratches on sunroof panel

Fortunately, Megumi’s parts will serve to help replace all the non-consumable bits.

Follow along as I bring him back into focus, and eventually give him some mild upgrades. OEM+.