Registration

Now the weather has gone sour again I've not spent much time in the shed, but I had been starting to get a little concerned about registering the Corona. I really didn't feel like having to take it to Regency to get it re-registered into my name, given a) it had been off the road for so many years, and b) I bought it unregistered. Especially given I'd have to spend many dollars to get it driveable to take it to Regency, then to find there was some issue with it which would result in me having to abandon the rebuild. A little silly I know, but I tend to plan for worst case scenarios sometimes. 


Anyway I filled in one form at the Motor Rego office, paid a little over $200 and it's transferred and registered to me, no hassles. Very happy here!

Diff and springs

With the brakes removed it was time to take the axles out. New bearings are a must as I have no idea how old they are and from experience most cars I get the rear bearings seem to still be the originals! Well after several hours using different tools, including the obligatory slide hammer and the 'axle removing levers' (well levers with fulcrums that work when a slide hammer fails), I still can't get them out! I think the original bearings have seized to the inside of the axle tube or something. No amount of work is getting them out so I decided to take the whole back axle out as one piece. 


The rest wasn't too bad, plenty of RP7, and the U bolts came out, but getting the handbrake cables out of the backing plates was a nightmare. I ended up taking the brake cable off at the junction under the body and then fiddling around getting them off the backing plates when the whole axle was out of the car. Even then one side still took about an hour. I got a good look at the axle though, and it's been leaking from the front seal. You can see that in the photo. Alas this means a trip to a diff specialist as I can't remove and reset the yoke to change the seal myself.

Whilst I was a it, I decided to remove the leaf springs to give them a clean up and to change the shackle rubbers. Well once again, either Toyota ones are remarkably well made, or they have been replaced at some stage as they are pretty good. Except the one here in the photo which is started to perish. I'll put new ones in just to be safe.

Work actually begins

Well it's been a year since the last post and the Corona has languished in the shed with zero work being done. It's not that I've been idle or lazy either, the past year has had a massive number of projects from the normal furniture restorations (which I've now put a stop to, as I was becoming the my workplace's 'fix my piece of crap particleboard table which I actually think is an antique' guy), my phone box build, plus any one of my other money-sucking hobbies.

So a couple weeks back, the weather improved, I decided enough was enough time to get started on the Corona. So I did.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I tend to start at the back with any restoration and work forwards. First with the mechanicals, and later on with the body restoration. The back wheels came off and I proceeded to dismantle the brakes. The whole lot came apart a little easier than I expected, with usual amount of brake dust and such, and the drums came straight off. Well... after I remembered that old Toyotas have a screw to secure them.

The brake linings were pretty meaty, they must have been replaced at some stage relatively recently. Alas the vehicle has been off the road for 4 years and the wheel cylinders were leaking a little. Hopefully the drums still have a enough meat on them so I can have them ground. I don't really want to be purchasing new drums, nor oversize brake shoes. I haven't worked in the brake industry for over 12 years, so I'm not sure if oversize shoes are even still available.

Anyway I tooks a reference photo of the brakes:

It appears that this model either didn't come with, or has since lost, the self-adjuster. I guess, like my HZ (faulty adjusters) I'll have to make a habit of regularly adjusting them. 

I removed the brake lines from the diff, gave them a clean and repaint and will reuse those. The flexible hose from the underbody line to the diff has perished pretty badly so a new one will have to be sourced.