1986 MX73 - Project 'grandadgonecrusin' New Zealand

I'm a 4AGE boy at heart but have always had a love for the old boxy Cressidas, also needing a tow car for the kp i figured...why not.







Bit of history on the old girl: 1986 - Started off her life at the Toyota plant in Thames, at 60 thou km's in 1993 it was sold on to some old geezer who owned the car for about 11 years.
This is the part that saddens me, last year the coot decided to take her to the local wreckers for scrap!!
luckily it was saved but i'm assuming when the cambelt was changed around this time the crank bolt wasn't torqued correctly and eventually slackened off enough and did the damage. The car was passed on to Nathan who then must've realized his v12 Cressida was more important, then on to me.

The thing that really grabbed me was that it was basically bone stock, I have further found out from the scrap yard that ford springs were put in the rear to lower it a bit but other than that she's unmolested.

Specs:
Engine - 5M-GE 2.8L (worlds first engine of its kind with hydraulic tappets)
Transmission - A43DE 4 speed with lock-up torque converter
Rear end - Independant semi trailing, f series? 4.1:1

Sweet bits:
Classic Digital dash, Leather interior (seen better days), Cruise control, illuminating drivers door key and ignition barrel, power mirrors & windows, central locking, vehicle speed sensitive power assisted steering, remote radio & a/c controls.
I am to believe that the wheels I put on it now are the 'exclusive alloy wheels', could be wrong though but am yet to see another kind painted gold from the factory.










So enough blabbering, got the car trailered home last saturday knowing it had spun the crank timing pulley key then stripped it all down, found the crank seems (fingers crossed) ok but the pulley is quite damaged.
Managed to hunt down a brand new pulley from murica and will be here tomorrow.



In the mean time I spent the weekend cleaning the old girl up, nothing too major, most of the electrics weren't working but have found the one door was completely missing its regulator! in place was a handy piece of kiwi ingenuity...a block of wood :grin:

nonetheless kept at it, diagnosed most of it, windows switches needs replacing, radio fuse was blown which stopped the wing mirrors from working...go figure.
bits of rust here and there but all fixable, have sent through a mad order through to a guy for a bunch of stuff so hopefully can get all those nek wek.


Basically im doing a slight resto, bringing her back to its original grandad/ma self in all of its sheepwool seat cover, cassette tape radio, bobble headed dog glory.
Dont get me wrong I love seeing them slammed on a nice set of Japanese 14's, but I'm wanting something a bit more practical with comfort and style in mind.

One Bonus I fully forgot was that the ol boeast still has its original glass including the front windscreen!!
Proven by the original number plate plastered on it.

Friday night My new cambelt etc, crank keys and seals arrived so got stuck in as soon as i got home from work.
Thankfully the new crank timing pulley fitted nice and snug on the crank snout so was in mint condition giving what had happened.









Everything went together well, had to remove the exhaust side rocker cover to check the camshafts alignment, whilst it was out i took the chance to clean it up and add some sealant around the gasket to keep it from pissing out everywhere till i get new ones.

Come 2:00am! it was all pieced together. Now bare in mind the car hadn't been run for over a year, i cranked her over for about 2 seconds, turned the key off, primed the fuel system then she fired straight into life.
Had a bit of a miss when revved but cleared up not long after and has been great ever since.

Being too excited/cold I didnt manage to snap a vid but hers another one after 2 trips to town as per trip meter.
https://youtu.be/W_UO4ecej-c


Today I took advantage of Hawkes bays 21 degree weather and attacked the rust...cant get away from the dam s@#t.
The worst that i know of at the moment is on the lhs 'A' pillar and after chatting with my boss he said back then it was a common rusting point.
After pulling out the goldilocks I engulfed the whole pillar with cavity wax and cleaned up all the rust.
Ended up cutting back about 70mm of the guttering as it was toast and welded up the hole followed by por15 sealer.
didnt get pics of the new plate but once the sealer had cured will bog over it all and repaint with the original coloured base coat in a can.





Trial fitted my A3A, i do like the look but i think the ol geezer wont be happy.



Quick snap of the near completed engine, will redo the wrinkle paint on the covers at some stage and Very lightly water blast the engine bay.

Todays resolution: I'm bloody stoaked with my old Cressy (or Cress as per rego tag -_-).
During my drive into town I had to test the cruise control, to my absolute delight it worked perfectly!
Its pritty crude in the way it operates but hey, a coming up 30 year old car with cruise control, that shizz is pure luxury. Lets not forget the automatic fan speed AND air direction modes.

Better stop my Toyota fan-boying...
Got the car up on the hoist, everything looks great underneath, sumps a bit bashed and both rackends need replacing along with one shock but other than that and the rust she'll fly through the warrant fingers crossed..