Author |
Message |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 170 Reg: 11-2007
| Hey everyone, seeing how I'm always doing little things to my car and always taking photos I thought I would just start a dedicated thread for it so I can keep adding photos and asking questions about parts without clogging up the other threads. Starting off with a bit of history, in 2006 my Soarer originally was owned to my big brother Carl. it was his very first car. Before he bought it he read this website inside and out trying to learn as much as he could about the car he was about to purchase. My parents strictly told him not to buy it because he wouldn't be able to drive it on his P's here in N.S.W., but what do you know.. he rolls into the driveway with a shiny new mint condition Soarer anyway.
The Soarer quickly gained the name of 'The Cursed Car'.. everything from electrical problems with warning messages on the dash, timing belt snapping in traffic, badges being torn off by idiots, being reversed into in car parks and that's just a small touch of the list of mishaps. Then sadly on the 16th July 2006 he took his life at the age of 22 for reasons unknown. After everything settled down there was one thing of his left.. his Soarer. My parents intended to sell it but I said I wanted to keep it but they wouldn't let me. With lots of arguing and yelling at them that it's the only damn thing I have left of his, I was finally given permission to keep it. After that the car sat around most of its life with a dead battery, I guess as a teenager without a license I didn't really know what to do with it. So one day my Soarer was parked outside and the front bar was reversed into, so my friend said that he would take it off and go get it repaired and resprayed for me. They took off the coats and put on a base coat then I can't quite remember what happened, I may of not had enough money so my friend brought the front bar back home and that's how I ended up with the white front. Now with car enthusiast friends and my deep connection to this Soarer it is slowly being restored. Although the Cursed Car will forever hold it's name. First major things to do was to remove the tar like oil substance and replace it with nice fresh clear oil, steering rack bushings needed to be replaced and then rewired the whole audio so it finally had music. When it was time to change the brake pads my mechanic friend said that the calipers were seized so then I had to get them refurbished.
But the curse wasn't done with us yet.. I came out of my house one day to find the car completely sloping, it seems the left front air strut blew on it's own. So I got a replacement and swapped it in and it was fixed! Easy... too easy... so a few days later we decided to take it for a drive to Newcastle and then the cruse hit again.. left front air strut blows three hours from home... a slow limp home awaited us.
The strut was replaced and shortly later due to being extremely paranoid of going more than 100 meters from my house in the Soarer, Cusco Zero 2 Coilovers were installed.
Then just kept doing small things to her. Fixed the steering column cog and put the lights in the oven and gave them a good clean inside and out.
Then took her to Olympic Park for some photography.
Me
Then on Tuesday morning a small kangaroo jumped out infront of me.
Seems the little guy cracked the plastic radiator connection so... on to fixing that now I guess. |
Joe Aliano
TryHard Nsw 91 UZZ31 , 94 JZZ31 , 1995 JZZ31
Posts: 335 Reg: 08-2005
| Mate , sad story about your brother but nice to see that you kept the car and fixing into something special that he'd be proud of. Keep up the good work |
Aaron Casey
Goo Roo nsw '94 jzz30 gttl, 2 mini's one supercharged
Posts: 3066 Reg: 08-2005
| as joe said sorry to hear about your brother bet he would be proud to see you spend some time and effort on the car. hopefully the problems stop here for you mate! keep it up! |
John Mills
Tinkerer NSW SC400 V8+
Posts: 22 Reg: 07-2010
| Kris..Sorry to hear about your brother I think he would be proud of the time & care that you are spending restoring the Soarer...Cheers mate |
Jason Cheah
DieHard QLD MINE'S 2JZ-GTE JZZ31
Posts: 513 Reg: 09-2005
| Hope it goes well from here Kris. All the best! |
Joshua Baldwin
Goo Roo victoria 1990 ucf11 c+f celsior. 1991 uzz31 toyota soarer 2003 vy sv8 ute
Posts: 1618 Reg: 10-2009
| i love the positive enthusiasm to all the problems you have encountered and how you have kept on going through and through! alot of people i know would have just simply givin up! it will all pay off mate . |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 171 Reg: 11-2007
| Thanks heaps guys I just had to share my story about it to someone. I have to admit I've been very close to giving up.. fix one problem and literally next day another pops up, starts to do my head in! But I can't abandon this car and I won't. It's kind of bad being so attached to a car because when it's in a bad state I find myself a bit down in the dumps myself. I'm actually going to settle down a bit with it now.. no more seeing how fast I can get through the twisty corners, because if I do some damage that's unrepairable, I'll never forgive myself. Although I have to admit, if it was in perfect condition and didn't need any attention I would probably get bored, I love getting dirty and fixing her up and learning everything inside and out about it, I know what part does what, I know what to take out to get to a part, I know what screws to take out to take off that panel. I can seriously see myself having at least 3 Soarers in my garage one day, one stripped out one for the track. ;) |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car
Posts: 2944 Reg: 04-2006
| When the time comes to start the stripped out track car there a re a few of us who have been through it now...feel free to copy and paste. |
David Boyle
TryHard NSW Soarer GT limited
Posts: 304 Reg: 05-2009
| Keep up the good work on the car Kristoph. there was times i wanted to give up on my car, glad i didn't now it's close enough to the way i want it. It is an awesome tribute to your brother and a good way to have his memory with you. On a side note, how did you hook up the turning lamps as fog lights? |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 172 Reg: 11-2007
| Hey David, that was something the previous owner did, although not very well.. sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.. He re-wired them into the driving lights so they all come on together. |
David Boyle
TryHard NSW Soarer GT limited
Posts: 305 Reg: 05-2009
| Thanks Kristoph, have found a few links on it, personally going to run a relay and have a switch. Apparently it's illegal to have them on when it's not foggy. Anyway, hope you finally get some better luck with your car. thought i had seen it advertised for sale a few months back? if not a very similar one. |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 173 Reg: 11-2007
| Oh my... you're right. I gave up and tried to sell it but I shortly took down the for sale signs and kept at it. I also heard that with the fog lights but I wouldn't really consider the Soarer ones fog lights, they're more dim than the driving lights! |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 174 Reg: 11-2007
| This is really annoying I can't see any damage to the radiator but after the kangaroo hit coolant was spraying violently out from the bottom left..
I just had it on for a good 10 minutes plus and all that happened was the overflow just dripped some water.. |
David Boyle
TryHard NSW Soarer GT limited
Posts: 306 Reg: 05-2009
| Looks like the clip isn't sitting right anymore. Remove the clip have a look at the hose for cracks then reattach. |
Peter Howden
DieHard WA TT 2.5L 6 cylinder
Posts: 727 Reg: 01-2008
| Kristoph, Keep this thread going buddy .. I'm certainly going to enjoy reading what you're doing .. this seems to be good therapy for you with the loss of your brother .. NEVER give up my friend and there are heaps of people on here that will help you out anytime .. |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 177 Reg: 11-2007
| Alright Sitrep: White bar is gone ( sad face... ) and second-hand bar has been attached. It didn't have a lip so I had a bit of sanding and painting ahead of me. Four coats of blackkkk and four coats of clear coat.
Then I got excited and put it on the minute it was dry.
Still haven't been able to get it on my friends hoist so radiators still spraying out at this point. I REALLYYYYY want to drive it. |
Peter Howden
DieHard WA TT 2.5L 6 cylinder
Posts: 735 Reg: 01-2008
| HaHa .. that looks better .. polish those rims and that would look better again .. good job mate |
Ali Saeed
Goo Roo WA UZZ31
Posts: 3727 Reg: 09-2007
| mate i dont think you need a hoist, just put it on jack stands. |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 178 Reg: 11-2007
| Does anyone know if there's any changing V8 radiator guides? I'm just going to take it all out. |
Ali Saeed
Goo Roo WA UZZ31
Posts: 3728 Reg: 09-2007
| its really really easy. i did it myself, and got it out pretty quickly. just make sure you drain the radiator first. its only held on by those two claps you see on the top tank. you also need to remove the battery, disconnect the hydraulic fan. you cannot disassemble the hydraulic fan while its in the car. remove the hoses, theres 4: 1 to engine on top 1 from engine on the bottom 1 from the transmission 1 to the transmission make sure you dont mix the transmission ones up. |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 185 Reg: 11-2007
| Think I might need a photo tutorial looks a bit tricky when I had a look |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 189 Reg: 11-2007
|
Stupid kangaroo. |
Kristoph Schneider
TryHard New South Wales Soarer UZZ31 V8
Posts: 204 Reg: 11-2007
| Few update photos
Soarer shirt
She's running okay but two major things wrong at the moment. The ABS warning is constantly on, from test the brakes are locking up so ABS is not active, not really sure how to tackle that. Other problem is when I accelerate the car stutters and jerks like it's not taking the fuel smoothly, my mechanic friend says it's more of a misfire but it feels much more like fuel surge because it really stutters a lot on hills. |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo North Island JZZ31
Posts: 6578 Reg: 10-2005
| I take it the Nissan needed a jump start? |
Mike Beck
Goo Roo New Zealand BMW E36 Coupe 1UZFE V8 340i
Posts: 5456 Reg: 11-2005
| I like the colourful engine bits. |
Aaron Casey
Goo Roo nsw '94 jzz30 gttl, 2 mini's one supercharged
Posts: 3177 Reg: 08-2005
| Try a set of plugs and leads and dizzy cap/button. Also fuel filter and see how ya go with the missfire. Car is looking alot better mate |
Aubrey Roberts
Newbie NSW BMW V8
Posts: 1 Reg: 02-2012
| Air Conditioners Sydney Air Conditioner Installation Sydney click any above link..... We provide our Best Air Conditioning service for you.......... |
John Street
TryHard NSW Skyline V35
Posts: 199 Reg: 08-2005
| Good luck with your Soarer journey Kristoph, I've had two of them already, swore I was finished with them , but just bought another! |