Thinking About Getting One Of These...

Driver side door check repair is a failure, it's too worn out and when I tried to close the door it spit one the nylon shoes out and cut into the plastic rod pretty badly. I'll order a new one tomorrow.

Also I decided against painting the chrome trim ring red, it wouldn't match the BIG HONKIN chrome door handles right above the trim rings and the rest of the chrome surfaces would also look out of place. If there was a way to do red chrome on all of the chromed plastic parts inside the car then I'd just do that but some of those parts are hard to take apart to that level of disassembly. Also a weird custom order like that would probably be stupidly expensive at any of the chroming shops that do plastic parts.

I did however still pull the door panel apart once it was off just to see how it all goes together and it's pretty easy. I also cleaned it really well while it was apart and off the car, I've cleaned before but dang I missed some stuff! The pull and in around the handle had tons of hidden dirt I got off. Now I really want to pull the other side off again to take it apart and really clean it too.

Sounds like an adventure. I'm guessing that is a "feature" of having a coupe - with its longer doors acting like a huge lever arm.

Yeah, I think red chrome would look better than trying to paint it red - but that sort of work can be pretty expensive. We did something similar at my shop for an underwater project (they wanted the company logo in a contrasting chrome color). The end result was fantastic - but the cost was stupid expensive.

The logo was already chromed, but the company said, for best results, it had to be deplated first (chrome won't stick to chrome), replated with nickel, then chromed the target color. They said color chrome could be overlaid, but the base chrome has to be perfect. Was something like $400 for two logos no bigger than my fist.

Well I think if I did red chrome I'd have to do ALL the chrome inside red chrome, but I can't swallow more than a couple hundred for an indulgence like that. I just read that colors on chrome are an epoxy coating over the chrome so I emailed a place asking if they have to replate or if they can just put the color coat over existing. If they can just coat over existing I'll inquire about price and durability to touch. I'd LOVE to have the ONLY 7G Celica in the world with red chrome interior parts. I love having the ONLY Celica in the world with stuff, I get to brag.

I ended up buying the updated door check for the driver side, it's a bigger working part, looks more like a late model Sienna door check.

Also bought this for the horn button, my custom vinyl dragon is coming apart and peeling up.

It's washed, been drying over night, it's pulled into the garage so I can do the door check and determine if I need to clay it or not. I've got a new product to try out called Car Pro Essence. It's a polymer based semi permanent filler/glaze/polish product, from the same who make CQuartz (which I haven't tried yet). I added 1oz of Ultima waterless wash to my 3 gallon M62 soap mix and it REALLY did help the water to sheet off and not spot. I've tried it on a few panels like a QD with a micro fiber but it feels really slow to dry when sprayed on the panel so I may try a spritz on the MF towel and then wiping the panel. I probably will need to clay at least the nose, hood, and front fenders however I don't want to since the paint is so soft it's easily marred by the clay and that means I have to polish the mar marks out. I've got some pretty gentle polish I'll try and I'll put a layer of the Essence over too so maybe it won't be so bad, just seems like I always end up with some light halogram no matter what I do.

What I really need to do is just pony up and get a real DA and the kit n kaboodle that goes with it.

That Yamaha label looks pretty sweet. Should look great on the wheel.

Yeah, let us know how Car Pro Essence works. Always interested in seeing newer sealants like this work out.

I was in the same boat as you - did everything by hand, too stubborn to get a good quality DA buffer - couldn't justify it, as I could use the money elsewhere - more practically. I eventually broke down and got the whole works - Porter Cable 7424XP, set of pads, bucket to wash the pads, etc. - couldn't believe how I was able to work on the car before this! Now I have my son do the work for me - DA is goof-proof, easy swirl removal, water spots disappear with a couple of passes, no chances for holograms like you get with a plain rotary buffer.

Now looking to pickup a Griot's 6" DA - more power than the Porter Cable, and lifetime warranty for a couple of bucks more. The Porter Cable will see some furniture / woodworking duty, so I'll still get my money's worth.

I'll likely just skip to the Griots or something better since I keep seeing everyone upgrading. I want something more ergonomic than the PC one looks.

The reloading issue seems fixed, whatever you did fixed it.

I think it looked extra glossy in the garage overall. Paint is still in the snipter but it looks nicer now than before. I just put on a coat of M21, I'll take that off tomorrow and do a layer of carnuba for the special gloss and depth it gives. I then can just QD it every day gently and re-carnuba once a week or as needed over the M21 so it lasts. It was still beading water fine but some halograms were starting to show through on the doors, that's why I wanted to try the essence. I guess the nice thing is my paint is so snip that I can't really make it much worse. Whole car needs a spray sadly, but then I'd really never want to drive it!

When I do FINALLY get the DA I'll take it to the daily Mazda and whip it into shape, it's got good clear to work with on it, I can cut it down to look like glass, I've done some spots by hand to check it out. I know I can make it look really really good.

Snagged a RMM front strut tower bar for $125 shipped, need to touch up the paint on the bar ends but otherwise it's in good shape!

Nice - great price! I saw some of those on newcelica.org - looks like a pretty solid piece.

It's super solid, all welded one hunk of steel. I wouldn't have bothered with a flexible one.

The seller overestimated the shipping and refunded some of it, so I donated it to a charity. https://ramusa.org/donate/

Had a good time out at a car meet, they went straight and I turned to have another go down my favorite road. And it was a good go! Just having fun so not nailing it hard as I can.

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