Way back when....1982 Toyota Supra

Many years ago, I made an attempt to document purchasing, owning and repairing a couple of cars. I even created a Cardomain account to showcase my attempts http://www.cardomain.com/member/fred-furious/

After all this time, I have decided to revisit those articles and try a "director's cut", cleaning up some of the word choices, grammar, then reformat and present them here. Here is the first try....

The story...... late April, 2008 and I had convinced my wife that we should take a trip to Edmonton, Alberta, in an attempt to locate a new car for me. However, it wasn't going to be just any car, but one of those that I couldn't find up in Northern British Columbia. One of my teenage dream cars. I had already spent a few days searching online and making a short list of contacts to make, should we actually go there.. Much to my surprise, she humored me and off we went. Shortly after we arrived and settled into our hotel room, I made the first call and we were off to look at a 1981 280ZX. Sadly, it had a major front strut problem, and some serious rust-in-the-floor issues. Strike one. Then, I called about a 1985 Nissan 300ZX, but the guy never answered the phone, or returned my messages (guess he didn't want to really sell the car). Strike two.

I found another mid-80's 300ZX for sale and had high hopes. This owner answered my call and a meeting was arranged. At first sight, I noticed the body was a little rough, with moderate rust on the rear wheel wells, and the gold, metallic paint was not holding much of a shine anymore. Still, I thought it had promise. Then, the seller tried to start it. For 7 seconds, it ran not bad, then died. The seller tried to start it again, and (I swear), the motor tried to start in reverse (not the gear, but the fan was going the wrong way). I thanked the seller for their time, and left defeated. Strike three.

I was still hoping to find a cheap car that would fit my criteria and would be drive home capable. From out of the blue, I remembered a local salvage-yard on the west-side of Edmonton named Pick-n-Pull and knew they sold cars and trucks of varying degrees of condition. We got there and I paid my dollar admission and proceeded through the doors. Barely through the second set of doors and I spotted it, dusty, but for sale. The price tag in the windshield was $1099.00.

After a brief, but through walk around the car, I asked for the keys and tried to start it up. Nothing. I turned the key again and pumped the gas. The engine started, but it barely stayed running, even with the gas pedal to the floor. This didn't look too good at all and my first thoughts that just more than a tune up was going to be required. Feeling defeated, I gave back the keys and just left, not even to bother to look at any other offerings on the lot. The next day, I decided to leave Edmonton, and go home empty handed.

On the way out of town, we stopped by Pick-n-Pull one last time. I had fully expected the Supra to be gone, but no. It was still sitting there, like it was waiting for me. I could tell over the last 24 hours that a lot people had sat behind the wheel and tried to start her up and meeting with the same level of success that I did. I ask for and got the keys one more time. I sat behind the wheel and with a much clearer head, I took a hard long look at the instrument cluster. I turned the key one click and watched the gas gauge move very slowly.

Once I saw the result of that, my mind came to the conclusion that it wasn't a lack of spark, it was a lack of fuel. Years of who-knows-what from the bottom of the gas tank could be the very cause of the car not wanting to even idle properly. I ask the staff if they had any gas. Much to my surprise, they did which they did, stored in a shed in Jerry Cans. I poured enough in to move the gas gauge slightly and tried to start it one last time. Vroom. It was rough, but running much better than just the day before. Excited, I closed the sale, topped off the tank at a service station and drove home.

Now at the time, this was a 26 year old car with multiple owners and accumulating over 249,000 kms. Despite that and not getting any kind of a mechanical inspection done, or even bothering to check any of the fluids under the hood, I just jumped in and drove over 600 km. Now, that is some maiden voyage. And you know what?  Nothing happened, I made it home safe and sound! The only issue I encountered was the pop up lights didn't work anymore from the switch, so when it got dark, I had to raise them manually by turning a knob that was under the hood .

So, that is what I bought. I have wanted one of these cars for years (this, or a Datsun 280ZX, or 300ZX). A 6 cylinder, rear wheel drive, Japanese sports car with a manual transmission. You just can't beat them. Tough, reliable, sharp looking, and these days, they are getting harder to find in half decent shape. Now, before I continue on about the car itself, just one question, why? Well, simply put (not too sound like an ad campaign), it just feels right. Ever get that feeling, like you are the king of the world when you get into your car? You drive with pride. Unbelievable zen-like happiness? The list goes on. That is the way I felt about the Supra, from the moment I saw it, kinda like a first date, but without the awkward moments.

Sitting behind the wheel, pressing the gas, shifting her gears, oh man...... felt like I won a real prize. Now, I have owned a Mustangs, a Camaro, a Firebird, etc, over the years and I just got bored with them after awhile. Everybody seems to have had them, at one point or another. Does this make them less of a car? No, just not my kind of car, at this point in time. They don't give me that I-just-won-the-lottery feeling. For the right people, they are the right car. The other reason for the Supra, I have always hated passing myself in traffic. Ever drive down the road, and you see in the other lane, the same car, year, make, model, color, and even condition as the car you are driving? I seriously doubt I will have that problem with this car.

Ah yes, the interior. Not sure which custom steering wheel this is, but it turns and the horn buttons work. Not seats are not too bad in the comfort department either. The baby mirror on the dash went sooner afterwards, the silicone holding it down gave up the fight a little too easily. The head unit was an old Pyramid CDR-45DX CD Player. Sadly, it skipped on just about every harsh bump and tuned in radio stations with a slight hiss through the speakers. Not my first choice. The only interesting feature to it, to tunes by .1 on FM bands. Let me explain. A normal radio, on FM, you can get 97.7, 97.9, 98.1, and so on. I can get 97.7, 97.8, 97.9, 98.0, 98.1, and so on. All of the interior lights worked, but the paint on the two buttons on the center console, had worn off. After a little playing around, I discovered one was for the fog lamps and the other controls the power door locks. 

On the drive back from Edmonton, I had the radio on, but the speakers didn't overly impress me. I discovered on the passenger side, just below the glove box, there were two switches, with a red light in the middle. Curious, I flicked them and much to my surprise, a hidden sub in the hatch boomed to life and my trip home became much more enjoyable.

In British Columbia, if you bring in a vehicle from out of province or another country all together, you have to get an inspection before registering and insuring said vehicle. On the first attempt, the Supra failed. I wasn't too surprised with the result, more so with the three things held it back. 1, a battery tie down (didn't have one, but got one from a Toyota dealer for around $30, who still can get some parts for these cars). 2, the hazard flasher works, when IT wants to (it shorts every once in a while). 3, a small exhaust leak (a hole in the pipe, just before the muffler). So, after spending around $100, the car went back a week later and passed.

Ah yes, the old 5M-GE. This 12 valve, double overhead cam 6 cylinder engine could put out anywhere from 145 to 175 horsepower, back when the car was new. The motor was all stock (also a liter low on oil, which was blacker than the midnight sky). A tune up, new plugs and an engine shampoo were in the future plans. I was surprised to find everything under the hood in an almost unmolested state, although the battery cable ends had seen better days (it appeared nobody ever used the proper tools to switch out the batteries through the car's life). I was somewhat proactive going down to Edmonton, taking along a bottle of fuel injection cleaner. I do believe it helped on the drive home.

The air conditioning didn't work and probably hadn't in years (I considered a complete retrofit as another future item to look into). A little silver decal in the timing cover claimed the timing belts were replaced around the 188k mark, so I am curious just how much life they have left.

This is the extent of the rust on the driver's side, the passenger side was much better. I wasn't too overly surprised to find small rust holes in the floor (actually, in the spare tire wheel well, behind the rear seat in the hatch area, which might have explained the slight and occasional exhaust smell on the way home). Both sides are missing the little panel that runs under the doors, between the front and rear fender flares. The car was wearing Predator GTS 215/60R14 and mounted on all four of the factory aluminum rims, complete with original center caps!

The after market cell antenna in the middle of the hatch wing, was a nice touch. One part I planned to look into was a new hatch sticker. If you look closely at the picture, I have a Toyota Celica SUP! I found the newer Toyota emblem above the hatch keyhole and the reflective "Keep Distance" decal definitely complete the custom look.

That was as far as the original article went, I seemed to have stopped documenting things for some, long forgotten reason. So, what happened after all of that? Well, a major problem surfaced, after many months of trouble free driving.

It was a cool, frosty day in late October and I started the Supra up to go to work. A thin film of ice had formed on the windshield overnight and with the heater just starting to defrost the glass, I turned on the wipers. Snap! The driver's side wiper arm just removed itself from the car. I turned the wipers off and inspected what just happened. I couldn't see anything wrong, so I pulled on the tab on the wiper arm base and put it back on it's nub.

Again, I turned the wipers on, only to have the passenger side doing it's job, the driver's side just sat there, motionless, on the glass. I didn't have the time to deal with the issue at the time, so I drove to work and would have a look at it afterwards. Returning home, I proceeded to open the hood and take both wiper arms off. Next, I removed the plastic panel that hide the inner workings of the entire mechanism. I soon discovered the problem.

The metal arm that connected the driver and passenger side wiper nubs had broken, almost cleanly. The added bonus was the fact it appeared to be made of aluminum, so a quick weld to put it back together was out of the question. A visit to the local Toyota dealer turned up more bad news, after a search in their computers, they discovered they didn't carry that part anymore. Even the local auto-wreckers couldn't help me.

I spent weeks searching through eBay and other online sources for the parts and came up empty. Although I had my choice of driving another vehicle at the time, I really wanted the car fixed so I could enjoy it while I still had favorable weather. Winter set in and the Supra slept under a blanket of snow, occasionally brushed off to start it up to keep the battery from going dead.

Over the course of that Winter, I continued my attempt to find the wiper parts so I could have the car repaired for Spring driving. I asked around to my friends and the very small Toyota community for help. I know they wanted to, they just couldn't. Finally, when the weather warmed and the snow melted, I was so disappointed that a simple part, that probably didn't cost a whole lot, was preventing me from driving my car. My frustration over the situation took hold and I put a "For Sale" sign on the car and parked it closer to the curb.

Less than a day later, a younger man than me and his friend knocked on the door of my house and asked about the Supra. I was honest and told him everything, what worked and what didn't. I started it and let him get a feel for it. I noticed a slight twinkle in his eyes and he explained his plans, should the deal go through. We agreed on the price of $800 and took two weeks to collect it in full.

I never saw him or the car again.

Every once in a rare while, I see a same era of Supra driving around in traffic or on the highway. On those very lucky moments, I come across one that was the same color as the one I once owned. I sigh and my heart sinks slightly.

Sometimes, it's hard to get over a love that is lost.