Solidarity of rear lights

           Now it's time to cast a little bit more light on the matter of... lighting, which generally works fine let alone a small exception - the rear lights. I believe, if I am not mistaken, that I have mentioned this in one of the first posts, but if not, surely, it was easy to see it in the video of the reception of the car. The following video was shot after two-month stay in the garage and was the first opportunity for Toyota to take a breath of fresh air. The blame, for turning the high beam on and not turning the switch hard enough to get the sidelights, I put on the stress of appearing before such a large audience :-).

           For a long time now, I meant to get to solving the problem with the rear lights. The problem appears when a right direction indicator is put into position. There must be a kind of short circuit and the right turn signal works, but accompanied by all the other rear lights. Oh, this lights solidarity. The following movie beautifully describes how it works mainly due to the night time. You have to look closely in order to see it because the blinking frequency decreases with the transition from right to left, but blinking on the left side can be seen. Frankly speaking, not only after I unscrew both rear lights panels did I saw with my own eyes that all lights are flashing - not only on the right side as I thought in the very beginning.

           I asked among countless number of people, what could be causing this blinking problem, and all as one man said - grounding. Naturally, other answers were given as well, but "grounding" was the most frequent one without any doubt. The first think I did was cleaning contacts and I used this opportunity to have a better look at the rear lights on the right. Mariusz (you remember him from tires changing operation) told me where I could buy such a nice reinforced rubber gloves as he had and you can see them at work. I also cleaned light bulbs siled with paint after the last body spraying. There was a dramatic situation, though, as I let one fall to the fround, by accident of course, and it burst into pieces ;-(. I had to buy a new one and because I bought the wrong one, I learned there is somthing like filament in a bulb... joke: D. Double filament was needed. Now I have it. Thanks to that I also learnt the English word for it. Ha! I am so lucky and happy that TESCO is open 24h/day, except for of all sort of holidays, of course. So I cleaned the contacts, I saw how the cables go and I washed the lights cover on the inside and outside. I am pretty sure that those more observant of you, while looking at photos from April photo session, noticed that the right panel looks much better than the left one, not only because of the sun shining from the right side:-).

           Basically it is everything I have for you today. No success story from that day, but some cool photos and a few interesting pieces :-). If anyone had any idea how to approach the subject I am willing to get the show on the road!

right rear lights seen from the perspective of someone locked in a trunk

that's how the wires look like on the right panel

o, this is where the wires are plugged in

this is the place of the right side indicator that needs support from other bulbs

and this is where the double filament bulb fits into

no, no that's not the double filament bulb - having it here would be too painful...

old, crusted rubber looking appalling...

right rear lights panel from behind...

... and from the front (dirsty, isn't it? :-))

Waclaw's curse or how NOT to renovate an old car

            Reality is starting to outpace the one currently existing on the blog, so it's time to knuckle down and catch up with it, especially, that recently I haven't been spending as much time with Toyota as I should or would like to. Therefore, there's a chance to make up for it.

            After changing the tires I wanted to focus on the next element of the car in order to make another step in the process of renovation. I also felt like tiding it a little, so I came up with an idea of concentrating on something not-very-challenging. Hence, my struggles with the steering column began. I think it's the right moment to confess to my ignorance of the names of particular elements I had to deal with while working with the column. I don't even know whether I named this element correctly at all! From this place I wanted to apologize in advance for all the mistakes I made, and thank for all remarks and pieces of advice on the matter. I hope that photos will help in deciphering this subject :-).

            In the beginning, I wanted to dismantle the steering wheel. Hmm... how can I even do this? At first, I thought that it's going to be a piece of cake – I unscrewed two bolts, which enabled access to the main bolt on the shaft, which I unscrewed and the wheel was ready to be taken off. And there it was where the first problem appeared. As a delicate and gentle man by nature I didn't want to abuse my strength while dismantling the steering wheel. But it just didn’t want to come off! I struggled harder and harder and… nothing. I came back home, read Haynes, checked with Piotrek and I knew what to do. The site I got from Piotrek contained some examples of real-life experiences with high level of wisdom in them. I followed the guidance and I put the bolt on its initial position on the shaft before another attempt to take off the steering wheel. These smart safety precautions would save my nose if the steering wheel suddenly came off after a very strong pull. I made it, without hurting my nose! :-)

            Afterwards, I unscrewed the bolts from the steering column’s cover and then removed the cover itself, revealing the steering column, which can be seen in the photos below. I was so excited about the whole process that I completely forgot about Waclaw’s interdictions and his Waclaw's interdictions and his curse [1], which I learnt a couple of weeks ago. Truth be told, it crossed my mind to take some photos during the work process, but I just didn't feel like interrupting this interesting task and going all the way back home just to take the camera. Naah…Thus, this manifestation of laziness was to get its revenge soon!

After unscrewing all the screws and unplugging the electrical wiring I removed the steering column and gladly took it home, where, using toothpicks, cosmetic sticks, spirit and other cleaning agents, I started to clean. By the way, I learned how the indicator lever works and how, by turning the steering wheel, turn signal switches off automatically. I also noticed a problem with the mechanism responsible for turning on high beams, and despite strenuous attempts I could not do anything about it. I should have taken some photos…

A couple of days later, time came to pay a visit to my parents’ house, so using the opportunity I took with me the steering columns with everything else. I arrived quite late and barely had time to enter the house and greet with everyone when my dad took the stuff I brought and got down to action. Together we managed to work out the mechanism and everything works like new. I should probably go home more often and bring gradually with me pieces of the car. Maybe after a few months I will manage to relocate it without having to drive it :-).

"All's well that ends well". This time I managed to trick Waclaw's curse, although I know that in the near future it will have plenty of opportunities to remind me about itself. I will have to be vigilant and stick to the bushido code of people renovating old cars. Thanks to this experience, though, I was able to understand the mechanism and the logic behind the important elelemnt of every car. If anyone ever had similar problems or had any questions I would be more than happy to help :-).

---

[1] This is a set of rules/laws one has to follow in order to complete restoration of an old car without problems. Upon those who don’t stick to the rules a curse has been cast.  Available only in Polish…

steering column after dismantling it to pieces

overview of the steering column

quasi view from the top

attempt to have a closer look

en face view

tore rubber protecting some wires

overview

not working (at that time) indicator

this is how it looks from the other side - the module responsible for sidelights and high beam lights located on the left side

A day of good fortune

           Yesterday, as I normally do at least once a week, I was monitoring the Internet. On Allegro.pl (Polish eBay) nothing new - no parts at a good price, no similar models, no offers; on Mobile.de for the last few weeks - nothing new; on Ebay.com generally always the same things, although someone in Australia (I suppose) was selling KE55 parts, claiming that they would certainly fit KE30; on Gumtree.com.au, as always, a lot of ads and cool stuff, but generally in most cases, the sellers were interested to sell locally. Well on the other hand I don’t want to collect everything there is, because I have no space to store it, nor money to buy it:-). I was amused the most by the option on Alibaba.com, where our Chinese brothers for a few dollars can do any spare part for the car. A prerequisite is the order of at least several dozens of pieces :-).
           So, while I was going through various pages I found something I was interested in from the first day of having the car. It was namely… the dash cover, which in my Toyota is in an awful state - destroyed by the sun and cigarettes extinguished on it (?). This is the first element that strikes the eye as viewed from the outside. Anyway, see for yourself how it looks like up close.

And this is how this piece of interior should look like. Time will come to buy it when I will be taking care of the interior of the car.

 

Dash covers can be found under the following links:

http://www.stockinteriors.com/DashCaps.asp?Itemid=11479&MakeId=28&ModelId=406

http://www.dashtops.net/products/dash-cover-1975-1979-toyota-corolla-ke30

          

Another example of the good fortune that day was finding a person with Toyota Corolla KE30 in Austria! Marion, because that is her name, published information about gasoline usage the car on www.spritmonitor.de and thanks to that I managed to find her. In order to send her a message I needed to be registered and so I did. It was a small price for the opportunity to speak with the owner of such an iconic car :-). I was very pleasantly surprised by the quick and positive response to my message from her. I am very happy because of this acquaintance and the possibilities to exchange mutual experiences and valuable pieces of advice. That is very important. I'm so happy! :-).
           I wonder how many more KE30 lovers are in Europe. I can’t wait to get to know more if them. After all, it is just 98 people with this model of Toyota Corolla I have to find to be able to order spare parts from China:-P.

          

April photo session

           Spring, or to be more precise summer, has come to Poland for good. That is why I was so happy to use that opportunity to get out of the garage and take some photos. There was also one, very important reason - the fothcoming application deadline for the Discovery Channel contest I wanted to apply to, but I didn't have any nice photos - all of them in the garage, without sun, a little bit depressive :-).

             For those who don't know about the fan page of Project KE30 on Facebook or prefer to follow us only on the blog I decided to upload the newest photos taken on April 27th.

         

Wheeler Dealers - the contest

          Quite recently Piotrek has sent me a link to a site containing a piece of information about the contest organized by Discovery Channel with Cyfrowy Polsat and Auto Świat weekly. This time Mike Brewer and Edd China, the characters from the series called Wheeler Dealers, are heading for Poland on a mission to restore another vehicle. The repair itself is the main prize in the competition and the budget is 5 TPLN (ca. 1,2 TEUR) . The contest consists of several stages and the final one lasts until 1^st July.

           More was I shocked by the fact that I didn't find any information about the contest myself rather than I was happy after finding out about it from Piotrek. It's kind of a weekend tradition that we watch these series together with Milena and sometimes, which is odd, she watches it alone :)

           The first stage assignment was to apply until 29^th April. It was really hard to fulfill this condition using less than 2000 characters. As a person known for verbosity and taking delight in using flowery language I find it quite a challenge. I have two witnesses to confirm that writing 1995 characters (I wanted to finish at 1979 – the car's production year) certainly wasn't an easy thing to do and took several hours. Luckily, I made it to the deadline and below you can see my application no. 64414. 

          In all, there are 66776 applications in the contest (!!!), 5 of which will make it to the next stage... After reviewing several pages with the cars I must admit, that there are really interesting car applications. I had no idea that there are so many nice cars in Poland! I congratulate and envy the owners at the same time. I didn't find any Toyota similar to mine, which of course doesn't mean there aren't any in Poland. I would love to meet the owners of this model of Toyota. That would be FREAKING FANTASTIC!!! If you know someone or maybe if anyone is reading this right know - I would be more then grateful for contacting me :-).

            Currently the second stage is in progress and until 14^th May, three-person jury will choose only 5 the most interesting cars. If my application gained acceptance of the jury I would inform you in the first place! In the meantime, please cross your fingers! :-)

Mazda 323 FA '79 - a movie from the inspection

           This short movie presents Mazda 323 FA from 1979 that we visited on our Saturday's excursion to look for vintage cars. Acknowledges should go to Janek for making it available in a short notice and all the time he spent editing it.

           If anyone was interested in the car I have contact to the owner. He said that on April 25th the technical validation of the car finished and before that time it would be possible to buy the car. Afterwards, he will do the technical inspection himself and probably will keep the car. So, all interested - ready, steady, go! :-)

On the lookout for vintage cars

           On April 14^th against all odds I decided to go on a search trip for another car, which I could take care of. In fact, I wanted to write that I am looking for my next victim, because most likely the car would become a victim of my vintage cars greed. Probably I am too concerned that old cars in decent condition are becoming too hard to encounter that my heart spontaneously reacts on every interesting opportunity appearing on the market. It was like that for the past few days when, together with Peter, we selected two cars that were worth our attention - Porsche 924 from 1981 and 1982 Toyota Celica. Both in the vicinity of Krakow, so it was easy to gather a team of experts.
           The first car is a classic car and by far the cheapest model of Porsche. This was the first car Mike and Edd took care of in their program "Wheeler dealers." Some might say that this is not the top league and stuff, but Porsche is always Porsche, even if it is a one with the “weakest” possible engine. In addition, it is said that this type of Porsche is a car a student could afford to have and maintain because it is really not very expensive. Availability of parts is relatively good, and as they are mainly parts for VW it is not so that expensive.
           On the other hand, the second car, Toyota Celica probably TA60 or TA61, representative of the third generation , is quite rare to come upon in Poland  Rear wheel drive (RWD), two carburetors, more than 100 horsepower - all of that makes it a pretty cool sport car. In the pictures on the website it looked quite interestingly and therefore got a chance for a rendez-vous. The only thing that worried me was the mileage of the car of ca.​​270,000 km, but it was perhaps just the slightest problem of all as it turned out in the end.
           Actually, I should have started by telling you that the main reason and initiator of the whole trip was 33 years old first generation Mazda 323 FA. In USA it is known under different name – GLC, which stand for Great Little Car. It is the one with the beautiful square front lamps, which you can see in the picture below. I was also fascinated with her overall beauty and age, of course ;-). I had never seen a similar Mazda and quick search on the Internet had shown that it was not a popular and commonly seen model in Poland and neighboring countries. It was reasonable to assume that spare parts will be, firstly, really hard to get and, secondly, very expensive. Eventually, this car was rejected after the talk with the owner, who said there was a hole in the floor on driver's side. Fortunately, the fuel is not that expensive to behave as Fred Flintstone :-).
            The whole band of brothers was gathered in Krakow – two guys with the same name Janek, Piotr and Lesław. The plan was the following - first Porsche and then Toyota due to better value to price ratio. At least that is what we assumed from the advertisements on the Internet.
            So, we did as we planned and after a short trip we arrived at a dealer’s place where the Porsche of our interest was. The reality quite roughly verified what was in the announcement. Namely, it turned out that the geometry of the vehicle was likely to be affected as the body gaskets were coming off the body. Moreover, the front was covered quite a thick layer of plastic filler, which in addition has already started to crack revealing the secret of what might have happened to the car and what awaits the unaware buyer. Peter honed me a bit on sensing the thickness of the body paint with the fingers and how to distinguish the original paint from others. A steady hand and a smooth the eye is able to capture many of the shortcomings. There was also an unclear story of LPG installation, which presence could be seen, but for some reason it was removed. Last quick look under the hood and we were ready to hit the road. 
            To our next destination we got without any problems and a surprise awaited us. We walked to the owner, shook hand with him, we stood for a moment waiting for him to leads us to the car, and suddenly he showed a motorbike standing  nearby and said, "Well, as you can see," and we laughed and said that we had come to see the car: -). A garage sale! :-). The car was on the other side of the house. It underwent a thorough evaluation of mainly two experts while I was gathering additional pieces of information to these I obtained during earlier telephone conversation I had with the owner. An interesting car, no doubt about it, having common problems typical for old cars. If it was not for the experiments of the owner (welded right door handle from the outside, suspicious LPG installation, converted bonnet, home-made body paint), it probably would have been an interesting potential purchase candidate. In these circumstances, the price to value ratio was not very favorable. Therefore, we decided that it was time for us. Piotr said that we could check the Mazda 323 as it was just off the road on the way back.
           So we did and literally after a few minutes we were arrived at the place. As in previous cases, we all went directly to work and checked the car. The general impressions on Mazda were very good and even with one indentation on the back and the front fenders solidly cracked it looked very decent. The interior was super nice and if it was not for the awareness of the holes under the feet of the driver it would have really been a good car. The owner took a good care of the mechanical side of the car and we made a point of test driving the car a couple times:-). Video should follow soon, but it is still in the post production :-). Well, I was struggling, struggling awfully. Guys were giving the car maximum 5 years and some welding work to do. All in all, I would judge her status as a slightly better than my Toyota, but eventually it got to me that I should focus on one car, and not to have several irons in the fire, as I normally do. We thanked the owner and returned to Krakow. 
           It was a very nice trip indeed and beyond its obvious social value it contained educational value as well. I learned new skills very useful for recognition of hidden traps always waiting for inexperienced buyers. I know where and how to look and more importantly I know what to pay attention to. Moreover, I learned that I must finish the thing that I have started before taking another one into consideration. With such a strong mindset and commitment I returned to Warsaw on the same day and from this very place, I wanted to warmly greet my travel companions Konrad, Julian and Paweł :P.

 

Fuel Cap

I am pretty sure that many of you reading this blog have though once or twice about how does a dismantled fuel cap look like. Today I decided to present the naked truth about this important element of the car, who defends the cleanness of the fuel! Names of many of its parts are not know to me in Polish, let alone in English, but I did all my best to clean and polish it perfectly. Now it shines like a true star should shine :-). I will just add, with inherent modesty of course, that after putting everything together there was nothing left and the fuel cap works like a charm! Currently the cap is not in use, because this will take place after the body renovation and painting when time will come to deal with the interior and some exterior accessories. Feast your eyes upon this marvellous piece of art! :-).

P.S. For those interested more in how the fuel cap works an opportunity exists to make a short instruction movie! :-))

Mr. Bohdan and his collection

In this post I would like to present another interesting person, whom I met as a result of my new interest in vintage cars. The person is Mr. Bohdan and his name is quite unusual, because normally in Poland it is with „g” instead of „h” – Bogdan. The way in which we have acquaintanced one another is quite unusual and worth describing in a more detailed fashion. I hope you won’t mind :-). So let me start from the beginning.

When I was buying the new tires for my Corolla I made an appointment with the seller to meet at the parking lot at the supermarket near the place I live. After the transaction I was slowly returning home using a route that I rarely use. What I mean is that I do use it, but mainly for going from home to various places :-P. That is exactly why I had a chance to see something that normally I would probably not see :-). Hence, I was slowly driving on the right lane scanning surrounding car parks in search of any old- or yountimers. Taking into consideration the material status of people living in the area chances to encounter any of such cars are quite low :-). Nevertheless, I wanted to give it a try. I was so surprised when I saw a beautifully shaped car covered with Yellow Bahama paint  (as I learnt later) having old Polish license plates with white letters on black background going perfectly with it.  Without thinking too much I turned to the parking lot and quickly, so as not to arouse any suspicion, I briefly inspected the car. It was the Opel Kadett ‘67 and at first glance he impressed me very much. On the way back home I cooled down, but in my head the images of what I saw remained and an action plan slowly begun to develop.

            My “partner in crime” was chosen to be Milena and it was her I took for the night action under the cover of darkness. All of that in order to send a proper message to the owner of the beautiful car :-). The message was written on my business card and I was thinking of putting it under the windscreen wiper, but due to a bad weather it could have not reached the owner. Therefore, we decided to insert the card into the gap between the door and the chassis, which would result in its falling out when someone opens the door. We returned home convinced of accomplishing the mission.
            Very soon my dreams had to give way to dull reality and so with each passing day I occupied myself less with questions about the message we sent. And then, when least expected, the owner of the Opel Kadett called me! Of course I had no clue that it was him calling, because I was in the middle of conversation with Mr. Slawek at that very time. I didn’t answer the phone, yet I decided to call back on the way back to Warsaw. When I did so, while still being under huge impression of the meeting with Mr. Slawek I didn’t understand a thing from what the person I was calling was saying. If it was not for Milena, her full of expression gestures and the excited words “this is the owner of THE car” I would not have gotten a slight idea of what was going on. From that point it was much easier :-). We arranged a meeting on Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Bohdan turned out to be a very nice and humble man who has a passion for collecting and renovating old cars. He is an electrician from education, a mechanic born from passion and need. All his cars whenever it’s possible he tries to repair by himself on the parking lot in front of his blocks of flat. More advanced and demanding proper equipment works he commissions to persons or companies he got to know during his renovation activities. He has enormous knowledge and reliable contacts, which makes him invaluable person and source of needed information to me :-). Once he even appeared on a television interview for an automotive channel. I am sure he will be mentioned more than once on thi blog.

            The meeting was great! Three hours passed in a flash. During the meeting I learned a little bit of Mr. Bohdan’s car collection, which includes the following specimens: already mention Opel Kadett '67, Skoda Rapid (pictures below), Opel Kadett '84 and Opel Kadett from the 90's, Skoda Octavia from the 80’s I suppose, Opel cabriolet and a few more which I cannot recall right now :-).We had a ride with the oldest Opel on the parking lot only, and then with the one from 1984 we got to Skoda Rapid, which we took a small trip. Afterwards, I invited Mr. Bohdan to see my Toyota, and he confirmed what everyone already said that I would spend some time working on the car, but it was a very nice car. He also checked the if there was no slack in the steering wheel and if by any chance the strange dots on the body paint were not rust centers under the paint. Of course I have such as well, but in this case he was checking the countless number of dots on the paint. My every Sunday football game was getting closer and closer so I was forced to end the meeting. I took Mr. Bohdan back to his parking lot, thanked him warmly for his time and showing his cars. Mr. Bohdan said that for him as a vintage cars enthusiast sharing his passion with others is the greatest reward and happiness. Let this serve as a commentary:-).

Mr. Slawek and the spare parts for KE30

             In order to fulfill the promise from the last post I would like to present an account of the meeting with Mr. Slawek, who at a certain point of his life was a proud owner of two Corollas and one of them was KE30! I got Mr. Slawek’s mobile number from Piotr, the previous owner of the car. I do not remember exactly now who was contacted by who, but I’d rather bet on Mr. Slawek contacting Piotr with the offer of spare parts. I had a telephone conversation with Mr. Slawek in January and he promised to search for the parts and contact me again to arrange a meeting. When there was a chance for a free weekend at the end of February I didn’t hesitate too much, but I called Mr. Slawek immediately and proposed a meeting, which Mr. Slawek was very pleased to agree to. Due to the fact that he lives a little bit farther than Lublin together with Milena we wanted to use an opportunity to visit some interesting places in or near Lublin. One thing we were sure of - we wanted to go to Majdanek. Unfortunately, the weather was not very good at that day, very, very windy, so we abandoned our plans. Eventually, it turned out that we will have to pay one more visit to Mr. Slawek, so we weren’t very disappointed.

Arriving at the place was not much of a trouble, because Mr. Slawek described the route very well and GPS also did a pretty good job. However, I must admit that the last few hundred meters were tricky even for GPS so we had to ask representatives of local community for help. We helped them in return, gaining a few points of karma, so it was a win-win :-). We were warmly greeted by Mr. Slawek and his wife Marzena. Milena was invited to the kitchen by the lady of the house for a chit-chat, while I was dragged to the garage, where Mr. Slawek gathered substantial number of spare parts. I learned many interesting stories of Mr. Slawek’s two Corollas and even saw a few photos with one of them. The history or rather the end of history of one of them was really sad as it was set to other less glorious, yet still useful purposes – the bonnet served as door for cows in a shed, the driver’s seat was transferred to a tractor to serve a new master and the roof of the car was transformed into an outhouse roof. As a comment I will use Mr. Slawek quote - "in the countryside nothing goes to waste" :-).

After the freezing cold ousted us from the garage to the house we found a table full of refreshments, which was really nice of the hosts and more stories about family, work, nowadays and in the past, about the crisis in Lublin, relations with neighbors, and about a shrine which protects the house and provides it with adequate grace :-). There is no doubt that Mr. Slawek has an oratory gift, so we were not aware that so many hours passed since our arrival. Time flies - as it usually happens when spending time in good company.

Now it is the time to write a little bit about the main purpose of the visit. Mr. Slawek’s possessions are presented on the pictures below. Frankly speaking, my knowledge of the overall mechanical condition of the car and its individual components is quite negligible, thus it was hard for me to identify and divide those things into necessary and unnecessary group, and determine whether the items owned by Mr. Slawek will even fit into my model. For sure I have different tail lights, his grill is larger with cut-outs for 2 additional headlights, which I don’t have at all :-). When it comes to other things – we will see. The things that brought me the biggest joy were the original manual for KE30 Mr. Slawek had (in German and French unfortunately – another languages to learn...: P) and a door mirror (!!!), which is a very crucial part! I was equipped with the fuel pump, racing steering wheel for Corolla, if I felt like changing something, brake cable and light casings, but not all of them fit. Last, but not least, the original fuel cap, which I will describe one day in a separate post to present one of silent heroes of Toyota Corolla! :-).

Before departure we agreed with Mr. Slawek that we would contact him again in forthcoming weeks after he brings the other spare parts, which he still keeps on his garden plot located ca. 60 km from the place he lives. I'll call him probably today or tomorrow, to pass happy Easter wishes and schedule our next meeting. Talk to you soon!

PS. If you ever hear that someone has some spare parts for old Corolla or maybe you come across any please let me know! :-)

discs, clutch parts, parts of the steering column, etc

a silencer, a shaft, tail lights, dashboard's component, etc.

a water pump, a shock absorber, a distributor

front and rear windowscreen and a grill

closer look on the tail lights

THE OFFICIAL MANUAL!

 

 my booty :-)