Today was spent on the maroon one, dodging the rain, and sometimes in the rain.

Apart from the terrible paint, it is actually quite a nice car.

Clutch master cylinder had some gunk wedged under the seal. Just needed a clean out.

Haven’t bled the system properly, because it didn’t seem fair to drag either of the kids out into the rain to help… but it works well enough to move it around the yard.

Next was swapping the alternator. Have to take the radiator out to do this, so I swapped radiators because the maroon car’s was visibly blocked.

(Forgot to take photos)

This is the white car, with the radiator removed… I am guessing that it was driven through a muddy creek at some stage shortly before it was parked.

Washed it, to see how bad the paint/body is… It is actually very straight, except for the poor repairs down the passenger’s side.

I mean, when your clear coat is worse than 1990s Mitsubishi clear coat, then it is time to take a long hard look at yourself.

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Probably the first time it has been up to operating temperature since 2015. The steam pouring out of the engine bay (see three photos up) was a source of concern, but it was just evaporating out of the outside of the radiator.

Starts easily, runs smoothly, and does everything nicely except for very occasionally misfiring on one cylinder at idle. I am assuming that it is water somewhere, or maybe oil in a spark plug tube. Meh - it definitely needs rocker cover gaskets, so it will be sorted then.

I pulled a front upright off the white car to test fit the Evo Brembos. Apart from needing to trim the backing plate down very slightly, it all just bolts straight on.

Side quest was to sus out the differences between Magna and Mirage uprights.

Balljoint taper is bigger on Magna. Note how far the reamer slides into the dirty Magna upright compared to the the Mirage one.

Strut bolt spacing is the same 65mm, and the same 12mm bolts, but the Magna upright is 3mm wider.

Magna strut is about 35mm longer. NBD considering most coilovers can be adjusted for overall length.

Spring OD appears to be the same as Evo/S40 but I forgot to measure it.

PCD for the strut tops is larger on the Magna. I reckon that it is close enough to just make the holes on the strut tower oversize, but I need to think it through properly before I do that.

Oh, and I found a nice looking, lowish kay 3.5 litre wagon in Victoria at a decent price. I really need another couple of weeks to get my act and my brain together, but I think that it is something that I should buy…