Spac’s adventures in Magna

Spac · 2022-10-21T11:59:51+00:00

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...

Philia_Bear

@Spac

With v6 magna

There is a pcv valve in the valley around the manifold that always gets clogged and starts causing the leaks from the valve covers

Also... 99% of them need new spark plugs for the firewall side cylinders

Spac

Philia_Bear
@Spac
With v6 magna
There is a pcv valve in the valley around the manifold that always gets clogged and starts causing the leaks from the valve covers
Also... 99% of them need new spark plugs for the firewall side cylinders

Plugs are done automatically when the top of the intake manifold is off.

Didn’t know about the PCV, will check.

Spac

Got up early before it got too hot.

Also tried to get things washed early to maximise the amount of drying time.

Driver’s seat has lots of space for crud to accumulate. This is water dripping off, still visibly brown…

“Before” photos of the centre console.

The carpet was genuinely foul. It have spent at least two hours on it. The string shows how filthy the water is, but this was taken towards the end of the process- it was way worse …

Not perfect, but a huge improvement.

Driver’s footrest mounting bracket has broken the welds.

Trampoline drying rack… everything here has been scrubbed by hand.

Ex850R

Fun and satisfying.

I picked up a BigW spot steamer [like a Bissell] but a Vax, seats n carpets here I come.

Spac

Literally hosed out the inside of the car. Note the lake in the driver’s side floor.

Spac

The original driver’s headrest was punching the steel bar through the top of the foam. So I swapped the cover onto one of the headrests from the blue wreck.

Worked out OK.

Nutserted the footrest back in.

One of the rear door trims was peeling the fabric back. This is holding it down while the glue sets… except the glue didn’t stick to the plastic, but it worked anyway because it held the fabric in place.

Anyway, it’s going back together.

Left it closed up for a couple of hours… there’s still some smell, but it is far less than before.

Ex850R

Ozone machine. Rent from somewhere or do a heap of tig welding in there, tig stainless produces ozone....

Spac

Yep, a mate who does detailing professionally suggested an ozone machine.

More reassembly yesterday afternoon.

Not an elegant repair, but better than a steel bar sticking out… I wrapped a couple of layers of pipe lagging foam around the bar, and then sewed the hole shut. It feels fine when you are sitting in it, but I will chase up a better seat in the longer term.

One of the issues is that Mitsubishi has about 10,000 similar but different interior fabrics, and it is remarkably hard to get a match.

There’s a pretty good interior at the nearest wrecker, but they want way too much money for everything. I miss the old days when they’d say “$250 and take the whole interior” - instead they ask for way too much and then it all goes to scrap instead.

Still, most of it cleaned up pretty nicely.

Started it up, and it is idling around 1950rpm… And still pissing oil out.

I am assuming the PCV is jammed open and effectively creating a big vacuum leak.

Spac

Headlining…

The darker, orange colour is the old foam backing. Not the most enjoyable thing to remove…

Usually the old foam is dry and dusty, but this is more like silly sand.

Couple of hours to get to this point. \/

Came out alright…

There’s about $140 in materials here, but the local hardware shop is stupidly expensive and I probably could have saved $20 on glue by buying it elsewhere.

And back in…

Couple of spots where I didn’t use enough glue/pulled the fabric too tight. Hopefully it doesn’t get worse… will put it down to a learning experience if I have to re-do it.

The boot floor is made from MDF, and isn’t sealed - so when it gets wet, it gets gross and expands.

Had to make a new bit for the left hand side.

Sealed them all up with paint, to hopefully protect them in the future.

The interior is almost completely back together.

Still have to fit the aftermarket speakers to the front doors before I can refit the front door trims, and one of the door seals has fallen down and needs to be refitted.

Also need to change the headunit, but that can wait.

Philia_Bear

How much will you want when your done?

Spac

Philia_Bear
How much will you want when your done?

I’m keeping the white wagon.

Green wagon will probably be for sale.

White sedan will be for sale if I can find an early third generation Magna worth buying. I want an early one for the lack of airbag, ABS and greater likelihood of manual windows. Also, pre-2000 build makes it legal for the Alpine rally … this isn’t really relevant, but it could be…

Spac

Not the most glamorous thing, but new tailgate struts arrived today.

The old ones held the tailgate up just fine, but one was bent on the end, and the other one was threatening to seize up…

Spac

Big news! Today I made a cover to replace the missing original cover for the tow bar cutout.

1.2mm aluminium sheet, and some paint….

It is clamped into place via a strip of aluminium on the hidden top surface of the bumper, and a 5mm bolt. Shouldn’t be able make its escape on rough roads/in a puddle/in a minor bump, like the originals do.

Nobody seems to stock the aerosol cans of either Mawson White (Magna) or Scotia White (Mirage), so when I found two tins of Mawson White at the Autopro near work, I didn’t hesitate to grab them both.

Spac

I may have put deposits on two other early 3rd generation Magnas.

Which firms up the plan to offload the nice TJ2 sedan, and the original green wagon.

Coincidentally…

Not sure if I will notice the 200m difference…

Spac

The dent and missing paint on the front bumper was annoying me.

First up was to remove the vents, then heat up the bumper with the heat gun and push it out with my hand.

Then some rubbing back.

And then some more rubbing back.

Plastic primer is clear, so the photo of that is pointless.

Some paint.

And it looks pretty good!

Spac

Putting a two-wheeled car onto a trailer by yourself...

It was a dicey as, but nobody died.

I took the entire rear suspension out, along with the fuel tank, the door glass and regulators and a few other parts.

I was expecting it to weigh in the 400~500kg range. It was basically a bare shell with empty doors, bonnet and bumper bars, and the seats in it - there wasn’t much left of it.

Very surprised to get paid for 760kg worth of scrap! Makes me wonder what a complete car actually weighs… I feel like it must be a fair bit more than the ~1450kg the rego papers say.

Philia_Bear

You need more forklift or excavator

Spac

Just a quick morning’s trip to Narrandera…

This one is a TF Altera. Auto. Should be a 3.0, but there’s a slim chance it is a 3.5 litre. I am thinking that this car and the Candelo car will be combined to be the “good” toy Magna, but I will reserve judgment until I have seen the Candelo car in person.

Very keen to get out and start fiddling with it, but it is too bloody hot ATM!

I’ve received deposits on the nice white TJ2 and the green wagon. It’s not how you get rich, but I made a small profit on both cars…

Spac

Looks much better after a degrease. Still needs the cam cover gaskets changed, of course!

Hey, the timing belt is only 20,000km old!

Weird dent in the spare wheel well. There’s nothing on the outside that explains this. shrugs

Someone in this car’s past had a fetish for floor matts - there were seven of them in the car…

Will try to get stuck into it tomorrow morning before it gets hot: cam cover gaskets, swap brake pads, exhaust swap (this one is rusty and seems to be 2”), tyre swap, and a general look over.

Spac

Changing Magna cam cover gaskets seems to be my life now.

Unfortunately, stemming the flow of oil from the cam covers has revealed that the front main seal is also leaking…

One of the sets of wheels I bought for the Mercedes rally car came with almost-new tyres in the correct (205/60R15) size for the Magna, so I swapped them onto the Magna wheels.

Rear muffler was cracked where the exhaust pipe enters it.

I made a sheet steel ring to weld to the pipe and to the not-fatigued part of the muffler body.

Welding is ugly, but it is not something that you have to look at.

Original front struts had spewed their oil out, and were pogo-sticks.

Evo Bilsteins need Evo springs and Evo upper spring seats, but the Magna tops go straight on.

Despite my earlier comment, the Evo struts’ mounting ears are about 1mm further apart than the Magna ones, requiring a single 1mm shim to fill the gap between the upright and the ears.

Both passenger side doors have painted poorly, including a bunch of overspray on the handle. This is the “before” photo. I carefully (not really…) scraped the overspray off the rubber, before carefully forgetting to take an “after” photo.

Here is the reason for the crappy paint - the doors were silver.

I also swapped the badly worn brake pads for some less worn used pads ?

This car is destined for a brake upgrade, so it seemed silly to put new pads into it… and also because it is getting a road worthy inspection tomorrow, so I don’t have time to get new pads…

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