James' Daihatsu Cuore L700 - SKD555

[applegeek897]

November 2017: Once again not much has happened over the last couple of months. Somehow I’ve been driving around with no door cards and lots of rattles without worry. Anyway time to fix that.

Finally moved onto attending to the passenger door.

This dumb thing also came off, only there to rattle.

Let the DS18 continue.

And more.

Much better. While I was also there I thought it a good time to get started on the boot area.

Still much to do but for another time. What I do want to do is get the door cards back on. I grabbed the two door cards off the parts car which to my surprise were actually in pretty good shape. But more importantly it didn’t have holes in it.

Most of the clips were busted by using from both the new and old ones I managed to get a enough usable ones.

Lastly I trimmed the speaker grill so there was less chance of the speaker pushing the card out.

I also had to make a ‘custom’ mount for the passenger card to keep the foam on.

After being dumb I fixed the inner handle mount.

And on, it’s a nice change for me. So happy to have the manual windows back.

Also my monster wang arrived and the excitement is real!

[applegeek897]

November 2017: I had some extra time today so I thought it a good time to finally get the new headunit in. Firstly the old one had to come out. The JVC has served very well over the years.

I was surprised with my wiring job all those years ago.

At the moment only the front speakers are being used, so any extra’s could come out for now. All the bells and whistles are going to be added later on when the car gets an overhaul.

I struggled to find a harness for the Sony as the one from my Subaru was far gone, but I ended up locating one made up for a Toyota Hilux. No problem to slice into the factory one.

It could then be mounted up into the fasica and done.

Having the tilt function is actually very useful considering how low the headunit sits in the car. Nothing like a quality free upgrade.

[FrAsErTaG]

Nice work man

This is slightly off topic but are you working on the car in an apartment underground carpark?
It looks like you are but the only reason I am asking is then you have like tools and stuff at the end… anything ever get pinched?

[ewdwan]

just joined the forums, absolutely loving them, this build is definitely giving me some good inspiration for when i have my mira!read through the entire build so far, the interior is looking really good, should look pretty much facotry when done are you going to upgrade the suspension and brakes for the turbo build?

[applegeek897]

Thanks man. Yeah I am working in an apartment parking. It hasn’t been easy. I keep as many tools as I can upstaris in my room. I’m trying to find a good solution to keep down stairs but it hasn’t been easy. I’ve had a couple grands worth of tools and parts stolen over the years which hasn’t been great. They’ve just installed camera’s in there which should help.

[WoodWorx]

I love working in Apartment carparks! haha I used to do a few things on my car at my girlfriends old carpark. there was a few people that lived there that had custom locker box things on stilts that stood over the bonnet of the car and you sort of just park the nose of the car underneath. when you wanna work on the car just reverse the car back a little.

[applegeek897]

December 2017: This always seems to happy to me, I want something and look everywhere for it, and I can’t find anything for months and months. Then as soon as I give up, something amazing pops up out of nowhere and at an insanely good price. This is one of those situations. I’ve always been a fan of smaller wheels on a Cuore. Even 15’s are too big in my opinion. I’d love to stay with 13’s if I can but I can’t put Copen brakes under them. So 14’s was the only real option for me. Again out of nowhere these turned up. Genuine Work Mesiter S2R 14x5+35. These 4x100 beauties are actually made for a Kei is a super weak width which is exactly what I wanted. One day I’ll go wide, but not yet.

So here they are.

The original centre caps that were chrome were painted a nice gloss black. Unfortunately there are only three. So I’ll have to keep an eye out for another set.

The colour is amazing on these, freshly painted in Nissan R35 GTR gunmetal grey. The wheels were originally chrome and they look terrible. I’ve seen these wheels on other cars before and hated them but man in this colour in a satin finish they look amazing.

Theres a small amount of gutter rash on one of the wheels but no biggie. They also have brand new black 70 degree valves stems all round.

Small enough tyres are also never easy to find, at least for me. I was considering going for some Semi’s but the car really is currently just a daily, maybe at another time. Tyres For Less in Fairfield luckily had just 4 155/55R14’s left in stock.

Goodbye Supercheap Auto 13’s, hello 14’s. Quick test fit to see if they will even fit under the guards.

I never bother doing this before as I couldn’t see them anyway but I was keen to paint the brakes quickly before the wheels actually went on for good.

They got a quick clean and a hit with some wax and grease remover.

Then masked up. I wasn’t going to remove them for this job as they will be replaced anyway in a couple of months.

The paint could then begin.

Very happy with the result.

I couldn’t use the original wheel nuts from the car as I needed inverted hex key style nuts, which again are harder to get the I would’ve thought. I grabbed steel ones off eBay which luckily came just before the weekend.

Then they could finally go on.

Sadly while putting the front wheels on I noticed both CV boots on either side were completely split all the way round, oh well next thing to do.

After the car got a well overdue clean it was time for some proper photos.

Lastly a big milestone for the car today.

[paddydai]

thanks for all the photos and updates.
interesting read.

love the wheels. it’s probably as far as i would go with mods!

are you still using it as a daily?

[applegeek897]

Thanks mate, I’m so happy with how the wheels came out. The car is almost how I want it. Just a few more bits and pieces to do. The car is still my daily, kinda. I work in the city and I would always drive the Cuore to the train station then catch the train into work. Although I recently bought a motorcycle so I can go all the way into the city. Saying that the Subaru is pretty broken at the moment and will only be able to be fixed in like 3 or 4 months so it stills gets driven a lot.

[b_hoves]

It’s coming along nicely! The photos in this build are so great!

[applegeek897]

December 2017: So the time has come to throw the wing on. What I want to start with though, is I did a properly shit job mounting this. I was way to excited to get it on that I completely rushed the job. Also I left my camera at work so pardon the iPhone pictures. Anyway, lets get started.

Started with a bare surface, then applied tape to ruin the least amount of this poor tailgate.

Next up was getting the wire for the brake light through the wing, this took a good 45 minutes of faffing.

The wing has some threads in them, some M6 bolts with the ends cut off went in them so I could at-least line up the wing. My shit job at measuring didn’t help this go to plan, I ended up just using the centre hole.

Then there was the stikaflex, I have never had an experience with this stuff, the one I bought was in concrete colour, of which I only realised after I started applying. Not to mention that I used wayy to much.

Heaps spilled out but I managed to get a good amount of it off. Although, over night it drooped a bit a lifted. The wing actually is moulded pretty well to the boot, not OEM like but yeah. For now its solid, it ain’t going anywhere but I want to redo it correctly at some point in the next couple of months with a correct template. Better load up on the fishing line and caramel wheels.

I got bored tonight and went down the road for some more pictures, car is disgustingly dirty but its been raining and I’m not washing it yet.

Like I said, not the best. Its ok, live and learn.

I do love it though.

[ewdwan]

Great write up with some great progress! What wing is that? Looks pretty good! Might get one for mine

[applegeek897]

December 2017: With all the daily duties the car has been doing lately and the crazy amount of the rain the car has gone from a nice blue to a consistent brown colour. I thought I’d detail my normal washing procedure, mostly because I’m super board at the moment.

Anyway, it was properly dirty. I promise it was worse then it looks.

I’ve been using Super Syrups #CleanAsFuck soap for awhile now, and man its amazing.

Shiny Shiny.

I’ve been using Meguiars Perfect Clarity Glass Cleaner and it’s also flipping amazing.

I had a bunch of credit at Supercheap Auto so I grabbed a bunch of things I’d never tried before. Firstly was some RainX.

Applied with with firm pressure as required to a haze.

And buff off.

Next up was a go with Meguiars Quik Clay Kit.

Man I can’t remember if I’ve done this before but damn, the paint was so contaminated. This was just after doing the bonnet. Super pink for some reason too.

After all that was all done it was another good chance to try something new. Meguiars Ultimate Fast Finish wax.

The paint has never been in the perfect shape since the little old lady that owned it was probably using a $1.00 sponge and dish soap, but its damn good for an almost 20 year old car. Came about a bit better on camera but looked great in person and was uber quick to apply. Much faster then the normal liquid wax I normally use.

Tyre shine next, I’ve been using Meguiars Insane Shine for the better part of 4 years. I freaking love it.

This was at the counter for $3.00’s so hey why not.

When brought me to the engine bay, man I never have to look under here as often as I do on my Subaru and I forget how dirty it is. Its on my list for next year for sure.

Anyway it went in.

Finally the interior could get a long overdue clean. Nothing special here just a basic vacuum, all it needs.

So dirty.

Ah so much better.

Of course to finish up we need some pictures to serve my boredom.

[LowKei]

So clean!

[Mokeman]

Just watch out using rainx on windscreen, i have found it is smeary looking in very light rain, makes visibility harder at night with streetlights etc.

[ewdwan]

This is one of my favorite l700’s I’ve seen visually, definitely what I’m aiming for the exterior of mine to look like one day

[applegeek897]

Thanks mate it means alot, my main this with the car was to always be super simple. Exterior wise all I really have left to do is, facelift front bumper, some sort of side skirts and maybe a bad-boy bonnet.

[applegeek897]

January 2018: Nothing super special going on with the Cuore but after hitting 60K i realised I haven’t serviced the car in more then a year and a half. Which for me is a long time. I’m normally anal on a 5,000km per service, but it was forgotten. Oh well. Up the car went.

Drain.

Despite hand tightening the oil filter the ruthless bastard didn’t want to budge. I couldn’t for the life of me find my small filter remover thanks to the Cuore’s microscopic filter. The one I use for the Subaru was of-course wayy to big.

Then it was off to Supercheap Auto to by another one. I got the smallest they had and of course it was still to big…

After another trip to Supercheap Auto I got this type of one. Not a fan of the destruction nature of it but doesn’t really matter in this case.

It then finally come off and a new one could go on.

Filter and oil wise Ryco and Nulon Fully-Synthetic 10W-40 has been doing perfect. I love how insanely cheap it is to service this car.

[applegeek897]

January 2018: I attended the MCM book signing and considering it was a celebration of the show I thought I had to bring the cuore.

Marty’s Mira made an appearance too.

He’s a happy man in his Mira.

They even got it and the Mini in the store, just.

At the end of the night we were blessed with an epic sunset.

Also made a new friend

[Paulep82]

Haha. Cool pix. Where was that at?