Went to my local wreckers here in November 2020 just for a suss and came across this little guy sitting there waiting to be pulled apart.
Fast forward 3 months and he was still in the same spot so asked the wrecker how much? Well let’s just say that his price was cheaper than I thought it would be so I couldn’t get my wallet out quick enough thinking that it " Should " be a quick flip even if i made $50 out of it would be good. But then the reality of living in Nth Queensland set in again when i advertised it on facebook" if only you weren’t 1000kms north of Brisbane…" lolz
So now I own an L80 that is slowly getting some love to hopefully get it back on the road as the condition of it isn’t really that bad and is a perfect base for fixing.
As seen in the pics, it does have some rust, worst being the bottom of the guards but nothing that isn’t fixable,not bad for an 86 model though, the interior is in really good condition save the seat material coming apart and a sagging roof lining and needs a headlight/wiper combo switch. The carpet is still fairly good and not worn though totally which is a shock, even still has the factory spare wheel cover and vinyl over it
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It wound over with a battery but wouldn’t start so i had a bit of a play with the distributor to try and get timing sort of right, managed to get it to sort of fire up and idle but would die as soon as i touched the accelerator. thinking back to my second Dai, an L55vi had a problem where the condensor blew and took out the points while i was driving, it was the same, would start and idle but not accelerate without dying, I replaced the points and condensor and YAY he fired up and revved quite happily, not bad I thought as the points and distibutor timing were only set by eye as i didn’t have my feeler gauges with me. Yahoo it runs!! but then oh dear, water in radiator looked like someone had used Chemiweld in it 
Flushed the radiator as best i could, then broke a plastic T piece that had been used for bypassing the heater WAAAHH!!! Replaced the T piece with a brass one and Woot no more leaking from there. BOOOM!! Water was blowing out the radiator cap when he warmed up, not good
So I went hunting on Ebay for a new headgasket $160 Snap!!
Wait on!!! Luke on here runs a little parts store at www.lukesdaihatsuparts.com so looked and he has headgaskets for under $45 delivered, Score!!!
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The car is sitting at my works holding yard, I work for a towing company driving a HR tilt tray, so I can only really work on him after work for an hour or so
Replaced the headgasket and all vacuum lines, took 3 days but only about 3.5 hours total. inside the motor needs a good clean
but suss out those bores
look like near new
He runs and drives around the yard nicely, haven’t really seen if the headgasket seals properly yet as only had it runnung for about 15 minutes since doing but he is getting there. He is still for sale but the more I do the higher the price will be, within reason of course. Next is to get the rust in the guards and bottom of rear window done and source a combo switch so hopefully he can get roadworthied and regoed, plus I have the Topless still in building mode so might take a little bit. Cheers till next time and Peace to you all
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Such a cool car. Watching this thread with interest 
car was only running on 2 cylinders so was pointed out to me, new set of plugs fixed that still has a miss but I am putting that down to the distributor cap being old so will source a new one and new rotor button soon.
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[quote=“Mokeman, post:3, topic:3408”]…inside the motor needs a good clean…[/quote]Actually, for an ED, that residue is comparitively not bad. Likely, an advanced-aged person was the previous owner, given the evidently low milage displaced by the still to be seen honing scratches and absence of an upper cylinder ridge.
That vehicle would command a good price, here in Europe
