Hi, everyone,
Ever since I saw the “Blue Turd” on MCM and fell in love with it, I had it in the back of my mind, that I had to have that car at some point in my life. So after years of looking at all the L7 builds here and on FB groups, the time has come for me to start my own thread.
Here is my 1999 Daihatsu Cuore, which I named “Basket” (a translation of a slang word in my language, used to describe a small shitty hatchback). These cars are incredibly hard to find in my small country in the middle of Europe, because no one wants them - everyone drives a BMW or a Passat (which I drive, lol), so I had to look across the border, where the market is a lot bigger, but even there L7s are hard to find, especially if you want one cheap and with not much rust. So after about a year of searching, which was interrupted by the global pandemic, I found one, that looked decent, so I took a chance, booked a flight, and there it was, my very first project car waiting for me at the airport parking lot in Krakow, Poland. It looked promising, but had some issues, bigger issues, than I was told about before taking a flight there. But it was only 400 euros and I was already there, so the deal was done. Now the hardest part began, I had to drive it back over 700km home in a piece of crap with very questionable brakes, driveshafts, that were shot to shit and a very loose shifter, which was bouncing around as the car drove. The first 100km were very stressful, I thought I wasn’t gonna make it and was ready to ditch the car (lol), but then I hopped on the highway and after another 100km at 120km/h I was sure I was gonna make it, and I did. Overall impression of the car after the road trip, despite all the issues was great - it was a lot faster, than I imagined, especially off the line, it reached a 100 in what felt was quicker than my 110kW daily. It also was very nimble and has very responsive steering, although I’d like to have power steering, so I’ll probably look into adding that.
The original plan was to register it right away, but I was planning on passing the MOT, which wasn’t going to happen, considering the condition of the car, and I really wanted to fix it myself. Now I don’t know much about cars and never attempted to fix anything car related myself, so I rented a small garage to store it during the winter and slowly fix it up. That way I can learn more about the car and avoid the road salts during the winter.
As it stands right now, I want to do these things on the car:
-Fix/replace the driveshafts (wonder if the l250 driveshafts would work)
-Replace/Upgrade the brakes
-Fix the oil leaks on and around the valve cover
-Fix/upgrade the wobbly gear shifter
-Get rid of the disgusting cigarette smoke smell from the interior
-Fix minor rust (some bubbling) on the rear arches
-Find out if I’m missing a panel here
I’ll update as soon as I do something to the car, which can take a while, but it’s not a race and I want to do things right. I hope you can provide me with some advice as how to go about fixing these issues, and sorry for the long post .
