Dedinging an Echo

Despite the title, this has nothing to do with music, and it isn't about my MX5, but it is car related, so what the heck...

Before - note my censoring of the number plate looks strange.

After - more censoring weirdness.

I'm garaging my daughter's Toyota Echo whilst she's overseas, so decided to spend some time (but little money) on cleaning it up a bit.

My daughter looked after the car well prior to travel, but backed it into hidden garage door stop some time ago. The car looked original apart from that, and the fact that over time, the wheel trims had gone missing.

Toyota Echo wheel trims are cheap and plentiful, so I picked a set up from a local wrecker. The same wrecker had some Echos in stock, although none of the correct Winter White colour, so I collected a rear bumper and a lower valence in a silver tone.

The original intention had been to find a wreck the same colour, so painting could be avoided, but there were none around locally, unlike the situation when I rejuvenated my son's Toyota Camry a few years ago.

The whole shopping expedition cost $80, so the "little money" bit was achieved.

Next step was to remove the damaged bits.

Removing the damaged bumper was the hard bit.

I found some youtube videos which ostensibly showed the way, but they all cut out after the retaining bolts were removed. At this point, the bumper bar stubbornly refused to separate from the subframe, so I was stuck.

Browsing through a second hand bookstore (the lockdown encourages this type of time filling) I found a Haynes Repair Manual for the Echo. Finding this particular book was, to say the least, a fluke, but it became clear after quick reference to the manual, that the bumper was held on by plastic clips, and you simply had to exert force until the clips cried "enough".

This was handy.

Toyota has a thing about plastic clips...

Anyway, once I was aware that brute force was required, and it wouldn't damage anything, the job became straightforward.

Suspended for spray painting.

The weather turned nasty halfway through the process which slowed things down a little, but the result was pleasing. By the time I'd bought the paint and manual, total costs were about $100. A panel beater would have probably quoted at least $750.

Next job is to restore the headlamps. They've gone yellow through age.

Watch this space...