I just got a Toyota Solara!

I just got a Toyota Solara convertible!

I look forward to pleasant car conversations with you all (unlike on alt.autos.toyota, where so many people seem so angry).

Not many questions yet, just three. I hope you can help me.

A. I need a copy of the shop manaul, factory service manual, REPAIR MANUAL, whatever. I gather that I need 3 volumes, the two volumes for the Solara, and the one volume supplemnent for the convertible. Is that right? Unless they just got sold, I found the first two for

95 dollars on ebay, but I'm thinking maybe someone here wants to sell his manuals from his old car, or you know a cheaper place to buy these.

B. The car is 2000 Solara convertible, in pearl white (color 051) . Duplicolor doesn't sell this color anymore, and Toyota doesn't sell spray paint. If I get a scratch, I like to use spray paint. Any suggestions where to get color 051?

And it's white, for gosh sakes. Isn't there a color still made that is also the same white? :-) Or close?

C. With my Chrysler LeBaron. almost all the bolts, etc. were English sizes and a small number were metric. Can I assume that every bolt, etc. in a Toyota is metric? Can I put my English wrenches in the house, to save space in my toolbag? I don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere without a wrench size that I need.

Thanks a lot for any help you can give.

Reply to
micky
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I see there is also the Toyota 2000 Camry Solara Electrical Wiring Manual. If I have bought the other 2 manuals, do I still need this?

Or if I bought the two manuals and the convertible supplement?

Reply to
micky

You can buy on-line access to all this information and more for short periods of time at reasonable prices. You can even save the files that have the information you need. Take a look at:

formatting link

Regards,

Ed White

Reply to
C. E. White

Every nut and bolt should be metric. As for the white paint, try looking at "Pearl White" for other makes. The dealer should be able to order little, expensive touch-up cans from Toyota.

Reply to
Leftie

Okay. I'll try to get over my view that metric measurements are a communist plot to weaken the fiber of Western civilization, and it will be an excuse to buy more tools. (I have sockets and combination wrenches, but I could use deep sockets and allen wrenches, for a start. I'm not sure what else.)

There actually is a little cylinder of that in the glove compartment,

11 years old, I guess. But I've never been able to do a good job with a brush, only with spary.

Duplicolor doesn't still make this color and that other company whose name I forget seems to have been bought out by Rustoleum (which didn't used to have paint by auto-maker paint number, but does now. However it doesn't have this color.

OTOH, I found a company that will mix the paint to order and sell a

12-oz can for 20 dollars. Does anyone want the company name? I'll find it if you do. In this case, they say it's a 3-layer process, including the clear coat, so I have to buy the base coat too as well as the color coat, so that's another 20 dollars. Unfortunately since I dn't plan to to sand anything down, or apply a base coat. I'm thinking in terrms of little scratches. But OT3H, of the last 5 cars, in the last 37 years, all of which I have bought paint for, for the most part I never used the paint. I never got scratches, but I bought the paint anyhow before they stopped selling it. . So I won't have to buy anything if I don't get any scratches.

My prime example of the advantage of this was my '67 Pontiac in Mariner Turquoise. It had a lot of little scratches for some reason, as if I had driven thorugh bushes with thorns. I took the car to a carwash first, no wax, an d I sprayed the Duplicolor paint on, when the car was 10 or 11 years old, and 10 seconds later I couldnt' tell where the scratches had been. I didn't mask anything but the chrome, just feathered the color and I couldnt' tell where the feathering was, where the new paint was and where only the old paint was. It looked great.

Reply to
micky

Thanks. I didnt' know about this sort of thing. Very interesting.

Reply to
micky

I should add that I plan to keep the car 7 years or longer and I typically spend 20 or 30 hours each year, spread out over maybe 60 days a year at first, 20 days in the later years, reading the shop manual. At 15 dollars for 2 days, it's cheaper for me to buy the manuals.

I am not suret if there is a copyright problem with what they do, but cooperating with one would be a problem too.

Reply to
micky

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