Chancing headlight motor to celica

So, the headlight motor wasn't working when I bought the Celica. Before I even started to dissemble the headlight unit I had to find myself a replacement motor (just a hunch). Well that was kind of tricky. I didn't find any from Finland, only mechanisms, not the motors them self's. On eBay there were some junkjards in England which said they possessed the whole car and they checked if they have the right parts for me (I asked also other parts), but after few massages I didn't heard from them again. Fortunately in USA they are interested of making business. I was able to bought left and right motor at 80$ + shipping 40$. The international shipping through eBay has a option to pay Finnish taxes for advance, that good improvement because first, parcels won't get stuck in customs and second, you pay taxes only the product it self not the shipping.

Location of the headlight unit's bolts

Anyway, as the used motors arrived. I took the left headlight out. That was kind of disappointing. Headlight is fastened with three M6 bolts, two at the top and one down in inner wheel arch. All of those bolts snapped, they were so rusty. Even good old WD40 + heat + shock treatment didn't work. They were simply so rusted as if they were welded together. Also two bolts that held the motor in headlight mechanisms broke. So loudly fucks were to be heard. I had to buy a nut rivet tool (cool, new toys!).  I drilled old snapped bolts of off and put new rivet M6 nuts in place.

Left: old, right: replacement

Replacing the headlight motor it self was easy. Without the broken bolts it would have been 2 hour job. For me it was 2 days of joy. Old motor was too rusted work. Just assembled headlight unit back in place and it started to work

New parts and new problems for Celica

Okey.

I was able to get following parts

- used rear shaft (there was a play in inner joint on rear shaft)
- used throttle position sensor
- new gas struts for rear hatch

Yes. Throttle position sensor fixed the problem with intercooler water pump running all the time. now it will stop when car is on idle. New gas struts to rear hatch made it usable.

I also noticed new problems, jipii. Check engine light is still on. At first it was on all the time and I didn't get any error codes because it didn't blink. Now when I have droved it more it started working and gave me code 21, witch is oxygen sensor code. When I looked closer to exhaust manifold, it is loose! I have to first insert new gasket. Leaks in exhaust manifold can chouse problems with oxygen sensor.

When examining the intercooler water pump I noticed that some one has tried to repair it. Look at the photo!!

Carlos Saintz Celica!

Do not know what happened. Just had this feeling that I need a new toy (or new way to spend money). In my childhood celica 4wd cars was the thing that not everybody was afford to (there has been high taxes on cars in Finland as long I could remember). But now there was a genuine Carlos Saintz edition 4wd celica on sell in internet, just under 6k€ and only 243 000 km. Could’t be that bad? Rest of the CS Celicas were 9-12k€. Well... maybe it was but I bought it any way :)

Hmm, at least I could drive it to home 500km. In that trip and next day I did some list of repairs needed to restore this classic to her former glory! And the list was kind of depressing...

• Body and paintwork
• Left fender, paint stripping and surface rust (considering buing a new, it will be tricky becouse this is wide fender model)
• Some surface rust in fender, no big
• Front bumper has taking some damage, some filler and painting
• Bottom seemed to be rust free? That is a plus
• Engine, transmission, differentals
• Yellow engine sing in thasboard
• The intercooler watermotor running all the time
• Jumpy when accelerating from 3000 - 4000 rpm
• Engines coolant tempature dropping when driving
• Some weird ”klunk” noise from the rear when driving low revs
• Some bolts has been broken, some of the stuff laying around free in engine compartment
• Power steering fluid is tripping on the ground, a lot
• But power from 5000- 7000 rpm seems to be fine
• Differentals and transmission seems to be fine
• 
  
• Interior and other stuff
• Left front light does not flip (previuos owner has screwed that light up permanently)
• Missing some of the interior parts
• Full leather seats! Some tare and ware, need to be cleaned and colorwaxed
• Gas struts in the hatch need to be replaced
• Also gas struts in every wheel need to be replaced

So, this may keep me busy for a moment. This car was originally from Germany, no knowledge of the history in that time. A Finnish guy bought it and bring it to Finland 2013. It has been in storage 2013-2018. The previous owner was planning to make it a historic rally car. Plans chance and he needed to get it deposed of. 

I have started to buy new parts in it. I will wright about how I’m narrowing the list down...

Almost two years gone by the wind

Argh!!!

The last post was almost two years ago! Where the time has gone? Oh, I had two children with my girlfriend maybe that was it. Anyway, I have still practiced shooting and upgraded my guns and equipment, only I had´t time Tom write about it.

More importantly I have made some puukko´s, continued my Toyota Levin ´74 look a like and bought  a Celica GT - four Carlos Saintz edition!!!

I will start writing of Celica. I think it is interesting to see how that project is going. Theres going to be some restoration, fixing and some point engine tuning. I have a dream of 350+ hp 4wd celica.

Range report, GGG match 175gr

Its been long time since I have the interest to write a blog or personal diary. But now I have little bit of free time in my hands I managed to start writing.

firts try with GGG Match at 100m

In last summer I bought some new ammo. A Lithuanian company named GGG has made ammo in standard NATO calibers to civilian markets very competitive price. They are offering bulk and different match grade cartridges. I was able to get 308 bulk and 308 match with sierra match king 175gr bullet. In their web page there are match loads with different sierra match king bullets.

I just tell shorty about GGG bulk in 308 win. It has a 9,55g fmj bullet and its a Nato cartridge. In my Remington I was able to get 1,5-2 moa with 5 shots at 100m, so my interest on this dropped and I dont have any pictures of it. Only thing that was attracted were case's. Copper case look like Lapua case with blazed neck(not really know if this is the right choice of words, neck of the lapua case's has made softer so its endure more re-loading). Anyhow I shot only 50 of these GGG Bulk and gave the case's to my friend. The price was in Finland 0,75€/pcs

Remington 700p with Dragunov at 300m range

 The GGG Match 175gr:

I have happily announced to everyone that I dont need to reload 308 anymore! I dont know what to say, this is as accurate as Lapua trainer and cost less. 1,25€/pcs with sierra match king, why would you want to reload. And if you are able to sell cases to reloader for 0,2€ pcs even better. I hope that they won't rice the prices. In Finland just a sierra match king bullet costs 0,50€. I have shot 60 of this product and accuracy seems constant. Need to boy more.

15 shots at 300m with bipod

I was so satisfied with GGG Match product that I have to find it in 223 and try out it in STI Custom. I the picture to right there is prone shooting with bipod(no sand bag any kind). The 15 shot group tells more about me than the ammo or rifle. First fore shots before was in 41mm group! That's under 0,5 MOA.

Baltic Storm 2016

I went to compete in Baltic Storm at Estonia, Tallin. This was excellent competition with 40 stages in 2 days! And it took only 5-6h per to shoot 20 stages in one day. Minimum rounds were over 700. The competition was a good practice and I noticed that I was enable to improve my score compered to 2015. Overall score was just under 70% and I was enable to get one stage almost 80%! Not bad considering my training amount per year and there were over 230 competitors in production class.

El presidente and new mounting system for sony action cam

It's only a month for Baltic storm and I need to practice some speed. El president is good way to start, altho I did it without turning. First try was disappointing 8,5 s. After that I was able to get 3 times under 6 seconds. The best one was:

1st 1,32 1,32 draw
2st 1,52 0,20
3st 1,85 0,33
4st 2,03 0,18
5st 2,31 0,28
6st 2,52 0,21
7st 4,60 2,08 magazine
8st 4,81 0,21
9st 5,13 0,32
10st 5,32 0,19
11st 5,68 0,36
12st 5,87 0,19

All hits in the C zone. Splits are quite good, chancing target should be under 0,3 and chancing magazine should be about 1,0 sec.

My new goal is to get 4,xx sec time in El President. It should look like this:

1st 1,00 1,00
2st 1,20 0,20
3st 1,45 0,25
4st 1,65 0,20
5st 1,90 0,25
6st 2,10 0,20
7st 3,10 1,00
8st 3,30 0,20
9st 3,55 0,25
10st 3,75 0,20
11st 4,00 0,25
12st 4,20 0,20

Second fantastic new thing is my cap mount for Sony as200. Some guy in youtube reviewed a official  action cam cap that is sold over internet for 30 dollars or something. I thought thats genius! So I went local store and bought a cap for 5 euros, made a hole in the cap and screwed the action cam in it. Whola! A brand new head mount for action cam witch also prevent sunshine! I actually think this is better than hama mount for helmet that I set up in my earmuff.

A new action cam and preparing for Baltic Storm with Sphinx 3000!

I have been so busy in my work so I haven't updated my blog for a while. I have practiced gun draw and keeping a touch in good trigger control even if it is cold in the range. Fortunately spring is coming and its time to come out from the gun closet! (probably not funny in english...)

As same as last year I don't have a EU permit to take my trusted Cz SP-01 to other country, so I'm taking Sphinx 3000 from a friend to the match. I picked it up couple weeks ago. First I had to modify my holster for sphinx. Even it is a copy of CZ 75, the trigger guard has different shape and the slide is a bit wider. I liked sphinx a lot! Its fits my hand better than cz and the trigger is so sweet. When I fired it a first time in double action it actually felt like it was accident.

Now when its getting worm and you can actually see something in evenings is more pleasant to go shooting. I thought about my videoclips what I have taken with counts action cam, it would be nice to follow my progress(hah..) more with videos and it would be nice to some day watch old footage. I noticed that Sony's as200 action cam with live view was on sale so I bought that. (actually it was't so simple, before decision to buy new camera contained 50h of a youtube reviews). New head cams are so good that you can use it as a normal videocamera, without a zoom of course.

I made my girlfriend to film me when I shot with Sphinx. The video above quality is 720p and 120 fps. It is slowed down to 4x. You can actually do 240 fps with this camera but it is only 480p an its requires a lots of light. I did also bought go pro inverter and go pro helmet mount and but the camera in left earmuff. Whit sony's steadyshot on it is quit nice, but the best part is sony's microphones. You can actually talk and shoot without any problem. Some camcorders cuts the audio off fore some time after a rifle/pistol/shotgun shot. I had an idea to start making shotVlogs :) Next video is filmed in 1080p and 60fps, steadyshot and wind cut on. If some one non-finnish is wondering, I tried first shots in the snow to determine were the sights adjusted right.

Winter practice and trying to kill a bad habit

Pistol shooting in winter conditions  is not the most pleasant way to start practice for out coming competitions, but I don't have a choice. Fortunately the cold dropped from -30 to - 6 so I have some chance to practice whiteout frostbites. Simple and short pistol exercises at this time. One shot at pepper popper target in option 1. Winter clothing is trouble factor enough at least when you have some time from last practical shooting.

With thick jacket I was available to hit pepper popper at 20m in 1,5 seconds.

Second thing what I was training was "recoil fear". Especially shooting with one hand(for some reason mostly dominate hand) I make a twitch at 7 a clock with right hand and 5 a clock with left hand. This is only shown at shooting range when handling live rounds. I think this is a some kind of reflex with knowledge because I don't notice this when I practice with dummy rounds.

I read that only way to get rid of it is to make my self aware of it. To do so first I load in 3 magazines a dummy round, then I load hot rounds a random number for each magazine. After that I mix the mag's so when I start to shoot I don't know when I do dry fire. I was surprised how big my anticipation for normal 9mm pistol were. This is what I need to practice more often, after few surprise dry fire I was available to take down small plates in 25m so easily!

  

Remington 700 Police range report

I did spend a lot of time in range in Christmas holidays, espesially with my customised Remington 700. Before Christmas a gunsmith shortened barrel from 26" to 21" and but a 18mm thread in the end for a Aseutra j-zet suppressor. Now with shortened barrel balance with suppressor is quite good, espesially if you need to carry it in the woods.

Here are some results: I shot  Seller&Belliot 9,55 g FMJ and some handloads with Lapua Scenar 10g. S&B performed quite well, all the grouping were under 1 MOA also in 300m range. With 10g Scenar I got one load that gave under 0,7 MOA grouping. Although my scope rings started to move in some point when I fired hot loads. There was a Lapua case, CCI 200 primer and vihtavuori N140&N150 powders. COAL was 73mm(longest that fit in AICS magazine).

S&B 9,55 g 308 Win

S&B 9,55 g 308 Win

S&B 9,55 g 308 Win

Scenar 10g with Lapua case 73mm COAL

Scenar 10g with Lapua case 73mm COAL

Scenar 10g with Lapua case 73mm COAL

Dry draw exercise with CZ SP-01

This years first pistol exercise started in -29 degrees of Celsius, indoors of course. I recorded my pistol draw in video and it looked quite well. PAR time was from 1 - 0,8 second in normal standing and 1,2-1,0 second in surrender standing.

The holster is Finnish SLB Custom. Its good for IPCS shooting but not very "practical" for IPDM or army reserve shootings

First attempt for a long range

My first over 300m shootings were  in a cold weather, -8 degrees Celsius and a little blustering wind. First distance was 320 meters according to my zeiss rangefinder( a Christmas present for my self, maybe I going to do a review of it some day). I shot prone with my remington 700 police with 20'' barrel with suppressor and Dragunov.

In 320 meters my Remigton 700 was easy to hit 200mm plate and head of practical target. One hit on the 100mm plate swing it over the beam twice! So maybe the 100mm plate is to lite for 308win. With Norma jakhtmact 9,7g fmj I had to adjust my scope 1,9Mrad to hit center. That was more than I expected, probably because of the cold weather. And Dragunov with leader surplus ammo hits easily 200mm plate with 350m sight adjustment.

Elevation adjustment for 320m

Remington 700, with norma 9,7 fmj = 1,9 Mrad
Dragunov, with leader surplus = 350m

At 489m thing got very difficult. Blustering wind starts to interfere in shooting. 200m plate was very difficult to hit, one out of five shot hit the target. But with practical target hit ratio was nearly 90%. And it was surprise for me how easy it is to hit target with dragunov! Only 4x scope in that thing! Of course first my friend looked with Remington's 18x zooming scope where I was hitting with dragunov so I know were to hold.

Elevation adjustment for 489m

Remington700, with Norma 9,7 fmj = 4,7Mrad
Dragunov, with leader surplus = 600m

No wind adjustment needed, if you shot in a wind bluster you did not hit the target.

Dragunov's 4x scope at 489m, camera did,n pick up the targets but with bare eye you can see the biggest target.

Steel targets for a long range sooting

Long range shooting is a long waited dream of mine. This Christmas I started to fulfill it. Shooting at long distances 300 to 600 m to a paper targets seem to be little bit poring. Five shots in five minutes and then 20 minutes to check the target. But to shoot to steel targets was more to my taste.

First I watched punch of YouTube clips about steel targets what people use and started acquire equipment for steel targets. I desaidet to do "swinging" steel target. For a swing I needed squire steel pipe two different sizes 25*25mm and 20*20mm for the legs and 25*50 steel pipe for the beam. For hanging the steel targets I bought 10mm thick rubber belt and cut it to a 70*500mm. As for the steel target them self's I order them from a metal shop. They are made from Hardox 450 12mm thick and there are tree different sizes 100mm plate, 200mm plate and C and head zone of a practical target.

Steel targets hanging from rubber belts. After this photo I did extension joints in legs and painted the swing black

Reeloading steel cases for dragunov

I tested is it possible to reload surplus ammo with  steel case. I wanted a handload that is safe to shoot from dragunov, in finland there is no hard primer like CCI 34 on the market so I have to improvise. I unload chineese surplus ammo with steel case and use the unfired steelcase and primer and reload it with new bullet and powder.

Unfortunately there's no reloading data for .311 bullets and no info for reloading steel cases. I tryed some loads with .311 bullets and wihtavuori powder.

1. load.

Hornady 150gr sp
COAL: 73mm
Powder: N135 46gr

avarang speed was 860 m/s with old type of primer (larger one)
And with newer type of primer speed went up to 890 m/s with same amount of powder! Presure went too strong, some of the steel cases crack in the shoulder.

2. Load (my friends load for ukko-pekka)

Sako .311 8g
COAL : 71mm
Powder: N135 49gr

Avarange speed 930 m/s. This load makes the magazine jam. The COAL is too short and ammo in the magazine start to move when shooting.

3. load

Sierra 174 gr
COAL: 75mm
Powder: N140 45,5gr

Avarange speed 785 m/s. Works well, exept load is too hot. Steel cases with old primers give more pressure than expected. Some of the cases cracked in little. Same loads with sako and lapua shells did not give any hot load symthoms, but I did'n mesure the speeds eitheir.

Dragunov handloads

I started loading for dragunov. I bought some .311 bullets for test, there are no many choices in .311 caliber. Amercan bullets are actally for .303 british caliber and there are no loading data for them in 7,62x54R.

I managet to get these bullets for testing:

Sako 123gr FMJ for 7.62x39,
Lapua 200gr FMJBT( too heavy for dragunov)
Sierra Pro Hunter 125gr
Sierra HPBT 174gr
Hornady 150 SP

In finland there are not extra hard primers like CCI no. 34, so I have to manualy load each round. I have also planned to reload chinese surplus ammo to get it savefully work in semi-auto.

First load:

Hornady 150gr SP
COAL: 73mm
Case: Sako
Primer: vihtavuori (old)
Powder: N135 45gr & 46gr

So I started shooting handloads one by one and got nice results. Best 5-shot group was 1 moa. There was problem with vihtavuori primers, dragunovs strikes primers so hard that few soft vihtavuori primers get piersed. I have to chance vihtavuori to CCI 200 and see how it goes.

More tests and photos are coming...

Shooting a dragunov from kneel position

I bought some time a go a countor action camera. Its very helpful when you want to improve your time in practical shooting. This time I just wanted to film my self shooting dragunov from kneel position at 40 meters. That damn thing is so fun to shoot!

SVD range report 2

I started testing PPU Leader surplus ammo. It has steel case with cupper plating and 148gr bullet. There are several different case markings and some of the ammo's primes and bullets are seald with pink lacquer.

Altough PPU is the cheapest 54R ammo in the Finland it gives a firm performance, all the groups are under 2,5 MOA this includes fliers. This might not sound like much but the ammo is only 0,35€/piece and my Dragunov has old russian 4x scope on it. Best 5 shot group that I get was 1,25 MOA.

The best results gave cardridge with numbers 71 and 66 stamped in the rear. Some of the different case markings hits different place than the rest, so its important to arrange the cases. Last photo shows how high 69/19 hits compered to 71/66.


 I know there is potential to SVD, but there are no other hard primer ammo available in Finland and hard primers as CCI #34 are not available for reloading. One possibility is to start reloading berdan type of shells, berdan primer should be harder than boxers.


 I found out that it is relitvely easy load a dragunov single shot style. After last shot the boltcarrier is left in rear position, then it's easy to load a single cartridge in the magazine when it's still on the gun. This way I can test western ammo like S&B and Lapua without worrying the rifle been blown in my face.















  

SVD range report

I ordered some russian ammo for my dragunov. There is a major slam fire potential with free floating firing pin so I decided to keep firing russian ammo for now. There is one kaboom with dragunov in Finland last year, if I remember currectly it was with S&B ammo. There were no serious injurys to shooter.

I managet to get three different ammo with hard russian primers. Wolf 148gr fmj, Barnaul 174gr and PPU Leader 148gr.

Wolf

Steel case and unknow bullet. I have shot 60 shots with this. There sometimes seems to be little deley when firing, like 0,2 second or so. You only are able to tell it after the shot. Wolf often performs good, about 2,0 - 1,5 MOA but sometimes I got some huge fliers. the worst ones goes 15cm off the target, I do not know why. Best 5-shot group was 55mm at 100m and four of them was under 25mm.

Barnaul

I had high hopes for this one. I shoot barnaul a lot in 9 mm, its cheap and works well. Steel case with same green lacquer than the 9mm. Bullet is a heavy 174 gr so light rifle kicks a bit more. I have shot four five-shot groups and I was deppressed. The avarage group size was about 100mm.

 

PPU Leader

This ammo is little strange. I can not find any precise info about this, only that is surplus ammo with 148gr bullet. 200 pieces of ammo is stored in cardpoard box and there are some foreign language, mayby chech? Visually I see there are at least four differents types of cases, different numbers and case colors. Anyway I shot two 5-shot groups before dark and was amazed! First shot go little left, but the rest go about 5cm goup. Not bad for cheap surplus. This ammo needs more testing. Obviously I have to organice the different types of shells order to get more accuracy of this ammo.

Different type of shells in PPU Leader

Remington 700 + grs stock

I have had a Remington 700 Police for five years now. The original HS stock does not fit me like a glove so I wanted something with an adjustaple ceekwell and lenght. Stock markets in Finland are narrow, but norwegian GRS stock were awailable and desing of sporter/varmint was intresting so I go with that. Stock weight is only 1,3kg.

Same time I wanted to changes box magazine to AICS type changeable magazine. I bought an Alutek triggerguard that accepts AICS magazines. Its a lot stonger and bigger than the original trigerguard, so it is not a drop in installation.

Alutek triggerguard and steel bedding pillars

I noticed that grs stock needed a bedding job. My friend milled me two pedding pillar from steel. They werent adjustible like the ones in gunshops so I cut them exacly the same lenght as in the HS stock.

 

I used Acraglass bedding gel. It has a nice working time also its easy to mix and spread. Before bedding I used electric tape to center the barrel and to make room for recoil lug. Then I waxed all steel parts so the recerver wont stick in the stock. There are lots of videos in youtube of pillar pedding.

Final result was success. Actoin works perfectly and now I have light and ergonomic rifle with AICS magazines.

8 shots at 100m. Lapua Trainer

First shots with my new SVD

I bought my self a new rifle. I was going to buy DPMS AR10 or S&W mp10, but when I was at the gunstore I saw something beautiful. An original SVD Dragunov, stock condition! The last time when I have seen and fired Dragunov was in the army. Best part is the price only half of the S&W mp10! Decicion was made, I can buy AR10 rifles anytime but original Dragunov's, maybe never!

Detailed review gomes later, I also bought some wolf 7,65*54R ammo and headed to range. I was trilled! There was also Russian scope PO 4x24 with the rifle.

  

First shots were off the target, but then I sights to the A4 papertarget. Wolf ammo performed nicely 4 shots were in 3cm group and one flyer 5cm off the group! nicely done with cheapest ammo what you can find!