Daihatsu Cuore Daily Ripper

[garthalgar]

I know its not particularly 'retro', but I think RetroRides has a soft spot for the Cuore in all its mightyness. Plus I need a thread to consolidate all of the work that i'm doing to it so here it is!.


Basically my girlfriend was wanting a new car. Her auto 1.4 EK Civic has done her 2 faultless years and she wanted a manual again. Cue me every couple of hours hitting gumtree with the under £500 search and up popped this little Cuore. I've ALWAYS wanted a Cuore. So I basically told her it was happening and that was that. 

It's a 1.0 Twin Cam. 48k with 12 months MOT. The guy said that it didnt have service history but on looking through the books in the glove box on the way home it in fact has a full service history most being Daihatsu! Its a bit bubbly round the arches but no holes and the interior is spotless. So for all that magnificence I paid £380.


The bloke didnt really have a clue about cars and had no idea that the clutch was badly needing adjusted and had no idea when the cambelt was last done. After the comical 70 mile drive home I immediately ordered a timing belt kit and water pump. Struggled to find anything cheap but on Amazon I got the kit for £38 and the water pump for £3.79! So tonight I worked through that, changed the oil and coolant and adjusted up the clutch. I absolutely love driving it and am gutted that she now gets to use it daily. Might have to find another for myself!





Was amazed at the size of the miniature brakes!



And the baby water pump





 

But in the long run this thing is going to get tarted up to look a bit more interesting. She hates boring cars so we might do a checker job like on our E34. Then when shes done with it I'm plonking a 1.3 in!

[Littlepixel]

Love love love Cuore / Miras—What the Metro should have been if they'd done it in the naughties.

Lucky GF! (do you plan to do an MCM "Blue T*rd" style Sirion transplant?)

[garthalgar]

Nov 6, 2016 23:42:38 GMT Littlepixel said:

Love love love Cuore / Miras—What the metro should have been if they'd done it in the naughties.

Lucky GF! (do you plan to do an MCM "Blue T*rd" style sirion transplant?)

They are comical to drive aren't they? I love it though. Surprisingly nippy too.

Not while she owns it unfortunately. Just cosmetic stuff in the mean time. After next summer circumstances will change and she won't need a car. So that's when I can start doing blue t*rd madness and do a sirion swap and coilovers etc. It will happen!

[Littlepixel]

Nov 7, 2016 7:09:45 GMT garthalgar said:

After next summer circumstances will change and she won't need a car. So that's when I can start doing blue t*rd madness and do a sirion swap and coilovers etc. It will happen!

Only ever driven a stock 'courtesy car' one but I loved the lightness and nippiness.
Was just reading that you can apparently fit the 1.3 4 pot turbo out of the YRV in them with minimal fuss

link

(you have to go semi-auto as the Cuore's gear/clutch can't handle the torque - so not to everyone's taste)
130hp madness in a teeny little mini-box... Must be so much fun

I'd love a retro Mira/Gino bodied one if I had a chance...


+



= winning

[düdo]

I was admiring one of these this morning. The real successor to the Mini rather than that bloated pretender.

[vanpeebles]

Looks great! We used to be big Daihatsu fans in my family until they left the UK market.

[garthalgar]

Nov 7, 2016 9:34:34 GMT Littlepixel said:

Nov 7, 2016 7:09:45 GMT garthalgar said:

After next summer circumstances will change and she won't need a car. So that's when I can start doing blue t*rd madness and do a sirion swap and coilovers etc. It will happen!

Only ever driven a stock 'courtesy car' one but I loved the lightness and nippiness.
Was just reading that you can apparently fit the 1.3 4 pot turbo out of the YRV in them with minimal fuss

link

(you have to go semi-auto as the Cuore's gear/clutch can't handle the torque - so not to everyone's taste)
130hp madness in a teeny little mini-box... Must be so much fun

I'd love a retro Mira/Gino bodied one if I had a chance...

To be honest I love driving a manual too much to suffer through a semi auto for the sake of 30hp! Sirion 1.3 and engine loom will be perfect. At least all of these engines are on the same platform so finding bits or things that fit is really easy

Nov 7, 2016 10:08:26 GMT düdo said:

I was admiring one of these this morning. The real successor to the Mini rather than that bloated pretender.

They are ace. With a couple of mods I bet it would easily out-handle a LOT of cars.

Nov 7, 2016 10:20:37 GMT vanpeebles said:

Looks great! We used to be big Daihatsu fans in my family until they left the UK market.

thanks! I've never had one. Always had a strange want for a Hijet, and a Materia for that matter. But a Cuore has always been up there at the top of the list of cars I need to own!

[ollieh17]

You can use a manual box on the yrv turbo swap

[garthalgar]

Nov 8, 2016 22:22:10 GMT ollieh17 said:

You can use a manual box on the yrv turbo swap

Still... The engines are at least twice as expensive and if I'm honest I prefer the way an na car drives especially a little light hatchback. The sirion swap has been done enough times to make it a clearly easy viable cheap swap so that's the plan

[Littlepixel]

Some turbo'd Cuores (well Kelisa), and a turbo'd Move (Kenari) having fun in the wild:


And this is nice, if a bit unusably low:

[Littlepixel]

[garthalgar]

Nov 10, 2016 15:26:36 GMT Littlepixel said:

Ha, that looks absolutely amazing thanks! I'm actually almost so tempted to buy my own and go a bit mad with it but I cant have 3 cars even if one is a rollerskate

But really, that photo is saved for future reference...

[sciclone]

Just remember to pronounce it Kwo-re, not Cue-or or Sew-or like mighty car mods. Cuore is heart in Italian.

[Littlepixel]

Nov 10, 2016 18:42:39 GMT garthalgar said:

Ha, that looks absolutely amazing thanks! I'm actually almost so tempted to buy my own and go a bit mad with it but I cant have 3 cars even if one is a rollerskate
But really, that photo is saved for future reference...

Sorry to photobomb your thread - Love doing quick photoshops and it's such a good shot I couldn't resist. Glad it's fuelling some mojo..

I'm in the middle of the house-moving process, and [fingers crossed it doesn't fall through] the new one has - for the first time in my life - a big garage, : D - so dreams of a project Cuore or Mira-Gino loom large in my head too, if I don't spend all the time fiddling with my SF5 Forester

Nov 10, 2016 23:24:10 GMT sciclone said:

Just remember to pronounce it Kwo-re, not Cue-or or Sew-or like mighty car mods. Cuore is heart in Italian.

Interesting about the pronunciation - I had it as Cue-Or so seeing is as Kwo-re stands me proper corrected...

If you click this link, Google will even say it out loud for you:

[garthalgar]

Nov 10, 2016 23:24:10 GMT sciclone said:

Just remember to pronounce it Kwo-re, not Cue-or or Sew-or like mighty car mods. Cuore is heart in Italian.

Must admit I have been saying it totally wrong ever since I knew these existed. Well schooled.

Nov 10, 2016 23:53:27 GMT Littlepixel said:

Nov 10, 2016 18:42:39 GMT garthalgar said:

Ha, that looks absolutely amazing thanks! I'm actually almost so tempted to buy my own and go a bit mad with it but I cant have 3 cars even if one is a rollerskate
But really, that photo is saved for future reference...

Sorry to photobomb your thread - Love doing quick photoshops and it's such a good shot I couldn't resist. Glad it's fuelling some mojo..

I'm in the middle of the house-moving process, and [fingers crossed it doesn't fall through] the new one has - for the first time in my life - a big garage, : D - so dreams of a project Cuore or Mira-Gino loom large in my head too, if I don't spend all the time fiddling with my SF5 Forester  

No problem whatsoever. You're just adding fuel to the fire haha. Though lets face it you hardly need a 'big' garage to house a cuore!

[garthalgar]

Just done a few silly things like 13x6.5 plates and stickers. Gave it a wash and a tidy up.





And thankfully she doesnt grace RetroRides with her presence, which means I can tell you that I HAVE bought wheels. I'm refurbing them at the mo and am going to fit new tyres and nuts etc. for her christmas. They are going to look excellent.

[garthalgar]

Right fairly big update! 

So I bought wheels. Figured I could refurbish them etc. for her christmas which I did!

Got these 4 mx5 daisys for £10. 155/65/14 Maxxis tyres were £76 and paint was £30 so all in all a fairly reasonable job! I'd seen them on a Cuore before and decided to do a gunmetal centre with a silver lip. I'm normally really impatient but I had heaps of time to do these so managed to do an ace job! Popped them on with new nuts and some daihatsu centre caps I made.









Then I discovered this... the same on both sides. Yikes.




I've never welded bodywork before but after a week of thinking it over I decided to do it myself. Bought some 0.9mm steel sheet and already had a gasless mig in the garage. It's something I've always wanted to learn how to do and doing it on her cheap runaround has far less severe consequences! Once I got a hang of the welder I actually really enjoyed it. Never took any photos of the finished article on the inner arches, but this is what the outside patch ended up like...



Which isn't too bad if I'm honest and is totally solid. We both decided it wasn't worth filling and paint matching since there was surface rust on all the arches. I asked her if she liked the idea of two tone and if she wanted to paint it, which she said she did. So some hammerite and a couple coats later the Cuore is two-tone






These photos are right off the jacks so it had still to settle after that. Andrew was in the workshop with me doing subframe bushes and was taking a while so to pass the time I cut up some stainless tube and made an exhaust tip for a laugh but it actually looks alright!




Then we left it overnight and rolled it out this morning. Thoroughly chuffed as is she. Rear arches are now totally solid and all the grotty bits have been treated and covered with the black so it looks really smart. She seems to think it handles better and doesnt spin the front tyres as much (though I don't think the ChengShen's were helping) so its a success all round!

[garthalgar]

Well that's had a couple of days to settle and it looks ace. Yes it does need lowered, no its not happening

So here she is in all her glory





Going to tint the rear windows. Pretty much using her car as a training device for everything I want to learn how to do now. Now I've done faffing about with this for now I can start working on the Porsche which I haven't touched since its been off the road!

[rhyslightning]

Watching this with interest (bookmarked)

I have one on a y plate in the same colour. Got given it by my neighbour as it had failed its mot (welding, emissions and a ball joint) I sorted it all out and got it passed shes now in daily service.

[rhyslightning]

Has that Beemer got a pair of bo11ocks hanging off the rear towing eye? Lol