The white rescued Celica. (1994 ST204) Pictures galore., Suspension re-do time! Options

[RabidTRD]

So I figured I should make a thread about my rescued '94 GT-S Celica ST204. Here goes.

I bought her in November of 2010 to replace my old child, a built 1999 Toyota Camry LE.

She was my baby for 4 years. I put tons of money into her, seeing as I got her for free from my aunt. She came in terrible condition and was not loved when I received her. I rebuilt her, put in eibach pro suspension, a full 2" SS exhaust, bored out the pistons and replaced with larger ones, ect. I absolutely loved her, as did my friends and a few shop guys that race cars that I know through work. She was killed by a guy running a red in September of 2010.

So after accepting her loss, and receiving a $5,300 insurance check... I set off for another under loved child. I don't believe in buying new cars, nor do I believe in buying anything American in relation to cars. I searched the newspaper, I searched the internet... finally I found an app on my iPod that was "Cars.com." After searching on there, I decided I really wanted either a Prelude, a Integra GS-R, a Civic Si/EX, or a Celica. All the cars I went to see were either too expensive or were not as advertised.

Finally I cam across this little white gem. The car was listed for $2,800, power everything, 6 speaker stereo, GT model and best of all, 5 speed. So I went to have a look. There I found her, in a field, next to a house and she looked like she had been sitting for at least a year. Grass was growing into her miss-matched tires, dirt covering her exterior, dust all over her inside.... she was a mess. I asked to have a seat in her and to see if she started. I opened the door and sat down, instantly falling in love with the craftsmanship, the side hugging seats, and the feel of the leather wrapped steering wheel in my hands. I turned the key and instantly (the owner hadn't started her in over 6 months) she shook to life. I was greeted by dust blowing out of the vents as she roared from the hole behind her lower cat converter. I could tell she would be a trouble maker, but still, I was intrigued. I popped the hood to have a look at the 5S-FE, an engine I learned very well in my Camry.

First off, I spotted the normal usage signs. Leaking valve cover, old plug wires, dirty, oily, hairline cracked radiator, and an acid covered 34 series battery (mind you it's not facing the right way, wrong sized battery that had no hold down and didn't sit in the pan flat). She was a tad rusty, but still cleaner than most of the Celica's in Rochester.

I told the owner that I would have to think about it, and we shut her down and closed her up. I left that day to go home and talk to my dad about what he thought of it.

I returned a day after to see that the owner had cleaned her up, vacuumed out her interior and she looked fabulous. I gave the owner an offer of $1,800 cash because I knew the amount of work I would have to put into her. The owner wouldn't have it and I left once more.

That night I had a dream about the car... I awoke in the morning, wanting to take her for a drive and went back once more to talk to the owner. This time I had $2,500 cash with me, in hand, in case I really couldn't leave without her. We opened her up and turned her on. I took off in her, feeling her torque, her bite... I fell in love. I couldn't get out of her and decided to buy her. I told the owner that I won't pay more then $2,500 for her and that I have the cash in hand. The owner agreed and signed her over to me. I then returned home without her one last time to go to the DMV and get everything processed. The next day I went back, picked her up, and drove her home.

On the way home, well thats when she started to complain. At 60 she started to shake, making a weird rattling sound in the rear. I stopped at a gas station to fill her up and inspected my tires. The tires were 3 of one size, 1 of a smaller size and they all were cracked and weathered. I figured the owner put old tires on just to get rid of the car and knew I'd have to get new tires anyway, so it didn't bother me. So I went to fill her up. Half way through filling up, she started to make a really bad smell. The fuel filler neck was cracked and rusted to hell on the bottom. Fuel was dripping out as I filled her. Oy... she started to look like a nightmare.

I had the owner fix the fuel neck, which they agreed to, and footed the $200 bill from Toyota.

This is a picture the day after I got her (pre new fuel filler neck):

Finally started to get things fixed up on her and got some more shots via cellphone:







Then winter hit. I put new tires on her, Hankook Winter iPike 195/55/R15's (best grip in snow I've ever had. This car is a wonderful winter car.) I couldn't do more than that due to the weather so it was a cold long wait until the weather broke. I did manage to get my HID's in before the storm hit, and my yellow 9005 high beams. I managed to snap a pretty cool pic during a heavy winter storm too:



Then I found some smoke Depo lenses on eBay for a good price and popped those in (while freezing my butt off) and fixed my faulty washer pump as well. (Try driving in salty Rochester during the winter with no washer pump)


Finally winter came to an end and I re-did the breaks. I knew she leaked oil, but the leak seemed to get worse after the winter. I looked around and only saw it on the valve cover, so I changed that. I had done it twice before on the Camry, so I knew it would be an easy job. Wrong. I got the cover off and saw this:


What a mess! The engine had so much sludge in it. Even my Camry with 216k miles was cleaner than this! Apparently the owner never changed the oil...
So after a little scraping, I decided I should paint it while it's off too in order to accent the lines.





I fixed the top leak, but for some reason, she still continued to drip oil. So I jacked her up and had a good luck after the winters fury. Man was she wet underneath... The back side of the engine was covered, the oil pan was leaking around the seal, and it seemed like the oil was dripping out of the timing cover too. The owner said that they changed the timing belt not too long ago... so wouldn't they have changed the seals too? Nope. We got the covers off, looked inside and it was a huge mess. Oil was everywhere. It was also gunked up on the camshaft pully, showing how long the thing had been sitting with oil dripping down on it. We then replaced all the seals, the timing belt, the components (the tensioner had the wrong spring on it and the timing belt was flopping around inside) and put her back together. FINALLY the drip stopped.

Then the weather got nicer, so I decided to have a go at resurfacing my rusty, pitted, old rims:
Before:

After:


Then a noise started coming from the rear. I jacked her up again, and it seems that the bushings in the rear adjustable arms are going. You can grab the wheel and clunk it up and down. Dealer wants $300 for the two (and thats wholesale due to my connections through work). So thats a soon to do project of mine.

I had to cut my secondary cat out because of the break. I welded her up once, but she broke again so I just had enough and cut her out and fitted in some pipe as a temporary solution while I save up for that exhaust I've been dreaming about.

Work I want to do to her in the future includes:

• Exhaust - Manifold back
• Suspension - Eibach Sportline springs, Koni struts, full energy suspension urithane bushings
• JDM Projector headlights
• JDM Front and rear splitter, sideskirts
• Decent JDM style "chunky" rims
• 3S-GE BEAMS Red Top swap
• JDM 94-95 foglights

More pictures of what I have done to date:














So far I have put in:

• Injen SRAI w/Spectre open ended filter
• NGK Wires and Iridium IX plugs
• ST205 rear strut support bar
• REAL TRD Carbon fiber shifter knob
• Carbon fiber hand break handle
• Electric Oil pressure guage by Sunpro
• Red LED lighting all over the dash
• Normal maintainence items including: Break cables, breaks, dis cap, rotor, seals, battery, starter, waterpump, timing belt, Energy Suspension rear sway bar bushings

I have a long way to go. Money is the largest issue right now.

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Jan 19, 2013 - 7:17 PM

[RabidTRD]

I thought I'd put this up too, because it actually show's the exhaust.


I'd like an exhaust similar to this on the Celica. It sounded great and performed even better.


I've also discovered that my throwout bearing is going. When the clutch is engaged, the engine makes this loud wining noise. When you press the pedal in, the noise goes away for a second, and then comes back. It'll even grab sometimes while I'm cruising and cause the car to jerk until I press the gas again. So new clutch and throwout bearing are next on the list after I get this exhaust issue worked out. Then it's oil pan, and gasket. Hopefully that'll fix the last of my oil issues.

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Jun 2, 2011 - 4:21 PM

[NYp8tBaller07]

looks like you have water in the highs just like I do =p

[kevinkoda]

im lovin the shift knob..where did you get it?!

[RabidTRD]

looks like you have water in the highs just like I do =p

Yeah. I have yet to see one in NY without it haha. It's only in my driver side one though. I plan on pulling apart the headlight and re-sealing it after I clean out the inside. (Or just buying a new one and making sure it stays sealed.)

im lovin the shift knob..where did you get it?!

Ebay, believe it or not. It's a true TRD knob from a dealership in IN. It even came in the "TRD USA" box and with instructions lmao. It's weighted nicely, has a great feel, and looks great. I paid $55 for mine on eBay. Not sure what they go for on trdusa.com

Just make sure it's an authentic one if you want to pick one up. I can see if I can find the link.

EDIT: Here's the link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...4#ht_2275wt_938

Thats a top view of the shifter. (The button on the break handle sticks out more now too... I had just slipped it on to take pics and hadn't milled it out yet.)

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Jun 2, 2011 - 9:24 PM

[RabidTRD]

Interior view from back seat.

[jtmlb3k]

Great progress and an awesome write up. No joke, I teach writing at college and you could definitely be a writer haha. Can't wait for more updates!

[RabidTRD]

Great progress and an awesome write up. No joke, I teach writing at college and you could definitely be a writer haha. Can't wait for more updates!

You know what the depressing part is? I dropped out of high school and am in the process of getting my GED right now. I was blessed with a mother who took the time to read to me when I was little. She read me novels at bed time, thus building my comprehension at an early age. I'm doing all this at 21 and have been out of high school since I was 17. I do love to write and I am a very visual thinker. I like to paint a picture in readers minds. This way of thinking also helps me when I work on cars, since I can see what's going on and open a photo book in my mind of images that I have previously seen in order to fix or diagnose a problem. Helps me sell parts for cars where I work too hahaha.

I'll be replacing my EGR and shoes tomorrow. I'll take pics of progress on those too lmao.

[RabidTRD]

Changed out the EGR yesterday.

Had to take off the throttle body to access the EGR tube from the block because you can't get a 22mm wrench in the narrow crevice between the manifold and the firewall.


Small space. Anyone know what that sensor does? Tells the ECU when the egr is warmed up?


The lower EGR tube nut.


How I had to get it out.


This is why I had to change out the EGR.


Couldn't even get the EGR line off of the EGR once it was off, so I had to clamp and wack it off. lol.


Once I got it off, I painted it. For those of you that live in upstate NY or in the northeastern US, you know what salt and rust can do.


Semi back together.


All done. You can see the red EGR tube.

[opie_7afe]

looking good man i just got my celica about 4 months ago and was owned by a girl who didnt wash or clean anything....looking nice now after the hours i spent with a crappy walmart random orbital buffer( really need a porter cable) but is it me or does everyone who has black interior the top of the rear seats are faded? anyway to fix this without seat covers(temporary of course) and a way to stop it if you replace covers....hatch visor maybe? but good luck! maybe you wont find as many metal gremlins as i have...oh yeah id clean your engine bay (id do it once a year after winter) i covered all electronics with plastic and masking tape and sprayed purple power everywhere and used an assortment of brushes and rinsed her off then used a damp rag to clean off the electronic bits....and then gave a nice wipe down with trim dressing/armor all on all of the rubber bits,and plastic bits!...and a brass wire wheel works nice to remove the aluminum corrosion (do this at your own risk i take no blame!)

This post has been edited by opie_7afe: Jun 13, 2011 - 12:14 AM

[enderswift]

keep up the good work man. celi looks great. did you take the opportunity to clean out your IAC while you had everything apart?

[EKAn]

Looks nice man

[RabidTRD]

looking good man i just got my celica about 4 months ago and was owned by a girl who didnt wash or clean anything....looking nice now after the hours i spent with a crappy walmart random orbital buffer( really need a porter cable) but is it me or does everyone who has black interior the top of the rear seats are faded? anyway to fix this without seat covers(temporary of course) and a way to stop it if you replace covers....hatch visor maybe? but good luck! maybe you wont find as many metal gremlins as i have...oh yeah id clean your engine bay (id do it once a year after winter) i covered all electronics with plastic and masking tape and sprayed purple power everywhere and used an assortment of brushes and rinsed her off then used a damp rag to clean off the electronic bits....and then gave a nice wipe down with trim dressing/armor all on all of the rubber bits,and plastic bits!...and a brass wire wheel works nice to remove the aluminum corrosion (do this at your own risk i take no blame!)

I have Black Magic engine degreaser/shine that I plan on using. I just have to fix a leak that I have first, then I'll get to it.

keep up the good work man. celi looks great. did you take the opportunity to clean out your IAC while you had everything apart?

I couldn't get one of the cooling hoses off to do it so I didn't clean it like I'd hoped. However, I did clean out what I could.

Thanks to Espo, I'll have this exhaust on my car shortly!

It's a 2.25" to 2.5" with a 4" exhaust tip.
Specs:
Vibrant Performance quiet series resonator 2.25" in and 2.25" out
2.25" mandrel bent piping
2.5" Vibrant Performance straight through canister muffler 2.5" in and 2.5" out with a 4" tip
Stock bends to follow over the axle.


This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Jun 16, 2011 - 7:48 PM

[RabidTRD]

Hmmm....

[enderswift]

i smell projectors.


damn you. I want a set too

[RabidTRD]

Nope, unfortunately I can't afford projectors. So, I cleaned up my lights and blacked out the bezels inside of the highs.




Couldn't get that last bolt out lol.



Finished product. No more yellow water inside the driver side high and from above or the side it looks black. Pretty sick.


Question for everyone, is this normal?




Picked up a Vincent fuel door from Espo:



All paint matched and ready to go. Didn't get a more updated shot with the white fuel cap.

Also, another teaser:

[RabidTRD]

Okay, white filler cap:


Decided to do my tail lights today too:


This cleaner works great on anything. Doesn't leave residue!


Fully prepped and then after first coat:



Finished product:


Looks darker in photos than in real life.

[jtmlb3k]

The lights all look great! One question though: what was the Mountain Dew for?

[RabidTRD]

Had to refresh! It's an important part of the painting process! Lmao

[m4dm4n]

rofl... looking loads better! Is that speedo needle warped??