GT-FAUX, Hatch off, seats out, color test, dents beaten, and more! Options

[Pfloyd09]

In early 2012 I was driving over 100 miles each way to work, and I was driving a Blazer that got about 15 MPG that was killing my wallet. I decided to start looking for an older car that was reliable, good looking (MUST be good looking), and efficient. After doing a good amount of research, I settled on finding a nice Celica. I happened to get lucky, and found a very nice '95 GT Automatic Coupe for $3k. I put about $2k into it replacing struts, exhaust, radiator, water and oil pump, and he (Tom Celica) runs like a dream with almost 200k miles now. 65k of them were last year alone...

My kids (18 and 20) have loved Tom since the day I picked him up at the lot, and want a Celica of their own. Fast forward to last week..

I was browsing the local news classifieds to see about getting my kids a 6th gen Celica, when I saw a white '94 GT 5-speed hatchback that had thrown a rod out the bottom of the engine. The interior is great except that tear on the driver's side seat that all older cars seem to get, and a little spot on the carpet. The exterior is a little beat up, but nothing a new set of fenders and some new glass won't fix.

So today I embark on my journey of not only resurrecting this old car, but restoring her to proper glory! Not sure where I will end up, but I know when I'm done I'll be getting there FAST!

I have paid for the car, have the title in hand, and will be getting it towed to the house tomorrow to begin work on it. I am not a mechanic, but I do have a very strong desire to give this my best effort, and hope I don't end up missing extremities or limbs when all is finished.

If anyone has any advice before I begin, I'm all ears. I've listened to the Manny and Dustin show (6gc podcasts), done lots of reading, but overall there's TONS of info that doesn't necessarily agree with each other.

My goals are to have a nice fast car with as few problems getting there along the way. I would like to *eventually* go with a LSD up front and going beyond stock on the motor, but for now the S54 is all I need for a stock 3s-gte. Once I get the motor in, I'll worry about upgrades and all that. Right now my focus in on getting the new girl running, making her look REALLY GOOD, then finally upgrading her to the point that I need to change tires along with oil...

Ultimately she will be a GT-FAUX. That is, the only thing it won't have from the GT-4 when I'm done is AWD, hence the name..

This post has been edited by Pfloyd09: Sep 16, 2013 - 2:00 AM

[Pfloyd09]

Been a little busy with life as fall approaches, but have been able to do some work here and there. I haven't sourced a clip yet (looking for a Caldina or GT-4), and there's plenty to do cosmetically, so I'm working on the body and the interior for now. As shown in previous pics, there are some issues with both the rear fenders behind the wheel, and the right front fender is twisted (getting that sourced now) enough to warrant getting a new one. Since I am replacing it anyway, I painted 90% of it with the Dupli-Color® 8L7 Stellar Blue Pearl spray paint to see how it would look. This was a rough job on a surface not properly prepared.

The camera doesn't pick up the sparkles very well at all. It's pretty much black in the dark, and dark blue with sparkles under light.



Got around to taking the hatch off, and removed much of the interior. Going to finish getting the console, dash, carpet, and back seat out this week. Once that is all done I'll be reconditioning or replacing every piece that comes out, and re-doing the floor from front to back. Will be adding in some dense carpet foam for sound suppression under the new carpet mold, then working my way up. All the interior plastic pieces that would look right with an accent color will be painted the blue paint shown in the pic above. Going to do a base coat with Krylon Fusion because of it's ahesion to plastic, top that off with the Dupli-Color® 8L7, then some nice clear coat of course.



With the hatch off, and the interior plastic removed, I was able to get to the smashed in parts of the rear fenders. Was able to get the dents worked out pretty well on the drivers side, but the passenger side needs some more work. So glad I have a friend that knows how to do the body work.

Something to keep in mind. Will be putting splitters on, so I'm not super concerned about the very lower parts of the fender.

Notice the dent gone from above the fender also..



Not quite as good as the driver side, but much better than it was. Some TLC, some sanding, and some filler will do these very nicely..



Got the engine hoist, a nice ratchet set, some ramps, and other misc tools. Pretty much set on equipment to do everything now. The biggest thing I'll need is the time to do all the meticulous interior cleaning, sanding, painting, re-carpeting, etc. Then the engine work...

Going to be doing some fun dash mods while that is out, so I'm not necessarily going to be putting it back together quickly. Considering taking out the engine, and getting it down to pretty much the bare metal, then towing it to the paint shop. That may not happen for a couple months, so I've got time to make the interior pieces look good.