Charlotte....an ongoing project..., (when funds are there) Options

[Spider77]

Well, I've been reading so many of these over the last year or so and figured it was time to slap mine up here. Not a whole lot going on now, but in a few months I'll be putting her to rest (hopefully) and gutting/cleaning/and adding to shortly. I've planned for it to be a long term project that my daughter can help out with, as she'll get this car when shes old enough...myself, I have plans for something else down the road.
So, where to begin.....

This is probably the earliest shot I have (that I can currently find). It was taken Sept 2008, my first Celica meet (put together by "GotToyota"). As you can see, its pretty much stock, save for the fancy blue stuff.

Shortly after the meet, I was at a going away party for a friend. Things got dicey and one guy wound up going to the hospital, on the way there I was cut off by a Tahoe. My choices were eat the curb or eat the Tahoe. So I ate the curb, got some Enkies out of it from a local MR2 guy....although looking back, they were hideous.....and one was slightly bent, causing massive shakes. Although the company was kind enough to makes some center caps for me (they were out of production).


So I soon replaced those with my current wheels. And my daughter helped!


Soon after I had a shop put on a Magnaflow exhaust.


Then I got some Tien S Sports for fathers day!


After that everything has been a giant blur (time sure goes by fast.)
I put a header on, along with a Neon strut bar...



Additionally there have been numerous projects for which I don't have photos. Mostly due to time and personnel constraints I don't have them.
Endlinks were replaced, engine donated by 2BCelica is in her now, SpecialEdy helped me troubleshoot the wiring on that project. 2BCelica sold me a GT-4 Hood and Bumper Cover (which is still waiting paint).
All in all, its been a very good time. Taking the bad with the good. I've got to meet a good number of people, past and present. Most of all I am impressed with this community, and look forward to posting more, a lot more progress as she goes under the knife in the next four years. Kinda wanted to get this "placemarked" so I can slap pics and notes down the road.

[Spider77]

Some more of the fun.

Got the harness and trans off, engine up on the stand.


The engine I have in there now is a 98 (I think), but my oil pickup on my 94 is about twice the size...wonder whats the reason behind that.


Oil pump (seals/gaskets) completed, thrown on.


Broken bolt where the alternator adjusting arm was.


Used my Blue Point extractor set (best set ever), behold the magic.


Under the cover, not the cleanest, but I've seen much worse.


Pulled cylinder head off, and guess what....oil, pistons.



Cleaned it up a bit, threw on new head gasket.


At this point, I've reinstalled the cylinder head, pulled spark plug tubes (cleaned those up and re sealed them), and installed intake cam shaft. Also, the primary reason for all this was a rear main seal leak (which took all of 10 minutes) is replaced. Tomorrow is the exhaust cam, timing belt and finish cleaning it up. Cleaning all this mess is whats taking me the longest, I have a feeling that I'd be done by now if I just threw all the parts back in there.