Zephri's ST Options

[Zephri]

So last December my brother offered to give me his Celica instead of selling it, it has around 260k miles on it and is a 1.8L automatic. I didn't have a car at the time (cycled everywhere) and figured why not, could be a fun learning experience! This car is more of a learning platform for me and a utility car so It'll never be as nice as any of the cars on here.

It had four blown struts that he didn't want to pay to have replaced, so the first thing I did after he gave it to me was put some Kyb Excel G struts into the car.

The car also had an issue with not going into overdrive which I tracked down to be a stuck open thermostat, apparently these cars won't engage fourth without the temp gauge reading above a quarter high. This car also needed a coolant change bad which I had to do anyways after the thermostat change.

Also replaced the seized A/C compressor, terrabad battery did an oil change and changed out the plugs, hasn't given me any problems since.

This is how I received the car, as you can see (well sort of) a lot of the clear coat is just gone on the front bumper, hood, and fender. It also has a major rust spot behind the rear drivers side wheel which you can kind of see.


My next goal was to track down some original wheels, I found a set near Ohio on craigslist for $175, they are not silver like I wanted and aren't all that well painted but for $175 I'm not complaining. I also bought new tires for it (Kumho Ecsta 4x) and painted the calipers and drums like I don't care =D.

There that's better! Now to do something about that door.....




Found a decent door at a junkyard in Ohio for 75 dollars, same color and what not.





Anywho here's how it sits now. Some major things I may do in the future are some new antisway bars, some end links, strut braces, springs, exhaust, a manual conversion and maybe a small turbo. I have a friend that owns a shop so that should be pretty fun to do. =D

Some more minor things are to fix that darned broken shifter dust cover, get a fender and a hood with clear coat on it, maybe fix that rust hole behind the wheel, replace some of the lights with led's and replace the power antenna, oh and add another amature radio anmtenna on the other side of the hatch.

[msk59]

Any updates?

[Zephri]

Any updates?

Nah not at the moment, I'm still alive though and haven't really lost interest. I just have to get some other priorities finished before I can really start chomping away at this. One of them being an 87 S10 Blazer to prepare for the next winter and to do some offroading. Driving that thing around makes the Celica feel like a real luxury car and how not rusty the celica is in comparison. Although I am enjoying super easy to find and cheap parts for that truck.

That being said as much as I love this Celica I'll most likely end up selling it to buy a GT if the right deal comes along, I'm tired of not having nice things like a sunroof, fogs, manual gearbox better motor and rear discs, by the time I installed all that I will have been able to buy a GT twice over anyways. =P