Tuga's St205 AKA Financial Black hole, thread to keep track of all the work done on the car. Options

[Tuga2112]

Hello everyone.
Ive been a member of celicaclub uk for a while and opened there a project thread for this car. but due to the setup of the forum i find it dificult to update the thread, as well as being a paid membership there is less response than i expected when i ask for help.

So, im giving a bit of background of miself as an introduction.

Im a software developer, and basically my hobby is working on my cars.
Been driving gen6 celicas for about 5 years. I own a 98 SR (5 years) and a 94 jdm GT4 (little over 1 year) currently.
I also own a Lotus Elan from 91 which was my very first project car (long thread about its work on the relevant forum) as well as a Toyota 4Runner 94

I bough the GT4 December of 2015 from a fella in scotland for a whopping 1850 quid, I knew the car needed alloys, and that has been parked for a few years.
unfortunately when i arrived at the location it was already dark, and the car looked ok. the trip to pick it up was very long and after taking it home I just went straight to bed.

So what i bought myself was a complete lemon.
Very buckled alloy in one of the corners.
brake discs completely corroded all around, and the front passenger side pulsating quite a lot.
intercooler pump making a lot of noise.
brake lines were simple brake cables which I've been told are very dangerious because of the superstrut suspension allows unusual movement
front passenger side brake caliper was stuck, causing the discs to overheat
Termostat was stuck open
some considerable rust on the rear near the wheels. (i suspect that to be one of the more common places for rust to appear.
Rear Fog lights dont work
Tyres all around with very low (if not illegal) thread.
Rear wiper motor not working
ABS light on
No water jets working for front and rear windshields
Radio working only with a CD on, (not getting any stations)
one of the folding mirrors didnt fold
some paint pelling off near the door handles in both sides.
Spark Plugs full of oil

The good points.
Aparently. the SS suspencion is in good condition
no engine problems
no gearbox issues
no aparent colision damage (so far)
Stainless steel exhaust with a mid/sport tune (it does sound nice lol)

So, after takig it for an MOT to find the disaster i had purchased i got to work.

Im going to cut the story short and simply use color coding to update the current state of affairs on this project.
Green marks solved issues (and i will leave a small note afterwards stating what i did to fix it)
Yellow/amber marks issues that i intend to solve in the near future
Red marks issues that i have no urgency to solve.

Very buckled alloy in one of the corners.
brake discs completely corroded all around, and the front passenger side pulsating quite a lot.
intercooler pump making a lot of noise.
brake lines were simple brake cables which I've been told are very dangerious because of the superstrut suspension allows unusual movement
front passenger side brake caliper was stuck, causing the discs to overheat
Termostat was stuck open
some considerable rust on the rear near the wheels. (i suspect that to be one of the more common places for rust to appear.
Rear Fog lights dont work
Tyres all around with very low (if not illegal) thread.
Rear wiper motor not working
ABS light on
No water jets working for front and rear windshields
Radio working only with a CD on, (not getting any stations)
one of the folding mirrors didnt fold
Spark Plugs full of oil
some paint pelling off near the door handles in both sides.

Very buckled alloy in one of the corners.
Got a set of original 3 spoke alloys from a brakers. They sent me the alloys without the centre caps and in a very poor state. cost me 120 quid plus 4 days of sanding them down and painting them with spray cans. (video on youtube) im actually very proud of the end result of this one.

brake discs completely corroded all around, and the front passenger side pulsating quite a lot.
Changed all discs around. i believe they cost me 80 for fronts and 40 for rears

intercooler pump making a lot of noise.
it turned out to be the usual suspect. bearings. this was a cheap fix at 6 quid for bearings and a hell of a pain to get the pump out and back into the car, a whole weekend on that

brake lines were simple brake cables which I've been told are very dangerious because of the superstrut suspension allows unusual movement
swapped them with original ones from TCB parts at [17(Front Brake Hose comes in two sections UPPER) + 17(Front Brake Hose comes in two sections LOWER) + 7(Brake Hose Link Pipe)] x 2 +VAT cost for a wopping 98 quid PLUS delivery
fitting these was incredibly dificult because of the rust and the fact that i didnt have the right type of open ended ring spanners

front passenger side brake caliper was stuck, causing the discs to overheat
refurbished the calliper miself. this cost 12 quid on seals. + 4x 6quid for the pistons. 36 quid in parts. plus some brake fluid to bleed the system + 2 evenings and a few extra tools (grease gun) were needed to release the stuck pistons

Termostat was stuck open
15 quid for a replacement... and an afternoon

some considerable rust on the rear near the wheels. (i suspect that to be one of the more common places for rust to appear.
this was the only job i have not done miself. My neighbor is an auto weld specialist, been doing it for over 30 years. so i got mates rates for the job, and only cost me 60 quid

Tyres all around with very low (if not illegal) thread.
Replaced them with Toyo Proxes CF2 (i know T1R are the usual choice, but i picked the CF2 because of the improved fuel efficiency) from Ebay 220 the set. plus 40 for the local garage to fit them for me.

Rear wiper motor not working
Replaced it with one from a GT model. got it from Sheraz (some of you may know him) for only 10 quid

No water jets working for front and rear windshields
Replaced it with one from a GT model. got it from Abdul (some of you may know him) for 10 quid

Radio working only with a CD on, (not getting any stations)
This turned out to be the antena was not plugged in. 0 cost repair WOOP WOOP

one of the folding mirrors didnt fold
replaced with a mirror from a dark blue JDM GT, that Abdul sold me for 50 quid the pair. I had to paint it black, but the paint was already purchased for my other car.

Spark Plugs full of oil
i havent confirmed if this fix is done or not. But what i did was to replace the top gasket of the engine. it cost me 20 odd quid for the gasket plus 5 for the sealant material.
the job is a hell of a pain to do, as i needed to take out the inter-cooler in order to get to the plugs. this took me a whole weekend

So, yes, this is the current state of affairs.
in fact. the car is currently in this situation, As i found a water leak, and had to take out the interior carpet to dry,
i decided to add a rear camera to it and wire it properly

pictures for your pleasure








Sorry the lens were dirty when i took this one.

[bloodMoney]

Honestly, for 2000 quid (after all was fixed) I'd say that you still got a pretty good deal.

Especially considering something in that condition would sell for significantly more here in the states, just based on rarity. Have the rear quarter panels been fixed yet? I'd like to see some progress pictures of how they made the repairs....

Please post more pictures of the car overall!

This post has been edited by bloodMoney: Mar 7, 2017 - 9:34 AM