Project Red Dragon, from DD to ... Options

[sandusky1977]

Well, figured it's time to start the build thread, as the parts are starting to show up and I'm planning on picking up the motor in the next few days. To begin lets start with background on the car.

94 Toyota Celica GT
114,000 Miles at time of purchase
5-Speed Manual
Fully Stock


Back in 2009 I purchased my 94 Celica for $1600, ABS Light on, needing brakes and tires, and a few other things,. I bought this car for my commute as a daily driver, at the time I was averaging around 100 miles a day 5 days a week.



Step 1) New Stereo, and Speakers,... well after the maintenance was done
Alpine Media Player with 30 GB Ipod
Polk DB Series 3-Way with Tweeters for the doors
Polk DB Series 2-Way 6.5" for the Rear
Polk DB Series 12" Subs in Bassworx Ported Box
Directed Audio 1200 watt amp for subs

Well,. after the stereo upgrade I decided it was good enough for now, and drove and drove and drove it.

Along the way, around 150k I broke a timing belt, this was fun,. Initially I had it towed to a shop that I have done business in the past with, however, they aren't very well versed in Toyota, so there were issues. I picked up the car and it was missing, and backfiring. The guys are like, wasn't it doing that before? So I said, F*** it, and drove it home,. it got worse.

Well, I decided that if they could mess up the timing, then maybe I could just fix it, so I disassembled everything, and noticed that there were still chunks of the old timing belt on the crank shaft, and guess what, when you start the car, the belt slips on those chunks when it hits them. So, I cleaned all the pulleys and made sure all old belt chunks were gone. Re-indexed the timing to plus 2 degrees, reinstalled the belt and ran like a top. Better than ever actually.

This is when I decided that I should probably do a little more maintenance.

Step 2) New Plugs, Wires, Distributor, Air Cleaner, Brake Rotors, Pads, and shoes for the parking brake.

Step 2A) Got a good deal on a Cold Air Intake, so installed rather than the new air cleaner.

Things were really good for a long time, I watched as the odometer kept climbing, 160, 170, 180k and now it's looking like the 200 mark is going to be hard to get to at all. Then one day as I was driving to work I started to feel a wobble in the front right corner. By the time I got to the side of the road, 4 lugs had sheered off, the fifth was bent and cracked but barely hanging on. Apparently a few lug nuts had worked loose.

Step 3) New knuckle,. well not new,... So I went to the pull and save and pulled one off a donor car, a Toyota Corolla,. everything looked exactly the same, though heck I'm saving a ton... until I installed it and noticed that the steering connect differently. Ok so,.
Step 3a) New knuckle,. well not exactly,. so I found a member parting out a car, and paid and had it shipped over, installed and everyone is happy.

Things seemed great, I drove it another 5-7k miles, I'm now sitting around 190-195k miles, and this happens,.


It was a fun few seconds getting to the side of the road on that one,. so of course it ruined the newly installed steering knuckle. So,. back to the forums.
Step 3b) Used Knuckle from Texas thanks to another member and back on the road.

This was the straw that broke the camels back, and when I decided it was a little to unreliable to be my daily driver. Along the way, at around 140k miles, I actually bought a 7th gen Celica for $1000, and ended up selling it for $1800, then I got a GS 300 that had been abandoned at my buddies tow yard for $300. It got plastidipped and sold for $1500.

At this point, I decided that I might as well look for a 5-Speed V6 Solara, and so I did, I found one for $1600 with a bad clutch. I was thinking that I would probably drive this for a while, and if something happened to it stuff the motor and trans in the Celica.

That was the plan, then I saw this,.


I called on it, and they were asking $4200,. for a 99 GT with 95k miles that has been kept showroom clean. So I showed up with a wad of cash and drove her home after coming to a better arrangement on price.

So,. now that the 99 is my daily driver, it was time to sell the Solara to make back some of the money I just blew on the new ride, but of course my sister had told me she wanted it if I sold it. So, off it went, sold the Solara for $2500 and my sister and her boys love it.

This post has been edited by sandusky1977: Apr 2, 2014 - 9:11 AM

[sandusky1977]

From Project Red Dragon, to the Red Devil.

Last year, I let my nephew borrow my 99 GT Liftback, after his Solara went to hell. Well, after a few months, he had found a car, I say that loosely as he picked up a used KIA. Well fast forward, a year or so later, he's had a dead KIA with a blown head gasket for around 4 months. Well, I decided I would find him a car, so after scouring the internet, and looking at a dozen or so, I hadn't found anything as clean as the 94 that I parked four years ago when I picked up my 99. So, we went about pulling it out of the field.





We got it pulled up so we could start cleaning it out and checking the state of things. Still has a dab of oil, so new battery, and we turn the key to hear it fire right up.





From there, we got to work. I parked it because it needed a clutch, AC, and with 240k miles I wanted something with a few fewer for my then 160 mile daily commute. Now, after sitting for four years it needed a few more things.



Transmission pulled





Flywheel has been resurfaced, I forgot to get a pic, but it's beautiful. Door and fender were swapped, someone clipped me a few years ago.







While the trans was out and the car was in the air, we noticed that most of the hard lines were just garbage. So, back to my personal parts store,...





That car lives on in my 94 GT, soon my 95 ST 3SGTE, my 96, another 96 that I sold, plus my 99,. so I've gotten my moneys worth out of it!