TSZ Beams, The daily car Options

[TimeslideZ]

Yes indeed, I ended up with another Celica. A project car yes, but one that's pretty well done already.
At least one to be a year-round daily (yes... even in the winter salt snow).


It's funny to be buying cars from old celica veterans here. First it was Colin's V6; now it's Kurt's Beams.
To be honest after selling my FR-S I was not looking to get another celica. But this deal was too good to pass.
Thanks to my brother who moved on from celica's to off-road for coming with me and spending 2021 July 4th weekend to get the car from Ohio.

Car has about... 85k on the chassis and 65k on the beams motor as of right now? Low mileage overall, and pretty clean.
Chips and small dents here and there; but I didn't care so much cause overall it was still very good.
Plus it came w/ some interior and exterior goodies so I couldn't complain. Given the pandemic prices this was very nice deal.

Knowing that the car hasn't been driven in a long while, I decided to get a dolly just in case (good thing in the end).



Things were going swell until we hit the Dells (4 hours from home) around 10 PM and then one of the trailer tires ripped on us.
A long night trying to get to Walmart with their long lines and having to take the front bumper off lead us too tired to make it home.



Nonetheless we made it home safely. The car was bogging a bit and at first we though it was just clogged injectors or old gas.
But after while it got worst and so I ended up replacing the fuel filter. BROKE my gas line along the way so repaired that real quick.
However we found out later it was actually a valve cover gasket leak. Shout out to Mike Thoma though for offering his ignition coil cause I thought it was that.
Quick online order from battlegarage and visit to the junkyard for an ignition boot (thanks Pruis) and things were good again!



The exhaust was definitely too loud though for my taste, and sat rather low. I wanted something similar to the SP2 so I ended up going with Ken's suggestion.
Magnaflow 14829 muffler, 2.25" catback with OEM cat, and then a Summit Racing resonator. When I find my testpipe I'll fit that one instead I don't want my cat stolen.




Fixed missing stud up front, still have to install the interior audio and upgrade the lighting overall. Also it came w/ seized ksport coilovers so I'm soaking them in PB blaster as I gave it my old 1" Eibach Springs on KYB/Bilstein shocks. Here it sits with the old 5zigen wheels that I had on the FRS and Celica before.



Annnndddd this is how it sits now now that winter is here. Got some wheels with Artic Snow tires since snow tires make the difference up here in MN.
Future plans currently once it's warm again is to get my audio/lighting figured out and then paint the front spat red.


And here's a video or two on how the car sounds: Beams Celica with Magnaflow and Summit-Racing exhaust

[TimeslideZ]

Alright time for another update, probably the last one for a while as the car is nice and smooth. Plus it's been a year since I worked on the project car so I should get to that one.



Funny enough I didn't take a lot of photos but after some terrible shaking in the front I opted to replace a bunch of stuff up front.
Many of the parts were either ripped, rusted, or missing bolts (like my axle carrier was missing one bolt, hence the shaking).

New inner + outer tie rods, axles, wheel bearings. (Sorry for the insta images, forgot to save images for myself.)



I also had to replace my end links as they were rusted. Ended up grinding them off and taking the ones off my project car for these.
All is good though, bought replacements already. I added back the A/C lines. Was lucky to be able to get the lines from a junkyard vehicle.
Tried replacing the condenser with two used ones (project car and brother's car) but no luck.
Ended up ordering a new one. Did I get A/C? No, turns out (of course) it's the compressor.



Not a lot pictured but I ordered some new calipers on rockauto for the rear. My rear right was seizing a lot (ended up replacing the EBC pads).
But I figured I'd replace the project car rear with the new ones and give the old working ones to the daily. However I ran into issues with rusted bolts.
Nothing like a yellow torch and extractor screws to help though. Used a power tool and brush kit to scrub off all the dirty stuff.



I ended up going w/ some cheap G2 paint (red). Quick review: it looks fine from afar and is a simple enough job to do.
But it has the rubber-paint feel to it and requires more than just what they give you for a nicer finish. Didn't matter to me as it was my daily.



So about one year ago when I first got the car (excuse the photo editing).



To what it is now.



Bad angles, I was in a rush those times. I opted to run my project car wheels on here as the rear need replacing so I mind as well burn the front up before replacing all four tires.
I want to go w/ Pilot Super Sport later so I don't mind. Plus I was too lazy to put on extended studs in the front so the car looks nice (my own OCD).
And I want to see what my project car would look on the 5zigens now that I have coilovers to lower it.

So what's next? Hmm nothing for now, I want to get back onto the project car as it's been almost a year since I lost motivation on it.
But I need to get it down so I can have both cars up and running again.

The car still needs the audio put back in, an used non-painted engine head cover, and probably A/C compressor.
I want to torch the seized Ksports to see if I can get them free; but again another day.




I forgot I also bought the rear OEM strut brace.
Didn't come with the covers so I just cut up the flat ones to make room for it.
(Kinda janky but it works).

This post has been edited by TimeslideZ: Jul 20, 2022 - 11:35 AM