I need some advice, buying auto or waiting for manual Options

[obi1kinob]

I found a celica with a decent price, its about a 5-6 hour drive from where I live but its automatic. I'm going to do the 3sgte swap but I want it to be manual. I've searched and read other people's auto to manual conversions and some wish that they had started out as manual instead. Others who did the swap and convert at the same time, really didn't even mention anything about it.

I had a hard time finding any figures for the cost of the conversion, if done with the swap at the same time. Although most who have done the conversion alone have said around 700-1100 if I remember correctly. One person said 1000 for tranny 1000 for labor. I hope it wouldn't cost me that much.

I'll eventually be putting in a short shifter and some fancy pedals anyway. I had an order in my thingstodo list, interior mods came after engine. But I guess if I have to get pedals and a shifter and stuff I might as well do it now. What would you all suggest I do? Get this or wait?

[jgreening]

I have to disagree about the availability of manual transmissions in the convertible. When I was looking for my car in January, I wanted a black convertible, manual, with leather, and a 98 or 99. Over the course of about 6 weeks of looking, I found several (7-8) that were available in the nation. I didn't care too much about the miles on the car because I knew I was doing the swap so my main concerns were exterior and interior condition. I bought the first one that I looked at which was about 3 hours away because it was nearly perfect except for some small touch up markes on the front of the hood and some leather wear on the front seats.

To answer your question obi, I would wait to buy a manual. Why would you want to incur the expense and trouble of doing a auto to manual conversion? Patience grasshopper I did a quick search on autotrader and found 17 98-99 convertibles with manuals and 46 for the whole generation with manuals. Here is the link for the 98-99's:
98 and 99 Convertibles with manual transmissions on Autotrader

Also, I read that they used a different mechanism for the top starting in 98 due to some problems with previous models. Perhaps some guys that have the earlier models can weigh in on this.

As for the reinforcements, I am using a strut tower bar and side tower bars. I originally planned to use some custom subframe connectors along the sides of the car to connect the front of the car to the back to reduce any cowl flex which occurred as a result of increased power. However, after having the car in the air, the subframes are completely connected - unlike mustangs or camaros. As such, subframe connectors might not be all that helpful. I think you might need a roll cage to get any real benefit in reducing flex and I would never do that with a convertible - even if you could make one that didn't have support members over your head. I am "only" planning on about 220 whp so I am hopeful that the flex problems will not be significant. I am betting on it. There are at least two people with 3sgte's in 5th gen convertibles that I am aware of who did no reinforcements and I have not seen them report any problems. I do have diagrams of the modifications that were done to the car when it was chopped by the company (American Sunroof) that did the coupe to convertible conversion. I tried to scan them to post but the files were just too big. I will work on that some more if anyone is interested.

- Jay

This post has been edited by jgreening: Jun 16, 2004 - 4:43 PM