my 3SGTE progrees thread, (pic. whore warning) Options

[95st-celica]

so after talking with a bunch of people on here and doing tons of research i decided that it was time for a change with the celica.....i have nice paint....and if i want to add on some nice lips around the edges i can do so accordingly without much trouble.. i still would like to swap out my cloth interior for a nice black leather interior and a bunch of other interior BS....i talked to art(lagos) many many times about getting rid of this 7a and asked him his perspective on the 3s swap....his feedback was do your research and learn everything you can while you can, doing your own swap will only help you in the learning process rather then having it sent out...which was what i was planning on doing anyway because i cant afford to have it sent to a shop...plus i have all the tools and resources that i would need to do it....so at first i looked into just head swaps...went as far as almost buying a 4a head from someone on here and a bunch of other stuff...then realized that might be too much work for the $$ and HP goal i would be expecting...so then i looked into turboing the 7a...but still the 7a is almost limited in what you can do to it and just squeezing 200hp out of it was not very satisfying.....i was kind of sketchy on buying a front clip from the other side of the world(hong kong) because theres a million and one things that could go wrong....so i looked into getting a clip that was already shipped into the U.S....after looking and debating i had finaly found the clip i wanted...decided i would buy it the next morning and start gathering parts together for the swap...next morning came around, i go on ebay, and its sold....$HIT!!...so i was stuck with buying the clip from hong kong...paid for it and that was that....i have the st model so i knew i would need a new trans, motor mounts, axles, and a bunch of other stuff....tracked down a GT trans and picked it up...ordered my spec stage 2 clutch from JCBASS7 i believe is his name one here? got that in no time and it looks great...he only put about 2500 miles on it and money is somewhat tight so i just got it from him.....it took the clip over a month to get here but FINALLY i picked it up last wednesday and was pumped i got it in one piece!!...now the fun begins....i will update this thread as often as i can untill my project is done the way i want it...im glad i choose to go with the 3s and im def. looking forward to the completion of this car....my man art has inspired me....the second i saw his car in person i knew i needed to get me one of those..hahha....soooo.....sorry for the novel but im def. excited and i will post up all/any info i can with lots of pics....let me know what you think and any advice is welcomed

picked it up from the warehouse it was sent to...from hong kong it went to LA...cleard customs there then was sent to philly by rail and was basically dilivered to my house...no more then 5 minutes from my house sat my new motor






i caught my man john on the phone instead of working


i pulled the line of the brake booster and @sshole thought it would be funny to push the brake...so thats whats all over my hood...brake fluid.....sweet






johnny hard at work like usual


now these next few are how you improvise when you dont have a cherry picker...this is how we do










almost completey out




and up and out of there!








looking forward to this weekend...hopefully i can pull that trans off of it and put her on a stand in the garage and start the tear down process to replace all gaskets, t-belt, new waterpump and thermostat and whatever else needs to be replaced...like i said i'll update it when i can...time and $$ are the only things workin against me on this one but im siked and def. want it done before spring time rolls around...we'll have to wait and see

This post has been edited by 95st-celica: Oct 15, 2010 - 1:26 PM

[95st-celica]

NICE^...didnt even see that...once i get my body in order we'll go out and take some real pictures man...its a must..anyway heres the dealio

i had a super fun day today...i drove up to mikes auto body on castor to see if i could paint my fender in there saterday morning...i use to work there and im really good friends with the owner...my uncle works there and is like, well joe, its tradition to get on it by the shop..im like alright alright...walk out to my car, and my front driver side tire is completely flat...back it up, fill it with air, and it has a huge gash in it? i was like alright well i have to get home quick, throw it in reverse, cut the wheel..and my axle poped out(so i thought) so im like WTF man i really dont feel like fixing this right now. i pull my pass side wheel off, and the axle boot, closest to the wheel had poped off and the axle came completly apart. so i tried hammering it back in, but looked a little closer to see why it wouldnt go on. here i have been driving around on about a quarter inch at the most of splines on the axle. whoever machined the axle, the part where they ground out for the snap ring, the splines were not lined up, they were off by about a cm or 2, so it would not allow the the first part of the axle to go back on. Go figure, brand new axle from pep boys with less then 200 miles on it, completely worthless. i have barley any tools on me, but luckly i broke down in front of the body shop and was able to borrow a few from the guys. big thanks to them for helping me out. so i got a ride to pepboys, pulled the bracket off the old axle, hammered it on the new one, put that back in, and replaced my front tire with a full size spare i had. that took a good 4 hours. complete nightmare. so now i need a new front tire anyway, and it just seems like its problem after problem. i knew there were things to iron out, but this is just dumb $hit that shouldnt be happening. so far i have been keeping my cool and just having patience with it. i figure with no money and not being able to fix things right just yet, im going to run into problems, so im just waiting on this job and hopefully everything will start to come together the way it should within the next month or so.

so the main list as of right now:
replace both wheel bearings
4 brand new tires(probably pick up a nice set of D/R's for the front)
all 4 balanced properly(that should take care of my bad vibration problem i have
new exhaust
and fix a few little odds and ends around the car i still have to look after

i'll keep it posted