Nihil's '97 ST slowly getting somewhere Options

[Nihil]

Hi,
this is my Toyota Celica ST, year 1997 (first i believed it's a 1998, but later realized it's a 1997...), with an 1.8 l 7A-FE engine. I bought it about 2 months ago (Edit: summer of 2012). It's current "mileage" is reading 177.000 km (approx. 110.000 miles). Entire car is completely stock, no mods were made by previous owners (supposed to be more than four owners).
Perhaps I'd rather own a GT with a 3S-GE engine, but I needed a car and no GTs were available at the time. And since I am on a student budget, ST might be more suitable for me.

Plans for the future (which I change every time I open my topic ):

Interior - very well preserved for it's age and all the owners:
- LED conversion
- Refurbishing/repainting most of the interior (plastic dash parts, plastic door panel parts, arm rest, headliner and carpet)
- Steering wheel replacement (7gen)
- Leather seats
- Shift knob, hand brake handle, pedals and such petty nonsense
- Leather shift and handbrake boots

Electronics are basic - AC, central door lock, cheap Kenwood stereo with stock speakers. So the plan is:
- Car alarm with remote lock - not keen on this alarm, I'll probably try and make my own
- Good sound system (currently got Pioneer head unit with stock speakers)
- LCD touchscreen with CarPC

As for the exterior, the car has no spoiler and no extra bodyparts. Also, very poor paint - cracked, bumped, scratched, peeled...
- bodywork repair and complete repaint (I love the idea of pearl white, perhaps dark grey might be nice too)
- either a GT4 spoiler with risers, or a DCW duckbill
- some nice wheels

Performance and handling:
- CAI
- better exhaust
- coilovers

This is all for now, here are some pics

EDIT: moved the pictures into the second post, so you don't have to scroll all the time.

This post has been edited by Nihil: Apr 8, 2014 - 11:22 AM

[Nihil]

Ok, yesterday I got a 7 gen airbag, so today I replaced my worn 6 gen wheel with leather 7 gen wheel.

Quite easy mod, started by removing the old airbag from the wheel, then I removed the wheel with a puller (can be forced by strength, but no need to if you got a puller).

Then I spent half an hour, studying and trying to get apart the steering spiral airbag connectors. As it didn't seem to come apart, I simply cut it and soldered the 7gen connector wires together. One other thing that gave me some problems is steering wheel adjustment. Needed to put everything together and back apart three times, after the test drive showed that steering wheel is mounted first a bit to the right, then to the left. Third time it was perfect and looks just amazing.

Here are the pics:
Old wheel



Airbags



Pulling off the steering wheel


Both wheels together


Steering spiral connectors


Soldered wires



And the finish




I love it!

Tomorrow I'll be spraying lower parts of the dashboard white