Rally Gt-Four Appareance, Pg. 5 for latest pics. Converting a Celica GT to a GT-Four Rally Options

[JohanFer]

Hi everyone, this is an attempt to convert a Toyota Celica '96 GT into the Rally Castrol Celica GT-Four we all know and love. This project will only concentrate in the exterior appearance as I live in California and pretty much cannot get a 3S-GTE engine installed. I will get it to look as much as I possibly can and will be basing most design as seen in the video game GT5, with a few modifications. I will much appreciate input and suggestions as time goes by. This will take some time as I don't have much money available to throw into the project, but I expect it to go in a steady peace.

I should start by stating that I fell in love with the car since I saw it in the video game. I really didn't pay much attention to cars as I only saw them as simple machines to take you from one place to another, but the Celica is so stylish and sleek that it changed everything. I see other cars and none match this one car. As a tribute to the car that got me into this, I decided to buy the car and make it look as close as I possibly can to the Castrol Celica. This will have to be my everyday car here in So. Cal. so it has to be street legal and comfortable, but also look like that awesome car.

To start, back in November I bought a Celica GT '96 automatic for this project. I know, it should've been stick, but I just could not find one that I really liked, plus this was an opportunity that I could not let get away. The car is pictured in my profile and it was mostly stock; it had HID low beam lights, and a custom thief alarm with remote start and seat covers in red-black. The car's paint is not original as it was painted from the original white to a creamy pearl color, which has a lot of imperfections. I must say that there are some imperfections all throughout the car that need to be fixed first.

What I've done so far (this will be updated as progression goes on):

1. Placed my JOHANFR license plate on the car on 11-11-11.
2. Changed front right car bearing on 11-21-11.
3. Changed the Water pump on 11-28-11.
4. Changed the Time Belt on 11-28-11.
5. Got a pair of tires on 12-10-11.
6. Installed a new reverse glow gauge on 4-12-12.
7. Got JDM tail lights on 4-27-12.
8. Did a front end conversion on 8-4-12.
9. Replaced the radiator 8-26-12
10. Painted the car in its original white color 9-16-12.
11. Got the OZ Racing rims I was hoping to find 2-14-13.

I still need to buy a new antenna so the car can look a little better.

As for the modification in appearance, this is what I plan to do and where I am open to suggestions:

1. I am getting the rear wing with the blocks to lift it. I plan to paint the block black.
2. Converting the front of the car so that it will look like the GT-Four. I plan to buy the front clip without the engine so that I can follow the tutorials described here for a complete change. I know about the disadvantages with the hood and all, but will try my best to do this right.
3. Installing JDM tail lights. I've actually bought them already and am waiting on the shipping.
4. Paint the car the original white once all parts have been installed. I am not sure as to leave the exterior rear view mirrors in black as well as the devise used to open the car doors. Also, I have not yet decided on weather I should paint the car matte white or not.
5. Order the Celica Castrol decals or have it car wrapped with the same design.
6. Tint all windows, if legal.
7. New leather upholstery on the car per original specifications, only featuring black and red.
8. New O.Z. rims as in the rally car. I've been looking for these, but cannot find them; not that I have the money to buy them right now, but would love to know how much they are.
9. If not too expensive, change the car from automatic to stick.
10. Depending on the founds and how the car looks, increase its power in any legal specifications without sacrificing much fuel efficiency. Again, any suggestions regarding this would be much appreciated.

This is all I think I want to do to the car. Again, I would not do an engine swap since the car would always fail emissions in my state. As you have read, I had not been a big fan of cars, so I am a newbie in this modification matter, I am only driven by the impulse of having a car that looks like one that has some history.

Again, suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated.

Pictures to follow.

This post has been edited by JohanFer: Mar 5, 2015 - 12:24 AM

[JohanFer]

Just a progress on what I did with the car mechanically and maybe some advise. I changed the radiator because I was noticing erratic changes in the engine temperature. I had previously changed the timing belt, thermostat, and water pump, but was still experiencing the same proble. Anyway, this change of thermostat two weeks ago improved things considerably as I no longer see the temperature gauge go up and down after driving for about 20 minutes. Nevertheless, after the change, in fact on the day of the change of radiator, at night I noticed that the gauge increased to about 70% after 15 min of street driving at night. Ever since, it has only happened about twice more all at night and never during the hot California weather we've been having. I've no idea what this could be due to but it happens. I know that the fans turn on, but I'm not sure if they do it in due time; in any case, that wouldn't explain why it only happens at night. Any input on this?

Also, when I took the car to the dealership for a minor service, they noticed that there was a lot of oil in the undercarriage and they thought that the problem might be due to a defective valve cover gasket. I told my mechanic if he could replace it, but he recommended instead to lift the head and change that gasket instead of just the valve cover gasket, asking this whole thing much more expensive. Is he trying to just make mo money off me or do you guys think he has a pint in wanting to do this? The car runs great and is very quiet with a nice idle. If it weren't for the mild overheating problem, I would say it's perfect. What do you guys think?

Thanks.