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

[ricochet1490]

I told mine the same thing when I had my valve cover gasket replaced. Every 5s in the world has either replaced one or needs one replaced because it leaks. I told him "the valve cover gasket needs replaced while you are in there fixing that soft-plug" him "well could be the head gasket too, i haven't been under there to look" Me-"no no, head is fine, just replace the valve cover gasket and we'll be good" him "you sure? 190k miles can do a lot fo things to a car" Me - "every 5s in any camry or celica has leaked a valve cover gasket. My coolant looks fine, that's definitely all I want you to do."

Like pulling teeth. If I were you, I'd even question taking it back to that mechanic for anything whatsoever.... any mechanic who can't be straight up with you doesn't deserve your business...... in my guys defense they changed the valve cover gasket and the soft-plug parts and labor were 185$.... he's cheap, real cheap, and I think he just wanted to make sure the problem was fixed.... that being said, NICE WORK there.... keep it up!

[JohanFer]

I told mine the same thing when I had my valve cover gasket replaced. Every 5s in the world has either replaced one or needs one replaced because it leaks. I told him "the valve cover gasket needs replaced while you are in there fixing that soft-plug" him "well could be the head gasket too, i haven't been under there to look" Me-"no no, head is fine, just replace the valve cover gasket and we'll be good" him "you sure? 190k miles can do a lot fo things to a car" Me - "every 5s in any camry or celica has leaked a valve cover gasket. My coolant looks fine, that's definitely all I want you to do."

Like pulling teeth. If I were you, I'd even question taking it back to that mechanic for anything whatsoever.... any mechanic who can't be straight up with you doesn't deserve your business...... in my guys defense they changed the valve cover gasket and the soft-plug parts and labor were 185$.... he's cheap, real cheap, and I think he just wanted to make sure the problem was fixed.... that being said, NICE WORK there.... keep it up!

Hey thanks!!! I mean, he wanted me to do that because he knows that the car overheats at times. When I am on the freeway going 70 to 80 mph for like 10 min straight, the car almost always heats up to like 75%. If i get off the freeway, then it drops to normal after a little while. If I go on the freeway at around 60 mph for 30 min, at few times it heats up again to about 75%. Now, if I do normal street driving, it almost never goes up, but it has in the past. I've noticed that when it goes up on street driving it mostly does it when the car is waiting for a green light, then when the car moves, it goes down to normal. He has already changed the radiator, the timing belt, the thermostat, the water pump, and I have replaced the valve cover gasket and the two wire temperature sensor. I think that he wanted to change the head gasket to check if he finds a problem there because he does not know what the source of the problem is. I think so because when I told him that I was thinking in removing the engine so that the engine bay be painted as well during the paint job, he said that it would be great because that way he could also disassemble the whole engine and change the pistons and have the engine machined and do other things to the car, it seemed to me that he wanted to do an engine overhaul. Now I don't think he just wanted to do that to get my money, but to really fix the problem, and since he does not know, well, he just wants to do that and fix the problem in the process. Nevertheless, I really don't know what the problem is with the car because it does heat up at times and it worries me.