Mkernz22's Progress Thread V2, Starting over on a new slate Options

[mkernz22]

Sadly, the time has come and soon I'll be decommissioning my 1995 Celica GT. She's had rot that I wanted to fix, but I know it's going to be too much to handle.
Old thread here: http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=75896

So I'll be starting on a new slate with a 1994 GT hatch. The car only has 127,000 miles on it and is in really good condition.
There are some flaws such as the rear struts being blown, the high beam being cracked, the radiator pretty much on it's way out, the cracked intake hose, small ding in the drivers side fender, and the door cloth insert piece falling off....
But it's not like those aren't easy things to fix.

Starting off, this car is not intended to be a project car. I made that mistake with my 95 and I hate having a project / dd. It gets annoying.
Most of the things I intend to do will be done this coming spring, but some of the other minor things will still be in the works.


So to start off with what will happen.

Obviously swapping over the JDM tail lights. That's just a given. Sex appeal = +150%
Putting my winter tires on until the spring comes.
Swapping out the cracked high beam, cracked intake hose, and swapping over the radiator.
Pulling out that little dent.
Swap out the muffler for one that I've had in my shed.
KYB struts all around and lowered on I think sportline springs? I forget the brand.

Here comes the fun stuff
Poly bushings all around as well as the suspension bits and under body being undercoated.
Putting in all new hard brake and fuel lines because I already have them, so why not? (at some point)
SSIII lip kit will be painted and installed, except for the fronts until I get a post face bumper. The little black euro splitters should look fine in the meantime.

And I'm sick of typing so here are some pictures.
















This post has been edited by mkernz22: May 27, 2015 - 7:29 AM

[njccmd2002]

Mmmh. Soundsike a project to me, lol. But awesome to start all over.

[enderswift]

Clean frame

[Smaay]

oohh all the rust on the bottom. can that be cleaned up? the interior looks pretty good.

[mkernz22]

Mmmh. Soundsike a project to me, lol. But awesome to start all over.

Just freshening her up and pretty much leaving it after that.

oohh all the rust on the bottom. can that be cleaned up? the interior looks pretty good.

That rust is nothing. It's only surface stuff on the suspension, the body is clean.
I'll be cleaning up all the parts and putting bushings in the subframe from my 95 so I can quickly swap it in.

[igpx12]

That is a clean looking celi, nothing like starting fresh especially knowing what you want to do with the new shell. Looking forward to seeing some progress

[Edser]

Looks nice, yeh a SSIII kit will freshen it up greatly, and the Kouki rear lights make a huge difference too.
I did it, and it is awesome. I love it.
Check out mine:
http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showto...t=0&start=0

[mkernz22]

Well she's home now...and that makes it three Celica's in the driveway again hahaha

[Smaay]

only 3? i have like 9 right now

[cheela]

license plate is crooked.... it bothers me. hahahah looks like a clean celi though.

[mkernz22]

The car will be going on the road in less than 2 weeks, which will be during my "Spring" vacation...

Will be swapping the alternator back into this car and using the non-A/C belt for the time being because I think the bearings are going in the compressor. But I won't be using A/C for a while so it's alright.
Once I get it on the road, I'll just be focusing on fixing up the Alltrac so that she's driveable for when I do the swap on this one.

Still gathering parts for the engine. Need to get some more seals and gaskets, timing belt tensioner, time it, fix the studs for the exhaust manifold, clean up the wiring harness, and some other odds and ends.
Just got a Tial BOV for it. I'll be using a gen1 W2A cooler on it. Just have to make some brackets to secure it in place.

I'll get more more pictures at some point in the next week or two.

[HaysoosKreesto]

I remember when I had an oem radiator lol

[mkernz22]

I've changed out the radiator, swapped over the JDM tails, and replaced the high beam; which is a huge PITA to do when you leave the crash bar on and only remove half of the bumper, but got the job done.

Seeing how things always change, looks like I won't be doing the gen2 swap into the car. There's a high probability that I might be traveling a lot this summer and I feel like I would get better gas mileage out of the 5s than the 3s and wouldn't have to worry about as much going wrong. I still have a lot of work to do on the 3s and I definitely wouldn't have it done as soon as I'd like.

So when I swap all the suspension over with the new fuel and brake lines, I'll be doing the timing belt and gaskets on the engine, maybe get a lightweight flywheel and going to do the 5th gear swap as well. Hoping to get more MPG on the highway with that and hoping it doesn't bog too much.

I've realized that I need to stop doing stupid sh!t or have some big plans and just make this into a nice daily driver. That's all I need, a nice clean looking daily driver that gets good gas mileage.

The all-trac is the new project car and I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

[Keiri]

I've changed out the radiator, swapped over the JDM tails, and replaced the high beam; which is a huge PITA to do when you leave the crash bar on and only remove half of the bumper, but got the job done.

Seeing how things always change, looks like I won't be doing the gen2 swap into the car. There's a high probability that I might be traveling a lot this summer and I feel like I would get better gas mileage out of the 5s than the 3s and wouldn't have to worry about as much going wrong. I still have a lot of work to do on the 3s and I definitely wouldn't have it done as soon as I'd like.

So when I swap all the suspension over with the new fuel and brake lines, I'll be doing the timing belt and gaskets on the engine, maybe get a lightweight flywheel and going to do the 5th gear swap as well. Hoping to get more MPG on the highway with that and hoping it doesn't bog too much.

I've realized that I need to stop doing stupid sh!t or have some big plans and just make this into a nice daily driver. That's all I need, a nice clean looking daily driver that gets good gas mileage.

The all-trac is the new project car and I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

Mike, I think it's admirable (and a big sign of growth) that you have chosen to make the car good looking and reliable for daily duty rather than press on with a quick swapped car that may not be as dependable as you need; spending money to ensure you have a competent daily doesn't sound as fun as money into a faster street monster but it's the smart choice.

I'm looking forward to seeing you make this car exactly what you want while pursuing your other life goals/experiences!

[mkernz22]

I've changed out the radiator, swapped over the JDM tails, and replaced the high beam; which is a huge PITA to do when you leave the crash bar on and only remove half of the bumper, but got the job done.

Seeing how things always change, looks like I won't be doing the gen2 swap into the car. There's a high probability that I might be traveling a lot this summer and I feel like I would get better gas mileage out of the 5s than the 3s and wouldn't have to worry about as much going wrong. I still have a lot of work to do on the 3s and I definitely wouldn't have it done as soon as I'd like.

So when I swap all the suspension over with the new fuel and brake lines, I'll be doing the timing belt and gaskets on the engine, maybe get a lightweight flywheel and going to do the 5th gear swap as well. Hoping to get more MPG on the highway with that and hoping it doesn't bog too much.

I've realized that I need to stop doing stupid sh!t or have some big plans and just make this into a nice daily driver. That's all I need, a nice clean looking daily driver that gets good gas mileage.

The all-trac is the new project car and I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

Mike, I think it's admirable (and a big sign of growth) that you have chosen to make the car good looking and reliable for daily duty rather than press on with a quick swapped car that may not be as dependable as you need; spending money to ensure you have a competent daily doesn't sound as fun as money into a faster street monster but it's the smart choice.

I'm looking forward to seeing you make this car exactly what you want while pursuing your other life goals/experiences!

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words!
Dustin is trying to talk me out of just keeping the 5s since I have the gen2 that is already PNP.... -_- Maybe next year it'll go it? But the focus this year is taking care of everything else first.
Plus I'll be doing the 5th gear swap and can document the results with the 5s.

Speaking of which.
I went to Dustin and Steph's the other day to fix my timing, found out it was off by 10 degrees. Was set at 0, which explained why the distributor was turned all the way down, but now it's good and runs a lot better! Makes me happy

I'm averaging about 27.5 mpg mixed, but still need an alignment so that should help it out some more.
Hoping that the clutch will last another month or two, but it's starting to slip more and more.
Sometimes if I try to get on it while on the highway in 5th, it'll begin to rev up a bit without going anywhere

I'll update this again in a few months once I start the suspension makeover.

[cheela]

wait.... you visited Dustin and Stef and you didn't walk away with a 3sgte in your engine bay??? hahahhaha.

it's all good. take it slow. the only time to go fast is on the tracks.

[mkernz22]

wait.... you visited Dustin and Stef and you didn't walk away with a 3sgte in your engine bay??? hahahhaha.

it's all good. take it slow. the only time to go fast is on the tracks.

Well it seems like everything over there is converting to Beams so I wasn't sure what to expect
(Other than Frank's 2GR deuce swap that's in progress)

So ordered the last of my fuel lines, so that should be in within a week.
Now that classes are over, I'll be tearing into my old car to get it out of here.

By the end of the weekend, I'll hopefully have all the suspension pulled off my old car. Have to get everything apart and the old bushings pressed out, get the paint off the majority of it, and then undedercoat it all and put the new bushings in. Repaint the rear KYB's and the front TRD coilovers (hopefully get sleeves for them). Undercoat all the fuel and brake lines. Seam seal and undercoat the gas tank. Seam seal the rear wheel wells and undercoat.

AAAAANNNNDDDDDDD

To top it all off, swap out the clutch because this current one is almost toast.
It's going to be a fun filled week. Hopefully I'll have most of the prep work done by the time I get my time off.
Then I can go full force at it.

In the end the car will have:
Newerish clutch & new TOB
Refurbished subframes and control arms with polybushings
Upgraded endlinks, staying with stock sway bars.
New ball joints and tie rod ends
Extended studs all around with spacers 10mm/F & 15mm/R
Debating on lowering about 2inches or staying stock height. I'm putting coilovers in the front either way soo...I just don't know if I want the stiffness of them. (get stiffer as you lowering them)

And yeah, that's that. I'll update when I get a move on things.

[mkernz22]

I dids a thing....for once.
& lowered it on ST springs
More pictures to come once I'm done with swapping out the front stuff.



Brake and fuel lines didn't happen cause this took way longer than I had expected. Just going to put some undercoating on the ones on the car for the time being.
Clutch also didn't happen because I somehow managed to f^ck up the disc... So I just need a new disc, and a TOB while I'm at it. Will change later in the summer.

This post has been edited by mkernz22: May 23, 2015 - 9:58 PM

[mkernz22]

Alright so I'll give my opinion on putting in the poly bushings.
1) It f^cking sucks if you don't have all the tools.
2) If you have non rusted parts it's probably a bit easier, however, mine were rusted to sh!t so I had to cut some bolts and use a lot of heat.
3) Takes a bit of time if you want to do it right.
4) Besides the fact that it may or may not suck, in the end it is completely worth it.

Along with the poly bushings, I upgraded the F&R sway bar bushings to poly as well as all of the end links. New ball joints and tie rod ends went in as well as Suspension Technique lowering springs in the rear and my TRD coilovers in the front, which may or may not get swapped out for struts with the ST lowering springs. Just have to buy the struts. In all, it was worth it because the handling is so god damn tight and I absolutely love it. Once my tires wear out from the alignment being off, I'll be getting new tires and an alignment. I can't wait for that because it's going to feel soooooo good.

Picture of the front:


Then today I went and detailed my car because I actually have really nice paint instead of some sh!tty $400 Maaco paint job.

How it originally looked:


After clay barring and polishing:


Once the wax was done:




So she's looking really, really nice now and I'm really happy.
**And yes, I ****ed up on the wax. Started to rush it since it was getting dark and didn't shake the bottle which is why you see the streaks in the picture of the front of the car. Hopefully cleaning that up tomorrow.

This post has been edited by mkernz22: May 26, 2015 - 8:21 PM

[mkernz22]

Finally got struts and springs in the front and sits a little bit higher. So sick of those TRD coilovers, they were just way too harsh and I was starting to get annoyed. The ride definitely feels a lot better now for it being a daily driver.
New tires are going on as I type as well as getting an alignment. I wore them down pretty far... hahaha

After this, there's not much else to be done.
Probably just give the wheels a quick refurb with aluminum putty and some new paint, do the clutch sometime in August, and eventually swap in the Gen2 (thinking next summer)

Really just trying to cut down on the things I want to do with this car, mainly just make it nice and reliable, and then start focusing on the alltrac more.