TSZ Beams, The daily car Options

[TimeslideZ]

Yes indeed, I ended up with another Celica. A project car yes, but one that's pretty well done already.
At least one to be a year-round daily (yes... even in the winter salt snow).


It's funny to be buying cars from old celica veterans here. First it was Colin's V6; now it's Kurt's Beams.
To be honest after selling my FR-S I was not looking to get another celica. But this deal was too good to pass.
Thanks to my brother who moved on from celica's to off-road for coming with me and spending 2021 July 4th weekend to get the car from Ohio.

Car has about... 85k on the chassis and 65k on the beams motor as of right now? Low mileage overall, and pretty clean.
Chips and small dents here and there; but I didn't care so much cause overall it was still very good.
Plus it came w/ some interior and exterior goodies so I couldn't complain. Given the pandemic prices this was very nice deal.

Knowing that the car hasn't been driven in a long while, I decided to get a dolly just in case (good thing in the end).



Things were going swell until we hit the Dells (4 hours from home) around 10 PM and then one of the trailer tires ripped on us.
A long night trying to get to Walmart with their long lines and having to take the front bumper off lead us too tired to make it home.



Nonetheless we made it home safely. The car was bogging a bit and at first we though it was just clogged injectors or old gas.
But after while it got worst and so I ended up replacing the fuel filter. BROKE my gas line along the way so repaired that real quick.
However we found out later it was actually a valve cover gasket leak. Shout out to Mike Thoma though for offering his ignition coil cause I thought it was that.
Quick online order from battlegarage and visit to the junkyard for an ignition boot (thanks Pruis) and things were good again!



The exhaust was definitely too loud though for my taste, and sat rather low. I wanted something similar to the SP2 so I ended up going with Ken's suggestion.
Magnaflow 14829 muffler, 2.25" catback with OEM cat, and then a Summit Racing resonator. When I find my testpipe I'll fit that one instead I don't want my cat stolen.




Fixed missing stud up front, still have to install the interior audio and upgrade the lighting overall. Also it came w/ seized ksport coilovers so I'm soaking them in PB blaster as I gave it my old 1" Eibach Springs on KYB/Bilstein shocks. Here it sits with the old 5zigen wheels that I had on the FRS and Celica before.



Annnndddd this is how it sits now now that winter is here. Got some wheels with Artic Snow tires since snow tires make the difference up here in MN.
Future plans currently once it's warm again is to get my audio/lighting figured out and then paint the front spat red.


And here's a video or two on how the car sounds: Beams Celica with Magnaflow and Summit-Racing exhaust

[TimeslideZ]

Some new stuff to the daily:

Updated the ebrake shoes, rotors, pads, avalon calipers, and then an oil and transmission fluid change.
EBC rotors and green pads, Penzoil 5W-30 and Redline MT-90.





Also got new rubber, Continental DWS06 as I need some all-season for the bipolar weather here in MN.
Went from 235/40 to 225/45 for some more comfort, testing waters as I might do the same (-10/+5) to the project car as well.
But then I realized how rusty unprotected rotors are so.... Gonna be cleaning them soon when I get the chance.
(Please don't comment on the wheel gap... Or front fitment lol)


Also my window visors finally came in, ordered two so my project one gets one too.
HIGHLY recommend to replace the double sided with a better double sided (3M).


Got around the replacing my interior lighting so I can see now. Realized to NOT swap out some of the indicator bulbs w/ LED as you need a load resistor or they'll stay on.
Good thing I realized this later as they also show up on my project car and I thought it was the gas/airbag system.

Still waiting for weather to consistently stay around 70/+ before painting the front spats. Ordered some G2 Red so will paint the calipers too. Audio will come later when I find time to take them from the project one.
Other plans include installing the AC lines that I took from the junkyard and find my 15mm spacer and extended studs so I can get good fitment: 15mm to the rear and 5mm to the front.
Probably will also send my wheel to the repair shop since the bend really makes the car vibrate.

This post has been edited by TimeslideZ: Jun 3, 2022 - 10:33 AM

[TimeslideZ]

Alright time for another update, probably the last one for a while as the car is nice and smooth. Plus it's been a year since I worked on the project car so I should get to that one.



Funny enough I didn't take a lot of photos but after some terrible shaking in the front I opted to replace a bunch of stuff up front.
Many of the parts were either ripped, rusted, or missing bolts (like my axle carrier was missing one bolt, hence the shaking).

New inner + outer tie rods, axles, wheel bearings. (Sorry for the insta images, forgot to save images for myself.)



I also had to replace my end links as they were rusted. Ended up grinding them off and taking the ones off my project car for these.
All is good though, bought replacements already. I added back the A/C lines. Was lucky to be able to get the lines from a junkyard vehicle.
Tried replacing the condenser with two used ones (project car and brother's car) but no luck.
Ended up ordering a new one. Did I get A/C? No, turns out (of course) it's the compressor.



Not a lot pictured but I ordered some new calipers on rockauto for the rear. My rear right was seizing a lot (ended up replacing the EBC pads).
But I figured I'd replace the project car rear with the new ones and give the old working ones to the daily. However I ran into issues with rusted bolts.
Nothing like a yellow torch and extractor screws to help though. Used a power tool and brush kit to scrub off all the dirty stuff.



I ended up going w/ some cheap G2 paint (red). Quick review: it looks fine from afar and is a simple enough job to do.
But it has the rubber-paint feel to it and requires more than just what they give you for a nicer finish. Didn't matter to me as it was my daily.



So about one year ago when I first got the car (excuse the photo editing).



To what it is now.



Bad angles, I was in a rush those times. I opted to run my project car wheels on here as the rear need replacing so I mind as well burn the front up before replacing all four tires.
I want to go w/ Pilot Super Sport later so I don't mind. Plus I was too lazy to put on extended studs in the front so the car looks nice (my own OCD).
And I want to see what my project car would look on the 5zigens now that I have coilovers to lower it.

So what's next? Hmm nothing for now, I want to get back onto the project car as it's been almost a year since I lost motivation on it.
But I need to get it down so I can have both cars up and running again.

The car still needs the audio put back in, an used non-painted engine head cover, and probably A/C compressor.
I want to torch the seized Ksports to see if I can get them free; but again another day.




I forgot I also bought the rear OEM strut brace.
Didn't come with the covers so I just cut up the flat ones to make room for it.
(Kinda janky but it works).

This post has been edited by TimeslideZ: Jul 20, 2022 - 11:35 AM

[BonzaiCelica]

what rays wheels are those??

you pay for shipping and i'll send you the rear strut bar tower covers.... i believe i still have them.

[TimeslideZ]

what rays wheels are those??

you pay for shipping and i'll send you the rear strut bar tower covers.... i believe i still have them.

These are the 57CR in 17x9 +38mm.

Yo yeah if you still have them I'm down.

[Deceptik1]

Car looks good! I always wondered what the 57CRs looked like on our cars since I’ve always wanted them in gun blue. What window visors did you get?

[TimeslideZ]

Car looks good! I always wondered what the 57CRs looked like on our cars since I’ve always wanted them in gun blue. What window visors did you get?

Lol I almost thought about going Gun Blue as well but given these were for my other Celica that is already Dark Blue I decided Gold was a better all-arounder.

I bought the visors on eBay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/153862435457) but it was pre-Ukraine war. The seller is from Russia so you may need to find another seller on eBay that sells something similar.

[TimeslideZ]

Been a while since I've had an update. Finally got around to doing things after cleaning my garage.

For a while I didn't have rear speakers, so during cleaning the garage I opted to put in working speakers (from when I bought it from Kurt).
Found out the post models actually had plastic sound deadening compared to the pre models.

Black speakers are from the daily, Silver one's are from the project.
Luckily I ended up having a spare set of pre model brackets so swapped them over to the daily.

At the same time I thought I had sub/amp wiring; turned out it was all cut.
But I figured if it's my daily I mind as well throw the sub/amp in there for fun.
Another day and then some with trying to figure out where to hook GND cause the kit wire is so short

Turns out the sub/amp fits under the rear strut bar (w/o cover, haven't tried w/ it on).

My cup holder was cut, so I stole the one off the project (it's okay, the project car got a better arm rest).
Also my cig light wasn't working so I took that one off the project too, probably plan to make the project one w/ usb or something instead.

Found a surprise to know that part of my center console was cut in half.


I was having a lot of issues since last year w/ the passenger front side. Not sure if axle or brake or w/e.
But there was a well defined scraping around the rotor. I'm thinking axle again since it is just Oriely stuff.
Since I had bought GT4 calipers for the project car, I decided to swap the avalon calipers to the 986 boxster calipers.

I also had a set of 5mm studs that I wanted to put on for the longest time since the wheels are short of flush in the front.
You probably could go 7mm spacer but 5mm will do for now.

The 986 caliper setup requires:
- Bill Dan's adapter (or an adapter of your own)
- Required bolts for the calipers and bracket
- 7gc rotors
- 986 boxster pads/hardware

High pitch screeching issue:
- The 4 pot is actually staggered, I totally misread the instructions when I first put it on
- So instead of having the smaller pistons "on top" by the bleeder, it was swapped around for me.
- This lead to a lot of high pitch screeching when lightly braking at lower speeds
- Currently despite the correct piston arrangement I still get the screeching.
- Thus I would suggest if you go this route also shave 1-2mm off your new pads

Fitment alignment issue:
- You'll notice that if you put the bracket on the rotor doesn't seem to fit exactly in the middle
- Thus when adding the brake pads in, one side doesn't actually fit.
- I had to put a washer between the hub and bracket (1.5mm) to fit both pads in even though it was not exactly even.
- (Even as that both pads didn't have the same amount of play room)
- Adding two washers (3mm) just swapped the fitment around so for future self a 2-2.5 washer might be necessary.
- I would think this could cause the high screech sound too; but that's to be determined atm.

How it feels:
- definitely more stable at higher speeds compared to the avalon calipers
- more "sensitive?" idk if that's the right word but you don't have to press on the brakes as hard to get equal brake power
- haven't done any aggressive driving yet so i'll update you another day on that

What to do to improve:
- realign the rotor, I think I'll eventually give the 2mm washer a try to stop the screeching
- put on the other adapter to run Audi A6 rotors (312mm); but that requires re-drilling which it seems no shop wants to do that around here
- (i've done one rotor myself; but that took forever and was a long time ago)

What's next?
- I have a brand new front window rubber piece that I need to put on as the old is stripping away and you get a lot of wind noise
- Alignment after I diagnose the vibration issue
- (Still have to paint the plastic valve cover back to red
- Scored myself some pretty nice stuff so finally putting on OEM window visors to watch the OEM moonroof and rear window visors
- And of course, getting myself a TRD front strut bar to complete the "OEMness" of the car.

- And no, those recaros are not going onto the daily lol

[BonzaiCelica]

thats unfortunate, whoever engineered the caliper bracket needs to go back to drawing board. Shiming it to center the caliper on the rotor shouldn't be needed. thats only necessary for axial mounted mono or 2 piece calipers. get the oem 6gc rotor, 28mm is same as oem porshe 986 rotors

interested that the flowformed trd strut brace version 2 is more rare than i thought. seems to be something toyota made for the last 2 years of production.

This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Apr 9, 2024 - 1:02 PM