benzos ST('s) work in progress!, From broke auto, to fixed manual. ALL HELP WELCOMED :D Options

[benzo]

Sup 6gc.net.. I've been on here for a long long time. Love this site, and love the wealth of information. At first it was overwhelming, as I knew nothing about cars. But after reading and reading and reading the information is finally stuck inside my head


So.. first off, I had a 96 Auto. 25th anniversary edition Number #257

I got hit, and the dude ran. Hella traffic so i couldn't get the plates, and got screwed by insurance, and got nothing .
Drove my sisters Chrysler (drove like a boat) for about a year while I saved up.

I finally found a black 95 5speed. Looked very very shinny (later found out it was a cheapo paint job, with wax >_< )
for $4,000. But so many thing were wrong with it so I talked the guy down to $3,300. At 16X,XXX miles I thought was a good deal
(still knowing NOTHING about celicas, or the difference between ST or GT)



I bought it and my friend / mechanic Marty drove it home for me, cause I barely could drive stick and I had to go to school.

Now that was back in January.


So this is my journal/work in progress with hella pictures / a personal time line so I can see how I have progressed.


Sadly can't find any pictures of her when she was up and running
so here she is, after sitting a good year +


Switching out every interior piece, seats, hatch hydraulic lifters, and tail lights.



Face lift bumper, and OEM sideskirts off to be painted. *INSTALL SHOULD BE SOON!**

Oh, i also had to pop off the toyota emblem from the silver car, and put it on my black on


Front head lights were cracked, and held on with bungie cords, so I swapped them in as well.



Sold the interior trunk pieces to Chaa (where is my positive rep for that???? hahaha)




As for the interior pieces, I would look at them side by side, and use the newest looking one.
gosh, its great having a parts car!!



Engine.. before I got my hands on it.


I grew up here... Wonder if those are gonna give me cancer.. Pretty sun set though.





These next 4 picutres are my lame attempt at changing the ugly green color for the Air Conditioning.. I was in a hurry, so used nail polish instead of Spray paint. BAD IDEA!! It looks cool during the day...



I dunno how I ended up with this amberish color, but I like it

In the end, I plan on doing LED's.. but am waiting on that.


Bought the color swatches for $3.01 They cost $0.01 with $3.00 shipping.. hahahaha!!

BEFORE

AFTER.. Except i'm not to fond of this color blue. Imma change it to a darker color one of these days..


This is her after the interior, head & tail light swap


Around this time is when I finally moved out on my own
Which was awesome EXCEPT these pine tees that sploouge pine dust allllll over my car:

Heres an up close shot of it




Finally nice and clean

daaaaamn.. look at that as$!




This post has been edited by benzo: Jan 20, 2010 - 8:32 PM

[benzo]

Next on the list of mods, was the short shifter! Its a 7th gen ebay short shifter. Got it for super cheap too.
I was so excited to install it I forgot to take before pictures. So i dug around and found these

BEFORE

BEFORE


Install.. BEFORE PIC. Old Stock Shifter


Install.. AFTER PIC. New 7gen Short Shifter


So, From this

To this:
Finished product


The short shift was an awesome mod! I love being able to shift so quickly, and it feels much more precise. I'm either in gear, or not.



This post has been edited by benzo: Jan 20, 2010 - 8:33 PM

[benzo]

Next on the list was Intake.

Dirty engine bay..!! With the big ole stock air box


I bought a used custom K&N short ram intake. I wasn't found of the color, but it worked real well! Thanks again garin!

Installed:



After the intake I was completely in love with the car.. The sound was amazing (even for a puny 7afe)

I came across some money so I decided to get to work
My clutch was dieing and I was dripping oil. So while Marty the mechanic was working on it I was cleaning up the bay as much as I could.

I also got an Optima Red top which I had to lengthen the wires to reach.. not to big of a deal.

After I cleaned up the dirt (It doesn't look like I cleaned up much , but I swear it was a lot! ) I decided to finally repaint the intake:

I stupidly thought the gray was primer, but it wasn't!!hahahah whooops

so i painted it gray 4 coats.

Then 4 black coats

I did it in the freezing cold, but it dried pretty well.




Installed!!

****QUESTION***** Does that extension we put on the intake hurt or negatively affect the intake? opposed to putting it directly on?





Damn.. no more time.. off to night class. ill finish later.. peace!!

This post has been edited by benzo: Jan 20, 2010 - 8:46 PM

[benzo]

I'm back.

Next on my list was to fix my horrible oil leak. It was the real main seal. & install a new clutch. I have no clue how old the clutch was.. and i learned how to drive stick on it so it was toast.

check out how much oil was in here





I was gonna buy brushes from autozone.. but they were like 5 bucks a pop.. and did not last long.
Dollar Tree FTW!!!



After a good hour or so! Nice and clean


New OEM Fly Wheel



I'm sooo lucky to have such a good friend with a lift and every tool needed to work on cars. He has saved me sooooooo much money.
For those of you who went to the meet, it was my buddy Marty.


Anyways, we somewhat fixed my oil leak (i'm still leaking.. just not nearly as bad as it was ) Got new clutch and flywheel.. and brand new tires


Got clear corners too.

And license plate LED bulbs. Nice little addition..


Then I sorta went on a little shopping spree and bought HIDs, TRD License plate and floor mats.



First I used this head light restoration kit and buffed my headlights. No before pics . It really did make a difference to me though



Old head light on the left... HID 4300k On the right



Left HID, right normal OEM stock head lights.


4300ks !!!










This post has been edited by benzo: Feb 4, 2010 - 12:13 AM

[johnnehh]

This will give me something to look forward to later

[delusionz]

Cool, I've had 3 ST20X series Celicas, I'm going to say ST20X series because Gen 6 doesn't mean anything to the GT-Four since there was only 3 generations of Celica GT-Four, Anyways back to what I was saying, I've created threads for each on the day of purchase and used the first post slot for Day 1 Photos, It's always interesting to see what the car started like at the beginning, to what it finished up as at the end.

[benzo]

Cool, I've had 3 ST20X series Celicas, I'm going to say ST20X series because Gen 6 doesn't mean anything to the GT-Four since there was only 3 generations of Celica GT-Four, Anyways back to what I was saying, I've created threads for each on the day of purchase and used the first post slot for Day 1 Photos, It's always interesting to see what the car started like at the beginning, to what it finished up as at the end.

I wish I lived where I could purchase a gt-4.. that be awesome!!

& yeah, im making this thread so I can see my progress and where all my money/time is going

[benzo]

Next on the list was to fix my cracked header.


So I bought ebay headers (I know its not plural, but header sounds funny)




Direct bolt on MY AS$!!



I specifically emailed and asked the seller if it had 2 o2 sensors like it said on the listing. He said yes, so I bought it.

So not only was it a good 6-7 inches short, it only had 1 freakin o2 sensor!!! So after messaging back and forth he decided to refund me, or give me a partial refund. He only gave me $10 bucks back.

Eh.. thats what i get for buying off ebay I guess

[epocsirhc]

You are lucky to have a friend like Marty who helps you out. He seems like a cool guy and I am jealous of the lift he has.

[benzo]

We cut off the exhaust off my 96 parts car and used the 96 screw in type o2 sensor hole for the extension


The extension using flanges from the old exhaust.


Of course we didn't think to make sure it lined up right.. good thing we only tack welded it in 3 spots.



Lined it up nice and perfect.


Marty Sr welding it in place.


Almost done.



Making sure it is completely sealed up and then cleaned up.



Header installed, but not driven with them just yet.

Quick drive around the block. Ewwww it stunk soo bad. Burnt exhaust.. and a leak in the o2 gasket, as it was not a perfect fit.


This is what it looked like after driving 200+ miles for the celica meet in Isleton, CA.



While Marty jr/sr were busy welding and my car was on the lift I decided to use the extra paint I had to paint my back breaks, since I was tired of looking at all the rust. I did it in the dark, and didn't sand but it turned out great.

Before..

After..


This post has been edited by benzo: Feb 4, 2010 - 1:10 AM

[benzo]

You are lucky to have a friend like Marty who helps you out. He seems like a cool guy and I am jealous of the lift he has.

Definitely The lift is awesome.. Haha he always says, "Dude you lucky your my friend.. if you took it to the shop it would cost you $80-$100 every time they put your car on the lift."

I just pay him in Bud light currency

[benzo]

&&&&&&&&&& as of yesterday.. I finally got my 96 Face lift bumper back!!! It was done by my friends neighbor, so it took like 3 months, haha.. but it only cost me $50 bucks, so it was well worth the wait!!!

On the car is PRE-facelift.. on the ground is 96 Facelift



Since I had the bumper off, I swapped out my passenger high beam cause it kept getting full of water



See those black thingys? When i turned the light upside down all the water came outta there.. Anyone know what those are?



I did this all riiight before i had class. I seriously finished juust in time to make it to class. Good thing I didn't ditch , cause we ended up having a pop quiz

I hated the fact that the old bumper turn signals were orange, with my clear corners.


I think it looks sooooooooooooooooo much better now.




Well... .thats pretty much it. This journal is now up to date and currently reflects how my car is now.


I do have some more things in store.. nothing crazy like a swap (to poor, and if it went any faster I'd be getting speeding tickets left and right ) but you guys will see once its done.

[Aznbcrzy]

NICE !!!!!!!!!!!

[chacha]

damn it...i need to become a friend of your friends...very nice ben

[benzo]

NICE !!!!!!!!!!!

damn it...i need to become a friend of your friends...very nice ben

Thanks guys

[cheela]

awesome! i love reading these kinds of post. looking good.

[TerBeau]

Next on the list was to fix my cracked header.


So I bought ebay headers (I know its not plural, but header sounds funny)




Direct bolt on MY AS$!!



I specifically emailed and asked the seller if it had 2 o2 sensors like it said on the listing. He said yes, so I bought it.

So not only was it a good 6-7 inches short, it only had 1 freakin o2 sensor!!! So after messaging back and forth he decided to refund me, or give me a partial refund. He only gave me $10 bucks back.

Eh.. thats what i get for buying off ebay I guess

same here i got the same one as you do. now my engine light is on, the mid pipe hangs lower than the cross member and since my car is lowerd the flex pipe is all f@#$ed up. great buy though they sound nice with the right muffler and two magniflow high flow cats on it

[BonzaiCelica]

wow you've come a long ways! nice work

ya and being that you are in California you might want to keep your old header. Im in the process of doing smog and renewal of my tags and I threw away my old header 2 years ago.

[Ruroniarc]

See those black thingys? When i turned the light upside down all the water came outta there.. Anyone know what those are?

Looks good! The black things are the vents to let water out of the headlamps. I think they're supposed to be one way, so water can get in but not out, but I could be wrong.

[benzo]

awesome! i love reading these kinds of post. looking good.

I loved reading them my self.. I hated when there was no pics, or they didnt work. & I only have you guys/gals on here to thank, so I had to repay the favor.

same here i got the same one as you do. now my engine light is on, the mid pipe hangs lower than the cross member and since my car is lowerd the flex pipe is all f@#$ed up. great buy though they sound nice with the right muffler and two magniflow high flow cats on it

Hahah me too. but we used fix a muffler thingy to hold it up. it still rattles against the cross member, but not nearly as bad as without it. I just bought magnaflow muffler and resonator. I didnt' get a high flow cat on it tho... its only an st. do you think I should??

wow you've come a long ways! nice work

ya and being that you are in California you might want to keep your old header. Im in the process of doing smog and renewal of my tags and I threw away my old header 2 years ago.

Yup yup.. I even kept my old stock air box as well. But i;m pretty sure i won't pass smog since the header is cracked.. i hope a shop could seal that up for me though.

See those black thingys? When i turned the light upside down all the water came outta there.. Anyone know what those are?

Looks good! The black things are the vents to let water out of the headlamps. I think they're supposed to be one way, so water can get in but not out, but I could be wrong.

Thats what i thought.. they were facing downwords tho, so the water must of been getting in through somewhere else as well..

but good thing i had an extra set