Blue Celica from Romania, "progress" is too much said... Options

[quick_5hifter]

I appreciate this new-born section called "My project". I would never have posted my car's topic anywhere else but here, because here is the only place where you can show the other people your car even if it's bone-stock or heavily rusted... it's your car, so it has the "rights" to be here, whatever you've done, are doing or are going to do to it.
Based on that thought, I'm gonna climb down from my banana-tree, hold my breath for a couple of seconds and then proceed to choose some pictures and type a short story about my Celica. DON'T EXPECT TO READ/SEE ANYTHING SPECIAL. Here we go:
http://img443.imageshack.us/i/04092008557.jpg/
To be continued tomorrow (I hate this upload method...).

[malpaso]

Banana tree? Have not seen any banana trees in Romania . But few celicas on Transfagarashan highway . Even got chance to catch one with my camera



note: hope you manage trip to Poland this summer to participate Pan-European Celica Meeting

[quick_5hifter]

Banana tree? Have not seen any banana trees in Romania . But few celicas on Transfagarashan highway . Even got chance to catch one with my camera


note: hope you manage trip to Poland this summer to participate Pan-European Celica Meeting

Romania IS the banana tree, compared to the rest of Europe
Never seen that Celica before and I think it's pretty ugly, so I hope I'll never see it from now on.
Never been to Transfagarashan so far, even if I've been in every corner of this country...

About the summer meeting, I'll try to get there, I would really wanna go ... seeing your car live is a good enough reason to do that.

PS: Since you're from Poland, do you know that man who manufactures polyurethane stuff for our Celicas? Or do you know any way I could contact him, except via ebay?

Back on topic, I'll try to upload some photos today and tell you my car's short story. Here I go again:

Bought this car from Bulgary in the late summer of 2008. The seller brought it from Italy, it was probably really cheap since the exterior looked like crap, the tires were a bad joke, the upholstery was a mess and... some dashboard lights were ON (check engine, oil level, oil pressure... I paid 1.900 euros for it, after my wife negotiated the price (initial price was 2.400 euros). I didn't know anything about Toyotas back then, in fact I think my Celica is the first 6gc I've ever seen I just went there the day before to buy a Honda CRX Del Sol (found one for the same money, 2400e, but I only had 2000e and he wouldn't drop the price at all... FORTUNATELY ). So, before going back home to wait and raise some more money, I decided to take another look around; that was when I spotted her, in a corner: very dirty and in an awful shape. I saw some potential in her anyway, so here I am

My Celica had around 170.000km and only one previous owner. It was not registered anywhere, so I brought it home on a trailer (around 200 km). To register it to Romania, I had to pay around 1400 euros.

This is how she looked the next day after bringing her home:




First wash:





Then something had to change about it. I had to choose from dark metallic green and this electric blue. I've chosen the second one and, after replacing the right front fender and the mirrors, I took her to a body shop and then paint shop. This is what happened:

(before applying the clear coat)






(after applying the clear coat)




Next day, before reassembly:
(notice the ruined interior)





Same day later, on an air strip (drag day):




To be continued...

This post has been edited by quick_5hifter: Feb 17, 2011 - 10:52 AM

[Urputus]

I thought Malpaso is from Czech Republic, not from Poland

You choose a great color for your celica and it looks good in the interior too. I hope you will continue repairing it.
Are you going to install any side skirts and spoilers?

[quick_5hifter]

My bad, I didn't check it out, I don't know why I thought he was from Poland... but he was able to help me with that little problem, anyway.

Thank you for your opinion about the car!

Side skirts and spoilers... I was thinking about the OEM SS-III ones, but that means I should change the front bumper with a '96+ one. Other than that, I don't really like the way they fit with each other (it seems to me that the back splitters don't align perfectly with the side skirts).

The other plan was to order a custom body-kit, i know a very good manufacturer from Romania who can create anything, any shape just with a picture in front of him, and the custom bumpers, skirts, hoods etc. weight very little (no putty required before painting, except for those little spots to cover the little holes in the fiberglass' surface). I'll design the entire body kit, once I'll decide to do it (IF I'll decide to do it). In order to imagine what that manufacturer can do, I'll attach one picture with my ex-ride, a Daewoo Tico. In the left side of the picture is another Daewoo Tico, unmodified. To modify the appearance of that car, I've chosen a Nissan Skyline custom front bumper and I send my manufacturer two photos, then he did a hand-draw and turned it into the real thing. The side skirts were his idea, created to fit the low end of the front bumper.

Hand-draw:



The result:



Right now the exterior of the Celica is not a priority, I have a set of 17" OZ Racing Futura wheels that I'm keeping for the summer, and meanwhile I'm buying suspension parts - bought the rear adjustable Kony Yellow shocks/struts, now I'm waiting for my Tanabe DF210 springs to arrive to Europe by ship... and right after that, I'll buy all the polyurethane items that I'll afford (from Poland ) plus the front adjustable Kony Yellows. After that, hopefully I'll do the 3sgte swap, as I've promised myself.

[quick_5hifter]

...back to what I've done so far:

Interior: new upholstery, blue and black artificial leather; home-taylored blue carpets (including trunk and two subwoofer enclosures that I don't own anymore); new Sparco pedals and footrest; used MOMO steering wheel (it needs a new "coat"); Pioneer FH-P80BT doubleDIN headunit; 3 way Hertz speakers (200mm/70mm/20mm, 150w rms) with home-made mounts for midrange drivers and tweeters; 5gc headrests:






That light-blue paint from the dashboard is gone now, I've replaced it with silver paint but it won't stay that way for too long:




Plans for the interior are simple, but very expensive: beige/black leather interior and real aluminium trim. The second part is not very difficult to accomplish, I'll show you the results and the step-by-step operation. If it doesn't work out the way I think it will, I'll wrap every trim piece in real carbon fiber and that's it.

Another little project I'm working on is a car PC. So far I've bought:
-the enclosure (MiniITX M350)
-the motherboard (Gigabyte GA-D525TUD with an Intel Atom DualCore 1.8 ghz processor and two ddr3 ram slots)
-two ddr3 memory modules, 2Gb each
-one 2.5" 500Gb hdd.
To make it work, I need to buy an M3-ATX power source and ... a VGA monitor.








I'll continue with the wheels I had before, the wheels I have right now and a couple of more little things.

[quick_5hifter]

For a while, I had these 18" rims... I couldn't ever find out what were they called, but I liked them a lot when I first saw them. Tires were 215/35/R18, the only 18" size that would have the same outside diameter without affecting the speedometer and other things. They were too heavy, so I replaced them to a set of 17" OZ Futura's that I still have in my garage, waiting for good weather and new tyres. These are the 18" rims:


And this is the other rims' first test fit (don't mind the rear tyres, they were installed just for a test, size is way bigger than what I need):




All the OZ Futura's are very light and they're in great condition, despite their age (made in 1992 ), so I didn't waste too much time to trade them (for the OZ's I traded my 18" rims&tires plus one portable GPS); the next day, they arrived in my garage, I haven't moved them since (that was about 6 months ago):



Right now I'm running OEM rims and winter tires. One day I decided to paint my rims white:



Other things I've done to the car don't really worth to be mentioned, but here they go:

-Transparent front blinkers:




-Red sprayed taillights:




...and that's about it so far. I forgot to mention: my Celica is a '95 ST202 hatchback with 3sge engine, non-vvti, manual transmission.

I will keep you updated. Thank you for watching my humble "project"!

[malpaso]

Can not imagine driving those 18'' (since I remember roads you have in your country...). Even on 16'' I was suffering sometimes...

[delusionz]

hey nice celica so far.

the reason why the rear doesnt line up with the sides is because the rear end is proportionately too tall compared to the front, when you lower it the lines will meet up nicely

[Urputus]

Never seen a Daewoo like this. The guy who designed it is pretty creative. And it looks like perfect fit.
I hope you get soon to creating a new body kit for celica.

The letter-covered seats aren't new, that you want to change the whole interior to beige color leather?

Have to say, that the blue color looks very nice on your celi. Sorry if I already wrote it, but I really like it.

[quick_5hifter]

Can not imagine driving those 18'' (since I remember roads you have in your country...). Even on 16'' I was suffering sometimes...

You're absolutely right, that's why I never want to hear about 18" rims on my Celica again

hey nice celica so far.

the reason why the rear doesnt line up with the sides is because the rear end is proportionately too tall compared to the front, when you lower it the lines will meet up nicely

Thank you very much!
I've seen two Celicas with those side skirts and front/rear splitters and they look very nice. I'm talking about a dark red Celica known as "Red Devil" and the black Celica that is very lowered (one of the lowest Celi ever), most of you must know it from this forum.

Never seen a Daewoo like this. The guy who designed it is pretty creative. And it looks like perfect fit.
I hope you get soon to creating a new body kit for celica.

The letter-covered seats aren't new, that you want to change the whole interior to beige color leather?

Have to say, that the blue color looks very nice on your celi. Sorry if I already wrote it, but I really like it.

It's true, the designer is very creative, perhaps I'll add some more pictures of his work some day (one of them is a total reshaping of an Audi TT to look like an Audi R8, with a few modifications here and there).
Before I get to redesign my Celica, I want to focus on performance: first of all is suspension. I have to buy the parts one by one, according to the budget.
After that, I'll try to create some body-kits and choose the best looking one (of course I'll ask for your opinions here, too )

About the seats, they are recently covered in that blue/black eco-leather, but I want to go for beige again, like I did to that Daewoo. I really like that interior colour, plus it makes the whole interior look bigger, more modern and more noble.

Thanks for your opinion about the blue paint! I had the idea of changing it to a light blue (since I have to repaint the car soon anyway), but I haven't decided that yet, we'll see.

Now, I really need your honest opinions about the OZ Futura rims. I've just bought a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 tires, 215/40/R17, and I've put them on... and I really can't decide: keep the rims or not?
Some friends say they look great, some say they don't match my car (since these rims are mostly used on BMW's and VW's). My opinion is somewhere in the middle...
What do you think, do they match my car or not? Should I keep them or sell them?








Thank you very much, your opinions matter and will influence my decision radically. I usually follow my thoughts and my heart and then ask for opinions, but this time I really can't decide what to do and I need your help.

This post has been edited by quick_5hifter: Mar 21, 2011 - 4:38 PM

[bigb1970]

I don't personally like those rims,They don't suite the car...

[Edser]

Yeah the rims are kind of butch. Each to their own, depends on the look you want. I personally prefer more elegant slim designs, and nothing too modern. I love the red tinted tail lights! I may do the same thing until I can afford some JDMs. I may even darken the tails very slightly as my car is black. That blue colour is lovely. Really shines in the sun.

[zfjohnson07]

SEXY! i love the no spoiler look, freaking A! I cant wait to get mine back from the shop. Also love the interior very sharp!

[SwissFerdi]

I actually like them, but feel that the car needs a drop to fit the wheels properly, if that makes sense.

[mkernz22]

Any update on the car PC? I want to do something like that in the future!

[Edser]

I totally love the colour! I love the way it shines in the sun. As colours go, after black, I think my favourite is metallic red, the met blue then white.
Any updates?