Hello from Ohio! New to forum. Options

[broderp]

Hello, I'm the proud owner of a 1995 Celica GT. I bought the car in 1995 with like 40 miles on the odometer. I literally bought it the day the dealer got it and had it ready for sale. It was the best looking car on the lot.

I hope there's some appreciation for cars like mine. Most forums cater towards those who mod and turn their cars into race cars. My car is about 100% stock.

ST204 (I believe)
GT, 5 speed
Bright Iris Pearl

I have (and you wont believe this) original brakes pads, all brake components, exhaust, engine etc... The only think I've had to change was oil and air filter.

How is this possible? I babied this car like you wouldn't believe, I have 136171 miles on it, all of it highway miles. Always changed the oil 3-5K miles with Mobil1 and kept it clean and as safe as I can in parking lots.....until about 4 years ago.

I was involved in an accident, were I actually went under the rear end of a Honda Civic. The driver side highbeam light was destroyed and pushed back. As you all know, behind it is the airbag sensor. So off they went.

Insurance totaled my baby. I was given over 7K for it, but pocketed $6300 because I refused to let it go to the crusher. The damage to the body was not that bad. In fact I drove it home that hot day, with the AC on full blast.

Fast forward 4 years, the car has been sitting in a garage. Its time to fix her up. I know it's not worth much and I may be paying more than what its worth now to repair, but I KNOW this car and it has some sentimental value. Not to mention, its the most eurgonomic car I've ever driven.

I look forward to seeing what goes on around here and hope my knowledge of electrical systems (I'm an engineer) can help others and I can learn from you all as well!

Here is my car after sitting in a garage for 4 years and having the winshield replaced. It was NOT ready for the car crusher.


This is how much of the dash that has to come out to replace the passenger airbag....... All rust on the support were painted black with rust converter before being put back together.


All back together and looking good......


Stripped down to see the damage under the skin.... Having second thoughts, these parts are welded..radiator support and headlight support are toast as are a few other structural parts.


OEM parts welded on, and other parts awaiting to be welded. I opted for a used fender (drivers side) and hood to keep the car with OEM parts as much as possible. The front bumper will be the only part that is not OEM, due to cost. But if it doesn't fit well I will see about getting an OEM cover. But they are $$$$$$$.





This post has been edited by broderp: Dec 3, 2012 - 12:26 AM

[Box]

What a lovely colour! Depending on what you want to do with the front you can get it all repaired for well under $500, if you do all the work yourself. Sky is the limit. Can do the GT-Four conversion, JDM projectors, or both. Know you said original but they were OEM, just not for us.

[broderp]

What a lovely colour! Depending on what you want to do with the front you can get it all repaired for well under $500, if you do all the work yourself. Sky is the limit. Can do the GT-Four conversion, JDM projectors, or both. Know you said original but they were OEM, just not for us.

That was my intention- $500-600. Unfortunatly I can't weld. So I'm having a shop do it. I also grossly underestimated the cost of parts, most of which I can only get from Toyota. I have bought about $1000 in parts, and had every intention of doing it all myself until I realized all the structure in the front end is welded. The devil is in the details. What seems like 4-6 parts turns into 8-12 and then paint....painting is expensive and something else I can't do. I'm great with nuts and bolts and electrical. Not welding and painting. i' replaceing a lot of nuts and bolts, plastic inserts etc.. as well. I bought about 12 bumper retainer and another 10 or so plastic retainers .......$43. The details always cost. Unfortunately, I'm very anal about doing things "right".

I considered the GT-Four conversion, but the cost of parts was beyond what I wanted to spend.

I'm sinking about $3400 into fixing it. A LOT if it is labor and welding, and a paint job. ($900 for painting the front end )

But like I said, it was/ is a real CLEAN car and I do love the color.

This post has been edited by broderp: Dec 3, 2012 - 12:43 AM

[Box]

From the first picture it didn't look that bad.

[kurt95gt]

Welcome to the site man always great to see another member in Ohio .

[richee3]

Welcome to the site! It's great to see you fixing her up. She'll take you a lot farther than 136,000 on all the stock parts. It's too bad you didn't check here sooner, could've saved some money for all the parts. But the point is you're fixing her up and you're in the right place to learn everything you will ever need to know about these cars.

[broderp]

From the first picture it didn't look that bad.

Lol, thats exactly what I thought! (Hence my original estimate of $500-600.)

There was also the damage to the hood and fenders that occured when I was towing the car to my other home right after I replaced the windshield (about 30 minutes after the top picture was taken.) when I realized what happens when you forget to secure a hood on a moving car and travel down the road at 45 mph.....

Welcome to the site! It's great to see you fixing her up. She'll take you a lot farther than 136,000 on all the stock parts. It's too bad you didn't check here sooner, could've saved some money for all the parts. But the point is you're fixing her up and you're in the right place to learn everything you will ever need to know about these cars.

I Wish I knew of this site sooner! I found you guys after the 200th time searching for online celica parts manuals and a PICTURE of the parts manual you guys have here popped up under images on my browser. I was looking for the retaining clips that snap into the square holes on the lower 3 holes on each side of the fender. Searches and I don't get allong well.....

Now I'm looking here to figure out my headlight issues....I have damage to 3 of the 4, one is completely demolished and in pieces, the others have at least one broken tab. I have a set of JDMs I'd like to use (paid $250) for the set, but they have a few issues. The reflectors aren't as good as the buyer claimed and one may have an adjustment issue. So much for the "mint condition" they were being sold as! (ebayers beware! lol) but overall they are "good". Its a shame the lights I have are actually BETTER than these, but are broken. My attempt to make them all look the same is why I bought a set. I tried to buy a few here and there over the years, but they never looked right.

This post has been edited by broderp: Dec 3, 2012 - 7:16 AM

[richee3]

The JDM lights will flick light up into oncoming traffic. Not a big deal, but could be slightly annoying to other drivers. You can also boil a pot of water and stick the headlights in, lens down, to warm up the sealant and pull the lens and housing apart. Then you can use both headlights to make complete lights.

What bumper cover did you end up going with?

[Tigawoods]

great to have another purple celica in the mix!

Looked how mine did when I had first got her

[broderp]

great to have another purple celica in the mix!

Looked how mine did when I had first got her

Quite an interesting story in pictures you have. I think we all at some point go thru stages. My car is pretty much stock now, well at least OEM. I have 16" 7th Gen rims I sometimes put on, and I've had a Kendwood GPS unit in there as well with a backup camera. My Radio now is Toyota OEM, but a newer double din than what came with my car. I've never been a speed demon. I guess it because I'm old. lol

How hard was it to install the Fogs? I've scored a set, (White lens) but am waiting for my car to come back Wednesday from the shop to see about installing them. Looks like you can pretty much line them up in the openings and mark the holes in the bumper and just drill and install with self tapping bolts....right?

[kurt95gt]

Stock fog light?

[broderp]

I arrived a bit too late to see what I wanted today. I did take a few shots of the progress.

Here's my "OEM (used) hood getting sanded and primed. They tell me it will be painted tomorrow.


The bodyshop manager lifting up the covers so I can take a peek at my new support and all the new Bright Iris Pearl paint! (Just the other day these parts we black and not even welded on.


I went with an NON-OEM bumber cover (The only non-toyota part aside from the windshield.) the quality and flexability look pretty good. I hope it fits properly. I'll be a bit peeved if it looks like poo. It gets painted tommorow as well in a different booth.


Should be ready to go home Wednesday.....then I have to finish the detail work.....headlights and wiring for the JDM "City lights".

I have a few concerns about paint match and a few surface rust spots I noticed on the hood latch. I cant see them now, but I was told they were sanded and painted. I sure hope thats enough to keep it from rusting out in the future.....

[broderp]

Stock fog light?

Well, my 1995 Celica brochure stated my car (GT) came with fog lights, but I never seen a single 95 with OEM fogs. But YES, I am going to attempt to install "OEM" Stock fogs.

Here is the picture of the set I bought on eBay. They have a few issues I will like to address, but you can see the fogs. The brackets are a little dirty, but not rusted. I've already wired my car for fogs, just need to mount them. My issues are on less than perfect reflectors on the low beams and a damaged adjustor on one as well as a cracked tab on a high beam. (Not broken off yet)

[broderp]

The JDM lights will flick light up into oncoming traffic. Not a big deal, but could be slightly annoying to other drivers. You can also boil a pot of water and stick the headlights in, lens down, to warm up the sealant and pull the lens and housing apart. Then you can use both headlights to make complete lights.

What bumper cover did you end up going with?

Can you please elaborate on this headlight disassembly? I have so many lamps now. It would be a shame to install dull, faded headlights on an otherwise new front end.

Can you link me to instructions or does someone here do this for a decent fee? Maybe if they can come apart I can repair whats bad and make a real nice set or even polish up the reflectors.



Original Set:
RH Low beam-Perfect
RH High Beam- One broken tab
LH High Beam-smashed, a few useful internal parts
LH Low Beam- Three broken tabs (Can these be fixed???

Spare set
LH High Beam-a bit rough but functionhal
RH Low Beam-One broken Tab, OK condition

JDM Set
RH Low beam-adjustment issue (ball and socket joint broken), less than stellar reflector, may have had water in it.
RH High Beam- Perfect
LH High Beam-Perfect
LH Low Beam-less than stellar reflector.
RH & LH Fog lights and mounts-Very good to perfect.

[kurt95gt]

Ok there is stock mouning holes on the crash bar so all you need is 4 10mm bolts to put them on no need to drill your brand new bumper

[richee3]

The headlight disassembly is a bit intimidating but really isn't supposed to be too hard. Here's the writeup:

http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=66367

If at all possible, it would be best to use the USDM lenses, but it shouldn't be bad if one of the USDM lenses is smashed. The JDM highlights flick the light up like this:

(Note: This picture is from the projector cutoff, but all JDM headlights flick up like this.)

It's annoying to oncoming drivers but not terrible as long as you aren't using HID's. But if you take apart all four headlights, you can mix and match the best pieces from each.

This post has been edited by richee3: Dec 4, 2012 - 12:23 PM

[broderp]

Ok there is stock mouning holes on the crash bar so all you need is 4 10mm bolts to put them on no need to drill your brand new bumper

hmmm, I'll have to give it a real good look. If by crash bar youmean the square aluminum bumper, thenI do not recall seeing any exta holes (aside from the ones I made to install some projector fogs back in 1999.) lol But I really wasn't looking either.

Just the holes for the bumper retaining clips... I didn't see OEM fogs on celicas ntil they changed the front bumper..1996? 1997?

This post has been edited by broderp: Dec 4, 2012 - 1:48 PM

[broderp]

The headlight disassembly is a bit intimidating but really isn't supposed to be too hard. Here's the writeup:

http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=66367

If at all possible, it would be best to use the USDM lenses, but it shouldn't be bad if one of the USDM lenses is smashed. The JDM highlights flick the light up like this:

(Note: This picture is from the projector cutoff, but all JDM headlights flick up like this.)

It's annoying to oncoming drivers but not terrible as long as you aren't using HID's. But if you take apart all four headlights, you can mix and match the best pieces from each.

Well I have 2 good USDM lenses. The entire LH headlight is perfect. The RH has all 3 tabs boken. I guess thay can be taken apart and used as parts.

The JDM set I bought has the extra lamp in them I REALLY wanted to use as DTRL or as a light glow when not fully dark but the reflecotrs are a bit worn. (Love to see if I can redip them)

I'll have to read the link and see what can be done..... thanks for the info.

[kurt95gt]

They should be there
My 95 coupe has the holes for them but doesn't have the lights stock

[broderp]

Just got back from the garage. My car was in the booth. It had been painted and just sitting there doing what newly painted cars do..lol ...cure? harden? but wait til you see the color on this baby. I was REALLY impressed with the work from what I saw. It will be finished tomorrow, then I will have to assemble it back together after I wire in my new lights. Then I have to get it inspected....


I had almost forgotten how much I loved this color. I will really need to buff and clean the rest of the car to match this new front end. The garage says they checked and it matches the rest of the car, but I've got years of wax and dust that I will strip off to bring back to a like new shine. Shame there are a few paint chips here and there.....makes me want to get them all fixed.....but I'm broke after this car is done.




I'm going to cry the first stone chip this front end gets......