My new Celica ST205 GT4 Options

[alex1981]

Weeks later I went over to the bodyshop. It felt like seeing an injured relative in hospital. Felt like stroking it and saying "it will be fine, it is for your own good" (I did actually do that, but when the guy wasn't looking).

It seems that at some point it has been in a small knock at the front. Not a major impact, but enough to bend a few brackets and mis-align things slightly. So of course that has to be corrected before it goes back together - no point in doing an imperfect job. It had also cracked the bumper quite heavily - which was covered up by the side spats. Again...no one will ever see it as it's hidden, but it has to be fixed. Taking the bumper off also revealed that one of the oil coolers was held in by the pipes and nothing else. And the air feed pipe wasn't really doing anything as it was not meeting up with the air filter...all things that will be corrected.

It had been 7 weeks now it has been in the bodyshop at this point. I know the guy goes slow so am not too bothered...and it's partially because he has spotted lots of imperfections on the car on the way that would seem wrong not to correct (and we both have a similar mindset...if we spot something it simply has to be done).

A few little bits that are starting to take shape. You may remember the air duct (it would have originally been a fog light). Ungainly as it is held in with zip ties and there is a gap round it:



He has come up with this...has anyone else done something similar?:





And for the skirts. Well...it seems that whoever fitted them enjoyed applying filler. They have been broken in various places by the looks of it by poor fitting which has led to stress points as opposed to accident damage so they are filled with a ton of filler. That is all very well...but the filler hasn't really adhered to the skirt so instead of reinforcing it made it worse as basically being a dead weight pulling on the skirt. So much was applied that it has padded out the skirt making the fitment worse (and stress points exaggerated). He took the skirt off and this fell off:







Another few things which have been corrected. The panel gaps on the rear bumper was not right (I noticed it, but keep casting a blind eye, and didn't want to stress the guy out with so much work). But it the gap was winding him up each day when he passed it so that has been fixed. The petrol flap has never been quite right - it sits too far in on one corner, is misaligned causing the paint to rub and barely pops out when you pull the lever. As he pointed out if he was to leave it like that when he sprays it the fresh paint will rub/chip off when I use it. Using an extra spring and various bits and bobs it now sits flush, true and springs open correctly .

Front wing...just to show how much pitting it has (not that anyone has ever noticed!):



And the bonnet...ahhh my poor car hehe!:



It has also become apparent now that the rear spoiler has been taken off that it has been rubbing on the boot and has actually rubbed down to bare metal and created small rust patches. Bugger. I can't ignore that so that will be fixed as well. Sort out the rusty bits and perhaps instead of the spoiler being bolted directly to the boot was thinking perhaps some rubber sheet as a gasket - you will barely be able to see the gasket it but will stop it rubbing (and also the slight vibration that you get on idle).

It had been a while so I called him up! Issues :\ It is becoming clear that at some point in it's life it has been resprayed...and not very well.

He got a paint match from one of the doors assuming it was correct and used that to start spraying the front bits and skirts. Colour is noticeably different from other parts of the car. Took sample from inside of door (where it is assumed it has not been touched) and yup it's quite a different colour. Nooo! So who knows what paint they used but it's not right. In fact looking back through photos of the car you can see in certain light that it has two different shades...I always suspected this but thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. Different paint now ordered.

In various places paint has been sprayed on top of dust. Some parts have lacquer some do not. The most noticeable place is the roof (which is also the wrong shade of silver). I had an inkling when I was trying to polish the roof it simply does not shine...that will be why then! So the roof will be cut back and painted as well.

It has had a few bits and bobs repaired and to make it 'look right' it has been blown over with the second (wrong shade) of paint in some places but not all. Not prepped well and not much thought put into it. So now it is time to undo all that and make it right...will cost a few quid but oh well. So yeah it's basically having a full respray. Actually I think the only thing that is not getting painted, because it is unmarked and the original colour, is the rear bumper. Once the whole car is sprayed it will be obvious if that also needs paint.


Front bumper fixed and painted. Unfortunately in the wrong colour; There are over quite a few different shades of silver using the correct paint code. Lots of hours went into this - pics do not do it justice...there were bits hanging off, cracks, dents etc etc:





Dents taken out of roof:



And general body pics. As you can see it is now at the stage where it is getting a guide coat to find any high or low points:







Mid October at this point so I popped over to see how it was going. After conversations about what we would do when the computers take over and Margaret Thatcher we moved onto the car. It has had it's first light spray of colour. And then naturally mostly sanded back again. I'm not sure if the pictures do anything really but it really is looking smooth.



No more dents on the bonnet:



Rusty door bottoms? No more. The lips have been cut and re-created to near as damnit to the original. I can't even see it to be honest.





He noticed that the boot struts were a bit rusty. They have now been sanded, filled and sprayed because he could not let them "tarnish his work":



These...much prettier than they were before



So that is how it stands at the moment. I also got hold of a set of NOS wheels - exactly the same as mine but I thought it better to respray a perfect set than to mess about with mine which are a little untidy. I think I have decided on Peugeot Cossack Metallich Grey - it is a tad darker than what I had before and glossier.

[JoshuaM]

Wow, that's a lot of work! Have you given up and just ordered a full respray yet?

I wish I could afford to do mine - we don't rust over here but I have massive sun damage to the paint on the roof and small parking rings covering the rest of the car from the previous owner. Not to mention at least half a dozen partial resprays it would seem

That air duct looks very neat now also

[alex1981]

That must be irritating!

Yeah not much is being left untouched now. Ah well at least it will look good in the end.

[alex1981]

Got 6 new wheels (yes, 6, don't ask!) which only have delivery miles. Better to respray a decent set of wheels than a slightly battered set is my theory. Exactly the same wheels, but just new.



Paint is on! It is currently being polished and then it's re-assembly time. Only the bonnet and roof had been polished at this point.









I am really happy with it so far. There are a few little blemishes...but when you consider that there were, literally, hundreds of dents, pitting, rust, bumps etc. I think he has done a superb job. Really superb - I was actually quite taken back by it to see my car in one colour and so smooth to the touch - nice to actually have some lacquer on it too! Looks much "deeper" if that's a word for it.

[alex1981]

Oh I should have said I have also put an order in with Tim @ TBD for a forged build .

CP Forged Pistons TBDev Spec
Eagle Conrods
ARP Head Studs
ARP Main Studs TBDev Spec
King Race Bearings TBDev Spec (Mains, Rod and Thrust)
Ferrea +1mm Oversized Valves
Vernier Pulleys £100-160
264 Duration Cams - not sure what brand I am going for yet.
SPEC Stage 3+ Clutch
Metal head gasket

Standard stuff I suppose. Of course will be built with Genuine Toyota parts when it comes to water pump, oil pump etc. Using one of the JDM warranty replacement later blocks