Chino's Swap/Progression Thread, My journey Options

[Chinosan89]

Hey all its been awhile since I posted anything about my car. To start from the beginning as a recap. I bought a 94 GT and decided I was going to do a motor swap. After a couple months I sourced out a clip in Canada and had it shipped to me. Spent a little extra time pulling the motor and making sure everything was clean and perfect before I threw it on to the GT. Spent a couple months on the GT (prepping it for the swap) and all of a sudden I get into a collision. Luckily the motor had not been swapped yet, but the GT was totaled. The sad part was, was that I bought it with the ST205 hood and bumper on it, so there goes about $1000 bucks ish in JDM parts. So later I bought a Celica that already had an ST215 motor in it. Car was a rocket, it was awesome and felt so nice. However I still had the ST205 motor sitting in my garage and I wasn't satisfied with that. So after 8 months of owning the ST215, I sold it to a close friend who gave me what I paid for the car plus his Celica ST (AT200) as a donor car. And that my friends is where the story starts. Sorry for the long and boring intro.

First GT

Wrecked GT


This post has been edited by Chinosan89: Mar 29, 2014 - 12:36 PM

[Chinosan89]

Clip


Motor Inside the Clip, so CLEAAN



Motor Again



Parts For the motor

New Clutch



Polished Intake Mani



Polished CT20B



Ceramic Coated Heat Shield



DownPipe



This post has been edited by Chinosan89: Mar 29, 2014 - 12:43 PM

[Chinosan89]

New Celica with ST215 Swap which I sold to a close friend, I did rims, riser blocks as well as clear turns on it myself.

[Chinosan89]

Alright Sorry for all the pics, I felt it was necessary haha. But to begin the real project. My friend gave me a donor ST, it was bone stock. I don't have any pics of the stock ride but i'm sure you all know what a 94 ST looks like. I threw a GT four Hood, bumper and riser blocks on it right away.





Then I ordered some door sills…cuz why not, it adds like 10 hp right?

[Chinosan89]

Then I started working on the hood….The hood had hail damage so I just tried a cheap fix. The hail damage was ridiculous, it took me two weeks to finish. My other option was to overspend on a new hood….yeah not gonna do that when I have a working one. I didn't get rid of all the damage but it looks 85% better haha.







Primmed with a can

[Chinosan89]

Next I started working on the body. Had a few minor dents in it but nothing too crazy. I've always wanted a white celica so I did just that. Sanded the car down to primer and bondo'd all the visible dents. Oh and BTW installed some JDM fenders which came with the clip might I add

















Next I started with the door trimming, trunk trimming, and engine bay trimming. You guys are probably wondering why I didn't swap first and then paint. I didn't want the clean motor to get paint in it, Plus I can always take off hood bumper and fenders.

[Chinosan89]

Then I prepped my garage for my first paint job. I made sure I did a lot of research before I started painting. Borrowed a gun, had a leaking air compressor and the lighting was crap, but meh. I was penny pushing. Masked off the windows and wiped down the car with a tack cloth.

[Chinosan89]

Primed! Now it was my first time with a gun so it was terrible haha. The setting on the gun was awful, there was a ton of overspray EVERYWHERE. By the time I was done, the primer was so rough it felt like sand paper haha. I think I had too much air and not enough primer going out or vise versa, I don't remember. But all i know is, I had to resand the entire car to make sure the base coat layer on smooth haha such a noob.





Hood was already primed so I just masked it with some plastic

[Chinosan89]

BOOM! Base coat, honestly a lot easier to lay on. Just seeps right in. Plus it helped that I overly F**ked up on the primer haha learn from mistakes right?
I just went with super white, because its a brilliant white and it hurts my eyes when I wax, so I like that.



Bumper was sprayed separately, I wanted to see all the detail on the bumper up close so it was easier that way.

[Chinosan89]

The clear coat was a pain in the ass. Honestly it was the hardest part of the paint job. The enamel itself almost killed me even though I had a mask on. And I had 1 or 2 bugs that got in and died and stuck to it. I would have felt bad for killing those bugs but they LANDED ON MY CAR!!! How dare they die there! I also had a tiny tiny run towards the bottom of the car which I freaked out a little bit about. Ugh when clear coat runs, there's no turning back. And it was sooo sticky. I had newspaper and hoses stick to the bottom of my feet as I was trying to walk around the car. Oh and my jeans grazed a tiny corner of the rear bumper as I was applying the coat and it ripped off the lint and stuck to the car! I was so upset about that haha

[Chinosan89]

I let the car sit in the garage for a couple days just so the paint would semi cure and then I took it outside for it to get some air. Didn't drive it for a week. I had some slight orange peel but overall it turned out satisfying to me. It's not the perfect paint job but hey with a leaking air compressor, bad lighting, a home made booth, and a novice, I wasn't too upset about it. Plus it only costed me $400 bucks vs the $2200 I was quoted. I planned on painting the bay with a can after I pull the motor. But this was the car taken out to air dry for a little. I threw some projector head lights on there while it was doing that. No sense in not seeing how they look am I right? haha



Oh I forgot I bought some clear side markers for the JDM fenders! 0.o Excited about that haha











My buddy came over to help me with some stuff. Look its my old car in the background!



I did the side mirrors separately and I got lazy so I didn't drive with them on for about a month hahaha



Black celi on the left is my DD. Idk if you can tell whether or not I like 6gc's….but…yeah they are pretty cool haha

[Chinosan89]

Car is painted and stood next to my old car! How exciting! We now have two celica's with ST205 bodies in my area!!! XD I'll be posting about the motor swap here soon, gotta upload the pics. Still to today I haven't buffed the car at all. Still looks good, but I'll get to that when I do more research about it. I don't wanna mess up buffing, that could be bad. But whoever reads this, feel free to poke fun at me for anything I did wrong haha. I'll post more pics of the swap later on







Threw some rims on there too. Those stock ST wheels are awful. OOOOHHH and I got some Kouki Tails…sorry I'm trying to get all the details but I keep skipping a couple here and there…







OOOHHH and I tinted my windows too! I forget that I've done some work on the car.

[enderswift]

Fantastic progress, and props for tackling a paint job on your own!

[The_enD]

Car looks great, you did a nice job painting it yourself, saving up for more important things.

[mkernz22]

Looks great! I hope you put more than one coat of clear on her though. That would have added more depth to the paint as well as remove some of the minor blemishes in the clear because you would wet sand between coats.

You don't want to buff for a few months, hell, I don't think I buffed and waxed mine until a year or so after she was painted.

[Chinosan89]

Ha yeah, I had just enough for 2 or 3 coats I don't remember, but good to know! Still scared to do it haha. I wanted to make sure I could still buff it if need be. But yeah thanks guys! I've got some more progress I'll throw up on here I am just looking for the pics!

[Red123]

nice progress. Paint job

[cheela]

well, you messed up by selling your swapped celi. hahaha.

looks good though. love budget builds. paint came out nice.

[rave2n]

Wow, looks great!

[eMrock32]

Yeah I think a little bit more clear coat and it would be perfect. Hood gap looks a hair off, but dont listen to me, totally envious of your handy work. I can only do a bumper and it would take 5 days to paint lol. Looks really good for doing it yourself.

MOAR!