The teenage budget 1973 Celica ST

[hackrtanman]

Damn dude, this reminds me of my build, not enough people commenting!
Awesome progress though, keep it up man, and good luck with the rust.

Hey thanks, I just spent a good 15 minutes looking at your Toyota build, then saw you sold and was all like "He don't have no build whats he talkin' 'bout"

Then I found your Bimmer. Damn. You better be happy I spent half an hour or so of what I should have been spending on my goddamn english essay. But, the whole time I was smiling, totally worth it.

And anyways, thanks! Right now I don't expect many people to comment, I kinda bit off more than I could chew, especially with it being junior year and having absolutely no time to do anything. Once I get the breaks done, I expect lowering will be next.

[Rinku-Bitch]

Damn dude, this reminds me of my build, not enough people commenting!
Awesome progress though, keep it up man, and good luck with the rust.

[hackrtanman]

Still no low

Okay, it's been a while since I have posted on here, and I am lagging wayyyy too far behind. Therefore, this is going to be a large update. WITH PICTURES

OKAY. So I left off at working on the brake hoses and front end work. Since then, I have stripped the undercoating from the drivers side wheel well and am going to work on the passenger side soon, Took the calipers and disks off to be ground down and rebuilt, redid some electrical, adjusted the carburetor to optimal settings, and painted the headlight buckets and surrounds. There has been more but I cannot remember all since.

Wheel wells and Mud protectors:
Heat gun and knife, all came off easily. Maybe tomorrow before the storm comes I will shoot it with primer to get it ready for the undercoating, maybe not. It looks a whole lot better than I was worried about, it was mainly just surface rust but a few spots of nasty crust. :bawling:



Brakes:
Christmas has come early! A week ago or so I ordered my parts from rock auto, they came in speedy time. I am still waiting for the drivers side caliper to be rebuilt, the passenger I am keeping because nothing is wrong with it and I may need a spare sometime anyways.




Also, yesterday I went up to Snohomish to pick apart a '76 Celica at wrecking yard (All About Auto Wrecking, there is an add on Craigslist). Not much was left, but most of it I didn't need anyways. I did happen to get CLEAN and RUST FREE outer window/door seals, the upper seals which were in good condition, and the passenger side lower door seal; All of which I was desperately needing. Mine looked like somebody torched them. I also snagged the buckets thinking that if they didn't fit, I could sell them again, but they work fine.


Top is old, bottom is new. Big difference.


I am having a hard time opening my drivers side door, I'm pretty sure that the rod connecting the handle to the lock is broken because I can see far enough in there to where it doesn't look like it is moving at all. Getting the door card off is a bit hard, as the door is closed shut. I am going to need to take it off anyways to oil everything up in there anyways, everything is sliding pretty rough.

That's it for now, In three weeks I am having two weeks off from school (Finally) Which means I should get quite a bit of work done, including brakes. I really hope to have it driving by late January, all I really need now is seats and the brakes done. As for seats, I may try and retrofit some E28 buckets in that are in a 5 series at a gas station sitting. There are the same spacing as far as length, but about 1 or 2 inch's wider than the mounts.

12/5/13
As with everywhere else, it is pretty much below freezing all day. Not quite average for Seattle. Not really much I can do in freezing weather, as most involves primer and paint. I am waiting for the drivers caliper to be rebuilt and returned and the rotors to be ground down. Soon.

[hackrtanman]

Well this past week has been downright Sh**. But, whats better than ordering all of your brake parts!

The past few days I have stayed away from my computer and hid away in my garage. Painted my passenger side headlight bucket and parts of the drivers, but I think it might be shot, its really bent. That whole side it really bent. I also took the undercoating off of the metal thingies that attach to the fender and chassis, going to POR-15 them soon, along with a few more spots. Also cleaned up my work area.

As for other news, my drivers side door won't open. I don't know if it's the lock or if the internal mechanism, but I'm just going to pull the door card anyways.

Finally, I think I'm going to try and fit some BMW E28 seats into the drivers and passenger side. I took the rails off, and from what I say as far as measurements online, they aren't too far off. That's it for now.

Yeah sorry, no pictures this time

[hackrtanman]

Yeah, no kidding!

Alright, today was the first day I actually could do anything, the past week it was completely foggy, every single day, and there was also some rain. Everywhere else besides Vashon, in the Puget Sound Area, got lucky. Ran up to the lumber yard, got some miscellaneous bolts and nuts, then set off. Also some tubing.

Redid the rubber MB cylinder hoses wit new ones, and I also remade my throttle linkage. Don't have any pictures right now, but I used 1/4 inch think steel I think, maybe 1/8 inch.

Decided our relationship wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, so I decided to strip her naked and spice things up!

I'll let the pictures do the explaining, but all that went down was fender removal, headlight removal, all the front fascia, sanding, priming, yada yada.

























Also, our Sienna just decided to turn on the check engine light. Boo.

[hackrtanman]

Nothing too exciting, just drained tank completely after I found out it was empty, fixed headlights hopefully for sure, and found somemore electrical problems. Woo. Someone put a 4A fuse in a 20A Cig lighter and 20A's in 15A's. No Bueno.

Gonna do some rust repair, and HOPEFULLY after I do the brakes in the next few weeks, as it is alive now, I can slap some bitchen 150 dolla wheels on. Weeoo. Coilovers too. Maybe. Just Maybe. Okay Hopefully.

[hackrtanman]

Hey, the hose to carb is most likely the carb heat to prevent carb ice or a heat operated choke.


I'll ask The guys at the snowboard factory if they'd sell parts off that Celica. I used to work there a few years back and I still know a few guys there. Chances are I could trade beer for parts.

By the way, did some research on Mervin and found some pictures of the Celica. I assume this is the most recent one, someone jacked the front bumper and valence. Oh well, there might be some other parts I could use, If I can get through to them.

[hackrtanman]

tons of potential here. i love these all done up with bumper mounted oil coolers. just something about it. i had an AE86 but sadly i sold it before PCSing to my current duty station. shoulda kept it. keep on keepin on and dont give up like i did man. cant wait to see it finished!

Thanks! Sorry about the '86, I love those. Thought about getting one before the Celica, actually. And yes, this car will not disappear into the depths of unfinished cars; It will be done!

[chucksmith]

tons of potential here. i love these all done up with bumper mounted oil coolers. just something about it. i had an AE86 but sadly i sold it before PCSing to my current duty station. shoulda kept it. keep on keepin on and dont give up like i did man. cant wait to see it finished!

[hackrtanman]

IT RUNS! After probably a year and a half, if not more or sitting, it started up first crank, and it WANTED to run.

Basically I took everyone's advice from here and everywhere and messed around with the Distributor. All I did was set the wheel exactly to TDC compression, marked and pulled the distributor, then set it to plug one. Before I reset it, it was a quarter turn delayed from where it should be.

Stupid people.

Nah, actually, what I think happened was the owner 3 before me had it all apart in many places, then slapped it together for a sale, considering that it is missing half the bolts and some of them weren't right or tight.

As of right now, here is my order of operation:
-Get a few holes and patches welded up, such as the seat mount and the floor pan.
-get all the wiring figured out, along with some mechanical
-get some front seats, then prime and bed line the floor and trunk
-Brakes. Don't even ask about the fluid and the lines. Don't
-Finally, the big ticket items such as wheels, flares and spoiler, paint

The first few items should be quick and easy, and I expect wheels by At least November, hopefully October if I am lucky

[hackrtanman]

Today I got points, a condenser, cap, rotor, and some fuel line and filter. Installed those, gapped it correctly, but still not start, so it is most likely the timing. The only problem is that I am having trouble finding the marker on the timing cover, but I have found them on the pulley. Probably gonna work on that tomorrow, and then hope to god it runs tomorrow.

I am also gonna need to replaced some of the brake lines, as they are rubber and are leaking. No bueno.

[hackrtanman]

Hello once again, A few days ago I got the carb adapter in the mail, tried fitting it and the PCV Valve hose was in the way. After I finally figured out that I can just loosen it a bit, I managed to squeeze that and the Weber on. So awkward trying to get the bolts on, but I managed to, and tight also. Charged the battery once again, put the key in and it turned over. No start. Pulled a plug out and laid it on the valve cover, which helped me see that it is in fact trying, but not correctly. After fiddling around with the distributor, I managed to get it to backfire.

Cool.

Not quite what I was looking for, but hey, it's tryin'. Looks like we've gotta adjust the timing, but after trying to find the marking on the flywheel for TDC, we have no idea where it is. It is no where to be seen. Anyways, I will hopefully have a video of it running sometime soon! Still tryin to find parts, also.
Thanks, Tanner

[keeton]

Love these.

[hackrtanman]

A Message To Everyone

Quick word of advice that I am sure everyone knows: Don't half-ass anything. Today I was looking at the car some more and one of the previous owners decided it would be cool to put in half the bolts needed and not plug in many of the electrical cables. That's what I was doing, fixing their poor job.

So, in short,

Don't be stupid

[MasonCaster]

As for the trunk spots, we are probably gonna just cut out the spare wheel well then make it flush, either riveting a patch on or finding someone to weld it on.

If I we got a hold of a welder, my dad could probably hook you up.