6G Celicas Forums

That stuff scratches and peels like crazy when you clean a wheel. Plus touch ups if you curb a rim are hell. Looks great though lol if you're going to paint it, use the index cards and get a touch up spray gun with paint and hardener or a 2K can of paint and clear. The 2k will chip if you curb it so get rim guards , they're little slippery rubber things that stick on the edge of your wheel and saves it a majority of the time

I've renamed your car Pooky, live with it. If it were me I'd have started with suspension, either quality springs and struts or a quality coil-over set. When you have a car like this that's not powerful you're better off focusing your time and money on handling. Various braces are honestly the last step, coil-overs and sway bars will make the biggest improvement and one that's definitely noticeable. Not sure about in the UK, but the Megan EZ Street is the least expensive quality coil-over set for about $600. Anything like the various air intakes, header, exhaust etc... Won't do much of anything but make more noise. The engine in most Celicas are economy engines, either 1.8L 7A-FE or 2.2L 5S-FE. The FE being Toyota's designation for economy heads, and GE for performance. Those like the SS-III with the BEAMS 3S-GE and the GT-Four with its 3S-GTE are the only real performance engines. Not trying to discourage you in anyway, just trying to educate you so you can make informed decisions with your (assumed due to age) limited budget. Focus on style and handling and I'm sure you'll be happy with your Celica for years to come. Also be careful with rims, as a heavy one will deaden the feel of the car due to its lower power. I ran the OEM 14" alloys on mine and it would spin the tires and chirp into second. One good cheap mod is the Megan (or whoever) 7th gen short shifter, won't really make it faster but it improves the feel of shifting greatly. I think that about covers it, plenty of information here in the forum and I always try to help out with any questions that get posted. So welcome and enjoy your stay!