6G Celicas Forums

This is how my story goes. My name is Mike Kern and I live up in MA. I'm only 17 years old and I will be turning 18 in November. This is my second car because I totaled my first one in a snow storm. I'm scared as hell to drive in the snow ever since I lost control and hit a telephone pole. This is my first time ever working on a car this in-depth, and I thought it was going to be really hard to fix, but I took the challenge.
My first car was an Acura Legend. I loved the car for the way it drove. It was just very comfortable and there were a lot of features to the car. That's mainly because it was a luxury car back in the day. The suspension I didn't like because if I took an off ramp at 40mph, the car would nearly tip over because the suspension was that loose. It got up and going very fast, that's because it's a V6 and had 200hp.
My Acura Legend went from this:


To this:

I sold it to some guy for $550 or $500. Not bad I guess.
Then I saved up over a month or two and found this baby on Craigslist for $1500.

^Only upgrade I had in that picture was the aftermarket fogs.
I got the seller down to $1200 so I think it was a steal!
Originally, I was skeptical about getting it cause of the rust, but when I drove it, I knew she was a winner.
My dad didn't want me to get a coupe cause they are not great in the snow, but he could tell I really wanted it.
I had her for a few months, about 4 to 5 I'll say, and I didn't do any upgrades at all to her.
Then, one lovely day on my way to work, disaster struck...


At first, my mom and dad were telling me to scrap her, and I was like no.
I told them about this forum, and how there are so many useful resources, and that I know I can rebuild the front end of her.
So I did, whether they doubted I could do it or not.
It started off with the tear down, which was oh so very fun.




At one point I can say I had a reverse opening hood haha


After that I just kept tearing her down more and more.



Eventually, I got a new window installed and it was free cause insurance covered it.


Then I acquired this bad boy from a guy in Mansfield for $450!



Finally, the two Celicas meet face to semi face lol



I had originally gone to the junk yard to slowly get parts for my car. That is why the red radiator support is on.
Soon after I got the Silver Celica. I spent about $200 there so my total came to $650 for everything.
Slowly, but surely, the swap started progressing!




Just did some mocking up to make sure it was going to be ok.



I got a new exhaust and intake with the car as well!

^Installed

^Not installed yet.

Some pictures of me cutting out the radiator support on the Silver Celica.









Some pictures of me lining the radiator support up onto my car!




I bolted down the radiator support, on both of the sides by the fenders with two bolts and on both the middle legs with a good amount of bolts as well.
I started installing some more parts on the front end little by little.



I also replaced the fuse box cover because it had a decent size hole in it from the crash.



Here is how the front of the car is as of right now. I don't have any recent pictures, but I'll be getting some soon
In the picture the front bumper and hood are just mocked up, nothing is bolted down.




I have some goodies coming my way right now so I'll put them up as I receive them!
Right now I'm saving up for a paint job. I am hoping that will happen in late October or early November.
I'm looking to just get a Midnight Black, but Manny said he might be able to throw a small amount of Blue Pearl in it so it glistens in the sun
I'll keep you all updated!

What I'm so pumped for is that I just convinced my dad that a manual swap will probably cost less than getting tires for the 18" rims off my parts car. WIN!
So that will go down this spring as well as swap out the 5s from the parts car (126k) into my car (214k).
I would love to save for a 3s over the winter, but I think that just learning how to drive stick on an N/A car will be easier.

This post has been edited by mkernz22: Jan 31, 2013 - 8:14 PM

....I know the feeling

The worst is when you're an addict, but you're broke

which is how i am right now lol cause I'm saving week by week for this car.
I gave him a despot like 3 or 4 weeks ago and I'll have the rest of the money on thursday haha

So i realized my car has been guzzling a quart or so of oil about every 2 to 3 months, maybe less? I don't have blue smoke and it doesn't smell like it is burning anything. Also, there is something leaking on the ground, but I found out that it is the tranny liquid cause it was a sparkly red, which was the color that of the stuff I put in. I'm wondering where it could be going then? If someone could help me out, I would appreciate it!

This post has been edited by mkernz22: Oct 17, 2010 - 6:40 PM

Is your valve seals and maybe piston rings. Same thing happens to me and plenty of other members. You're lucky, when I was driving 23 miles to and from work everyday, I'd go through a quart every 2 weeks. It's gotten better though.

well the good thing is that I'm putting the engine from my '97 in, but I'm thinking that I should get the valve seals and some other gaskets changed out before I drop it in. And actually it might be a lot less than 2 months cause I just remembered that my dad put another quart in last weekend. sh1t. ummmmmmmmmmm, so that was only like 3ish weeks before I first added some.

Yeah bro, it's already coming out, you might as well spend the extra money for a light rebuild. Gaskets, seals, water pump. I highly recommend it.

Yeahh, I'm definitely doing the water pump as well as the T-belt and a light rebuild. I'd rather be safe than sorry after the swap

x2!! Haha Good luck Mike

Great work you're doing!!!

Thank you both!

i hate curbs!
I was on my way to school and i was almost late so i went around a car and thought i had plenty of room in between the car and the curb...
but no, my back rim hit it, and the car jumped out a little. I got to school and took a look and it wasn't that bad, but i roughed up the lip on half of the rim and the tire had a small 1/8th inch slice in it. no seams showing, thank god. the rubber is still on where the slice it cause it didn't take the whole chunk off so I might just get some black silicone or glue, put it on, and make it look like normal.

Hopefully it's still structurally intact!

it didn't lose any pressure while i was in school (about 6 hours) and there's no hissing so it should be all set! haha
no more drifting in the dirt for me, or the snow in the winter i don't want to mess it up

JDM tails.

I know Dustin, I know.

Those look great on there Mike, I put mine on last weekend and forgot how much of the rear mirror's view it blocks.. (had them on my old hatch few years back) you notice any difficulty seeing out the back now?

Thanks! haha I want to get a CF hood or mirrors so that they're not the only CF part on my car.
I can see out of it pretty well though lol
It's harder to see very far back into the distance, but when a car is up close I can actually see most of the car. Before I put them on it would usually cutout the headlights or the hood of a car. I've gotten use to them being on there now though!

so...yeah....

little bit of an update...

hmm, how do i say this?....

























































Going to look at another Celica tonight! Woo!

This post has been edited by mkernz22: Nov 4, 2010 - 4:48 PM