6G Celicas Forums

So I figured I should make a thread about my rescued '94 GT-S Celica ST204. Here goes.

I bought her in November of 2010 to replace my old child, a built 1999 Toyota Camry LE.

She was my baby for 4 years. I put tons of money into her, seeing as I got her for free from my aunt. She came in terrible condition and was not loved when I received her. I rebuilt her, put in eibach pro suspension, a full 2" SS exhaust, bored out the pistons and replaced with larger ones, ect. I absolutely loved her, as did my friends and a few shop guys that race cars that I know through work. She was killed by a guy running a red in September of 2010.


So after accepting her loss, and receiving a $5,300 insurance check... I set off for another under loved child. I don't believe in buying new cars, nor do I believe in buying anything American in relation to cars. I searched the newspaper, I searched the internet... finally I found an app on my iPod that was "Cars.com." After searching on there, I decided I really wanted either a Prelude, a Integra GS-R, a Civic Si/EX, or a Celica. All the cars I went to see were either too expensive or were not as advertised.

Finally I cam across this little white gem. The car was listed for $2,800, power everything, 6 speaker stereo, GT model and best of all, 5 speed. So I went to have a look. There I found her, in a field, next to a house and she looked like she had been sitting for at least a year. Grass was growing into her miss-matched tires, dirt covering her exterior, dust all over her inside.... she was a mess. I asked to have a seat in her and to see if she started. I opened the door and sat down, instantly falling in love with the craftsmanship, the side hugging seats, and the feel of the leather wrapped steering wheel in my hands. I turned the key and instantly (the owner hadn't started her in over 6 months) she shook to life. I was greeted by dust blowing out of the vents as she roared from the hole behind her lower cat converter. I could tell she would be a trouble maker, but still, I was intrigued. I popped the hood to have a look at the 5S-FE, an engine I learned very well in my Camry.

First off, I spotted the normal usage signs. Leaking valve cover, old plug wires, dirty, oily, hairline cracked radiator, and an acid covered 34 series battery (mind you it's not facing the right way, wrong sized battery that had no hold down and didn't sit in the pan flat). She was a tad rusty, but still cleaner than most of the Celica's in Rochester.

I told the owner that I would have to think about it, and we shut her down and closed her up. I left that day to go home and talk to my dad about what he thought of it.

I returned a day after to see that the owner had cleaned her up, vacuumed out her interior and she looked fabulous. I gave the owner an offer of $1,800 cash because I knew the amount of work I would have to put into her. The owner wouldn't have it and I left once more.

That night I had a dream about the car... I awoke in the morning, wanting to take her for a drive and went back once more to talk to the owner. This time I had $2,500 cash with me, in hand, in case I really couldn't leave without her. We opened her up and turned her on. I took off in her, feeling her torque, her bite... I fell in love. I couldn't get out of her and decided to buy her. I told the owner that I won't pay more then $2,500 for her and that I have the cash in hand. The owner agreed and signed her over to me. I then returned home without her one last time to go to the DMV and get everything processed. The next day I went back, picked her up, and drove her home.

On the way home, well thats when she started to complain. At 60 she started to shake, making a weird rattling sound in the rear. I stopped at a gas station to fill her up and inspected my tires. The tires were 3 of one size, 1 of a smaller size and they all were cracked and weathered. I figured the owner put old tires on just to get rid of the car and knew I'd have to get new tires anyway, so it didn't bother me. So I went to fill her up. Half way through filling up, she started to make a really bad smell. The fuel filler neck was cracked and rusted to hell on the bottom. Fuel was dripping out as I filled her. Oy... she started to look like a nightmare.

I had the owner fix the fuel neck, which they agreed to, and footed the $200 bill from Toyota.

This is a picture the day after I got her (pre new fuel filler neck):

Finally started to get things fixed up on her and got some more shots via cellphone:







Then winter hit. I put new tires on her, Hankook Winter iPike 195/55/R15's (best grip in snow I've ever had. This car is a wonderful winter car.) I couldn't do more than that due to the weather so it was a cold long wait until the weather broke. I did manage to get my HID's in before the storm hit, and my yellow 9005 high beams. I managed to snap a pretty cool pic during a heavy winter storm too:



Then I found some smoke Depo lenses on eBay for a good price and popped those in (while freezing my butt off) and fixed my faulty washer pump as well. (Try driving in salty Rochester during the winter with no washer pump)


Finally winter came to an end and I re-did the breaks. I knew she leaked oil, but the leak seemed to get worse after the winter. I looked around and only saw it on the valve cover, so I changed that. I had done it twice before on the Camry, so I knew it would be an easy job. Wrong. I got the cover off and saw this:


What a mess! The engine had so much sludge in it. Even my Camry with 216k miles was cleaner than this! Apparently the owner never changed the oil...
So after a little scraping, I decided I should paint it while it's off too in order to accent the lines.





I fixed the top leak, but for some reason, she still continued to drip oil. So I jacked her up and had a good luck after the winters fury. Man was she wet underneath... The back side of the engine was covered, the oil pan was leaking around the seal, and it seemed like the oil was dripping out of the timing cover too. The owner said that they changed the timing belt not too long ago... so wouldn't they have changed the seals too? Nope. We got the covers off, looked inside and it was a huge mess. Oil was everywhere. It was also gunked up on the camshaft pully, showing how long the thing had been sitting with oil dripping down on it. We then replaced all the seals, the timing belt, the components (the tensioner had the wrong spring on it and the timing belt was flopping around inside) and put her back together. FINALLY the drip stopped.

Then the weather got nicer, so I decided to have a go at resurfacing my rusty, pitted, old rims:
Before:

After:


Then a noise started coming from the rear. I jacked her up again, and it seems that the bushings in the rear adjustable arms are going. You can grab the wheel and clunk it up and down. Dealer wants $300 for the two (and thats wholesale due to my connections through work). So thats a soon to do project of mine.

I had to cut my secondary cat out because of the break. I welded her up once, but she broke again so I just had enough and cut her out and fitted in some pipe as a temporary solution while I save up for that exhaust I've been dreaming about.

Work I want to do to her in the future includes:

• Exhaust - Manifold back
• Suspension - Eibach Sportline springs, Koni struts, full energy suspension urithane bushings
• JDM Projector headlights
• JDM Front and rear splitter, sideskirts
• Decent JDM style "chunky" rims
• 3S-GE BEAMS Red Top swap
• JDM 94-95 foglights

More pictures of what I have done to date:














So far I have put in:

• Injen SRAI w/Spectre open ended filter
• NGK Wires and Iridium IX plugs
• ST205 rear strut support bar
• REAL TRD Carbon fiber shifter knob
• Carbon fiber hand break handle
• Electric Oil pressure guage by Sunpro
• Red LED lighting all over the dash
• Normal maintainence items including: Break cables, breaks, dis cap, rotor, seals, battery, starter, waterpump, timing belt, Energy Suspension rear sway bar bushings

I have a long way to go. Money is the largest issue right now.

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Jan 19, 2013 - 7:17 PM

lnice work on that rust dude and hey better now then later on i gotta change my clutch on my st by this week too supposely we r gona have snow soon >_>

Lol It snowed a couple nights ago while I was in the garage working on the celica.

Car's been on jack stands for a week now. I decided I wanted to fix the hand brake before the snow hits... so I go to take the caliper off and the bracket bolts break... all of them. Drilling them out of the brackets would have taken time and money and new hardware to rebuild the calipers was just as expensive as buying new ones. So I just dropped $200 on new calipers and got them in. I painted them and put new (dealer bought) bolts back in the and put new rotors and pads on. Painted the rotors as well.

Now it's time to finish up the little things with the rear and start on the front. I also need to take the heat plate off my alternator and paint that to match the engine. Oh and pop out my washer pump and warranty it at the dealer. Oh! And put a new dizzy o-ring in. Man I've got my hands full the next couple days.

Finished the brakes! I'll get some fresh pics in the morning when it stops raining of the car down with wheels on, but for now... this is the progress:
Fronts started like this:


Ended like this:


Rear:



Hover car!!!


I finally have a garage to work in


This primer works great on the calipers or anything rusty (undercar chassis parts)




Also paint matched the new alt's heat shield to my valve cover:




Finished the Spree LED install:






More pictures as I find them. I took them on 3 different cameras including my phone rofl.

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Nov 29, 2011 - 9:07 PM

How do you like the spree kit? The red looks nice :-)

beautiful progress. love the SPREE kit.
i have mine half installed. still need the HVAC lights.

I love it. The kit has been a build since the summer. I just kept adding things to it and ordering more led's lol.


The HVAC isn't fun... but when it's done, it's well worth it.

I'll be tackling the rust on my doors with a new "rust infuser" product that I'll give feedback on when I finish. Trying to get this damn thing fully rust proofed before winter, but things keep happening. I think my rear wheel bearings are going too

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Nov 29, 2011 - 9:17 PM

Giving up on the TC wheels. I've been looking at them and I don't think I'll like them as much as I thought I would.

So, here's to new ideas.

One I'm thinking of:

I want a gold rim. I really like how the gold looks against the white on our cars and these are nice chunky ones. I especially like the lip on them.

What I really want are these:

I just got tc rims an love them

i'd suggest some engine work before you drop 2g's on those rims. i found the listing on ebay. definitely not worth it.

when you get those rims let me know because Im looking to get rims for spring! also because we both live in NY it wouldnt be too bad to meet up.

Yeah, I'm not going to drop 2k on rims. I'd rather drop $600 on cams before that. It's just wishful thinking. I may get the Drag one-piece clones that I have pictured up above because I can get them with Yokohama S-Drives for just under 1k. Or I can do these Konigs: http://www.discounttiredirect.com/product/...onfea.g.ang.jpg for just over a grand with the Yokohama's.

I'm thinking I'd rather go with the Konig's being that I trust that brand and I don't want FAKE two piece rims.




I want to get something going locally. There are a few guys here that own 6GC's that I'd like to meet up with. There is a good meet place up at the beach where all the import crowd shows up in the spring through fall. Usually sat nights.

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Dec 5, 2011 - 1:43 PM

Updates; photos of what I've done the past few weeks:

Here is how the calipers look:




I changed my dizzy o-ring yesterday... it was def leaking from it and when I pulled it off, the thing cracked and fell in half in my fingers.



(Always make a mark so you know where it should be when re-installing it so you don't have to re-time)

Because Toyota is smart, the make a notch to show you the placement of the rotor on re-install.


The car made a mark for me lmao:


Last but not least, a video showing a bit of what I've done to it:

(Has mostly exhaust noise and intake noise. I love how this thing sounds with an intake. I removed the second cat, otherwise it's stock exhaust)

Really love the look of that spree LED kit mate. How long do you think it's taken you to install that? You think it's something that I could accomplish in a couple of days?

Keep up the great work, this little Celi is getting some awesome treatment!

Hope to have my celica look as clean as yours one day

It took me the longest on the HVAC. I'd say do the easy stuff first (gauges, clock, key ring, ash tray and cig lighter) in one night. Then the next day do the HVAC. The look of the lights on the dash and whatnot will motivate you to finish it. The HVAC is a little of a pain in the ass... but the end result is well worth it.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask along the way. The HVAC cables can be a bit confusing.


Thank you, that means a lot. It's been a struggle sometimes, but I'm doing the best I can on a $20k yearly income and living on my own.

Thanks for that info. It shouldn't be too bad for me as I will be installing the lighting in the dash whilst the car is stripped, before the interior goes back in again.

http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=81758
just incase you didn't see this

Holy cow! Thanks for the heads up!

welcome
I want a set too but don't have the extra money so figured I pass the word on lol