1997 ST - The Bushmobile Options

[Bushmatic]

Just put some money down on a red 1997 Celica... I'll be bringing it home on a trailer this weekend, don't even have it yet. But I'll be updating this thread with little things that I do to it. For now, here are the pictures ripped directly from the Craigslist ad:











This post has been edited by Bushmatic: Jul 30, 2018 - 12:06 AM

[Bushmatic]

Hey, I'm back, after packing up everything, shoving it into my car, and moving across the country to Los Angeles! Things have slowed down and I can provide a nice, tiny, little, extremely long update.

Nice updates. Like the details you write. Who makes that hood on your car? I like that style.
Thanks

Hey thanks! There are absolutely no markings anywhere on the hood, and there is an oval of bare carbon fiber on the front of it where I assume a badge fell off at some point. But from what I gather using evidence on this forum, I think it's the Erebuni "racing style" hood. If you click that link, you'll see two example photos on the sidebar. The photo on the left is exactly like my hood, but the one on the right (pictured on a silver pre-facelift Celica) is definitely different--I believe that one is the Vis hood. Whatever mine is, I think it looks nice. Since the scoop is more squared off, it looks less aggressive than the Vis one and thus looks quite a bit less jarring against the car's smooth bubbly body lines.

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Anyway, time for an update. More pics coming whenever I remember to take them.

New things I've done...

• Removed spoiler. Need to fill the holes somehow. I originally wanted to convert to a two-post spoiler, but I decided I like the no-spoiler look a lot more. It's a clean look that isn't done very often. Besides the obvious perks like slight weight reduction and a clearer view out the rear window, it eliminates being haunted by thoughts of spending ludicrous amounts of money on chunks of plastic known as "riser blocks."
• Replaced third brake light with junkyard one. Mine had some kind of surface oxidation which looked awful. Still have a rust splotch by this brake light. I will address this problem later in this post.
• Opened up my rear wiper assembly and figured out why mine isn't working: The plastic articulating arm is snapped. That's why I could hear the motor working when I turned the wiper on, but nothing was happening. It's also why the wiper just hangs limp against the window (you can freely move it by hand anywhere. Sometimes I hit a bump in the road and the wiper slides off the window).
• Got my blue LEDs installed in the dash. You can kind of see them in the photos below.
• Replaced my fuel door with a junkyard one. A little more marked up than mine was, but I don't really care about that. I just needed one with a working hinge.
• Got all the ugly silver trim out of my car. Those interior trim stickers are one mod I do not understand. They make the whole car look so much cheaper, and they flake off with age. They also cover a lot of symbols on the stock trim, namely the air vent "open/closed" symbols. Just not a good mod in my opinion. Glad to be done with those.
• Bolted on my Euro front splitters right before the road trip. They were sitting in my garage since I bought them from Csober last year.
• When I was still in Michigan, I did a complete rust-proofing of the undercarriage. Sprayed some nasty rubberized coating in all the metal channels, drainage holes, and pinch welds, and went over problem areas of the factory fender liner coating with some new spray-on stuff. Somewhat overkill considering I moved to California soon after, but it can't hurt.
• Scored some JDM tails for 80 bucks from a local guy. The left one has a couple spots of damage, but they can't be seen with the light installed and the hatch closed. So happy with how they look.

What I plan to do...

I'd like to preface this part of my post with a brief explanation of my vision for the car. I have a very "feng shui" approach to vehicle ownership. "Feng shui" probably isn't the most accurate way to describe it, but whatever. I believe the key to a "nice" modified car is to focus first on the little details, and then focus on how those little details harmonize with the larger surrounding details. One consequence of this mindset is that a LOT of mods I want to do are really small and really cheap. This approach also limits what I can do to the car visually, as every aesthetic mod has to complement every other aesthetic mod. Kind of hard to explain without an example--some people like to make a false wooden floor in their trunk using particle board and linoleum. I think this is can be an amazing mod, but only when done right (this is rare), and done to the right car (also rare). I would love to do this to my car, but I would only think about doing it after I get a shiny new paint job and some great looking wheels. It would be kind of jarring to open the trunk of my car, with the most 90's shade of red paint possible, to find this kind of trunk inside. If you open the trunk of a well-maintained car in a fresh coat of uniquely colored paint, you would almost expect the inside to look just as unique. Probably a weird example, but you get the idea.

My ideal end result boils down to a clean reliable daily driver--stock engine (probably dressed up a bit, cost allowing), MAYBE a turbo in the FAR future, aggressive rally-inspired stance (not slammed, but also not monster truck height), technologically modern interior with pure 90's aesthetics, new exhaust that's only slightly performance-oriented (if at all), and some other details I won't get into here. I'm not going to pretend my car is anything more than a slow ST, but I am going to make it look exactly how I want it to look.


Specific plans:

• Get that stock German plate off the front of my car and cover the license plate bracket with something else. If I ever register this car in California, the Cali plate would be the obvious solution. But since I don't know how long I'll be living here, that may not happen. If not, I'll probably buy an ebay Japanese replica plate or something. I found some license plates that just say "FARM USE" in huge blocky letters... thought I could throw one of those on there if I was trying to add a bit of irony and personal flair to the car. If I get the paint job I want and the car starts approaching "show car/super clean/illmatic" status, I actually think a FARM USE plate would be an awesome personal touch. Right now the car looks too tired to rock that plate... unsuspecting people would think it's actually a farm vehicle. It needs to be obviously ironic. Some people reading this are probably wondering why I'm talking so much about a license plate--it all comes back down to focusing on the little stuff and how it ties in to the overall look and feel of the car.
• Take care of rear hatch; it has holes from the spoiler and some rust on the lower inside edge and around the third brake light. The wiper, as mentioned many times before, does not work. At some point I'll go into full bodywork mode and tackle the first two of these things at once. I'm also going to remove the "Celica" badge on the side. I may or may not shave the rear Toyota logo... It'd be a clean look but I'm also not sure an empty gap is any better right there. Slightly leaning toward keeping it. This is all assuming I don't find a new hatch door I can just swap on to my car.
• As for the wiper, I need a new motor. I attempted to remove mine but didn't have a proper wrench to unscrew the top external part. If I ever find a new hatch door, hopefully its wiper motor works.
• Paint my wheels. I've been thinking long and hard about how I'm going to address my wheel situation, since I like the fitment of my wheels but I don't like the finish. Most people agree that the red accents are kind of weird. The style is so-so, they're no Enkei RP01's but they also aren't bad by any means. Therefore I decided that I will try plasti-dipping them in gloss white. I'm aware of the stigma surrounding plasti-dip (cheap, ricer kid mod), and I somewhat agree with it. I'm banking on the hope that the white will come out looking factory if I take my time and do the job right. Worst case scenario, I either live with the result or peel it all off and go back to the drawing board. White is a pretty safe color as well.
• Paint the car! I've decided that if I ever save up enough to get a quality respray, I will do it in military/drab olive green. My decision was mainly inspired by this car, a Saab 9-3 wagon from Sweden. I follow the guy on Instagram and I am blown away by this color every time he posts a picture. I can't even tell if it's a wrap or paint, the way it reflects light looks different in every photo. I'm not a fan of wraps so I would try to achieve this look with paint either way. I realize that this is a color that most people hate--I've heard it compared to all manners of body fluids (I won't elaborate here). Not that I care of course. This shade of green is just so rarely done, and it adds so much aggressiveness. A respray won't happen until the far future, but when it does happen I will also reevaluate my wheel color. White would still definitely look good, but so would a dark graphite or a gold/bronze (similar to the linked photo of the Saab, but less brown). I would also like to paint my front splitters, either body color or a dark glossy graphite color. I might change the LED color of the interior; blue wouldn't match the best with that green. But at the same time, dash lighting doesn't really have to match external paint color, you know? I'll make a decision about this at some point.
• JDM projectors, clear side markers/turn signals, foglights. I also want to delete the little aftermarket auxiliary lights one of the previous owners installed. I could never get them to work, and even if I could, they look really tacky anyway. At some point I'm going to rip those out. If I find a pair of stock fog lights and they don't come with the stalk or any wiring, I'll try to repurpose my auxiliary light wiring to them.
• Finish the dash lighting with blue LEDs in the climate control unit and cigarette lighter. I absolutely love this photo of Spree's interior, back when he was selling his LED kits. That's the kind of look I want.
• Full exterior LED upgrade. Nothing too fancy; I've seen a lot of posts on here about getting creative with the third brake light and breadboards. Pretty neat upgrade, but overkill for the amount of effort it takes vs. the result.
• Coilovers, just to adjust the stance to my liking. I actually love how the car currently sits, but it could always use a bit less wheel gap. Slamming it to the ground was tempting before, but after seeing Csober's Air Lift kit, coilovers would just never compare. The rear wheels could also use a set of 1" spacers.
• I'd love a full set of confetti seats, but at their price point, I'd be better off doing some serious performance mods. It would be ridiculous to put Recaros in a 105 bhp car that has never seen a track. All I'm saying is, I wouldn't mind if a set of them fell into my lap one day. Until that miraculously happens, my stock seats are in near mint condition and they do the job just fine. Speaking of which, I should probably ditch my TRD license plate frame...
• Rear disc brake conversion, along with caliper paint all around. Not sure on color.
• I really want the JDM center armrest, purely for the different cupholders. Not a fan of the claw method when I have a drink with me.
• At some point I will potentially install an automotive fire extinguisher somewhere in the car. Kind of just want one on hand.
• I have a set of Toyota decals coming in the mail soon. I'm going to experiment with putting them on the factory mudflaps, MR2 style. No harm done if they look bad, they literally cost less than 5 bucks. I'm just going for a cheap bit of vintage/rally Toyota goodness.
• That's pretty much the backbone of my future plans, barring some other minor stuff like sway bar end links, maybe some stickers here and there, maybe an aluminum pedal set, etc.

Some quick and dirty iPhone photos from the other day...







This post has been edited by Bushmatic: Sep 12, 2017 - 12:39 AM