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]

Just gonna dump some information about my sunroof here. I opened it up and looked around the guts to figure out why it doesn't work, and in the process, I learned a lot about the history of the car. I'm including some pretty detailed stuff because the sunroof manufacturer, Farmont, was bought out around the year 2000, and now there is almost no information to be found on this product anywhere on the internet. There are certainly no spec sheets, maintenance guides, replacement parts, or anything like that available.

I believe this unit was "professionally" installed by a Toyota distributor, as opposed to a previous owner. As I understand it, Toyota is the only major manufacturer that has been using a distributor network to act as a middleman between Toyota corporate and American dealerships. This system started in the 1960's when Toyota needed help breaking into the North American market. Since then, Toyota has been steadily buying out its distributors as they have been becoming obsolete, but 2 of them apparently grew too big to mess with. They are Gulf States Toyota and I believe Southeast Toyota Distributors. Apparently they liked to buy poorly-optioned cars from Toyota, add options themselves using non-OEM products (thus "adding value"), and in turn sell those cars to dealerships. If you've been around a while, you may have heard of Toyota's end customers getting screwed in the options department because of these distributors. I have a feeling this is what happened to my car with the fog lights and this sunroof. I put "professionally" in quotes earlier because these things were not installed well at all. I'm actually surprised the sunroof doesn't leak, as everything about this thing looks like it was done by Michael J. Fox on speed.

But yeah, I just wanted to type all this info because I found it really interesting, and there may be other Celica owners out there seeking information on their strange aftermarket parts. Some of it might be wrong but the general idea is there.

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Anyway, on to the sunroof. It is a Farmont F1000.

This is what the control panel looks like. Literally just forward and backward directions. The sunroof is a "spoiler" type, meaning the back pops up while the whole glass panel slides backward and above the car's roof in one motion. This is different from the factory sunroofs which can either pop up in the back or slide into the roof--not both simultaneously. You can tell my sunroof is aftermarket because the controls are not integrated into the dome light area by the rear view mirror, as is the case in factory systems. There are a lot of other details that give it away too, like the curvature of the glass and the mismatched trim color.


This is the rear area of the sunroof. Those two black tabs pointing down are attached to spring-loaded rolled up black fabric shades. They can be pulled forward and literally hooked onto the front trim of the sunroof to block the sunlight. I always thought this was kind of cool and unique, but it isn't the most effective. When both shades are extended, they don't cover the whole area of the glass panel. Also, the driver's side shade is starting to fall apart. The little aluminum bar is coming through the fabric, which can be seen in the picture.


Here's the exposed motor. It works fine, but doesn't catch on anything. I originally thought the reason would be a stripped gear, but I was only half right.


The problem was right above the motor. A drive gear was missing altogether:


Here is what this part is supposed to look like. I found this image on some old internet forum where a guy had a similar issue with the same sunroof:


The gear is supposed to go right in between these two threaded cables:


A previous owner must have lost it when he attempted a repair or something. Not a whole lot I can do about a missing gear in an extinct sunroof. So right now I'm looking into having the whole thing removed. I want a complete sunroof delete to save that weight at the very top of my car. I doubt I would be able to find a nice factory sunroof and be able to install it for cheap, taking into consideration the two sunroofs are almost certainly different sizes. Plus, this will be a good opportunity for me to try my hand at making a new headliner in a nice black suede material.

So that's it for now. I realize nobody really cares about this info, but I didn't want it to go to waste after I spent so much time combing the internet for it. Plus someone might find this post in a search if they are having similar issues.

This post has been edited by Bushmatic: May 7, 2018 - 10:35 AM