Tweety Bird, My 94 GT Options

[punkxrckprincess]

Hello all,

Those of you who don't know me, I'm Sammi. I've been in love with 6GCs since 2003. a 94 white ST was the first car I ever drove without parental supervision. That also happens to be the car I learned about car audio in and immediately became obsessed. I am also a paranoid person, so I didn't get my own Celica for quite awhile afterward.
My first Celica was an anniversary present in 2010. The car saw the road for the first time with my husband after he installed Stambo's old 7AFE engine into it in mid 2011.
We've had over half a dozen Celicas since then: some to restore/flip, some to replace, some as parts cars.

I thought it was a few months longer, but we actually got my Tweety Bird in March 2015. It was trailer-driven down to us from 4 hours north in Wisconsin. 276,000 miles on the engine. Only damage to the body happened in transit as the car bounced into the trailer wheels after something slid off. Automatic, champagne colored with leather interior. We bought it for $1,400 and knew it needed the water pump replaced: in fact it came with the parts and Jake did the timing at the same point.

I am probably the EXACT opposite of most people: I HATED the color, hated the leather, and wanted nothing to do with it until it LOOKED how I wanted my Celica to look. And at the time, it was never intended to be my daily driver, so I told my husband I would wait to tackle anything with the car until then. Here's the car when it was dropped off: *embedding photos is not being kind to me right now...

https://ibb.co/mF59XD6
https://ibb.co/51W1GL3
https://ibb.co/CMhgwBz
https://ibb.co/PrVBpBC
https://ibb.co/HG9TknC

Here it is when the weather broke a few weeks later:
https://ibb.co/hMRwtKs

As you can imagine, I didn't do much with it for awhile. I was on the fence about colors and waiting to see progress etc. In the interim we bought a house and had a whole lot else going on.

Fast forward to February 2018. I found my new car to replace my daily (2015 Series 1 FR-S) and decided now was the time to move on the Celica
I picked up the FR-S the first weekend in March and chose to wrap the Celica.
We had body work done before sending it off to be wrapped..had to fix those side dents and a few other little things from sitting for so long, including taking off the pin striping.
https://ibb.co/nMgsyRH
https://ibb.co/nL2DZ7k
https://ibb.co/BZ39bSw
https://ibb.co/RQmbdLm
https://ibb.co/zrNmJL8
https://ibb.co/cvX8m3S
https://ibb.co/GvXN9zG

And the wrap was decided as Ambulance Yellow with Matte Black roof, spoiler, trunk bezel and mirrors from Avery Dennison. Yes; yellow. I drove a 2003 Cavalier LS for 12 years that was yellow and now yellow cars are kind of my thing.
https://ibb.co/sgCk0Rn

And it was off to be done! I was expecting to have the car ready for the Spring Midwest meet last year, but Jake and I both managed to forget where we had the title to this car (which we had not put into our names yet) and therefore we had a paperweight for awhile.

We got the car back from being wrapped on 5-12-18. No, it's not perfect, but I was happy with it.
https://ibb.co/Lz3M1XN
https://ibb.co/2c6SnMc
https://ibb.co/QYSQY4P
https://ibb.co/h9KQ408
https://ibb.co/B46FZd5

Ta-dah!

From that point on it was just a waiting game for us to figure out where the heck we put the title. So I made a list of the things I wanted done to the car, and it quickly became apparent that I was going ot be a baby with my FR-S and decided the Celica was going to be my winter daily, so I had a new goal: titled and ready by the Summer meet in August.

https://ibb.co/g9Lj5HL
https://ibb.co/1MHd1GH

In the meantime we changed from stock to the following:
Swap to cloth interior
17" FR-S wheels with 10mm custom wheel spacers
JDM taillights
Pioneer double din CD player
3-way Pioneer speakers in front and rear
2 12" Audiobahn Alum-Q subwoofers in a bandpass box
American Bass VFL1001 Amplifoer
XS Power wiring
Yellow stitched floor mats
20% Global QDP window tints
Custom vinyl decals


Then in the summer I could not stand the car looking like a Tonka Truck with the 17" wheels and stock suspension, so I set out to find coilovers.

August came and went, we did not find the title, but I did buy a set of Megan Racing coilovers that sat in our garage while we scoured for the title.

Fast forward to mid October, I found the title! The last season meet was supposed to be the first week in November. We hustled out to title and plate the car and put in the coilovers, but things just were not right. We did not make the meet.

Since November to now, we took the car in for an alignment (4 times total!), replaced the entire rear sub-frame, replaced brakes, tie-rod ends, linkages, a wheel bearing as part of the sub frame...I mean the car really got a thorough once-over. Right around Christmas we determined one of the coilovers I bought was in fact bad. It took quite awhile but we got to buy just a shock and it got installed this weekend and HOLY **** a night and day difference. My car FINALLY drives right after 2+ months of trial and error. The coilovers were a frustrating situation, but I am stoked to finally have my car truly roadworthy at now nearly 279K.

https://ibb.co/mqLNGnq

The weather has not been nice to us so some of the wrap needs re-adhered around the edges and I have to get the trunk lid and the spoiler re-wrapped due to a tree branch, but I am happy with it overall. We still need to reaffix the emblems and do some other touches but I am so happy to FINALLY share Tweety Bird in person at the Spring Midwest meet this year!

This post has been edited by punkxrckprincess: Jan 28, 2019 - 3:16 PM

[richee3]

Glad you guys got the coilovers sorted out! It’s odd that it would only compress about an inch. The car has come a long way!

[punkxrckprincess]

Glad you guys got the coilovers sorted out! It’s odd that it would only compress about an inch. The car has come a long way!

Thank you for all your help and talking to Jake through some of it! We are guessing that coilover was in the area the car got hit. No word back from the seller so no way to know for sure, we can only assume.

[cheela]

welcome to 6gc. please read through the stickies before asking any questions. hahahaha
'bout time you made a thread for Tweety and glad you sorted out the coilover issue. Pics don't do justice to the yellow. It's so crazy in person when the light hits it. looking forward to MOAR PROGRESS!!!

[bloodMoney]

Yay progress!

[punkxrckprincess]

welcome to 6gc. please read through the stickies before asking any questions. hahahaha
'bout time you made a thread for Tweety and glad you sorted out the coilover issue. Pics don't do justice to the yellow. It's so crazy in person when the light hits it. looking forward to MOAR PROGRESS!!!

What's a sticky?

This post has been edited by punkxrckprincess: Jan 29, 2019 - 10:58 AM

[cheela]

noobs...

[CoolZeen]

looking stunning.LOve the yellow. now we need some side skirts.

[punkxrckprincess]

looking stunning.LOve the yellow. now we need some side skirts.

I have some! They're just not prepped and on the car. Authentic veilside skirts!

[Bitter]

Well I can say this, if anyone hits that car and says 'I didn't see you' they're either Ray Charles or full of ****.

[bloodMoney]

Well I can say this, if anyone hits that car, we'll record all the news coverage when you kill them.

FTFY

[punkxrckprincess]

Well I can say this, if anyone hits that car, we'll record all the news coverage when you kill them.

FTFY

Truth