My Celica "Castrol" resurrection, Get that damn thing on the dirt road one day and roll it =] Options

[marciszd]

Hello.
Here is my excuse.

Story:
About three years ago, I've split up with my ex. Over the course of our relationship which lasted two years, she acquired new car and gave me her old one (the celica in question). I drove t, and over the time i got new tires for it, did basic maintenance, changed spark plugs and wires, changed brake and fuel lines due to rust, painted the rims, changed speakers, modded air filter into the cone one... you get the idea. Small stuff. One day at work one of the semi truck drivers backed up his trailer in to my car and ripped my front bumper off. Now i am a semi truck mechanic, and figured couple of zip ties will do the work. i drove to my car to my buddies house, and after a couple of beers we decided that the car is not worth half 'a ****, so we decided to paint it. And since i work in the bad neighborhood (heart of ghetto) roads are quite bad here I busted my entire suspension to the point that will bottom out when pulse breaking. I parked the damn thing and got me a hyundai just to get by.

It's been six months, and i finally got some time on weekends, so could get the thing running. Keep in mind that i am a happily married man now, and the car is parked at company's parking lot, so I can drive it to the shop. I have access to air for the tools, towing capabilities with bobcat, i can lift the car with fork lift so i can work on the bottom.. dream.

What i want to do over time is:
* rebuild suspension
* rebuild steering links
* fabricate strut spacers (give it 1"-2" lift)
* patch up fuel tank or get one from junkyard or fab up a fuel cell (leak)
* fabricate exhaust system (lead it out in front of the rear wheel)
* hydraulic handbrake (original never worked anyway, rusted and seized up lines)
* make a rally pod (really want those extra lights on the hood)
And that's for starters.

My first attempt of getting it to the shop ended in getting half way through the parking lot. I added some half gallon of fresh gas, hooked up a charger for a full day and started cranking it. When it finally fired up it ran like ****, probably due to the old gas, and it barely moved at all. It finally died half way to the shop, and I decided i have had enough. I have to go though all the fluids, check the spark plugs.. and here is where i have some questions.

* what to add to the fuel to make it better?
* what else to check?
* where are transmission filling and drain plugs on auto transmission with 2.2 motor (I think its the 5SFE engine).

Car has about 170k miles, its rusty as **** and it gathers more attention than lambo (I parked next to one in Chicago downtown =]).


Thanks to everyone that read all this rambling. I attach photos before and after the "paint job".
Dave.