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celicaV8
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1981 - Celica TA40 V8
« Thread Started on Oct 9, 2005, 8:39pm »
Hi All

First post here, thought I'd introduce my car....

It's a 1981 Toyota Celica TA40 Coupe, which I've owned for about 10 years.
I can't really remember why I bought it other than to save it from the scrapyard.
I did intend just to weld up a few holes, MOT it and use it as a winter hack, as I was into fast bikes at the time.
It sat in my garage untouched for 3 years until I high-sided my GSXR and thought it time to find a safer hobby.
7 years later and it should finally be finished for next summer.

Why 7 years? Well a mortgage doesn't help, but it's mainly because I do all the work myself and it has to be right or I start again.
I'm on my 3rd suspension setup and 2nd respray and it's never turned a wheel in 10 years ::)

Here a quick run down of the restoration and mods.....

Body:
Total bare metal rebuild
Serious amounts of rust cut out and replaced with new steel inc doors, inner arches front and rear,
rear wheel arches, new front wings, screen pillars, boot floor, sills, boot lid etc - you get the idea!
Designed/built custom transmission tunnel
Seam welded/gusseted where needed
Bare metal respray
Modified MA61 Supra rear arches


Engine:
Fully rebuilt Rover V8 3.5
9.75 CR
Edelbrock 500 carb
JWR inlet manifold
Mallory Unilite dizzy
Magnecor KV85 leads
3.9 Cam
Vitesse heads/waisted valves
TVR Griffith exhaust manifolds (modded).
Modified sump and relocated oil pick up.
Custom SS exhaust system.

Cooling:
Aluminium radiator (Sierra Cosworth)
Pacet fan
Custom pipework
Alloy expansion bottle

Gearbox:
Rebuilt Rover LT77 5 Speed
Shortened remote gear selector
Custom mounts
Custom 1 piece propshaft
Optical pickup for speedo

Rear Axle:
Rebuilt T series
4.1:1 final drive
AE86 factory LSD
RA40GT F series 7.5" 2 pinion LSD axle (3.9:1 ratio)

Steering:
Designed/built rack and pinion conversion (modified Volvo 240 rack). Junked ::)
Designed/fabricated custom front cross-member. Also junked ::) ::)

Front Brakes:
MA61 Supra vented discs (cross drilled)
MA61 Calipers
Goodridge braided hoses
Land Rover Defender master cylinder


Rear Brakes:
Rebuilt standard drums
Goodridge braided hoses
Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve
Wilwood residual pressure valve

Front Suspension:
RA40 GT crossmember
MA61 Supra struts
Adjustable coilover conversion (350 rate)
Short stroke KYB AGX adjustable shocks
Custom camber correction and RCA blocks
Superpro bushes throughout
Mookeh adjustable camber tops
Relocated anti-roll bar
Alloy strut brace

Rear Suspension:
Adjustable spring platform conversion (250 rate)
Shortened adjustable Panhard rod
Whiteline adjustable top trailing arms (modified AE86 parts)
Whiteline adjustable lower trailing arms (modified AE86 parts)
Superpro/Whiteline bushes throughout
Uprated shocks (modified Bilstein Mk2 Escort)

Interior:
Custom Aluminium dashboard
AutoMeter Pro-comp gauges
Rear seats removed and paneled in Aluminium
Plumbed in fire system
Cobra retro buckets NOS
TRS 3" 4 point harnesses
Safety Devices 6 point roll cage.

Wheels:
Genuine Minilites
Black powdercoat
5.5x15 front (ET20)
7x15 rear (ET-6)

Tyres:
Yokohama A539
185/55-15 front
205/60-15 rear

Performance:
TBA, but will be about 200bhp/ton though, so should be fairly rapid.

+ loads of other stuff I've done over the last 7 years I've forgotten about.

I'm fairly sure most of the engineering is now sorted, so it should just be a case of putting it all back together over the winter.
Just like I said last summer. ::)

Heres some of the latest photos...
Enjoy.

[image]

[image]
« Last Edit: May 11, 2009, 7:59pm by celicaV8 »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #1 on Oct 9, 2005, 9:08pm »
Look fantastic!! ,.. Welcome to the forums!! :D
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #2 on Oct 9, 2005, 9:15pm »
Woooooo! Sinister looks and tarmac ripping torque
Looks fantastic! :D

Welcome BTW.
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #3 on Oct 9, 2005, 9:32pm »
that looks fantastic!

Where you based?
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #4 on Oct 9, 2005, 9:36pm »
That looks great! A really purposeful stance - and the sounds/power to back it up too!

We were talking about bolt-on arches only recently...I never thought of MA61 parts...good idea!
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #5 on Oct 10, 2005, 7:49am »
If you get it finished for next year I'd love to have you on the Retro Rides stand at Retro Cars Show ! (if your interested) ,.. can also pretty much garentee you a magazine feature ;)
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #6 on Oct 10, 2005, 9:45am »
I want this car. :o
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #7 on Oct 10, 2005, 11:40am »
Oof!

That is SERIOUSLY pant-moistening. Good work!
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #8 on Oct 10, 2005, 12:53pm »
That is a beast ! I really like that

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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #9 on Oct 10, 2005, 1:01pm »
Hmm, seems to be one of the best cars I have seen for a number of years.
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #10 on Oct 10, 2005, 8:46pm »
WOW, what can I say, but thanks for all your comments.
I really do appreciate it, and am chuffed you like where I'm going with it.
Looking at all the other readers rides here, I thought it was kinda average - wasn't expecting such praise :)
To be honest none of my mates are really into cars, so I tend not to get much feedback.

If you think it's up to being on the show stand, that would be fantastic, though as you say I gotta finish it first, but at least I've got a deadline now.

As work progresses I will keep this thread updated.
(windows back in this weekend)

Until the updates, I thought I'd dig out some old photos.
Looking back at these (some are 4-5 years ago) I wince at the thought of how much work was ahead of me ;D

Anyway enjoy and thanks again.

[image]
Early days - looks solid, how wrong was I.



[image]
First fit of the V8 - I thought I was nearly finished at this point. LOL, photo taken in 2001!




[image]
Another early engine photo' - pushing it out into the lane made it just a little closer to road legal ;) (2001)




[image]
That wasn't gonna fit in the standard transmission tunnel.




[image]
Not pretty (at this stage) but I was pleased with it.




[image]
Just after rear axle rebuild




[image]
Rear arches #1 - in steel - OK, looked a bit lame though.




[image]
Rear arches #2 - Escort forest arches - not sure what I was thinking at this point?



[image]
Rack and pinion conversion - this really was a world of pain.




[image]
Preparing for respray #1




[image]
Just before respray #2


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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #11 on Oct 10, 2005, 9:12pm »
christ - what a load of hardwork - I wish I could do that! :D

I hope it is at RCS...
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #12 on Oct 10, 2005, 9:37pm »
WOW ;D.
I am well impressed with all of it but particularly the rose jointed steering column. Where did you get the UJ`s and the shafts and are the Uj`s splined

One very cool mutha fuggin car ;D ;D 8-) 8-)
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #13 on Oct 10, 2005, 10:10pm »
Thanks PhoenixC

I posted up some info' on my steering mod' on the Toymods forum a couple of years ago.

Have a look at this Toymods thread (about 3/4 down - long post + photos)


Any other questions just ask.

« Last Edit: Nov 28, 2006, 7:45pm by celicaV8 »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #14 on Oct 11, 2005, 6:26am »

Quote:
WOW, what can I say, but thanks for all your comments.
I really do appreciate it, and am chuffed you like where I'm going with it.
Looking at all the other readers rides here, I thought it was kinda average - wasn't expecting such praise :)
To be honest none of my mates are really into cars, so I tend not to get much feedback.


There are a bunch of us in and around Swansea, but I don't think we have any others in Cardiff.

The car looks great so far, and the direction it's going in looks like it'll be even better. So we'd love to have it on our stand. Will encourage you to finish it as well :)

Keep us updated, and if you need anything I'm sure people will help you find stuff ;)
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #15 on Oct 12, 2005, 12:43pm »
WOW holy SH*T the rack conversion is amazing, Nice motor mate
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #16 on Oct 12, 2005, 4:03pm »
wow, finally seen this! awesome!!
Its nice to know I'm not the only person who changes things time and time again during a build!!
Hope to see the beast next year!!! :)
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #17 on Oct 12, 2005, 4:06pm »
I'm afraid this could well be the 'pride of the stand' at RCS 2006...............(unless HTW's Coupe gets some serious mods by then ;))
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #18 on Oct 12, 2005, 6:06pm »
You're all beginning to scare me now ;D

Whenever people asked me how long I'd been working on the car, I'd always try and justify it with - "..well it's not a race"
It bloody well is now.

My 'reassembly' sketches and notes stuffed into bags of parts, are now coming back to haunt me.
What was I thinking?
One note in a bag of about 20 parts just says - "Offside window winder. Easy"

Easy???
What the bloody 'ell does that mean,
I can't see how I got it out of the door, let alone how to get it back in.
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Re: Celica TA40 V8 - 1981
« Reply #19 on Oct 12, 2005, 6:07pm »

Quote:
.(unless HTW's Coupe gets some serious mods by then ;))


I dunno what people are expecting me to have done to my car by RCS!!!!!! ... :)

I think : this car > my car....
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