Forgot to update here. The celica has come quite far since. Ive tried to make it drive as good as possible without any intrusive mods or changing the character or period feel. Kind of original,but enhanced.
So replacement of all rubber brake/clutch seals saw the MOT and registration taken care of.
Next was the interior tidy up. New carpet to replace the rottern orignal,get rid of the sponge underlay for dynamat. Also replaced the soaked rotting hardboard part of the doorcard,with corrugated plastic board, and the material was changed for alcantara,but i kept the vynl top part. Also did the kick panels alcantara and the C pillar covers.
Ill replace/repair the dash one day,its been ravished by the australian sun,but i kind of like the Aus spec dash carpet,as it is part of the cars history, and besides, a good rhd dash is very hard to get.
Next came suspension. Sent Gaz a leg and got these back. Added as much camber and caster(adjustable as standard !) as possible,and tracked it up This had the added benefit of giving the steering such a nice feel,I abandoned the idea of doing a rack& pinion conversion.The steering box is obviously in good order.
Rear suspension is taken care of by gaz rear shocks and cut down ford focus estate rising rate rear springs.
Next on the agenda was to pep up the wheezy engine. It was hopelessly slow and reluctant to rev. The dizzy vac advance didnt work,so got new. Still was pants,so upon further investigation found the vac operated second butterfly in the single carb to be not operating. At this point an engine swap was considered,but the car spoke to me and asked me not to. I went for a crower cam form the US,double valve springs,a branch manifold,and single backbox stainless system.
A bit of thought went into what to do for induction,but being a bike mechanic, the desision was made by the procurement of a set of NOS 40mm CV carbs from a zzr1100. £80. As opposed to the £800+ for webbers. Being familiar with bike cabs and the setting up /tuning of them,the choice was easy.Not a correct period as id have liked, but they just work.
Only downside is the time taken to make a manifold.
Test fitted the manifold before bolting head back down. At this point i should have gone porting mad,but thatll come later,as it also needs a compression hike. A proper high compression,lightened,balanced engine build will follow, these 2T motors have made 170+ bhp in australia In N/a form. As standard the single carb 2t's only have 9:1 compression,but they do have the bonus of hardened valve seats.
Glad i didnt swap the engine now,everybody is doing engine swaps on these old J cars,forgeting it was these great little engines that gave the japanese cars the reputation that there success was built on, and they respond so well to tuning.
These mods have pepped it up nicely,enough for it to pull 120ish,(possibly 110bhp) so went for a track session at brands in april. Had fun.
Why don't they paint modern cars in these nice colours.
Did a few local car shows.
My 5 year old had a green celica before me. Hes JDM.
Then things took a bit of a turn for the worse. My fault. Dropped a motorbike on it.
So that got fixed, and the next fun thing happened. Took about 30 mins to pull this out. I do love old vehicles.
I found this POR15 type paint,which happened to be a near perfect colour match. Its nice and thick and rubbery.
Re painted the axle,added a 2way kaaz diff,and new brake pipes.
Me and my brother then did an airfeild trackday. This is his golf G60. Nicely modded fast road car. 190bhp,coilies,big brakes,otherwise original. Of course its usually on bbs, these are hs track wheels.
A chap there kindly took some pro photos and added a 70's patina to them.
Another evening session on track at the now hugely popular brands hatch summer evenings,saw the end of the season for this year, and the cars tucked up awating the nice engine build and some better brakes that ive promised it as a christmas present.
!