1988 Celica GTI-16

[goingfinn]

Hi, I've been lurking on here for a long while but thought I’d finally get round to sharing my own retro rides.

I’ve bought my black 1988 Celica GTI-16 a few years ago after owning a few Celica’s in the past and deciding it was time to have another in my life.



This one was a two-owner car that was honest and straight but showing its near 20 years service.
I had to ignore the ripped seats covered in dog hair and the flat paint and go on the fact it wasn’t rusty (quite rare for a UK car!) and the folders full of history.

As usual in life, you don’t see something for ages and then two come along at once – and with Celica’s, it’s no exception!
Just after I’d bought the black car I was offered a GT4 of the same year. Sadly, the car was a total dog having been thrashed by the owner’s son, rust creeping out from behind the body kit and the distinctive smell of burning oil, it was screaming out “avoid!”…But the guy wanted very little for it so I bought it!

Unfortunately, the GT4 was as bad as I feared, having holes everywhere with some I could almost put my hand through. That and the smokey, leaking engine!
The interior was clean and tidy and the body kit/wheels were intact. So, I took out the seats and swapped them with the awful seats my black car came with. It was really easy wiring in the electric seat as well as the plugs for it were hidden under the carpet in my black Celica so that made life easy.
I painted the GT4’s donated wheels and swapped them over too.





With the GT4 out of the way, I had a friend re-spray my black Celica and I fitted the GT4 front bumper to finish it off. The badges on the back were scanned into my pc and I reprinted them so they looked nice against the new paint.





The Cavalier I’ve owned since 1997. It’s done 68K or there abouts and in all that time, it’s never had a problem. I had it re-sprayed a while ago due to faded paint and changed hub caps for Astra GTE wheels but other than that, its how Vauxhall intended.



The Jeep I bought about a year ago after I moved to Finland. It’s a performance model but as far as I’m aware, it’s just a showroom special with tail pipes, body kit and split rim wheels. The one thing I would say is the interior is a bit nicer than the UK models I was used to.
Future plans may involve some MOPAR performance goodies like air filter and throttle body but will keep it standard for the most part.









Anyway, thats me. I've a few bits for the celica to be fitted such a cool digital dash etc...will try and update as and when.

Chris

[Deleted]

Nice trio u have there!

[hongkongphooey]

Love the Celica.....you don't see many gen4s nowadays

[grizz]

Welcome and nice cars as stated.

Snowing outside tonight too. But not propper snow like in Finland.

[reanimation]

Nice stuff, ya just sent me searching for a Celica!

[goingfinn]

Cheers for the welcomes and kind comments guys : )

Nice stuff, ya just sent me searching for a Celica!



Yeah, I’d really recommend a Celica. They drive very nicely and still look good all these years later.

I got into them when I traded in a very tired Audi Quattro Coupe back in 2000 as it was making all kinds of horrible noises. The only thing this guy had was a 1986 Celica in white! I took it out for a test drive and really enjoyed myself so I took it home. Sadly, rust had taken hold of this one and despite my joy at driving around like I’d just stepped out of Miami Vice, I eventually sold it on after a year or so..
I always regretted selling it and fast forward 5 years and I ended up with the black one. I spent allot of time trying to clean this one up so I’m hoping not to let this one go! When I do come back to the UK, it’s one of things I look forward to seeing/driving.

They generally are in 2 conditions…thrashed and rusty or a 1 or 2 owner car with just a bit of rust… at least that’s my experience with buying them.

Snowing outside tonight too. But not propper snow like in Finland.



Yeah, its been snowing a hell of allot in Finland so that’s why I have the Jeep
(its walking to work at –18 that bothers me).
The Jeeps a basic old beast on a technical level but it grips and despite fun and games with the brakes seizing, it’s been no trouble.

I’ll tell you one thing though…its like being back in the early 90’s with regards to old cars here. I wouldn’t go so far to say its like some weird snowy Cuba here as most of the traffic is quite modern, but there are old Mk1 Opel Kadetts, Mk1 Fiesta’s, Cortina’s etc…. Tons of old motors wandering about and I have no idea how it’s all survived.

Come the summer…American Cars with Fins everywhere…funny old place ;D

[tycho]

Love the Cav. did it fade to a loveley pink colour? Mine did.

[montythemole]

I had one of those Celicas as my second car. Even back then it was rusty. Lovely car though. Especially liked the vent under the steering wheel to cool your knackers?!

Eventually the head gasket went and cracked the head. Didn't have the cash or knowledge to fix back then so went for £100 as spares.

[reanimation]

Yeah like a few retro cars, ragged rusty and ready for the grave, or looked after and requiring little tlc.
Already got one rusty Toymota, really don't see those often though anymore.

[goingfinn]

Well, I lurked and lurked some more but only now do I have anything of note to share!

I sold my Cavalier to a friend of my dad who has taken it to Spain.. so sale of my loyal motor has freed up a bit of cash to spend on the Celica and I decided to make a few improvements…..

First I wanted to address the radio in the car. I wanted something age related and not something new, spankly and silver to replace the original unit. While Original radio was OK it would be nice to have something a bit more plush. I saw from a few websites that the American market received better electric goodies in their Celica’s than us poor Brits so I hunted for a Toyota Radio on the Bay. Took a while but I ended up with the double din unit below..(not the greatest of pictures but it does show the original (left) next to the American market one)



So, after a lot of cleaning up, in it went which is never an overly straight forward job in a Celica (again, sorry for the poor shot)



Aside from a bit of hassle with the radio requiring 2 aerial inputs, it plugged straight in and sounds half decent. I will eventually install something in the ash tray to play MP3 directly into it but for the moment a tape adapter will do








While I was messing around with the interior, it seemed like a good time to tidy up some other parts which had been bothering me.
I bought myself a steering wheel which had been restored with new leather. The cover for the back part of the wheel is missing but its in the post I'll fit it as soon as it arrives in the UK



Next up was to change the wheels. I’ve always fancied the TTE wheels fitted to later Celica’s so I managed to buy a set …I’ve not put them on just yet but heres what they might look like…



Future plans include a bit of a tidy with the body work..its not bad now but there are one or two tiny areas I want to catch while they're small. Also, I've had these kicking around for some time and I should make use of them...



I'm told they are a total ball ache to fit due to different plugs, sensors etc. I've collected the plugs, wiring diagrams, dimmer controls but I'm missing the fuel level sensor which is different the the standard one... I'll keep an eye out

I'll post more pics when everythings in and working. Thanks for looking

[mark165]

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[mark165]

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[goingfinn]

Been a looong while since I updated this thread but during every trip to England where the car lives, I've tried to improve or repair bits so here's a summary what I've been up to ;D

Well, other than spending rather a lot on tidying the underside of the car to keep the old rust at bay which cant be seen here, I recently bought a set of 1988 GT4 fog lamps from the states. They were fairly rusty and bashed about as they had been removed from a scrapped car.



I took them apart and sanded the housings/brackets before painting them black. Then painted the bezels to match my front grill. The lenses took allot of polishing to make them clear and not yellowed. Considering the admittedly bad quality of these lights (bezels and lenses are plastic) they came out pretty nice.



I then switched to the inside and black leather dyed my new steering wheel and painted the vinyl horn push and plastic fittings black to match.



Swapped a couple of switches for less worn ones



I've also bought some electric retracting mirrors for it but I didn't get time to fit them as the wiring is a bit complicated. So instead I went out for a blast as I think this was the only day during the Christmas period it wasnt raining.... ;D

[milan]

Top work lad,these Celicas are very hard got nowadays,definetly a keeper!

[crazymonkey]

ive only actually seen a couple of celicas in this gen/shape. Which is a damn shame because I love them.

[mark165]

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[goingfinn]

Thanks for the kind comments guys

Mark 165 - Sorry I didn't answer your question originally..it had been such a long time since I looked at / updated this thread I didn't think you'd be interested any more.

Well, the head unit is American spec and was offered to Celica's and Supra's over there (probably other countries too with exception to Blighty it seems). I actually got mine from eBay pretty cheap so if you fancy one I'd start my search there

The reason I changed it was although I've half decent speakers, the radio sounded naff in all honesty. Also, it refused to tune properly into UK radio stations so in the end I decided to fit something else. Its a shame as that unit looked great in all its 80's LED glory!

Post some pics of your GT4 when you get the fogs on

[mark165]

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[Twincam]

Already been said a few times, but that looks really nice! You don't see enough of these being saved, I've always liked them.

[sphinx]

Very nice work, I love that retro head unit!