'89 GT-Four ST165

[JacoJa]

Hello GTP-ers!

So after many months of ownership, today my car has finally been sent off to the mechanics for the first stages of restoration. I thought it deserved a thread of its own, as there will be a lot of exciting (and hopefully tasteful) modifications coming over the next few years.

My car is a 1989 Toyota Celica ST165, which has a 2.0L (Inline 4 Turbo) 1st generation 3S-GTE engine, originally producing around 190bhp. It is a stock UK-spec car, with the only changes in its 27-year history being the CD player, and the 14-inch steel trailer wheels.

As you can see from the pictures, the car has seen better days. Although it's generally in good condition, there are some rust spots around the usual areas - Wheel arches, side skirts, and sunroof. It's a miracle this car is even still in one piece after all of these years, especially in the UK! I've lived here for three years now, and have never seen another 4th-generation Celica on the road in all of Europe. They've either all rusted away or have been wrecked for spares, so I was extremely excited the day spotted this car up for sale. As one of my dream cars, I had to snatch it. And most importantly, save it!

Today the car was transported to a workshop where it will be stripped down and rust-treated over the next couple of weeks. A donor car has already been sorted, so a modified 3rd-generation 3SGTE will be used to replace the old motor, but more to come from that in future!

Here are a couple of images from today. In a week from now it will look more like a rolling chassis.

Following the truck during the long drive to the workshop:

And the current interior:

 

[Katiegan]

I absolutely adore 80s Japanese cars. Can't wait to see the progress!

 

[Bigbazz]

Cool car, be interesting to see what you can do with it. Also, same jump starter that I have!

 

[GDII]

That's in really tidy condition. The ST165 was the first 'fast' car I had ever been in. Was a lot of fun to be a passenger.

 

[The87Dodge]

Nice car! I am excited to see it in better condition.

 

[JacoJa]

Thanks a lot, chaps! Looking forward to posting some updates in the coming months.

I absolutely adore 80s Japanese cars.

I'm totally with you there. They had so much innovation and character back then. It's still my favourite country/time period combination.

Also, same jump starter that I have!

Nice! Best invention ever. I don't leave the house without it anymore. 👍

Edit:

I just received these horror images from the mechanic after the GT-Four side skirts were removed. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the images, but apparently the entire car isn't too bad. Obviously the larger skirts on the ST165 model are brilliant at holding moisture, so the lower sides of the car will need to be completely replaced.

It's not too bad though, because the inner sills are fine, and the car looks pretty good underneath, so the chassis is unaffected. It's really just the outer bodywork!

 

[ilikewaffles11]

Beautiful Celica! I absolute love the T160 Celicas, especially the GT-S and Alltrac/GT-Four models. Can't wait to see how this one turns out. 👍

Also didn't realize how many other Celica owners were on here!

 

[Punknoodle]

I'll be sure to follow this. Good choice on the Gen 3, I have a bit of a Frankenstein engine going on in my ST185 semi track car with a mix of different generation engines. Gen 3 makes for a good base.

If you want any advice, hit me up. I've been working on mine for a while now and if you check my thread in my signature you can see the stuff I've been working on.

 

[JacoJa]

Beautiful Celica! I absolute love the T160 Celicas, especially the GT-S and Alltrac/GT-Four models. Can't wait to see how this one turns out. 👍

Also didn't realize how many other Celica owners were on here!

Thanks man! I love your 5th Gen. I've always had a thing for that generation. A family friend used to own one when I was 5 or something, and from then on it was always part of my ultimate dream car garage. By the time I got my licence, I could only afford to buy an ST162, but I guess that's where my love of the 4th gen began. I'll be keeping an eye on your thread though. 👍

I'll be sure to follow this. Good choice on the Gen 3, I have a bit of a Frankenstein engine going on in my ST185 semi track car with a mix of different generation engines. Gen 3 makes for a good base.

If you want any advice, hit me up. I've been working on mine for a while now and if you check my thread in my signature you can see the stuff I've been working on.

Thanks! I'll have to have a solid read through your thread to understand everything you've done to the car to date. The work you've done on it looks pretty amazing so far. Really great effort!

Here's a few new pictures of the ST165. Over the last couple of weeks, those nasty rust patches on the lower sides of the car have been cut out and replaced, the engine has been removed, interior stripped, and the chassis has been rust-treated in some areas.

For the next few months progress will be extremely slow. I'll potentially be looking to replace the front fenders and hood with fibre glass parts. The hood will need some kind of air intake, or extraction vent to prevent overheating the new engine, or bogging-down the turbo. I really don't like the look of a hood intake on the 4th-gen Celica, so I'll be designing something which will hopefully look discrete. Maybe a hood scoop facing backwards? I don't know, but there's a lot of time to think about it before the car gets completely resprayed.

 

[ilikewaffles11]

If you ever get a chance, look into a 5th gen GT-S (or GT-R for you I guess), they're lots of fun to drive, and you even got a better engine than we did...

I've been lusting after the 160 series now actually, particularly a GT-S since that's the only one sold stateside to have an NA 3SGE. Not many left now unfortunately.

 

[JacoJa]

Hey, chaps!

Forgot to post the Celica's progress here for the last 6 years. I figured it would probably be best to share a timeline with you all, post-by-post about the work which has taken place over the years. And since I'm lazy, I'm going to copy over my WIP posts from the Celica forums over to this thread, modify the text slightly, then slap a time stamp on the header. Once this thread is all caught-up, I will post updates as they happen.

As you'd expect from any project car, what was meant to be an affordable (lol?) restoration with some mild modifications, slowly spiralled out of control into something I couldn't have imagined when I took ownership in 2015. Of course, even in late 2022 it's still far from completion, but it's come a long way. I hope you enjoy the timeline.

And for reference, 'Bek' is the mechanic at Toyotamotive who worked on all aspects of this car. He's an amazing guy, extremely talented, and knows everything there is when it comes to 4th, 5th, 6th gen Celica's and GT-Four's.

November, 2018:

A few pictures of some parts which arrived during the last few months

Ksport suspension:

New body panels (only one side photographed here). These were bought from Fixmyrust.com. I'm not an expert on body panels, but the quality seems pretty decent.

January, 2019:

Just picked up some Micro GT seats today. I'm happy with them! Stitching pattern of the fabric is different from what I ordered, but on the whole I think they look pretty decent. Real leather and Alcantara was double the price of these seats, so I opted for the vinyl and fabric with logo delete.
Still they are built to FIA standard, and they feel dead comfortable.

Body rust has all been sorted out - Wheel arches have been cut out and replaced, engine parts are being ordered, and Bek has spent the last week under the car pulling everything apart (which didn't sound like an easy task). He sent me these pictures last night of the parts which have been powder coated. Also some new bushes.

March, 2019:

Subframe install, underseal, diffmounts, suspension, renewed steering rack, etc:

Original GT-Four side skirts and rear bumper are being replaced with standard st162 parts (162 rear bumper, taller JDM GT4 /vert side skirts). As the doors no longer need the holes, they are being switched out with standard white 162 doors. Exterior is going to look like the frankenstein monster of Celicas before it reaches the bodyshop.

New exhaust manifold (Right):

June, 2019:

There were a few sneaky rust spots underneath the old carpet, but the welders sorted it out. The car was also involved in a small accident some years ago (probably in the 90’s, judging from the weld repairs and history), so the front drivers side crash bar was bent. Instead of repairing it correctly using two new beams, the existing bars were just welded together on an angle/position which compensated for the deformation from the accident. So it all looked fine on the outside, even though it was all slightly bent. The car was put onto a jig, and the body frame was bent back into place. All riding straight now... So now it’s a case of replacing the crash bars to ditch the welding botch job. I wish I had pictures of this area to explain.

Here are a few pictures of the rust removal, and engine bay/interior respray. Pretty amazing how different the new coat of paint looks!

New heavy-duty flywheel and clutch

 

[JacoJa]

A few more additions in 2020 & 2021.
PB brakes; 6-pot fronts, 4-pot rear.
RacerX side intake manifold.

Interior refurb and part-installation:

17x8 Compomotive TH1781's - tyres are Michelin Pilot Sport 4's 225/45.







First round of body shop repairing and painting. The quality turned out to be horrendous, so unfortunately it will need to be stripped-down and done properly in future.

I went with an original '84 Momo steering wheel from a Ferrari 328. Loved the aesthetics, rear grip dimples, and burn-oil cow smell which came with it:











G4+ ECU for gen-3 3SGTE





Timing belt cover from Carbon Microsystems:





Refurbing larger capacity fuel tank from an ST205 GT-Four:



Off to an amazing fabricator called Liam. We needed to provide sufficient airflow to the intercooler and radiator, as the original front crash bar covered-up too much area. I preferred not to hole-out the front bumper, so Liam created a system which directed air upwards from the standard lower intake, designed to be removable. A section of the crash bar needed to be removed in this case:









Seat rails:



And half-cage for the rear with cross-beam for seat harnesses, as this will be an occasional track-day car:










Fresh from the powdercoaters:















... Followed by a louvred hood vent. These Celicas were never the best at expelling heat from their engine compartment.











Update to come soon with engine build!

 

[FrankieStail]

Now THATS how to restore a car!!!
Great work, love to see cars like this being brought back to life.

 

[JacoJa]

Now THATS how to restore a car!!!
Great work, love to see cars like this being brought back to life.

Thank you! Much appreciated.

Yes, very rare to see these old Celicas survive their rock-bottom value phase of depreciation. They'd usually hit the £1-2k value mark then spend the remaining years rusting away outdoors, like this car was.
It takes a special kind of idiot to try and restore one, too. I guess it's love

 

[mikedriver94]

congratulations on your undertaking, it is not easy to carry out a restoration, the Celicas are a highlight, do you have any other updates? have you obtained track tests?? 🇯🇵🏆