I hope I can remember everything, here we go. Starting off from way back in July
I've been slowly chipping away at all of the Celicas list of needs but it's still a massive list. Of course the major problems never got addressed
While writing down recently performed work on a notepad in the glovebox, I've realized that even with a ridiculous oil leak I've put 5K miles on this car since I've bought it somehow without blowing the engine up.
Pulled the engine from the parts car
I threw some new sway bar bushings on the rear which were completely shot which stopped the clunky clunky
And also replaced the rubber bushings that the radiator sits on, on the left is what it had on it before.. Radiator fits better now
I liked this shot, over the summer I've explored basically all of the back roads around where I live. So many fun roads.
And I backed into a wall one morning at work. Good thing the paint already sucks
Most of my stuff together
Hate to say I haven't really used my 4Runner, just been busy messing with all the other cars. I'm planning on making it nice again, just not a priority. It had mold growing in it one day I got in it which was cleaned out since.. But the carpet is gonna be replaced as you can buy a brand new one on eBay.
Then after months of lusting after one and considering driving to Maryland for one, I finally found it, my AW11 MR2! The car was on Craigslist for about 1 day before I went up and purchased it the next evening. I knew when pulling up to his house and seeing an FJ60 Land Cruiser in his backyard along with an FJ40 and FZJ80 out front that I was gonna walk away with an MR2. He drove it up the road, I drove it back, and I bought it on the spot for $1200. We sat and talked for about an hour and I found out he actually purchased my dads old FJ60 Land Cruiser and took $100 off the price of my MR2 because he loved that truck so much. He also gave me a ton of spare MR2 pieces from his garage, and an old pickup steering wheel. He also had an FJ40 and FJ45, and regularly takes his 40 to Moab! Most pleasant Craigslist experience I've ever had.
I've completely fallen in love with this car. It's only a three owner 98K mile car with minimal rust and recent major services done including timing belt and water pump. It even had the original owners manual and all records.
I took it to work the next day and looked it completely over and was even more ecstatic to find that he wasn't lying at all when he said it didn't leak a drop of oil and I found that every single bushing and suspension component was tight and there was very little corrosion. I got a speeding ticket the day before though so I was afraid to take it out and go for a nice drive.
Two small rust spots in the floors but nothing too bad. There's some rust spots forming on the fenders but I'm planning on having it taken to a body shop and professionally done as he car is worth it. It also needs a windshield.
The only other 'major' problems are the 'three lights of death' which I've determined is an alternator which is charging but defective causing the three lights to stay on, and it needs a headlight switch which is a common issue, the previous owner gave me 2 and we have 2 more at work. The dash lights don't work at all which is annoying but not too bad. The shifter is also kind of clunky, the linkage needs to be lubricated just haven't gotten to it yet.
It needed tires so of course I just threw my set of Miata wheels on it, the factory wheels are very clean. I'm planning on getting a set of 15x6.5 +35 Watanabe RS wheels for it with some 205/55/15 tires, I'll have to research the tires available but I'm looking for a good performance tire if anybody could give me some recommendations!
The old mans Miata got some new wheels, 15' NB wheels with some performance tires we had sitting around. Wasn't a fan of the tires, didn't have the grip I expected and actually had the back end kick out on me several times with those tires..
And my truck. Did some winter prep to it recently but need to coat the frame yet to prevent it from rusting. Needs a wheel bearing I found out. Also wanna swap a grille from an '89-91 pickup on it. I really love this truck but I'm considering seeking out someone with an FZJ80 Land Cruiser looking for a trade as they're about equal value.
Stripped more from the rusty racer. I went overkill and stripped anything and everything one would possibly ever need for their MR2.
Another spare 4A-GE!
**** these coolant pipes, I hope I never need to use these
In order to remove them I had to remove the gas tank and it had some fuel in it and I was by myself, so of course I ended up spilling a bunch of fuel onto the floor, no big deal right? Well, removing all the coolant pipes left a metric ton of coolant on the floor so I hosed it down the drain and didn't bother getting all the water down the drain afterwards, so the fuel mixed with the water and I had to wipe down the entire floor by hand. Fun!
How artsy
My dad was getting tired of how uncomfortable the Miata is, so the car is now sold, but I'm glad I took it for one last nice drive with a friend down some really cool roads with the top down in the fall. Nice send off
I have a new love of old Volvos too
Back to the 2, looking at that last odometer photo I've realized I already put 1000 miles on this
Factory showroom poster!
I washed that and the Celica. Since it leaks so much oil I've noticed that the Celica leaves a very thick coating of burnt oil on the rear bumper after a while which is a pain to remove. It's almost like a diesel
Looks good after a wash though
More nice fallness
Sold my Geo. Bought it for $200, put about $600-700 into it, drove it for 3k miles and sold it for $2k. Not bad. Somebody from a dealership down the street bought it and I always see it in traffic still.
MR2 fully stripped
Cleaned some Celica stuff, including the gross center console trim and radio surround trim. Removing the radio surround put a tiny crack in it which annoys me so I'll probably get one from a junkyard even though it's barely noticeable. The center console has this insert in it which has slots for cassettes in it which had about 30 bridge tokens stuck under it
Gross trim
Finally clean
Buttons finally clean!
The MR2 also had a non functioning oil pressure guage which I looked up and found out is very common. This wire tends to pop off the oil pressure switch.
Cleaned the inner fender liners out to find this.. Clean your fenders out kids, it saves your cars fenders from rusting. Also threw in an 02 sensor I had from the rusty racer
My dad bought this 1981 928 and o finally got to drive a Porsche! The alternator quit within the week.
Driftknuckles.com.. Actually my friend took the steering rack for his Celica project. Also, my dad bought that silver Jaguar there. Has a Chevy 350. I dunno why he bought it.
And I just had to throw a battery in this prick. I think it's also leaking gas. It's about time for the winter wheels to go on.
