Project Overview

This post will give a rough overview of the project.  What I'm looking at, rough (VERY rough) pricing, and where I'm hoping to go with everything.  I wanted to have a plan in place so I could track items better, keep it realistic, and document the overall process to see how far I sway from my original ideas.










Here's an overview of what I'm looking to accomplish.  I'll be using this sheet to track the major project areas with respect to costs and parts needs.  It's only an outline at the moment, but will grow as I fine tune the project.

I'm going to try to work within a budget, but at the same time this car is never going to be for sale, so I'm not looking at maintaining a budget purely so I can make a profit.  The budget is there because of other commitments I currently have.  Otherwise? I'd spend a fortune on this little guy!  As it sits, I may be doing that anyway.





Major Project Goals:

• Keep it 'Toyota' as much as possible
• Mainly with regards to drivetrain
• No Ford/GM parts etc.
• Won't worry about items like wheels, and interior items (seats, gauges) 
• Make car fun to drive
• Not designed to be a 'trailer queen'
• Not designed to be a 'drag car'

Major Project Areas:

Body

I want to get the body straight and clean, then have it blasted and painted.  Change up a couple things, but mostly leave a lot of it as is.

1. Remove any rust and replace rusted or irreparable panels.
2. Have body painted (TBD, but leaning toward Lexus Graphite Grey Pearl)
3. Keep rear window louvers (slight repair and repaint)
4. Replace all weatherstripping
5. Repaint all trim (in black)
6. Replace front windshield
7. Minor detail adds and changes (longer hood vents, fender mirrors, etc.)
8. Look into having bumpers and door handles straightened and re-chromed (cost dependent)
9. Look at a decent front air dam (not some cheap thingy)

Suspension

This is a difficult one.  There's lots of options out there:  four lug to five lug conversion, AE86 suspension components, rack and pinion steering, etc. I'm sill looking at the best things to do while maintaining budget. Some things I know for certain.

1. Replace worn bushings (prefer poly over rubber if I can find them)
2. Lower car overall around 1 - 2"
1. Looking at front coilovers, but TBD
3. Paint or powder coat what I can 
4. Look at brake upgrade options
1. Better front calipers
2. Rear disc (that maintains e-brake)
5. Wheels.  This is still an interesting one.  A LOT of people would look at Watanabe or Konig Rewinds for this car.  While those are neat, I'm not 100% sold yet (they're almost too popular for this kind of car).  I like the mag E-T unilugs on it, and may just see if I can get them fixed.  

Drivetrain

This was another one that's still kind of a moving target.  There's stuff across the board with all kinds of associated costs, extra labor (i.e. carving the car up to make stuff fit), etc.  

Here's the engine options I'm most interested in, in no particular order:

• Original Engine (18R-C)
• Pros:
• Fits in car (designed for it)
• Car currently has one in it
• Can still find parts for it
• Cons:
• Lower power
• Not a lot of 'exotic' options (header, side-drafts, etc.)
• 18R-GR
• Pros:
• Fits in early Celicas with no issues
• DOHC motor with side-drafts, etc.
• Can utilize parts from 18R-C
• Mid-end power
• Cons:
• Harder to find parts for in North America (header, gaskets, etc.)
• 20R/22R
• Pros:
• Easy to find parts for
• Easy to build
• Power/performance based on budget
• Cons:
• While the 20R (and later the 22R) came in Celicas, it only started showing up in the RA24s (1975 and up).  The motor is a bit taller, and the RA24s had a different hood and a few things modified to make it fit.  In RA21s, it's a bit tall, so modifications have to be made somewhere.
• 3S-GTE
• Pros:
• Gobs of power
• Turbo/fuel injected
• Easy to find parts for (strong aftermarket)
• Cons:
• By far the hardest transplant.  Engine is designed to be transverse mounted so would have to convert to rear wheel drive.  Distributor is in the back of the head, so either firewall mods would have to happen or coil on plug with a crank trigger, and on and on.
• Expensive.  Turbo kits, after market engine management and all that are expensive.

I'm leaning toward combing the 18R-C and 18R-GR into a single engine.  This will be determined by costs and parts availability, but if I can make it work that's the direction I'd like to go.

Transmission:

I have two four speed transmissions and one five speed.  Leaning toward the five with a a stronger clutch and short shifter. Lightweight flywheel would be a nice to have, if I can source one.

Drive shaft will be rebuilt with new U-joints and re-balanced. 

Rear end:

I need to look into this one more.  I'd like to find a limited slip option, but not sure if I can for the original axle. I may have to look into a different axle (AE86 comes to mind).  Don't want to change from the original four link to a leaf spring.  Not an option.

Electrical

The electrical in the Celica is from 1972!  It's seen a lot of miles.  I'm going to go through it and see how bad the insulation is, what's missing, etc.  It may end up needing to be replaced, and I'm looking at options such as finding pieces of another one, or replacing with new such as a Painless system.

Interior

Interior is going to have a lot of the normal items.  I want to keep a lot of the original appearance (dash, doors, carpet, etc.) as I like the look of it.

1. New carpet
2. New front seats
3. New headliner
4. Fixing door panels (I have two sets of all of them)
5. Fixing the dash (I've found a few dash caps with good reviews)
6. Determining to keep existing original gauges or replace/update.
7. Determining what to do for seatbelts

So there you have it!  Cheap, free, easy piece of cake right?!  This should be done tomorrow!