South Carolina Supra Owner..

[Supra_Knight]

Ok, I am 1988 turbo/targa Supra owner. I will list mods at the end of this for anybody who wants to know. The main reason I joined here was to satisify my curiosity for this specific car. First off, what led me to this car was the simple fact I wanted an O.G. car project. Second I was getting tired of dealing with my Supra and all its turbo fabricated problems..Yes I love that car, but dang, I bought a lemon, The first problem it had was bad suspension, then I blew its head gasket bringing it back to El Paso from Houston, then I discovered it had leaky powerstearing, front and rear engine seals were bad.. so I replaced the motor completely with a rebuild/HKS metal Gasket from Jarco. Upgraded the suspension after. The Engine and suspension were solid after that. Then the brakes went bad, so I replaced and upgraded the discs and pads (myself). So anyways those were the first headaches. Anyways, because of the headaches, I began my search for something different, something that would be fun to build up and start from scratch, completely! I remembered a guy who came to me awhile back who had an old school Celica, and Rememberd how O.G. it was and asked him if it was RWD, and he said yeah and that was one of the reason he bought it, it still needed some work, but he loved it. So that got me thinking. The main styling of the 1st gen Celica, reminds me of old school muscle, but with import coolness! Yes its smaller than a real muscle car, but thats what makes it cool to begin with, compact coolness with a muscle look. The Celica is like the perfect choice, since I love old school Toyotas. It did take me awhile to come to a decision, believe me there were many choices out there. But at last I came to final decision. What led me to this car was simplicity itself! It was old, and I understand that better than new.. hell I can pull out all the parts myself practically. I am very familiar with car technicalities. No I'm not a mechanic, but I did work on Jet aircraft for a bit. Yes they are two different worlds, but they work on one principal, they all need moving parts to work! So anyways the 1st gen Celica is my choice by simplicity and of course its overall apeal as a sexy O.G. car. I do have questions. The First one is of course, how hard is it to find and buy? Number two question, How hard are the parts to come by? what kind of upgrades can be done to the car? I have seen some body kits, or race kits for them too, how can I get them if I want them, are they still around? Then what kind of motor swaps can be, have been done, and what possible motor swaps can be done? Last, how much money am I about to invest in a project like this?

[WIQDTOY]

first: welcome to the site!

second: these Celicas seem to be getting more popular everyday. getting one to your liking depends on your standards.

a lot of the Celicas on here were saved from salvage yards or from someone's yard rotting away. knowing that we don't have a lot of part options out there so networking here would be your best bet.

mind you that with anything it will take time and money. a lot of custom fabbing/work is involved. take a look at the project section and you'll see what i mean. lots of ideas and awesome work going on.

and a lot of the Celicas here are built not bought. meaning quite a few Celicas are bought as project cars and built to the owners liking.

[Blaze86Vic]

Welcome aboard! Nice to see another East Coast member!

Parts for the driveline really aren't too hard to come by. Most everything from an AE86 or later RWD Celica can be retrofitted with little to no customization needed. Body parts are a little difficult, but being on this forum makes it simple to find, but for us on the East side there are the shipping issues.

As for engine swaps, pretty much $$$ is the determining factor. There is a fella across the pond with a AWD twin turbo 1UZ powered Celica.....but obviously that's a little on the awesome crazy side. 22RTE engines are probable the best bang for buck and fairly simple swap. But almost any RWD 4 cylinder has been done (Toyota, Honda, Nissan and the like). If you start making serious power, the rear end will beg to be changed (just as in the AE86). Our rear ends are Toyota 6.7", and our axles are the same spline size as the Zenki Corollas (but our axles are a lot shorter, so you can't just swap axles and convert to Kouki.)

[Supra_Knight]

Thanks for the welcome! Currently I am serving over in Iraq, and yes I cant wait to be home again! I am excited about doing a Celica, I talked about it with my wife, she seems enthuisiastic about, she just wants to know how much "trouble" it will bring us versus "our" supra, lol. When I say our I mean that in the sense that she loves that car too.. mostly because its turbo..lol. Due to some problems that we have experienced together with the Supra.. and she hates the fact that I'm so unhappy with my car because I have not really been able to enjoy it, we have been thinking of doing something else, probably without a turbo on it. I want something O.G. and sexy. Yeah the Celica doesnt have a badass motor stock, but the motors you can swap with it would make it a better machine. The big thing is that I will be able to work on it on my own without taking it to a mechanic. I have good basic mechanics knowledge, however I mainly lack the ability to tear apart a motor and put it back together again. Thats my only downside. Just about anything I know how do do, on an old car.. I like simple! After Iraq I will be back in Texas for a year, gotta get rid of some debt first, and then I'm off to Korea, so after Korea I will look into getting a Celica after that! I know its a way off, but I gotta get ready if I'm going to do it!

[Im jhun_hapi]

man if i were u.. pay off ur debt an save some money aside for ur future project. like a piggy bank jst for celica.. that what ive been doin. ull be bz with iraq and cold korea. good luck brother and be safe out there..

[Supra_Knight]

Hey can someone please post a link on this question, sorry wasnt sure where to post this! I want a price range on the Celica if I were to pick up a stock one no mods or anything. Which platform should I do or does the chassis really matter when it comes to dropping a motor in it? I'm starting fresh with this car if I do it. The cars original motor will be ditched for an EFI JDM 2TG, then the frame will be stripped completely for a new paint job. Would just like to know how much I'm looking at for a celica with a running motor and tranny, straight frame, as little rust as possible. Not sure about interior since some of it will be replaced. So yeah if theres a link to another post somewhere please link me..lol.

[75CelicaGT]

Hopefully someone else can give you a range, but I can give you one example.

My car, see the link in my signature to my Gallery for full pics, or look in the Project section for "Pete's RA22".

3 years ago it cost me almost $3,000 CDN including taxes & transfer costs. (About $2850 USD).

It was bone stock with the original safety bumpers, same motor I'm still running, straight frame and some rust in the floor pan, but nothing serious. It could be fitted with the motor you list but might require a different crossmember.

I hope this helps give you an idea, keep in mind I'm in the Pac NW, cars with less rust are available in California, Arizona, Texas, etc.....

When I was looking to buy Prices and condition varied greatly, and low rust cars in my area were rare.


and GL on your search!
Pete

[7-seven_four-4]

Why dont you buy Ryans celica instead and call it a day. His out Shaw AFB.

]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n257 ... A70163.jpg[/IMG]



















more interior pictures can be found here:

http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n257 ... %20Celica/

reason for sale: personal, AND NOT FOR THE MONEY! I will say though that I scared myself this weekend and need a change.

pics, info, dynos, etc are all here:

http://classic-celica.com/modules.php?n ... pic&t=8761

[Supra_Knight]

Wow really nice, but although I used to live in the same town as the guy happens to be stationed, I am no where near that area! Also he dropped a F20C motor in that badboy, so I dont think I would buy that car. The asking price will be too high. Thats easily a $6000 car. The funny thing is, those cars only sold for $2,500 back then. I am impressed with the car overall, but its already been worked on so it takes the fun out of the build. Unfortunetly I will have to pass. I still have the supra, sooo.. I might just keep her, who knows, I'm still gathering info on this car for a "POSSIBLE" project if I get rid of my supra. If I dont get rid of her, then I'm keeping her and will just continue to maintain her and then pass her on to my future child.

[speedfreak426]

You can always have the best of both worlds.... inline 6 turbo power and Celica OG looks

Here is my car with a MK3 Supra powerplant

[Supra_Knight]

I actually gave that some thought, pull the heart of my supra and transplant it in the Celica, but i think it would require some fabrication on my part, and I'm not too knowledgeable on swaps sooo.. that would leave me with something simple and straight forward. Although confidence and guts might help.. I would have to build those up first..lol.