So yea it's been a while since posting. Guess I'll just recap what's happened since I've been gone?
MR2 finally got finished, threw Miata wheels on it and proceeded to beat the crap out of it for a while. Then this happened one night, serpentine belt shredded which knocked a connector for the coil pack loose which caused me to stall in traffic. Fun fun
Sunset good times
Then got it running again and proceeded to beat the crap out of it
Took my 4Runner on a cabin trip to Promised Land state park.
This was a good time, the day after this photo was taken we drove pretty much all day all around the area loaded into this thing stopping at interesting spots and looking for trails to drive down. Didn't skip a beat, but I do recall leaving the oil cap off with my cut in half water bottle oil funnel sticking into the oil fill hole, luckily crushed by the hood so oil didn't fly everywhere. Fill cap stayed in place too!
More sunset
Our collection
Took the 4Runners top off until it was too cold to use it. Hilarious lack of rigidity when doing so, but quite fun drivin around topless!
Then the MR2 acted up but luckily in a cool spot
I like this photo in the 4Runner
Put the white letters out on the Supra
4Runner at the drive in which was a good time. Headed there the battery light came on though, checked under the hood and the belt was loose as all hell. So limped it home and tightened it up the next day or so, the bolt that kept the tension somehow came loose
5MGE cousins
Not my car but planned to come to this spot in my 4Runner. Of course not much later they put a huge rock in front of the entrance.. Pricks. Went up one night though to the top of the hill, awesome hang out spot.
With the old mans Alltrac at Cars and Coffee
Then a new car arrived, I purchased a 1990 Celica GT-S 5 speed. It had 230K when I got it, and needed a battery, wheel bearing, two tires, front brake pads, a battery tie down, an alignment, and other minor things. It pisses oil out and still does. I'll get to that later. Very clean interior for 230k though, and runs great otherwise! Fun to drive as well. Also, 2nd and 3rd gear syncros are shot but that's a common problem and after a while you learn to work around it.
Mostly cosmetic crap to do
Valve cover gasket was shot, again I'll cd back to this. Recently performed even more work.
Festive
So the MR2 started giving me cooling issues late last year. I started to try and figure out why, however it was at that point I said screw it, I'm done messing with it and started stripping it for parts. I drove this thing for several months religiously and had an absolute blast beating the hell out of the poor thing but it's finally time to be put to rest. It's currently out back at work with the interior and most trim stripped off of it, however the engine/trans and a lot of other stuff needs to be stripped off yet which I'd like to do soon.
Rip rusty racer, you will be missed. I crave another one albeit in much nicer shape this time.
So then this opportunity presented itself and I jumped on this deal. Next car purchase was this 1996 Geo Prizm LSi I bought from a customer after it failed inspection for $200. This car only has 80k miles on it, not a spot of rust, and is in incredible condition all things considered. It needed a battery, a flex pipe, a serpentine belt, and I changed the oil and trans fluid. That's it, for $200. I've been using it as a daily for a few months but I'm gonna sell it right after I fix some things. Exhaust needs to be patched a tiny bit where we had to heat the bolts up to remove them and my friend broke my damn passenger side window crank.
It doesn't drive bad, but it's pretty boring. Very beige, literally. In corners the body roll is major and the mudflaps scrape on the ground if you're cornering hard enough. It gets great gas mileage which is nice for a daily, but it only has a 3 speed auto which is SCREAMING when on the highway. I can only imagine the mileage from a 5 speed.
After cleaning it up
Rally champs
Another damn sunset
Then my friend bought an identical Celica to mine, his being a 1990 GT-S 5 speed as well. Weirdly though, his is a stripper model which I've never seen on a GT-S. No ABS, crank windows, cloth interior, and no rear windshield wiper.
So now we can both cruise Celicas together which is fun.
I also purchased this, another one from a customer, a 1994 Toyota Pickup SR5 V6 5 speed. I inspected it the one day and noticed how clean the frame and everything else was, and then afterwards I took it around the block to see how it drove as I've always wanted to drive one. I loved the way it drove, which is funny because had I not taken it for a drive around the block I doubt I would've bought it as they have problematic engines. Nice beater truck for the winter and other activities. Needs nothing but a good cleaning and I'll probably get some bigger tires by the end of the year.
My dad wanted to test the 4WD
New wheels for the Celica! Knock offs life! My dad had these for years, he put these on both of his 5th gen Celicas he owned when I was a kid (a grey GT and a teal GT-S), and he had them on a rack in the back room and let me use them. I'm more interested in the tires, it's a Sumitomo performance tire which works WONDERS on this car! Way more grippy with these on it.
Took the side steps off immediately on my truck of course. Asides from the bigger tires, I'd also like to get an old school Toyota script badge like from an old Land Cruiser and replace the Toyota emblem on the grille.
So the Celica I mentioned needing work. It PISSES oil out, to the point where I'm adding 1 quart for every 50 miles driven. So I replaced a few things, the valve cover gasket and the distributor o-ring, and it still leaks just as bad. So next up which I was hoping I could avoid, cam and crank seals which are notorious on these 2.2s for leaking. Fun
While I had the distributor out I replaced the rotor and the cap and the plugs and wires, also cleaned the throttle body which was filthy. I've been constantly tinkering with cosmetic stuff trying to straighten it out and it's finally at a pretty nice driver point. Need some liftback struts, friend got some from a yard but they're for a non spoiler car which don't work. I've been enjoying this car a lot lately, it's beat up enough that I don't mind if it gets dinged or dented yet it's still tons of fun to drive. Plus it's not nice enough or rare enough I don't mind modifying it. I only have a small list to start after I replace those seals and it doesn't piss oil out.
The list so far is rally Armour mudflaps because duh, steel braided brake lines, and possibly euro/jdm spec clear turn signal lights. My dad has a bunch of stuff from his old Celicas I'm going to throw on including a muffler and some adjustable sway bars. Resealing is the priority though, and everything else needs something so I don't know when I'll get this completed, kind of aiming to do this one first. Also, needs a buff.
Had the collection out the other day!
Last update, me and a friend went halfsies on this Celica parts car. $100 includes a ton of good interior and exterior trim plus a solid engine sans trans. Gonna strip it down and scrap the shell.
Truck went to work pulling it out!