PandaFab's '86 Celica GT-S Coupe Diary

Alright, so I figure I've been putting this off for long enough, so here we go.

My name is Nic, and this will be the thread to document my experiences with my 1986 Celica GT-S. I purchased the car in the beginning of August, after a bit of searching. I wanted a clean, rust free, manual, GT-S coupe. Didn't care too much what color, just wanted a good running, clean, daily driver. Living in the midwest, finding a clean example is a bit of a chore. When I heard that I was requested to go on a road trip out to Virginia with a friend, I immediately hopped online and started scanning craigslist in that part of the country. Found some decent cars, but nothing that really fit the bill. Next was eBay. Not really my first choice of places to go car shopping, but what would you know, up for sale was a red 1986 GT-S coupe.




It met all my criteria, was within my budget, and was close enough to grab on the way back from the road trip. I was also able to do some googling and found some info on it's history from one of it's previous owners, who goes by Grot on CelicaTech. He was the one that had the car painted, and replaced the engine the last time (and a few times before...). This car has had, from my research, 7 different 3S-GE's in it. Don't ask me how, but someone certainly wasn't getting their money's worth, the car only has 147k miles on it. So, I figured, if nothing, at least it had a solid engine. The swap only had 6k on it. Boy, was I wrong.

We ended up getting to the car around 1am in Tennessee. Gave it a look over, and it was about what I expected. Clean, southern body, not a spot of rust. Shit paint, and some minor hail damage. Some missing trim. Typical for a car of it's vintage. Interior was in pretty decent shape. So, let's fire it up and take her for a spin. It started right up, but man was it making some noise. Obvious, bad, rod knock. So much for that solid engine. Oh well, we came this far, I may as well take it around the block. So I did, and it ran like shit. Wouldn't rev much over 3k, and had no power. Passenger side axle was clicking. F***. Get back and haggle with the guy. I didn't want to go home empty handed, but certainly wasn't going to pay full price, not in this condition. He didn't want to budge, but eventually got him to take a thousand for it. It was worth that to me for the clean chassis.

We ended up limping it home 650 miles. It could barely make it up the hills, but she chugged away the whole time. Here's the only pic I have from the trip. My buddy took it once we got to Chicago.

 

Once we got it home, and after some well deserved rest, the diagnosing began. Right off the bat, the AFM hose was torn, vacuum lines were ancient, and cam timing was off two teeth at the crank. Fixed all that, and what a difference. She woke up a good bit, but still was severely underpowered, and was chugging down the gasoline. Here's a pic in her new home, next to my other ride:



Then the fixing/modding began. Where else to start but a run to the local junkyard? Scored a few things to spruce her up:



Got a complete facelift front end, some miscellaneous other parts, all for 60 bucks. Not too shabby. Went home and immediately got to work.



Then I bought some Dobinsons lowering springs from tartan here on the forums, and some new axles locally for $45 each!




And I couldn't just leave em bare metal, so I gave em a quick spray with some engine enamel to protect them from surface rust:



A pic of the springs, old vs new:



And the results of the lowering:




Wish it'd would of dropped it a little more, but it'll do for now, and it handles great. If only the engine ran better, but I have plans for that...

Then I shortened up my shifter, but apparently forgot to take any installed pics. I'll leave this one here anyways:



Oh, I almost forgot, somewhere in here I dropped the oil pan to check out the bottom end. And guess what? Four knocking rods! Can't believe she hasn't given up the ghost yet, she just keeps on going!




Next up, my solution to the missing stereo.

 

Okay, so at some point, someone installed an aftermarket headunit in the car and hacked up the factory wiring to install it. So, I grabbed some factory plugs out of an 89 vert in the yard and wired em up, with plenty of length to spare:



This way, I can wire up anything to it with an adapter, or go back to stock if I choose. I always like to keep the option of reverting back to stock if possible.

I also just realized you can now see my shortened shifter, genuine TRD knob, and ST182 shift boot that I modded to fit since the original was in poor shape.

So now that the wiring was usable again, it became time to start the install. I decided to headunit-less, and just run the lineout from my phone, into a volume knob and to an amp. I hardly ever use the radio and don't listen to cd's so this was perfect for me and lessens the chance of a break-in to steal my equipment if no one can see it there. I wet with a JL Audio CL-RLC for the volume knob/preamp, out to and Alpine MRX-V70 5 channel amp to power the speakers and one sub. I went with Polk for the speakers and sub, since they are one of (if not) the only brand still making 3.5" and 5" speakers. I'm glad I did, as they dropped in perfectly and sound great. Lastly I went with KnuKonceptz for the wiring, as they have great prices and sell true to gauge, 100% oxygen-free copper wire. Most other places use an overly thick insulator around copper clad aluminum wiring to save money. Here's some pics of the install, which is still a work in progress.

The goods:






I forgot to take a pic of the volume control pre-install, but here's where it ended up, what I think is an ideal location. It's always just within reach:



Don't mind the shitty blue wire, that was just some stuff I had laying around to test stuff out while I waited for the good stuff to show up.

Next was to install the amp. I chose under the passenger seat due to the ample space, and short runs of wiring for everything. It also keeps things out of the trunk, which I like to avoid. Here is where it ended up:



As you can see, I also used a multistrand conductor to run all the speaker outputs back up to the factory wiring. This keeps things neat and clutter-free and makes routing them soo much easier. Next I wired the other end to an adapter, so I could plug it back in to the new radio plugs I wired up earlier:


After that was all set, I got to installing the speakers. My car was missing the front speaker boxes as well, so it was another JY run to snatch some replacements. Got em, and installed the speakers. They all dropped right in and used the existing holes, not a mod required. I forgot to take a pic of a rear but same deal back there.



And that looks to be all the pics I have of the install. I've since put in all the proper wiring and it's been working great so far. The lineout adapter I have charges my phone and outputs audio through the dock connector, so it's a simple one cable hookup and all audio then runs through the speakers. I still have to make a sub box, and I think I'm going to install and EQ as well since there are no global EQ settings on an iPhone. That way I can tweak the levels to my liking. Right now it has a bit too much midrange for my tastes. Any questions or comments feel free to fire away!

 

And here I'll leave a few random ones that I like, and some pictures of the new wheels I got the other day!






The new kicks (sans tires):




I really like em, and can't wait to get some tires on em. Anyone recognize what they are?

 

Thanks. There's nothing I dread more than a wiring mess. If you ever find yourself needing for any assistance just let me know!

Thanks, and indeed they are. Good spot!

 

It was, but it was definitely worth it.

Preface front will be coming back shortly, along with some JDM corner lights! I put the facelift front on for the time being since I had a corner light with a busted lens, and all I could find was facelift stuff at the yard.

 

I'm a fan of the coupes as well. It's too bad they never mde an alltrac coupe... You wouldn't hapen to have any extra coupe specific exterior parts would ya? I'm missing some trim from around the windows and such.

I also FINALLY fixed the problem I've been having with a lack of power/hesitation/poor fuel economy today. Turned out that injector #4 was missing the tip of it's pintle. Not the plastic cap, but the actual tip of the valve. Luckily, I had some 240cc Honda injectors that I had won on ebay in a large lot of what I was told was AE86 injectors. The guy refunded me but didn't want them back after I determined they weren't as described, so I just stuck em on a shelf. They dropped right in, with a minor mod to the clips and the car now runs great! Pulls strong all the way to redline and economy seems to have doubled. Couldn't be happier to finally have this resolved.

 

I definitely do. But not until after I get a new trunk lid and paint it. Mine has a bend in the middle. How it got there, I have no idea.

Thanks, and I can't wait to get the lights from you! I'm hold off on the plasti-dip though, I'm planning on painting the whole car in the next few months!

Thanks, coupes are where it's at. And I love my cressida, can't beat RWD and that sraight six smoothness.

 

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. Good news is my new corner lights made it safely all the way from the Netherlands, but the bad news is last night on my way home from work my slight rod knock turned into a severe rod knock. It's louder than any knock I've ever heard. I was gonna hold out to swap to a ST215 3SGTE, but with winter coming soon I just want it back on the road reliably. Think I may grab a 5SFE this weekend and make a 5SGE out of her, unless anyone has a good 3SGE to offer up.