My Baby, "Connie Celica"

My wife bought an '84 Celica ST when she was in college. When we had our son in '92, she decided she needed a station wagon, and it became my car. I loved that car. It grew up in North Carolina, spent its middle-age years in New York - and its declining years in Florida. New York weather (humidity in the summer, road salt in the winter) was not kind to the bodies of those 3rd gens; mine developed "the cancer" and once started, it was unstoppable. She eventually became an embarrassing rust bucket, and I tearfully said goodbye to her in '04.

I'd been wanting another Celica since (I prefer the angular styling of the 3rd and 4th gens), and last summer, my wife saw one locally on CraigsList - a white '89 convertible. She didn't look bad in the pics, but the fact that the seller was asking $1000 had me worried: it was probably an unsalvageable mess! My wife convinced me to take a ride down (the next town south) to see it; she - like me - had always wanted, but never had, a convertible. (And we figured after 15 years of living in south Florida, it was about time!) When we got there, I was really most surprised by the condition of the body of this car - very little rust, and only surface rust at that! And the interior likewise was very good. (Minimal sun damage, a few burns/wears in the upholstery.) I figured, in such good condition, she was worth the asking price even if I had to drop a new engine in her! I took her for a test drive. The exhaust was loud, the engine was steady but "tapping" - and the steering was a MESS! I offered the young girl who was selling it $700, and she jumped at it! After I got it home, I took some pics:








I'm an "old guy" (52), so I'm not much into modding. My goal for this car is to bring her back as close to showroom as I can get her. And, in addition to being an "old guy", I'm a poor guy - so my main objective is restoration on the cheap!

 

After I bought the car, I took it to my brother who's a mechanic. He took a look at the front end and told me that all the parts were fine - some were even NEW(!) - but that it seemed that after putting in new parts, they hadn't bothered to align it! He did a rudimentary alignment, and there was a world of difference in the handling. I took it next to Walmart, where I got two new front tires, an oil change, and a fuel injector cleaning. When I drove it out of there, I was shocked: the first-gear sputter she'd been suffering was GONE! Guess it was just fouled injectors.

After some searching online, I found a couple of u-pull-it yards in West Palm Beach (about 90 minutes south of me), and one had an online inventory indicating he had an '87 Celica in the yard. I took a trip down there, went to one of the yards, and got some good stuff cheap: sun visors, side mirrors, rear-view mirror, windshield washer nozzles, and assorted trim and bezels that were missing or damaged in my car. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to hit the other yard.

The holidays were coming, so I began to run out of expendable income to invest in my ride, so I turned my attention to stuff I could do myself - like rebuilding my back seat. Vinyl parts don't withstand 22 years very well, and the rear seat seatback linkage had disintegrated. The rod clips were easily replaced, but the internal part affixed to the latch handle I had to supplement with a piece of aluminum. Then I re-crimped the same hog clips back on to reattach the upholstery! Now, THAT'S cheap! I COULD NOT find "automotive grade" (1/16") tempered hardboard, so I had to use 1/8" to rebuild my seatback panel:



I discovered that my "faulty engine temp gauge" was simply a matter of the spade connector not being clipped onto the sensor!

And I did the "long" heater fix - resoldering all the solder points on my climate control board(s) - but I still don't have heat. I can hear that the servo is straining to open the valve, so I'll have to get into the dash to explore when I can. No hurry, really - winter's over here in south Florida...

 

I finally got to that other u-pull-it yard a couple of weeks ago, and what did I find there but an '88 vert!!!

My wife was going to have my car detailed for my birthday, but when I told her what I'd found, she gave me money to buy parts. So I got:

A canvas in VERY nice condition (much nicer than mine, which has a few holes) for $20
A beautiful headliner for $11
An ASC pump (again, nicer than mine) for $30
2 hydraulic cylinders for $15 each

And I figured, for $25, I might as well take the convertible top frame to keep on hand as a spare.

Oh - and I also got a rubber bushing for my front-end stabilizer bar. She makes SO much less racket now without that banging around underneath! :smilielol5

 

For now, I'm just going to repaint the steelies. I bought a set of hub centers for them. Funny thing is, the hub centers I got are an anachronism: they features the Toyota "3 ovals" logo, which was not introduced until after this model year was OVER!

I may go for alloys later though...

Oh, and talking about things that are decidedly not "stock": I didn't realize that the rear-view mirror that I bought was as deteriorated as it was, and it broke when I was working with it. (No great tragedy - the glass was less than perfect.) I looked for another Toyota mirror to attach to my bracket, but Toyota did not make this easy: it's nearly impossible to attach/detach the mirror casing to/from the ball joint on the bracket without the internals of the casing coming apart. I found that a RVM from a late-model Kia had almost exactly the same dimensions as the Celica's, and that it attaches very easily to the ball joint on the Celica bracket.

 

Thanks!

And thanks for the tip - I'm gonna give that a try!

 

Here's a pic of the top/back of my original RVM:

The small hole in the back (bottom) is the adjusting screw for the ball joint clamp assembly (the larger hole at the top). I think that if you were to loosen that adjusting screw just right, you could pull the mirror casing off the ball joint of the bracket. It didn't work that way for me though, the screw came out completely, and the clamp assembly came apart inside the casing! GOOD LUCK getting it back together once this happens! And you'll notice in this pic the plastic rot; if you handle the mirror, you wind up with "plastic sand" in your hands.

The Kia mirror casing has very similar dimensions: same height/depth, and just a tiny fraction of an inch wider. The beauty of this piece is that the clamp assembly is fully exposed. Here's a pic I took through the top of my windshield (so pardon the reflection):

You can see the philips screws at either side of the ball joint that allow for easy removal from the bracket.

Because the vert's cabin lights are mounted at the top of the windshield, its visors are shorter than those of most Celicas, and the RVM is approximately 9" wide rather than 10". (Again - this is not definitive: I understand that some hardtop Celicas also use these shorter RVMs and visors. I've yet to figure out the rhyme or reason to it.) Anyway, the Kia mirror, as I said, is only a hair wider, so it still doesn't obstruct the movement of the visors:

 

Oh, it has helped IMMENSELY already, 89celicagt! It's gonna help a lot more when I'm ready to put that "new" canvas & headliner on!

BTW - anyone got a lead on the nylon webbing for the staypads? I found a guy who sells the stuff for $30 plus shipping, but that seems a bit steep for what's really a pretty generic item!

So, 89celicagt - you're in New York? Whereabouts? I was born in Westchester and raised on the island...