The Celica

originally bought as my brothers daily commuter for work was in my hands by the time i graduated high school in 2008. for reasons i cant imagine, i hated the car and thought it was disgusting! :banghead but i soon realized the potential and great looks it had. :cool so then began the restoration of the car.

these are some pictures of how it used to look when i first got the car. i added the fog lights and the jdm corner i bought off of rev_head on ebay. it was either him or ebay that referred me to the site. i cant remember. but im glad i found this place.










then i decided to repaint the hood. and im gonna do it again once i get another air compressor. but the first times were with just rattle cans



to be continued....

 

lol yea, unfortunately there is just no cure for this kinda thing. :cool

but anyways

i got rid of the stripe that went across the entire car. just couldnt stand it. then financial aid came around and i suddenly had a lot of money. :hehe for those of you who dont know what financial aid is, its a ferderal program which gives students money for college because them or their parents do not make above a certain amount. no matter how much i wanted to dump into The Celica i had to pay for books and school related things doesnt mean i didnt use some of the money on her though! :twisted

but with old age, it was having problems starting. so i gave it a little boost



so then i got to polishing and bought a $40 set of projector fog lights. which were awesome btw. imo one of the best investment i made since getting the car at the time. i also bought myself some decent "15 wheels for really cheap. they were only $80, but needed tires.





notice how i dont have my jdm corners on? well its because by this time i met Louis, aka phantomjdm. he is such an awesome guy that i think all you guys should meet. like i say all the time. its too bad california is so damn big! we cant ever get a meet goin :sad5
but i gave him my set of jdm corners because he was so cool and also because i had my other jdm front inbound from stig! this was my preface lift front that i currently have on.

i also went through a bit of a racer stage that im slowly transitioning out of. but if a challenge calls, it must not go unanswered lol. so i bought myself and intake and piping which can still be found on ebay.



the strut brace was also supplied by non other than our admin himself WILLIE, aka Mafix. if you guys dont have this strut bar, get it. it improves handling like 10 fold. get it, dont think about it. GET IT

and i also got the white gauge stickers from ebay as well. which was a horrible mistake
also the quick release steering wheel as well. that however i do miss. the TRD cover is custom. so that means i am the holder of that item



and the broad way mirror. which is so F*CKIN awesome! :mrgreen



so as time went on, i left my brown interior that was way beyond repair and converted everything over blue. find things in brown was just too hard and no one had one for parts. maybe lonewolf, but he's not from this side of the pond. :crazy





and thankfully, louis was kind enough to give me so many parts, i really owe this guy too much. he is just such a good friend. he have me and entire alltrac! woulda taken the car, but it wasnt running. so i took what ever i could grab. this meant: the entire alltrac body kit, which i sadly found out that everything would fit except the rear end, and the bucket seats! OMG the bucket seats! they are just so awesome! toyota was sooooo far ahead in luxury when these cars were in production. i even took the tilting steering column.









in order to make the buckets fit into the gt/st chassis you have to change out the brackets! this requires you to take the seats apart completely. a how-to-do-this thing will go on a different thread. im not done with my story yet :hsdance

on a side note, i really love the toyota dragon and completely favor it over the emblem they sport now. this was also custom.



and i had custom side molding made for me too. i have had the pieces for the doors completed though



after 20 plus years of ware and tare of the transmission from the old gal. it was time for a replacement along with a new clutch and fly wheel.
into the garage she went where she spent three days undergoing a transplant

one of my favorite pictures btw




thats right! no cheery picker or engine hoist so a jack will do holding the engine in place


i had my friend from high school come by to help me out because i never done this before. neither did he :ugh thats how we got all the pictures x)


the clutch and flywheel still said toyota on it. shows you how long toyota lasts mutha fu---!


and in with the new clutch and flywheel. exedy clutch and kragen/ o'reily flywheel. good thing the exedy warehouse is literally down the street from me. not much of a hassle when i went to go pick it up




the pain it took to get this out with the axle still in place


oh! for the people out there still running with the FE axles, upgrade to the GE ones! they are much better and can take more of a beating! found out the hard way as all my studs holding my axle in on the driver side snapped as i was headed home from school on the highway. just a word of caution.

now time for the new used s54 transmission of off a 94 gt to go in


as time progressed i finally mounted the front of the alltrac kit and went for the gt4 look. still contemplating on whether or not to install the rest of the kit.









now i need to get a more recent picture of The Celica as i now have the door molding pieces

i also got the matching set of rear alltrac seats as well thanks again to louis.



to sum things up quicker


i also lined up the front end too.

 

yea dude, the transmission is great! but kills my gas mileage. lol i used to be at 3000 rpms going 80 now im like a bit over 4 dude. and i red line at 6! lol great for speed and what not, but not for gas economy. lol
i would say, do the swap! and get the strut bar and upgrade your axles! :fingersx
coming from personal experience

 

yea the ge axles are a direct swap. but for the passenger side there is and extension more like a shaft you have to remove to get the ge axle in.

 

i've always had 5 gears bud 5spd all the way! lol
really hard swap though. you need a lot of things

 

clutch
flywheel
transmission
clutch pedal and mounts for it
clutch lines
m/t ecu
m/t loom
clutch master cylinder
clutch slave clylinder
m/t odometer, its different i think
shifter
shifter housing and mount
shifter cables
all the little clips that hold the cables in place

that might be it. this is all coming from the top of my head. one of the experts like mafix or stig should shed some more light on this if they catch wind of it. its really complex and really worth it more to just buy a manual one.