The Garden Find

Hello everyone, I've been on here for a little while now, it's been extremely helpful and I'd like to share my Celica's journey now, from the garden back to the road.

My Celica did belong to my parents, but for various reasons it was taken off the road about 10 years or so ago. It was retired to the garden, and there it languished for those 10 long years. On soft ground, exposed to the elements and with periods of bombardment from the apple tree. Life was not so good.

I graduated from university and go involved in the rebuilding of the shed / garage at the end of the garden, and that's where my involvement with the Celica began.
It needed to be moved out of the way for work to commence. So we thought we'd give a go at starting it, save on all that pushing you know. And you know what the thing came to life. A desperate spluttery and inconsistent life, but life none the less. This one moment saved it from the grave. I foolheartedly decided that I'd get the car back on the road.

Well It took me 11 months of work to get it back on the road, and the work continues today. I'd never done anything with cars before, so it was a big experience, so let me share my Celica's story.




Here it sits, before any work was done.




I gave it a quick clean up.


Unfortunately under the bonnet was a sorry story. Over the years the engine bay had become home to rodents. Say goodbye to the once iconic golden rocker covers. These are corroded away by rodent urine and quite badly pitted because of this too. Everything else is covered in filth. I was pulling tea bags out of loads of nooks and crevices for about 3 weeks. Not just because I'm British either.


How often do you hoover your engine?




Inside was not doing so well either, not on the roof at least. The headliner has gone mouldy and stained.


I certainly had my work cut out for me. There was a lot to do and I hadn't even seen the underside of the car yet either.

I'll keep updating the thread until we get to the present day, and shortly after that I'll be telling the story of the Celica's first Alpine adventure!

 

Good to see you on here too! Yes I agree the photo quality does seem better. I'm hosting these photos from my DeviantArt account which does not compress them like facebook, which might be helping a little too. Your car looks stunning regardless!
Actually on the matter of photos, someone did link me to a bunch of old 80s brochures of the cars. I'd love to try and recreate some of them.

 

Thanks At times I felt like packing it in. Discovering constant problems is a bit of kick in the teeth. And winding up spending more than some quite good ones on ebay were going for irked me. But It really is my car now and I certainly get more enjoyment (and worry from the occasional odd noise) when driving it about now!

I have completed pretty much all the important work that I started in January 2015, so I'll just be updating the story of how it all went up to the present day now

 

At this point a few things worked and most things did not. The pop up lights were happy enough to pop up and down, which was fun. Driver window was immobile and the passenger window went down a few inches, gave up and became completely immobile. The sunroof, unsurprisingly was also completely immobile. Which made it a significant challenge to get the assembly out. Not only was the sunroof motor seized, the entire mechanism was seized up. So the usual way of popping up the lid, removing he headliner and then the panel was impossible. The electric mirrors still worked though. This was awesome, I'd never had electric mirrors before, despite sitting in the past, it was like stepping into the future!

Both the driver and passenger footwells were soaked. Clearly there were some major leaks now. It took about a week or so of having an electric heater blower sat in the car to dry things out a little.

After much struggling I managed to pull the sunroof headliner off (the main headliner just peeled off the roof, so that was easy.) I could then take the sunroof assembly out.


The peel begins...


I got the seats and the carpet out, as well as the headliner and the sunroof. Despite the ingress of water the floor pan, at least from this side up is in pretty good shape. The A-pillar on the right is in poor condition, it's all bubbled up and has been partially bonded in with the windscreen. This must have happened when the screen was last replaced.


The sunroof motor. The drive gear has fused with the mounting plate. A bit of a wiggle and some wd40 did get it turning again. But it's condition is dubious.


The rear seats look good. There are patches of not severe rust decorating the roof around the back. Sanded them away and tidied them up.


Time to work in getting that engine out. I was planning to get the car on some large axle stands so I could have a proper look down under.


Going by what I could see, I was not particularly excited about what I might find underneath.

 

Engine Out!

It was clear at this point that to clean the engine up properly would require it's removal. And this would also allow me to get the car up in the air. A chance to see what 10 years of soft standing can do to steel.

Progress was slow at first. I'm looking at an engine and I've no idea what everything on it is, what it does or where it goes. Ohh I'm in over my head here for sure. I got the masking tape out and started labeling everything up. Absolutely everything. I took a great deal of boring photos to document various areas and even took some video on my phone, following various tubes and pipe lines from end to end.

Once I was happy that everything was labeled I began the process of dismantling the gear on the engine, so the airbox, rad and things like that were not in the way.
Getting the drive shafts out was a massive pain. The nuts which hold the outer CV joints into the hubs were insanely tight. Tight enough to shear a 3/4 drive 50cm breaker bar. Huu wow! My dad came to help and drilled out a small hole in one side of the nut, which we then could exploit and split.

The next day put up some acro props to brace the roof and started to remove the engine proper. It took me the whole day. But I made it with out any hitches. Bar one, I'd not removed a thin earth which ran from the transmission to the chassis. Ha!


The engine is out! And a quick wire brushing has let the the "TOYOTA" show up a little. Good old brown tops.




It sure is a mess in there. I'm extremely pleased that although there were rodents in here, they have not eaten the loom.

After a bit of a clean.


That red paint sure is stubborn! You can see the pitting on the rear cover now. Aluminium and wee don't get on.

There is similar corrosion on the head around the exhaust ports.

Well it may look scruffy, but there is nothing wrong with the intake.


My wire brush saw an awful lot of work during this time. The transmission is scrubbing up fairly well though.
I am still having to cope with the smell of it all


The back of the engine doesn't look half bad. It could have all been like this at worst if the damn rodents didn't move in.


The rocker covers and "Death Valley" Well those plugs are staying in for a while until this area has been deemed safe. I would have to devise a means much more effective than my wire brush to cope with this.

 

It did run! It was spluttery and stalled several times on the way. But it did make the 20 meters or so into the shed. Not bad considering the condition it was in and that was possibly the first start in about 6 years or something.

 

The Lift

Ok so I've gotten the engine out at this point. And I set it aside for the time being. It's time to focus on the underside of the car.

It's time for the lift.

Some viewers may find the images distressing.

This was the first proper inspection and I'm totally unaware of what I may find, or not find as the case with corrosion may be. I used the block and tackle to hoist the front up onto some axle stands, made sure that they were secure and started the procedure of housing the rear up. My dad had welded two trusses together and I could use these to support the rear wheels. He'd make some axle stands for the rear a short while later. It was still very easy to work on the underside in it's current setup though.

Well... both the rear sills needed major work. The rear control arms and such all needed major work. Floor sealant was actually not that bad. A few rusty patches, but pretty good considering. Brake calipers were looking pretty awful, and the lines were very poor also. The front of the car was a bit better. Not so much rust, but still needing a very good spruce up.

I was going to spend the next couple of months underneath all this filth, in the height of summer, in full overalls and with a oven for a light source (a halogen lamp) to make life a little easier or more pleasant I took my power cap home from work. These are electric ventilators, with full visor down to your neck, designed specifically for working in hazardous airspaces.

My tools for the war on dirt and rust were: A chisel, an electric drill and an assortment of wire brush drill bits and hand brushes. I'd be removing any damaged or suspicious underseal and cleaning up the area ready for re-sealing with some chassis black paint that I'd also nabbed from work. I'd also be removing all the running gear to sort that out.


Left to rest. I've cleaned and bunged up the engine to a satisfactory level, brake and clutch cleaner is a wonderful grease eater.


I'd grow quite used to this site for the next few months!


The front is breaking out in patches, but it's nothing substantial, survived pretty well I think! The calipers look pretty poor though. I can't say I enjoyed getting the drop links off of the anti roll or control arms. a 5mm hex does not survive the elements well.


Just in front of the door is one of the major leak points, concealed in the inner wing. This hole is bigger than it looks.


Same story on this side.


















On the bright side, the front is ok!

 

I sometimes think the same thing! aha. Talk about jumping in at the deep end. I hope it all holds together over the Alps!

 

Aha thanks, I didn't really have any clue about how much effort it would take. Before long I found myself financially committed to it and then realised there was no backing out! I never did find, and haven't to this day found a white shell available in the UK. They tend to be in similar shape or too nice a to begin with. I saw a couple when I was sourcing a few parts for it, but the bloke wasn't selling them.

 

The War on Rust and The Secret Weapon

Ten years of soft standing has obviously taken its tole on the running gear. The rear of the car has suffered much worse than the front.
Short of replacing the effected items the next best course of action is to refurbish them.

As luck would have it, I've got a secret weapon in the battle against rust. A special ultra aggressive abrasive, and one that we happened to produce at my place of work. For golf courses no less. Sand.
The fancy way of saying it is that I worked in an aggregate factory. The real way of saying it is that I worked in a dirt factory. Part of what we did was to dry and screen 3mm sand. We could dry over 25 metric tons of sand a day. I essentially had an inexhaustible supply of screened sand. Ideal for blasting.

As luck would have it we also had a 76 litre (20 gallon) capacity sand blaster and a sodding great industrial air compressor to power many pneumatic machines dotted around the factory. During my lunch breaks I'd steal... uhh borrow the sand, fill the blaster and suit up. If you can blast in anything less than a thick pair of work trousers, two hoddies, two sets of gloves and a full face respirator, you're not blasting hard enough! Oh boy this was in the height of summer though. Nothing quite like boiling over in all these clothes and still getting sand all down your back and beyond. Not pleasant. But the reward was worth it. I made extremely short work of all my items. It should be noted that they tarnish very quickly after being cleaned, perhaps only 12 hours will go by and rust freckles are appearing on the naked metal, so coating them quickly is important.

Rubber bushes are also extremely resilient to blasting, they will of course suffer if directly aimed at, but they survive very happily otherwise. Duct tape is your best friend for protecting delicate pieces. It is also super resilient to blasting. And of course any bearings or delicate parts need to be blanked off properly to avoid damage.

Here are the behemoth burners that we use. My father who worked as a fabricator at the same factory was the designer and builder of both of them, as well as many of the other soil transit and screening systems we had. The principle of how they worked is pretty simple. A colossal steel drum, tilted down slightly and rotating to carry the material along the tube and a mammoth propane jet to cook everything going through. They'd run at about 350c - 450c or 660f - 850f.





Burner A, the more modern of the two and the primary for sand drying.


Burner B or summer time corner as I used to call it during the winter months, Just Hell in the summer. Shoveling spill from under the conveyor was a regular job.


The Screening end on Burner B My shovel just on the left of shot!


The business end on Burner B


Anyway, the results!


As you can see some rust is already appearing, its just surface fur, otherwise these bits are as good as new and ready for some paint!


Much better, A thick coat of chassis black and some Glossy enamel in signal red for the engine parts. An added bonus to the signal red is that it is 180c / 350f proof. Not that these parts will get that hot,
but I didn't buy a whole pot of signal red for these alone...




The hubs would get the sand treatment next.




Rear shrouds and handbrake mount




The blasting was a great success!

However I'm starting to think of bigger problems, I'm looking at all the things I've taken apart thus far and I'm wondering if I'll ever figure out how it all goes back together...

 

I think i was driven forwards by ignorance haha. "Everyone else has to go through this sort of work too right?"

I'm dreadful at painting. When I look at your thread and see you touch up a wing I think it must be magic. I spent ages trying to redo my sunroof and its rubbish aha. But thanks, I'll have a look at practical classics, perhaps when I'm finished / up to date with this thread I'll look into sending them something, see what they think.

 

I did the unspeakable and painted the edge of the rear arch with red oxide paint, with a brush. Looks fantastic.... I did finish it with some white primer. But hey it seems to be holding back the rust well enough for now and at the moment that's my main concern. The car is going through it's ugly duckling stage, that's all!

It's a shame the factory has since been closed down. All the machinery dismantled and sold. The whole place is now a scaffolding storehouse. But yes if I did not have the chance to use the blaster there and things like that I'm not sure how the project would have gone instead. I'd probably have bought a black st162 with 60k on it that I saw early on. ha.

 

The Breaking Point

I'd been searching on ebay and elsewhere online for a breaker to use. Idealy white and auto. Hmm I wasn't having any luck. I found one, about 200 miles away which appeared to be a reasonable example, but was rather pricey for no MOT at £975. Other than that it was pretty much no luck finding anything. But something did turn up, not ideal and still far away but it was at least quite cheap. My new 1986 manual in red. I probably should have spent more time searching for a closer match, I didn't know about all the little differences between the pre facelift models and such.

Did you know the window wind buttons have a different inner construction? it's reversed from the facelift models, so switch components cannot be exchanged. I spent a good number of hours trying to fix switches during my restoration..

However there are some things on the red car which have been absolutely crucial to my restoration and made it well worth the buy. The sunroof sliders and motor were in excellent condition, as were the window regulators. Headlamps too, the reflective part on the inside is perfect, while mine are corroded. Fuel injectors were actually working. Brand new alternator and a whole host of other bits and bobs which sped up work on the white car by a huge amount.

Why not just keep the red car? Well I'm not partial to red, nor to manual transmission (My VW Golf is manual, I'm bored of it and long for the easy life) And as I stripped it down I'd discover some pretty serious issues with the red one which are not so apparent in the following photos.


It's good to make sure that one of your close friends is a farmer. He or she will have a big truck and know someone who has a big trailer too. Score.


The sun has been working on this car for quite a while.


The front looks quite nice, spare a few missing parts.




Hey sure is cleaner than mine! or is it?? Beauty is only skin deep after all.


Personally... not a fan. Oh it's also completely missing the passenger seat.


Overall the condition of the interior is quite fair. Someone has had a go at changing the radio, butchered the loom, given up and left it. Not before utterly destroying the centre console though. It looks like someone has been at it with a hammer and chisel. Finished it off with a wire brush for good measure.


This is what I'd find under the timing belt covers. Yuck. We've got a mixture of coolant, oil and rust. It looks pretty bad, something has been leaking for a considerable time.


The water pump is surrounded by coolant muck and oil. Oil from leaking rocker covers I suspect.


Under the AC showed considerable mess. Thick greasy oil. Basically the entire block is like this, it's the same round the back.



Everything was greasy and oily, the crossmember was covered in oil, control arms too. And the plate which bridges both control arms was thick with oil and grease.
Having a look under the rocker covers show the cams in poor oil. Crusty black in the top of the covers and gooey brown sludge elsewhere. Someone had not taken care of this. It does run though, so with some love likely to be fit as a fiddle once more. But hey, goes to show, my 3S in the white celica may have looked pretty ugly, but it was clean of oil and other nasties that this one exhibited.





So I now had something substantial to get bits and pieces from and a very good source of spare parts. It would be sad to break it, but as i did I discovered routten through sills. evidence engine oil leaks. A rad full of rusty water. big holes on the rear shock towers, bodged nuts and bolts on the control arms and some pretty rusty arches. In fact in some areas my white Celica was actually much nicer.